Drop It [Open]

Undella Town. It has been many years since Hugh’s been here last. He only briefly stopped here years back with Hugh and Mei to rest on their journey. Now, though, he’s come for fresh air and recovery – to get away from Aspertia, somewhere he isn’t frustrated each day while he can’t help out. So far, it has worked. He walks down the main road of Undella with his Taranis floating behind him, its six magnets rotating in a uniform pattern as its trainer moves. Hugh keeps to himself, hands in his pockets, red eyes briefly watching each person that passes him, and he takes his own analysis of the person.

”Taranis.” he speaks, getting his pokemon’s attention. It floats forward, and turns to face its trainer, even though its gaze is not met. ”Sorry for dragging you all the way out here.” Hugh smirks slightly, ”You and everyone else. Just wanted a bit of company.” The Magneton rolls its eyes slightly, as though annoyed. It’s not, though, instead merely conveying something along the lines of ‘Don’t be ridiculous; it’s fine.’ ”Let’s get out of the town.” Hugh tells it, quickening his pace to bring him across the border separating the stone path and grassy area just outside of the town.

He inhales deeply to relax, ignoring the sting of his chest as he closes his eyes, keeping them that way until his breath is released in one long, quiet exhale. He steps forward and looks up, stopping abruptly in his movements, frozen as though by an Ice Beam. His red eyes stare incredulously at a figure slumped against a tree only a short distance off. A black hat and long green hair. There is only one person he knows of with a head like that.

Rage fires inside his chest, muting any hope he has of a relaxed day drastically. Why is he here? That man Hugh had seen at the end of Kyouhei’s battle in the Giant Chasm when he ran up just in time to here the man, N, declare himself the King of Team Plasma and fly off on the legendary pokemon Reshiram.

Hugh lowers his jaw deep into his collar, his red gaze furious and glaring out from just above the top of his funnel-collar which comes to the bridge of his nose. He stalks over slowly, making note of the presence of other pokemon, careful not to do anything drastic that would risk triggering a negative reaction from them.

”You’re N, right?” Hugh asks, his voice quiet and clearly unahppy. ”The so-called “King” of Team Plasma?” His jaw clenches tighter, his teeth grinding together. ”A Leader of that vile organization?” He knows the older man Kyouhei battled was the one pulling the strings on the events, but that doesn’t matter to Hugh – anyone with the audacity to call themselves a King of an organization like that is just as responsible in Hugh’s mind.

THERE ARE
SOME THINGS
I REALLY
HATE

code@lurker | hint, hover.

Hugh clenches his fists tightly, digging his nails into his palms as he fights to keep the cap he's worked on building for years now upon his temper as N speaks. The words frustrate Hugh in more ways than one. Despite his hate from the Team the man before him once headed, there's a small voice in the back of his head - it almost sounds like Mei's - telling Hugh he's heard from Kyouhei and Mei herself that the man before him helped them those years back. Hugh had worked with him and the other members of the so-called "old" Team Plasma years ago because Mei and Kyouhei had trusted them, and Hugh trusted his friends' judgement then.

He trusts their judgement over anything. There's a miniscule part of him that wants to take N's words as what they are, to believe that he truly means it. But at the same time, his hate against the Team clouds his ability to see beyond what he knows already without proof through actions.

"You say that you want to correct their mistakes..." Hugh says, "...yet what have you done besides what I saw when you helped - or at least I assume you helped - my friends face Ghetsis and Kyurem he was manipulating years ago, yet beyond that I've seen nothing." His voice is wavering, like rusty metal gears churning awkwardly and out of sync. "One good deed isn't enough to redeem you of responsibility in my mind, especially not after what I've witnessed and I've seen people close to me be put through by your Team Plasma." He clenches his teeth, "I see nothing but hive-minded people in that organization!"

He cannot contain the question within him anymore, and the illusion of a storm brewing around him barely even makes a blip in his mind's radar. He speaks slowly and deliberately, keeping his voice level, "If you want to prove me wrong, start by telling me every person involved in, and everything you know about the raid on Aspertia twelve years ago!" His eyes dart down briefly to the Zoroark, which imitated the human voice to speak, yet he disregards the words, turning his gaze back to N.

