antithesis preview
May. 7th, 2014 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
radgamerlatulatitle; antithesis
summary; you are everything i want, for you are everything i'm not.
series; pokemon, heartgold // soulsilver.
pairing; silverlyra.
disclaimer; not mine!
notes; this is a preview! the whole game is going to be a one shot because i'm a fucking loser. so this is up until you see silver in olivine city. i'm writing this as i do my re-playthrough of ss, so, this will be finished in a while.
..
."So this is the famous Elm pokemon lab," you muttered to yourself, as you stared in through the side window.
Today was the day you finally got your first pokemon, though it wouldn't be through normal means.
You felt something tap you on the shoulder, and almost jumped in surprise. You hated being touched.
"Hi! My name is Lyra! Are you here to get your first pokemon too?" the girl asked, her voice saccharine sweet. It sounded weak. Pathetic. You scoffed, and flicked your wrist twice in a "go away" motion, and turned back to examining the lab.
You had no time for cotton candy girls with puffy hats and pigtails.
But, it seemed that the girl didn't get the message.
You fixed your glare onto her, as she continued trying to talk to you. She stared at you with wide, childish brownish green eyes. They made her look innocent.
Innocence is weakness, and I do not tolerate weakness, you thought to yourself, turning up the intensity of your glare. You expected her to flinch, but her bright smile remained.
"What are you staring at?" you asked, your voice harsh. She sighed, and shook her head.
"I hope I see you again, then!" she told you, and with a wave, she began walking towards the front of the building.
You sighed in relief of the pesky girl's leave, though you found that your eyes had burned her smile into your memory, as when you closed your eyes you could see her bright face. You shook your head violently and focused back on the lab. You glared into the window as you saw her smiling and talking with the Professor. You felt downright sickened by the girl through the window, laughing and joking with Professor Elm. She was such a normal girl, getting her first pokemon the normal way, and yet she dared try to talk to you?
You sighed, letting some of your anger out. You hated people like her.
Hopefully, you thought to yourself, you would never have to deal with such a pesky little girl again.
..
Unfortunately, lady luck was not with you, for you saw her again later that night. It had only been about forty minutes since you had stolen your first pokemon, and you hadn't even had the time to check what it was.
She of course came right up to you, smiling as brightly as she had three hours ago. There was a cyndaquil at her feet that seemed to give off as much of a happy glow as she herself did.
"Hello!" She chirped, cyndaquil chiming in as well. In the few hours since she had walked out of the lab with her pokemon, they seemed to have become good friends already.
Looking at the two of them made you nauseous in the pit of your stomach.
You scowled at her and her cyndaquil, contorting your face to look as menacing as possible. The girl -- Lyra, your mind whispered, but you ignored it easily -- didn't even flinch. Christ, can nothing faze this weirdo? You thought to yourself as you glared at her.
"So you got a pokemon at the lab," you told her, not even trying to hide the blatant disgust lacing your voice. She frowned a little at your tone, but instead of feeling glee you felt aggravated. Your scowl deepened. "What a waste," you continued, "That's a pokemon that's too good for a wimp like you."
You had to hide the doubt in your harsh gaze even as you said the words. Your bastard of a father may not have taught you much, but he at least taught you never to underestimate anybody.
Funny, since his entire organization was put into place by someone no older than me, you thought, scoffing to yourself at the thought.
"What do you mean by that?" Marshmallow asked, frowning ever so slightly. Her Cyndaquil next to her blew smoke at you, clearly disliking you already.
Your scowl turned into a smirk that you had perfected throughout the years. "Don't you get what I'm saying?" You asked, clearly hoping she would take the bait.
"No, I really don't," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, her cyndaquil mimicking her movement to the best of its ability. You thought she muttered something about being nice to people, but you didn't care enough to have her bother clarifying.
"Well I, too, have a good pokemon. I'll show you what I mean!" And with that, you released your pokemon from it's pokeball.
You snickered when you saw what pokemon came out of the ball. A totodile, which turned into a menacing feraligatr eventually. You were pleased with what you managed to grab, but you were even more pleased when you realized that you had the type advantage over her cyndaquil.
"Tackle," you told it carelessly, and the two pokemon tackled each other, both of their hit points going down. Your totodile took more damage, but you figured it was luck on her part for that.
"Good job, Cherry! Now use a smokescreen and then another tackle!" You heard the annoyingly girlish voice from the other side of the battlefield, and you sighed.
"Tackle again, or scratch, or something," you said in a bored tone. You would win this battle, as battling was engraved into your blood. You would not lose your first pokemon battle to a silly little girl who bothered naming her pokemon.
Your totodile did as you commanded, but every time your pokemon would manage to find her cyndaquil in the smoke, it would lose more hit points then hers.
"You're doing okay for someone weak!" You called out over the smoke, before commanding another attack. You could've sworn you heard a fit of laughter.
Ugh.
You swore loudly as your totodile was getting down to it's last few hit points. "Use a water type move, god dammit! You are not losing this stupid battle!" You yelled harshly at the water starter.
It looked at you in confusion, and before you had a chance to clarify, Lyra's cyndaquil hit with another tackle for the final blow. Your totodile fell unconscious.
You swore, as you returned the thing to its stolen pokeball.
"Useless pokemon," you muttered under your breath before paying her.
"Are you happy you won?" You asked, anger evident in your tone.
The girl stopped petting her cyndaquil, and scooped it up into her arms. She cocked her head to the left, in what you assumed to be her thinking pose.
You glared at your pokeball, cursing it mentally. You weren't supposed to lose ever, especially not your first battle. Especially not to such a frail looking, pathetic, little girl.
