New Game +: Chapter 6, If I Survive
Masterlist for New Game + available here.
Title: If I Survive
Song Link: Oh, poor Silver.
Characters: Silver, Cynthia, N
Word Count: 2223
Dear Kotone, wrote Silver, Today I flew to Unova, met a girl who used to be a guy, and got driven through a car chase by Cynthia, who then tried to sleep with me. Was she that forward with you? It was a little intense. She certainly didn’t slow down at all.
He watched the sun set over the beach. The air was dry and cool, and tasted like ocean in a different way than the beaches in Johto and Kanto did. There were a few children playing on the beach, where the rocks had been cleared away and there was a lifeguard on duty; he sat over on a rock far from everyone else scrawling on scraps of paper and listening to the waves. It was weird how the beach here was so... commercialized. It was pretty great to be able to get ice cream, but everything here was so supervised except Cynthia’s house, which was... so full of Cynthia.
It’s easier to write you longer letters when I don’t think you’ll be reading them or seeing me again; when I used to write to you, I was worried that I’d say everything I had to say and when I finally saw you I would be out of words. Now I want to say everything but I won’t ever get to. It makes me wish that, when you’d travelled, I’d written you a letter every day; that when I had the opportunity to sleep next to you, I held you every time. I hope whatever is going on in your head, it’s better than what’s going on in mine.
If I knew what you’d done with all of the legendary Pokémon, I think I would tell Cynthia, but I’m still nervous. No one will quite explain what’s going on. I know they would tell you what’s going on, because they all trust you. I’m the big boss’s kid, so I don’t think anyone trusts me entirely except Julie. That’s the girl I mentioned earlier - she’s got some sort of issue with her father, too, and she seems to have decided I’m the best person to help her with it. You’d like her and want to help, which is why I feel like I should, too. And, forgive me, she is a little bit cute.
He folded the paper up and stood, watching Eevee playing in the sand by the water. Silver never quite understood Green’s relationship to Eevee before adopting her - he always liked Eevee, but hadn’t realized quite how un-lonely it was to have an excitable, chirring fluffball who never left his side, ever. Crobat was a steady friend, but often invisible, the sort of support he could forget was there aside from a stray bit of wing out of the corner of his eye. It was impossible to ignore Eevee; anytime Silver thought he might be close, she would rub against his legs, or hop into his lap, or start distracting someone else if Silver wouldn’t pay enough attention.
Eevee particularly seemed to like Julie, who spent a lot of time at Cynthia’s cabin brushing her while Silver and Cynthia discussed the Team Rocket situation. That was good; Julie needed someone to latch onto and a Pokémon was probably better than Silver, who was just as likely to be at the bottom of the ocean in a week as anything else. In the meantime, though... Silver walked over to Eevee, and then followed the shoreline as it receded. When it looked like it was going to come in, he started away, Eevee picking up and running alongside him, just barely avoiding the water at their heels. As it receded, they walked back in, Eevee’s ears perked all the way up and tail swishing. Seeing the next wave, they started running again, this time getting the backs of their feet wet, and Silver laid down on a dry patch of sand, laughing.
There’s a little bit of joy left in the world, Kotone, he thought. If you can’t share it, I’ll try to find it all for you.
-
“Do your Pokémon really have to battle?” Julie pouted. “I don’t think it’s healthy for them.”
Cynthia shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Look, hon, I understand that you Unovans went in for all of that Plasma free-the-Pokémon stuff ten years ago, but-”
Silver raised a hand and called out. “Cynthia. Just let her be.” The two of them stood on raised bars in the sand around thirty feet from each other in a makeshift battle arena that Cynthia had drawn in the sand with a broom. He turned to Julie, who was sitting in a beach chair and wearing Cynthia’s sunglasses. “I don’t want to battle, either, but it’s this or let Team Rocket run roughshod over everything.”
Cynthia snapped her fingers. “Attention over here, Silver! Spiritomb, go!” She called out her first Pokémon, Spiritomb, who stood still in the sand grinning at Silver.
