One of the wonderful things about the World of Pokémon is meeting all of the interesting creatures and characters. My very good friend created and inspired Luke as well as his history. Both of us have written stories, often together, since we were quite young. And so, it is my pleasure to bring you the tales of Luke, straight from the man himself! Please Review and Subscribe!
Luke Chapter 1
The sun beat down on Luke's head as he made his way north through Goldenrod City. It had been a mere ten minutes since he had departed from Chris' company for the next two months, and he would have been lying if he said he wouldn't miss the trainer from Cherrygrove. But the two trainers weren't sharing the same path, they had their own personal roads that may occasionally meet every so often.
As Luke pushed his way through the rush hour crowds, he grew frustrated. He'd always had a knack for weaving around people and finding his way through the masses, but the people of Goldenrod were especially difficult to squeeze between. He had read about the city's tremendous growth over the past several years in a brochure in the Pokémon Center. A breath of relief entered his lungs as the terminal to Route 35 came into sight. He found himself pick up the pace and within a couple of minutes he was inside the building.
As he took a deep breath of cooled air, a soothing feeling to his lungs to contrast the salty, hot sea air of Goldenrod, he had an idea. He walked over to the side of the room and took a seat against the wall before releasing his five Pokémon from their Pokéballs.
Luke looked at each of them, analyzing how they held themselves among each other. Charmeleon had positioned himself in the center of the group, right in front of Luke. Luke knew Charmeleon considered himself the leader of the team, second only to his trainer. And Luke would be hard-pressed to find a reason to think otherwise. Charmeleon was the most experienced and had no issue taking charge of a situation. Sometimes Luke had to make a conscious effort to not play favorites towards the Flame Pokémon, but as his starter Pokémon they would always have a special bond.
Elekid was to Charmeleon's right, his arms crossed and gaze fixed upon Luke. He was Charmeleon's right hand man, sparring together quite often when Luke had free-training sessions for the team. Elekid was a hardy Pokémon and often kept his head, which was good for when Charmeleon could get a little heated and lose his cool.
To the right of Elekid was Pidgeotto, who was picking at his feathers and preening himself. The Bird Pokémon had a natural curiosity and loved to scout ahead when Luke needed it. While fierce in battle, Luke had noticed a gentle side of the Pokémon outside of it, with Pidgeotto often generally taking care of the team.
On Charmeleon's left were Poochyena and then Wooper, who were both looking a little downtrodden after their loss. Luke hated to see the normally impish Poochyena looking so defeated, and Wooper letting out a sigh didn't help the sentiment either. Luke could tell his team was weary and feeling defeated. He knew he had to do something to get them feeling on top again.
Luke took a deep breath, and then spoke.
"Alright gang," he addressed, "speech time." He noticed Poochyena whine. "I think we've gotten a bit ahead of ourselves, and I'm going to take the blame for it. We've had a fairly easy time thus far, and I decided to go into that tournament lackadaisical." Wooper tilted his head to the side quizzically. Luke patted the Water Fish Pokémon on his blue head, then recoiled his hand quickly.
"I forgot about your film, buddy," he said as he rubbed his hand. "Anyways, it means lazy or unenthusiastic." Wooper let out a short cry of affirmation and nodded. "Right, so as I was saying, I feel like I let you all down on that one, just through my attitude. It didn't help that we were facing a pretty skilled opponent." Poochyena nodded, a rare look of seriousness spread across his visage.
"So here's what I propose. We really need to crack down and do work. And there's a reason I picked this spot to give this talk. Look to your left, right over there," he was pointing at the way he had come in. "All that, our failures in the tournament and any other shortcomings we may have had, that's all behind us. But there," he now pointed at the exit that led to Route 35, "That's a new start. Once we walk out there, through that door and onto Route 35, we're a new team. We won't think back on any disappointments that we've faced already. The only reason we'll ever have them come to mind is if we're reminding ourselves what we're avoiding. And if we lose again in the future, we'll put it behind us and think only of how we can improve. Got it?"
