Chapter 4: Echo

Mesprit really didn't care much for Dialga's concerns. Her primary concern was the here and now, particularly when it came to humanity.

Conversely, Dialga and Palkia seemed to prefer keeping their distance from humanity. Even after everything that happened with Rei and Akari, those two didn't have the connection with humanity that she and her siblings had.

While it was good that Dialga felt some measure of responsibility for what happened to Lucas, she still felt like he couldn't ever truly comprehend how drastically Lucas' life changed because of that incident. The reason she saw fit to speak with Dialga at all was because she knew it could help the boy in the long run.

Mesprit's neutrality on the whole thing quickly gave way once the tall man approached her lake. The man introduced himself as Cyrus and proclaimed that he would control space and time in the same breath, which was only the least of her concerns.

There was something in his Aura that frankly terrified her. Not because she could see that he had a particular distain for the mere idea of human emotion; he was far from the first to take that stance, and it always hurt Mesprit to see. Of course sorrow and anger felt terrible, but how could one know happiness and love without them? Positive and negative emotions were two sides of the same proverbial coin.

No, he seemed to reject the idea of emotion as a whole. He was one of those that put more stock into 'willpower' and 'knowledge,' which could make for a deadly combination if one decided on where to direct it. And it seemed like he had set his sights on controlling Dialga and Palkia - on constructing the Red Chain - a long time ago.

What really got her attention was the glaring similarity she saw between him and Lucas. At first she thought she was seeing things due to a prolonged slumber, but it was there. There was something that connected them, and it didn't take her long to realize what that could be.

Lucas had been momentarily consumed by nausea and anger when he saw Cyrus - so there was no way that he could have seen Cyrus observing him as he passed. There was no way he could have seen the flicker of surprise in Cyrus' Aura. No matter how he may try to mask his emotions on the outside, one can never hide their Aura.

Mesprit saw, and she had to tell Dialga.

Barry didn't have much time to lament his recent loss to Lucas; something collided with his back as he healed up his Pokemon. He let out a scream (that he would never admit was more of a shriek), whirling around to confront what had crashed into him. "Hey! Watch where you're-!"

Then he stopped, getting a better look at the Pokemon in question. "Oh, it's just a Zubat."

Strangely, the Zubat made no move to attack Barry or the other trainers. Rather, it fluttered around the three trainers while making chirping noises. Dawn and Barry moved away from it whenever it got close to them, while Lucas stood still.

"What's it doing?" Barry questioned, watching the Zubat as it seemed to land on Lucas' left arm. In response, Lucas held his arm up so that Zubat couldn't just slide off and fall to the ground. "Does it even want to fight?"

Dawn answered, "If I had to guess, I'd say it's looking for a place to hide...or something to eat."

Barry made an indignant noise and placed his hands over his neck. "It's not getting a drop out of me!"

"Barry, I think the little guy would have taken some blood already if that's what he wanted," Lucas responded as he watched the Zubat's actions carefully. It made no moves to bite his arm or anything - it just seemed content to get a sense of where it had landed. It seemed to be shaking, too - did Barry startle it? Or was he just cold? "Looks like he's too distressed to even think about eating."

Slowly, Lucas reached a finger to scratch the top of the Zubat's head. He could tell that the little guy was surprised by Lucas' actions. That surprise quickly gave way to joy, and the Zubat nuzzled Lucas' hand with a delighted trill. Then it did the strangest thing; it crawled up Lucas' arm to settle closer to his shoulder, wrapping its wings around his arm with a smile on its face. Was it...hugging him?

"It warmed up to you real quick," Dawn noted with a smile. "You gonna catch it?"

Lucas hummed, glancing over at the Poison-type. "If it's okay with Zubat, I think I will. I know we haven't reached Eterna City yet, but he could really help me out in the Gym there with a little training."

