Lucas knocked gently on the apartment door. It was about seven in the morning, and people around him were slowly draining out of their rooms and to their respective destinations. After a few minutes, he looked down at the address Looker had given him.
This is the right place, so what's taking so long?
Nevertheless, he stood outside the door, waiting patiently. After another five minutes had passed, Lucas knocked again on the door. The door opened a few moments later, and Lucas was greeted by Looker's countenance.
"Ah, good morning! It's a little early, wouldn't you say?" Looker said, his eyes belying the fact that he had, in all probability, just woken up.
"Maybe, but I'm leaving for Oreburgh today, and you said I should stop by."
"Indeed, I did. Come in, this won't take long."
The apartment Looker had rented was quite plain; everything was white, from the carpet to the ceiling. The kitchen seemed to be made of marble, and the floor there was white tile. The only specks of color came from the couches in the living room and the dining table. There was a door that presumably led to the bedroom and attached bathroom as well.
"As an Interpol agent-in-training, you should always be prepared for the worst-case scenario, even if it may never happen." Looker suddenly started speaking, breaking Lucas from his observation of the room. "There isn't much you can do without the proper gear, though, so I've got some things for you."
Looker grabbed a small pack from the sofa and handed it to Lucas.
"Inside here are a couple full restores and other first-aid items. This is an emergency kit, so don't be careless with it." Looker also pulled out a small disc album. "This is a TM case. There's a couple of the first-generation ones in here, as well as a few second generations." Lucas took the TM case, his eyes wide. TMs were expensive, and for Lucas to have a few was a big help for him. "Do you have a TM-machine?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Thank you so much!" Lucas said, carefully placing the kit and the TM case in his backpack.
"It's the least I can do, young man." Looker said. "Now, don't let me keep you any longer."
/
Route Three was a long grassy plain bounded by shrubs which in turn led into the forest. There were still plenty of trees, and the land held small deformities marking the passage of trainers before him; dimples in the ground, a random rock bursting from the ground, broken trees littering the ground. There were plenty of small pokemon and Trainers populating the area, but Lucas didn't challenge anyone to a battle. He didn't know what pokemon anyone might have, and only carrying one pokemon meant that if Tsovinar was injured, he was defenseless. Considering Oreburgh was at least five days straight walk from Jubilife, and Lucas was planning to double that time, he didn't want to risk that scenario.
Still, he had plenty of healing items, having stocked up on antidotes, dischargers, antifreeze, and burn salve. Looker's package also rested in the bottom of his backpack, but using it was out of the question for now.
Once they were about two or three kilometers from the gateway building, Lucas took a good look at his surroundings, making sure that there weren't too many pokemon around. The blue sky shone through the clear sky, and there weren't any clouds hanging in the air. There were still some trees and rocks around, but no sources of water. It wasn't a humid day, and Lucas felt a nice chill breeze blow through the air.
"Alright, Tsovinar, I want you to use Whirlpool." Lucas said. They had worked on Whirlpool just yesterday, but Lucas had a hunch about how Tsovinar had been using the move.
As he expected, the water was much slower to be called than yesterday. Tsovinar still managed to get the move going, but with considerable effort on his part. The final stage of Whirlpool stayed the same, and the prinplup held it for several minutes longer than he had been holding it yesterday.
Still, that took far longer than it took before to charge up. We practiced near a large source of water, so it was easier for Tsovinar to use his aquatic moves. Now, we're on dry land, so it's taking him longer to draw up the water he needs. Lucas confirmed his conjecture, before furrowing his brows. Tsovinar's only ever practiced near a source of water. Are his other moves hindered as well?
"Tsovinar, I want you to run through a couple moves, okay?" Lucas was slightly concerned. If Tsovinar's water attacks were weaker on land, then the penguin would struggle mightily when they got to Oreburgh; the city was extraordinarily arid, lacking any lakes of any sort. "Can you try your Water Gun over on that rock there?"
A high-pressure jet of water shot out of the pokemon's mouth. Lucas was relieved to see at least one move working properly. Ice Beam was just as much a success, and Lucas didn't need to test Steel Wing or Peck.
"Tsovinar, Water Pulse!"
