Trainer Harmonia ❦

If she didn’t find him she would give up and look for her sister instead who was probably worried sick. She almost did give up but then…

He wasn't quite sure what to say in response to that last statement though, and replied a little awkwardly. "Well, I wouldn't say that... but you did take quite a fall... nearly landed on top of me actually," he said with a light laugh.

Time stamp: A few hours after the logout button vanished. 

  “Where are you taking me?” Venus asked, her eyes were blindfolded but she could tell that she was in the back of a van. She never expected for there to be crime inside a game like this. At least not to this level. She managed to untie herself and noticed that there nobody stayed in the back as guard. 

How silly! 

 Venus slammed the back of the van open and jumped. The drivers noticed and stopped immediately. 

“Go Jackson!” Venus shouted, “Use Smokescreen!” 

Needless to say, in attempting to hide in these woods from any unreasonable or frenzied players, the last thing N expected was for a trainer to come crashing in from nowhere.

The startled trainer almost yelped but the sound was caught in his throat and nothing really escaped. He swallowed.

"H-hey, are you alright?" He asked.

... No response.

Ah, the dark haired trainer appeared to be unconscious from the fall. She didn't appear injured but being knocked out in the wilds like this wasn't good. What should he do? He couldn't just leave her... Perhaps a pokemon center? He'd just left town but she might need medical attention and he wasn't much of a doctor... Her pokemon had caught up with her as well. The fire type seemed concerned about its trainer.

Better to act sooner rather than later with the new danger of not being able to escape this game, he thought.

Hikari noticed his eyes starting to droop a bit, and he explained how tired he was. “No, that’s fine. Get some rest.” She smiled at him.

“Goodnight, N.” she said, as N fell asleep. He mumbled something, possibly a goodnight and smirked. She laid down, starting to drift into sleep, herself as Empoleon stood beside her.

Not even a few minutes later, Empoleon was poking her awake with his sharp fin. “Ahh!” she yelped a little louder than she would have liked. She looked over and luckily, she didn’t wake N. “Chickori, what the hell?” But she realized as soon as she said it that something was really wrong. He had a more panicked look than usual.

Hikari stopped and listened for a minute and Chickori pointed to the bushes a few feet away. She couldn’t see into the dark, so thinking quickly, she recalled all of her Pokemon but Ponyta. “Here, girl” she called in a whisper. Ponyta quickly came to her feet and shook the dirt off her coat, coming to Hikari’s side.

Just then, Hikari caught the tail-end of a conversation. “And I’m definitely not staying up every night to search for this guy.”

She froze. Hikari knew what this meant. They were searching for N, currently completely asleep. Hikari instructed Ponyta to stay put at the edge of the camp, and crept over to N.

“N… Wake up!” She hissed it in a whisper to try not to startle him, but she needed help. There was definitely more than one person out there from the way that person was talking.

Once he stirred, she motioned for him to follow back to Ponyta, and the two grunts of Team Plasma stepped forward from the dark.

“Well look what we have here,” said the female grunt. “Seems to me we found our prize, Topher.”

The second grunt came forward and replied “And a bonus. That’s the Hikari girl, Yuna!”

“Yuna. Topher.” He addressed them by name, regaining the air of regality he’d grown used to displaying around those in Team Plasma. "What’s this about? It’s been some time since we last talked, but I thought you’d know better than to seek me out.“

"Don’t talk to us like that!” Yuna replied, visibly angered by how composed her former team leader appeared. "You left Plasma and where do we find you? Sharing a camp with that team destroying brat!“

"Team destroyer?” N questioned. “Curious. I told her that I was the king of your ilk and yet she woke me when you arrived. I don’t know what happened to you in the time we were apart, but you should leave and pretend you never saw us.”

It was a few moments after this confidently spoken dialogue that N remembered the only strong pokemon he had with him was Zoroark. Well, Zoroark and two others aside from the new members of his team that could match these grunts in strength. But they would have to do if he ended up needing to battle.

“Team Plasma has changed for the better, King N.” Topher slurred. “Without you we're richer, stronger. Besides, there’s no way out of this game. We aren’t going to just blindly follow your daydream of escape anymore!”

“I thought you were smarter than that. Can’t you see? Plasma’s current leaders only want to gain power over this world and the pokemon and trainers in it. They’ll bring about the destruction of anything good this world still holds.”

For now, it would be best to not cause any sort of scene until he could ascertain N’s intentions.Otherwise, he might have decided to turn down his offer of lunch.

“Not at all. To be honest, I haven’t really had anything to eat in a while since I’ve been so focused on studying. It’s almost like I’m back in school,” he gave a laugh since technically he was and continued, “well, if this school is even a little realistic the cafe food is probably much better than anything we’ll find around here.”