“Okay... let’s start with Feraligatr.” Silver summoned his starter Pokémon and the two faced off, waiting. “Feraligatr, use Hydro Pump!”
“Double Team,” said Cynthia with a smirk. Spiritomb flickered and appeared to be in two places; Feraligatr shot water at both of them, but Spiritomb re-coalesced to the left of both of them, leaving Cynthia amused, if wet. “And again.”
“Hydro Pump again,” said Silver, and Feraligatr narrowed its eyes and then started shooting water; Spiritomb now appeared to be all over the field, appearing in one corner and then flickering and appearing in another corner and, briefly, right in front of Silver, who took a barrage of water to the face and nearly fell down.
“What is this?”
“It’s called a strategy. Spiritomb, Double Team!”
“Oh fine. Feraligatr, Crunch! Just... run around and bite it when you find it.” The Pokémon obeyed dutifully, running to and fro and snapping at the air, leaving deep furrows in the sand.
Cynthia looked at her watch. “This is your plan? Run around and bite it?”
“If I were Giovanni, I would have shot you by now. I’m not sure your plan is any better.” Silver balled his hands into fists.
“I think the whole point of this training is that you’re not Giovanni, yes?” Cynthia raised her hand and then dropped it, and Spiritomb appeared out of nowhere to slam into Feraligatr, almost knocking him over. “That was a Sucker Punch, by the way.”
“Feraligatr. Return!” Feraligatr flew back into Silver’s Pokéball, and the trainer selected another. “Crobat!” The Pokémon flew out, and landed on Silver’s head, surveying the field.
“Crobat, mm?” Cynthia smiles and folded her arms over her chest. “Okay, Double Team again.”
“Aerial Ace!” Crobat flew up into the air, and then dove down in a purple blur, wings cutting sharply across Spiritomb’s body. “Excellent, do it again!” Crobat obliged.
“You let your Crobat learn Aerial Ace? Seriously? Who does that?”
“Anyone who has to train against Kotone, who picked up all manner of nonsense from you.” Silver actually smiled, glancing over at Julie, who was brushing Eevee again and singularly unimpressed. “Type coverage, too.”
“Oh whatever. Spiritomb, back!” Cynthia pulled out another Pokéball. “Eelectross, go! Wild Charge!” A large serpentine Pokémon appeared, glowing blue and yellow, and slammed itself into Crobat, discharging a shock and knocking it out instantly.
Silver frowned again, calling Crobat back to his shoulder. “What is that thing.”
“Eelectross!” Cynthia smiled broadly. “One of my favorites from this region. Don’t you think she’s pretty?”
“Not terribly... Typhlosion!” The fire Pokémon appeared, fire flaring out of its back and arms. He roared, and Eelectross seemed to look a little worried. “Earthquake!” Typhlosion obliged, cracks in the ground opening up under Eelectross. Eelectross levitated over the crack in the ground and Cynthia smiled; the tremors made Julie’s chair shake and her glasses fell off. She glared at Silver.
“Excellent work, Eelectross. Crunch!” The eel slithered through the air and bit Typlhosion on the flank, making the larger Pokémon roar and swat it away.
“Oh come on. Don’t you run anything with a type weakness?”
“Sure I do! Eelectross, return! Milotic, use Hydro Pump!” The Pokémon switched out, and Milotic started shooting water at Tylphosion, who winced and dropped down to all fours, shivering.
“Typhlosion, return!” Silver shook his head. “I concede.”
“You’ve got another Pokéball!”
“Yeah, it’s Farfetch’d.”
Cynthia lit up. “Kotone’s Farfetch’d? I haven’t seen that bird in ages! Did you know how obsessed Farfetch’d was with this one picture of you?”
Silver sat down on the mound of sand he had made to stand on and sighed. “Yeah, I still get my hair bitten sometimes.” He looked up. “So. What did I do wrong?”
