An Age of Valour

by the Lady of the Mists

Chapter Thirty-one: New Capture, Old Enemy

It took an entire day and a half to cover the road to Olivine City once they regained the ground that they had lost and by the time that they had reached the beach city, the group was already wiped out. Jennie was just complaining that they really needed to find a new way of transportation as they headed into the Pokémon Centre to get their Pokémon healed by Nurse Joy and took up vacancy in the Centre.

Lydia was sitting in the lobby late at night, flipping through several magazines as she, once again, brooded about everything that had been happening over the past couple weeks.

Jesse walked in, his hair wet from a shower, and sat down next to her as she sat down the magazine to look over at him. "Debating on whether or not to call your uncle?" he asked and winced, shaking his head. "I still can't get used to calling him your dad."

"Join the club," she commented with a smile at her best friend. "I don't know. It's just so weird. I want to understand where he's coming from by not telling me this, I really do, but . . . what kind of a father doesn't tell his daughter that she's his child? Especially after I told him about Hayden. He knew who Hayden was, Jess, and he didn't even say a word. All he told me was that Hayden would go out of his way to protect me, not a word about who he really was."

"Well, maybe Jack just wanted you find out on your own or maybe he thought that you wouldn't believe him." Jesse sighed as he struggled to come up with an explanation that wouldn't make Jack seem to be the bad guy. "That you'd be in more danger if you knew . . ."

"As opposed to the usual danger that we're finding ourselves in more and more lately?" Lydia said dryly. Jesse chuckled as he leaned back against the couch. "No, there's a reason and I'm not sure what it is just yet, but I don't think I want to know. Besides, I call him and things are just going to turn out ugly. I think it's better if I just let things settle down before I call him. I'm just going to get all angry and mean if I call him anyway."

"You, mean? I would definitely like to see that." Lydia gave him a dirty look and he held up his hands. "Look, maybe there a reason for him keeping this from you and maybe there's not, but you're not going to help matters much by not calling him. Every time we're in a city, you give him a ring. Granted, he wasn't home when we were in Goldenrod, but if he found out that we were in Olivine and you didn't call him, he's gonna think that's something's up. If you want to keep things normal for the time being, you're gonna have to do some normal things."

"Like calling the father who likes to pretend that he's my uncle and didn't even bother telling me that his lunatic of a brother was the one who actually killed my mother."

Jesse chuckled. "Not exactly the example that I was going for, but I guess it'll do," he replied with a smirk. "Go call him, Lydia. I talked to Nurse Joy earlier and she said that the gym leader here is out of town for the time being, so I guess we'll be heading out tomorrow."

"Right, so I guess I'll see you about five?" Lydia teased, enjoying watching his face pale considerably at the thought of getting up while it was still dark. She laughed. "You did know that I was joking, right?" Jesse scowled at her as he stood up, leaving her alone in the lobby.

Lydia heaved a sigh as she stood up, heading over to the phones as she picked up and dialled her uncle's phone number, waiting for someone to pick up back in Cherrygrove. On the fourth ring, the answering machine started stating cheerily that nobody was home and if she left a message, he would get back to her as soon as he could.

"Hi, Uncle Jack, it's Lydia," she said, keeping her tone even. "Just calling to let you know we're in Olivine City. Gym leader's out of town or something, so we'll be heading towards the Whirl Islands tomorrow. Either that or Cianwood. I'll call you again when we reach Cianwood. Bye," she added, replacing the phone into the receiver as she stood up, leaving the phone behind her as she headed into the bedroom that she was sharing with Jennie and Jesse. The Centre was overcrowded with trainers who'd missed the ferry for the day or was staying in town until the gym leader got back, so they didn't have the room for them to get separate rooms.

As she returned from the bathroom after getting dressed, Lydia laid down, allowing Umbreon to curl up with her as he licked her cheek affectionately. "I'm okay, big guy," she said, stroking him behind the ears. "Go to sleep."

But even as she told Umbreon to sleep, Lydia felt dreams of the past creep into her mind, not letting any rest to comfort her that night. Images of her dead mother, her kidnapped sister, and the returned brother plagued her.

--

Whether it was a resulted of her dreams or not, Lydia woke early the next morning, the sun barely having lifted from the horizon as she climbed out of bed, waking Umbreon as she stood up and the fox Pokémon trotted after her as she slipped into the bathroom to get dressed, picking up her bag as they headed out of the Pokémon Centre in the early morning.

There was no one in the vicinity as she walked down to the beach with Umbreon, slipping off her shoes to step into the ocean, the waves splashing up to meet her as Umbreon barked joyfully, jumping into the water playfully. Lydia laughed as he splashed her and she returned the water attack, grinning wildly as she pulled off her jacket, tossing it with her bag onto the beach as a particularly large wave doused her.

Coughing up the salt water, Lydia looked up as she heard Umbreon bark in warning as she looked up to see a small blue and yellow Pokémon washed up onto the beach, blinking its yellow eyes up at the psychic as she hurried over to her. "Chinchou," she said as she jumped up and tickled Umbreon with her yellow antennas, electricity sparking from them.

"Wow, a Chinchou," Lydia exclaimed as she jumped up, pushing her wet brown hair out of her face. "Umbreon, quick attack!" she called and Umbreon launched the attack onto Chinchou, making her lose her balance and fall backwards, sending a bubble attack at Umbreon.

The attack made Umbreon stumble backwards, shaking off the attack, but that was enough for Chinchou to recover and launch a thunder wave onto Umbreon, who shrieked at the electricity surging through his body. "Don't give into it, Umbreon!" Lydia called as Umbreon struggled to regain his footwork. "Faint attack!"

