Hey gang! You don't know me, and I guess I don't really know you either, so never mind this statement. Anyways, I'm the fellow who's been responsible for Luke's creation and characterization and all of that jazz, and I've been granted a great opportunity to write chapters for "Heart & Soul" from Luke's perspective. I hope you guys enjoyed my first effort last chapter, and here's a follow up. If you were worried about the length last time around, there's no need to this time. This chapter is actually rather short and somewhat boring, no battles or anything. But no worries, because this is helping to set up Luke's solo adventures for the next two months of his travels. And I just realized I'm being quite long winded and rambling on and on and on, so without further ado I present to you the next chapter (pun somewhat intended) in Luke's journey!


Luke Chapter 2

"Fuck. Me." Luke muttered as the harsh morning light penetrated though the Venetian blinds. Or maybe it was the harsh afternoon light. Luke grabbed at his pillow and covered his face with it, then proceeded to add to his barrier by pulling the blankets around the pillow. Or rather, what blankets were left. He had tossed and turned in what little sleep he had gathered because of the rising Summer temperatures.

And it was only May.

The thought of July or August made Luke cringe. He tried to feign sleep for several minutes, in a futile attempt to trick his own body into believing he was still asleep. But he had awoken and he knew there was no going back. But maybe he could avoid life for a little while longer.

"Excuse me trainer, but you were supposed to vacate this room thirty minutes ago."

He cursed. He had traveled through the night, arriving at the outskirts of Ecruteak at an ungodly hour. He then trudged into the city to find lodging at the Pokémon Center, only to discover that their overnight rooms were all filled. He then was forced to begrudgingly tramp back to the outskirts he had arrived in and find a locally owned hostel to stay in.

"Right, right." He grumbled. He stood up, in nothing but his underwear and heard the door close quickly. She must have been embarrassed. He still needed to shower. He walked over to his belt and retrieved a Pokéball, then let out the Pokémon inside. "Ah, so I grabbed you, Pidgeotto." The bird chirped.

"Right, well, I need to show and was supposed to be out of here quite some time ago.

Watch my things in case they try to move me out, okay?" Pidgeotto flapped its wings and flew to the window sill and perched. "Good bird." Luke said.

Once in the shower, he began to wash like any normal person would. It was much too late in the day to get anything of consequence done, so he decided on doing a bit of sightseeing and maybe some evening training. Hopefully he could get a room at the Pokémon Center tonight.

He shut the water off and dried halfway. His mother had always scolded him for never fully drying. As he returned to the room and opened the door, he realized that Pidgeotto had taken the liberty to pack all of Luke's things for him. How the Pokémon did such a task was beyond Luke's comprehension, but he was impressed.

"You're such a doter. I left one home to get away from one mother only to capture a bird to replace her." Pidgeotto was not amused. "But thank you, you babying Pokémon, you." Pidgeotto chirped, and Luke returned the Pokémon to its Pokéball. In a matter of minutes, he was out the door.

After a few minutes, Luke had arrived to the location of the Burned Tower. He had decided to take a tour of the Bell Tower, its counterpart, and the Burned Tower. What he didn't expect, however, was for construction to be taking place on the Burned Tower. He remained perplexed until a tour group walked by.

"And as you can see now, a reconstruction project has been undertaken with the Burned Tower." Luke was paying careful attention to the guide's jubilantly toned words. "After much planning and correspondence between the Bell Tower Sages, Ecruteak's Gym Leader Morty, and the mayor of Ecruteak City, the project was finalized and given the green light. As you can see, construction has been well under way for a while now. Much research has been done to ensure that the tower will match the original appearance of the old tower. And in under a year the Ecruteak skyline will once again be dominated by the two majestic towers! Unfortunately, we must keep moving on as we're not permitted to go in the tower while construction is taking place." The group proceeded to shuffle along their path.

"Shoot," Luke muttered. "I really wanted to see the tower." Kicking at the dirt, he traveled East for a ways until he came to the Barrier Station to the Bell Tower. There was a nearby sign, and upon inspection Luke saw it read "No Trespassing by the Unworthy". He growled in frustration. "I'm going in anyways, who's to say I'm unworthy?"

