Nuvema Town Girl

Of course it was right at the moment when he felt like this wasn’t going to end as badly as he’d predicted that Alpha chose to bark at something in the shadows on the other side of the room. Nate jumped at the sound and reached out to grab Hilda’s hand without thinking. Alpha ran off into the area that wasn’t lit up by Hilda’s flashlight, and Nate looked down at his hand, releasing Hilda’s just as quickly as he’d grabbed it.

The sound of a rodent Pokémon squeaking and then Alpha’s fangs clacking together as she used Crunch emanated from the darkness, but Nate hardly noticed the scuffle in his embarrassment. He was blushing bright red again, mortified by his behavior. How pathetic could he possibly get? Nate Finch, scourge of Team Plasma, stupidly scared by a dark house and his own Pokémon. He wanted to die. She kept giving him chances to be cool and brave and he kept goofing them up.

Alpha trotted over to him and dropped an unconscious Raticate at his side. It didn’t really look hurt at all, and Nate wondered if she hadn’t just snapped her jaws at it and scared it so badly it passed out. But—it was just a Raticate. They were big and creepy, but nothing scary. And she’d taken it out before he’d even seen it for himself. If he could keep himself from jumping every time she made a sound he’d be fine. If he could keep himself from looking like a weirdo he’d be even better.

“Good job,” he said, patting her neck. “But no more barking like that okay?” Alpha huffed and her ears swiveled backwards. She turned fully towards whatever noise she’d heard, and while she stared off into the darkness again Nate put his cool hands up against his too-warm face to try and get some of the redness to go away.

“Suit yourself,” she muttered. Seconds later Nate’s Arcanine started barking at something in the shadows before chasing after it. Hilda was so caught up in watching the Pokémon she nearly missed its owner grabbing her hand. Caught off guard Hilda stared down at his hand before quickly snapping her attention back to where the Pokémon had disappeared.

After the sounds of a short fight Arcanine trotted back into view, a limp Raticate hanging limply from his mouth. Unable to take her eyes off it she watched as the Pokémon dumped it obediently by its trainers side. Hilda grimaced at the sight of the pokémon. Thankfully it didn’t look hurt, she really didn’t feel like lugging the Pokémon to a centre, however it did look absolutely petrified. Lost in thought she found herself staring at the Pokémon for much longer than she normally would. Poor thing didn’t stand a chance, it was a miracle it wasn’t seriously hurt. Hilda was soon brought out of her trance by Nate apologising for, what she could only assume, was grabbing her hand. The apology caused Hilda to laugh.

“It’s fine! If I wasn’t cool with it I wouldn’t have offered in the first place now would I? So what if you’re scared you don’t need to hide it from me,” she waved off his apology. His explanation for his actions shocked her completely. He was more scared of her not liking him than being in the supposedly haunted house? That was really saying something he seemed absolutely petrified of this place! Shocked Hilda’s mouth moved to say something but no sound came out. To her it just didn’t make any sense. Why would her opinion matter that much? Her opinion has never mattered that much to anyone so why would it matter so much to him? She’s only just met him. Then again he did seem pretty excited to meet her back in the Marine Tunnel, did he idolise her in some way? No that was impossible.

“Wha- what? You’re scared that I won’t like you?” Hilda managed to push out. If Hilda looked closely she could almost see the dread and regret on his face as the words spilled out of her mouth. Quickly getting over initial shock she set out on saving the situation before Nate died of embarrassment and she blanked out completely.

Nate wanted to cheer when he and Flygon touched down outside the old house just moments before Hilda did, but being back at the place, with its broken windows that he could barely even see in the dark, made him less excited about the victory than he normally would have been. He jumped off of his Pokémon, calling her back into her Poké Ball, and continued to cast suspicious glances up at the dark windows.

He took off his goggles and, following Hilda’s lead, started to wring out his clothes. Taking off his jacket made things a bit better, but his t-shirt was still soaked through anyway, so it didn’t really make much of a difference. He tied the jacket around his waist and watched Hilda head over to the house, throwing the doors open in a way that made Nate cringe. 

“Let’s see how haunted you really are shall we?”

That question was just asking for trouble. Nate was way too wet and it was way too late in the day for this, but heck if he wasn’t going to follow her in there anyway. At least it would be dry inside the house.

With a sigh he pulled out another Poké Ball from his bag and released his Arcanine into the drizzle. Alpha growled at the rain and gave Nate a grumpy look. “Chill out, we’re going inside,” he said, gesturing to the open door. “You remember this place right?”

Alpha looked up at the house and growled again, which Nate took as an indication that not only did she remember, but that the place was totally giving off bad vibes from all the creepy spirits that lived there. “You go first,” he said, which Alpha did in order to escape the rain.