There was no immediate reaction, which disappointed Luke. He looked over his team again, looking for some sign of excitement on their faces. He sighed and ran his hands through his dark brown hair. Contemplating what to do to get through to them, he looked at Charmeleon. The orange lizard locked eyes with his trainer before quickly turning his head to the side. Luke wondered if Charmeleon would start disobeying him soon, if he had outgrown his trainer.
Charmeleon shut his eyes, then opened them again with a new ferocity shining through them. He snorted a short burst of flame and let out a roar, suddenly enlivening the postures and dispositions of the entire team. Elekid followed the roar with a fist pump to the air while Pidgeotto cried out and Wooper was jumping in place. Only Poochyena still looked a bit uneasy.
Luke got up and crouched down to Poochyena's level, looking the Bite Pokémon in his eyes.
"Listen buddy," Luke said has he ran his hands over the dark grey fur and scratched behind the dark-type's ear, "I know you're feeling bummed about the loss, but you've got to perk up."
Poochyena whimpered and looked away. Luke leaned in and quietly spoke to the canine. "Between you and me, you're going to be the key to the next Gym." Poochyena's ears perked up. "We're going to be going to Ecruteak to face Morty. Your Dark type ought to run circles around his Ghosts." Luke smiled at his friend as he drew away, and gave him another scratch behind the ear.
Luke and the other Pokémon were looking at Poochyena, waiting for some sign. Poochyena's head darted to the left, then the right before letting out a howl. The howl was met with four other cries of enthusiasm and a hearty chuckle from Luke.
"Alright then, let's go! I want you all to walk out that door with me, together as a team!" Luke stood up and the six of them began walking to the door. He could see the faint light of day peaking in through the cracks between the door and the frame. As soon as they crossed that threshold, the sun would be shining on a new team with a new outlook. Luke's excitement was bubbling and he was having trouble not grinning.
"Uhm, excuse me, sir," the girl acting as gatekeeper called, "I'm going to have to ask you to only keep one Pokémon out of its Pokéball while in the terminal." There went the moment. Luke's head quickly spun to the left to see a short blonde girl dressed in the standard gatekeeper garb. She had a smug look on her face, like she was getting too much satisfaction out of this.
"But we were just on the way out!" Luke protested. Her eyebrows raised after he spoke, and Luke knew for a fact that she was having some sort of power trip.
"These are the rules," she retorted rather rudely. Luke grumbled and reached for his Pokéballs. As he grasped one of the spherical devices, he locked eyes with Charmeleon. He could see something in his eyes, and knew exactly what his Pokémon was about to do. And while he was proud of him, he couldn't exactly condone his actions.
A jet of fire erupted from the Flame Pokémon maw, soaring right by the gatekeeper and singeing a few of her hairs. Her expression changed from one of smug self-satisfaction to one of terror and shock in a split second. As she stood there, mouth agape and speechless, Luke smirked at her.
"Arrivederci!" Luke said as he brought his hand up to his brow, giving a sarcastic salute as he and his team marched out the door.
Luke could spot a glistening pond up ahead, fenced off on two banks, leaving only one accessible. Before he could say anything, Wooper had jumped up into the air and sprinted off towards the water.
"Dammit," Luke muttered. He chased off after the blue Water Fish Pokémon, and the rest of the team followed suit. As Luke rounded the corner of the fence, he tripped and tumbled into the pond, soaked.
He lifted his head, his face caked in the mud that lay under the surface. As he wiped the mud off his eyes, he saw Wooper's face break the surface of the water. The Pokémon's beady black eyes gazed into Luke's, and before Luke could prepare himself Wooper had directed a water gun at him to wash the mud away.
"Thanks," he groaned as Wooper ducked back down into the water. He trudged out of the pond to see Poochyena laughing at him. Luke snapped his fingers at Pidgeotto. "Gust. I want a quick dry." Pidgeotto flapped his wings and kicked up some sand at Luke, covering him.
"Pidgeotto! I said gust!" Pidgeotto let out a cry of dissatisfaction and turned away from Luke. "I swear, you are entirely too finicky." Pidgeotto kicked some more sand at Luke. "Pidgeotto, would you please use Gust to dry me off?" Pidgeotto looked over his shoulder at his trainer.