You were brought back into reality by her syrupy sounding voice. "I suppose I am! I'm really proud of my pokemon, but that's about it. What's your name, by the way, since now we've seen each other twice. My name is Lyra, in case you've forgotten," she told you, smile stuck firmly in place as she juggled her cyndaquil into one arm, allowing her right to extend a hand for a handshake.
You didn't even bother moving your arm, letting hers just fall awkwardly. "You want to know who I am? I'm going to be the world's greatest pokemon trainer," you told her, turning to walk away.
As you moved to put your pokeball back onto your belt, you felt something fly out of it's holster. You heard a small gasp as you turned back around, seeing red.
"Give it back!" You snatched the card out of her hand, earning a growl from her cyndaquil. "That's my trainer card," you mumbled under your breath, stuffing said card back into your pocket.
"Bye, Silver!" You heard her call as you began your shameful walk to the pokemon center.
"Oh no," you breathed, horror in your voice as you saw the girl continue back to New Bark Town. "You saw my name," you said, but she was already gone.
..
You thought maybe you were finally rid of that obnoxious peppy girl after you had caught your first two pokemon. You trained them ruthlessly and without care for their well being, and you got the feeling they really didn't like that.
Good, you would tell yourself, it'll make them cold and better battlers.
You had decided to go through Bellsprout Tower, hearing that it was a good challenge to level up your pokemon. Anything to make them stronger is what you were constantly thinking to yourself, so of course you fought your way through.
All of the monks would spew some crap about how you should treat your pokemon like friends and not tools, but you laughed maniacally at every single one. If treating your pokemon like friends actually got you anywhere, you would reply, then why did I win the battle?
By the time you had gotten to the final monk you knew the battle would be a breeze. "This was no challenge," you bit out, deeply disappointed. You threw out your totodile for the final battle against the last monk.
"Pathetic," you told the monk as you collected your prize money. You returned your seemingly happy stolen pokemon into its pokeball, and turned around to leave the building.
"Silver," a voice that was beginning to etch itself into the inner workings of your mind sounded.
"Shit," you breathed, before quickly pulling out an escape rope. You didn't want to deal with her tonight. She had been plaguing your dreams these past two nights and you didn't want to make them any worse.
You hated her too bright eyes and too happy smile.
At least, that's what you kept telling yourself.
..
It had been a week since the day you met the girl with the annoyingly puffy hat and the saccharine sweet voice and you wanted to strangle yourself. Every night that week, your dreams were poisoned with her lips moving your name and the sound of her laughter. You weren't sure what you hated more -- her, or your own mind.
She was constantly plaguing your thoughts during your training. Am I better than her yet? Has her cyndaquil evolved yet? How many pokemon has she caught? Will I be able to win against her next time? Were the thoughts that kept you motivated during your rigorous training with your newly evolved croconow, ghastly, and zubat.
You figured what was so infuriating about losing to her was how very different she was from you. You imagined her life to be perfect growing up, while yours had been anything but. You imagined she grew up with a loving mother and father, father working late on the weekdays so he could have family nights on weekends with a stay at home mom, playing games together on Saturday nights. She probably grew up having everything in life handed to her on a silver platter, as she had gotten her cyndaquil easily enough.
The way she spoke to you, though, like she wanted to get to know you bothered you beyond belief. The she would smile at you, and how that smile would not falter even through your glares irritated you in ways that you didn't even know were possible.
So when you saw her, walking towards the exit building of Azalea town, you did the first thing you could think to do and sprinted after her.
You caught up to her easily, and she stopped to give you her winning smile. You glanced down to see a quilava barring its teeth at you, and you sent your best glare at it.
"Hello, Silver! How are you today?" She asked, voice full of sugar, just at it had been in your dream the night before. It took all of your self control not to shudder at the fact that this was the girl that had been in the spotlight of your dreams.
It's like she thinks she's made of fucking candy, you thought, scowl on your lips almost immediately. Her peppy attitude and seemingly happy go lucky nature, you felt, served no other purpose then to piss you off. It wasn't your fault your were cold and bitter, but did she have to make a point to be so cheery?
"Tell me something," you said, not bothering with small talk but at the same time making up a reason why you so stupidly sought her out. "Is it true that Team Rocket has returned?" You asked, praying to whatever higher power there was her answer would be a resounding "no".
Her grin widened. "Yeah, but me and Cherry actually took care of a few of their goons over by the slowpoke well," she told you, voice filled with pride. "They were cutting off the tails of them, isn't that awful?" She continued to ramble on about her apparent adventure, but you tuned her out easily.
"What? You beat them?" You asked, interrupting her story. She paused for a minute, but her smile quickly returned. Black hair and red eyes flashed through your mind and your face morphed into a scowl.
"That's what I said, silly!"
You let out a bark of laughter, and she reeled back. Yet again you expecting to feel sadistic joy wash over you, and yet again you were disappointed. "Quit lying," you told her, scowling.
"I'm not lying," she told you, her smile finally dropped, replaced by a scowl of her own. "I really did take care of them." Her quilava growled at your from her feet, apparently not happy with your disbelief in its trainer.
"Are you serious?" You said, disbelief clear. "Then let's see how good you are!" You called, releasing your ghastly from your belt.
The girl opposing you sighed, fixed the giant puff hat on her head, and sent out one of the dumbest looking pokemon you had ever seen.
"Go on, wooper, you got this!" She called out in encouragement, and you frowned. Why does she do that? You wondered to yourself, as you ordered a lick attack from your pokemon.
It obliged, but not without a whimper. Lyra cringed when she heard it, but was at least respectful enough not to comment.
