So, real quick, happy 2020! I know I'm posting this on New Year's Eve, but some people are already in the new decade. I haven't had much, but I really do appreciate all the support everyone is giving me here, through a review or just from clicking on the story. I've been having fun writing this, and I hope you all are enjoying reading it.
One of my goals for this year is to be more consistent with scheduling and regulation, with this story being a part of it. I'll be doing my best to update once a week, most likely on Tuesdays, but there will be times like this past week where I just never had a chance to sit down with my computer and upload even though I've had this ready for a while.
Side note, I'm probably going to have more of these top-of-the-chapter AN's to act as announcements I'm making as the author and leave the AN's at the bottom for notes about the story itself and the world.
Anyways, cheers to the new decade! Let's have some fun, yeah?
There was not a member of the crowd that gathered that was not relieved the person hadn't been attacked.
That being said, Luke didn't care much for the reason the person screamed.
The person had been watching a television behind the window of a building, the brick exterior decorated with each of the standard ball types. Poke, great, ultra, and the infamous master ball.
Meanwhile, the screamer was busy talking rapid-fire and motioning for everyone else to look at the screen and share in his excitement.
The screen showed the finale of a battle between two women. One looked like she could be as young as Luke, her skin the distinctive Alolan tone. Her tank-top cut off just below her chest, leaving her stomach exposed. She had an Alolan flag wrapped tied around her hips as an apron-skirt, covering the short-shorts she wore underneath, her legs almost completely exposed. A huge pink flower was tucked behind each ear, contrasting with her black hair. She had an expressive face, contorting and reacting to everything that happened in the battle.
The other woman was her polar opposite. If the first woman was dressed as though she were going to the beach, the second was dressed for a ballroom dance. The incredibly pale skin of the slightly older woman could be seen only on her face and wrists, the rest of her body covered by a pale purple dress and dainty white gloves. Blonde hair was tied back in a neat bun with white ribbon that dangled behind her head.
On the screen, Luke could admit that the battle was exciting: a Dusclops fought against a Walrein in a miniature blizzard, massive attacks clashing as the two fought for control in the battle. Yet the two women, not dressed for a blizzard in any way shape or form in Luke's opinion, were unfazed. He could understand why the battle was entertaining. But not anything to scream about.
"C'mon Phoebe!" the man screamed at the screen, "C'mon!"
Even as Luke shook his head to dismiss the fanatic, he noticed that Brendan was walking into the building, Julia right behind him. May almost seemed to glare at the building, hesitating to follow her friends.
"Do we want to go in?" Luke asked her, blue eyes inquisitive, although softer than they normally were.
The girl in the bandana frowned and shrugged, her eyes flicking between her friends and Luke.
Luke sighed before he started walking toward the door. "Well, let's stick as a group. Besides, what's the worst that can happen? It can't be as bad as the sports fanatics back home."
"Well, I don't know about Unova," May said, walking carefully behind the older teen, "but these people definitely qualify as fanatics."
He figured out what she meant once he stepped through the door, under the sign that read 'Pokemon Battle Fan Club'. The door opened up to a huge room, about the size of his junior high cafeteria. The battle from the television outside was being projected onto a huge screen at the far end of the spacious room like it was a movie cinema.
By the Storm and Fire the occupants of the room were loud, and moving around enough that Luke couldn't pick out where Julia and Brendan were. Meanwhile, May seemed like she couldn't tell if she should break down or break out.
The Unovan made an executive decision. "I think they'll be fine on their own. Want to help me find a training spot?" He had to shout for May to hear him over the crowd, and the girl nodded, turning around and quickly walking back out of the building. Luke was only a step behind her.
The pair of teens didn't stop until they were at the outskirts north of the town. The sandy expanse was dotted with fihsermen, with the entrance to Granite Cave and its quarry further to the east.
After a couple minutes of simply looking around, Luke shrugged and released Rebecca, Franz, and Shigure to walk with him. May followed soon after with her Torchic and Skitty.
"Have you named them yet? I never really hear you talk to them, and you don't call their names out in all the fights you don't get in." Luke asked as they walked towards the cave. The sand was soft under his boots, but he knew once it got inside them he'd be struggling for days to get the gritty particles out.