"Please?" Luke asked. He was quickly met with a burst of wind, effectively blowing off the sand and mud along with drying his clothes out. Pidgeotto came over and looked at his trainer, letting out a short cry. "Thank you, Pidgeotto." Luke said begrudgingly as he walked back to the water's edge.
Charmeleon was calling out to Wooper, obviously frustrated, while Elekid was laying nearby sunbathing. Luke walked over to Charmeleon and placed a hand on his shoulder. "He's a little bit different, but we love him anyways. Right?" Charmeleon sighed and Luke could feel him ease up as he trudged off to soak up some sun as well. Luke withdrew his Pokéball and called Wooper back. The red beam of light darted over to the floating blue mass in the middle of the pond and quickly retreated with Wooper back to the ball.
"Alright everyone, traveling time. Back to your Pokéballs." Luke called back Pidgeotto and Elekid first. As he put their Pokéballs away he said, "Poochyena, you can walk with me." Poochyena barked at the statement while Charmeleon looked a little puzzled. Luke called the orange lizard back and then tucked the Pokéball away.
The hot May sun struck down on the trainer and his Pokémon as they marched north along the marked path. Luke was never a fan of intense heat, mostly because he was fairly warm-natured. Plus he liked clothing made for colder temperatures better. He wiped some sweat from his brow and reached into his backpack for his water bottle.
The scenery of Route 35 was pleasant to look at, but standard nonetheless. The path was fairly easy and to the point, practically a straight path. As he and Poochyena traveled, he realized that the pond he had fallen into was actually a separate section of a larger lake that the route wound around, and admired the way the sun glinted off the water's surface. He heard Poochyena bark and quickly turned to see a Magikarp leap out of the depths, followed by a Buizel catching it swimming off with it.
A few years ago a Buizel would have been a rare sight to see in Johto. A trainer may have only found one if they had chanced on a few migrating through the area, and even then they probably would have had to have their radio tuned to the Sinnoh Sound station. No one was exactly sure why trainers with their radios tuned to certain stations had more success in encountering foreign Pokémon, but the prevalent theory was it confused the Pokémon into a state of ease and familiarity with the foreign land. Others chalked it up to a coincidence and an urban legend. Regardless, with many more trainers going global in their travels many Pokémon that had been foreign to Johto in the past had now grown sizeable populations.
Luke chalked it up to natural Pokémon migration and resettling.
"How you holding up?" Luke asked Poochyena. The Pokémon let out a bark and picked up his pace, trotting ahead a few feet. "Right, so better than me?" The two laughed as they kept on down the path.
Luke looked up ahead, and began to look ahead metaphorically. He knew Poochyena was the key to beating Morty and his Ghost types, but he wasn't sure if Poochyena was ready. He figured now was as good a time as any to talk to him about it.
"Poochyena, I know that tournament loss hurt." Luke noticed Poochyena's ears droop. "Hey, none of that. Lift your head. You knocked out that Magcargo like it was nothing!" Poochyena smirked at the mention of the win over the lava snail. "Magneton was no easy opponent, okay? Steel types resist your Dark type moves, and a lot more. I mean, do you know how much they resist? A lot. It's kind of ridiculous. So you're not alone in that club, even Pidgeotto's Flying attacks are resisted by Steel types." Poochyena barked with inquiry.
"Yes they do. I'm a trainer, I know these things. Anyways, I need you to not go into some confidence slump. Morty uses Ghost types, you're a Dark type. You ought to be able to run circles around his Pokémon. You're the only one who's going to be able to do any major damage to them, so we're all relying on you." Luke patted the Pokéballs around his waist.
Poochyena was looking ahead intensely, and Luke could tell that the Bite Pokemon was deep in thought. He chuckled, he didn't know Poochyena was capable of complicated thinking. Poochyena looked up at the sound of laughter and growled at his trainer, obviously picking up on Luke's thoughts.
"Hey, I'm allowed to find things funny." Luke spoke. "Don't get mad, you know I care about you. Remember when it was just you, me, and Charmeleon? Or I guess he was Charmander then, but anyways remember those times? You two will always be near to me. I may catch and train other Pokémon, they may see more action every now and then, but you two will always be my first two Pokémon, and that means something to me."
