A Short Visit [OPEN]

[ryder]

Skyelar hadn't been home in a while, and now she actually regretted her decision to come home. As usual, the city streets were crowded, it was filthy, and everything stank. The trainer much preferred the wide open wilderness, no one to stop her from where she was going, the fresh air, the sun that was almsot always in sight. All things she was missing right then and there. Luckily Kaiya was still out, not that the Leafeon enjoyed her poke-ball anyways, but it was still nice to have some decent company. After all, having a Pokemon by your side always made you feel better.

She slowly worked her way over to one of the piers, walking down to the edge of it. She sat down, patting Kaiya as she laid down next to her. Five years before Skyelar had been planning a trip to Kanto to tackle the gyms and Elite Four of the region, but they had to be put on hold. She wasn't even sure if she would ever get the chance to go there, especially since she had heard that Lux had an extremely strong hold on the place. Were there even gyms over there anymore? Even if things never calmed down she would head there one day to see what had happened to it. A soft sigh escaped her lips, her eyes drifting up to the sky.

How many lives had been lost to the senseless war anyways? Too many in her opinion, what happened to the peace that had lasted so long. Sure there were the criminal organizations, including Team Plasma, but they all had their plans thwarted one way or another. Hell, if she had been thrown into it she probably would have been one of the ones to thwart a few of their plans. She smiled softly at the thought, her hand running along Kaiya's back as she thought about it. Her stopping something from happening? Now that would be a day to remember for everyone.

"What do you think Kaiya, should we head to Kanto anyways? I would rather not get tied up in the whole civil war but it may be nice to see a new place after all." All Skyelar got as a response though was a look that she interpreted as "Do whatever you need to, I'll follow you no matter what." She smiled and pat the pokemon on the back before looking back out over the ocean. Once the war reached Unova she would be on the front line, but until then she would stay where she was.

[wallace2]

It had been quite a long time, since Wallace had last paid a visit to the Unova Region. Almost too long for his tastes. For the past few years he had been largely constrained by his duties to the Hoenn branch of Nox, and had been given virtually no time to travel anywhere outside of the region for an extended period of time, until today. A recent lull in the conflict had given Wallace just the window of opportunity that he had been waiting for, and he had immediately seized upon it. He had decided use this time away from fighting to travel to the one region in the world where the fighting had not yet spread to, Unova.

Having stayed in Castelia City for the past few days, Wallace now found himself standing on the beach which was directly next to one of Castelia City's many piers. His Milotic was floating in the ocean only a short distance from the shore. The former champion had decided to pass the time by engaging in an activity that would remind him of the old days, way back before the war, and when Lux hadn't even been conceived. The 'activity' in question was simple basic fun Pokemon training.

Wallace gazed out over the ocean, looking for a spot that was clear of any boats. Upon finding what he was looking for, he pointed in that direction and said out loud, "Milotic, use Hydro Pump!." The water-type quickly opened its mouth and shot out a powerful stream of water which sailed a good distance before gradually falling towards the ocean surface, and crashing into it. Wallace smiled at what he had just seen. The training that he was putting Milotic through was meant to increase the range of its attacks so that they could hit their targets from a greater distance, and though it was far from conclusive, it appeared to Wallace at least that that most recent Hydro Pump attacks traveled further than any previous similar attack. He then said to his Pokemon, "Excellent work my old friend. That last attempt was nothing short of extremely impressive."

[ryder]

Hearing a shout she blinked, turning to look in the direction she had heard the shout from and raised an eyebrow. A Milotic? Skyelar hadn't seen one since her adventure in Hoenn six years earlier. As far as she knew no one who had been in Castelia City before had a Milotic, so who was this stranger? She let her eyes wander out to see the distance the beautiful serpent got on it's Hydro Pump and couldn't help but smile. that distance was impressive, somethign she had not expected to see out of such a Pokemon. She pushed to her feet, Kaiya following suit as she walked tot he edge fo the pier and dropped down onto the beach.

She walked casually over, hands in her pockets as she observed the Pokemon. She could tell it was well trained and experienced, at least form the one attack she had seen it perform. She looked at the trainer and recognized him almost instantly, he was Wallace, the trainer who she still personally recognized as the Champion of Hoenn, someone she had been unable to meet in battle because she didn't have the strength to get through the Elite Four before him. She paused mid stride, not really sure of what to make of this new situation.