Inside Hilda had already pulled out a flashlight and was shining it around the room. There were puddles in some places that caught the light, scaring him for a second when he thought it was something else in the room. Water dripped from the ceiling and fell into them with soft plinks that echoed around the empty room. The same old musty furniture from Nate’s last visit was still there too, albeit in different positions than he remembered. Someone could just have been playing a prank on him last time, but he hadn’t heard anyone else inside the house, and the furniture had definitely moved.

The rotting furniture made him think of another point in favor of his “haunted house” theory: the place was gross and falling apart—if it wasn’t guarded by ghosts, why hadn’t it been condemned?

Arcanine stood tall at his side as they looked around, and Nate snuggled up to her shoulder, burying his face in her thick, fluffy mane. Any dampness that had wet her fur outside had evaporated thanks her body heat. She was warm and soft and Nate was still feeling frigid; it was nice to have a fire-type around for occasions like this. 

"So, uh, here we are. There are like, bookshelves… in the basement. A lot of them, like a library. And… some bedrooms upstairs."  She heard Nate stuttered from behind her. From his description it sounds just like a normal house. Lifting her foot she gently prodded the furniture. Nothing. Well apart from the obvious slight wobble and squeak, after all it looked really old. Hilda couldn’t help but frown as a wave of disappointment washed over her. She wasn’t quite sure what she’d been expecting. Nate had probably imagined the whole thing. Like this house could actually be haunted. Someone had probably just decided to play a joke on him, that’s probably all it was.

Just to make sure she hadn’t picked the only piece of furniture that wasn’t haunted she moved over to the closest plant pot. Lifting her foot she kicked it a little harder than the last one to try and get some kind of a reaction. Nothing. Hilda sighed as she let her shoulders drop; this was a waste of time. Turning round she began to walk over to Nate, the floorboards creaking under her weight. This house most likely wasn’t haunted. Nate must have been wrong about the apparent “sketchy” business that happened last time he was here, his imagination simply ran away from him. She could always search the rest of the house but she had a feeling that she wouldn’t find anything that proved the place was haunted.

Hilda had nearly reached Nate when she spotted something moving out of the corner of her eye. Spinning round she trained the light on what she thought she’d seen moving. It was just a plant pot… but that hadn’t been like that when they’d come in. With narrow eyes Hilda sprinted over to it. When she reached it she put all her effort into trying to move the pot which was now obviously blocking a door. The plant pot, no matter how hard she tried, didn’t move an inch. Frowning Hilda pulled out Beartic’s poke ball from her bag quickly calling the Pokémon out.

“Hey Beartic can you do me a favour and move that please?” she asked. Beartic nodded before setting about trying to move it. Hilda could only watch amazed as it remained frozen in place. After a couple more tries Beartic moved away growling in frustration.

“It’s alright buddy you tried your hardest thanks anyway,” Hilda sighed calling the Pokémon back. Returning the ball to her bag she glared at the plant pot. Something wasn’t right. Beartic should have been able to move that no problem! It was if something had been pushing against him with equal force. Was there something in that room worth hiding? Hilda intended to find out she just needed to find another way in first. Spotting a staircase leading downstairs to her left Hilda began to make her way over to it. Unable to hear Nate’s footsteps she looked over her shoulder to see him cowering beside his Arcanine. Poor kid looked absolutely terrified.

"The dragon of truth… Reshiram." Zinnia mumbled to herself as she arranged and rearranged the stones in front of her. "That’s me. The yang." The stones all varied in shape, size, and texture, though all of them were relatively small. They were precious to Zinnia. Her little bag of comforting trinkets. She picked up a milky white stone, cut and polished into a smooth oval cabochon, and held it up to a nearby street lamp, examining how it caught the light. 

The park was nearly empty now that the sun was beginning to set. She sat cross-legged in the center of a grassy area, precious stones splayed on a piece of cloth. Salamence dozed behind her, curled partly around where she sat. Aster was tucked neatly in between Zinnia and Salamence’s outstretched hind leg, falling asleep.

The study of stones was a long-standing tradition in Draconid culture, thanks to their attunement with the earth and deep ties with Mega Evolution, but Zinnia wasn’t thinking about the stones themselves. Her thoughts were with the dragons of Unova, those of truth and ideals, and the concept of alternate universes. The latter was a core Draconid belief, and one Zinnia had never doubted. Long ago, she had encountered a strange, impish creature that summoned golden, sparkling rings and transported objects between realities. She had told no one about it, and she had not encountered the creature since, though she never doubted the existence of other realities since then. It had shown her various images — no, actual places and times unknown.