“For one thing you haven’t let me say hi to Farfetch’d!” Cynthia called out to Julie. “Hey, Julie, you ever seen a Farfetch’d?” Julie shook her head. “Oh come now, Silver, are you really going to disappoint both of us?” Milotic slid over to Cynthia and curled around her legs, still taller than her even with coils on the ground. Cynthia pet the water-type’s body gently, waiting.
Silver stared dumbfounded. “But... the battle.” He waved at the furrows in the sand from Earthquakes. “You know, evil empire, training to defeat them? You’re supposed to teach me about Unovan Pokémon?” His voice cracked, and Crobat swept up his wings and then folded them over Silver’s face, covering his eyes.
Cynthia stuck her tongue out at the bat and then leaned into Milotic. “If I have my way, I’m going to teach you about all sorts of things.”
Silver looked up, brushing away one of Crobat’s wings and glaring. “It would be a waste of a lesson. I’m here to stop Giovanni.”
“Well.” Cynthia stepped forward from Milotic and raised her voice. “Let me tell you something. I’m here because the beach is beautiful. I’m here because the people of Unova are beautiful. I’m here because my Pokémon and I can share a long and glorious retirement at the expense of trainers who wander through and think they’re the best thing in the world because they’ve got eight gym badges. I’m here to research the legends of Unova and figure out if and how Arceus fits into this whole crazy Zekrom/Reshiram thing. I’m going to stop Giovanni because I care about those things.”
“That’s nice,” said Silver, “How do I handle your lack of type weakness?”
Cynthia stepped forward again, right hand in a fist. “What do you care about, Silver?”
Silver paused a moment, and then turned his head. “Taking down Giovanni,” he said, letting Crobat’s wings cover his eyes again. Julie slid out of her chair and walked awkwardly closer, hands in pockets, Eevee following at her feet.
“Why?”
“Because I have to.”
“You’re not doing it because you have to.” In her anger, the wrinkles in her face started to show. “This isn’t like a mountain that you climb just because it’s there.” She narrowed her eyes. “It’s not like a mountain that you climb up just to die on.”
Silver stood, and took a deep breath. Eevee ran over to Silver’s feet, and stood in front of him, glaring at Cynthia and growling softly. Julie looked puzzled, and then looked at Eevee, and then covered her mouth, looking away. After a moment, Silver lifted his left hand, and snapped his fingers; Eevee turned and jumped into his arms as Crobat took off, grasping Silver tightly. Cynthia stood still and watched, Milotic slowly slithering over and wrapping around her again.
Julie turned to Cynthia. “I know you meant it as a-”
“I knew,” said Cynthia.
“About the...?”
“If he doesn’t snap out of it, he might as well have died in Kanto.” Cynthia leaned on Milotic, this time for balance. “It might have been too far, but I don’t know what else to do.”
“Why would you try to heal someone by hurting them?”
“Pain is what Silver knows.” Cynthia turned to look out at the water, and shrugged. “It’s what we all know; champions, has-beens, never-weres. We left our families and took up Pokémon, and now we have Pokémon, pain, and each other.”
“If our Pokémon didn’t fight,” Julia said slowly, fidgeting with her cube, “Maybe we wouldn’t have to, either.”
“That’s cute.” Cynthia laughed. “But that’s not how it works. If we didn’t battle with our Pokémon, we would battle each other some other way. Soon we might battle each other with guns anyway, if Giovanni and Ghetsis aren’t taken down fast.”
Julie tensed up, squeezing her cube. “...Ghetsis.” She watched Cynthia carefully.
“According to Looker, anyway. We’re also supposed to be watching out for his son, some crazy kid on the loose with Zekrom. Supposedly he left the region and went into deep hiding; we don’t know much about him other than he has natural... green...” Cynthia whirled around, but by that point Julie had already cracked open her cube, scattering the pieces and freeing Zekrom. “Fuck,” said Cynthia, and Milotic threw herself at Zekrom, bouncing off in a hail of electric shocks.
Julie jumped onto Zekrom’s back. “It’s not what you think,” she shouted, and Zekrom roared and took off.
Cynthia watched her leave, and then immediately pulled a phone out of an inside jacket pocket. “Looker. We found N.”
