Chapter 25: A Test of Growth

"Ah, don't worry," Barry said to the concerned nurse at the front desk of the Pokemon Center as he and Dawn slung on of Lucas' arms of each of their shoulders while they dragged his barely conscious body into their room. "He just had a bit too much to drink." He put as much a calm and nonchalant expression as he could while Dawn's worry seemed blatant. She went back to working on something as Dawn and Barry received a few more odd looks on the way to their room before they slung Lucas onto a bed before Dawn ran and placed a cold, wet towel over his profusely sweating forehead.

He simply lay there sweating buckets between his heaving exhalations. "W-will he be alright?" Dawn nervously asked as she looked at Lucas, "Should we call a doc—"

"I think he'll be fine," Barry answered plainly before he dashed into the bathroom, coming out with a half-filled cup of water.

"What are you gonna—" Dawn began before Barry splashed the water onto Lucas' face almost half-heartedly as he sputtered and slammed into an upright position, wiping the water from his face.

"What the fuck was that for?!" Lucas cursed as he took a few more heavy breaths as he scanned the room.

"How'd you know to do that?" Dawn asked, looking back and forth between Lucas and Barry.

"A gut feeling," Barry lied with a flat expression as he turned to Lucas, "You owe me a million Pokedollars for helping you back there, Lucas. You weigh as much as a tank," he joked as he extended a hand that Lucas grabbed in thanks.

"I'd rather die," Lucas chuckled, water dripping from his hair.

"Alright, that can be arranged," Barry smiled back, cracking his knuckles before Dawn interrupted the banter.

"This isn't a time for jokes," she said sternly admonished the two. She knelt next to Lucas' side, holding his hand as he turned to her with a smile before his face revealed some guilt.

"Lucas… are you alright?" Dawn began, "Do you remember—"

"I remember everything fine, Dawn," he reassured. "Look, I'm sorry about whatever happened during that battle I…" he paused for a moment as he looked for an effective way to frame the words, taking a quick glance at Barry who seemed to communicate something to him, "I just lost myself in trying to win. I was almost beaten for the first time in a battle, and I guess I focused every part of myself and put too much stress so I just…"

"Collapsed?" Dawn questioned, somehow not buying his narrative of events. She sat in front of him on the bed. "That wasn't like you at all Lucas. You did and said things that don't sound like who you are," she concernedly said as she placed a finger on his heart, "I mean, you almost hurt Hazel and Verna. You tried to hurt them," she continued to speak as she realized the near horror of what happened as she let his hand go. "What is wrong with y—"

"I-I never tried to hurt them, Dawn," Lucas weakly said as Barry stood across the room with his arms folded, paying close attention, "I just had these moments of insight. Moments where I had a burst of clarity on how to win, how to keep my streak and prove how good I was," he said, some of his ferocity and power form the battlefield partially kicking in as he spoke. "But I never tried to hurt your Pokemon," he softly said as he hung his head low, "I'm sorry."

Dawn didn't say anything for a moment, and for that moment, Lucas wasn't sure what she would say to him about what happened or what he just said to her. "That doesn't make what you did right. Is this the same thing that happens to you when you fight Galactic Grunts or people like Valerie?" she quickly added, becoming a bit hostile and more anxious.

Barry watched Lucas with wide eyes as if to say, "I want to see how you play your way out of this one," before Lucas responded. "This was different, Dawn. Going against them, I'm slinging shots on defense, to keep us safe and them out of our way. Now, I was battling, I was about to lose, and then I just slipped into some kind of stress-spell. I battled harder than I ever did, and I wasn't going to accept a loss. So I slammed the gas and shifted to sixth," he lightly shrugged, "My head hurt, everything blurred: I was half there and half not," he sighed in defeat.

"Don't… don't do this again," she said to him, a sympathetic sadness in her face, "I thought something happened to you. Something bad," she softly added. There was another short silence before Dawn spoke again. "Are you going to battle Gardenia today? Like this?"

"I'll battle her, alright. I'll never let a chance to battle go, but what happened in that battle earlier, it won't happen again," he assured, pressing his hand on hers. "My head wasn't right, I gave into tunnel-vision, and I did something I would never do otherwise," he summarized, regaining some of his strength and usual vigor as he spoke with confidence, "I promise."

"Okay," Dawn softly whispered as she gripped his hand back while Lucas noticed Barry raising an eyebrow in the background.

"Dawn," he began, "I know, especially after what just happened, this'll sound a bit weird. But I need to talk to Barry," he said, using his head to gesture in Barry's direction.

