;Ohmygodittookmethreeandahalfmonthstoupdate ;Ihavenoexcuse ;JustgoreadthiswhileIgositinmycornerofshame…
DUNNA NA – Rachel instantly jerked awake – DA, DA, DA…
OW. She ripped the earbuds from her ears. The pieces of plastic kept blasting music, audible to Rachel from by her knees, where they'd wound up.
~ daaaaAAAAAAAH ~
You're on top of the thingy. I think you leaned on the volume button be… between the last song and this one, Eist yawned…. If that was possible. He didn't exactly have a mouth right now.
Rachel took her iPod out from beneath her and pressed the decrease volume button about ten times. Whew. Her ears had finally recovered from that blast. "Pursuit" was loud enough without mashing the volume.
Her iPod had 12:56 displayed on its lock screen. She checked the foot of her bed to make sure Encon hadn't woken up when she did. The drilbur still slept quietly, undisturbed by her violent movements.
Around then, Rachel noticed the frozen figure by the door.
They locked eyes. One pair was surprised; the other was alarmed. Surprise and alarm might not sound very different, but the two gazes weren't much alike. Rachel finally mouthed, Where are you going?
Bathroom, Lucas said silently.
She gave him a disbelieving look that meant, You look like you're sneaking out. Generally you don't have to sneak out to go to the bathroom.
Lucas nodded, pretending to not understand, and slipped out the door.
Fine, then. Rachel quietly dropped her legs from the bed and stuck her feet into sneakers.
Leaving behind Encon, Andrea, and Aru, who were still sleeping (Promise, Lucas's buizel, had disappeared, further proving Lucas wasn't going where he claimed), Rachel stepped through the door. Lucas was only at the top of the stairs, down the hall from her.
She ran lightly to catch up. Lucas looked up just before she reached him. "Wrong way to the bathrooms," she pointed out.
He shrugged. "There's bathrooms downstairs."
Rachel fell into step with him, going down the staircase. "So where are you really going?"
"I'm not telling," he decided.
"Dang. I'll have to guess. You're going… Back to Striaton."
"Nope."
"Ahead to whatever the next town is."
"Castelia. And nope."
"To the pokemart."
He considered this. "Yeah."
"Taking a walk."
Lucas frowned. "I just said I was going to the pokemart."
"Yeah, but I didn't believe that either."
He was silent for a moment. Then he said, "I'm going to the gym."
"The gym? Is it open this late?"
"Yeah. I saw it when we met up with Andrea. It's open til three."
"Oh. Why'd you sneak out, then? You could just battle Lenora in the morning instead of at one am."
Lucas didn't meet her eyes. "I didn't want you guys to watch."
They stopped at the doors to the Pokemon Center. "Do you mind if I just come with you?" Rachel asked. "I won't watch the battle."
"Why?" He seemed suspicious.
Rachel was puzzled. "Because you don't want anyone to watch."
"No, why are you coming at all?"
"It's dark. There's monsters," Rachel said ominously. He shook his head, smiling. "No but seriously, going out alone in any city is usually a bad idea."
"You don't want to go back to sleep?" Lucas wondered, stepping forward. The automatic door slid open.
"Nah."
He hadn't ever said yes, but he didn't say no, either. Rachel went along with him.
"Wait, it's open til three?!" Rachel repeated.
Lucas shrugged.
The night air was just like Striaton's had been, chilly and motionless, but sharper and drier because Nacrene was farther inland. The streets were lined with the famous warehouse-turned-art-galleries Andrea had been talking about earlier that evening. Most of them were closed now, but a few had their lights on to welcome late-night customers.
Lucas was right: the museum was open still. Completely vacant inside except for a sleepy-looking young man at the front desk, but open all the same.
"Can… Can I help you?" he yawned. His glasses were slipping down his nose.
"I'm looking for the gym," Lucas responded.
The man nodded and used a finger to push his glasses up his nose. "Right this way." He led them through the museum.