She easily fainted your ghastly, and you swore loudly as you returned it into its pokeball. "Do better than that weakling, zubat!" You shouted, the bright red light revealing your next pokemon.
She, too, returned her wooper, but not before praising it. You glared as you waited for her to choose her next pokemon. "Cherry, why don't you give it a go?" She asked, and the quilava happily strutted out onto the battlefield.
"Leech life!" You commanded the bug and flying type, and it drained a few hit points from its opponent.
"Quick attack, Cherry! Try and knock it out of the air!"
The fire type starter did as it was told, knocking your zubat out of the air with ease.
"Dammit, get back up and use supersonic, you worthless thing!"
Lyra shook her head at your outburst and ordered an ember attack, easily fainting your pokemon before it could even try any defense.
You growled as you pulled out it's pokeball. "Worthless. Absolutely worthless," you muttered to yourself before sending out your croconow.
"You've got a lot of nerve coming here," you yelled to your opponent, who sent you a half smile before recalling her precious quilava.
"You did wonderfully, Cherry," she told it, patting it on it's head. You looked away in disgust at the public display of affection.
"Hurry up!" You told her, growing impatient. You were down to your last pokemon, and while you knew it could easily defeat her fire type, you had no idea how many other pokemon she had somehow managed to catch.
She pulled a third ball from her belt, this one appearing to be a heal ball. "Mareep, do your best!" She called out, releasing the ball to reveal a pink and white electric sheep.
You groaned. Of course it would be an electric type against your pure water type.
"Croconow, bite. Finish it before it has the chance to destroy you, too, you pathetic overgrown magikarp," you growled out, angry at the type disadvantage and with your impending defeat.
The battle was over before it really started, her mareep using thundershock and tackle for an easy knock out. You wanted to hit your stolen starter, but you figured you should at least wait until it was awake to do so.
You glared at your pokeball as you returned your final fainted pokemon. "Humph! Useless pokemon," you said, fixing the balls on your belt before turning your attention to the victor. You tossed the prize money at her before speaking.
"Listen, you," you said, and she turned her attention away from praising her party of three to you. "You won only because my pokemon were weak."
She frowned at you. "Maybe if you treated them better," she told you as she stood up, proceeding to brush the dirt off of her knees, "they would grow faster. The way you treat your pokemon makes me so sad," she said the last part in a whisper, looking down at her quilava.
You chuckled. "I hate the weak," you told her matter of factly. She glanced at you in surprise. "Pokemon," you glared at your belt, "trainers," you fixed your glare onto her. "It doesn't matter who or what. I hate to see them hanging around." You looked up to the sky, silently cursing your pathetic father.
You looked back at her, to see her studying you. "That goes for Team Rocket, too. They think they are big and tough as long as they're in a group," you chuckled wryly, remembering the last conversation you had with your father. "But get them alone? They're weak. I hate them all," your voice turned hard with that last phrase, but she didn't back away from you. Just listened.
"You stay out of my way," you told her, turning to leave Azalea town. "You won't be an exception if you get in my way."
As you left the girl with the marshmallow hat in the dust, you wondered why you had said that any of that. Especially that last sentence.
..
It was of course only a few days later that you would see her again. She continued to be the only thing you would dream about, and you were starting to get annoyed. Your thoughts were constantly will I be able to beat her next time I see her? Is she going to leave me alone now? Why does she treat her pokemon like they matter? And so many other questions swimming around inside your head.
Every single night you'd see her smile, how she looked when she told you that the way you treat your pokemon makes her sad, how she praised her pokemon when they won the two battles you had.
So when you were in the Burned Tower in Ecruteak and she came waltzing through the door with her quilava faithfully at her feet, the first thing you thought to say was, "oh, it's you".
She smiled good naturedly at you, somehow still happy to see you. "Hello, Silver. Still refusing to use my name?" She joked with you, and you couldn't tell whether you wanted to hit her or yourself more.
"You must be here to catch the legendary pokemon to make yourself look strong. That's only a dream," you continued as if she had never spoken. Your dreams were bad enough already, no need to give them any more fuel.
She sighed before replying. "Why's that?" She asked you, playing along even though the both of you knew she really had no need to.
You expected to feel angered by her humouring you, but instead you felt your heart speed up. What the hell? You asked yourself, before shaking your head and going on with your rant.
"You see, the legendary pokemon suits a trainer like me, who has sworn to become the strongest trainer," you told her haughtily, placing a hand on your belt to get ready for the fight you were about to initiate.
"A battle with Team Rocket grunts is just right for you!" You told her, throwing out your battered ghastly.
She sighed and waved toward your pokemon, starting the battle with her fire type starter pokemon.
"Cherry, flame wheel," she told it, her voice soft. Lyra obviously did not want to be having this battle right now, and you told yourself that it didn't matter. Yet you felt some sort of aggravation towards her attitude, or so you thought.
"Ghastly, curse!" You yelled out in your rage, and your ghastly shuddered at your move choice. Unwillingly, it halved its hit points, causing the quilava's own to drop some.
The girl across from you let out a small gasp. "What an awful move," she spoke silently, but you still picked up on it. You cringed before you could bother to hide it, and shook yourself.
"Cherry, return, please," she held up the only normal pokeball on her belt, and in a flash of light, the quilava was gone. You growled; this released the curse that your ghastly had put on it, making the move effectively useless.
"Flaafy, go on," the red light released what looked like a sheep on two legs, and you scoffed. Other than her quilava, of course she'd have weak looking pokemon.
"Ghastly, lick," you told it with a glare, and it did its best to initiate the attack. Unfortunately, her flaafy was faster and shocked your ghastly, knocking it out of battle.