"Okay, talk to him," she shrugged nonchalantly.

Lucas hung his head in a mix of guilt and embarrassment before he continued speaking, "I mean, alone. It's kind of… I can't explain it. I just don't want to frighten or burden you with anything more than what happened," he vaguely explained as Dawn's look changed from sympathetic, to offended, back to an understanding one in a matter of seconds.

"I-is it something you can't tell me?" she sadly asked as both she and Lucas envisioned a conversation on a lot of tender and sensitive subjects following shortly after.

"Man, this is difficult," Lucas thought before he spoke. "No… it's not like that, Dawn." He paused gently before speaking again, "It's just that he's known me for… a lot longer, and he knows things that I can't really explain in five minutes," he said as he woefully rubbed the bridge of his nose as he tried to frame his next words, "I'm just trying to make things easier for all three of us," he earnestly said, "I don't want to sound like I don't trust you or that I want to hide something," he added.

"Alright," she said as she slowly got up, "I'll be with… Alyssa," she continued as she shot him a glance that clearly said, "We need to talk." She walked to the door before she turned back, "If you need help or you're not feeling right again, just give me a call," she smiled before she shut the door behind her just before Barry dropped his passive stance, dropping his arms to his sides form their folded position as he and Lucas stared each other down for several seconds.

"Liar," Lucas chuckled.

"I'm the liar?" Barry shot back.

"A gut instinct," Lucas scoffed with air quotes and mocking Barry's voice, "This sure as hell isn't the first time you've seen me like this."

"Lucas, cut the jokes out for a second," Barry said more seriously, a somewhat admonishing hostility in his voice, "That was a lie that will have absolutely no consequences. Also, that was one sentence. Your entire conversation with her was Tauros-shit!"

"No, I wasn't lying the whole time. I snuck in some truths, too. I wasn't trying to deceive her or—"

"You're supposed to sneak in a couple of lies in a series of truths, not the other way around, Lucas," Barry objected, "We both know exactly what you were thinking, or weren't thinking, on that battlefield." Lucas sat in silent admittance as Barry continued, "Alright, you know what, tell me: what really happened on that battlefield? Because usually, something far worse brings out your rage, not just losing a Pokemon battle."

Lucas took a deep breath before he realized that Barry was perhaps the one person in the world he could trust telling what happened. He always did. "I don't know why it happened this time, man. I just don't know. One moment I was losing because I made a dumb choice, and in the next, I had my victory pinned and was seeing purple."

"Purple?" Barry said confusedly, "The saying is 'seeing red', not seeing purple," he tried to correct.

"I know that," Lucas brushed off, "I meant that I was literally seeing purple. Like the color. It was in my vision. I saw a whole bunch of flashes of these colors and then it was just a hurricane of purple… energy or fire. I don't even really know what it was, just that I saw it before well, shit hit the fan," he shrugged.

"Lucas, the last time this happened it was after… you know…" Barry trailed nervously.

"Yeah, I know," Lucas filled in, "It doesn't make sense for happened out there to happen at all. And then there's what happened between me and Galahad," he added.

"Between you and Galahad?"

"I felt this connection," Lucas gestured, putting his palms out for each to symbolize himself and his Pokemon, "I could understand what his strengths were, how his wings beat, how he could turn, maneuver, and in a way I could never on my own. I-I made him do things that I never could have trained him to do on my own."

"Did you mean to do what you did?"

"I meant to win. Or rather I meant to do whatever it took to not lose. But that? I'm not too sure where the insight came from."

"You said you saw a whole bunch of images and colors before you lost it… what were they?" Barry pried further.

"I don't know what they were. Something connected them, or maybe nothing at all. I don't know, but there were these bright and almost symbolic patterns before I began to feel the heat inside me like I was an engine of war of something," Lucas added in a low, almost monotone voice as he remembered what happened.

Barry put his face in his hand before looking up at Lucas again, "Look, there's maybe thirty seconds worth of explanation you need to give her about what happened out there, so there's no reason for you to try to cover this up. Why don't you tell her the damn truth?!"

"Because I'm sure it'll sound great. 'I know we've been dating for all of two days, so by the way, I have an uncontrolled part of me that I've yet to understand which could possibly have fatal consequences for me, you, or both of us!'" he said with mock enthusiasm.

"You can't say the truth plainly? Really? You haven't been able to do it for as long as I can remember but now that you're holding hands and cuddling with her it's suddenly possible?" Barry skeptically said though Lucas could tell he was just trying to be a voice of reason. "Be reasonable, Lucas. This problem isn't going away, and she should know that."

