All the glitters are not Gold- chapter 1

For as long as I couldn't remember, I was always a little shy around him. I didn't know why though, even with my pokemon at my side it seemed to bother me that he was a challenge. I couldn't bring myself to endure the pain of losing, so I never lost, but it was the sheer thrill of knowing that he was indeed a contender. The way he battled was more like a gym leader than just another trainer, and I found myself overwhelmed by the brute force AND strategic moves he would use.

He had dark auburn hair, but reminded me more of fire than anything else. He was lanky, a little broad in the shoulders, and a few inches taller than me. I wasn't daunted by this; a lot of people were taller than me—just as many shorter—but still.

We had encountered countless times on the roads and in the towns of Jhoto . Azalea, Olivine, Goldenrod, and plenty of other places. Each time he had been stronger, more violent, more determined, and just as frightening as the last. I never managed to control my heart rate when I would run into him, even the very first time, before I even knew his name.

He had run into me, knocked me over in a hurry, and stepped on my newly befriended Cyndaquil. I had cursed under my breath and though I would have just let the whole thing go—I didn't like conflict—he had whirled on me in a fit of rage. I remember grabbing my pokemon and holding him to my chest, because he was still weak from battling wild pokemon on the way back from seeing Professor oak.

"What do you think you're doing!" he had demanded, kicking up dirt as he turned. I scrambled to my feet, a scared pokemon squirming in my arms.

"I—I'm sorry! It was an accident!" I assured, just when Cyndaquil launched from my arms and squealed at the trainer. He glared down, perhaps thinking about kicking the little ball of fire, but instead he just raised his hand to reveal a shiny and new pokeball. I took a step back at the sight.

"Battle me." He said in a near icy tone, and then threw out a familiar looking water type. I gasped.

"You!"
Professor Elm had called only a few minutes earlier, desperate about his stolen pokemon. I knew the face of that Tododile well, because I had studied and contemplated picking it as my own for a long time. It looked ready to fight, eager to please, and just a bit too serious for my taste. I thought that a pokemon with as much potential as that would be a good partner, but in the end it had been Cyndaquil that won me over. He was just too shy, too unhappy with the place he was in; I knew I had to pick him.

And so this Tododile seemed to have something against me and my pokemon. Cyndaquil had yelped and backed up as it launched itself into battle.

I remember vividly how close we had come to losing that battle. Cyndaquil had in the end, used his speed to win, but not without injury first. I was relieved to know that Tododile hadn't known any water attacks at the time, or we'd have been screwed.

The look on my rivals face had been so distraught after that battle, that it for some reason stopped me from demanding why he stole from the lab. I wanted to harass him with "why did you" and "Who do you think you are" and "what the hell" but my lips had been pursed shut. He just stared, and stared, and stared at that little water pokemon that was fainted in front of him, a narrow cut running down its chest.  

"Well don't just stand there." I finally said. "Take it to the pokemon center!"

"Don't tell me how to raise pokemon!" he snapped, but called the pokemon back into its ball anyways. He turned and fled then, which had left me staring in confusion after him. It was then that I noticed he had dropped his black leather wallet.

I reached down to pick it up and opened it, wondering if a guy like that was worth the trouble of chasing. If it wasn't for the fact that he had stolen from the lab I would have run after him to return it, but a growing hate had risen in my chest. I bit my lip as I looked at the trainer's card and saw his name scrawled messily over the signature line.

Silver.

That was the first thing that seemed to draw me to the young teen. His name was Silver, and how ironic, that my name was Gold. I had shook my head and stared down at the red headed trainer on the card, who was not smiling in his picture, until a hand snatched it away from me. I gasped and looked up.

"Give it back!" Silver hissed and then shoved me as hard as he could. I hit the ground with a thud, resulting in a nice pokeball sized bruise on my butt the next day.

And when I got back to the lab, no matter how much I kept telling myself I hated the trainer for being so mean and rude and stealing, I couldn't bring myself to give the police any information about the guy. Fear had rose in my throat like bile, and I felt like I was about to be sick, but I had held my tongue and insisted that I didn't see anything. If the police would have found out I didn't tell them what I knew, I could have had my pokemon license taken away, or worse. But I couldn't bring myself to explain the encounter with the trainer called Silver.

The next time I had seen him was in the Sprout Tower, and he had shoved me again. This time Cyndaquil had nearly burnt his ass, but we never actually battled. We really didn't speak much either. I couldn't understand the guy. It was as if he was purposefully heading in the same direction I was going.

