This is a short chapter, but I figured that it was a good place to end it. It's more of a transition chapter than anything else.
I'm pleased to announce that, at this point, Lucas's Adventure: Book A is the longest work I have ever written, at slightly less than an eighth of a million words. At this point, I think it'll be roughly a sixth of a million by the end, but we will see. I do think we are in the home stretch for the first book of the series.
Also, I have a story up called Poke Wars: Episode I: The Jungle Queen. I hope that you enjoy that one as well as this one. But here it is: Chapter 37!
It's not over yet, Lucas told himself. Not over yet, not over yet, not over yet…
Even though the truth he was telling himself was so blatantly obvious, he still had to drill it into his own mind; it was hard for him to take it to heart. Even as he put Vinaka back in her Pokeball, he couldn't help but think that, somehow, something more was going to go wrong in this battle.
The earlier confidence he'd had was long gone. It was now replaced with worry, worry that he wouldn't be able to pull this one out.
Stop worrying, he told himself. That won't affect how well you do, at least not in a positive manner.
His mind did have a point. He wouldn't be helping his team one bit if he worried too much about things. He had to have faith in Takali and Orkun.
"Okay, Takali!" he exclaimed. "Do your stuff!"
Cherubi was still on the offensive, and the Cherry Pokemon had the added advantage of having been able to prepare, whereas Takali had just come out of his Pokeball without having been in a battle. The Totodile was caught up in the Grass Knot that Cherubi had produced, and took some damage from that; it was impossible to tell how much.
Off to his right, Lucas heard the sound of a cheer. Kasama, even though he'd appeared to have very little training, had managed to successfully vanquish Turtwig.
Man, Solanna must be a really good trainer, Lucas thought. If he can be that amazing at this despite having so little practice.
Of course, it was entirely possible that Kasama had had a different trainer before this, and had run away, but Lucas didn't want to think about that just yet. Reminding himself what Andromeda had told him, to always pay attention to your own Pokemon during battles, he did that.
Now, Solanna would be battling against Roserade. She did swap out Kasama for Bayon, even though the former was in fairly good shape. The way things were looking, it was a lot better than it had just a few minutes ago.
If they could both defeat the Pokemon from Gardenia's side, they would win. Then they would each receive the Forest Badge.
"Takali! Use Bite!"
The Totodile bit into Cherubi as though she were an actual cherry, being careful of what would have been the pit in a normal cherry. It appeared to cause a good deal of damage; however, Cherubi wasn't done yet.
The Cherry Pokemon managed to land a Leech Seed on Takali, resulting in a very visible flower on the top of the Totodile's head. However, this wasn't a benign, merely beautiful flower; no, this was a parasitic one. It would drain Takali's HP for several minutes thereafter.
This added another level of urgency to the battle. If they did not defeat Cherubi soon and end this battle, Takali would faint, and Lucas would lose. If that happened, he would feel as though he had let Solanna down, as well as the other two boys.
Soon enough, Takali was able to land a decent hit with Scratch on Cherubi. It didn't appear to do that much damage, but it was enough to knock the latter out, so it did do something.
"CHERUBI IS UNABLE TO BATTLE!"
The sound of that shout from the referee was enough to make Lucas's heart leap. However, this wasn't the end of the battle; he still had to wait for Solanna to defeat Roserade before they could collect their badges and call it a day.
Bayon was landing some good hits with Low Kick and Karate Chop. This gave Lucas some optimism in the face of the fact that Roserade was also quite strong. It appeared that, no matter what, this was going to come down to the wire between the two Pokemon.
That favors Solanna, though, Lucas thought. If, for instance, they both go down at the same time, that means that Solanna wins, since she still has Aparri as her ace in the hole.
Wouldn't it be funny if that actually happened?
He spotted Tanner and Andromeda in the stands, cheering them on. Lucas didn't really care much about what they were thinking, though; he was focused on watching the battle at hand. And man, was it intense.
With every hit that Roserade landed on Bayon, the Machop replied with one of equal or greater force. This also worked the opposite way. The attacks were getting more powerful, not less powerful like one might expect of two rapidly tiring Pokemon.
Quite impressive, really, that they're able to keep it up for this long.
He was sure that this wouldn't end up being the longest Pokemon battle in recorded history; the record for that one was thirty-seven days, and this battle, which appeared to have gone on for about an hour or two, was nowhere close to that.
Eventually, Bayon was able to land one hit that sent Roserade stumbling backwards. The Bouquet Pokemon staggered around, trying to keep its footing, much like a toddler learning to walk. However, it wasn't enough.
Roserade collapsed to the ground.
"ROSERADE IS UNABLE TO BATTLE! BAYON THE MACHOP IS THE WINNER, WHICH MEANS THAT THE VICTORY GOES TO LUCAS SNOW OF GARDENIA AND SOLANNA LUZON OF SAFFRON CITY!"
Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. After such a long and tiring battle, he'd always had the small bit of doubt in the back of his mind that they wouldn't be able to win it.
Thank Arceus that that's not the case, he thought. Man, that would have been horrible if we had lost.
Indeed, it would have been. They would have had to train up for a much longer time, and training, while Lucas acknowledged that it was very much necessary, could be quite boring at times. Beyond that, he was just glad to have won. He hated losing.
"Congratulations" Gardenia said, in a very pleasant voice. Walking over to the two children, she said, "I suppose I should reward you two with these. After all, you did win".
In her hand were two Forest Badges, shaped slightly like triangles, but not really, mostly green. Lucas took one from Gardenia placed it in his backpack, putting it next to his Coal and Relic Badges. Reminders of what he had accomplished.
"Nice!" Tanner shouted from the stands. "You did it!"
"Yep" Lucas said quietly, enough so that Tanner wouldn't hear him. "I did".
SATURDAY, JULY 17, 201X - 8:28 AM
ETERNA CITY, SINNOH
HIGH TEMPERATURE: 73 DEGREES
If there was one thing Lucas was grateful for, it was the weather.
For the last two days, it had been warm and pleasant, not like the oppressive heat he had encountered at the beginning of the journey. It was nice enough that he would often just sit in a table of an outdoor cafe, sunbathing. Nobody would come and ask him to leave; they didn't see it as a problem, evidently.
Lucas felt guilty as he admitted it to himself, but, were he the owner of one of those cafes, he wouldn't have let people just sit there without ordering anything. He would have considered that to be taking advantage of the restaurant. However, a guy had to live his life, and Lucas felt very much alive indeed.
He'd felt more alive the last month than he had done for his whole life. It had been immensely satisfying, and gratifying, to travel the Sinnoh region with Andromeda, Solanna, and Tanner.
Now, he was sitting in a table at a cafe near the hotel. A strawberry crepe was set out before him. And he was sitting across from a girl.
This girl had been slightly chubby before, but several weeks of travelling had caused her to drop a couple of pounds. Now, she was quite attractive, sitting in the seat opposite him. She had longish brown hair and an oval-shaped face.
"Solanna", Lucas said, "what's in a breakfast crepe? Isn't that what you ordered?"
"Yep, it is" she replied. "It has egg, ham, and cheese. It's quite savory; I highly recommend it".
"Thanks, but no thanks" Lucas said. "I'd sooner just stick with the strawberry, to be honest".
"Oh. Well, that's okay" Solanna said.
They sat there for a few minutes, munching on their crepes. Lucas didn't think that he would like it at first, but he was starting to appreciate them quite a lot. He'd always loved pancakes, and these were just like thin pancakes, with strawberries on top instead of baked in.
"Mmm...these are really good" Lucas said. "We should get crepes more often. They have creperies in most cities, right?"
"Yes. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure. The ones in Kalos are the best".
Lucas's eyes widened significantly. "You've been to Kalos? That's quite a long trip from Sinnoh".
"A gal's gotta life her life, right?" Solanna asked rhetorically. "I quite enjoyed it, and I hope that you get the chance to go there someday. I hope we all get the chance to".
"Yeah" Lucas replied wistfully. He was staring off into the distance, past Solanna, past the old town. Of course, the old town was almost all of Eterna City, since that was what the city had been themed after when it had first been built.
"We'll get the chance to go on this journey" Solanna insisted. "At some point, I'll make sure of it. We will make sure of it. It might take weeks, or months, or years, but we're going to get there".
Lucas smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. It was something completely different.
He felt compelled, somehow, to open up to Solanna more here. He'd known her for several weeks by now, and yet he felt that she didn't know all that much about him.
However, he would wait for the opportunity to arise. From an early age, practically since he had been diagnosed, his parents had always drilled into him that it was bad manners to always steer the conversation back to yourself. He was going to practice those conversation skills right now with Solanna.
"Why did you decide to go on this journey, Lucas?" she asked him. "What did you hope to accomplish? That's something I'd really like to know".
"Uh…".
Lucas scratched his chin. He didn't know what to tell her. On one hand, he was extremely hesitant to explain the full reason to Solanna Luzon, someone whom he had only known for a couple of weeks.
On the other hand, she had shown herself to be trustworthy to him. He trusted her a very significant amount; she'd proven to be quite a good battler, and had generally been a pleasure to be around.
If he couldn't trust Solanna, he couldn't trust anybody.
"You know that I'm autistic, right?" he asked her. He was pretty sure he had told her that at some point, but had just wanted to make sure that she remembered.
"Yes, I do know that" she replied.
"Well, the fact of the matter is...that's part of the reason I wanted to go on a journey".
"It is?"
"Yeah. For me, you would have thought it would be a deterrent. It wasn't, in fact; it was only a deterrent for my parents to let me go on a journey".