"Yeah. Cinder," she said motioning to the Torchic, "and Pudding. My Beautifly is Prism."
Silence returned as they walked. They stayed far enough away from the fishermen and other trainers to avoid any incidental battles. It took about two hours for them to arrive at the cave mouth.
May stepped forward, as though to enter the cave, but was stopped by Luke's hand gripping her shoulder.
"We aren't going in yet. Caves are dangerous if we don't have the correct gear and a guide. Especially if we're thinking of training in there." Luke said, blue eyes looking past May and into the cave mouth. It was surprisingly well lit, openings in the ceiling allowing natural light in and a series of lamps illuminating what was left of what they could see.
The teen girl shrugged, green eyes meeting Luke's blue. "Sure. What did we come all the way out here for then?"
"I just wanted to get a feel for the area and how far it was from town." he said as he turned around to head back towards Dewford, "Now c'mon, let's get back to the suite. Hopefully Brendan and Julia are back by now."
Brendan and Julia's eyes were fixed on the televised match in front of them, projected onto the screen at the front of the hall. Julia never had been as into competitive battling as her brother, but she couldn't deny the feeling of awe seeing these two trainers battle gave her.
A man whose hair looked like a raging bonfire with a poncho the color of sand battled against a girl who looked like she was hardly Brendan's age in a pink dress and huge purple ponytail. Their appearances alone would have drawn spectators.
However, what made it so that her eyes couldn't turn away was the pokemon they were using. The man was using something that was giving off so much heat the air around it was distorted, and it moved so fast that all she could see of it was a blur of red a white. The girl's pokemon was much easier to identify: a Haxorus, the dragon-type native to Unova whose head resembled an ancient battle-axe.
Julia had no real way of knowing, but those two pokemon and those two trainers were having enjoying the battle. She just felt it, understood it.
The announcer said something that she didn't care to pay attention to, and Haxorus landed a hit on the smaller pokemon. A dragon claw ripped through the haze of heat to send it hurtling to the ground outside the ring, a trench carved by its travel.
It was when Julia saw the girl with purple hair run onto the battlefield and hug her dragon that she realized. She wasn't like her brother, with his desire to be the best. Or like May with an aversion to violence and conflict. Not even like Luke with his desire to travel around the world training.
The steel eyed girl wanted that, what the purple haired trainer had. Joy with her pokemon, regardless of if they were in a battle or not.
She had only set out to have her own freedom and independence, but she realized now she was still as dependent as ever, just on a different person. Except Luke was leading her toward where she could be independent of him too, unlike how her mother had been. And the more time she spent with Luke, the more she realized she needed to be strong to be independent.
That is what it was, right? His strength allowed him to be free of everything except what he allowed in, like his sponsorships and friends. Which meant that she would need to achieve that same level of strength.
So Julia made a promise to herself: she would become strong enough to decide her own fate, but not let it consume her happiness. She would be like the girl from the television, be both strong and happy.
Brendan tugging on her arm snapped Julia from her thoughts as he pulled her towards the exit. She pulled her arm free to walk beside her brother, the day outside having drifted into late afternoon since they'd entered. The exhibition matches between Phoebe and Glacia, Sydney and Drake, and Wallace and Juan had taken a couple hours, followed by that last battle that lasted nearly an hour itself. It had been an odd choice for a finale, given how high profile the matches before it were.
May and Luke were waiting for them at the suite, the latter making a salad as something was cooking in a pot on the stove.
"It really blows my mind," the Unovan said as he cut a bell pepper with his folding knife, "that you guys always manage to book a suite. Without fail."
He took a bite from a carrot before pointing the vegetable at the siblings. "I'll find out how you do it eventually. And don't worry, this one isn't going in the salad."
"In more important news, specifically for you Luke," Brendan said, ignoring the pointed vegetable, "Unova's going to be coronating a new champion. Alder lost the match just earlier."
That, the steel-eyed girl realized, must have been why she didn't know the participants in the final match. It was the Unovan championship.
The teen fronze where he stood, knife halfway through a vegetable. Julia looked into his eyes and saw something she hadn't thought would be there in any situation. At the very least she hadn't seen it there before. It was panic.