"Dammit," you growled, returning it and quickly sending out your zubat. "Go, you useless slowpoke with wings! Start with supersonic!
But again, her flaafy easily knocked it out of the air with a thundershock, paralyzing your pokemon. You swore, telling it to use bite or something, but your pokemon stayed on the ground.
"Flaafy, use tackle," her voice was almost a whisper as she commanded her pokemon with ease, like she was born to battle. You couldn't help staring at her as she finished off your zubat.
You shook your head, something you seemed to do a lot around the annoying girl with the ridiculous marshmallow hat, and returned your zubat.
Enraged, you threw out your newest pokemon, a magnemite. She withdrew her flaafy, and smiled at the ball.
"You did wonderfully," she told it, before sending out her next pokemon. You didn't even bother trying to hide your eye roll. "Fluffy, go ahead!"
You sputtered. Fluffy? And I thought Cherry was a stupid name for a pokemon.
Out of the red light formed a growlithe, barring it's teeth at you. Another fire type? You questioned, but merely shrugged. "Magnemite, thunderwave!" You yelled, wanting to get this over with quickly. She had four useable pokemon that you knew of, while you only had two including magnemite left. And you were not going to lose to this girl again.
You blanched when the growlithe avoided it with ease.
"Fluffy, ember, and then bite," her voice was so soft that you were surprised the puppy pokemon heard her commands, but it executed them with ease.
"Paralyze it, you useless heap of garbage!" You snarled out, hoping your pokemon would toughen up.
"Ember one more time, that should be all you need to do," she told her pokemon, and the orange dog executed it with ease. You growled as you returned your magnemite and put it back on your belt.
You enlarged the pokeball containing your stolen croconow. "Out of desperation," you told her, throwing the pokeball with all the force you could muster, "weak people sometimes do okay at fighting back."
Even as you called her weak, you knew at this point that it just wasn't true. She returned her growlithe, but once again not before praising it. "Good job, Fluffy," she cooed at it, scratching it behind the ears. "You did wonderfully," she returned the pokemon after she congratulated it, once again sending out her flaafy for the type advantage.
"Just this last battle, flaafy, I promise," she told her pokemon, before ordering a thundershock.
Your croconow took more damage than other pokemon would've, as per the type advantage, You growled out a command of bite, but your pokemon was a lot slower then her overgrown sheep.
She commanded a quick attack, effectively fainting your croconow, and you returned it to its ball with great frustration.
"I'm not fighting another weakling ever again," you spit out at her, tossing her the prize money you owed her. "It's just too much playing around."
"I like battling you, Silver, but I don't think I'm weak. I've beaten you fair and square three times now," she told you with confidence, as she pet her electric type.
"Aw, whatever," you grumbled, walking towards the door. "You would never be able to catch a legendary pokemon anyway." You stormed out of the Burned Tower towards the pokemon center, wondering why your heart had sped up so much when she said that she liked battling you.
You closed your eyes and sighed as you handed your pokeballs over to Nurse Joy, trying to erase the image of the smiling girl out of your mind.
..
You had ran away from that town quickly after collecting your fourth gym badge, wanting to be as far away from where you knew Marshmallow to be. Your croconaw gave you these looks as you trained it, your starter the only pokemon bothering to try and form a relationship with you.
It bothered you, sometimes, but not because you wanted your other pokemon to do the same. You hated the fact that your croconaw would treat you like an equal, no matter how many times you would scream at it to put it in its place.
You sighed loudly as you reached Olivine City, trying to force annoying thoughts of moss colored eyes and the brightest smile you've ever seen out of your head.
The Moo Moo Milk farm was supposed to have served as a good distraction, but the stupid pokemon was sick. They had asked for some oran berries but you had scoffed and walked away. Healing sick pokemon just made them weaker, you thought, so you had never bothered to collect hit point healing items.
You had seen the gym immediately after walking into the city, and your eyes brightened. Try as you might, you could not stop the adrenaline rush that pokemon battles gave you, even though you'd been around pokemon all your life.
You opened the doors to the fifth gym, only to be told that it was closed.
"Why," you bit out harshly, causing the man in front of you to flinch. You hated being denied a battle.
"One of the leader's beloved pokemon is quite ill," the man said, sorrow filling his voice. "She's up at the lighthouse caring for it."
You groaned allowed, and stormed out of the building.
"Silver! Hi!"
Your heart sped up and you forced the flush out of your face. You had no idea why you would react this way to such a stupid little girl. Maybe it was because she made you so incredibly angry?
"You again?" You asked, quickly taking in her appearance. She was still wearing that dumb puffy hat and overalls get up, and down at her feet sat a very formidable looking quilava.
She grinned at you, nodding her head.
"There's no need to be alert," you said as dryly as possible, making her giggle. Your heart pounded in your chest and you wanted to scream. What the fuck was going on?
"I don't bother with wimps like you. Speaking of weaklings," you continued, wondering why you couldn't shut up, "the city's gym leader isn't here," your scowl etched onto your face.
She cocked her head to the side, thinking. "Where would she be, if not at her gym?" She asked you.
Something about the fact that she wanted to get the information from you made your head feel foggy.
"She's supposed to be taking care of a sick pokemon at the lighthouse," you growled out. "Humph! Boo hoo! Just let sick pokemon go! A pokemon that can't battle is worthless."
Her serene expression as she listened to you talk dropped as you continued to speak.
"That's not true at all, though. Pokemon are alive, just like you and me! It's not their fault if they get sick," Lyra spoke, eyes shining with passion. You blanched. You needed to get out of there as quickly as possible, though you didn't know why.
"Why don't you go train at the lighthouse? Who knows? It may make you a bit of a better trainer!" You turned away from her confused expression, and bolted back towards Ecruteak.