As they walked toward the cafe, N wondered what Steven’s pokemon had to say about him. He couldn’t hear them now, but perhaps eventually he might get the chance. If they were to battle in a match just as two trainers unrelated to the league this could reveal the thoughts of the Champion’s pokemon and the reason they were able to become so strong.

When he continued and said that her courage was what made her close to her pokemon, she beamed. She wanted to lead the pokemon she caught on a journey with meaning and for him to tell her that, it truly made her feel something.

The only thing that kept her from saying anything in response was the nagging in her head. “Could I really trust him?”

Regardless, she listened to what he had to say while staying on alert. Hikari was a girl of emotion, and she never really held back. But what she’s always done is think with her brain - not her heart - at times like these. She was dealing with a criminal, someone that could attack her at any given moment with a flick of the wrist and a ball in the air. So she knew to watch….

The girl still seemed worried about something, or at the very least troubled, but he couldn’t really blame her. As much as he wished to gain the trust of another player, he doubted any other player could trust him now. But it was nice to trade names with another person. In regards to trust again, he wasn’t even sure what he’d do with that. Have a companion aside from his pokemon he could travel with? Have someone to back him up in case Plasma came for him? And put them in danger? No, he couldn’t travel with anyone now. Maybe once things cooled down, but not now.

But he and Hikari seemed to be getting along for the moment, and that was all that was really important tonight. Perhaps in the morning they could talk more, but for now N was beginning to show signs of drowziness. They only really needed to get along for the night, and tomorrow he would leave to continue this travels alone and leave Hikari to her own devices.

Exhausted from travelling from one region to another in the span of a single day, he finally yawned. “Sorry,” he apologized afterwards, “I don’t know how much longer you wanted to stay awake but I think I need to get some rest.”

“I’ve been travelling since early this morning, and I didn’t get much sleep last night either. Tomorrow we can talk more I suppose, if you really wanted to. But for now I need to get some sleep.”

The former team leader laid down and soon fell asleep, saying goodnight at some point. Some time after this, in an area not to far from their camp, a pair of Plasma grunts spotted their fire and hid in the brush.

“Do you really think he’s here, Topher?” The female grunt asked. “This isn’t even the same region he was last spotted! I don’t want to barge in some random trainer’s camp!”

“Shhh!” The male grunt replied. “They said he looked like he was leaving, right? If he came to Sinnoh this is a good place to search. Think about it, we’re near a highly travelled city in a forest that is rarely travelled. If there’s any place our previous king is hiding it’s here. Isn’t this where you would go, Yuna?”

Chickori did not take his eyes off of the Team leader. He felt that if anything were to start, he’d be the first one to jump in Hikari’s way.

Hikari knew this and quietly moved to sit on a log in front of Chickori. The pokemon seemed rather startled by this, but she knew it would be the best way to prevent Chickori from increasing the tension in the air.

“Those rumors… have you heard any about me, specifically?”

Hikari squinted her eyes. What did he just ask? She almost asked him to repeat the question but instead she shook her head. “You’re kidding… right?” The way he looked at her told her no.

“You’re a leader of one of the most ruthless Teams in the game!” She didn’t raise her voice but made it clear she wasn’t kidding. “Your Team is terrible. They steal pokemon from trainers just to say they’ll ‘free’ them,” she said it using air quotes, “meanwhile they just use them to hurt more people and pokemon. They’re one of the biggest PK Teams in the game! How could you not be ashamed for even asking that?”

Hikari took a deep breath. She didn’t want to aggravate him either. “All I’m saying is that everyone hates your Team… and probably you for leading them.”

Then he explained how the Team was formed and how it had come to this, him, on the run, and alone.

And finally, a long silence, he said he’d want to take them down.

“So let me help you.”

“So let me help you.”

W-what?

“Eh–?” He couldn’t manage a coherent response at first, the girl caught him so off guard. This was the last reaction he expected after everything she said about Team Plasma, after he told her he was still among their ranks!

He cleared his throat, searching for some kind of reply. He was, in truth, somewhat happy to hear this because it meant this girl believed him, at least to some extent. But help from this girl, or from anyone really, would be dangerous. Plasma was already doing everything they could to find him. If they found out he had any associates, this would endanger them too. He didn’t want to be the cause of another trainer’s demise after everything Plasma had already done.

“I’m happy to hear that,“ he began, finding his response. “I never expected anyone would want to be involved in this. And I would be happy to accept, but it’s too dangerous. Plasma is already hunting me and I don’t want them to go after anyone else.”

