Chapter 3: The Caged Bird
The wind was howling.
The morning sun's heat was nothing compared to the cold chills running down Rebecca's spine as she stood face to face with her daughter. Lucia stood alone. Her face was covered in dirt and her eyes burned with sheer determination. Hanging over Rebecca's neck was her invoker, which the winds swayed back and forth. They were far away from Littleroot town. The trees that surrounded the town were behind the two family members.
"You and Bagon didn't come home last night," Rebecca said. Lucia flashed a grin.
"Yeah, well.." Lucia brandished her Pokeball and tossed it beside her.
Out from the Pokeball came the newly evolved Shelgon.
"Shelgon and I-" Lucia emphasized her partner's name with her voice. "Trained all day."
Rebecca felt her stomach go into knots as she raised a hand to her face. "Sweetie..." She said in a low tone. "if you really wanted to stand a chance, you should have evolved your Bagon into a Salamance."
"Don't you worry, Mom," Lucia said. "Shelgon and I have a plan."
"Do you?" Slowly, Rebecca reached into her skirt Pockets and pulled out a Pokéball. She stared at the ball with a sad expression- drew in a breath and threw her ball. Out from the ball came Gardevoir.
"You remember what we agreed, right?" Rebecca said. "If I win, your dream ends here."
"And when I win, I continue on to become Champion,"
Rebecca tilted her head slightly and furrowed her brow.
"I'm sorry- did you say, 'when?'" The parent asked.
"I didn't stutter," The child responded. Rebecca couldn't help but grin. She chuckled a light chuckle before sighing.
"You're just like your father," Rebecca said. Lucia couldn't help but smile back.
"You say that all the time, Mom! Put on your Invoker, and let's do this!" Lucia cried. Rebecca chuckled. With a swift hand she activated her invoker. The adult's body flashed in a brilliant light so bright that Lucia shielded her eyes. Once the light faded, Lucia saw her mother clad in Invoker Armor. For a moment, the armor shone in a purple and pink light, signaling its connection with the Psychic type Gardevoir.
"This'll hurt me more than it'll hurt you," Rebecca said.
"C'mon, Shelgon!" Lucia charged forward along with Shelgon, who cried its name out in agreement.
"Gardevoir, Energy ball," Gardevoir shot her hand at her target and blasted an orb of green light.
"Now!" Lucia cried. Shelgon leapt ahead of his trainer as Lucia extended her arm. Shelgon landed on Lucia's arm and latched itself onto her wrist. Using Shelgon as though he were a shield, Lucia deflects the oncoming Energy ball and charges forward.
"That's impressive! But can you handle this!?" Rebecca cried. She shot her finger to wordlessly command her Gardevoir to attack. The psychic type flew to intercept the approaching young trainer and threw a punch. Lucia thrust her hand out and held on Shelgon's back like he was an arm-blaster.
"Shelgon! Fire blast with rapid fire!" Lucia cried. Several of blasts of flame flew out of the Shelgon's mouth and at Gardevoir.
"Gardevoir, close in and use Mega punch!" Gardevoir barrel rolled and dodged the salvo of attacks and threw a punch once she got close. Lucia swung Shelgon up like he was a shield.
"Shelgon, Protect!" A blue barrier appeared around the duo and protected them from Gardevoir's punch.
Rebecca watched with widened eyes. Lucia was doing so well that it sent a barrage of thoughts to the mother's mind. Gardevoir leapt away from the two of them and landed beside her motionless Trainer. Gardevoir turned to Rebecca in girl rubbed on her Shelgon's head as though she were cocking a arm-blaster.
"We're doing great, Shelgon," Lucia said. Hearing the Shelgon say his own name happily nearly shattered her mother's resolve. The thought that haunted Rebecca the whole day yesterday came back with a vengeance.
What am I doing? She thought.
The bond the Shelgon and Lucia shared was beautiful. They worked so hard to achieve this level of strength- and she was going to destroy the dream they strived to go for. She knew what she had to do, but did she have the strength to do it?