Why did you heart feel so heavy when she disagreed with you? Why did you bother giving her advice?
You hated her, you thought to yourself, almost as much as you hated your father.
And yet, even as you convinced yourself of that, your heart still hadn't slowed down since you saw her.
Today was the day you finally got your first pokemon, though it wouldn't be through normal means.
You felt something tap you on the shoulder, and almost jumped in surprise. You hated being touched.
"Hi! My name is Lyra! Are you here to get your first pokemon too?" the girl asked, her voice saccharine sweet. It sounded weak. Pathetic. You scoffed, and flicked your wrist twice in a "go away" motion, and turned back to examining the lab.
You had no time for cotton candy girls with puffy hats and pigtails.
But, it seemed that the girl didn't get the message.
You fixed your glare onto her, as she continued trying to talk to you. She stared at you with wide, childish brownish green eyes. They made her look innocent.
Innocence is weakness, and I do not tolerate weakness, you thought to yourself, turning up the intensity of your glare. You expected her to flinch, but her bright smile remained.
"What are you staring at?" you asked, your voice harsh. She sighed, and shook her head.
"I hope I see you again, then!" she told you, and with a wave, she began walking towards the front of the building.
You sighed in relief of the pesky girl's leave, though you found that your eyes had burned her smile into your memory, as when you closed your eyes you could see her bright face. You shook your head violently and focused back on the lab. You glared into the window as you saw her smiling and talking with the Professor. You felt downright sickened by the girl through the window, laughing and joking with Professor Elm. She was such a normal girl, getting her first pokemon the normal way, and yet she dared try to talk to you?
You sighed, letting some of your anger out. You hated people like her.
Hopefully, you thought to yourself, you would never have to deal with such a pesky little girl again.
..
Unfortunately, lady luck was not with you, for you saw her again later that night. It had only been about forty minutes since you had stolen your first pokemon, and you hadn't even had the time to check what it was.
She of course came right up to you, smiling as brightly as she had three hours ago. There was a cyndaquil at her feet that seemed to give off as much of a happy glow as she herself did.
"Hello!" She chirped, cyndaquil chiming in as well. In the few hours since she had walked out of the lab with her pokemon, they seemed to have become good friends already.
Looking at the two of them made you nauseous in the pit of your stomach.
You scowled at her and her cyndaquil, contorting your face to look as menacing as possible. The girl -- Lyra, your mind whispered, but you ignored it easily -- didn't even flinch. Christ, can nothing faze this weirdo? You thought to yourself as you glared at her.
"So you got a pokemon at the lab," you told her, not even trying to hide the blatant disgust lacing your voice. She frowned a little at your tone, but instead of feeling glee you felt aggravated. Your scowl deepened. "What a waste," you continued, "That's a pokemon that's too good for a wimp like you."
You had to hide the doubt in your harsh gaze even as you said the words. Your bastard of a father may not have taught you much, but he at least taught you never to underestimate anybody.
Funny, since his entire organization was put into place by someone no older than me, you thought, scoffing to yourself at the thought.
"What do you mean by that?" Marshmallow asked, frowning ever so slightly. Her Cyndaquil next to her blew smoke at you, clearly disliking you already.
Your scowl turned into a smirk that you had perfected throughout the years. "Don't you get what I'm saying?" You asked, clearly hoping she would take the bait.
"No, I really don't," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, her cyndaquil mimicking her movement to the best of its ability. You thought she muttered something about being nice to people, but you didn't care enough to have her bother clarifying.
"Well I, too, have a good pokemon. I'll show you what I mean!" And with that, you released your pokemon from it's pokeball.
You snickered when you saw what pokemon came out of the ball. A totodile, which turned into a menacing feraligatr eventually. You were pleased with what you managed to grab, but you were even more pleased when you realized that you had the type advantage over her cyndaquil.
"Tackle," you told it carelessly, and the two pokemon tackled each other, both of their hit points going down. Your totodile took more damage, but you figured it was luck on her part for that.
"Good job, Cherry! Now use a smokescreen and then another tackle!" You heard the annoyingly girlish voice from the other side of the battlefield, and you sighed.
"Tackle again, or scratch, or something," you said in a bored tone. You would win this battle, as battling was engraved into your blood. You would not lose your first pokemon battle to a silly little girl who bothered naming her pokemon.
Your totodile did as you commanded, but every time your pokemon would manage to find her cyndaquil in the smoke, it would lose more hit points then hers.
"You're doing okay for someone weak!" You called out over the smoke, before commanding another attack. You could've sworn you heard a fit of laughter.
Ugh.
You swore loudly as your totodile was getting down to it's last few hit points. "Use a water type move, god dammit! You are not losing this stupid battle!" You yelled harshly at the water starter.
It looked at you in confusion, and before you had a chance to clarify, Lyra's cyndaquil hit with another tackle for the final blow. Your totodile fell unconscious.
You swore, as you returned the thing to its stolen pokeball.
"Useless pokemon," you muttered under your breath before paying her.
"Are you happy you won?" You asked, anger evident in your tone.
The girl stopped petting her cyndaquil, and scooped it up into her arms. She cocked her head to the left, in what you assumed to be her thinking pose.
You glared at your pokeball, cursing it mentally. You weren't supposed to lose ever, especially not your first battle. Especially not to such a frail looking, pathetic, little girl.
You were brought back into reality by her syrupy sounding voice. "I suppose I am! I'm really proud of my pokemon, but that's about it. What's your name, by the way, since now we've seen each other twice. My name is Lyra, in case you've forgotten," she told you, smile stuck firmly in place as she juggled her cyndaquil into one arm, allowing her right to extend a hand for a handshake.
