"well that's a bummer........"
In an ordinary hotel room inside an ordinary hotel at the edge of Diftveil is Hilbert who has just been awoken by his alarm clock, it was 4 am. He's planning to do his usual morning walk only to realized that the rainy weather outside would make that pretty much impossible.
"Oh Hilbert" He said letting out a sigh. "Seems like Arceus don't like you taking morning walks eh?" He mumbled to himself, after this he was ready to simply return to sleep until 6 am then his Xtransciver ring, it was Cheren.
"Hello Cheren!" Said Hilbert trying to be cheerful as he pushed the button to pick up.
"Hi Hilbert!" An enthusiastic voice comes through as the familiar face of his childhood friend appears on screen. "Sorry if I wake you up, I just want to ca-"
"Don't worry about it Cheren, you're one of my best friends I will never ignore a call from you. Not that I would be mad anyways since I'm already awake even before you call" Hilbert decided to cut him off noticing his guilty expression. "So you're coming today, right?" Hilbert try to change the Topic of conversations.
"Yep, me and Bianca will be coming there. We should arrive there by 10 am" Cheren response with a certain tone of cheerfulness that Hilbert never saw during their journey 3 years ago, "boy has he changed...." Hilbert thought his mind slowly drifting away from Nostalgia.
"Sorry I can't come yesterday, freaking students with their silly little things...." Cheren continue snapping Hilbert out of his nostalgic thoughts.
"It's fine, to be honest I would prefer if you two come today since we could talk freely all day long" Hilbert quickly compose himself to respond to his best friend's statement. "Just careful about the rain here, it doesn't seem like it's going to let up anytime soon"
"Will do, ok I think that's all I want to talk about now, see you later Hilbert!" Said Cheren, hanging up before his friend could response.
Hilbert could only shake his head at his friend current behavior, once again reminiscing his past when Cheren was a cold and calculated man. "Oh Arceus has he changed doesn't he?" He asks himself letting out another sigh as he lay himself on his bed again.
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World Arena's locker room, 08:50 am
Nate pace back and forward in the locker room the wait to the event' start time of 09:10 couldn't felt any longer, to tell the truth he's nervous. This is the first he will battle in front of a crowd since his resignation and although he has convinced himself that he would get through this with ease, he also still questions whether or not he could still handle a current champion.
At that moment Nate heard footsteps, someone else is entering the room. When Nate turn around and saw a slightly tall for his age, thin young man with black hair which is covered by a white beanie and pale skin. He also wears a black and orange collared short sleeved shirt, orange fingerless gloves with black and green wristbands, a green headband, dark gray slim-fit long pants underneath with black and gray shorts, orange and green slip on running shoes with black soles and white stripes. It's without doubt Brendan Emery, current champion of Hoeen. Brendan turn his head as soon he noticed Nate in the room.
"You must be Nathan Whiteman, Former champion of unova and my opponent for today, right?" Said Brendan.
Nate simply answers with "Yep, that would be me." As the two approaches each other and shake hands.
"You know, I kinda look forward to battling you since we're in many ways are similar......." Nate leans towards the wall as Brendan tells him the short version of his journey saying how similar it is with Nate's journey. ".......So yeah, in many ways we're similar. Except for one thing."
"Which is?" Asked Nate eyebrows raise genuinely curious.
"I didn't quit after my first lost and become an actor" Brendan burst out laughing afterwards as Nate let out a sigh, rolling his eyes at him.
"And I thought all champions are honorable enough to not mention someone's disgrace" Said Nate crossing his arms in disgust.
"Hey, it's funny ok! I mean how many times has that happens? If anything it shows that you didn't have the heart of a champion" This only angered Nate even more.
"If you're in that situation you will do the exact same thing" Nate retort back trying his best to not yell at Brendan. "Look let's settle this in the battle arena ok? There you will see that I still have the skills of a champion".
"Ok tough guy, I will do that since it's almost our time to battle anyway" says Brendan pointing at the clock which now Shows that it's 09:08. 2 minutes before they're scheduled battle time.