"I'm Hawes, by the way," he said, walking between a dragon skeleton and a cofagrigus exhibit (the label said it was fake). "Museum curator and the gym leader's husband. If you have a question about an exhibit, just ask me."
As they started up a flight of stairs, Rachel noticed an empty display. It was roped off and had a cushion on a pedestal and everything… but nothing was there. Hawes didn't seem to mind. He actually looked right at it. The exhibit – or lack thereof – created speculations in Rachel's mind. Maybe it was broken. Maybe it was being cleaned. Maybe someone had stolen it…? But then Hawes wouldn't have looked at it that way. Or was he just not very observant? Or too tired?
Eist interrupted her train of thought with, I hope Lucas battles fast. I'm sleepy.
At the top of the stairs lay a wide pair of mahogany doors. Hawes knocked a set of thin, bony knuckles on the door and pushed his glasses up his nose again.
The left door opened, revealing a sturdily built woman with skin darker than Lucas's and curly teal hair. She wore a white blouse, pink apron, and teal pants just a shade darker than her hair.
"Hey there," she greeted them in a rich, deep voice. "Are one of you challenging the gym?"
"This is Lenora, the gym leader," Hawes explained. "Dear, this is…" He gestured at Lucas and then realized he hadn't asked for the challenger's name.
"I'm Lucas," the trainer finished for Hawes.
Lenora chuckled and held an arm out to him. The two trainers shook hands. "Nice to meet you. Hawes, remember to ask for the names of challengers."
Hawes looked sheepish, as though he made the mistake often. "I'll try to remember, dear."
Smiling, Lenora looked at Rachel expectantly. "Oh – hi, I'm Rachel," she said, extending her own hand.
"Nice to meet you, too." Lenora shook hands with Rachel and said," Follow me to the field."
She started to retreat through the doors. Lucas and Hawes followed, but Rachel hung back. When Lenora looked at her expectantly, Rachel stammered, "Uh, I… I'm not watching the battle."
Lenora seemed surprised. "You aren't here to support him?" she wondered, gesturing at Lucas.
"I… I support him, but I'm not watching the battle," Rachel said quickly.
"Are you planning on battling the gym at any point?"
Rachel nodded.
"Then maybe you can watch and figure out my strategy," Lenora reasoned.
"No, I'll stay," Rachel persisted.
Lenora paused. "Is there a particular reason for it?"
Rachel looked at Lucas, who had been watching the exchange with a thoughtful look on his face.
"I didn't want anyone to watch," he informed Lenora.
"Oh. Well, that's fine, then." Lenora looked at Rachel differently, like suddenly she was half a foot taller.
"I'll stay out here," Hawes decided, coming out of the doorway. "You'll be okay without a referee?"
Lenora nodded. "See you soon."
"Good luck," Rachel told Lucas.
He smiled and the door closed.
"Would you like to look around the museum a bit, or would you rather wait over here?" Hawes asked Rachel. He indicated a few chairs on the side of the stairs, next to a tall, leafy plant.
"Um… I was wondering about an exhibit," Rachel admitted.
Hawes waved his hand towards the stairs. "Which one?"
"The empty one over there," Rachel said, pointing over the railing.
His lips stretched into a grin. "Ah. That's my favorite."
"Favorite?" The empty one?"
Their feet thumped lightly down the carpeted steps. "Yes indeed," Hawes agreed, "the empty one. Possibly because it's vacant."
The pokemon trainer and museum curator turned right at the bottom of the stairwell and found themselves facing the pedestal without an artifact. Rachel read the plaque describing the exhibit it claimed to hold:
"A large white stone found in the ruins of Relic Castle. Most likely an item of décor for a past civilization."
"We thought it was just a pretty stone," Hawes explained. "It turned out to be the Light Stone, containing the spirit of Reshiram."
The name sounded vaguely familiar to Rachel.
"Embodiment of truth?" Hawes tried.
"Ohh." A memory of the fountain in Nuvema Town came back to her, the one with a black pokemon and a white pokemon circling each other.