You didn't even bother moving your arm, letting hers just fall awkwardly. "You want to know who I am? I'm going to be the world's greatest pokemon trainer," you told her, turning to walk away.
As you moved to put your pokeball back onto your belt, you felt something fly out of it's holster. You heard a small gasp as you turned back around, seeing red.
"Give it back!" You snatched the card out of her hand, earning a growl from her cyndaquil. "That's my trainer card," you mumbled under your breath, stuffing said card back into your pocket.
"Bye, Silver!" You heard her call as you began your shameful walk to the pokemon center.
"Oh no," you breathed, horror in your voice as you saw the girl continue back to New Bark Town. "You saw my name," you said, but she was already gone.
..
You thought maybe you were finally rid of that obnoxious peppy girl after you had caught your first two pokemon. You trained them ruthlessly and without care for their well being, and you got the feeling they really didn't like that.
Good, you would tell yourself, it'll make them cold and better battlers.
You had decided to go through Bellsprout Tower, hearing that it was a good challenge to level up your pokemon. Anything to make them stronger is what you were constantly thinking to yourself, so of course you fought your way through.
All of the monks would spew some crap about how you should treat your pokemon like friends and not tools, but you laughed maniacally at every single one. If treating your pokemon like friends actually got you anywhere, you would reply, then why did I win the battle?
By the time you had gotten to the final monk you knew the battle would be a breeze. "This was no challenge," you bit out, deeply disappointed. You threw out your totodile for the final battle against the last monk.
"Pathetic," you told the monk as you collected your prize money. You returned your seemingly happy stolen pokemon into its pokeball, and turned around to leave the building.
"Silver," a voice that was beginning to etch itself into the inner workings of your mind sounded.
"Shit," you breathed, before quickly pulling out an escape rope. You didn't want to deal with her tonight. She had been plaguing your dreams these past two nights and you didn't want to make them any worse.
You hated her too bright eyes and too happy smile.
At least, that's what you kept telling yourself.
..
It had been a week since the day you met the girl with the annoyingly puffy hat and the saccharine sweet voice and you wanted to strangle yourself. Every night that week, your dreams were poisoned with her lips moving your name and the sound of her laughter. You weren't sure what you hated more -- her, or your own mind.
She was constantly plaguing your thoughts during your training. Am I better than her yet? Has her cyndaquil evolved yet? How many pokemon has she caught? Will I be able to win against her next time? Were the thoughts that kept you motivated during your rigorous training with your newly evolved croconow, ghastly, and zubat.
You figured what was so infuriating about losing to her was how very different she was from you. You imagined her life to be perfect growing up, while yours had been anything but. You imagined she grew up with a loving mother and father, father working late on the weekdays so he could have family nights on weekends with a stay at home mom, playing games together on Saturday nights. She probably grew up having everything in life handed to her on a silver platter, as she had gotten her cyndaquil easily enough.
The way she spoke to you, though, like she wanted to get to know you bothered you beyond belief. The she would smile at you, and how that smile would not falter even through your glares irritated you in ways that you didn't even know were possible.
So when you saw her, walking towards the exit building of Azalea town, you did the first thing you could think to do and sprinted after her.
You caught up to her easily, and she stopped to give you her winning smile. You glanced down to see a quilava barring its teeth at you, and you sent your best glare at it.
"Hello, Silver! How are you today?" She asked, voice full of sugar, just at it had been in your dream the night before. It took all of your self control not to shudder at the fact that this was the girl that had been in the spotlight of your dreams.
It's like she thinks she's made of fucking candy, you thought, scowl on your lips almost immediately. Her peppy attitude and seemingly happy go lucky nature, you felt, served no other purpose then to piss you off. It wasn't your fault your were cold and bitter, but did she have to make a point to be so cheery?
"Tell me something," you said, not bothering with small talk but at the same time making up a reason why you so stupidly sought her out. "Is it true that Team Rocket has returned?" You asked, praying to whatever higher power there was her answer would be a resounding "no".
Her grin widened. "Yeah, but me and Cherry actually took care of a few of their goons over by the slowpoke well," she told you, voice filled with pride. "They were cutting off the tails of them, isn't that awful?" She continued to ramble on about her apparent adventure, but you tuned her out easily.
"What? You beat them?" You asked, interrupting her story. She paused for a minute, but her smile quickly returned. Black hair and red eyes flashed through your mind and your face morphed into a scowl.
"That's what I said, silly!"
You let out a bark of laughter, and she reeled back. Yet again you expecting to feel sadistic joy wash over you, and yet again you were disappointed. "Quit lying," you told her, scowling.
"I'm not lying," she told you, her smile finally dropped, replaced by a scowl of her own. "I really did take care of them." Her quilava growled at your from her feet, apparently not happy with your disbelief in its trainer.
"Are you serious?" You said, disbelief clear. "Then let's see how good you are!" You called, releasing your ghastly from your belt.
The girl opposing you sighed, fixed the giant puff hat on her head, and sent out one of the dumbest looking pokemon you had ever seen.
"Go on, wooper, you got this!" She called out in encouragement, and you frowned. Why does she do that? You wondered to yourself, as you ordered a lick attack from your pokemon.
It obliged, but not without a whimper. Lyra cringed when she heard it, but was at least respectful enough not to comment.
She easily fainted your ghastly, and you swore loudly as you returned it into its pokeball. "Do better than that weakling, zubat!" You shouted, the bright red light revealing your next pokemon.
She, too, returned her wooper, but not before praising it. You glared as you waited for her to choose her next pokemon. "Cherry, why don't you give it a go?" She asked, and the quilava happily strutted out onto the battlefield.