In response to the pokemon, his Magneton floats downward from where it's levitated at about the same level as Hugh's head to meet eyes with the Zoroark. A metallic, grating sound comes from his pokemon as it communicates with the other pokemon, as though to encourage it to calm the illusion it has created.

THERE ARE
SOME THINGS
I REALLY
HATE

code@lurker | hint, hover.

Hugh feels his lip curling, and he sinks further into the funnel of his jacket to hide the terribly vicious expression from the people and pokemon gathered. The teen finds himself incapable of holding his tongue until the end, responding whenever he finds a gap in the others’ speech. ”Behind your back or not, you should still know something.” Hugh feels his fist clenching, ”Even if they’ve paid for what they’ve caused, those bastards…” he practically spits the word ”…will never know enough about the suffering they caused my hometown! Particularly my little sister!” Hugh inhales shakily in an attempt to calm himself, but to no avail.

”As a gift, I gave my sister a Purrloin. The two bonded instantly and were closer friends than I’ve ever seen any human and pokemon – even closer than two humans I’ve seen as best friends! They were happy, but on that day Plasma raided my hometown, they stole that Purrloin from her!” Without realizing it he punches his thigh with the side of his fist, ”There was nothing I could do and they made me watch as they knocked her down and took her pokemon from her!” He grinds his teeth together. ”I swore from that day that I would get it back for her and I did, when my friends and I took you all down for the second time. It was with that Triad or whatever they call themselves. But it didn’t even recognize me you all had warped it so much!”

Hugh feels himself trembling with the effort not to full-out yell at the trainer sitting against the tree. ”The only thing I can be thankful for is that the pokemon still got along with my sister.” He knows he won’t mention even more of which he lost on that day, as it will get him nowhere.

The Magneton floating between the Zoroark and its trainer turns its three eyes upward during Hugh’s rage, only looking back down at the green-haired trainer before making another, metallic sound. It just wishes for tensions to be calmed.

THERE ARE
SOME THINGS
I REALLY
HATE

code@lurker | hint, hover.

N’s words finally seem to have at least some sort of an impact on Hugh. The teenager has no immediate response, instead only his breathing can be heard as he inhales and exhales through his nose in an attempt to keep a lid on his anger. He’s been without an incident for some time now, and he has no desire to tarnish that streak. For the first time in practically their whole encounter, Hugh actually spares more of a glance at the other man, looking at him while the words – previously a bit sparse, and nearly flying in one ear and out the other in his anger – are spoken.

Hugh can only think of a short (both in tone and literally) response to the man, finally something to get his attention and anger away from battering away at the green-haired man leaning against the tree. ”Everybody makes a decision of how far they’ll go to see something happen. The weight of my vendetta against Plasma was chosen after seeing what they did to the important people in my life, and that vendetta is my own. My friends bear nothing of its weight and see me as their friend rather than someone entirely consumed by it.”

He turns his gaze away, glancing at N before down at the two pokemon between them, first the Zoroark then at Taranis before he holds the back of his gloved hand before the Magneton’s three eyes. It blinks and looks up, another mechanical sound coming from it before it floats backwards, behind its trainer where it had previously hovered.

He takes a breath that trembles somewhat before speaking, this time calmer than he had been previously, though his voice is still relatively hard,

”Fine.” He looks to the side, deciding that if this N is so insistent upon the answer he’s given, and the fact that his senior Unova Dex Holders – as well as Kyouhei and Mei – appear to trust the man, he shouldn’t use him as a target of his anger to constantly batter against...perhaps what he’s said is genuine, after all. ”I am glad for it...otherwise I wouldn’t be standing here now, and instead still searching for her pokemon.” His fists clench, ”There’s a house in Driftveil...North of the City...where guys that said they were some Sages or whatever are. There’s pokemon there that are still separated from their friends...their owners.”

Hugh’s jaw tenses, hoping that at least some of the pokemon have been returned, ”If you want to correct something, maybe they can help you.” He shoves his hands in his pockets, grudgingly mulling over the possibility of extending help like he was about to, ”Because I’ll see that through myself.”

When I’m not tracking down who’s brought calamity upon the regions, that is.

THERE ARE
SOME THINGS
I REALLY
HATE

code@lurker | hint, hover.