"We handed it off to Hilda Touko to see if she could be a match for N in battle. As it turned out–"
"N?" Rachel interrupted.
"–both she and Hilbert Touya were needed to awaken Reshiram, but you were saying?"
"What about matching N?"
Hawes looked at her blankly. "Weren't you around here a year ago?"
Uh.
"Oh, I shouldn't be nosy. Forgive me," Hawes went on. "A year ago, N awoke Zekrom as the Hero of Ideals. To counter him, the Heroes of Unova – who, technically, are the Heroes of Truth – awoke Reshiram. The two pokemon are symbolic opposites."
Rachel was starting to understand. Except… "Why did they have to get Reshiram? Couldn't they have battled with their own pokemon?"
Hawes chuckled. "Against legendary-power pokemon? Sure, but awakening Reshiram eliminated a major disadvantage. And the region takes that legend pretty seriously, so the symbolism helped people not side with Team Plasma."
Hawes suddenly scrutinized her. "Jeez, you look tired."
"Hm? Yeah, I'm usually not up at 1 am," Rachel admitted.
He grinned. "I can tell. Lenora still stays up like a college student, so I stick with her. Maybe a tour will wake you up?"
Rachel nodded, yawning simultaneously.
The tour didn't actually wake her up much, but she could see what Hawes meant when he said the region took the legends seriously. A mosaic depicting the battle where one dragon split into two covered an entire wall of a separate room. Some displays held objects labeled "Prince Adrian's war helmet" or "Prince Gavin's journal" (the latter of which was open to a page that seemed extremely dull). At one end of the room was a massive leatherbound book on a wood pedestal. Rachel could see a drawing of two pokemon – they looked like Zekrom and Reshiram – fighting each other inside the book.
"That's the unabridged version of the legend," Hawes said. "Written by a close friend of the princes. They hardly left out anything, which is kinda fishy, but this friend was known for having an exceptional memory."
Rachel flipped through the book. The script was nearly illegible, but the pictures were clear enough. She found the brothers playing together as children, fighting together to drive off enemies, journeying separately around the region.
One picture depicted the brothers battling a trio of pokemon. All three resembled stantler in a way, with four legs and a pair of antlers on their heads. They each wore a snarl.
One had green fur, accented with pink. Its horns resembled latias or latios wings, and its body was lithe and graceful. Leaflike appendages protruded from several places throughout the pokemon's body.
The pokemon on the other side of the drawing was very different. Short and heavyset, it was almost more like a venusaur than stantler. This one was brown with orange highlights, and its horns were huge and pointed straight forward.
In the middle, standing in front of the other two, was a tall, blue pokemon. Its horns and a spiky structure behind its forelegs were bronze, and white fur cascaded from the base of its neck like a scarf. This pokemon was stockier than the first, but more limber than the second.
What surprised Rachel most was that the brothers appeared to be having trouble battling these pokemon. Up until this point in the book, they had conquered every challenge without much difficulty, but here they seemed tense, like the battle wasn't going well.
"Those pokemon are the Swords of Justice," Hawes mentioned, noticing how long Rachel paused on that page. "Virizion," he pointed to the green one, "Cobalion," the one in the middle, "and Terrakion," the heavy brown one. "Humans were expanding settlement too far into pokemon territory, and those pokemon intervened. The trio has not trusted humans since."
Rachel looked at the pokemon's expressions, full of fierce rage at these beings who had taken their friends' homes. "Are they still alive?"
"The princes? No, both died of old age a long time ago. The pokemon may be; legend says that they are hiding from humans now, living where they'll only see other pokemon." Hawes's Xtranceiver beeped. Pushing his glasses up his nose, he checked it and said, "Looks like the battle's over."
"What's the result?" Rachel asked, trying to peek at the device.
"Lenora didn't say."
They returned to the main room and walked back up the stairs. Lenora and Lucas met Rachel and Hawes halfway. Them and Promise.