“But you’re fairly brave,” he admitted. “This must be part of the reason your pokemon are so attached to you.”

linaria

Hikari didn’t want a fight here though. She knew he would be the highest ranking member of a Team she’d ever faced, whether or not he had a large team of pokemon.

But Team Plasma was just as ruthless as the rest of the Teams. Hikari had watched so many people killed by them and others first hand. So many times in fact, Hikari had reached a breaking point just a few weeks ago. 

Normally, she wouldn’t let the battle end if she was winning. She would have mercy on them and let them go, but take all stolen pokemon they had and released them or gave them to weak trainers. But recently, she watched in horror as Team Plasma killed four players in two double battles going on at once. The players all had low level pokemon, maybe one or two badges each. It was then that she saw one more player closer to them than herself.

They player would have been destroyed if Hikari hadn’t stepped in. She fough each other them one-on-one and finished each fight. And she saved the player.

Now, one of their leaders was standing in front of her and she didn’t know what to think. She wasn’t sure if he had left the Team or if he still maintained his position. She’d heard rumors of the leader having arguments with the others and wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay.

At first he said he didn’t want to fight, and admitted his mistakes but never said anything about leaving the Team. But when he said it wasn’t a good reason to fight, Hikari yelled back, “What? Killing people is a good reason to fight then?!”

He followed that by explaining his ability to communicate with pokemon. But Hikari was skeptical; players were not known to be given abilities, and Hikari wondered if maybe he’d hacked the game or was a GM…. Either of the two would be strange to admit, especially if he’d killed people.

Her heart warmed a little when he said how much her pokemon loved her. She decided to give him a chance but very cautiously. “Fine…. What have you got?” She offered him a seat near the campfire, and he pokemon backed up, still on guard.

N hesitated, more than a little hurt by this trainer’s words. Zoroark was upset as well to see the effect this stranger was having on his trainer, and gave a low protective growl. This growl momentarily snapped N out of his thoughts, and he pet the pokemon to calm it. “It’s alright,” he quietly reassured the pokemon, and returned him to his pokeball.

The regretful trainer then settled on the far side of the fire and didn’t speak right away. He tried to focus on the younger trainer’s pokemon, but he couldn’t. Her words still stung. “Those rumors…" he started, “have you heard any about me, specifically?” N knew that Team Plasma killed players. He was certain they still were, but N himself had never done such a thing, and hoped the team was not spreading lies. He wouldn’t put it beneath them, but it was just another thing to upset him.

N was still Team Plasma’s leader, but only technically. The team’s base of operations, N’s Castle, was still in his name and he still stood on top of the team’s hierarchy, but he fled all responsibility after finding out about what the team was truly up to. The only reason he never gave up the rank of leader was because this was the only way he thought he could slow them down. He still held some power this way, but only enough that he could prevent the team from better organizing their funds and members. It wasn’t much, but it was something at least. He’d rather be a thorn in their side than let them do whatever they wanted.

He finally spoke aloud again. “When I first founded Team Plasma, I did so for two reasons… The first was that with more people earning money, it would be easier for everyone to have enough to buy food and shelter since when everyone was trapped there were many people who had nothing. Plasma HQ became a place where many members lived. But the second reason was that I could have other people to help me search for legendary pokemon so that we could escape this virtual world. But I turned out to be the only person who really wanted that. Plasma became more interested in gaining power, in making this world their own. I never knew since I mostly managed the team from afar, and I fled after finding out, but I kept my rank so that I could slow their progress. I… don’t really know what to do now, aside from keep running and help my pokemon to get stronger.”

“My name is Steven Stone, current champion of the Hoenn region, and also someone with more than a passing interest in the legends that are stored in the books here. There are volumes about them. And just to think, some people wrote all of these for the sake of this game…” Steven’s voice trailed off. 

It took Steven a moment to come out of his reverie. He was constantly astounded in new ways by how much work went into Victory Road Online, and that the end result was to trap everyone inside. They had done a good job of making it as close to a reality as possible. 

Regardless, N tipped his hat. “It’s a pleasure to meet this region’s champion, even more so to find he has an interest in these archives. My name is N Harmonia, and I have just as much of an interest in these texts.“

“I am. Sorry, I think we startled your Staravia.” the figure said. As he came closer to them, Hikari saw the long green hair, the hat and the Zoroark behind him.

She knew exactly who he was. Hikari clenched her teeth and fists tightly.

“You worked for Team Plasma!” she accused. “I know who you are. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t blast you out of these woods right now.”

She was willing to hear an answer, but she surely wasn’t about to let her guard down. She knew he was dangerous and a former leader of Team Plasma. She could only imagine how many people he helped kill in this world in pursuit of their psychotic goals.