Sky knew he wasn't aligned with Lux, he would still be Champion if he was, but did Nox know anything about herself? She no longer knew what to do, she hadn't planned on approaching him initially but the fact that he was Wallace made it so tempting to at least speak with him. She didn't want a battle, she just wanted to stand there and shake his hand, at least be able to claim she met a Champion. It was then that she realized that Kaiya had continued on, sitting next to the man before letting out one of her adorable cries. There was no avoiding it now, she was going to meet him whether she liked it or not. She found herself unable to react, just standing there staring at her Leafeon, trying to figure out why the Pokemon would do such a thing to her.

[wallace2]

Wallace's wasn't exactly sure as to what he should try next. Perhaps he should have Milotic try another Hydro Pump attack with the objective of the attack traveling even further. Or perhaps it would make more sense to practice Ice Beam and increase its range as well. In any event however he didn't want to push Milotic to the point of exhaustion, and had planned on taking a five minute break of sorts. He simply hoped to have his mind set on what to do as soon as the five minutes were up.

Wallace's thoughts on what to do next were interrupted however by a crying sound of some sort coming from nearby. Wallace turned, and was surprised to noticed that there was a Leafeon now sitting next to him. Wallace's immediate thought was about how quiet the Leafeon had been. Being able to sneak up right next to him without him seeing or hearing it was quite notable indeed. The former champion also wondered where this Leafeon had come from since Leafeon weren't exactly known to live on the beach or even near the ocean in general.

Wallace looked down at the Leafeon and said, "Hello there, where did you come from?" It was at that point, out of the corner of his eye, that Wallace noticed what appeared to be a young green haired woman looking on at this sight. Wallace immediately considered the possibility that she was this Leafeon's trainer, and decided that it would be best to ask her that question before he did any more training with Milotic. He didn't want the Leafeon to inadvertently get caught in the crossfire however unlikely that might have been. He asked the woman in a polite tone, "I beg your pardon, but is this Leafeon yours?"

[ryder]

It took a moment for it to register in Skyelar's mind that he had just spoken to her. She shook the dazed look off of her face before standing back up straight, nodding slowly. "Yes, that is my Leafeon, she can get a bit too freindly for her won good at times. Or maybe it's possible you smell of our favorite region away from Unova? you do look like someone I had been hoping to challenge back in Hoenn when I was doing a run of the Elite Four, or have I mistaken you for someone else?"

Great introduction you idiot!

Skyelar nearly slapped herself for being so straight forward, her eyes flashing away. She needed to stop letting herself talk like that, which was the main reason why she normally avoided human contact in the first place. She always ended up making a fool of herself in the end or jumped the gun with her assumptions. She mumbled under her breath for a moment, cursing herself for letting it happen again before turning back around to face him, smiling shyly. What else was she supposed to do? Well, first off she could probably introduce herself, that would be better after all. If he was exactly who he looked like then it could turn out to be a very interesting afternoon, and if not then she was way off.

"I'm sorry, I jumped the gun a little on that one. My name is Skyelar Falcon, born here in Castelia City. As you can probably see I am a trainer, one that had earned the badges in every region but Kanto before this crazy civil war broke out. You look a lot like Wallace, the true Champion of Hoenn which is why I was a little forward a moment ago." Skyelar crossed her arms behind her back as her Leafeon walked back over to her, winding it's way around her legs. "Please forgive my rudeness, I'm normally on the road and rarely talk to anyone unless it is to battle."

[wallace2]

In Wallace's mind, it was a good thing that there were people whose minds weren't entirely fixated on the war. He supposed that he should've expected as much by traveling to Unova, but he was so used to the war torn environment and atmosphere of Hoenn that it sometimes felt to him as though he was forgetting that there was such a thing as a peaceful environment, and his stay here in Unova was helping to purge those thoughts from his mind, at least temporarily, and what Skyelar had just said was helping him with that.

Wallace decided that the best way to respond was to dismiss Skyelar's claim of rudeness and said, "Oh don't worry about that I've had more than my fair share of those moments." quickly prepared a response to Skyelar's question as to whether or not he was who she thought he was, and said, "Yup, I'm Wallace, although I'm don't really consider myself the champion anymore. In any event, I plan on retiring soon after this war is over."