The memory of her Gardevoir slamming her fist against Lucia's stomach two days ago flashed in her mind. Rebecca clenched her fists.
"See that, Shelgon?!" Lucia said. "If we can fight against Gardevoir, we can-"
"Don't get cocky!" Rebecca shouted. Lucia raised her head to her mother, who was stepping forward. The woman cracked her neck, and knuckles before beckoning her daughter with her hand. Lucia let out a battle cry before rushing at her parent. Before sprinting in, Rebecca raised a hand to Gardevoir, who was ready to join her side. Gardevoir stepped back as her trainer's child closed the distance and threw a punch. Rebecca swiped her hand and knocked Shelgon right off of Lucia's arm.
"What happens now!? You lost Shelgon!" Rebecca roared. Lucia gritted her teeth and threw a punch at Rebecca's chest.
The mother didn't budge. Lucia looked up in surprise, then threw another punch- and another, and another. The girl cried like a warrior as she threw punch after punch at the woman who stood and watched like an iron wall.
"All of the damage you inflict isn't going to me, it's going to my Gardevoir! I don't feel a thing!"
Despite her mother's words, Lucia didn't stop punching. She could feel the metal crushing her knuckles with every punch, but the pain didn't stop her. Keep going, keep going! She thought. Don't stop!
"Dragon Claw!" Lucia thrust her hand at her mother before Rebecca caught her by the wrist. Her hand glowed with explosive dragon energy forming an azure claw.
Lucia opened her caught hand.
"Flamethrower!" Lucia roared.
A burst of flame erupted from Lucia's palm. The flame was so large it eradicated the trees in front of the girl. The flames dissipated and revealed a trail of scorched earth. Lucia gasped.
She was standing in front of a substitute doll. Lucia felt her mother's hand lay on her shoulder.
"I'd give that a 7 out of 10 at best." Rebecca said. Lucia spun around and threw a punch, only for it to stop short. Rebecca's Psychic power stopped her fist from landing on its target.
"Don't you see?! Without your Pokémon you're just a little girl, Lucia! Just a defenseless little girl!"
"You… think… I don't know that..!?"
Rebecca's eyes widened. She noticed Shelgon scurrying over to his train and climbing the up the Child's leg and eventually reaching her arm. He latched onto Lucia's wrist tightly. "Of course, I'm nothing without my Pokemon! I need them…And My shelgon needs me! We work together so we can win!" Lucia swung Shelgon at Rebecca.
I can't control both Lucia's arm and Shelgon's body at the same time fast enough..! Rebecca thought, quickly swinging her head back to dodge. "
Of course I'm just a little girl without Pokémon!" Lucia roared. Lucia shot her arm out to let Shelgon release a salvo of Fire Blasts. Rebecca spun and ran away as fast as she could, narrowly avoiding the oncoming blasts. "Of course I can't do anything without Pokémon! But just like Pokémon, they can't do anything without us! That's what being a trainer's all about!"
Rebecca gritted her teeth as she kept running. "Gardevoir!" The woman cried, leaping into the air and extending her arms. Gardevoir teleported in front of her and reached out to grab her trainer. Just before the Fireblast came to explode them both, Gardevoir and Rebecca escaped in the blink of an eye. The duo reappeared in the air while holding each other in an embrace.
"Without Pokémon, you, me, every single one of us humans are nothing!" Lucia cried. "Without Trainers, Pokémon won't know what to do in battle! Together, we make unstoppable teams...! So stop saying I'm nothing without my Pokémon, that I'm defenseless without them! That's the same for everybody and you know it!"
Rebecca breathed a heavy sigh. "You're right." The adult said as she and her Pokémon descended to the ground. Rebecca let go of her Gardevoir and stepped onto the ground. "I said that you were nothing without your Pokémon to scare you into thinking you couldn't win. None of my words are coming through, so I have to try anything. Getting beaten down without your armor... It's-" Rebecca stopped herself short. "I don't want that for you. I don't want that for anyone. Even when I resolved to fight you, I still didn't want to hurt you. I didn't want to tell you this, but... I was once beaten down to the ground by a nasty person. When it happened, my mind was clouded. I couldn't think of any strategy, I just took the pain, and it was unbearable. " Rebecca clenched her fists.