"I will. Soon, but not now," Lucas said as he got up, "For now, I think I should prepare for that gym battle coming up," he said with a smile as he tried to move away from the topic. "We'll think about what I should do about… this," he said, pointing to his head, "later today."

"Sounds good to me," Barry nodded, "I think you should be careful," he added, placing a hand on his shoulder, "But who the hell am I kidding I'm aching for a battle, too!" he continued, returning to his usual fiery excitement before he snatched a Pokeball from his pocket. "Hell, I'm going right now so I can beat Gardenia before you," he proudly said as he stepped out the door before he turned to Lucas again, "Don't do anything stupid. Not without me," he laughed just as he bolted out the door.

Lucas spent the next couple hours getting himself straightened and cleaned as he planned out his strategy and method for the upcoming battle. Dawn walked in soon after, seemingly having put the incident earlier in the day behind her, at least until Lucas' gym battle was over as she joined him in going over how he should go about securing his next badge.

"You know, if you win this, then you can use that HM Cynthia gave you," Dawn reminded Lucas as they made the short stroll over to the gym.

"Oh yeah, it was for Cut, right? Would have been nice to have it in Eterna Forest," he chuckled, "We could have shredded our way through in like half a day."

"Yeah, maybe we could have explored different parts of our forest and stuff, but at least we have it now," Dawn agreed, "So it'll make the rest of our journey a bit easier."

"I heard that in Alola, they don't give you HMs," Lucas said as they neared the gym, a cold and familiar winter breeze blowing through the old city as their heels fell against the brick road.

"Really? That sounds terrible! How do they get around all of their islands and jungles?"

"Well, they don't have HMs for Pokemon, but they do have this cool pager system thing where you can call a certain Pokemon to help you out with whatever it is you would have done with an HM. I mean, that way, you don't have to always carry a Pokemon with you to do whatever HM you might need on a journey," he said.

"I heard they do a lot of stuff differently from other regions over there," Dawn nodded somewhat excitedly, "The place sounds like a paradise out of a storybook more than anything!"

They reached the gym with its lit-up, white, LED sign, and wood-brown roof but instead noticed someone outside the gym, . "Who's that?" Dawn asked, nudging slightly at Lucas.

"I don't know," Lucas shrugged as they got closer, noticing that the seemed to be waving to them as she realized they were headed to the Gym. "But I'm guessing she knows why we're here."

"Hi!" the person said in a sweet voice as they approached the entrance of the gym. She was a bit taller than Dawn, with a rugged, hard-working appearance: dressed in thick green boots and tough and baggy brown shorts that seemed to be torn at the bottom. Yet she also seemed to devote some attention to her own comfort and style: a green half-cloak that covered a black long-sleeve crop-top underneath and auburn-brown and hair that was somewhat of a bowl-cut but still had bangs. The outfit would sound horrendous as a concept, but Lucas and Dawn had to acknowledge, whatever its function was, she pulled off the form just fine. "I'm Gardenia," she introduced with exciting hazel eyes that matched Lucas'.

"I'm Lucas," he promptly responded, shaking hands before he introduced Dawn. "I'm here to—"

"To challenge me for a battle. Yes, I know," Gardenia nodded with a slight chuckle, "Actually a trainer was here on the same business not long ago. He was an awfully speedy guy: I think his name was Barry. Anyway, he set up quite the reputation for you before he left," she laughed. "Think you're up to it?"

"He does tend to exaggerate," Lucas admitted, "But I think you'll find the best parts of what he said to be true," he added.

"That's good to hear. A trainer confident in his abilities will make the most of them, but I'm going to test more than what you have now," she somewhat vaguely said, "Anyway, it is a bit cold out here. Let's head inside. Our battle will be at the back of the gym," she smiled as she headed into gym. "You can stock up on heals and potions if you'd like before you battle against me," she offered.

"Oh, no thank you. I'm good," Lucas said.

"Alright, I'll be expecting quite the battle from you based on what Roark and that Barry kid said," she kindly encouraged before heading inside the gym.

Lucas and Dawn followed her inside the brown building as the light from the complete glass ceiling began to work their magic on their eyes as they entered. From outside, the building had a brown roof, but in reality, that was only the edges of the roof. Everything else was made of glass, letting even the meager winter light outside flood in like a torrent of brightness, glinting off of the hundreds of colors inside.

"Like what I've done with the place?" Gardenia asked with a smile as she walked ahead of Lucas and Dawn, noticing their curious gazes devouring every corner of the gym.