She set the stone back down on the cloth, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. “The twin heroes… I wonder, I wonder how the world would differ if one had triumphed over the other.” She opened her eyes again, still touching the moonstone. “Well, I suppose they have. In different worlds.”

"Three-thousand years ago… what in the world makes that period so inauspicious? Will these times be remembered the same way?" 

"The dragon of truth… Reshiram."

Hilda skidded to a halt. Did she just say Reshiram? Ever since the incident involving Team Plasma a couple of years back Hilda had taken it upon herself to protect the two dragons from ever being used like that again. Whenever their names or the legend of the twin heroes were mentioned all her attention immediately went to that. Almost immediately a debate began in her head. Ignore it and carry on trying to find somewhere warm to sleep or investigate.

After a couple of minutes she was still debating on what to do when she heard the women speak again, this time she mentioned the twin heroes. Hilda groaned, that was that decided then. Being a twin hero herself it was now almost impossible for her to turn away. Cursing herself under her breath she turned round and started to walk back towards the women. Beside her she heard Glaceon whine clearly understanding they weren’t getting somewhere warm tonight. Looking down to her Pokémon she put on a forced smile.

“I’m sorry I know you’re really tired, we’ll sleep inside tomorrow night I promise,” she smiled. Reaching the women she stood in front of her being careful not to mess up the neatly arranged stones.

While he waited, Falkner mounted the large owl, who flapped his wings in preparation for flight. The idea of someone riding his Pidgeot without him was an odd one, and Falkner wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea. However, he couldn’t simply abandon the girl, and there was no way they could walk back. Pidgeot was the one Falkner could reply on most to get the girl safely into town without problems. 

Once she was safely on the bird’s back, Falkner gave a nod and a gentle smile. 

"Pidgeot is my best flier, you’ve nothing to worry about." he assured, "The flight to Violet City is a short one. There is a small clinic there for people, run by a sweet couple." he explained. With a breath in, counting his blessings that the flight would go well, he said, "Take off, you two."

The birds took flight, gaining enough altitude to soar above the trees, but not uncomfortably so. To his relief, the wind resistance was minimal, so the flight went pretty smoothly. The land was soft in a flat, clean area with few people about. Falkner dismounted, looking to the girl.

“Na that’s alright, I asked you about your life it’s only fair that you ask me about mine. Yeah I’m a traveller. I’ve been travelling for a about a year I think after I left Unova. I was born in Nuvema Town so I know what small towns feel like. Nuvema’s smaller than here everyone knows everything about everyone, if you don’t want any privacy you go there,” Hilda explained with a laugh. She could swear that her neighbours knew more about her and her family life then she did. It was one of the many things that drove her insane. Having next to no privacy wasn’t what she wanted in her own home. Seeing Falkner turn towards a building she began to slow down a bit.

Was she crazy? She was definitely crazy. He was already getting wet even though they were still somewhat sheltered by the arch of the entrance, and he had only just started to feel dry again from his previous run through the rain. Flying in these conditions was a great way to ensure that they would be soaked in minutes.

The only thing going for them currently was the fact that the thunder and lightning seemed to have stopped. There was no way he would agree to fly in a thunderstorm, and he would have tried to convince her not to do that either. But Lentimas was a pretty dry place; it probably wouldn’t be raining there, so maybe the whole flight wouldn’t be so bad?

“He says he’ll do it! This is your last chance to back out kid!”

Well, so much for staying dry. Nate watched Hilda hop up on her Braviary’s back and sighed. This was pretty dumb, but… it also kind of seemed like a fun adventure. He’d definitely regret it when he was shivering from the rainwater in his clothes, but now he couldn’t help beginning to feel sort of excited about flying through the rain.

Nate reached into his bag to pull out a Poké Ball and sent out his Flygon, Foxtrot, in a flash of light. The Pokémon glanced around, taking in the sight of Hilda on her Braviary. Despite being a ground-type from the desert, rain didn’t really seem to bother Fox at all. The lenses over her eyes protected against rain almost as well as they did against sand, and her reaction to being released into the rain was only to look up at the sky and back down at him, tilting her head to the side in question.

"We’re going to Lentimas Town, to that spooky house. You know the one," Nate told her. She nodded and lowered herself to the ground so Nate could climb up onto her. He pulled himself up, sitting on her back just in front of her wings. Before they took off he decided to take his visor off, just in case the winds were strong enough to blow it away. After he’d secured the hat inside his bag, Nate looked up at Hilda and grinned.