"I shouldn't take it easy on you anymore," Rebecca continued. "I can't properly test your strength If I don't come at you with full intent to beat you." Lucia watched her mother de-activate her Invoker. Her armor folded itself into the necklace she wore.
"Mom..!?" Lucia cried. "What're you doing?!"
"So.." Rebecca continued. "I'll do this." The woman raised her fist and slammed it onto her own stomach. She grimaced as she crumbled to the ground.
"Mom!" Lucia cried. "What are you doing?!" Rebecca extended her hand to her daughter in assurance.
"Think of it… as my own Version of Belly Drum..!" Rebecca raised her fist, She slammed her stomach again and again. Soon saliva leapt out of her mouth.
Gardevoir lowered her head enough for shadow to hide her eyes For a while, everyone just watched Rebecca pummel herself.
Every time Rebecca punched her own stomach, Gardevoir twitched. Slowly, the Psychic type's hands curled into fists. White electricity sparked around it as its eyes began to glow.
"Do.. you know what happens…" Rebecca looked up at her daughter with a pained smile. "When a Gardevoir senses her Trainer is in danger?" Rebecca slowly stood up as an intense pink aura radiated around the Gardevoir. Her eyes glowed with a white light. "That's when Gardevoir unleashes her true power! And because Invokers link their trainers to their Pokemon-..,!" With a swift hand Rebecca re-activated her Invoker and crossed her arms. White electricity burst about the woman as her body flashed. She uncrossed her arms just as a geyser of light erupted around Rebecca and Gardevoir. The intense winds nearly blew Lucia off her feet.
The light slowly faded, and Lucia nearly gasped. Rebecca's eyes were glowing white just like Gardevoir's.
"My power doubles as well." Rebecca finished.
Lucia blinked and they were gone.
In a fraction of a second Rebecca appeared in front of Lucia in a flash of light. Lucia couldn't even react to her mother grabbing her by the shoulders and headbutting her in the face. Lucia cried out in pain and stumbled back with dizzied steps.
"What's wrong!?" Rebecca cried. "Stammering from one Zen-Headbutt?" Rebecca said. Lucia fell on her bottom and the ground and sucked in air through her teeth.
"It's about time I showed you what It means to be in a real fight!" Rebecca entered a battle stance and ran after her downed daughter. Lucia placed a hand on her throbbing head as Shelgon, still attached to her wrist, cried out to warn the girl. Rebecca roared, swinging her leg as though she were kicking a football into a field goal. Lucia's eyes flashed as she backflipped away from her mother's oncoming kick just in time. Just as Lucia's hand touched the ground, Rebecca's psychic energy lifted her back into the air.
"Do it now, Gardevoir! Thunderbolt!" Gardevoir appeared above her pinned enemies and shot her hand out. Thunderbolts erupted from the psychic type's hands.
"Shelgon, Protect!" Lucia cried. Shelgon created a blue barrier around the both of them, protecting them from harm. The barrier fell to the ground like a giant metal ball.
"How long can that barrier hold!? Gardevoir, hyper beam!" Gardevoir thrust both hands to release a ginormous laser beam from them. The hyper beam ripped and tore into the ground below and completely swallowed the young trainer and her Pokémon. As shards of earth rose into the sky and broke apart all around them, Lucia hugged her Pokémon tightly as the barrier held strong.
Rebecca pulled her arm back. "Can you handle a second one?!" The mother cried, unleashing a hyper beam of her own from her hand. As the barrier took the brunt of both attacks, it slowly began to show signs of breaking.
"I believe in you, Shelgon..!" Lucia cried, hugging her Pokémon tighter. Shelgon grunted in exertion.