"Y-yeah," Dawn managed to say through her awe. The entirety of the gym was covered in vegetation, save for the paths they were walking on. A massive clock spanned the middle of the room, its hour and minute hands having free rotation and serving as a path to lead from one corner of the gym to the next through a beautiful maze and series of paths of greenery and flowers. Every type of flora imaginable seemed to flow from the walls and borders around the paths, with small Roselia and Cherblossoms walking happily throughout the gym in cute little bunches. "It's so peaceful and gorgeous."

"Aw, it's wonderful to hear that. It isn't easy upkeep for sure," she said, gesturing around the gym, "But this is basically my office, so I like to add my bit of relaxation and color to it, you know? Unlike Roark, but don't tell him I said that," she laughed shortly.

They walked across the clock in the middle of the room as Gardenia pressed a couple of buttons that temporarily moved the hands from their correct position to serve as paths to lead them to the back of the gym where the battle-area was before reorienting themselves correctly once they'd all crossed. "Good luck, Lucas. I know you'll win this one, too," Dawn said with a short hug before she made her way down to a small bench that stood on a raised wall above the battle area while Lucas and Gardenia made their way down the stairs into the lowered battle area where they each went to the edge on either half, Pokeball in hand.

"This gym battle is focused on your growth as a trainer. This is your second gym battle, right?" Gardenia asked, looking at Lucas' Coal Badge on his jacket.

"Yes," Lucas affirmed.

"Then this the first time a league official will see if there is and what kind of improvement your training brought you. Are you ready, Lucas?"

"More than," Lucas said as he threw out Caesar's Pokeball with his characteristic enthusiasm for competition. "Alright Caesar, you're first!"

"You're choosing a Water-Type Pokemon for a Grass-Type gym leader?" Gardenia said with an eyebrow raised, "This is the same type of thing you did with Roark, I'm told. But I'm not here to test if what worked last time will work again," she said with a smile as she silently released a Cherrim from its Pokeball, "I'm here to see how you've grown!"

Both Pokemon faced each other off, but even Lucas eyed the Cherrim very closely, knowing how Gardenia supposedly defeated many trainers with clever set-ups and powers using the Pokemon. It wasn't how he'd seen it in his Pokedex earlier that day, however: now, it looked more like a purple fruit or berry with a weird red ball on top, though in the Pokedex it seemed to look like a happy flower with a face. "Probably just a gender difference," he shrugged off in his head, "Shouldn't change much about what it does."

"Interesting," he said aloud, "But it's still weak to Flying-Type, so Caesar, slide, and Peck!"

"Cherrim, start off with Sunny Day!" Gardenia excitedly said, raising one of her hands. Her little Cherrim responded with her command perfectly, releasing a ball of bright light into the air as its light glinted off of the high glass roof before it affixed itself, giving off a warm, nurturing light onto everything below. Lucas noticed as a few of the Pokemon hiding and playing in the flora in the gym gathered nearer to the large Pokemon-made solar equivalent in the sky.

But his diverted rather quickly to the Cherrim. It's purple covering ruffled, a bit to Lucas' disgust before they lifted like petal flaps to reveal the smiling, bright face of a yellow Pokemon with a cheerful glow. Its petals now, opened up to form a cute little frill and dress around the Pokemon's body had soft pink undersides, and the little creatures head sported two little red balls, perhaps fruit outgrowths or energy stores of some kind. In spite of its weird features, however, Lucas found himself gazing in awe at the familiar form of the Blossom Pokemon.

It gave out a happy little squeak in its own Sunny Day effect as the effect of the heat and light coming down caused it to absorb an incredible amount of energy, letting small, softly glowing particles slowly rise and drift away from its excited body.

In the meantime, Caesar used a new method that Lucas had been eager to try, especially on a smooth, glass floor. Instead of clumsily waddling over as Caesar usually did on his feet with were poorly adapted for land travel, the proud little Penguin simply blasted a Bubble-Beam all over the floor in front of him, forming a slippery layer of water that would have been an inconvenience for every other Pokemon, but a way for Caesar to get into his true element as he had a short head-start on his feet before effortlessly and rapidly sliding across the floor, beak blazing white for his actual attack.

"Interesting technique," Gardenia nodded, "But it won't be enough," she finished just as the Prinplup slammed beak-first into Cherrim, sending the Pokemon flat on its back after a dull thud echoed across the arena, a few of the spectating Pokemon cheering and jeering. Caesar managed to make his way back to Lucas' side as the Cherrim got up, wiggling itself to knock the dust off its petals as it absorbed the dazzling sunlight above, almost becoming fluorescent with light-green energy in broad daylight. "Morning Sun, Cherrim!"