"Really? Who beat Alder? It's only been a few months since I was there, I might know them." Luke sounded calm, but knowing what his eyes betrayed, Julia could feel the edge in his voice more than hear it.
"It was a girl with big, purple hair." Julia said before Brendan could provide the actual answer. "She ended up winning with a Haxorus."
The panic in his eyes changed to relief and mirth. "Iris beat Alder? Geez, favorites much?"
"What do you mean favorites? Do you know them?" This time it was May asking, eyes narrowed at the back of Luke's head, although she seemed more curious than suspicious.
"I mean, yeah, I've met them both. Iris was training to be the next Opleciud City gym leader last time I saw her though. Guess she decided to skip up to the top. As for why it's favoritism, Alder helped raise her. She literally calls him grandpa."
"Ok, yeah, but how do you know them so well? Aren't they practically celebrities over there?" Brendan asked, adopting a similar look as May. He was suddenly suspicious of Luke again. Great.
"Alder is a nomad, the only time he was in the league palace or stadium was when he had to be for the tournaments or was challenged by one of the E4. Truth be told, most trainers traveling around Unova meet Alder, even if they don't recognize it's him." Luke turned around to put the salad on the table before straining the water from the pot, leaving pasta behind, before setting that on the table as well. "He makes a point of trying to remember everyone he meets on the road so he can pray for them and their safety, or some such thing. I had the, ah, fortune of meeting him several times."
The Unovan served himself some salad and pasta and motioned for the rookies to do the same. "Anyways, I found a couple training spots for while we're getting ready for our battles against Broly. We can either start on it tomorrow or later this week." Luke thought for a moment before continuing, "As a heads up, when we go we'll be gone for a few days."
"Are we going to train in the old iron mines?" Brendan asked with a raised eyebrow, serving himself a heap of pasta. "The operations got closed down years ago because they were disturbing the pokemon there, but now it's open to trainers."
"In a word? No." Luke said as he put a forkful of salad into his mouth, swallowing before continuing. "We aren't quite ready to go spelunking. Caves are bad news for the underprepared. Especially if we're planning on training while we're down there."
"Then where are we going to train?" Julia asked, pushing the food around her plate with her fork. It wasn't that she wasn't hungry, but she wanted to be able to participate in the conversation.
Luke shrugged. "The area around the mine, specifically the granite quarry. For the most part there are the same kind of pokemon, probably around the same average strength, and we don't have to deal with not being able to see where we're going or the potential for cave-ins."
"Let's have an adjustment day tomorrow," Julia suggested, twirling pasta around her fork. "Just give us all a chance to breathe without training or traveling or anything. We haven't had one of those since before our gym battles, at least not as a full group."
May's smile was wide and bright. "Sounds good to me, we could take a walk, have a picnic, play some games, interrogate someone, any number of things!"
"Well, now that we're being honest about interrogating me," Luke said, clearing his dishes, "I think I'll spend tomorrow going fishing or finding a specific training spot. Maybe both."
The green-eyed girl laughed. "I actually wasn't talking about you." She said, turning her gaze to Julia and Brendan, "But these two have some answers I need questions to."
"I won't even try to dig into what that's supposed to mean." The Unovan said as he moved to his room. "Anyway, I'm going to get some sleep. Night guys."
Julia watched Luke shut the door behind him. His entire demeanor had changed as soon as Brendan had mentioned the televised match, beyond the momentary panic she had seen. It wasn't clear to her what he was feeling, just that she didn't recognize him feeling it, or at least his reaction to it. She was sure there was something bigger going on, but she had no idea what.
Instead, she turned to her two fellow rookies. "So, resuming the program tomorrow? Who's got who?"
"I'd be game. Go ahead and get accustomed to whatever training spot he picks." Brendan said as he helped himself to another serving of pasta. "Since it's important to pick the best field of grass or best rock to train on I guess."
May frowned and pointed at them. "The three of us need to talk, and I do have some questions to ask you two about today. Either now or tomorrow, you two can pick."
"Let's get it out of the way now," Julia said, moving to the more comfortable couch with her salad. "Since, as we've been over, we need to stick in groups of two when we split up."
