Pedestal: Chapter 57

Nicholas Sayre was declared a terrorist, a murderer, a monster. He and his team killed three of Cynthia's Champion team--her Milotic, her Spiritomb, and her Garchomp. Kamala and Patru of his team both died as well.

Later on, it was discovered that he was behind the Abomasnow killing, and that he murdered Candice as well for not taking care of the problem before it had claimed his brother's life.

The world was in an uproar. There had never been a killer before of this strength or power. He had managed to get in and out of the Champion's room, after all, without getting caught. Not to mention the fact that he overpowered the Champion herself. Even though he had lost two Pokemon, he still had many more. His trainer accounts were all frozen, but not before most of his Pokemon and money had been withdrawn. Nick vanished from society after that.

I tried calling his phone every single day.

"Hey, this is Nick Sayre. I'm not at my phone right now, so it'd be awesome if you left a message. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"…Nick. Please, please pick up. Please answer me. Please call back."

I was beginning to hate his answering machine. I sat there on Route 222 for a full month, not moving an inch toward any city, and just called him. My team were left to their own devices. I called and called and hated that answering message more and more each time I heard it.

And then, one day, I didn't get that.

The phone rang and rang, and that was it. No more answering machine. I immediately missed it. At least I got to hear his voice that way, and at least I could pretend he listened to my messages. Now I didn't even get that satisfaction.

It was on the day that he took off his answering machine that I went to Sunyshore. I started ignoring calls, though Hanna and my parents called me almost every day. I even got a call from Robert Beaumanoir once, and Jude the breeder twice. I just walked into Sunyshore and ignored the paranoia that I thought everyone knew I had known Nick Sayre, knew that I was with him on that night.

I beat Volkner.

Or, to be more precise, Des did. Being part ground and ridiculously over leveled, he completely blocked all of Volkner's electric Pokemon. I hadn't gotten out the first command before I broke down. Nick had forced me into almost every Gym battle, and now he wasn't here, because he had left me, because he had had to go off and become the monster that the Froslass had warned me about from the beginning. I was barely aware of Des stomping Volkner's team into the ground until the blond man was standing over me, hauling me to my feet by the upper arm.

"Don't lose that battling spirit. Things may look grim, but don't lose yourself to them. You are not him," Volkner said harshly, pressing the badge and TM into my hand. I could only blink Noctowlishly at him, hardly comprehending his words. The last Gym leader looked chagrined and let go of my arm. "…You won the match. Don't you have all eight badges now?"

"…Yeah, yeah I do," I replied dumbly, looking down at the one in my hand.

"Your Camerupt did all the work. You should thank it. And value it. Isn't that what your friend said?" I made the connection then that he was talking about Nick. I didn't know how he knew, unless one of the other Gym leaders told him. Which they probably did. Acting parental, yeah right.

"Don't act like you know," I snapped. I turned on my heel and left. I didn't see the sad look Volkner had as I did so.

I had eight badges, and I didn't even feel happy about it. Instead, I just fit it into the case, took one long moment to admire all eight of them together, and snapped it close. I tossed it in my backpack, probably never to be opened again.

Well, I had done it. I had completed the Gym circuit and had gotten eight badges. I had defeated everyone from Gardenia to Crasher Wake to Volkner. I had my awesome team. I had wanted to become the Champion, hadn't I? Suddenly, that seemed like such a hollow dream.

I did, however, want to get through Victory Road. Nick had made it that far, so I could, too.

-.-.-

Victory Road was nothing like I had ever experienced before. I had gotten a ferry up to the mouth of it, and then was on my own from then on out. Well, no, not on my own--I had my team, plus Konstantin.

It was quiet. Not many people went in it anymore after the Champion's tragedy, or so it was called, because of how close it was to the Elite Four. It only meant that it was nearly empty when I explored it. I got lost frequently, and had to swim across some parts of it (or, in one case, bribe a Lapras with a handful of food to give me a ride), and flinched repeatedly when I came across a wild Medicham or Gabite or Rhyhorn.

It was hard, too. More often than not, I was bleeding, tired, and hungry. I had brought along enough food for my team, but I had forgotten about the lack of wild plants and things to eat in caves. I ended up eating more than one Magikarp (and one Zubat). I ruthlessly killed my conscience in those instances.

Ike evolved again. I had Thunderbolt on hand for that evolution. Nick had given it to me earlier, before his defection from society. I painstakingly figured out how to teach my new Luxray the move. Almost immediately afterward, Konstantin and Ike got into a very loud argument. Ike solved it when he used his new move on the Duskull, which quieted him, though I caught him glaring at Ike afterward. It didn't seem to concern me, so I left them alone.

It took me three months to get through Victory Road. I didn't catch any Pokemon, precisely because I was terrified that what happened to Nick would happen to me. So I made sure to never use Earthquake or Rock Slide in the cave, and always returned my Pokemon after their battles just in case.

When I stumbled into the Pokemon Center on the other side of Victory Road, a camera crew immediately assaulted me. "And look here! One of the first trainers to make it through Victory Road in recent months!"

I ignored them and requested my Pokemon healed. The reporter only jumped upon that, though.

"Oh my--you only have three Pokemon?! You got through Victory Road with half of a team?"

"That's not half of a team. That's my full team," I mumbled in reply, not wanting to point out that I technically had four with Konstantin.

"But wasn't that hard? And you're so young! What sort of a team might you have?"

"An awesome one," I replied, though my heart wasn't in it. It wasn't as if I didn't believe that, because after what we'd all been through, I knew for a fact that we were still team awesome. But I couldn't exclaim it to the heavens or TV camera.

"…Well, here you have it, folks. This brave, young boy, probably no older than twelve or thirteen, managed to get through Victory Road with a team of only three Pokemon! Now that's a trainer! Could we be seeing the next contender for the Elite Four?"

As it turned out, all contenders for the Elite Four had to get checked out by a psychologist. I never even got to see my news report because my team and I were whisked away to be examined and questioned individually. I answered the questions as politely as I could, but it still grated on me. It was such an obvious change to the old system. And it was only made because of Nick.

Eventually, I got fed up. "Will you be challenging the Elite Four soon?"

"No, I won't," I snapped and stormed out of the room. I'd had it. I could see how Nick was so disillusioned with the higher-ups. They didn't care about Pokemon, not like real trainers did. They just used them as nurses, or to help with news reports, or for security, or to examine your mind to make sure you weren't lying to the shrink.

Still, if I had known then what happened in the future, maybe I wouldn't have been so quick to judge.