"Leech life!" You commanded the bug and flying type, and it drained a few hit points from its opponent.
"Quick attack, Cherry! Try and knock it out of the air!"
The fire type starter did as it was told, knocking your zubat out of the air with ease.
"Dammit, get back up and use supersonic, you worthless thing!"
Lyra shook her head at your outburst and ordered an ember attack, easily fainting your pokemon before it could even try any defense.
You growled as you pulled out it's pokeball. "Worthless. Absolutely worthless," you muttered to yourself before sending out your croconow.
"You've got a lot of nerve coming here," you yelled to your opponent, who sent you a half smile before recalling her precious quilava.
"You did wonderfully, Cherry," she told it, patting it on it's head. You looked away in disgust at the public display of affection.
"Hurry up!" You told her, growing impatient. You were down to your last pokemon, and while you knew it could easily defeat her fire type, you had no idea how many other pokemon she had somehow managed to catch.
She pulled a third ball from her belt, this one appearing to be a heal ball. "Mareep, do your best!" She called out, releasing the ball to reveal a pink and white electric sheep.
You groaned. Of course it would be an electric type against your pure water type.
"Croconow, bite. Finish it before it has the chance to destroy you, too, you pathetic overgrown magikarp," you growled out, angry at the type disadvantage and with your impending defeat.
The battle was over before it really started, her mareep using thundershock and tackle for an easy knock out. You wanted to hit your stolen starter, but you figured you should at least wait until it was awake to do so.
You glared at your pokeball as you returned your final fainted pokemon. "Humph! Useless pokemon," you said, fixing the balls on your belt before turning your attention to the victor. You tossed the prize money at her before speaking.
"Listen, you," you said, and she turned her attention away from praising her party of three to you. "You won only because my pokemon were weak."
She frowned at you. "Maybe if you treated them better," she told you as she stood up, proceeding to brush the dirt off of her knees, "they would grow faster. The way you treat your pokemon makes me so sad," she said the last part in a whisper, looking down at her quilava.
You chuckled. "I hate the weak," you told her matter of factly. She glanced at you in surprise. "Pokemon," you glared at your belt, "trainers," you fixed your glare onto her. "It doesn't matter who or what. I hate to see them hanging around." You looked up to the sky, silently cursing your pathetic father.
You looked back at her, to see her studying you. "That goes for Team Rocket, too. They think they are big and tough as long as they're in a group," you chuckled wryly, remembering the last conversation you had with your father. "But get them alone? They're weak. I hate them all," your voice turned hard with that last phrase, but she didn't back away from you. Just listened.
"You stay out of my way," you told her, turning to leave Azalea town. "You won't be an exception if you get in my way."
As you left the girl with the marshmallow hat in the dust, you wondered why you had said that any of that. Especially that last sentence.
..
It was of course only a few days later that you would see her again. She continued to be the only thing you would dream about, and you were starting to get annoyed. Your thoughts were constantly will I be able to beat her next time I see her? Is she going to leave me alone now? Why does she treat her pokemon like they matter? And so many other questions swimming around inside your head.
Every single night you'd see her smile, how she looked when she told you that the way you treat your pokemon makes her sad, how she praised her pokemon when they won the two battles you had.
So when you were in the Burned Tower in Ecruteak and she came waltzing through the door with her quilava faithfully at her feet, the first thing you thought to say was, "oh, it's you".
She smiled good naturedly at you, somehow still happy to see you. "Hello, Silver. Still refusing to use my name?" She joked with you, and you couldn't tell whether you wanted to hit her or yourself more.
"You must be here to catch the legendary pokemon to make yourself look strong. That's only a dream," you continued as if she had never spoken. Your dreams were bad enough already, no need to give them any more fuel.
She sighed before replying. "Why's that?" She asked you, playing along even though the both of you knew she really had no need to.
You expected to feel angered by her humouring you, but instead you felt your heart speed up. What the hell? You asked yourself, before shaking your head and going on with your rant.
"You see, the legendary pokemon suits a trainer like me, who has sworn to become the strongest trainer," you told her haughtily, placing a hand on your belt to get ready for the fight you were about to initiate.
"A battle with Team Rocket grunts is just right for you!" You told her, throwing out your battered ghastly.
She sighed and waved toward your pokemon, starting the battle with her fire type starter pokemon.
"Cherry, flame wheel," she told it, her voice soft. Lyra obviously did not want to be having this battle right now, and you told yourself that it didn't matter. Yet you felt some sort of aggravation towards her attitude, or so you thought.
"Ghastly, curse!" You yelled out in your rage, and your ghastly shuddered at your move choice. Unwillingly, it halved its hit points, causing the quilava's own to drop some.
The girl across from you let out a small gasp. "What an awful move," she spoke silently, but you still picked up on it. You cringed before you could bother to hide it, and shook yourself.
"Cherry, return, please," she held up the only normal pokeball on her belt, and in a flash of light, the quilava was gone. You growled; this released the curse that your ghastly had put on it, making the move effectively useless.
"Flaafy, go on," the red light released what looked like a sheep on two legs, and you scoffed. Other than her quilava, of course she'd have weak looking pokemon.
"Ghastly, lick," you told it with a glare, and it did its best to initiate the attack. Unfortunately, her flaafy was faster and shocked your ghastly, knocking it out of battle.
"Dammit," you growled, returning it and quickly sending out your zubat. "Go, you useless slowpoke with wings! Start with supersonic!
But again, her flaafy easily knocked it out of the air with a thundershock, paralyzing your pokemon. You swore, telling it to use bite or something, but your pokemon stayed on the ground.