"I know the feeling" Solanna replied. "When I was first going to go off to the academy, my parents were quite nervous. They didn't think that I should be doing it. Well, I think that I'm showing them to be wrong right now".
An idea hit Lucas like a bell being rung inside his head. "Are you autistic?" he asked.
"No" Solanna replied. "But they were just nervous, because it was something that they were concerned about. I mean, it's not easy to just let your child go off to boarding school alone, at any age".
The more Lucas thought about it, the more he realized that Solanna was right. He couldn't have imagined what his parents must have been thinking when they let him go off on this great journey.
"I haven't seen my parents in person for over a month now" Lucas realized aloud. "They haven't seen me in action, battling".
He realized his mistake, breaking down into tears almost immediately. He'd thought that he was over the homesickness, but it was hard to get over it when you were talking about it.
"It's okay, Lucas. It is okay" Solanna replied.
"No" he replied. "It's not okay. And you know it's not okay. It's really hard to get over".
"Pain makes us stronger" the girl said. "Whether it be physical pain, mental pain, emotional pain...it makes us who we are. You should learn to live with the homesickness, not in spite of it. And you'll see them again eventually. Doesn't that help?"
It did help, but not that much. Lucas supposed that he hadn't used the strategy enough, that he'd eventually get used to it, and then things would get better. Maybe.
"Anyway", Solanna said, "I think you're very brave for doing this journey. I've read a few things about people with autism; don't a lot of them have a harder time doing things independently?"
"To a certain extent, that is me, yes" Lucas replied. "But I think that this has been good for my independence. Even if I'm with all of you guys. I think that it's going to go just fine".
"That's good to hear".
Just then, Andromeda and Tanner came jogging back, looking very excited indeed.
"Did you win?" Lucas asked. They'd just been away challenging Gardenia themselves, having spent the previous day, along with Solanna and Lucas, sightseeing.
In response, both of the other boys held out their Forest Badges.
"Congratulations" Solanna said. "Are you going to go get your Pokemon healed up?"
"Yeah. Let's do it together" Tanner replied. "Are you guys cool with that?"
"We were just having breakfast" Lucas told the other two boys. "These crepes are delicious!"
"Okay, then" said Tanner. "We'll wait until you're done, and then we'll head over there to heal them up. Once that's done, do you guys want to get out of here?"
"Leave Eterna City?" Lucas asked.
"Well, yeah" Andromeda replied. "I think we've already done all that we need to do here. All four of us have beaten Gardenia, after all".
Lucas was a little reluctant to leave. As he looked around the old town of Eterna City, he thought about how there was no place he'd ever been that was quite like this. It was very special here.
At the same time, however, they'd already seen a good part of the city yesterday. What was more, they still had to get up to Snowpoint City, where they would have another gym battle. It would be another city that they'd be able to explore quite a bit.
"All right" he said, after a thirty-second silence. "If you guys want to leave, I'm game. Let's just heal up our Pokemon and get our bags from the hotel. As soon as we've done that, we are good to go".
As soon as Andromeda looked at Lucas once more, the latter got the sense that he was mentally saying, I'm very glad we understand each other.
Lucas didn't want to feel like a hostage to all of Andromeda's plans. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he did have the ability to say no. He did have some veto power.
But he wasn't sure that he wanted to use it.
As soon as he and Solanna were done with their crepes, they left the cafe and headed to the nearest Pokemon center. They'd stayed in a hotel, so they knew that they'd have to collect their bags from there before they could start the long walk north.
Is love in the air? I guess we'll find out!
Lucas: Orkun - Lucario: Aura Sphere, Laser Focus, Foresight, Quick Attack, Detect, Metal Claw, Counter, Feint, Power-Up Punch (Level 17). Vinaka - Vulpix: Ember, Tail Whip, Roar, Baby-Doll Eyes, Quick Attack, Confuse Ray (Level 12). Takali - Totodile: Scratch, Leer, Water Gun, Rage, Bite, Scary Face (Level 15).
Andromeda: Tai - Turtwig: Tackle, Withdraw, Razor Leaf (Level 16). Soko - Luxio: Tackle, Leer, Charge, Spark, Bite (Level 18).
Solanna: Aparri - Charmeleon: Scratch, Growl, Ember, Smokescreen, Dragon Rage (Level 19). Bayon - Machop: Low Kick, Leer, Focus Energy, Karate Chop, Foresight, Low Sweep (Level 13). Kasama - Pikachu: Tail Whip, Thunder Shock, Growl, Play Nice, Quick Attack, Electro Ball, Thunder Wave (Level 19).
Tanner: Tavua - Chimchar: Scratch, Leer, Ember, Taunt, Fury Swipes, Flame Wheel (Level 21). Zapatera - Zorua: Scratch, Leer, Pursuit, Fake Tears, Fury Swipes, Feint Attack, Scary Face, Taunt (Level 26).