Again in Azalea town, we battled and I won. He was so mad this time, so he left declaring next time he would be the winner. But he wasn't. I beat him every time, getting stronger and stronger all the way up through the pokemon league. At Victory Road he seemed a little less furious, but never did he allow himself any leniency. He wanted to be the best, just like I did.

I had felt like I was watching his pokemon grow as well as my own. The Tododile grew into a temperamental Feraligatr, his Zubat to Golbat, Gastly to Gengar, Kadabra to Alakazam, magnemite to Magneton, and Sneasel though it never evolved. All of his team had become powerful and loyal, though I could see that a forever weariness lined their eyes. Like Silver, they hated to lose.

I felt bad, I realized after having beaten the pokemon league. Despite my happiness and achievement in becoming a member of the top trainers list of Johto, a champ no doubt, I realized that it was just a title. The champ… what else was I?

Unhappiness had brought me to Kanto, where I figured I could claim another title, and hope that this time it would mean something. Little by little I faced trainers that were stronger than ever, and I lost. It wasn't shocking, just a little disappointing at the time. These trainers meant business, which is what I had wanted all along, but it didn't fill the gap in my heart of knowing that my journey was coming to an end.

I contemplated going to Unova to try and start fresh there once or twice, because the region was thriving and the pokemon were completely different. But something held me back, and no, it wasn't for the fact that they were having problems with a mysterious group called Plasma. I had already faced Team Rocket and won, why should I have to poke my nose into another tragic disaster?

I ended up staying, training slowly and winning more badges that would only collect dust in the pocket of my backpack that had a built in lock on it. It wasn't the worst decision I had ever made, but I knew it wasn't close to being the best.

I never saw Silver again, not even while I traveled with my beloved team and faced trainers upon trainers. It made me feel strange, almost as if I was worried that something had happened to the guy that never settled for anything less than a shove and words of hate when he saw me. He must not have known that I saved him from some serious trouble with the police back when we first met.

I was walking through the dark forest of Viridian, thinking about my life and the things I had done with my days of training to get me to this point. Bushes trembled with the snores of pokemon, stars flickered above, and wind whistled with the threat of winter in the air. I was staring at my feet as I walked, a habit I picked up on too long ago to try and fix. My hands were shoved in my jacket pockets and were the only things that remained warm. The rest of me was fighting off trembles.

My pokegear suddenly vibrated on my belt. It startled me into stopping, and I had to fumble to reach it. Who would be calling me this late at night? I unhooked the clunky piece of equipment and looked at the too bright screen. Lyra, of course it was Lyra. I sighed and hit the button.

"Hello?" I whispered. It was too dark, too silent to do anything but.

"Marrriiiii!!!" her loud pudgy, untrained pokemon answered me. I flinched and held the pokegear away from my face, about to hang up.

"Maril wanted to say hi!" Lyra's excited voice came then. I glanced around to see if her obnoxious voice woke anything up.  

"Hey, Gold? Are you there?" she asked when I didn't respond

"Yeah, what's up?" I said, annoyance making my voice tight. She wouldn't hear it; all she ever heard was what she wanted to hear from people. "Don't you realize it's the middle of the night?"

"Yes, but I wanted to talk to you!" she insisted.

"About what?"

"Well… uhh—about! Errmm… I kind of wanted you to know that your mom… she has been talking about moving… I guess she wants to be in a bigger city, and well… you don't want that do you?"

My mother? I found it hard to believe… we lived in the tiny town of New Bark our whole lives; she lived there when she was just a girl, and she had grown up with the town. Plus the way Lyra sounded I couldn't help but think she was lying to me.

She took my silence as agreement. "So you should come home then! Just… just for a little while. I'm sure that it's because you aren't here. She is just lonely you know."

"You called me in the middle of the night to tell me this? Lyra I already know that my mom is lonely without me, but she knows I didn't plan on staying home my whole life." I barely lived there anymore as it was, and I had contemplated buy an apartment of my own recently. I was only seventeen, turning eighteen in a month, but I had plenty of money. My biggest issue with that idea was that I would get lazy and end up sleeping half my life away.

"Well, I was thinking about it now and didn't want to forget what I had to say."

That's right, Lyra with her short memory. I rolled my eyes. She was a sweet girl, really she was, but sometimes I found it harder to get along with her because of that. She didn't know when to stop being sweet, so it came in at a lot of bad moments and would ruin things. I remembered one time a while ago, when the legendary Entei had wiped out my entire team and sent me into a day of depression, Lyra had tried to cheer me up but only ended up making me feel more like hell. "Well you know Eusine caught up with that Suicune a while ago… maybe next time huh?" she had said, and her smile made me want to smack her.