That was all it took for Chinchou to fall backwards onto the sand and Lydia threw an empty Pokéball at her, sucking her into the red and white ball and it shuddered onto the ground for a few seconds before finally stopped moving, admitting defeat.

"Yes!" Lydia cheered as she hurried over to pick it up. "We did it, Umbreon!" she said, hugging the fox Pokémon tightly before looking him over to make sure that he was all right. "Are you all right? You didn't get hurt too badly, did you?" Umbreon just licked her face to reassure her and Lydia looked up to see Jesse and Jennie running towards her.

"Hey, we just woke up and found you go, what did you get up so early for?" Jesse asked, before noticing the Pokéball in her hand and her enthralled expression. "Hey! What'd you catch?"

"A Chinchou," Lydia said with a grin. "Sorry, I just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to go out for awhile. Forgot to leave a note. I didn't mean to scare you guys." Jennie waved the explanation aside while Jesse shook his head in exasperation, though his expression showed that he was happy for her new addition. "Well, what do you think? Should we catch the ferry to the Whirl Islands or to Cianwood?"

"Uh . . . do you have to ask the question?" Jennie asked, rolling her eyes as she headed towards the ferry entrance.

"We really need to get rid of her," Jesse grumbled, shaking his head as he followed his sister with Lydia and Umbreon taking up the rear. As it was early, the ticket lines weren't that long and they were able to secure passage to the Whirl Islands and then straight on to Cianwood from there, giving them a day and a half on the Islands for Jennie to be thrilled with.

"The ferry leaves in two hours," the clerk said as she handed Jennie the tickets before looking over at Jesse and Lydia with a smile. "Have a nice trip." Once they left the ticket place, they headed back to the Centre so Lydia could change out of her wet clothes and then headed down to the docks to wait for the ferry to arrive.

Lydia propped her legs up as she stared off into the ocean, her blue eyes focusing the waves as they splashed up to meet the three trainers. She'd let all of her Pokémon out, as had Jennie and Jesse, and most of them were playing in the water nearby. Cyndaquil, being a fire Pokémon, stayed near her trainer, curled up on her lap as she kept a close eye on the others.

"So, what kind of Pokémon are you looking for on the Islands, Jen?" she asked, turning to look at the ice breeder. "Anything in particular?" Jennie frowned slightly, considering the question.

"I don't know," she admitted as she turned to look at Lydia, sitting in Indian style with her elbows on her knees and her head resting on her clasped hands. "Maybe a Seel or a Shellder . . ."

"I thought you wanted to be an ice trainer, sis," Jesse said with a teasing grin. "Shellder are water types, remember?"

"Yes, but they do learn ice-type moves, not to mention, they evolve into Cloyster, which is part ice." Jennie stuck her tongue out at her brother and Lydia smiled slightly, shaking her head at the two as they began to bicker back and forth at one another.

Would she and Hayden have been like this, had they grown up together? she wondered. Tease each other mercilessly, but best friends at the end of the day? Instead of being near strangers, watching out for each other, but having secrets kept from one another, ones that seemed to be determining each other's futures? Would they have found Alison, if they'd grown up together? What would she be like, if they ever found her? Her mother had said that it was her destiny to find Alison, but what would happen once she did? Would things be better or worse, for all of them? There was no way to tell.

"You know, I would absolutely love to catch a Lapras," Jennie said suddenly, breaking off her and Jesse's argument to continue her discussion with Lydia, who looked at her with a smile. "That's probably one of my top choices, if I were ever to catch one."

"Good choice," Lydia said with approval. "Having a Lapras would really help us out right now, though. Wouldn't have to wait for that ferry to get here. We'd already be at the Whirl Islands by now and wouldn't have to wait for the next ferry from there to set sail for Cianwood."

"Well, speaking of ferries, we should probably head over to the docks now," Jesse told the girls, glancing down at his watch. "It's almost nine, which is when the boat leaves."

"All right, let's go," Lydia said, standing up and bringing out the Pokéballs. "Hey, guys, it's time to go!" All the Pokémon were recalled and with Umbreon trailing faithfully next to his trainer, they headed towards the docks. "So, anybody have any idea what the next gym trainer's like?" she asked, turning her attention to their next gym battle.

"I heard that it's fighters," Jesse answered with a grin. "So I'll be using Natu for that battle. Should be a piece of cake."

Jennie rolled her eyes and Lydia smiled. "Yeah, well, any ideas on which one I should use?"

"Well, Poliwrath is part fighting, isn't she? Why not fight fire with fire?" Jesse suggested as they headed towards the docks. "Or fighting with fighting, I guess would be the more appropriate term here. The point is that you should fight him or her on skill."

"Right, because we'll be going up against a fully trainer boxer and I'm a trainer whose never been in a fighting battle in her life," Lydia said sarcastically. "Wanna see how that turns out?"

"No, thank you," Jennie said, rolling her eyes. "He's got a point though. For once, my big brother is actually making some sense." Jesse stuck his tongue out at her, which she retaliated. "Or you could use Cyndaquil. Fire might be enough to strike at them."

"Maybe," Lydia sighed as she ran her fingers through her brown hair, climbing up onto the deck of the ferry. "I'm gonna decide when I see who we're up against. No sense in worrying about it when there's plenty of time left before the gym match."

"Right," Jennie agreed, her voice sounding strange. "No need to worry about that when we've got other things to worry about."

Lydia looked at the breeder curiously. "Jen, what do we possibly have to worry about at the moment?"

Jennie, about to answer, was cut off by another voice that was strikingly familiar. "Well, that could be me, Talon. Long time, no see."

And Lydia turned around, coming face to face with the last person she wanted to see at the moment.

Alicia Knightly.