As he pressed on the door to open it, he felt a gush of air and saw an elderly face in the doorway. The old man was dressed in grey robes and was looking Luke up and down, his eyes penetrating the trainer. The old man grunted, then spoke. "This place is not the place for you." He closed the door.

"My day has been marvelous." Luke mumbled. Then he had a thought. "I can get into the other tower. I know I can. As long as I don't act like a stupid kid and pretend I'm there with a purpose, I'll definitely be okay. The workers will be too focused on their jobs."

Luke turned back to the West and walked back to the construction zone. Once there, he looked at the tower again. It appeared that the bottom levels had been completed structurally and that most of the work was taking place on higher levels. He confidently walked up to the entrance and darted inside.

Luke had anticipated a very bare and unimpressive interior, supposing that they wouldn't begin to remodel the insides until the outer work was finished. As such, he was surprised to see some work had already gone into creating a museum-esque area. The wall had already been lined with plaques filled with text detailing the history and legends of the two towers. It appeared as if displays had already been set up for artifacts to be placed in later as well.

As he walked around, Luke was in awe of the effort that was going into the rebuilding of the tower. He placed his hand on the wall and ran it down the deep, rich colored wood as he walked. Things like this, history, legends, myths, these were the type of things he was interested in.

As he wound around corners and equipment, a sight out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He spun and saw a tarp draped over a door frame. He cautiously walked over and peeled the tarp back to reveal a set of stairs going down. Without a second thought, Luke entered the stairwell and let the tarp fall back behind him. As he proceeded down the winding stairs, he wondered where they could possibly be leading him.

His questions were soon answered.

Luke felt his foot come down off the last step and saw a large room in front of him, thankful for the construction lamps the workers had left hanging from the ceiling that were aiding his vision. It was as large as an entire floor of the tower it seemed, and it sloped down in a crater type fashion and large support columns were in the corners. In the middle of the room, Luke saw three objects dimly reflecting the light from the lamps.

Carefully he descended the slopes and approached the objects. Luke knelt down and brushed dust off the three objects, feeling that they were stone-like in quality. As he cleared the dust away, he could tell they were indeed stones. One was yellow with orange and red veins running through it. Another was blue with lighter spots across it. The last was a bright green with streaks of yellow scattered about.

"Evolutionary stones." Luke stated in wonder. He'd never actually seen one. He knew his father had owned one at some point, as that is how he had evolved his Growlithe into Arcanine, but he didn't know what his father had done with it afterwards. The shine from the stones caused Luke to take his bag off and open it, contemplating whether or not he should take them. On one hand, they were sitting right out in the open of a dilapidated basement. They were covered in dust and obviously hadn't been moved in a while. On the other hand, they could have been placed there for a specific reason and Luke might have been stealing should he take them. He groaned.

"So are you going to take them or not?" He heard a voice call out from behind him. Scared, he jumped and fell backwards, seeing the upside down form of a man. He got up quickly and dusted himself off as he spun around. The man had moved closer and was standing a few feet away from him. He was clad in a black t-shirt and had a purple headband on to hold back his blonde hair.

"You're Morty!" Luke shouted, stirring up a Zubat that had evidently been roosting nearby. The Pokémon flapped its wings and darted around the room before finding a crack to escape through.

"Looks like you got rid of the last Zubat," he chuckled. He stuck his hand out and Luke shook his hand. "And if you mean I'm the Morty who you're most likely going to battle for the Fog Badge, then yes, that is me." Luke stood uneasy. He had just been caught trespassing in an ancient, almost sacred site by one of the strongest trainers in the Johto region, who also happened to be heavily involved with the said ancient, almost sacred site. And he didn't seem visibly angry or upset. "And your name is?" the Gym Leader asked curiously.

Luke spoke, his throat dry and his voice coming out cracking. "Luke." He cleared his throat and spoke again. "Luke."

"Ah. Luke. So, Luke, you didn't answer me. Are you going to take those stones or not?" Morty was friendly and had a slight smile on his face. Luke began to realize the expert trainer was just having some fun at Luke's own expense.

He composed himself, and replied. "Well, I guess that depends on whether they're mine for the taking or not." Morty laughed again and Luke chuckled as well. The leader walked over and placed his hand on Luke's shoulder.