If Zubat had eyes, Lucas had a feeling that they would be sparkling right now. He didn't need to be able to sense Aura to figure out that the little guy was happy to hear that. Still, he felt the need to ask; "How about it, Zubat? Want to come with me?"

If it were possible, Zubat hugged Lucas even tighter. Lucas laughed, grabbing a PokeBall from his bag. It didn't take much to persuade Zubat to go into the PokeBall, and it took even less time to think of the name 'Arty'. It was a random name, but one that felt right for the little guy.

"Man, how do you do that?" Barry asked, as Lucas clipped Arty's PokeBall to his belt. "You make catching Pokemon look so easy! My Starly gave me the toughest time when I was trying to catch him!"

"Um...sorry about that?" Lucas said with a sheepish chuckle. "It does take a while to get the hang of it."

"You don't need to apologize, Lucas," Dawn said with a sigh. "You're the one with more experience than us."

Lucas nodded. He was aware that Barry didn't mean to say that out of malice, anyway. Catching Pokemon was one of those things that was easier in theory than it was in practice.

Still...something about Dawn's word choice made him uneasy.

"We better get going," Lucas said, walking past his friends towards Oreburgh Gate. "The Gym isn't going to beat itself, right?"

"Right!" Barry grinned, running past Lucas. He only stopped to face his two friends. "Last one to Oreburgh gets a huge fine!"

Lucas' unease was quickly forgotten as the three ran towards Oreburgh Gate.

Barry had managed to catch himself a Budew on the way to Oreburgh City. Thus, each of the trio now had a Pokemon that could effectively counter Roark's Rock-types.

There wasn't even a question of where to train. Oreburgh Mines wasn't too far away from where the Pokemon Center was, and they could always go into Route 207 if anyone wanted some fresh air. All in all, they had no problems finding wild Pokemon or Trainers to battle. Experience is the best way to learn, after all!

Lucas didn't even realize something was off until Dawn made a sudden comment; "You're kind of a magnet for Steel-types, aren't you Lucas?"

That threw Lucas off, and of course he had an eloquent response; "Huh?"

"I've just noticed that you've fought a lot more Aron than Barry or I have," Dawn responded with a shrug. "Those are pretty rare here, right? But with you, it seems like that's every other wild encounter."

"Now that you mention it," Barry added, jumping onto his feet. "I've only seen an Aron once! And yet every time I look over at you, you're fighting an Aron! How do you do that?!"

Lucas raised his hands in self-defense. "I-I don't know? It just happened, it's not like I'm doing anything that you two haven't been doing."

Barry huffed, but he was quick to accept that answer. "Well, next time we go into the mines, we gotta find some Aron! I'm sticking with you the whole time, or else it's a huge fine!"

"I'm okay with that," Lucas commented. "Aron can be pretty tough opponents, so I could use the help. I actually managed to catch one for my PokeDex, and he gave me a lot of trouble when I fought him."

As Lucas spoke, an odd thought crossed his mind; since when could Aron be found in Oreburgh Mine?

Thankfully, Barry and Dawn moved on to the next subject. That gave Lucas ample time to ponder on that odd thought.

At first, it wasn't much to think about. It made sense that a Pokemon like Aron could be found in a mine like this. Now that he actually thought about it, though...it felt off. Not in a way that was necessarily bad...but in the sense that he just couldn't make sense of it. It would be one thing if there was a wild outbreak, or if Aron was recently introduced to the area. It wouldn't be the first time either case has happened. But he surely would have heard about it by now, with his dad working for Professor Rowan over the years. Right?

Two questions popped into mind; Was there ever a point in time where Aron couldn't be found here? And if there was, what changed to make it that way?

At that thought, he made a reminder on his Poketch: "Ask Professor Rowan about recent wild Pokemon outbreak. Could Aron be one of them?"

Author's Note: As I'm writing this, I've been playing Renegade Platinum. As a result, the wild Pokemon encounters and some storyline events from that ROM might be seen within this fic.