The little beads of light moving off of Cherrim suddenly collected into a little ball, gently flowing back into the little Pokemon as it cheerfully and brightly danced playfully, its vigor returning to it as though it hadn't taken a hit at all from Caesar. It tweeted happily on the other side of the field as Lucas stared in amazement. "She'll hold out forever unless I do something," he desperately thought, "And I'm not going to lose here on my first bloody Pokemon," he cursed to himself before sighing and collecting himself to execute a plan. "Again," he flatly said.

The proud little Prinplup once again laid down a small path of water for him to jet across the stage on using Bubblebeam, getting up close to the Cherrim despite its attempts to maneuver and landing a devastating Peck attack that would weaken the flower-like Pokemon. "Again," he commanded with an expressionless poker face. However, no matter how direct Caesar's Peck attack was, it would never be enough to deliver a knock-out punch, and Gardenia wasted no time in simply using the glittering, infernal mini-sun in the sky to regenerate all of the health Cherrim had lost. "Again," he still calmly ordered Caesar, who stuck diligently to Lucas' commands but wavered a bit before once again laying down his predictable pattern of attack.

"You know the definition of insanity, right?" Gardenia said, raising her eyebrow as she watched Lucas seemingly try the same strategy over and over again to seemingly no avail. Three Peck attacks and subsequent Morning Sun heals had gone back and forth from both sides with no avail, yet as Lucas still pressed on with the same attack for the fourth time, she seemed to press down on the meaningless exchange suddenly. "I asked you to show me growth, Lucas," she almost admonished, pointing her finger at him, "This is stagnation. Cherrim! Use Leech Seed!"

The Cherrim took the attack from Caesar head-on again, but this time, instead of recovering its health by converting the bright light into health for itself, it simply spat a little clump of seeds at Caesar. They rolled across the smooth glass floor effortlessly, the brown dots landing squarely at Caesar's feet before the burst open, startling the proud Penguin as they dug their roots and shoots into his feet. "There it is," Lucas noted to himself, "She's trying something different now, which means she knows her Sunny Day is about to run out." Lucas kept watching as the bursted seeds pulsed a toxic green, pulling some kind of energy and vitality out of poor Caesar and packaging it into fluorescent-green vesicles that floated like little orbs over to the Cherrim, who absorbed it and drew on its strength.

"Use Peck again," Lucas hesitantly said. Caesar caught onto his trainer's uncertainty this time and paused for a bit, but Lucas reassured him. "You need to, buddy; just trust me." "If this gamble pays off," he thought, "Then the rest of the battle will be on my terms."

As Caesar charged again, Lucas had a rising smile upon his face as he saw the bright, glittering sun that Cherrim had created at the start of the battle flicker, dim, and dissipate into a powdery nothingness. Now not as hindered by the beating heat, Caesar sprung up on the Cherrim once more to drill into the Pokemon with his beak, causing it to buckle and reel from the impact but still effectively gather itself as it stood once more. "Come on, come on," Lucas nervously thought to himself as he looked at Gardenia instead of Caesar's attack, hoping she would play into his setup, "I want you to do it. Come on!"

"If you're not going to take my advice, reap what you sow," she disappointedly shrugged as she looked at the collision between Caesar and Cherrim. "Cherrim, Sunny Day—"

"Yes!" Lucas thought, pumping his fist to reveal his excitement before she even finished her command.

"—And Petal Dance," she further added as Lucas raised his eyebrow in confusion, trying to understand what he'd just heard as he tried to slap himself out of his excitement.

"Petal Dance," he confusedly thought, "It's probably just a setup move like Sunny Day. She played into my trap, and now I just gotta go on the attack."

The Cherrim launched yet another energy orb into the air before it closed its face-petals in again, facing Lucas and Caesar with dazzling vitality yet again. But as Caesar awaited Lucas' orders, it began producing a flurry of petals, razor-sharp yet incredibly colorful, in immense hoards around her. "That's not a setup move…" Lucas nervously thought. "Caesar, you're probably gonna have to make a run for it," he said, reflecting his regret to not make a move earlier in his voice—a hesitance that Caesar felt for the first time in his trainer's voice, looking back at his trainer with disappointment.