Poochyena barked with what Luke would describe as sentiment. Luke checked his watch for the time, only to find that they'd been travelling for nearly four hours. The sunlight was dying slowly, and Luke guessed it'd be night in another hour or two. As he looked up from the device, he realized that they were closing in on a long building extending into the trees.
"National Park." Luke stated as he checked the map. "Huh, I forgot that was up here. What do you think Poochyena? Should we check it out? There could be a bug catching contest going on!"
Poochyena looked less than enthused at the mention of Bug types.
"Poochyena, don't tell me you're afraid of bugs." Poochyena looked away from Luke. He smacked his palm against his face and sighed. "You're a wimp, you know that right?" Poochyena barked in protest. "I don't care. We're going in anyways, even if just to take in nature."
Poochyena barked again. "This nature is different!" Luke retorted. Soon enough the two were at the door and entered into the building. Luke walked over to the reception desk. The room was wide and open, but mostly devoid of human life. He saw a stack of brochures on the desk and grabbed one before a man dressed in a ranger's uniform came out from a back room.
"How can I help you?" asked the man working. He sounded exhausted, and Luke suddenly realized it was significantly later in the day. This man was probably near the end of his shift.
"Sorry, yeah." Luke replied. He felt bad for bothering the man. "Uhm, are there any contests running today?"
"Tomorrow," the man replied. "But you're welcome to walk around the park and battle any trainers or any Pokémon you find. Just don't break anything."
"Gotchya," Luke said as he walked off and out into the park. The sun was descending more and more, and he decided to sit down on a nearby bench. Poochyena trotted over and lay down at Luke's feet, then looked up at his trainer. "Go play, buddy." Luke told the canine. Poochyena didn't need much more than that and he had bolted off into some nearby grass, sniffing around.
Luke pulled the brochure out his pocket and began to read about the park. An aerial shot showed that it was roughly shaped like a Pokéball, and after standing up on the bench to see for himself, Luke confirmed that for himself. He got down off the bench and brushed off the dust from his shoes before he sat back down. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. They were tired and needed a rest.
A few minutes later, and a Luke could hear a commotion. He snapped to and jumped up, recognizing Poochyena's growls. As he ran through the central grassy area to the other side of the park, he was trying to come up with what trouble Poochyena had gotten into this time.
He closed in on the noise and saw his Pokémon going in circles with a Vulpix, both growling and barking at each other. Luke thought it strange that there was a Vulpix in the park, until he remembered that they were common along Route 36, which happened to be right next to the park.
"Hey! What is your Pokémon doing to my Vulpix?" he heard a voice call out. A blonde boy, shorter than Luke but appearing his age, rushed up to the scene. A dark haired boy followed up behind him, significantly more relaxed than the blonde fellow.
Luke realized the Vulpix must not have been wild, instead belonging to the blonde trainer. He looked the two over. The blonde trainer was dressed quite fashionably, with a denim colored button-up shirt and brown pants rolled to reveal his striped socks. The dark haired trainer was simply wearing jeans and a striped button-up.
"Sorry about this, I don't know what's going on." Luke replied as he called Poochyena back to his Pokéball. "I guess I'd dozed off. Their noise woke me up."
The blonde trainer returned his Vulpix to its Pokéball as well, and then replied. "Maybe you should keep a better eye on your Pokémon. It's a rookie mistake to make, something bad could happen to them. My Vulpix could have seriously hurt your Poochyena."
It may have been a side-effect of having been rudely awoken from a nap after a hard day of battling and walking in the hot sun. It may have been that Luke was viewing the trainer as uppity and pompous. It may also have been the Luke was just a hot-headed guy sometimes. Regardless, he spoke back.
"Hey." Luke called to the trainer, who had turned to walk away. "Who the fuck do you think you are?" The trainer turned around, glaring at Luke. He was clenching a Pokéball, Luke's words had obviously upset him. "I'm not going to let you call me a rookie and insult my Poochyena. We're battling, right now. And I'm going to stomp your ass."