This time, the move was much slower to form than it had been yesterday against the staravia, taking a full five seconds before the orb of water was launched at the rock, impacting with a small explosion.
So from what I can tell, there are moves that draw on water from an outside source and moves that use a pokemon's inner reserve. Tsovinar's inner reserves are fine, but he isn't the best yet at drawing power from the world around him.
"Alright. I think I know what's going on here." Lucas said. "Tsovinar, you aren't drawing power from the world around you as well as you should be. Part of this is my fault; you weren't trained away from a river, which means you never got the chance to really practice this skill. Try using Whirlpool again but draw up the water faster this time."
The whirlpool formed again, this time a little faster, giving Lucas a little hope. The next few attempts, however, still took a good fifteen seconds to start up properly. Tsovinar seemed to be less tired using the move repeatedly compared to yesterday, and Lucas realized what was happening.
Since the Whirlpool is slower to form, he's able to exert his control a bit more gradually than when it was whipping up in about four seconds yesterday. That probably takes less effort, then. Lucas felt relieved. Tsovinar would need the next few days to work on mastering Whirlpool, slowly cutting down the time it would take to form up.
Until then, Lucas wanted to get Tsovinar used to walking more. It would build up some stamina for them both.
They stopped for lunch about three hours after noon, Lucas asking Tsovinar to try working on Whirlpool and Water Pulse. He watched the moves form, noting that Tsovinar had made almost no progress. If anything, the moves were forming slower.
Maybe the internet has something on this. There's got to be something about this phenomenon.
Lucas grabbed a food capsule from his backpack. On the steel tray were two sub sandwiches, a foot-long and a six-inch. Lucas grabbed the longer one as Tsovinar grabbed the other, biting into it. The subs were both meat and cheese on lightly toasted bread with some lettuce and sliced tomatoes, Lucas' favorite. Tsovinar quickly finished his sub and sat down, contented. Lucas pulled out his tent and started pitching it; they weren't going any further today, since he was tired, and he wanted to figure out what Tsovinar's issue with water management was.
Once they had finished lunch, it was back to training for the two of them. The afternoon sun beat down on them as Lucas watched Tsovinar work on Whirlpool and Water Pulse again. Tsovinar was still taking plenty of time to pull together the attacks, and Lucas could see a growing frustration in the prinplup.
"Let's work on something else, Tsovinar." Lucas said, before realizing that he didn't have anything else planned. Tsovinar stopped his latest attempt at Whirlpool, watching as the water again soaked the ground. "There might be a TM that you could work with."
Lucas opened the TM case and started looking through them. There had been ten TMs in the case, and Lucas had put the only TM he'd owned in there as well, in case he ever needed it again.
Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Dark Pulse, Light Screen, Reflect, Shadow Ball, Mach Punch… Lucas' mood soured as he looked through the TM case. While the TM's there were still quite valuable, the ones so far had not been compatible with Tsovinar or had already been learnt. Lucas kept looking, though there were only three left. Hyper Beam, Flash Cannon, Substitute.
Of the eleven TMs Lucas had, only three were compatible with Tsovinar. By no means did Tsovinar have the power to use Hyper Beam, even if he taught it to the prinplup; he already knew Ice Beam, and so he was left with Flash Cannon. Flash Cannon was a projectile steel-type attack, and if he taught it to the prinplup that would make two steel-type moves he'd have learnt so far. Lucas opened his backpack and started to sift through the contents until he found what he was looking for.
Teaching a move through a TM was quick and painless. There was a cavity for pokeballs in the device, and a slot for the TM disc. The pokemon would be recalled into the pokeball, placed in the cavity, and then the device would turn on. The TM would then be placed into the disc slot and the in-built disc-reader would read the move. If it was compatible, the device would teach the move to the pokemon. If it wasn't compatible, the device would just spit the disc back out.
Lucas recalled Tsovinar and placed his pokeball into the device, and then inserted the Flash Cannon TM. After a minute, the device beeped twice, indicating a successful TM use, and the TM was ejected from the slot. Lucas grabbed the disc and put it back into the TM case, and then took out Tsovinar's pokeball and placed the device back into his backpack. He released the prinplup, watching him materialize in a flash of red light.