"Flaafy, use tackle," her voice was almost a whisper as she commanded her pokemon with ease, like she was born to battle. You couldn't help staring at her as she finished off your zubat.
You shook your head, something you seemed to do a lot around the annoying girl with the ridiculous marshmallow hat, and returned your zubat.
Enraged, you threw out your newest pokemon, a magnemite. She withdrew her flaafy, and smiled at the ball.
"You did wonderfully," she told it, before sending out her next pokemon. You didn't even bother trying to hide your eye roll. "Fluffy, go ahead!"
You sputtered. Fluffy? And I thought Cherry was a stupid name for a pokemon.
Out of the red light formed a growlithe, barring it's teeth at you. Another fire type? You questioned, but merely shrugged. "Magnemite, thunderwave!" You yelled, wanting to get this over with quickly. She had four useable pokemon that you knew of, while you only had two including magnemite left. And you were not going to lose to this girl again.
You blanched when the growlithe avoided it with ease.
"Fluffy, ember, and then bite," her voice was so soft that you were surprised the puppy pokemon heard her commands, but it executed them with ease.
"Paralyze it, you useless heap of garbage!" You snarled out, hoping your pokemon would toughen up.
"Ember one more time, that should be all you need to do," she told her pokemon, and the orange dog executed it with ease. You growled as you returned your magnemite and put it back on your belt.
You enlarged the pokeball containing your stolen croconow. "Out of desperation," you told her, throwing the pokeball with all the force you could muster, "weak people sometimes do okay at fighting back."
Even as you called her weak, you knew at this point that it just wasn't true. She returned her growlithe, but once again not before praising it. "Good job, Fluffy," she cooed at it, scratching it behind the ears. "You did wonderfully," she returned the pokemon after she congratulated it, once again sending out her flaafy for the type advantage.
"Just this last battle, flaafy, I promise," she told her pokemon, before ordering a thundershock.
Your croconow took more damage than other pokemon would've, as per the type advantage, You growled out a command of bite, but your pokemon was a lot slower then her overgrown sheep.
She commanded a quick attack, effectively fainting your croconow, and you returned it to its ball with great frustration.
"I'm not fighting another weakling ever again," you spit out at her, tossing her the prize money you owed her. "It's just too much playing around."
"I like battling you, Silver, but I don't think I'm weak. I've beaten you fair and square three times now," she told you with confidence, as she pet her electric type.
"Aw, whatever," you grumbled, walking towards the door. "You would never be able to catch a legendary pokemon anyway." You stormed out of the Burned Tower towards the pokemon center, wondering why your heart had sped up so much when she said that she liked battling you.
You closed your eyes and sighed as you handed your pokeballs over to Nurse Joy, trying to erase the image of the smiling girl out of your mind.
..
You had ran away from that town quickly after collecting your fourth gym badge, wanting to be as far away from where you knew Marshmallow to be. Your croconaw gave you these looks as you trained it, your starter the only pokemon bothering to try and form a relationship with you.
It bothered you, sometimes, but not because you wanted your other pokemon to do the same. You hated the fact that your croconaw would treat you like an equal, no matter how many times you would scream at it to put it in its place.
You sighed loudly as you reached Olivine City, trying to force annoying thoughts of moss colored eyes and the brightest smile you've ever seen out of your head.
The Moo Moo Milk farm was supposed to have served as a good distraction, but the stupid pokemon was sick. They had asked for some oran berries but you had scoffed and walked away. Healing sick pokemon just made them weaker, you thought, so you had never bothered to collect hit point healing items.
You had seen the gym immediately after walking into the city, and your eyes brightened. Try as you might, you could not stop the adrenaline rush that pokemon battles gave you, even though you'd been around pokemon all your life.
You opened the doors to the fifth gym, only to be told that it was closed.
"Why," you bit out harshly, causing the man in front of you to flinch. You hated being denied a battle.
"One of the leader's beloved pokemon is quite ill," the man said, sorrow filling his voice. "She's up at the lighthouse caring for it."
You groaned allowed, and stormed out of the building.
"Silver! Hi!"
Your heart sped up and you forced the flush out of your face. You had no idea why you would react this way to such a stupid little girl. Maybe it was because she made you so incredibly angry?
"You again?" You asked, quickly taking in her appearance. She was still wearing that dumb puffy hat and overalls get up, and down at her feet sat a very formidable looking quilava.
She grinned at you, nodding her head.
"There's no need to be alert," you said as dryly as possible, making her giggle. Your heart pounded in your chest and you wanted to scream. What the fuck was going on?
"I don't bother with wimps like you. Speaking of weaklings," you continued, wondering why you couldn't shut up, "the city's gym leader isn't here," your scowl etched onto your face.
She cocked her head to the side, thinking. "Where would she be, if not at her gym?" She asked you.
Something about the fact that she wanted to get the information from you made your head feel foggy.
"She's supposed to be taking care of a sick pokemon at the lighthouse," you growled out. "Humph! Boo hoo! Just let sick pokemon go! A pokemon that can't battle is worthless."
Her serene expression as she listened to you talk dropped as you continued to speak.
"That's not true at all, though. Pokemon are alive, just like you and me! It's not their fault if they get sick," Lyra spoke, eyes shining with passion. You blanched. You needed to get out of there as quickly as possible, though you didn't know why.
"Why don't you go train at the lighthouse? Who knows? It may make you a bit of a better trainer!" You turned away from her confused expression, and bolted back towards Ecruteak.
Why did you heart feel so heavy when she disagreed with you? Why did you bother giving her advice?
You hated her, you thought to yourself, almost as much as you hated your father.
And yet, even as you convinced yourself of that, your heart still hadn't slowed down since you saw her.