"Hey, language." The dark haired trainer replied. He put a hand on the blonde trainer's shoulder. "I'm Tommy, this is Chaz." Chaz shook Tommy's hand off his shoulder.
"Right, well, sorry about that." Luke apologized for his speech, he wasn't sure why but he felt like Tommy was a genuinely nice guy and hadn't meant to offend him. "I still want to battle. Your friend, I mean Chaz, he's not getting away with talking to me like that."
"Fair enough," Chaz replied. These guys were being extremely courteous and Luke was beginning to feel like he'd gotten off on the wrong foot with them. He needed to make up for it. He walked over and shook Chaz's hand, then Tommy's.
"The name's Luke. I feel like a dick for how this has escalated. If it's any excuse, I've had a long day."
"Hey, we've all had those. We are trainers after all." Chaz replied. The three laughed.
Luke looked at Chaz. "We're still battling though."
"Of course," Chaz answered. "But I'm okay for being a bit friendlier about it."
"No doubt," Luke replied. "Let's get this show on the road. Tommy, you mind reffing?"
"No," Tommy replied. Luke noticed he was kind of soft spoken. "I can do that."
"Good, good! Well, I'll just walk back over there and we'll do this." Luke shook their hands again, gave a short salute, and jogged back away from Chaz a bit. This had all escalated quickly and he was trying to put together some semblance of a strategy to go into the battle with. The only knowledge he had about Chaz was that he had a Vulpix, but what his battling style was or any of his other Pokémon, all of that was unknown to Luke. As he came to a halt, he had made a decision about which Pokémon to start off with.
"Ready?" Luke asked. He had drawn a Pokéball and his hand was tightly clenched around it.
"Sure, let's do this." Chaz replied. Tommy stood in the middle, his hand raised high up. The two trainers were staring one another down. Luke really did feel bad about how he had reacted earlier, and he was starting to wonder what kind of asinine jerk he would come across as if he won. Out of the corner of his eye, Luke saw Tommy drop his arm and the two trainers released their Pokémon.
Luke smirked at the reveal of the two Pokémon. Chaz had sent Vulpix into battle against Wooper. Luke had the type advantage twice over and he was definitely going to play to it.
"Alright Wooper! Let's get this started with a Mud Shot!" Wooper shot a stream of water from his mouth to mix into the ground below, then did a somersault and kicked the large mass of mud at Chaz's Vulpix.
"Quick Attack, Vulpix!" Chaz shouted. Luke saw Vulpix's form flicker and then rapidly charge towards Wooper as Mud Shot flew right by the fox. Wooper was met with a hard strike as Vulpix rammed into the Mud Fish Pokémon with its shoulder, sending Wooper tumbling backwards.
"No stress Wooper, we've still got this! Double type advantage, remember?" Luke reassured his Pokémon. "Hit Vulpix with a Water Gun!" Wooper sprung up from the ground and a jet of water shot from the small blue Pokémon's mouth. Luke saw Chaz's face, and it was calm. He was confused, Wooper had no weakness to Vulpix and should by all means wrap this up easily.
"Roar!" Chaz shouted, prompting Vulpix to let out a loud cry directed at Wooper. Luke watched his Pokémon dematerialize into a red beam of light and go back into the Pokéball. Another beam of light almost simultaneously shot out from a different Pokéball, materializing into Poochyena.
Luke blinked, confused. "Poochyena, what are you doing here?"
"Roar scares off the Pokémon in battle and brings out a different one of your Pokémon." Chaz informed, having obviously seen Luke's expression. "It seems your Poochyena has a will to fight."
Luke looked at his Pokémon, who was looking back at him, teeth bared. Poochyena was ready to go, so Luke had to be too. Hopefully this could be a good confidence booster for the Bite Pokémon. Poochyena nodded at Luke, and Luke clenched his fists and nodded back.
"Alright Poochyena, here's your chance to show Vulpix up. Let's go for a Sand Attack!" Poochyena ran towards Vulpix, but Vulpix leapt to the side, away from Poochyena's path. "Stop short and skid to the side!" Luke commanded. Poochyena did so and a cloud of dust blew up around Vulpix clouding its vision. "Now go in for the Tackle!" Luke shouted.