/
Tsovinar stood there, blinking his eyes as the sun shone down upon his majestic figure. He was glad to be working that Lucas had found something new for him to work on; the whole morning had been a massive disappointment at both himself and Lucas.
While he knew it was an issue with him not being able to quickly control water while inland, Lucas could have at least realized this would have happened before they left for that Or-burger city.
Still, they were just starting their journey together, and he needed to be strong to protect Lucas. At least, that was the justification he gave himself when he asked why he was trying to speed up his Whirlpool. He didn't know how to speed the move up, though, and Lucas hadn't offered his thoughts. It was at times like this that Tsovinar wished he was at least part-psychic, because he could at least try to peer into his trainer's mind. It was frustrating, doing the same thing wrong over and over and over again, trying to accomplish something without the slightest idea how.
Lucas at least realized they were going nowhere with this, because they had stopped for lunch. The sub sandwich had been delicious, a sweet cherry on the crap that this day was turning out to be. The meat in the sandwich was that lab-grown meat that humans ate. He knew it was probably the only way they could keep their populations fed, as if they had to hunt for food they'd need at least a hundred times the land, and they'd probably still face starvation. He himself knew how to hunt, that much was instinctual, but he'd never hunted for a meal before, having been raised by breeders.
His thoughts were interrupted by being suddenly recalled into his pokeball.
The inside of a pokeball was a weird experience. It was like dreaming, since time didn't seem to pass the same in here as it did out here. There was also a 'stasis' mode that he'd heard Lucas talking about, apparently if he'd gotten critically injured and needed immediate treatment; he could be recalled and everything would be kept the same for an indefinite time period, until he was again released at a pokemon center.
He was released quite soon, though, and again felt the sun on his skin.
"Sorry about that, buddy." Tsovinar heard Lucas and quickly looked at his trainer. Surely, there had been some purpose to this, right? "Try using Flash Cannon."
Flash Cannon? He didn't know—no, he did. Had Lucas used a TM on him?
He gathered the energy around himself, feeling the move out as he slowly condensed it and fired it from himself, the glinting ball of metallic energy slamming into the ground and sending dirt chunks flying everywhere.
"Sweet! The TM worked!" His trainer exclaimed, a smile splitting his face. Tsovinar's mood brightened. Finally, some measure of success; they both had been getting a little frustrated at how the day had been going so far. "Keep working on the move, okay?"
He was glad to oblige, gathering the energy as Lucas watched him hit a large boulder, cracking it with the move. It took two more Flash Cannons to shatter the rock, and another three to reduce the large chunks into fine rubble. Each time, he pulled the energy towards himself faster and fast—wait, wasn't this what he'd been trying with Water Pulse and Whirlpool earlier today?
Focusing on the feeling of pulling that he'd felt with Flash Cannon, Tsovinar started gathering energy again towards himself, this time trying to pull water instead of metal. The orb formed in front of him, slower than he'd like, but still faster than it had before.
Tsovinar fired the Water Pulse, watching it soar off into the sky. Feeling mischievous, he fired his Ice Beam into the orb, watching as the attack blew up and sent water and ice everywhere. The explosion caught his trainer's attention, and he looked up at the sky where the attack had blown up.
"Tsovinar, I thought you didn't want to keep working on Water Pulse." Lucas said. Tsovinar shook his head. He'd perfect Water Pulse tomorrow. Today was for Flash Cannon.
He gathered the steel-type energy, firing the metallic orb again. It felt weird; steel wasn't related to water like ice was, and it wasn't a physical move like most steel moves were. Still, gathering the steel-type energy wasn't hard; Steel Wing was similar in nature, though it focused on hardening his flippers and whacking his opponent with it, and he had gotten good at using it even before he'd evolved.
He spent the rest of the afternoon working on Flash Cannon, working on strengthening the attack and firing it faster.
/
"Hey! Are you headed to Oreburgh City?" The voice caught Lucas off-guard, and he stumbled, barely catching himself. Tsovinar whirled around, watching as a kid with a murkrow's nest of pale-blonde hair accentuated by two taurus-licks and a garish orange-white striped jacket ran to catch up with him. His duffel bag seemed to be swinging precariously. "If you are, I wanna come too! The last two days have been super boring!"