Wallace then decided to change subjects so that the conversation would be focused on something other than himself. He often preferred not to reminisce about his days as Champion, since doing so might portray him as somewhat arrogant. He tried to think of an appropriate topic to discuss, and felt stumped for a few seconds before practically blurting out something on the spur of the moment and said to Skyelar, "It's good to see that there's at least one person out there who is still able to train Pokemon like in the old days. I'd almost forgotten what that feels like. That's one of the reasons why I decided to come here for a few days. To relive the old times when people trained Pokemon for fun, and not for war."

[ryder]

Skyelar blinked as he responded simply. Well, at least he was keeping a cool head unlike her, she was nervous as hell since she had wanted to meet the guy before. The fact that he seemed happy to just see a regular trainer made it even made things a bit more comfortable for her. She couldn't help but smile at this, the fact that he was enjoying the lack of war in Unova meant that there were still people out there who didn't enjoy the war, though she figured as much from a Champion.

Of course he wouldn't want the war to continue, Champions were the elite Pokemon trainers, and often time had the closest connections with their Pokemon. "Ah yes, I love my Pokemon and training with them, which is the reason why I'm on the road more often then not. I hope this war fizzles out soon though, I would love to travel to Kanto without worrying about having to adapt to Lux's laws over there. They have Curfews over there I hear, right?" She cocked her head to the side curiously, he had to know right? Or had he been in a different part, well he had to have been i a different part of the world. He was from Hoenn after all, Wallace was probably fighting to free Hoenn from their grasp, whoever's it was. "Not that you would know, but I would love to see Kanto some day, challenge the gyms....the works but I doubt that will be happening any time soon."

[wallace2]

Kanto? It had been quite a while since Wallace had paid a visit to that part of the world, and that was long before Lux was even in its infancy. However, had had heard news of what the situation was like over there. Restrictive Pokemon laws, curfews, identification requirements. Although Wallace didn't know for sure, he felt that it was fair to assume that these harsh laws were heavily enforced given what he had seen of Lux's nature in the Hoenn Region. Even more damning was that he had heard that many of the gyms in Kanto had been closed there, for one reason or another.

He supposed that it would be best to let Skyelar know about what he had heard, if she wasn't already aware of much of it, and said to her, "Well, I haven't been to Kanto in quite a while, but I've heard that most of the cities have passed laws heavily restricting Pokemon battles which have resulted in the closing of many of the gyms there. I can't say for sure how much truth there is to those rumors, but I can't imagine they'd be too far off at the most."

[ryder]

Skyelar blinked in surprise when he actually gave her an answer. She hadn't expected one, especially since he had said himself that he hadn't been to Kanto since long before the days of Lux. Non the less she nodded at his comments, having figured as much. Unova was probably one of the few regions that was still, for the most part, untouched by Lux's laws. She crossed her arms, thinking for a moment about how a visit to Kanto would go now if she went. Curfews, not being able to sleep out in the open air, having to constantly worry about breaking a law.

"Well how are things going in Hoenn? I know that the war hit you all hard, but are things still difficult over there? Or is it finally starting to calm down a little?" She was curious, it wasn't like things were hard at all in Unova, they had plenty of food and the fact that both sides were working together kept things peaceful.

[wallace2]

To say that things were 'difficult' in Hoenn would be a colossal understatement. Entire cities had been leveled during the war, killing thousands of people and making many more homeless, the most recent of which was Ever Grande City. With that battle having been won, Nox had won control over the entirety of eastern Hoenn, and it's vital shipping lanes. There were only a few Nox holdouts left in the region, the most prominent of which was the Cipher-run Mauville Fortress. Perhaps that meant the that fighting would begin to die down soon, though Wallace wasn't too optimistic about that prospect. He felt that it was only a matter of time before Lux decided to mount an operation to retake Hoenn.

Truth be told, Wallace would rather not talk about any of that, and decided to indicate as much to Skyelar and said to her, "All I'll say is that a lot of people are struggling to get by with what little they have right now. Going into the specifics would be to painful for me to do."