"Firespin, Vulpix!" Several small jets of flame escaped from Vulpix's mouth, swirling around one another in a spiral pattern, bursting through the dust cloud. The attack landed on Poochyena, knocking him back and singing some his fur. Luke could smell the unpleasant odor. As Poochyena hit the ground, so did the flames, forming a ring of fire around Luke's Pokémon.
"Shit," Luke cursed under his breath. He could see Poochyena looking back and forth frantically, trying to find an escape route. Luke's thoughts were racing, trying to come up with a method to douse the flames. He could see the heat of the fire beginning to affect Poochyena.
"Alright Vulpix, follow up with a Confuse Ray!" Chaz ordered. Vulpix's eyes started to glow and an eerie aura formed around the fox before coalescing into a pale glowing orb that began to move towards Poochyena. Luke's thoughts were moving faster and faster, the pressure building up. What moves did Poochyena know? Bite? No good. Neither were Tackle or Odor Sleuth. There was Sand Attack, but that wouldn't work. Or would it?
"Sand Attack yourself, Poochyena!" Luke ordered. Poochyena barked in confusion. "Just do it!" Luke shouted. Poochyena began kicking up a large cloud of dust and was soon unable to be seen. The dirt had also disrupted the fire's access to any air, quelling it quite effectively. Luke watched as Vulpix's Confuse Ray dissipated amidst the dust, the eye-glow vanishing confirming the attack's failing.
"Clever," Chaz complimented. "You're very clever."
"I thought so myself." Luke replied.
"Ass." Chaz said, but with a joking tone. The two trainers smirked. Luke was beginning to like this guy.
"Okay Poochyena, enough's enough!" The canine looked through the settling dust cloud at his trainer. Luke winked at the Dark type. "Sand Attack forward! Hide your movement!" Dust began shooting forth from the cloud that had already formed.
"Vulpix, Fire Spin right through the middle of it!" Another blaze spiraled through the dust cloud. "Yes! That probably fried him!" Chaz exclaimed confidently. Suddenly, Vulpix let out a wail as Poochyena leapt at it, biting down on its abdomen and shaking its head back and forth. Vulpix broke the connection before collapsing to the ground.
"Looks like Vulpix is down. Poochyena is the victor!" Tommy shouted.
"Good work, buddy!" Luke said to Poochyena. "If you hadn't guessed what my wink meant, I'm pretty sure it would have been over for us." Poochyena barked. He saw Chaz prepare his next Pokéball. "You did good, but I'm gonna retire you from this next one. Take a rest, ya know?" Luke held out the Pokéball and Poochyena returned.
Both trainers let out their next Pokémon, which immediately took flight. Luke saw that Chaz had decided to use Hoothoot, a decision oddly similar to Luke's choice of Pidgeotto.
"Okay Pidgeotto, let's get this going! Quick attack!" before Chaz could call out an order, Pidgeotto had slammed into his Hoothoot. The owl crashed back, hitting a tree.
"Go for the Peck!" Chaz commanded. Hoothoot flew up high, then came down, beak pointed straight at Pidgeotto.
"Pidgeotto, counter with Gust!" Pidgeotto began to flap his wings furiously upwards at Hoothoot, causing the Pokémon to meet resistance. As Pidgeotto flapped, Hoothoot was knocked off its trajectory and rocketed straight into the ground. "That oughta do it, Pidgeotto!" Luke exclaimed as Hoothoot staggered around before Chaz recalled the Owl Pokémon. Pidgeotto landed and began to clean his feathers before he puffed out his chest and struck a victory pose. "Okay, don't be a jackass. Back to your Pokéball!" Luke said as he shook his head.
"Sorry about that." Luke apologized for Pidgeotto's behavior.
"Oh, I can't blame him. Pidgeotto thrashed Hoothoot. I guess I need to do more training with him. You ready for the last one? I've only got one Pokémon left." Chaz was remarkably calm. Luke admired his cool demeanor despite being on the losing end of this battle.
"Let's do it," Luke said with a grin. Luke quickly removed a Pokéball from his belt and let the creature within out.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Chaz exclaimed upon seeing Luke's Elekid materialize. The Pokémon was winding its arms and stretching, waiting for Chaz's Pokémon to appear.