When Brendan shrugged in agreement, May gave a solid nod before standing up to look down at the other two rookies. "So, earlier today…"
Luke was incredibly glad the video phone booths were soundproof. Otherwise he might have woken up the sleepers in the building.
Dubs hadn't picked up when he called her. After a moment of irritation, confusion, and hesitation, he called Bel. If he couldn't talk to Dubs to figure out what had happened that led to Iris claiming that title, he could at least find comfort in talking to one of his closest friends.
To his surprise, Dubs was there when Bel answered the call. Both were dressed they way he knew they did for work: business casual for one, a jacket and jeans for the other. Long brown hair tied up in a ponytail, short blonde cut just above the shoulders. Piercing blue eyes seeming to look past the screen contrasted with bright green eyes that seemed to smile to Luke behind the pair of half-glasses.
It wasn't the first time he'd recognized it, but it struck Luke again just how different the two were. They were two of his best friends. He'd known Dubs for a bit more than two years, and Bel for much longer than that.
Their reactions to him snapping at them were similarly different. Bel was shocked for a moment before her brow creased in worry and concern, content with letting him vent.
Dubs was glaring into the camera, eyes turning hard. By the Fire and Storm she looked ready to lunge through whatever wave was being used to transport the signal.
After Luke had started crying in the middle of their shouting match, Dubs stormed out of view of the camera. She had probably left Bel's house entirely to distance herself from the screen.
On the other hand, Bel had talked to him in that low, even voice she had used to calm him down from a nightmare or the couple of cases his nerves were shot after a battle. There was a sadness behind her eyes that he wasn't used to seeing, and it pained him to know he was the reason one of his friends was hurting.
He said his goodbye to Bel and asked her to apologize to Dubs for him at 5:00 a.m. Hoenn time, two hours after he'd initially tried to call Dubs.
By 8:00, he was walking around the quarry with his team surrounding him, Gojira and Heracles tucked in his hip pack in their balls. The only thing he carried was a tackle box and old fishing rod he'd borrowed from the tackle shop in town.
He wasn't sure if he was going to train or fish for the rest of the day, so he might as well be prepared to do either.
Luke ended up finding a spot to do both on the other side of the quarry.
It was a quiet spot. A pond with clear brackish water that he could see the Goldeen and Magikarp in. The quarry to the east where he'd seen several Makuhita and Aron, and a lightly forested area to the west that was being used as nesting grounds for Wingull and Tailow.
The Unovan teen wouldn't concern himself with the politics of a league he wasn't in for the rest of the day. He wouldn't think about how upset he'd made Dubs, or the apologies he'd give her. He wouldn't think about the job he was in Hoenn to do, his family in Sinnoh, or the nightmares he was sure would come that night.
Instead, he would be in the moment, and enjoy it. He needed to do it, separate himself from his worries, push them away, and take control. He could do it. It was only one day.
Matthew, Serra, and Rebecca stood by his side as he propped himself up against a rock on the shore. The Franz and Shigure stayed within ear and eye-shot but began light exercise and training against wilds. Luke didn't worry about molding their training and instincts that day.
When his 'nav buzzed with a question from Julia asking where he was, he assured her he was fine before asking her if she read the sign on his door.
May couldn't make up her mind. On the one hand, she was irritated that their mentor had left before any of them were awake. On the other hand, she thought the way he'd done it was hilarious.
Beside her, Julia was fuming. "I can't believe he just left again! The last time he did this he came back with his arm torn half to shreds!"
Brendan shrugged, for once his white hat not covering his coal black hair. "It's just something we didn't plan for. In hindsight it's our own faults. He always wakes up before we do. We should have seen this coming from a mile away."
On the door to the boy's room, he had taped a simple message, written on a sheet torn from the pad of paper that was in each of the suite's rooms.
It read simply: "Gone Fishing" with a couple of what May assumed were supposed to be fish drawn made of circles and triangles.
Luke's first stop in town that night was the Pokemon Center for two reasons. He had confirmed that Dubs had sent Bastion and wanted to see if he had arrived. He hadn't. And he needed to make a change to his active roster.
After almost half an hour of indecision, he ended up sending both Matthew and Serra to the professor. Luke didn't need to send them both, but he didn't need to train a full team just to have them change around soon.