-
Title: If I Survive
Song Link: Oh, poor Silver.
Characters: Silver, Cynthia, N
Word Count: 2223
Dear Kotone, wrote Silver, Today I flew to Unova, met a girl who used to be a guy, and got driven through a car chase by Cynthia, who then tried to sleep with me. Was she that forward with you? It was a little intense. She certainly didn’t slow down at all.
He watched the sun set over the beach. The air was dry and cool, and tasted like ocean in a different way than the beaches in Johto and Kanto did. There were a few children playing on the beach, where the rocks had been cleared away and there was a lifeguard on duty; he sat over on a rock far from everyone else scrawling on scraps of paper and listening to the waves. It was weird how the beach here was so... commercialized. It was pretty great to be able to get ice cream, but everything here was so supervised except Cynthia’s house, which was... so full of Cynthia.
It’s easier to write you longer letters when I don’t think you’ll be reading them or seeing me again; when I used to write to you, I was worried that I’d say everything I had to say and when I finally saw you I would be out of words. Now I want to say everything but I won’t ever get to. It makes me wish that, when you’d travelled, I’d written you a letter every day; that when I had the opportunity to sleep next to you, I held you every time. I hope whatever is going on in your head, it’s better than what’s going on in mine.
If I knew what you’d done with all of the legendary Pokémon, I think I would tell Cynthia, but I’m still nervous. No one will quite explain what’s going on. I know they would tell you what’s going on, because they all trust you. I’m the big boss’s kid, so I don’t think anyone trusts me entirely except Julie. That’s the girl I mentioned earlier - she’s got some sort of issue with her father, too, and she seems to have decided I’m the best person to help her with it. You’d like her and want to help, which is why I feel like I should, too. And, forgive me, she is a little bit cute.
He folded the paper up and stood, watching Eevee playing in the sand by the water. Silver never quite understood Green’s relationship to Eevee before adopting her - he always liked Eevee, but hadn’t realized quite how un-lonely it was to have an excitable, chirring fluffball who never left his side, ever. Crobat was a steady friend, but often invisible, the sort of support he could forget was there aside from a stray bit of wing out of the corner of his eye. It was impossible to ignore Eevee; anytime Silver thought he might be close, she would rub against his legs, or hop into his lap, or start distracting someone else if Silver wouldn’t pay enough attention.
Eevee particularly seemed to like Julie, who spent a lot of time at Cynthia’s cabin brushing her while Silver and Cynthia discussed the Team Rocket situation. That was good; Julie needed someone to latch onto and a Pokémon was probably better than Silver, who was just as likely to be at the bottom of the ocean in a week as anything else. In the meantime, though... Silver walked over to Eevee, and then followed the shoreline as it receded. When it looked like it was going to come in, he started away, Eevee picking up and running alongside him, just barely avoiding the water at their heels. As it receded, they walked back in, Eevee’s ears perked all the way up and tail swishing. Seeing the next wave, they started running again, this time getting the backs of their feet wet, and Silver laid down on a dry patch of sand, laughing.
There’s a little bit of joy left in the world, Kotone, he thought. If you can’t share it, I’ll try to find it all for you.
-
“Do your Pokémon really have to battle?” Julie pouted. “I don’t think it’s healthy for them.”
Cynthia shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Look, hon, I understand that you Unovans went in for all of that Plasma free-the-Pokémon stuff ten years ago, but-”
Silver raised a hand and called out. “Cynthia. Just let her be.” The two of them stood on raised bars in the sand around thirty feet from each other in a makeshift battle arena that Cynthia had drawn in the sand with a broom. He turned to Julie, who was sitting in a beach chair and wearing Cynthia’s sunglasses. “I don’t want to battle, either, but it’s this or let Team Rocket run roughshod over everything.”
Cynthia snapped her fingers. “Attention over here, Silver! Spiritomb, go!” She called out her first Pokémon, Spiritomb, who stood still in the sand grinning at Silver.