"Belief isn't always enough!" Rebecca cried. Slowly, the barrier began to show cracks. "Pokémon aren't perfect! They can't protect you all the time!" The barrier cracked again and soon shattered- and just as it did, an explosion erupted. The explosion was so fierce that it could be seen from miles away- a mushroom cloud leapt into the sky. Rebecca breathed heavily, watching the wind and smoke blast against her body like a powerful fan. After a while, she stepped forward, and when the dust settled, she saw Lucia and Shelgon lying flat on the ground and simmering in smoke. Lucia coughed wildly as Rebecca bent over and pulled Lucia off the ground by her shirt collar, and Shelgon by his leg. Rebecca stared at her wincing daughter with saddened eyes.
"Do you understand now? Your Shelgon wasn't strong enough to defend you, and were wide open because of it," Rebecca said. Lucia gritted her teeth and raised her arms. She started desperately flailing at her Mother, who stood there frowning and unaffected by her attacks. "Are you scared of heights? Because If I wanted, I could teleport us into the sky and drop you. Your Shelgon can't fly, so you can't either. Therefore, I win. That's an easy victory."
Lucia grunted with every punch she threw at her mother.
"You know what else trainers with normal invokers can do?" Rebecca continued, pointing at the thunderbolt sigil on her chestplate. "You see this thunderbolt here? It's new. It has Dynamaxing technology inside of it. One press of this… and the Pokémon I'm linked to Dynamaxes. Let me show you." Rebecca moved her hand and slammed her fist onto the button on her chestplate. It shined with a Pink light.
Suddenly, the three of them disappeared together in a flash of light. The next they appeared, they were so high up in the sky that they could touch the clouds.
The earth below started to shake. The sound of trees being ripped from the ground and the bellowing shriek of Gardevoir boomed like an explosion. Emerging from the ground came the Dynamaxed Gardevoir, who towered behind the floating mother. Slowly, like a lumbering giant, Gardevoir pulled back her arm in preparation to strike.
"Have a nice fall," Rebecca said coldly. The woman teleports away on her own, leaving Lucia and Shelgon to plummet. Gardevoir threw her punch, and it came like a comet. It slammed against the duo and sent them flying like a rocket toward the ground. Their bodies tore through the forest ahead of them like a rampaging tornado would, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Finally, Shelgon and Lucia's momentum slowed. Lucia let out a final cry of pain as she flew into another tree which did not break and slid to the ground to lie on her stomach. Rolling after her was Shelgon, who was covered in bruises and dirt. Rebecca teleported to the scene and grimaced once she saw her daughter lying on the ground motionless. Slowly, she approached her daughter and stopped once her feet were within grabbing distance.
"It's over now, you've tried your best," Rebecca said. "I say this for your own good: Give up."
"How did I even do that?" Lucia stared at her open hands, closing and opening them again and again while standing in front of Machoke, Gardevoir and Bagon. "I know I had wings appear behind my back when I fought Machoke earlier, I felt it. But how am I supposed to summon it back?" She looked at Bagon as though he had any ideas. Bagon shrugged.
Lucia sighed.
"Oh well." She said with a shrug of her own. "If I can't bring back those wings, then I guess I'll have to train to learn how to bring them back. Who knows? Maybe they'll come back when I need them most."
The beaten Lucia and Shelgon were completely motionless, not even looking up at the mother who looked down with tears in her eyes.
"I'm so sorry…," Rebecca said.
Lucia's fingers twitched.
Shelgon grunted as he began to slowly stand up.
"Lucia..." Rebecca said. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be. Please, give u-"
"Stop telling me to GIVE UUUUUUP!"
A sudden eruption of azure flame exploded around the girl as she started to stand up. Shelgon hopped and attached himself onto his trainer's wrist. The wind emanating from Lucia was so fierce that Rebecca shielded her eyes.
"Belief isn't enough?! Pokémon can't save you?!" Lucia screamed. Lucia's raging aura started to form the shape of wings behind her back. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"
"W-What..!?" Rebecca cried. "What with this energy?!"