"Besides," he said to himself as he took a look down at the heavy and lure balls in his hands, "I have a feeling you two are going to put in work."
Catching Dart, the Magikarp, had been an accident. Luke knew about how powerful Gyarados could be, but he wasn't sure his team was ready to fit one. Especially since he was trying to show Julia how to control Oliver's aggressive tendencies, and sometimes, the atrocious pokemon would refuse to listen to the best of trainers. But he had fished it out of the water and it had happened to splash onto a lure ball and was caught near instantly.
The possibility of a Gyarados rampage had also crossed his mind, but he dismissed it quickly. Either Heracles or Gojira would be able to subdue it without problem. Although that did run the risk of exposing them to the rookies.
Amelia the Aron was entirely intentional. She would evolve into an Aggron eventually, which would nicely fill the tank role that his current team lacked.
Before the switch, it was a speed team without a doubt, with the exception of Serra who didn't like to battle anyway. Grovyle, Tailow, Poochyena, Nincada, they were all pokemon that could hit fast and decently hard, but none of them were incredibly durable.
They seemed like it against wilds or less trained pokemon, sure, but that was because they weren't really taking hits. Or if they were, they were from pokemon weaker than they were. His team was built to hit hard and fast, evade instead of overpower.
There was no problem with that. But he wanted another option, one that could power through hits and hit back harder. Aggron and Gyarados both fit that bill. It'd be a while before either one of them could do so, slow growing species they were from, but they would get there.
After returning the rod and tackle box, he returned to the suite. The rookies weren't in the common area when he passed through it, so he went directly to his bed and laid down. He'd be focusing on getting Amelia and Dart caught up to the rest of the team in the week of preparation before the preliminary gym battle.
He hoped the rookies were ready. They only had eight days left until the matches. Six of those days, in two sets of three, would be filled with intense training with a day of rest between them and a day to prepare for the battles.
He had expected the rookies to be gathered around the table eating when he entered the suite, or maybe sitting around talking about this that or the other. It was what he would have been doing when he traveled with his friends in Unova.
Instead Luke was greeted with a quiet, empty room, his charges nowhere in sight. They hadn't even been decent enough to leave a note like he did when he went fishing. Then he remembered that he'd had his communicator turned off for the better part of nine hours.
Blue eyes scanned the screen once he'd powered it up again. Three missed calls, seventeen waiting messages.
Surprisingly enough, Brendan was the one who messaged him from the group. The message was simple and to the point, explaining that they'd gone to get dinner.
The rest of the messages and all of the calls were from Bel, checking in and overcompensating for how long it had been since they'd communicated before that morning, asking if he was alright. Knowing her, she'd been this stressed about him for the entire time he'd been away and was jumping at the chance to talk with him more.
She cared about all of her friends so much. It killed Luke to know how much stress he'd caused her. And it killed him to know it wouldn't be stopping anytime soon.
He could stay up for a while, wait for the rookies to get back, right? Just wait on the couch in the communal area, messaging Bel?
Given the time it was back in Unova, his friend wouldn't be responding. But he could at least reply to what she said, try to ease her concerns as much as he could. He lowered himself onto the furniture piece, propping his head up on the armrest.
Luke didn't even realize it when his eyelids grew heavy and his chin met his chest. His pokenav, still pulled up to his conversation with Bel, slid from his hand to the floor as he faded from consciousness.
Julia had expected Luke to either be in his room asleep or snacking on something at the table when she returned to the suite with Brendan and May. So she was surprised to find him slumped on the couch in his day clothes, his right arm hanging off the side. His pokenav laid on the floor a few centimeters from his fingers.
"Well, we won't get a better chance than this to find out about him and his friends, so I don't know what you two are standing around for." Brendan said as he scooped up the older boy's 'nav in one swift motion as he started scrolling. "He's mentioned a 'Bel' before, right? They were the last person he was talking too."
"Quit it." Julia said as she tried to snatch the device out of her brother's hands, only for him to pull it back towards his chest. "I'm curious too, but you're taking this a bit far."