“Okay... let’s start with Feraligatr.” Silver summoned his starter Pokémon and the two faced off, waiting. “Feraligatr, use Hydro Pump!”
“Double Team,” said Cynthia with a smirk. Spiritomb flickered and appeared to be in two places; Feraligatr shot water at both of them, but Spiritomb re-coalesced to the left of both of them, leaving Cynthia amused, if wet. “And again.”
“Hydro Pump again,” said Silver, and Feraligatr narrowed its eyes and then started shooting water; Spiritomb now appeared to be all over the field, appearing in one corner and then flickering and appearing in another corner and, briefly, right in front of Silver, who took a barrage of water to the face and nearly fell down.
“What is this?”
“It’s called a strategy. Spiritomb, Double Team!”
“Oh fine. Feraligatr, Crunch! Just... run around and bite it when you find it.” The Pokémon obeyed dutifully, running to and fro and snapping at the air, leaving deep furrows in the sand.
Cynthia looked at her watch. “This is your plan? Run around and bite it?”
“If I were Giovanni, I would have shot you by now. I’m not sure your plan is any better.” Silver balled his hands into fists.
“I think the whole point of this training is that you’re not Giovanni, yes?” Cynthia raised her hand and then dropped it, and Spiritomb appeared out of nowhere to slam into Feraligatr, almost knocking him over. “That was a Sucker Punch, by the way.”
“Feraligatr. Return!” Feraligatr flew back into Silver’s Pokéball, and the trainer selected another. “Crobat!” The Pokémon flew out, and landed on Silver’s head, surveying the field.
“Crobat, mm?” Cynthia smiles and folded her arms over her chest. “Okay, Double Team again.”
“Aerial Ace!” Crobat flew up into the air, and then dove down in a purple blur, wings cutting sharply across Spiritomb’s body. “Excellent, do it again!” Crobat obliged.
“You let your Crobat learn Aerial Ace? Seriously? Who does that?”
“Anyone who has to train against Kotone, who picked up all manner of nonsense from you.” Silver actually smiled, glancing over at Julie, who was brushing Eevee again and singularly unimpressed. “Type coverage, too.”
“Oh whatever. Spiritomb, back!” Cynthia pulled out another Pokéball. “Eelectross, go! Wild Charge!” A large serpentine Pokémon appeared, glowing blue and yellow, and slammed itself into Crobat, discharging a shock and knocking it out instantly.
Silver frowned again, calling Crobat back to his shoulder. “What is that thing.”
“Eelectross!” Cynthia smiled broadly. “One of my favorites from this region. Don’t you think she’s pretty?”
“Not terribly... Typhlosion!” The fire Pokémon appeared, fire flaring out of its back and arms. He roared, and Eelectross seemed to look a little worried. “Earthquake!” Typhlosion obliged, cracks in the ground opening up under Eelectross. Eelectross levitated over the crack in the ground and Cynthia smiled; the tremors made Julie’s chair shake and her glasses fell off. She glared at Silver.
“Excellent work, Eelectross. Crunch!” The eel slithered through the air and bit Typlhosion on the flank, making the larger Pokémon roar and swat it away.
“Oh come on. Don’t you run anything with a type weakness?”
“Sure I do! Eelectross, return! Milotic, use Hydro Pump!” The Pokémon switched out, and Milotic started shooting water at Tylphosion, who winced and dropped down to all fours, shivering.
“Typhlosion, return!” Silver shook his head. “I concede.”
“You’ve got another Pokéball!”
“Yeah, it’s Farfetch’d.”
Cynthia lit up. “Kotone’s Farfetch’d? I haven’t seen that bird in ages! Did you know how obsessed Farfetch’d was with this one picture of you?”
Silver sat down on the mound of sand he had made to stand on and sighed. “Yeah, I still get my hair bitten sometimes.” He looked up. “So. What did I do wrong?”
“For one thing you haven’t let me say hi to Farfetch’d!” Cynthia called out to Julie. “Hey, Julie, you ever seen a Farfetch’d?” Julie shook her head. “Oh come now, Silver, are you really going to disappoint both of us?” Milotic slid over to Cynthia and curled around her legs, still taller than her even with coils on the ground. Cynthia pet the water-type’s body gently, waiting.