The two exchange looks one more time as they head to their designated tunnel, with Nate frowning now with all the confidence in the world to show that asshole of a champion that he still got it.
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A butler walks through the hallways of the vip area, he's leading two people to a vip room previously assigned to their friend. One a tall, slender young man with very pale skin, black eyes, and jet-black hair with a small tuft that sticks up from the top of his head, who wears a white dress-shirt, an orange necktie, blue dress pants, and brown shoes, Cheren Haberkorn.
The other a medium height and slim girl with short yellow-blonde hair and bright green eyes. Who sports red glasses, a low white V-neck top with a black top underneath, knee-length green jogging bottoms, a green shoulder bag, orange boots with black soles and bows, green beret with a white bow and orange puffy coat, Bianca Bel.
The two cannot wait to meet their childhood friend Hilbert with Bianca Running into the room as soon the butler opens the door only to be met with Hilbert's surprise and confused expression as she hugged him like a teddy bear, after a few intense moments She let go of Hilbert letting him shake hands with Cheren.
"I thought you said that you guys going to arrive at 10?". Asked Hilbert, curious at how his two friends have arrived an hour earlier than expected.
"Well that was the plan, but the girl Besides me is incredibly impatient and keep asking me 'when are we gonna get going?'" Cheren playfully answers who received a light punch to the shoulder by Bianca.
"Oh come on Hilbert! You know I wouldn't have passed up on meeting you again after going 3 years of not even a word from you". Bianca squeal, her face turning red as she tried to defend herself.
"Boy, her life must be painful without knowing where I am" Hilbert thought to himself as he uneasily laughs with Cheren thinking about how his Friend's life was when he was gone, not wanting to get distracted by his thought he decided to change the topic. "Oh well, atleast you could be here to watch the first battle, how's the weather outside btw?"
"Well, to put it simply it's hell." answered Cheren. "The wind out there must be around 60 kph or something, doesn't look like it's gonna let up anytime soon"
"If this place wasn't a dome they would probably cancelled today's events" Bianca chimes in, the boys only nodded in response.
At that moment they were interrupted by the crowd going crazy at Nate's entry to the battle arena.
"So this is it, huh? His first competitive battle since he resigned?" Ask Hilbert.
"Yep, will be interesting to see whether or not he still has the skills to battle you Hilbert" Cheren response with a slight smug expression in his face, as if he already knew his former student could go all the way again in the tournament.
"We shall see how that turns out Cheren...."
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Nate pump his fist in the air as Brendan's final Pokémon was deemed unable to continue, to say that he dominated the battle would be an understatement, he almost sweeps Brendan's entire team with just his Arcanine. A feeling of satisfaction overwhelmed Nate as he felt proud putting the cocky champion in his place, if there's any doubt about his ability before then they're all gone now.
"Ha! How do you feel now champion of Hoeen? Beaten by a 'petty actor'" Taunts Nate towards the defeated Champion who only response with silence. "Well, I hope this will teach you to never underestimate anyone Mr. Emery" He taunts Brendan again as he turns around and starts walking back to the tunnel, waving to the crowds as he did.
"Let's hope no one else would act like him for the rest of this tournament...." Nate thought to himself as he re-enters the tunnel.
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World arena control room, 11:38 am
12 meters under the battle area, in the world arena's deepest level sits the control room. An area use as an HQ of sort of the world arena's security force, a room mostly filled with monitor screen showing the views of the arena's many CCTV cameras with just as many people task with watching them for anything strange.
Although unfortunately nothing of the sort has happened on the complex so far, yeah some of the VIP guests are complaining about the water leaking in from the celling today and the atmosphere of battle area between battles is utterly unnerving with the only thing that can be heard being the sound of the ever worsening storm outside battering the roof, but weather related stuff is out of their control so all they can do is sit and watch.
"Other than the complains about the storm it's been business as usual huh?" Said one of the supervisor playfully as he takes the usual walks around the room to check on the men watching the cameras, everything was clam, then the unthinkable happens.
ZAP!!!!