"Problem?" Luke asked curiously.
"You'll see, you'll see." Chaz said as he shook his head. The familiar red beam of light shot forth from Chaz's Pokéball, revealing a small, blue amphibious Pokémon.
Luke blinked before pointing at the creature. "Is that a Mudkip?" he asked this as he retrieved his PokéDex for more information. Luke knew of the Pokémon, but not a lot. "Mudkip: The Mudfish Pokémon." Luke read the PokéDex screen. Some trainers liked a voice feature on theirs, but Luke turned it off. He found the synthesized voice annoying. "So it's a Mud Fish species like Wooper. How'd you get that?"
"Well, there's this program that-" Chaz started to speak.
"Eh, tell me after this. I'm interested to battle!" Luke interrupted. Chaz smiled and nodded. "Go for the weakness! Shockwave, Elekid!" Elekid began winding its arms as light blue electricity crackled from its body.
"C'mon Mudkip, let's use Mudslap!" Chaz ordered. Elekid suddenly stopped winding its arms and slammed its fists together, sending a ball of electricity forward at Mudkip. Mudkip spun around and with its back legs kicked mud from the ground at Elekid's attack.
"I like your style, Chaz. But You're gonna have to do better than that! Quick Attack!" Mudkip was still kicking up mud to absorb the electricity as Elekid rocketed in a curve, striking Mudkip's side in unison with the Mudslap exploding on impact with Shockwave. Mudkip was knocked back and began tumbling.
"Elekid, go for another quick attack!" Elekid dashed forward at Mudkip again, landing another strike and sending the Pokémon flying harder. "Now move in front of it and use Swift!" Elekid sprinted over and positioned itself, charging a small beam of energy to focus at Mudkip.
"Use the momentum the hit gave you to kick up a larger Mudslap!" Chaz shouted. Mudkip flipped around as it was tumbling and landed with its back feet first, kicking up a sizeable wave of mud at Elekid. The beam from Swift shot through the mud and made contact with Mudkip.
Luke pumped his fist before realizing that Mudslap was still traveling towards Elekid. The attack slammed into Elekid, knocking the Pokémon off its feet. "Go for a Shockwave, Elekid! Let's get this over with!" Luke could see the effectiveness of a Ground type attack on Elekid however, as the Pokémon was having trouble generating any electricity. Small spurts would crackle and fizz out as the mud caking Elekid's body interfered with any electricity attempting to form.
"Mudslap again!" Chaz yelled. Mudkip kicked up another ball of mud and targeted it towards Elekid.
"Rotate your arms! Spin! Shake it off!" Luke yelled frantically. "Dodge to the side!" Elekid's arms were a blur as the Pokémon was attempting to shake the mud from its body. The attack was closing in on Elekid. "Dodge! NOW!" Luke shouted as the attack drew close. Elekid leapt to the left, arms still spinning. Things slowed down and Luke saw mud fling off of the Electric Pokemon's fists. "Shockwave!"
Elekid landed angled towards Mudkip and slammed his arms together. Electricity crackled and escaped from the Pokémon's body. The attack struck Mudkip square on the torso, causing the Mud Fish Pokémon to writhe as electricity surged through its body. Mudkip collapsed after the last crackle of electricity went off.
"The victor is Luke." Tommy stated as he dropped his arm and proceeded to walk to where Elekid was standing. Luke had dashed over to his Pokémon and proceeded to fist bump the Electric type. A short pop sounded between their fists.
"I guess you still had some charge!" Luke laughed as he shook his hand. "Good job, Elekid." He was smiling at his Pokémon. Elekid pumped his fist in the air before Luke returned him to his Pokéball. Luke looked up and saw Chaz and Tommy had made it over to where he was standing. He extended his hand and shook hands with the both of them. "Good show. You gave me a run for my money a couple times."
"Eh, you dominated most of it." Chaz laughed. "Oh well, it'll give me something to work towards."
"That's a good attitude to have," Luke replied. "So, tell me about this Mudkip of yours?"