Lucas had been going at a pretty slow pace, using the first half of the day to travel and the latter half of the day to train. It seemed that the person approaching him had been traveling non-stop.
"Uh, sure? What's your name?" Lucas asked. The blond caught up to Lucas and bent over, his hands on his knees, taking a huge gulp of air. Lucas didn't envy him; that duffel bag looked heavy, if how it had been swinging was any indication, and he had just ran a about a tenth of a kilometer.
"Hah…my name...is Barry Snell." The blonde got out inbetween big gasps of air. He continued panting for a bit, before straightening up and taking a breath. "What's your name?"
"Lucas Sato." Lucas furrowed his brows. "You wouldn't be-"
"Related to Tower Tycoon Palmer? Yeah, he's my dad. Doesn't mean I'm any good as a trainer, though, don't worry!" He laughed. "I've gotten my ass kicked plenty from Twinleaf to here! Probably because I keep challenging people to battles, but hey! Battling gets my blood pumping!"
So does existing, apparently, Lucas thought as he watched Barry enthusiastically pull out his pokedex, scrambling through his duffel bag with vigor.
"Hey! If we're travelling together, we should stay together at Oreburgh! And if we do that, we should register each other in our pokedexes!" Barry exclaimed. Lucas pulled his pokedex out of his pocket, and they registered each other.
"So, what pokemon do you have on you?" Lucas asked. Barry brightened perceptibly, pulling out two pokeballs.
"I've got my starter Jun, and Aria!" He released a starly, and to Lucas' surprise, a grotle. The cosmic irony of this energetic trainer having a slow-moving pokemon as his starter made Lucas chuckle. "What about you?"
"Tsovinar here's my only pokemon." Lucas pointed to the prinplup, who looked at Barry warily. Lucas didn't blame him; Barry was certainly an enthusiastic presence.
"Cool! Wanna battle?" A vine extended from the back of the grotle, Jun, and whacked him over the head. "Right, sorry, not everyone wants to battle."
"Actually, that might be fun. Tsovinar hasn't fought anything except a small flock of starly since we left Jubilife," Lucas offered, remembering how Tsovinar had fired a single Water Bomb and scared the flock away, "and that was barely a fight."
"Awesome! Let's get this show on the road!" Barry dropped his bag where he'd been standing, and ran over some distance, giving plenty of room for two pokemon to fight. Lucas had a feeling that Barry was going to use his starter, and so he stepped behind Tsovinar. The prinplup looked a little surprised that they were battling, but nevertheless steeled himself for the fight.
"Jun! I choose you!" The grotle plodded his way in front of Barry, letting out a noise that sounded a mix between a frog's croak and a roar. Tsovinar squawked in response, lifting his flippers from his sides and tensing himself. "Aria, call the fight!"
The starly perched on a nearby tree and let out a shrill call, and the battle was on.
"Water Bomb!"
"Withdraw!"
Jun withdrew himself into his shell as Tsovinar's Water Pulse blew up above the field, showering it in water and ice. Barry's eyes widened, and he laughed.
"Cool move, dude, but it'll take more than that to beat Jun here!"
Lucas didn't doubt Barry's claim. If he'd been battling since Twinleaf, that meant he had some experience. Add to the fact that Jun was a grotle and not a turtwig, and Lucas knew Tsovinar was in for a bit of a beating. Still, Lucas had Tsovinar for a year, even if he hadn't been training continuously.
"Tsovinar, Water Pulse." Lucas shouted out. The orb of water slammed against Jun's shell, sending him spinning away, but the grotle was still hiding in his shell. Barry smirked suddenly, and Lucas felt a bit of worry run through him.
"Ha! You fell for my trap! Rapid Spin!" Barry's excitement was on his sleeve as he pumped his fist into the air. The grotle, which should have stopped spinning since friction was a thing, kept spinning, picking up some speed, slowly reversing its velocity until it shot forwards towards Tsovinar. Lucas' eyebrows would have shot up into his hair if they could; grotle couldn't learn Rapid Spin, since they couldn't pick up the momentum to get them spinning in the first place.
And yet, the turtle was hurtling towards his prinplup.
