Chapter 9

Red stood on the pier and looked up at the ship. It was bigger than any other docked at the Castelia piers, or even the Virbank piers. It was somewhat old fashioned, with three masts and sails, which was odd when everything else was motorised. The front sail was also different, giving the ship a sleeker look. Red felt uneasy in the presence of the ship, and didn't stay there long. This wasn't a familiar feeling for him; he could count on one hand the number of times it had occurred. Each time matters had developed into a serious problem and Red was sure that this one would be no different.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something was off while he strode back towards the city. He turned to look back at the pier and noticed a boat was about to dock. It wasn't far from port and Red could see people standing on the deck, impatiently waiting to get off. As it drew closer, he recognised two of the faces on the boat and immediately started backing away. As he turned, he almost tripped and fell but a hand reached out to steady him. He looked up to see a pretty face framed with brown hair. The girl smiled at him but he just mumbled his thanks and stalked off. He really didn't want to be anywhere near Nate right now.

Just as he stepped off the dock, a clown accosted him.

"Welcome to the Castelia Harlequin Hunt! I bet this is your first time to Castelia City!"

Red had been in the city for a day now. He was practically a local! Usually when he entered a city, he would just battle at the Gym and leave, but here in Unova he was taking his time in each town, savouring his journey. It was much easier to do when you didn't really have to train pokemon. Also, he had not entered the city from the docks! Not wanting a repeat of the Virbank docks, he had elected to land a little north of the city and enter from there. This clown was clearly blind if he thought Red had just entered the city by water.

"To commemorate your visit, here, take this bicycle!"

Seriously? How rich was this clown? Giving a bike to all first time visitors required a lot of money! Red remembered back in the day when he couldn't afford one. They cost a million each! Luckily, he had managed to extricate a voucher from the chairman of the pokemon fan club. It had been painful, listening to him drone on about his Rapidash for two hours! Anyway, he still had his old bike, so he didn't need any favours from this guy. Who knew what he would ask for in return? He took out his bike from his bag and showed it to the harlequin.

"Wha.. whaa… WHHAAAATT?! How do you already have a bike? I am the sole provider of bicycles in Unova! You! You must be a thief! You stole a bicycle from me!"

"It's….mine! Eight…years…old!" Red spat. How dare this joker call him a thief! He had never stolen anything in his life!

"Eight years huh? Hmm. Yes it does look quite old. Well, if you already have a bike, I have nothing more to say to you!" And the clown scuttled away, looking for his next victim. Red watched him walk away, and turned back towards the city. Please let him go after Nate!

While walking along the oceanfront road, Red caught a glimpse of something that tickled his brain. It was someone walking ahead of him, wearing black shorts and a red jacket. Red was sure he had seen this person before. But before Red could move closer and identify who exactly it was, a gaggle of schoolgirls rushed out of a by-lane in front of him. By the time he got through them, Black Shorts had disappeared. Red cursed his luck. This city was too big, and there were too many people. There was so much noise – people, vehicles, pokemon – it was overwhelming to the former Kanto Champion who had spent much of the last decade alone on top of a mountain. Not just noise, there was a melting pot of sights and smells as well. There were so many things to see that Red was worried about getting whiplash. It was sensory overload. He preferred a quieter place like Aspertia or Floccesy. It wasn't the same as the top of Mount Silver, but it was easy to handle. Anyway, there was nothing to be done about it now. It was impossible to guess which direction Black Shorts had taken. Red stood there frustrated, turning this way and that, trying to see if he could spot Black Shorts. After a few seconds of fruitless searching, his eyes fell on a sign nearby.

Battle Company – Talented Trainers Welcome!

Now that sounded like a place Red would really enjoy! He forgot all about Black Shorts and made a beeline towards the direction the sign pointed. What would a Battle Company be like? Clearly there must be a lot of battles involved! Red had not faced any truly challenging opponent in Unova yet. Obviously (hopefully!) his battle with Hilda would be different. But were there no other strong trainers here? Back in Kanto, the last time he had battled Blue the match had been very close. Even Green was stronger than the average Unovan trainer and she didn't even take it seriously. That guy Alder had been quite strong – and he should have been, since he was the previous Champion – but Blue was stronger than him. He could probably give Lance a run for his money though.

Speaking of whom, would Lance be coming for this World Tournament thing? He was the current Champion after all. Red hadn't met him in years. What would he be like now? Still as stern as ever? Or would he have mellowed down some? In the short amount of time that Red had known him, Lance had never so much as cracked a smile. He really took his dragon training seriously. Speaking of which, the current Champion of Unova was also supposed to be a dragon tamer. Red would be willing to pay big bucks to watch Lance face off against the Unovan Champion. He had always loved a clash of dragons, going so far as to fight Lance's trademark pokemon with his own Charizard, even though he had other pokemon that had the type advantage in the match. It really would be fun to watch a dragon on dragon brawl. Especially now, with all the new dragon type pokemon! Imagine a Haxorus versus a Dragonite!

Red was positively giddy at the thought. He was so lost in his imagination that he almost missed the entrance to the building he sought. He actually walked past it, but his latent mind noticed the flashy entrance with the advertisement posters all around it and dragged him out of his dragon fetish. He retraced a few steps and entered the building.