The buizel's left shoulder was bruised just below his flotation sac, and his arm and back were scratched up like he'd suffered a skidding fall. Otherwise the buizel looked perfectly fine.
Rachel looked at Lucas. He grinned.
You huh at one in the morning?" Andrea repeated.
"Battled Lenora," Lucas said, tossing a grape – breakfast – into the air. Encon caught it in his mouth. "I keep telling you that."
"At one in the morning?" she said yet again.
"Keep telling you that too."
"Why one in the morning?"
"Cause I didn't want anyone to watch." He'd stopped saying it with reluctance, like he'd finally come to terms with the fact.
"Rachel went."
"I insisted. And I didn't watch," Rachel reminded her, tossing Encon another grape. Encon caught it in his mouth. He was good at this.
"Sure, but still, one in the…" Andrea paused, shrugged, and dropped the subject. "Guess that leaves you, Rachel."
Rachel winced and tossed a grape so high, Encon choked when it fell into his mouth. "Later?" she suggested, moving towards Encon. The drilbur spat out the slimy grape, coughing.
Andrea looked at her suddenly. "Sure… are you worried or something?"
"Mm… I just haven't trained with Encon yet, and I don't know where I can do that, either," Rachel said.
"You don't really need to," Lucas mentioned.
This surprised her. "I don't?"
He threw a grape upwards. Encon apprehensively moved away; Aru caught it in her paws and ate it. "Not unless you're fighting with strength and nothing else. Tactics is all."
"Lucas Zhang?" the nurse called. Lucas rose from the waiting bench to retrieve his buizel.
"All you gotta do to prepare is Encon's moves," Andrea informed her. "Worked for me and Aru, and I guess Lucas and what's-his-na… Promise. They did okay with that too."
Rachel pressed a few buttons on her Xtranceiver and pointed it at Encon. "I figured out how to do this a day or two ago," she said, poking a few more buttons, "but I didn't have a pokemon a day or two ago."
"Drilbur, the Mole Pokemon. Drilbur's moves are dig, fury swipes, and mud slap."
"Dig all over the place," Lucas suggested, returning from the counter with a pokeball and a grin. He let Promise out and handed the buizel a clump of grapes.
Rachel snorted. "Maybe I will. Haven't got any better ideas."
"Don't worry. It's mostly improvisation," Andrea said.
Despite the "don't worry" preceding Andrea's statement, Rachel looked horrified. "You said all I gotta do is know Encon's moves!"
"Well, that too."
"What else do I need to know?"
"Uh… improvise, know your Pokemon's moves… Lucas, did I miss anything?"
"Don't put a water type up against her watchog," Lucas added.
"…sure," Andrea said.
Rachel groaned.
"Why're you so worried anyways? You've battled a gym leader before. It's the same thing," Andrea said.
"No one else's health was on the line," Rachel muttered.
Mine was, Eist said.
You've said before that you're part of me.
Oh yeah.
"Well, don't worry about it. You'll do fine," Andrea said.
"If I can do it, you can," Lucas said.
His sincerity surprised her. "Okay," she finally said. "When should I go?"
"How 'bout now?"
"Hey, you're back. Ready for this?" Hawes asked.
No, she thought.
"Yeah," she said.
Like last night, he led her through the museum and up the steps. He didn't have to knock for Lenora to open the heavy door. It was like she'd been waiting for them.
"Hello," she said congenially. "No one tagging along?"
Rachel shook her head. "Andrea and Lucas battled alone. I figured I'd do the same."
Lenora nodded. "Follow me."
The teen stepped through the wooden doors, Hawes close behind. Behind it lay rows and rows or tall bookshelves, the kind where you need a ladder to reach the books on top. And there were enough books to need those top shelves – all the lower ones were filled. Even the library in Sandgem Town wasn't this big.
"Before each battle," Lenora explained, "I like to bring challengers in here. You can take a look through the library before we battle."
Rachel didn't understand. "I have to read everything?"