In a burst, all of the masses of petals generated rocketed towards Caesar, pelting the poor Prinplup from all directions. Although he was able to stomach the hit well enough to hold on, he'd fallen down forward as Lucas watched the seemingly harmless petals sip away at his strength, storming him from all sides. By the time the onslaught cleared, Caesar lay on the floor, breathing steadily and knocked out cold. "Your move, trainer," Gardenia said confidently from the other side, "I did warn you not to do precisely that," she gestured towards Caesar.

"I'm not done yet," Lucas said, fired up again with hurt pride, "I do know the definition of insanity: repeating the same thing expecting different results. But here's the thing, Gardenia," he continued as he picked a Pokeball from his pocket while recalling Caesar, "I didn't want different results. I wanted a badge in my hand. Just like last time," he retorted before throwing out Prometheus' Pokeball, who seemingly flared his heat and Lucas' determination out into the world around him.

Lucas could see his tail flame burn more like a roaring jet engine than an erratic campfire like it usually did. Gardenia smiled on the other side, somewhat relieved that her challenger was not a complete dolt. "Interesting. I have no idea what throwing your first Pokemon away adds to your plan, but so be it," she shrugged.

"Fire Fang," Lucas began. Gardenia didn't even bother to give orders as the Cherrim carried on its previous attack into its second phase, whipping up yet another floral onslaught to bury Prometheus. "Shoot an ember into the storm," Lucas said with a curled smile, knowing how to turn the tables against her.

Now, Prometheus' tail flame didn't just burn more, it burned hotter as his golden skin shimmered with energy just like Cherrim did under the intense heat of the Sunny Day. Only instead of releasing bits of it into the surroundings and into her attacks, Prometheus seemed to fuel the entirety of the energy boost into his attacking ferocity and fuel.

He swung his tail back and forth before charging straight toward the Cherrim, who seemed incredibly concentrated and fixated on painting her Petal Dance. Just as Prometheus had gotten halfway toward Cherrim, he began to feel what Caesar had felt so painfully before his as all of the hundreds and thousands of needle-like petals rained down on him like they could blot out the sun.

None of it worked. Prometheus fired an extremely charged blue Ember attack into the storm, setting aflame a flurry of petals around him that became ash in an instant, falling harmlessly in the ground and maintain an opening in front of him to keep charging down the Cherrim. Cherrim seemed to have none of it either, continuing to concentrate her immense flow of petals right in front of the area where Prometheus had burned him an opening, still trying tear down the Flame Pokemon, but the attack simply wasn't effective enough to do much damage even when it made contact, and Cherrim's concentration to keep the dreadful attack began to waver and give way with each passing moment.

Prometheus made it quick and accurate, ramming the Cherrim backward with his head before clamping around it with is jaws flaming with incinerating blue fire that shut the fate of the Cherrim. Gardenia gasped at the sudden change of tide before glancing at the shining, ferocious lizard Pokemon that stood before her, standing triumphant before it went back to Lucas' side. "Good, you've got some material in you," she acknowledged, "Now to see if you have tried to nurture it: Carnivine!"

"Nurture?" Lucas thought to himself, "Lady, this is a raging fire-type with Sunny Day boosting it. It could be nurtured like an orphan: I'd still win."

"Use Growth!" Gardenia ordered. The Carnivine flayed out its massive stem-like limbs to absorb as much searing sunlight from above as it could. Lucas couldn't see what was happening to her until a slightly transparent blue aura began to flare around the Carnivine, its snaggly teeth breaching its closed mouth as it smiled. It seemed to even grow a bit larger and stronger as it basked in the heat.

Lucas remained unperturbed by the suddenly growing Carnivine in front of him, ordering Prometheus to press on with a Fire Fang.

"Use Bite!" Gardenia commanded in rapid succession.

Blue flames began to dribble out of his mouth as the lizard Pokemon stamped its foot into the ground and lunged forward into the opponent in front of him. Carnivine snared to lampposts that lined the stadium with its now elongated legs while using its other stem-limbs to pull itself back, effectively turning itself into a slingshot before letting go and flying toward Prometheus with its snare-like mouth wide open.

The incoming Bug-Catcher Pokemon slammed into Prometheus, tangling him in its many stems while keeping the Charmeleon's head secure in its vicious Bite as the Lizard Pokemon struggled.

Lucas watched quietly and closely as Prometheus flailed while the Carnivine's Bite and grip both became tighter and stronger, depleting energy Prometheus needed for future attacks. But a smile crept across his face as the blazing makeshift sun in the sky began to work as he expected.