"Hey! Last one there’s a Slowpoke!" she heard him shout. Hilda’s smirk only grew. Who was she to turn down a perfectly good challenge? Hilda opened her mouth to respond but before she could even get a syllable out Nate’s Flygon took off. Scoffing Hilda glared after them. That was a cheeky move. He used the time she needed to register the remark to get a head start, exactly what she would have done if she was issuing the challenge. That earned him some respect from her.

“Come on Braviary we can bet those idiots, let’s go!” Hilda cried. With a cry Bravery took to the skies quickly catching up with Nate.

Flying, as to be expected, was harder than usual. In hindsight it might not have been the best idea to fly in the middle of a storm. She’d never been that keen of a flyer at the best of times but something about being on the back of her Braviary always made it tolerable. If it wasn’t for Braviary she probably never would have suggested flying at all let alone in this weather. Still Hilda wasn’t going to let a little wind and rain put her off. She wanted to see for herself if this house was really haunted or if Nate was just scared of an old house. Shielding her eyes as best she could Hilda put all her effort into steering Braviary in the right direction. The closer they got to Lentimas Town the more the storm began to calm down.

By the time she landed outside the abandoned house, less than a second after Nate, it was almost completely off. Jumping off Braviary’s back she couldn’t help but squeal in shock as the Pokémon shook furiously sending water flying into her face. Quickly returning it to his poke ball she set about squeezing what water she could out of her cloths and hair. Not that it was much use, it was still raining and by the looks of things the storm was heading their way. Directing her attention to the house she strolled past Nate and over to its doors. Chucking the doors open she scanned her surroundings as best she could in the dim light. No one had lived here for a long time that was for sure. Diving into her bag she brought out the torch she had fortunately taken last time she’d visited home. Switching it on she moved it around the room allowing her to get a better look at things.

  Listening to Rosa she could help but smile at the mention of the old gym. She’d loved the old gym layout, it was a shame they change it. So she’d had the same intention as her but they both got stopped by the festival. When Rosa asked her what she was doing her Hilda rubbed the back for neck uncomfortably. Biting the inside of her cheek she tried to figure out what she should say, eventually settling on the truth.

“Well I’m the idiot that decided it would be a good idea to come here alone on Father’s Day,” Hilda grumbled. There was no way around her being an idiot. Why on earth did she think it was a good idea to come here of all places on Father’s Day? What did she expect to find? An empty park? Of course it was going to packed, why didn’t she realise before?  Looking around her she was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable at the amount of people Hilda turned to Rosa.

"Is this fake?!" The Grunt said to herself as she held a piece of paper in her hands, reading through it for the third time. Perhaps many people lke herself were invited to this event, but the mere fact the Champion had sent a letter to Hulda was enough to make the Grunt feel ‘special’. “C’mon then, Gible!” She turned to her dragon-type, who had been watching its trainer the entire time, "There’s no time to lose!"

Now, she couldn’t wear her Galactic uniform to the event, seeing as it would be rude- and also a tad dangerous. No, she’d actually have to buy something! With money! She sighed at the thought, but hey, it would be an adventure!

…

It was not an adventure. At all. It wasn’t even fun. After about an hour in the Veilstone Department store, Hulda had finally chosen a dress she liked, even though it wasn’t really a dress… Ah well, no one would know it was her, seeing as she had to wear a masquerade mask. That way, I can make a fool of myself and no one will know it was me!

…

This new town wasn’t half bad. It was cold, mind you, but it sure was appealing to the eye. There were already quite a few people there, all walking around doing their own thing. One poor soul had slipped and fallen on the ice, Hulda giggling to herself as a result. Her attention then flickered from that to a young woman who seemed to be wandering on her own, just like Hulda was.

Upon seeing this Hulda crouched down, scooping up snow from the ground and forming a snowball, aiming it at the girl a few feet away. Wait for it… Now!

  Walking through the streets she kept herself to herself watching as other masked individuals rushed about the town. In her own world Hilda walked through the town barely paying attention to anything else that was until something cold collided with the side of her face. The snowball took her completely by surprise so much so she lost her balance on a patch of ice she’d unknowingly been walking over. Desperately trying to regain her balance she grabbed onto the lamppost next to her using it to help her off the ice as she wiped the remains of the snow from her face. Regaining her balance she let go of the lamppost as she began looking for the perpetrator. Her eyes eventually landed on a small women standing not too far away looking extremely guilty. Not knowing what took over her she charged towards the women. Maybe it was the fact her identity was hidden by a mask. Usually she’d just glare at them before going on her merry way but the fact no one knew who she was seemed to give her that little bit of courage she needed to approach them. When she reached them she scooped up a handful of snow in her gloved hand before shoving it in the women’s face.