Lenora laughed. "Only what you want to read. If you want the quickest way to the battle, try The Anatomy of Fire-types. Fascinating book."
"Who's it by?" Rachel asked.
"K.T. Finnigan."
"It's nonfiction… What's the call number?" Rachel asked, scanning the shelves.
"811.54 Finnigan."
She's got the number memorized? Rachel thought. Must be some good book… or maybe it's something else…
The book was a narrow one, dark red with the title embossed in gold print. It was on a bottom shelf. Rachel reached for it.
"Hold on," said Lenora, "You're not choosing anything else? Just the one?"
Rachel shrugged. "I would, but this is the fastest way to the battle."
"What do you mean by, 'I would'?"
Rachel glanced at Hawes in confusion, but he merely smiled. "Um… I'm interested in pokemon-human hybrids, but I don't know a lot about them."
"You're talking about…" Lenora stopped. "Never mind. But why wouldn't you find and read something related to that? Why skip it for the battle?"
Rachel looked at Hawes again. "My friends and I… we're trying to make our way through the region as fast as possible," Rachel said. "That means battling this gym as fast as possible, too. Provided I win."
She pulled out the book and flipped it open. The shelf gave a click, and Rachel noticed a little red button in the gap where her book had been.
Metal whirred as the ordinary-looking shelf rolled aside, revealing a hole in the ground and a flight of stairs. Lenora smiled. "Shall we go in?" she asked.
Rachel led the way. That was a test, huh?
Eist piped up, Ether said the handshake last night was a test, too. Lenora likes to see what her opponent's like.
You talk to Ether a lot, Rachel noted.
Yup. When you and Lucas are near each other, we can talk without you hearing us.
Lenora's underground battlefield was covered in grass. Rachel tried to remember if there was anything significant relating to grass in battles. It did something to the move secret power, was that all?
"This will be a two on two pokemon battle between Rachel, the challenger, and Lenora, the gym leader," Hawes called out from the side. "Both sides are allowed substitutions. The first side to defeat the opponent's pokemon will be the victor. Are both sides ready?"
"All set," Lenora declared, selecting a pokeball from her belt.
"Ready," said Rachel. It was two on two; she'd have to hope Encon was strong enough to handle both.
"The gym leader will chose her pokemon first, the challenger has the first move," Hawes yelled, pushing his sliding glasses up his nose. "Battle, begin!"
"Glameow, let's go."
"Encon, ready?"
"Dril," Encon confirmed.
"Encon, use dig," Rachel said right off the bat.
"Glameow, fake out," Lenora said quickly.
Encon prepared to dig, but the glameow was by him in a flash, clapping her paws together in front of him. He flinched away.
"En… Encon, dig," Rachel said, flustered.
He did, Rachel breathing a sigh of relief.
"Glameow, use fury swipes when you see him," Lenora said.
Encon surfaced almost immediately, not giving the glameow time to figure out his location. The cat hissed and swiped at his face, cutting shallow lines into the drilbur's skin.
"Short-range… Use fury swipes back," Rachel yelled.
Encon's claws glowed white. Surprised, the glameow deflected the attack with her own claws.
"Fury swipes," Lenora said simply.
Claws skidded against each other, both pokemon looking for an opening while blocking strikes. Rachel couldn't see that well – Encon was mostly blocking the view – but she could tell that both pokemon were adept at using claws. Encon's larger, stronger ones allowed him to force the glameow backwards, tumbling across the grass.
"Wow… nicely done," Rachel said. "Quick, mud slap!"
Encon dug his claws into the ground and scooped up a few wet clumps of grassy dirt. Glameow dodged one but ran headfirst into another. She shrieked in outrage at the mud in her fur and pawed at her eyes.
"Assist, Glameow," Lenora called.
Still snarling and unable to see, Glameow glowed white, leaped forward, and swept a foot under Encon. He fell, legs kicked out from underneath him.
"Fury swipes," Rachel tried. Glameow still couldn't see.