"No, I'm just doing what I can do to make sure we stay safe. Which includes from him. Besides, if I'm wrong, then there's nothing to be afraid of and I'll be fine with apologizing to you." Brendan defended, trying to make space between himself and his sister to resume scrolling. "Not to him though, he's been keeping all this hidden, all these secrets. Aren't you worried?"
"About him? No." May said as she grabbed the communicator from behind Brendan, "I'm more concerned with your paranoia. Are you alright Brendan?"
"Of course I am." The teen in question stated, shaking his head. "I just don't get why the two of you aren't more cautious around him."
The raven-haired teen pointed to Luke's sleeping form. "We know nothing about him, know less about his past, and he traveled around Unova when a terrorist group was working on a coup. And here we are traveling with him. Why doesn't this worry you?!"
"Because he hasn't given us a reason to worry about him." Julia said, cutting May off just as the younger girl opened her mouth. "All that he's done so far is help and support us."
"Key term being 'so far', what happens when that changes?" Brendan demanded, eyes hardening. He turned his shoulders to be square with his sister, forgetting the pokenav in May's hands.
The older sibling straightened her back and squared her slighter shoulders to face her brother. "Who's to say it will change? You're jumping to conclusions and blaming something on him that hasn't happened yet. Back off."
As Brendan opened his mouth to reply, a thud came from the couch as Luke rolled off in his sleep, knocking his head against the wooden floor. A low groan of pain soon followed.
"Son of a bitch," Luke said as he rubbed his head, not noticing the argument going on between the rookies.
From the corner of her eye, Julia saw May click his 'nav closed and slide it onto the table. At least he wouldn't know one of them had snooped into his messages.
The blue-eyed boy stood up and stretched, finally noticing the presence of the other three. "Oh. Hey y'all. I'd been planning to stay up until you guys got back so we could talk about what we're doing tomorrow, but I guess I dozed off, I found a spot that'll be perfect for training earlier today." Luke released a massive yawn as he looked between the three of them. "Is something wrong? You guys seem tense."
Julia shot Brendan a look that she hoped conveyed 'drop it' enough to the boy before she shrugged. "Nothing's wrong, just a bit of teasing gone too far."
Her brother avoided her gaze and muttered what she assumed was an agreement to her story. May just shook her head and went to her room quietly, clearly fed up with the siblings' argment.
Luke's brow creased in a small frown as he looked between the two rookies and the third's door. "Any drama I need to know about? She seems pretty fed up with something."
She was sure her and Brendan's silence spoke volumes. Luke just shrugged and picked his 'nav off the table.
"It's fine if you don't tell me, the Frost knows I don't tell you guys about all my problems or the drama back home. But I'm here to help or talk if any of you need it, hear?" Without waiting for a response the teen turned around and walked into his room.
The siblings glared at each other once his door was closed, until Brendan's softened and he shook his head lightly.
"I'm sorry Julia, I just have trouble trusting someone we know so little about. But it isn't worth making conflict here." His smile reached his chocolate eyes as he extended his hand. "Truce?"
"Truce." She said as they clasped hands.
Despite having no idea where it came from, there was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind telling her that he wasn't being sincere. That for some reason she shouldn't trust him about this.
But she pushed that voice down. Brendan was her brother, and they had to stick together.
/AN/ So that was the fifteenth chapter. It really isn't quite what I wanted it to be, but oh well, it'll get us where we need to go. Eventually.
Not much to talk about happening in this chapter I don't think. Other than how terrible of an idea it is to just go spelunking with no gear or guide in a cave you've never visited before.
Actually, there is a point of note. Cities and towns count as their own areas. Dart, the Magikarp, was caught by fishing from the coast of Dewford using the old rod. Caves are another matter. There is one catch for the entire cave, regardless of if different areas provide different pokemon encounters, the exception being something like Mt. Pyre which has the inside and outside which would count as two different areas. I feel like I'm making no sense, but oh well.
Hope you're having fun reading! As always, drop a review or PM if you're interested in talking about, well, anything. I'm always down to converse!
Otherwise I'll just keep looking at my inbox with a sad look on my face wondering why people are reading but not saying anything. I say, knowing full well how hypocritical I'm being.
Regardless, I hope you enjoyed!
I'll be gone until I'm back again. Stay safe y'all.