Straight away he knew he had come to the right place. There were various trainers milling around on the ground floor. Presumably to heal their pokemon after battling, judging by the nursing centre on the far side of the room. Obviously these guys would not be able to battle him. He needed to find the people who could. He made his way over to the reception desk in front of the elevators. In all likelihood the woman behind the counter would know where he could find some battles. Red stopped at the desk but the lady was painting her nails and didn't look up. Red's eyes narrowed. Her job was to greet and help visitors. He didn't like people who didn't do their jobs.

"I want…to battle…"

The receptionist didn't look up from doing her nails. "So do all the other people here, sweetie. But if you're really in a hurry, just enter the elevator and press the button that's lit up. Without registration you'll only have access to a couple of floors. If you register you can face all fifty battle floors but there's a rather large queue at the moment…"

Red walked away before she could complete. He weighed his options in his head. Battle now, but only a few. Or battle later, maybe tomorrow or the day after but battle many times. Of course he wanted to battle as many times as possible. It was why he had left Mount Silver. It was why he had come to Unova! But, a niggling voice said in his head, all the battles you've had so far have been so lame. It was true. He had defeated every trainer he had come across handily. Gym Leaders were little better and even the ex-Champion of Unova had not stood a chance. What was the point of battling fifty floors of substandard trainers? It wasn't like he needed the prize money. Perhaps it would not be amiss to have a few battles now and judge the level of trainers in the building. Considering that it was next to impossible that there would be better trainers than Alder in the Battle Company, Red was pretty sure that he would be disappointed yet again.

No harm in trying, Red thought as he turned around and walked towards the elevator. Worst case I waste an hour or so. Inside the elevator, there were over fifty buttons, only a few of which were lit up. He tried pressing one of the unlit ones to see what would happen but it had no effect. Only two buttons other than the ground floor were lit up so he pressed the one that was closest to the bottom, forty seven. That was so strange – fifty five floors on this building and the only floors available were forty seven and fifty five! While the lift was rising, he thought a little more on this building. The woman at the counter had said there were fifty battle floors. Assuming there were no breaks in between, either they went from one to fifty or six to fifty five, or from between one and six to between fifty and fifty five. Also assuming that floors went from easier at the bottom to tougher at the top, the two floors that he had access to would be some of the hardest in the building. Though that was the case only if it wasn't the other way around, stronger trainers at the bottom and easier at the top. It would take a real fool to design it that way. Before he knew it, the elevator 'ding'ed and the doors opened.

The first thing he noticed were the cubicles. This isn't a battlefield! It's a frikkin' office! The floor was completely open; there were no walls or doors anywhere. The few people he could see were scattered around the floor, as if waiting for something. There weren't many, three males and a female. They were all dressed as office workers, though Red suspected they were really trainers in disguise. Or maybe some of them. It's not like everybody could be a trainer. Even though many jobs required one to be a trainer, and even being a trainer could be a full time job if one was constantly taking part in tournaments or was part of a Gym., there were other jobs that had to be done by someone. Most of the service industries utilised pokemon and therefore employed trainers. Office jobs were not in high demand. People enjoyed their time with pokemon. Being stuck in an office all day was hardly appealing. He supposed though, that in an alternate universe where there were no pokemon, such a job might be prized.

As he stepped out of the elevator, he grabbed a pokeball on his belt.

X—X—X

Red stepped back into the elevator and pressed the lowermost button. He was disappointed with this facility. Imagine calling themselves The Battle Company! They should be called The We-Need-Training Company! The whole experience had been a let-down. Well, mostly. On the forty seventh floor, as he suspected, some of the people were not trainers. They handed him some new types of pokeballs – one which worked better immediately upon seeing a pokemon and the other was more effective the longer a pokemon was engaged. Red had absolutely no idea how the pokeballs kept track of time from when pokemon were encountered, or if they even worked as advertised, but he had to admit that he was intrigued. And that was the entirety of the good experience. He had then wiped the floor with the trainers there. Upon doing so, he had gone up to the other available floor, fifty five. Upon exiting the elevator, a janitor welcomed him. He had informed Red that he used to be the President of the company, and he had handed the title over to his grandson in the hopes of being a janitor. Either that guy was on some crazy drugs or he was a complete nut. Red refused to believe that anybody would abdicate a position like that in favour of a child; especially in order to become a janitor.

But upon entering the large office that the janitor was standing outside, there was indeed a child sitting on a plush chair. The kid proceeded to challenge Red and was procedurally shown his place. He insisted that he was indeed the President and that his dream was to develop a device that allowed people to talk to pokemon.

All in all, except for the Quick and Timer balls, a waste of time. Maybe he should just go straight to Twinleaf and search for Hilda. He wanted a challenge! That was the reason for coming to Unova in the first place. But with Uxie, Mespirit and Azelf probably creating havoc somewhere, he knew that he would have find them first. They were legendary pokemon. Ordinary trainers had no chance against them. Even he would have a tough time. But he would be able to stop them. He was confident of that. It would be hard, but he would do it. Because he was able to, it became his duty to.

He stepped out of the building and froze. Right across the street, walking along like he had no cares in the world, was Nate.

A/N – Hello readers! Another chapter down. Read and tell me what you think! I swear it will make me write faster.