"You too, Glameow," Lenora said.
This time, Encon clearly had the upper hand, sneaking around Glameow's paws to scratch cuts into her fur. The cat was getting angrier by the second.
We're doing well, Rachel thought. She stole a glance at Lenora. The gym leader was deep in thought.
"Use assist," Lenora finally said.
Shining white, Glameow took a deep breath and roared with all her might. Encon glowed red and disappeared into the pokeball on Rachel's belt.
Uh.
A sudden force pulled Rachel forward. She staggered as her legs forced her onto the field. The pull stopped as suddenly as it began.
Lenora was just as startled as she was. "What –"
Rachel acted fast, blasting as strong a watergun as she could manage at the glameow. Screeching, the pokemon tumbled ten feet and lay still.
"G-Glameow is u-unable t-to, to battle," Hawes stammered, his glasses sliding down his nose. "The challenger wins that matchup."
Lenora appeared just as stunned, but she soon burst out laughing. "So that's why you wanted to know about hybrids," she said, withdrawing her unconscious pokemon. "Watchog, you're up. Rachel, you can switch back out if you li – Watchog!"
The tall pokemon that appeared had shot a nasty look at Rachel, which created an apparition of bright yellow eyes all around her. Rachel shuddered, both because of the appearance of the move and what it meant.
She was stuck.
"Oh, Watchog." Lenora sighed. "Rachel, we can stop and battle again later."
Rachel took this in. Stop. Battle again later. Take even more time to get through this gym.
"No, I can fight," she said, surprising herself a little.
Lenora nodded grimly. "All right, then. Watchog, use thunderbolt."
Rachel inhaled sharply and remembered Andrea and Lucas's advice from earlier.
"Improvise, know your Pokemon's moves… Lucas, did I miss anything?"
"Don't put a water type up against her watchog."
She unfroze and jumped aside just in time to avoid the electric energy zooming at her. Rachel shot another water gun at the watchog, who easily dodged.
"Low sweep," Lenora said quickly.
Using the same move Glameow had done with assist, Watchog kicked Rachel's knees out from beneath her. She knocked him back with a close-range watergun and scrambled to her feet.
"Super fang."
Rachel created a waterpunch to counter the watchog's attack. Throwing her fist forward, she felt something pinch her knuckles. Watchog's long, sharp incisors had a tight grip on her hand, breaking through skin.
"Ow," she muttered in a high voice. Moving her hand – he'd latched on with his teeth – tore at her knuckles. She tried encasing her hand in water. That seemed to work, his nose and mouth were submerged and he'd have to let go…
"Thunderbolt."
Her entire body was shot with a searing pain that was worst in her hand. Being bitten by a lillipup, barraged by a sandstorm, or scalded by a panpour didn't compare to electrocution. She willed the water in her hand to burst, making the watchog stop zapping her in surprise, and just stood there for a moment, breathing.
Rachel, still trying to clear her head of the electricity, saw the look on Lenora's face. She found sympathy and guilt among the emotions there. Not the sort of things you'd show if you were in a battle with practiced, skilled pokemon.
Gritting her teeth, Rachel fired a water gun straight into the watchog's mouth. He spluttered and tried to spit the water out without letting go of Rachel's hand, which was pretty much impossible seeing as Rachel was still pushing water in. Watchog zapped her twice more; Rachel wouldn't let up. The fangs slipped from her hand as the watchog collapsed. His face was blue, and he was very much unconscious.
In the rush to check on Lenora's watchog, Hawes forgot to announce Rachel's victory. Lenora came over, too, to examine her pokemon, and Rachel hovered anxiously.
"He's all right," Lenora said, pressing the watchog's stomach. He sat up suddenly and vomited water onto the grass.
Rachel made a noise of relief. "Thank Arceus…"
Hawes looked sideways at her. "Arceus... Sinnoan, I'm guessing? I knew you weren't local–"
Lenora cleared her throat.