Licking blue flames began to escape from Carnivine's mouth as if they came from a grease fire that met some water, sending the Pokemon's eyes wide with pain enough to let its snare on Prometheus go. The Charmeleon wasted no time in using his opportunity, pulling its head back form the mouth of the Carnivine, and sinking its own teeth into the opponent while releasing a torrent of flames that sounded like a propane torch. The Carnivine fell over backward, trying to get back up as it moved its legs weakly.

Both Lucas and Gardenia opened their mouths to speak, but before anything further could be done, Charmeleon fired a quick Ember into the fallen Carnivine and finished the job. He looked proudly back at Lucas, the golden skin glistening in the fiery light. "He can improvise…" Lucas curiously thought, "Maybe if we worked on that, I wouldn't have to reveal my attacks all the time by saying it out loud before it happened."

"I see you used my own set-up against me again," Gardenia smiled. "Which means you're good enough to face my last Pokemon, go Roserade!" she excitedly called out. She quickly recalled the Carnivine as a smaller Pokemon replaced in the field. The Roserade began staring without expression at Prometheus with deceptively sweet eyes, glowing just like its predecessors in the hot light all while small, spectating Grass-Type Pokemon were cooing and cheering around the battle-area in small groups.

"Set up with Grassy Terrain!" Gardenia began. The field, which was lush and grassy to begin with, suddenly became infested with enough low vegetation to supply an entire ecosystem.

"Great, another set-up move," Lucas dreadfully thought, "But it doesn't matter, I'll wipe the floor with this Sunny Day still active."

"You know the drill," he said to Prometheus, who began to see the pattern in how to defeat Gardenia's Pokemon, charging again with a mouth full of blue flame.

A note of caution began to tug at Lucas, however, as both Gardenia and Roserade remained perfectly expressionless and still, letting Prometheus get close. "She wants me to use a physical attack," he quickly reasoned, "But why would she do that? Her Pokemon won't have enough health to battle Galahad."

Prometheus closed in on the Roserade, unaware of Lucas' doubts as he enclosed his teeth on yet another Grass-Type, this time unopposed. But as the expected damage from the fiery attack was working on the Roserade, Lucas gaped at a sudden change of events.

Lucas began to realize what happened. Prometheus had bitten down on the Roserade's arm, which had sweet-looking roses at the end, but as he saw Prometheus writhing and dizzy as though he were sick, he connected the dots.

"Poison Point is a great ability to have on a Pokemon you're using in the last stand," Gardenia proudly revealed as her Roserade seemed to recover some energy the longer it stayed on the lush undergrowth of the battle-area. "You can't win attacking head-on anymore. Adapt, Lucas."

Prometheus was now on dangerously low health and much less agile from the toxin he'd been injected with as he stumbled back to increase the range between him and the Roserade. It was the first time he'd ever had to play defensive and the shift in tides that something Lucas felt uneasy about, too. "Keep your distance, melt the Roserade with Ember," Lucas said, confidently. Prometheus continued to absorb the heat of the Sunny Day into his attacks as he began to lob arcing shots of fire down from as far as he could.

"Your strategy won't work well," Gardenia advised, "Look at how your Charmeleon's Ember attacks are traveling," she said, pointing to how the fireballs were now traveling in high arcs with incredibly slow velocity, coming down at an almost vertical angle and giving the Roserade ample time to dodge, "He's too weak to keep an effective offense from that range."

Lucas seemed to ignore her advice completely, or at least she didn't acknowledge what she said as he continued to watch the Roserade evade between incoming shots, certain that at least one would make contact. "Come on, come on, just one shot!" he thought.

"Finish him with Sludge Bomb," Gardenia confidently said, her Roserade now having recovered a significant amount of energy since it was last attacked. Unlike Prometheus, her attack had incredibly velocity, closing the gap between her and Prometheus before the latter could react and knocking him flat on his back.

Lucas could feel the fury bubbling inside of him as he saw Prometheus fainted on the floor. His fist balled up, the sweat began to collect on his forehead, and he could feel his heart try to rip free from his ribcage. Until he saw a flash of purple. "no," he softly told himself as he suddenly relaxed, almost out of fear dropping Galahad's Pokeball he'd withdrawn on the floor, inadvertently releasing the avian Pokemon while he made a quick glance at Dawn, hoping she couldn't notice from the distance she was at.

She couldn't notice, at least not specifically. Although she did see a bit of unease building in him. "What's he nervous about? Galahad is the perfect Pokemon to have at this time," she wondered. "Come on, you can do this!"

Lucas recalled Prometheus, slowly regaining his confident demeanor as he tried to gather as much information as he could about the situation around him, "It's something to tell Barry about, for sure," he thought to himself before taking notice of Galahad circling above him. "Galahad, use Wing Attack!"