"How long...!? How long do you think we've trained for this moment!?" Lucia screamed. An azure flame erupted from Shelgon's mouth and that took the shape of a sword. Lucia opened her hand and grabbed the blade-like flame, bellowing a warcry. It was like she was pulling out the sword Excalibur from her wrist. With a swift yank, the girl pulled a sword made of pure azure dragon flames that burned intensely in her hand.
"This sword of ours burns with an awesome power!" Lucia roared. "The flames cry out in hunger for our victory!" In an instant, the sword in her hand doubled, then tripled in size, it grew large enough to rival Gardevoir in size.
The entire time, Rebecca was too shocked to even move.
"This power..!" Rebecca cried. Her daughter's power was brilliant. It was absolutely breathtaking. Rebecca felt a smile tug at her lips. "You really are something special... I'm so proud..."
"No one..!" Lucia roared. "Not even you can ever clip our wings! Take this! Our blood, our sweat, AND ALL OF OUR TEARS! DRAGON..,! SWOOOOOOOOOOOORD!"
Lucia swung her sword down with all of her might, sending a mighty blast of azure flame directed at Gardevoir and Rebecca. The blast was large enough to eradicate everything. The sheer scale and magnitude of the blast was large enough to be unheard of. The flames roared with the same intensity of ten-thousand beasts. Then, all at once, the flaming sword along with Lucia's wings burst into thin air. The embers flew about wildly in the air like snowflakes.
Lucia looked at the destruction that she created. She saw the trail of azure flame that still burned the ground. She breathed in fast and heavy breaths.
"That attack would have beaten anyone else. But unfortunately." Rebecca said. Lucia raised her head. She gasped loudly. Rebecca was still standing. So was Gardevoir.
They were both fully unharmed.
Rebecca pointed a finger at Lucia. "You made one fatal mistake." Rebecca continued, "Gardevoir's not only a Psychic type, she's also a fairy type. Fairy types are immune to Dragon type moves."
The realization hit Lucia like a lightning bolt. At first, she just stared in shock. Slowly, the strength in her legs faded, and she fell to her knees. Shelgon fell off of her arm at that moment, too tired to even move. Lucia's hands touched the ground before she hammered it with her fists. It was then when the girl finally screamed.
"NOOOOOOO!" Lucia shouted as though a loved one had passed away. She slammed her fists again and again. "NO! NO! NOOOOOOO!" She broke into sobs at that moment, covering her eyes with her hands. All the while, Rebecca just stared.
"We've come so far! We trained so hard for this...! And it was all for nothing!?"
Rebecca slowly approached her wailing daughter and crouched to her side silently. As her daughter cried violently she shook her head.
"No," Rebecca said. "You're incredible. To be honest, you could have won, if you hadn't made that mistake. Your power was- Well, it was beyond words. And what kind of mother would I be..." Rebecca said quietly, gently caressing her daughter's head. "If I kept you here after showing how strong you and Shelgon are?"
Lucia swung her head up to her mother. "What...?" She said.
"Go. You're ready. I believe that you can take on and defeat anyone, as long as you put your mind to it. Go to the Pokémon league. Become the champion."
Lucia lunged and hugged her mother with all of her might. "Thank you..!" Lucia cried. "Thank you so much!" Rebecca lightly chuckled, kissing her daughter's forehead and hugging her just as tightly.
"Though your strategies still need a little work," Rebecca said. "Though, I do like the idea of your Shelgon acting like a shield for you. But using Dragon type moves on Fairy types? That's a no-go. Don't do that again, okay?"
"Okay, Mom!" Lucia pulled her head back and nodded quickly. "I swear, I won't do it again!" Thank you so much, Mom..!" Lucia cried. She plopped her head back onto her mother's chest. "Thank you..!" As Rebecca's clothes became stained with tears, Rebecca smiled to herself and patted her little girl's head.
"You lost at first too, right Lucian?" Rebecca said under her breath. "Against Quinton. But that didn't stop you. You got right back up. Nothing could stop you. Your little girl's growing up too... and eventually you'll see firsthand how strong she'll become."