"–but, ah, perhaps now's not the time for that…"
Lenora pulled an envelope and badge from her apron. "Here's the Basic Badge and prize money. Well done."
The Basic Badge was a simple mahogany rectangle with gold lines running across it. Rachel decided it was supposed to look like the side of a book. "Thank you."
Hawes beckoned for her to follow him. With a final glance at the gym leader and her unconscious pokemon, Rachel went after him.
"Just gotta bandage up that hand. We don't have a heal machine, but you can get your pokemon healed at the Center," he said, leading her through a door on the far side.
"Hawes?"
"Hm?"
"Was that a legitimate win?"
They were walking through a dimly lit corridor with violet walls and carpeting. "Hm? What do you mean?"
"It was way shorter than any other battle I've been in, but it's not like I've gotten more powerful in between. Was almost drowning Watchog allowed?"
Hawes mulled this over. "The definition of the end of a battle is when one side's pokemon are unable to battle. Watchog couldn't battle anymore, and neither could Glameow, so you won. Cutting off his air supply knocked him out just as well as punching or watergunning him. I'd say it's legitimate."
Rachel accepted his explanation. "He'll be all right, though?"
Hawes grinned, pushing his glasses up his nose. "This is Lenora's pokemon we're talking about. He'll be fine."
He opened a closet door – Rachel knew it was a closet door by the fact that there was a closet inside – and pulled out gauze, medical tape, and bandages. While he patched her up in the hallway, he said, "So is it just you, or all three of you?"
Rachel knew what he meant. "All three of us. Professor Juniper used us as test subjects."
Hawes's brow furrowed. "Test subjects all the way from Sinnoh? Assuming all of you are from Sinnoh, of course."
"Yeah."
Hawes stopped taping gauze to the bleeding part of her hand and looked her in the eye. "Rachel, there's more to this than you're telling me. What happened?"
In the time it took him to patch up her hand, Rachel told him what had happened between the test in Sinnoh and their decision to go on a badge run. "We battled Striaton two days ago and arrived in Nacrene City just yesterday," she said, wrapping up the story just as Hawes finished wrapping up her hand. "Our goal is to get back to Sinnoh as soon as possible."
Hawes nodded to show he was listening, then said, "Just letting you know – the gym difficulties get exponentially harder. And the library puzzle was barely anything compared to that of some gyms."
Rachel shrugged. "We'll just have to face those as they come. Thanks," she said, indicating her hand.
Hawes smiled. "Good luck then. And it was no problem."
Rachel found out that Andrea and Lucas were all set to start out towards Castelia City. After buying a few pokeballs and a great ball and healing Encon, she decided she was set too.
"Aru," Andrea said, releasing her petilil. "Wanna walk with us?"
Aru nodded. They would be going through the forest, after all.
Rachel and Lucas let out Encon and Promise, respectively. In about ten minutes they walked from the Pokemon Center to the outer edge of Pinwheel Forest. Andrea estimated they could reach Castelia by nightfall – the distance on the map was about twice that of the last two routes they'd traveled, and those had been just a few hours each.
Yeah, nope.
;semicolonsarecoolerthanhashtags
Pursuit is from the field show Cirque du Soleil: Ka, by Jay Dawson. Just search "Ka marching show" to find it. Pursuit is movement three of four. Super cool show, and that piece is the most fun :D
"Adrian" has to do with darkness. So, the Prince of Truth and Prince of Ideals, respectively.
Lenora doesn't have a glameow officially, but it's a normal type so it works anyways.
Wow. Three and a half months. Here's the deal – I'm going to see if I can finish my other story, Eyes of a Dragon, which is in its home stretch. I want to finish as soon as possible to get another story up and running WAY before graduation 2014. It's an important graduation for me, even though it's not mine. I don't know exactly how long it'll take me, but I generally have a better idea of what I want done for EOAD than NaSS. This is not a hiatus; just a warning that I'm on an EOAD marathon and this three-and-a-half month thing could happen again. Story alert would be a good idea here.
Til then,
~A. Eon