"Again, Sludge Bomb," Gardenia countered. The battle was over in seconds. Galahad almost instinctively screeched in from above, wings blazing white with energy while the Roserade launched another ball of toxic sludge was he closed in. But the nimble raptor quickly evaded, readjusting his collision course before knocking the Bouquet Pokemon out cold with a quick fly-by.

"There you go!" Lucas cheered, throwing his hand in the air with a Pokeball to recall Galahad. "Another step to the League!"

"Indeed, you had a better plan than I gave you credit for. It would have been much less advantageous for your last Pokemon to have been your Prinplup instead of your Staravia. Which means," she paused, gesturing to one of the little Cherrim spectating who came bounding forward, dropping a small item into her hand, "This is yours."

She placed the item in Lucas' hand as he looked down at it. "The Forest Badge?" Lucas asked, looking at the three steel squares placed in a diamond-shape with ever-green cutouts at their bottoms.

"Exactly, but it also doubles as a TM for Grass Knot," she added.

"What? How?"

"Some of the Pokemon Centers have updated facilities, like the one here in Eterna. When you go to heal your Pokemon, just drop off this TM badge along with your Pokemon to the nurse, and the computer will read the chip on the back and give the instruction to the Pokemon of your choice," she explained.

Lucas flipped over the badge to see a small chip embedded inside the steel. "Huh, Roark didn't give a badge like this," he shrugged.

"Of course he didn't," Gardenia jokingly scoffed, "I'm surprised he doesn't keep all of his notes on a stone tablet. "Anyway, I'm sure Cynthia would be excited to hear you beat me," she said as Lucas was putting the badge in his pocket before he almost froze.

"C-Cynthia?" he nervously asked, "She talked to you about me?"

"Well, she sort of is my boss," Gardenia responded as Dawn approached from her seat tuning into the conversation, "And she told me that she already told you that she'd be watching your closely, especially after your work stopping Galactic at Valley Windworks."

"Well, yeah, but I can't be the only one in Sinnoh who had to beat them back by force. And when she said she'd watch me closely, I thought she was just… you know—"

"Saying that to be nice?" Gardenia filled in.

"Yeah."

"Well, to answer your first question, you're definitely not the only one to have fought off team Galactic. A guy form Interpol had run-ins with them, and there are a whole bunch of problems we've had with stolen Pokemon and people battling grunts all over Sinnoh, especially after you forced Galactic out of Floaroma."

"Well, I'll ask you exactly what I asked Roark: can you—"

"No."

"But I didn't even ask you yet."

"I know what you're going to ask," she said defeatedly, "I asked that same question myself before, and the answer is, no. There are more threads in this web than I can explain and way more than you are allowed to know," she bluntly put. "But trust me, it's nothing you need to worry about right now."

"Then," Lucas said, unconvinced but giving in, "thanks for the badge."

"Of course, it's not a gift. You earned it," she said encouragingly as she waved to Lucas and Dawn who turned to head out the door.

"How was the battle?" Dawn asked after they headed outside again.

"You saw the whole thing, right? I won," he responded, confused as to why she was even asking.

"Was it like earlier today," she cautiously asked further, "There was a moment after Prometheus fainted when you looked like—"

"Nah," Lucas quickly cut in, giving away his nervousness. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I was pissed, but I wasn't like earlier today," he added rapidly.

"We need to talk," she added in a much more serious and concerned tone.

"About what? Now?"

"About what happened in your battle with me. Lucas, I left when we came back to our room because I could tell you were stressed, but I can also tell that there's something more here than I know, and I feel like you're… hiding it from me," she hesitantly added.

"Trust me, everything is fine. I just didn't come to terms with losing yet, so I willed myself out of the situation."

An awkward silence followed as Dawn waited for him to give a more solid explanation and he waited for her to give in, at least until Dawn spoke again. "You're a bad liar," she bluntly put as she turned to walk away before Lucas quickly put a hand on her shoulder before she took a step forward.

"Nothing gets past you, does it," he sighed in defeat as he stepped in front of her.

"Where to next?"

"I dunno, I'm thinking about food."

"I mean, like, what town. For your next badge?"

"I think we go to Hearthome City?"

"How far is it?"

"We have to walk. A lot," Lucas sighed in defeat, "Like through Mount Coronet," he said, pointing to the towering mountain in the distance, "And a couple of routes along the way."

"We can't walk that far," she responded.

"We won't have to," he smiled, looking at the bike shop across the street.