"Get out of the way!" Lucas quickly yelled, worry overcoming his features. Tsovinar quickly enveloped himself in his Aqua Jet and shot upwards.
"Break!" Barry shouted. Jun extended his limbs out of his shell, planting them firmly into the ground and stopping himself instantly. "Bullet Seed, wide range!" Lucas watched with some confusion as the grotle's cheeks swelled slightly, before a bunch of seeds shot out of Jun's mouth akin to a shotgun blast.
"Steel Wing!"
Tsovinar quickly brought his wings together, squawking as his flippers hardened and several seeds bounced right off as the prinplup shielded himself as best he could. A couple of seeds still hit him, making him wince in pain slightly. The pain soon gave way to anger, and Tsovinar, his flippers still glinting with the power of Steel Wing, descended on the turtle.
Lucas looked at Barry, wondering why he wasn't saying anything, and then realized what was going to happen.
"Tsovinar! It's a trap!" Lucas' warning came too late for the penguin; Jun's Vine Whip grabbed the bird and slammed it into the ground. A cloud of dust rose from where the prinplup had landed. Lucas cringed, before relaying his next order. "Ice Beam!"
Barry's eyes widened as the super-effective move struck his starter, freezing his legs to the ground.
"Jun, try to get out of there!"
"Not on my watch! Flash Cannon!" Lucas yelled, watching as Tsovinar's latest move struck the grotle. Jun let out a defiant cry, but Tsovinar shot another Ice Beam and finished the job.
Barry recalled the grotle in a flash of light, disappointment and some other emotion flashing across his face for a moment before his enthusiastic countenance came back.
"Ah, seems like I've got some ways to go!" Barry laughed, rubbing the back of his head as he walked over to Lucas. "That was a good battle, though." Aria perched on his shoulder and cooed softly. Lucas couldn't help but think of the staravia Tsovinar had beat—Horus, wasn't it—but realized if Barry was anything like his father, Aria would be a fearsome staraptor someday.
"Yeah. When did you catch Aria, if you don't mind me asking?"
"The day I left Twinleaf. She's not a big fan of battling just yet, but once she evolves, I'm sure she'll change."
"Yeah. I'm not sure what I should catch, if anything. I've avoided confronting any of the pokemon directly so far on this route, since Tsovinar's much stronger than them, and it seems like every other trainer has a staraptor."
"Maybe try catching a shinx?" Barry suggested. "Staraptor aren't all that common, since a lot of people give up before their staravia evolve, and of course, in the wild second evolutions are really rare."
"Yeah, a shinx sounds good." Lucas gave it some thought before replying. "I'll see if I can catch one on this route."
"Well, you could always go for a kricketot, if a shinx doesn't catch your fancy." Barry laughed, and Lucas couldn't help but smile. Kricketot and their evolution, kricketune, were annoying, and very few trainers, even those with affinities for bug-types, used them.
"Even better, why not a bidoof?" Lucas said, a shit-eating grin on his face as Barry laughed even harder. "I won't even need to evolve it, will I? My opponents would just laugh themselves into unconsciousness."
"Oh, that's a good one." Barry got out, wiping tears from his face. "My stomach hurts now."
"So does mine, but probably for a different reason. Wanna stop for lunch?"
"Sure!"
They both plopped down on the grass alongside their pokemon, pulling out food capsules. Barry's steel tray had a bowl of rice, some miso soup, and a large salad, as well a small portion of nuts and berries. Lucas' tray was similar, with a larger bowl of curry and rice. Jun chomped down on the salad while Aria picked at the pseudo-trail mix. Lucas portioned out some curry and rice for Tsovinar, and they ate in relative silence.
"Hey, Barry, how much food do you have?" Lucas asked, suddenly. He'd taken four days and was planning to take another five or six to get to Oreburgh. Barry had, if he had heard correctly, taken two days to get here.
"I've got about six or seven days' worth of food for my team." Barry said inbetween mouthfuls of food. Despite his energetic nature, he seemed to take his time while eating, which surprised Lucas a bit. "I was just rushing these two days because the gatekeeper told me someone'd passed through, and that they were taking their time. If it hadn't been for that, I might have waited for someone else. I really don't want to travel alone until I get a badge, ya know?" He pointed his soup spoon at Lucas. "I'm guessing you're the person he meant."