"So there's this program run by branches of the Pokémon Fan Club," Chaz started. "They realized that we now live in a global world and that trainers shouldn't be limited to the starter Pokémon offered by their region."
"So they just give out Mudkips all willy-nilly?" Luke laughed.
"Essentially." Chaz nodded. "There is an application of interest one has to fill out so they know which Pokémon they need to import for you. It can take a while, so I did it a couple of months before I was legal for my Trainers' License. They had Mudkip waiting for me the day I went and became a certified trainer."
"Groovy," Luke replied. "That's really neat." Luke was always fascinated by how connected the world had become within the past few years, and it pleased him to hear people were being given options like this to connect the world even more. "Whattabout you, Tommy?"
"I don't have the traditional starter Pokémon offered," he replied. Luke knew some people just didn't get a Pokémon given out by the labs. They only have a limited stock at a time, and Pokémon can only breed so fast. Some trainers choose to start with another Pokémon that a family member has caught and presented to them.
"Yeah?" Luke probed. "What was your first then?"
Tommy patted a Pokéball and smiled slightly. "My father had a business trip to Hoenn the week I was eligible for my license. He took me along with him and I actually caught my first two Pokémon there. Ralts was my first and I used him to catch Nuzleaf."
"A traveler, eh?" Luke asked. "I like your style. I've got a sense of wanderlust myself."
"And for you?" Chaz inquired.
"Oh!" Luke said, realizing he hadn't revealed his starter Pokémon. "That honor I guess is two-fold." Chaz raised his eyebrows, looking intrigued. "Charmeleon here was technically my first." Luke patted the Pokéball the orange lizard was held in. "I'm from around Mt. Silver, so I went to Oak's lab in Kanto to get my starter. He had been the last Charmander they had in stock."
"Okay, but you're going to have to explain the 'two-fold' part." Chaz said.
"I'm getting there," Luke replied. "By that I mean my family has a tradition. It's been going on since I don't know when. But basically, the father in our family will catch his children a dog type Pokémon to give to them on the day they become a trainer. And that's how I got Poochyena. My grandfather did it for my dad and my dad did it for me, and will do it for my brothers eventually. And I assume my great-grandfather did it for my grandfather. And I guess I'll do it for my kids."
"So what Pokémon did your dad have?" Tommy asked.
"Dad has an Arcanine." Luke answered. He thought back to his days as a young child, riding around on Arcanine's back. So often he'd wander away from the house and explore the surrounding wilderness of Mt. Silver, and Arcanine would always come fetch him by nightfall. He broke out of his nostalgia quickly, and glanced at the sky. It had become night near the end of their battle and the stars were now visible. "Guys, I need to get moving on."
"Where're ya headed?" Chaz asked.
"Ecruteak, you?" Luke asked, hoping the two trainers would be going the same way. It'd not even been a full day since he had split from Chris, but Luke had enjoyed another's company. He didn't like being left alone with his thoughts for too long.
"Goldenrod. Back to home actually." Chaz informed. Tommy nodded when Luke looked over to him. "We'd been to Violet City and battled Falkner. We had thought about going to Ecruteak, but now I'm fairly certain I'm not ready for Morty. I'll probably go back home and rest for a while, maybe do some training before I face either Whitney or Morty."
"Darn," Luke said. "Well, maybe we'll run back into each other."
The trainers shook hands once again and parted ways. Luke exited the park and entered onto Route 36. He began to think about how many connections he would make on his journeys, with people and Pokémon alike. The stars were shining particularly bright, but Luke remembered that the area was particularly forested and released Charmeleon from his Pokéball.
"We're gonna need your tail tonight." Luke said as he patted his Pokémon on the head. He could feel the still of the night settling around him and he heard the chirps and croaks of various Pokémon. He looked back at Charmeleon before staring back into the darkened road before him. The light from Charmeleon's tail took him back, reminding him of the sticks he would have his father's Arcanine light into a torch as the Pokémon would safely carry him through the night.
I hope you enjoyed this delve into Luke's perspective! There will be several more coming your way as he and Chris go their separate ways. Look for the continuation of Luke's travels in the very near future! See ya soon!