The former leader was caught off guard. It wasn’t surprising that this player knew his identity, but N hoped she never had the displeasure of encountering any of Team Plasma’s more criminal members. It saddened N to think about what the team had become to produce a reaction like this. The adamancy of this trainer’s threats could not be underestimated. He wasn’t sure what to do. Intimidating her would most definitely be a mistake, but so could be revealing any weaknesses if she was looking to battle…

The trainer nervously adjusted his cap to hide his eyes as he calculated the odds of this, for now, fictional battle. He was not prepared for a fight really. It was possible he could handle this trainer, but to be honest he didn’t want to. He was wrong, it seems, to have followed that pokemon.

"I don’t want to fight." N began, looking up at the trainer, "I have few pokemon with me and a battle out here could kill me… It could very well kill you too, but I’d sooner throw the match than let that happen. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and for these I’m sorry, but this isn’t a good reason to fight."

On one of her more typical nights, Hikari was camping in the middle of a dense forest. She knew that while not a safe zone, it was pretty secluded out here and she was less likely to find strangers or anyone wanting a battle for that matter.

Hikari pitched a tent with Shinx while Ponyta had helped her start a campfire. Chickori, her Empoleon, was on guard as usual, and Staravia looked for branches in the nearby trees.

"What do you think, Shinx? Kind of nice to be out here, alone, right?" Shinx was timid but friendly, and out here in the woods, she wasn’t exactly her usual peppy self. "Don’t be like that. Camping is fun…." Hikari said with a slight shiver. She finished the tent with Shinx and shuffled over quickly to the campfire. "Nice work, girl." she said to Ponyta. The Pokemon nodded her head and curled up beside Hikari, resting her head in her lap. Shinx sat on the other side.

"Chickori! Staravia! Fire’s done!" she called. Chickori slowly worked his way over, plopping himself on the ground, wings folded. He wasn’t a fan of being in the middle of no where. It was too difficult for him to protect Hikari.

"Staravia!" Hikari called. He still wasn’t back yet.

Out of nowhere, Staravia came into view, fluttering and whirring around the group. They all jumped up in surprise. “What’s wrong?” Staravia only responded with panicked flapping of his wings.

But a place like this was ideal for training a new team. It was spacious and peaceful, and he was especially grateful to his companion, Zoroark, for being able to hide them so thoroghly in it. His new team was still growing. In fact it was only a dangerous three, including Zoroark. The others were Eevee and Snover.

Now that he’d found a nice location, it time to start training. N signaled Zoroark to cast an illusion to hide them from any wandering trainers, but as the illusion was cast, he suddenly heard a Staravia exclaim something about a warning a trainer.

The pokemon fluttered off, and N found himself pursuing it. Zoroark followed. He unsettled to say the least, to learn someone else must be nearby, and he knew the smart thing would be to simply flee, but there was something about that pokemon that made him not fear meeting its trainer.

"Who’s there?"

He turned to face the man behind him. He looked vaguely familiar, and it sent a ripple of unease down his spine. He quickly shook it off as coincidence. He had been to this particular campus many times, usually for the library. It would be surprising if he hadn’t run across some students multiple times.

On this particular day, he had been asked to do a lecture on strategies for battling with and against heavy pokemon. He had found many of the trainers to be… reluctant students. It took only ten minutes for him to pick out the trainers who actually desired to improve, and the ones who wanted an excuse to stay in a safe zone.  Afterward, he headed to the library to check out a few references for an expedition he had been planning. For the first time, however, the book he was looking for had been checked out. And then left lying on a table.

Steven studied the books the other man had selected. Several were ones he recognized. 

But he was right. Despite N’s interest in researching the mythos of all regions, he was most drawn to the history of Unova’s legendaries. From what he knew, the dragons, Zekrom and Reshiram and perhaps Kyurem were once a single entity, but split in order to fight alongside twin heroes. In this battle Zekrom stood for the truth the older hero sought, and Reshiram stood for the ideals of the younger hero. Each dragon was supposed to hold power enough to destroy all of Unova, and according to the region’s mythos, had at some point. N’s hope was that this power was enough to make his dream of escaping this virtual world a reality. And if he could not escape by this power alone, then perhaps that power could be used to easier unravel the mysteries of other legendaries who could. Either way, N would find a way to break this game’s hold on him and other trainers.

Aside from his attachment to these legends too, these dragons were also the legendaries that N felt he could most easily locate. They were an ample start to finding a way out of this world.

"I’m not your average reader." N replied, holding his hand out for the book. "But yes," he continued, "I’m researching those legends in the hopes of finding a way out of this game."

Please accept this humongous nerd in celebration of pi day