Silver stared dumbfounded. “But... the battle.” He waved at the furrows in the sand from Earthquakes. “You know, evil empire, training to defeat them? You’re supposed to teach me about Unovan Pokémon?” His voice cracked, and Crobat swept up his wings and then folded them over Silver’s face, covering his eyes.
Cynthia stuck her tongue out at the bat and then leaned into Milotic. “If I have my way, I’m going to teach you about all sorts of things.”
Silver looked up, brushing away one of Crobat’s wings and glaring. “It would be a waste of a lesson. I’m here to stop Giovanni.”
“Well.” Cynthia stepped forward from Milotic and raised her voice. “Let me tell you something. I’m here because the beach is beautiful. I’m here because the people of Unova are beautiful. I’m here because my Pokémon and I can share a long and glorious retirement at the expense of trainers who wander through and think they’re the best thing in the world because they’ve got eight gym badges. I’m here to research the legends of Unova and figure out if and how Arceus fits into this whole crazy Zekrom/Reshiram thing. I’m going to stop Giovanni because I care about those things.”
“That’s nice,” said Silver, “How do I handle your lack of type weakness?”
Cynthia stepped forward again, right hand in a fist. “What do you care about, Silver?”
Silver paused a moment, and then turned his head. “Taking down Giovanni,” he said, letting Crobat’s wings cover his eyes again. Julie slid out of her chair and walked awkwardly closer, hands in pockets, Eevee following at her feet.
“Why?”
“Because I have to.”
“You’re not doing it because you have to.” In her anger, the wrinkles in her face started to show. “This isn’t like a mountain that you climb just because it’s there.” She narrowed her eyes. “It’s not like a mountain that you climb up just to die on.”
Silver stood, and took a deep breath. Eevee ran over to Silver’s feet, and stood in front of him, glaring at Cynthia and growling softly. Julie looked puzzled, and then looked at Eevee, and then covered her mouth, looking away. After a moment, Silver lifted his left hand, and snapped his fingers; Eevee turned and jumped into his arms as Crobat took off, grasping Silver tightly. Cynthia stood still and watched, Milotic slowly slithering over and wrapping around her again.
Julie turned to Cynthia. “I know you meant it as a-”
“I knew,” said Cynthia.
“About the...?”
“If he doesn’t snap out of it, he might as well have died in Kanto.” Cynthia leaned on Milotic, this time for balance. “It might have been too far, but I don’t know what else to do.”
“Why would you try to heal someone by hurting them?”
“Pain is what Silver knows.” Cynthia turned to look out at the water, and shrugged. “It’s what we all know; champions, has-beens, never-weres. We left our families and took up Pokémon, and now we have Pokémon, pain, and each other.”
“If our Pokémon didn’t fight,” Julia said slowly, fidgeting with her cube, “Maybe we wouldn’t have to, either.”
“That’s cute.” Cynthia laughed. “But that’s not how it works. If we didn’t battle with our Pokémon, we would battle each other some other way. Soon we might battle each other with guns anyway, if Giovanni and Ghetsis aren’t taken down fast.”
Julie tensed up, squeezing her cube. “...Ghetsis.” She watched Cynthia carefully.
“According to Looker, anyway. We’re also supposed to be watching out for his son, some crazy kid on the loose with Zekrom. Supposedly he left the region and went into deep hiding; we don’t know much about him other than he has natural... green...” Cynthia whirled around, but by that point Julie had already cracked open her cube, scattering the pieces and freeing Zekrom. “Fuck,” said Cynthia, and Milotic threw herself at Zekrom, bouncing off in a hail of electric shocks.
Julie jumped onto Zekrom’s back. “It’s not what you think,” she shouted, and Zekrom roared and took off.
Cynthia watched her leave, and then immediately pulled a phone out of an inside jacket pocket. “Looker. We found N.”
-