The room went dark for a moment as the whole complex lost power before some lights and electrical equipments come back with the help of the backup generator.
"What the arceus just happened?!" Shout the supervisor, who although still shock knows that he needs to find out what is wrong and fix it quickly.
"Sir! The main electrical link to the power grid has short circuited due to contact with water" one off the operator yelled across the room to inform the supervisor what happens.
"Damn it! Sent the engineers there to fix it, quick!" The supervisor commanded, the operator obliged.
"Commence an ev check! We must check out whether or not someone is trap in one of elevators" The supervisor nervously commanded the check to start.
"Ev 1: clear, Ev 2: clear, Ev 3: clear...." The ev check continue with more elevators found to be empty, it looks like they will complete the check without anyone found to be in trouble. That is until.... "Ev 13: clear, Ev 14: clear, Ev 15: ...., Th-there is someone stuck in there"
"WHAT?!" the supervisor yelled as he runs to ev 15's camera operator's screen.
"There is a girl stuck in Ev 15 sir......" The operator explain how voice barely coming out of his mouth because of shock.
"Oh fuck me...."
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Meanwhile back in the VIP suites, Hilbert and Cheren could only watch as security officers try to calm the crowd down below. The three friends have been chatting for the past two hours while watching the tournament unfold until Bianca was called into a last minute assignment by professor juniper, she decided to left alone convincing Cheren and Hilbert that he will be fine going alone. Then the blackout happens which caught them by surprise although they didn't think of much of it, thinking it was only the storm and that power will be restored soon enough.
They didn't worry about Bianca either at first, thinking she's probably left the building by now, and the Cheren's Xtransciver ring, and its Bianca.
"Bianca? What is it? Is there a pro-" Cheren stopped when he saw his friend teary face surrounded by darkness.
"Ch-cheren!!! Hilbert!!!! Please help me!!! I'm stuck in the elevator!!!!" Bianca yelled at the device, sobbing after every word, she's Terrified.
"Oh arceus...." Cheren gasps at the realization before Hilbert shook him up, knowing what they should be doing. "Hold on in there Bianca, we gonna get you out of there" said Cheren as he grabs one of his poke balls from his belt.
"Eelektross, can you use flash to light our way to Bianca's elevator please?" The eel Pokémon nodded to his master's request and the three burst out of the room into the hallway in search of the elevator to rescue their friends.
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After a few minutes of running in the near pitch black hallway with only Eelektross as their source light they find themselves in front of an elevator.
"Bianca! Are you there!" Cheren shouts while Pounding on the door.
"Yes! I'm here!" A voice of fear can be heard on the other side, it's without a doubt Bianca.
"Shit.... Hold on for a few more moments! We'll going to get you out of there" Cheren yelled back.
"Now how are we going to get her out......." Cheren muttered scratching his head in confusion.
"Let me handle this one" said Hilbert grabbing a poke ball from his bag, seeing this Cheren and elektross step aside to make way. "Sawk! Can you rip this door open please?"
Sawk nodded as he preceded to walk up to the elevator door and forcefully opens it revealing Bianca cowering in the corner of the elevator.
"Bianca!" Shout the boys in unison as they rush into the elevator.
"Cheren! Hilbert!" Yelled Bianca as she saw his two friends rushing in, immediately hugging them tightly. "Oh thank you Arceus, I thought I was going to die in here" she sunk her head into Cheren's chest and start crying.
"It's ok now, you're gonna be safe Bianca. Don't worry about" said Hilbert rubbing his hand in Bianca's back to calm him down.
At that moment they heard footsteps coming their way, it's the arena's security officers. Just arriving on the scene.
"Is she ok?" Ask one of the security officers.
"She's fine, just a little cold and shock" Hilbert turned around and answer the guard's question.
"Ok, we have an ambulance ready down stairs to check on her"
The boys only nodded as they bring Bianca to the ambulance along with their Pokémon and the guard's. The two would like ended up spending the rest of the day in the hospital with her as power was restored to the stadium and the Day's events was continued.