"Lyra you wouldn't have forgotten by morning." I commented mildly, forgetting the memory. "And I can't just stop what I'm doing to come home."

"Can you come tomorrow?"

"It will take two days to get to Vermillion City to catch the boat. Lyra, I just can't right now, ok?" the desire to hang up on her stung like needles in my fingertips.  I drew the phone back and ignored the squawk of her voice. I didn't understand what she said, and sighed.

"I have to go ok?" I spat into the end of the pokegear and then hung up. That counted as saying goodbye, I thought guiltily. Lyra wouldn't think much of it, and I knew she would just keep calling back, so I turned to thing off and clipped it back on my belt quickly.

It wasn't that I didn't want to return home to New Bark Town, I just didn't think I could. It always hurt to see the house I grew up in, and the people that loved me more than I loved them. They didn't understand the slight depression I had been in the last year or so, since I beat the pokemon league, so it was easier for me to pretend like I was busy rather than show up just to get asked the same old questions.

"Would you like to talk about it sweetie?" I could hear my mother's voice as if she was there. "You know I'm always here for you."

With a heavy sigh I leaned against a mossy tree and shivered. Of course she would always be there for me, she was my mother. I loved her to death for raising me alone (my asshole father had ditched out when he claimed I wasn't his, which was a lie.) but sometimes I felt like she didn't know me like she thought she did. What mother would understand if her kid said "well, I have everything I could ever need; people to love me, money, loyal pokemon, hell I'm even the champion of Johto! But I'm not happy, so that's why I don't come around much."

Guilt cut me like a razor claw. It sounded stupid to even myself, and so selfish.  If I didn't understand this, they how could she? How could Lyra? Or Professor Elm or Oak? No one would be able to see just what it was about me that was so distant.

I picked at the ground in front of me, ignoring the frost that had formed on the blades of grass, making it sharper than usual.

"Why can't I just be happy with what I have…?" I whispered to myself, thinking about the days when I was so very thrilled to be the best. A simpler time, yes indeed, though there was nothing now to make these days more complicated.

"Who's there?" a voice very near to me made me jolt upright. I threw down the handful of grass I picked and used to low branch of a pine tree to pull myself up right.

I remained silent, my heart racing as someone walked through the trees just a little ways off from me. They walked in the tall grass, disturbing pokemon and causing a ruckus of hisses and squeaks. A pidgey flew away in fright, and I heard a mild curse.

The dark figure was hidden in the shadows, but I could see clearly that it was someone lanky wearing a hood. They walked like the forest moved, with a distinct rustle, and the leaves seemed to tremble in fright. I reached up and ran a hand through my hair, wondering if I should step out and challenge the figure.

I decided not to only because I didn't see any pokemon, or any sign that they had pokemon with them, but still I watched, trying to decipher the strangely familiar shape. I took a step forward, making a twig crack under my shoes.

"I said who's there?" the figure stopped, anger lining their words, and I saw its shoulders turn in my directions.

How could they pick out the noise I made from the noise any pokemon around here made? I wondered if they could see me, and then wondered why I was hiding in the first place. It wasn't as if I had a reason to hide.


"A trainer." I said softly, but my voice was hoarse and raw from the crisp air. A very slight annoyance still clung to my words after having just got off the phone with Lyra.

I expected the person to say something along to lines of "really! Lets battle!" but a deathly silence hung in the air between us. I couldn't see the persons face, so I didn't know if they were looking at me or not. Could they see me? Obviously if I could see them but…

"Gold?"

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I ran through the list of people it could be. It may have been an ace trainer I battled sometime a while ago, or perhaps a gym leader since I was somewhat close to most of them, but the voice didn't fit the faces in my head.

So I stayed quiet and waited for them to say something else. If I didn't respond they must know it was me? Anyone else would have responded no.

I watched the shadow as it moved, and then suddenly with a swiftness in its steps. It was like it had suddenly recognized me for who they asked for. But… why would they run?

I stood dumbfounded, goose bumps crawling up my legs and spine and puffs of visible air creeping out of my mouth into the cold. Maybe they really thought it wasn't me, and they were embarrassed for asking. I figured I would just let them go, seeing as though it wasn't important anymore.

But a patch of moonlight between some trees revealed to me a flash of auburn, and suddenly I understood. My feet turned to ice beneath me, and I was frozen to the forest ground in confusion. Why would he just start running?

I blinked stupidly at the disappearing figure, wondering what could have possibly changed in the last year since I had seen my number one rival.

"Silver?" I mumbled under my breath, and then louder called. "Silver wait up!"