"Yeah. I've got food for a week as well, so that's good. We can train while we travel, so by the time we reach Oreburgh, we'll be ready for the Gym." Lucas said.
"All that training probably isn't necessary, man." Barry paused to drink some soup. "Gym Leaders tend to go easy for the first two badges. After that, it's fair game."
Lucas was reminded that Barry, courtesy of his father, probably had connections high-up within the League, and so Barry probably knew more about the circuit than he did.
"I still want to have a reasonable challenge for Tsovinar. Plus, if I'm going to catch a shinx, I want to get him used to being on my team."
"That's fair." Barry started on his bowl of rice, putting the now empty bowl of miso soup down.
They finished their lunch, talking a little bit about life in their respective cities. Barry, surprisingly, didn't ask Lucas about his parents, which the teen was grateful for; it was a bit of a sensitive subject for him.
Once they were done with their lunch, they compressed everything into the capsules and started back on traveling through the route.
=o=
Barry lay down on the soft grass, looking at the passing clouds. His energetic veneer had been replaced by one of an antonymic nature, as he relaxed and let his imagination run wild with the energy he normally possessed. He'd been told all his life that he was a kid of extremes, either bouncing off the walls, living in the moment, or sitting still as he zoned out into a world of his own. It was a trait passed down through the Snell family for generations, even before his ancestors had moved to Sinnoh.
That one looks a bit like a miltank, if it didn't have its udders and had an extra leg. Wait, maybe that's its tail, and it really is a miltank. And that other cloud approaching it is an Aura Sphere from, uh, that looks vaguely like an upside down lucario if you really squint. Maybe they're in mid-air, and the lucario's flipping because he got nailed midair with a Rollout, kinda like what happened to Dad's Infernape when he was battling that Johto Gym Leader at the World Tournament five years ago.
Wrapped up in his thoughts as he was, he vaguely noticed Lucas approaching a shinx, giving it some food and trying to make a good impression on it. His thoughts didn't remain long on his travelling partner, shifting to the present.
Why'd he wait until we were right at Oreburgh Tunnel to go searching for a shinx. We're almost outta food, and Oreburgh Tunnel is only an hour walk through if you avoid the geodudes, and I've got a flashlight, and I want to sleep on a bed. Sandgem wasn't this far from Jubilife, and me and Dawn were going at a pretty fast pace to get there, now that I think about it. Pretty good fortune that I ran into Lucas when I did, since Dawn's probably just starting for Oreburgh all alone.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the shinx disappearing into a pokeball in a flash of red light. Barry debated getting up, but he remembered when he had caught Aria about two weeks ago. He startled a little bit at the realization.
Woah. It's been two weeks, and I'm not even close to Oreburgh City. I've been making good pace, too. At this rate, I should get my Gym Badge tomorrow or the day after, and then I'll see where Lucas is going. If he takes the Tram Line to Eterna City, then that'll be nice. He closed his eyes and started to drift off.
Barry couldn't feel the sun on his face, and opened his eyes, noticing Lucas peering down on him.
"Wake up, sleeping beauty, we're breaking camp. We should be in Oreburgh City in another two hours at most."
"Oh, what?" The sun wasn't where he remembered it being, and he quickly realized he'd fallen asleep.
"Don't bother, I've already packed everything." Lucas sighed. "Why are you like this?"
Barry chortled a little bit as he started to feel a bit giddy.
We'll be in Oreburgh today. I might have a Gym badge by tomorrow!
=o=
Shinx didn't much care for dark caves. She was also weak, which was why she kept up this façade of being a timid shy little cat. The human had bought it, hook line and sinker, and had desperately welcomed her onto the team. This meant she would be fed and protected, while she got stronger and stronger and evolved. She was using Flash, illuminating the cave as the humans carefully navigated around the apparently sentient boulders and rocks. There wasn't much else to do other than keep her perch on her human's shoulder. The little bird had been recalled, meaning she couldn't antagonize it anymore. Her teammate would probably freeze him over with that horrendous Ice Beam, and the grotle, Jun, if she'd heard correctly, didn't seem like he'd notice if he'd been attacked.