"Come with me," he said. "Do you like coffee?"

"So you see," Morty said, "those stones are there for symbolic reasons." He lifted his mug and took a drink of his coffee, the aroma wafting through the venue. The two trainers were currently sitting in what Morty had described as his favorite coffee shop in the city. The atmosphere or décor wasn't anything special and looked like your typical coffee shop, but Luke didn't have a problem with it, especially since Morty was paying.

Luke heard the barista call out his name and he went to the counter to retrieve his cup of tea. He walked back over to the table and sat down again. Morty was eyeing him and shaking his head.

"I don't get what you have against tea." Luke said as he took a sip. The scent made its way through his nose and opened his sinuses up. He took another deep inhale.

"I'm just a coffee man myself." Morty replied.

"It's not that I don't like coffee, it's that I like tea better." Luke answered.

"I just find tea a little off-putting, personally." Morty said. "I mean, you're putting leaves in water."

"It's the exact same principle as coffee!" Luke answered. "You use plant matter and hot water!" The two trainers laughed and took a drink from their respective beverage. The sun was setting and its multi-hued light was pouring in through the window.

"So anyways, symbolic reasons." Morty picked up from earlier.

"Right." Luke nodded. "What do you mean?"

"I'm assuming you're familiar with the Legendary Beast Trio?" Morty asked.

"Of course. Entei, Raikou, and Suicune?"

"The very ones." Morty took another drink. "Well, think about the stones you saw. They matched the types of the trio, didn't they?" Luke nodded. "The three frequented the basement of the BurnedTower once several years ago. On their last visit that we know of, those stones were left behind."

"Wow." Luke said softly. "Anyone know why?" Morty shook his head.

"We're debating whether to seal the basement and grant access only to authorized individuals, that way should the trio wish to return they can do so without causing a fuss. The other option is to make it part of the museum."

The two sat there for a minute. Luke really didn't have a response.

"Well, I'm sorry for trespassing." Luke finally said. Morty looked up from his coffee. "I just like to explore places like that. I didn't mean any harm."

"Is that so?" Morty inquired. Luke nodded. Morty looked back into his coffee. Luke watched and could tell the trainer was thinking about something. He finally spoke. "When were you planning on facing me? Tonight? Tomorrow?"

"Actually," Luke said, "not for a few days. My Pokémon aren't ready yet and I was going to do some more training." Morty nodded in understanding.

"So probably in about a week then? Or four or five days?" Luke was beginning to grow curious as to why he was being questioned in such detail.

"I suppose."

"Well, would you mind if I asked a favor of you?"

Luke was growing even more curious. "What would it be?"

"Yes or no?" Morty asked.

"Yes." Luke answered quickly. He didn't know why, but he rationalized it as how often does a Gym Leader ask something of the everyday trainer.

"Between now and Monday, probably tomorrow. That's Sunday, right?" Luke nodded in affirmation. "Right, so tomorrow, Sunday, can you do research for me? I'd like for you to read up on the legends of the Bell Tower and its counterpart. There's a library on the southeast end of the city, it should have all the resources you need."

Luke was baffled. "Sure, yeah." He nodded. "Yeah, I'll do it."

"Alright then!" Morty said with enthusiasm. "Get back to me Sunday night. We'll meet here and discuss what you've learned."

"So tomorrow?" Luke asked. Morty was already on his way out the door. He spun around and nodded. Luke nodded back, and without much fuss Morty was gone.

Luke sat there for a while longer, finishing his tea. His thoughts were all over the place, trying to make sense of what he'd just been tasked with. He could come up with no reason for Morty to ask him to do such a thing, but Luke gave the Gym Leader his word. He took his last sip of tea, stood up, and walked out the door.


Hey there dudes and dudettes, I hope you all enjoyed! Any comments, critiques, reviews, all of that, it's all appreciated. really likes his reviews, and I wouldn't mind getting some feedback either. Anyways, what's Morty got in store for Luke? Why would a prolific trainer ask a rookie to do such an odd thing? Who knows? The answer of course is that I know and you fine ladies and gentlemen will just have to wait until the next installment. Until then, arrivederci!