'Do you know how much further?' she asked the prinplup. The penguin shrugged his flippers in response.
'No idea. Lucas only ever took me out to the river on the other side of the city before this.' The penguin chittered back.
'If you're getting sleepy, you could take a nap in my bushes. Aria does that sometimes, and I don't mind." Jun offered. Shinx looked at the nice comfy bush, not unlike the ones on the route, but decided against it.
'I'll just return to my pokeball if that happens.'
'Suit yourself.'
The humans were talking about something, and she could make out some words. She tried to listen in, but as a young pokemon, it wasn't the easiest to understand human speech. Meh. He'd get better over time. Still, it was important to listen into any information.
'Hey, Tsovi, what are they talking about?'
'Our trainer and Jun's trainer are making sleeping arrangements and plans for after they finish whatever work they have in their city. Also, I'd prefer it if you didn't shorten my name.'
'Why?'
'Because I'm a prince of the Sinnoh seas, peon. You don't address them like some street peasant.'
'Neat. Tsovi, can you spell?'
'No.'
'He can, but he doesn't want to.' Jun piped up. Tsovinar looked at the grotle, betrayed; the turtle merely stuck his tongue out in response.
'If this is how you all treat royalty I'm retiring,' the prinplup grumbled. 'What name do you want.'
'Something to do with night, how I'm going to grow up and be a terror of the night.' Tsovinar rolled his eyes at that declaration, clearly underestimating her might. It probably wouldn't be wise to fight her team-mate, though, because she'd have to work with him and because he'd probably smack her into orbit. Instead, she watched as Tsovinar took his wing and hardened it, before scratching a rock with it. He then started tugging Lucas' pants.
"N – I – K-S? Niks?" Lucas frowned. "I'm pretty sure it's spelled N-y-x, Tsovinar. Why'd you-oh, she wants a name."
'That doesn't look or sound as cool as I thought it did.' The shinx shook her head, standing atop Lucas' head and looking down at the rock. She flared her Flash in annoyance before settling it into the dim glow that she'd been radiating for so long in this cave. The prinplup frowned, before blasting the name off with a Water Gun. He hardened his wing again, before scratching another name in.
"Bast?" Lucas asked. Shinx jumped from her trainer's head onto the rock, inspecting the name. Bast was a cool name, but it also didn't really fit what she wanted to be.
'Tsovinar, no.'
'Oh, come on, she doesn't even get the joke.' The prinplup said. 'And if she gives me a stupid name, I give her a stupid name.'
'I thought as royalty you're supposed to place yourself above this level of banter.' Jun replied. She was confused as to why Bast was a bad name, since it just didn't seem to fit her, but if Jun said it was a bad name, then he was right. After all, someone with portable sleeping places couldn't be wrong.
"If you're going with a name like that, then why not Nike? It means 'Victory', so I mean…" Lucas said. She thought over the name.
'See, even he doesn't get it!' Tsovinar received a glare from Jun at that statement.
"That's a solid name, I like it." The other human with the comfy shoulders said.
'Much better.' Jun chipped in his two cents.
"Alright, then we're in agreement!" Lucas smiled.
'Why do I get the feeling we're not included in that we?' Aria chirped, finally joining in the conversation.
'Because they can't understand us without a psychic.' Jun replied. 'Frustrating when your trainer's like ours and does stupid things regularly.'
Shinx toned out the conversation that the other pokemon were having, focusing on her Flash. She was getting a little tired from all of the move usage.
=o=
The light at the end of the tunnel shone brightly, illuminating the tunnel's exit. They'd had to switch to flashlights after Nike fell asleep from using Flash so much.
"Finally, we're here!" Barry practically shouted, excitement coursing through his veins as Lucas let out a large sigh of relief.
There were a set of stairs that led down to a large road running through a set of houses. There was a no gateway building, as Oreburgh was a city nested in the foothills of the Alphic Mountains, protected from rampaging pokemon by the terrain. The city was small, the smallest on this side of the mountain range, boasting a population that could fit in one or two of Jubilife's larger skyscrapers.
"Let's go check into the pokemon center. After that, we can register for Gym Battles tomorrow."
The two recalled their pokemon and walked through the streets. The red-roofed building stood out among the shack-like domiciles littering the town, and the pathway from the tunnel morphed into the road that led directly to it. The Nurse Joy seemed a little embarrassed when they asked if they could room together, and Lucas figured out why when they entered the room.
"Wait, why is there onl-" Barry seemed to have come to the same conclusion as Lucas did, as his cheeks flushed red upon realizing what the single twin bed meant.
"Obviously, there's been a misunderstanding." Lucas tried to keep his tone even. Looker would not hear of this; some part of him told him that Barry would keep this secret as well, if the blonde's mortified countenance was anything to go by. "I'll ask if there's a room with two separate beds."
A couple minutes later, which were accompanied by the nurse apologizing profusely, Lucas and Barry now found themselves in a room with two separate twin beds. They unpacked their stuff and released their pokemon. Lucas sprawled himself on the small couch.
"I'm taking a shower." Barry announced, taking off the striped jacket and walking into the bathroom. "I'll be a while, so make yourself comfy." He shut the door behind him, and Lucas heard the lock click.
Perfect. I'm going to make a call to Looker. He opened his pokedex up and dialed the field agent's number. The phone rang for a while, before Lucas heard it pick up on the other end.
"Who is this?"
"It's your protégé, old coot." Lucas chortled. He'd always wanted to say that, and Looker chuckled at the other end of the phone.
"No respect for the elderly. I guess you're in Oreburgh? Give me a rundown of what's happened, eh?"
"Well, I've found a traveling partner, and you'll never guess who." Lucas smirked, but the laughter at the other end wiped it from his face.
"I don't have to guess, kiddo! Palmer told everyone he could! He's such a child sometimes; you wouldn't think he's the Tower Tycoon if you met him!"
"Really?" Lucas was smiling. "Wait, how do you know Palmer?"
"Me and Snell go way back, kid! We used to be buddies back in school, and we even started our journey together. We've all grown up now, but occasionally we'll catch up for a drink or two." Looker said. "Anyways, enough about me. Got any new catches?"
"Yeah, I've got a shinx." Said pokemon was curled up on his lap, peacefully sleeping away. "I'll turn on the video chat, if you want." Lucas pushed a button, and Looker's face blinked into existence on the top screen of the pokedex as Lucas pointed the camera towards the shinx. "Her name is Nike, and she's a hand with Flash."
"Sounds good! Have those TM's been any help?"
"I've only taught Tsovinar Flash Cannon. I'll wait until Nike's stronger, then I'll give her Thunderbolt." Lucas watched as Looker turned off the video chat and placed the pokedex back up to his ear.
"How long are you planning to stay in Oreburgh?"
"Probably two or three days, why?"
"Just curious, that's all. You should stop by the museum, I hear that it's a great tourist attraction."
"I'll see what I can do."
"If that's all, then I'll talk to you later. Good luck tomorrow!" Looker hung up quickly after that. With nothing left to do, he decided to pull up a few videos of Roark's battles to prepare himself for tomorrow. He watched a couple battles, each with less and less interest as he slowly drifted off to sleep.
His eyes barely closed before he was startled awake by an unearthly wailing coming from the bathroom. Was Barry alright? Jun and Aria seemed embarrassed while Tsovinar was laughing, so it wasn't something serious.
"I wanna beeeeee, the very best, like no one ever waaaaaaaas~" Barry was singing in the shower, and by Arceus it was horrible. He plugged his ears and continued reading, pretending to not hear the high-pitched wails.
"Barry! SHUT UP!"
Nike and Tsovinar were rolling on the floor laughing as Aria hid herself in Jun's bushes, pretending her trainer didn't exist.
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AN: And here comes the comic relief himself, Barry Snell! For those wondering about his last name that I've given here, it's a bastardization of 'schnell', which is German for 'fast'. He'll have his moments when he decides that life is better at seventy miles per hour, but he'll also take some time to look at the world around him.
AN2: For those of you wondering, yes, this chapter has been re-written. I took a look back at it while trying to figure out how to progress the plot and realized that a) my writin and b) I wrote myself into a nice fat plothole. I'm going to instead just