Like any good Gym Challenger, Lucia was hell bent on trying to find any way to get a head up on the competition for the upcoming battles against the best Hoenn had to offer. But unlike most youths, here Lucia was in the middle of arguably one of the most dangerous spots there was at the current moment.

Her teacher back in Blueberry had always said that it would be the end of her.

But fortunately, just as she stepped foot into the cave system alongside the one of only Josh Devlin, her eyes lit up at the sign of a gym leader. Unlike their last rodeo, she was far more peppy and elated.

"Wow, it's really you! Josh Devlin! This will be such an honor to do this mission with you!" Lucia said, calling out her Pokemon. The excitement of meeting an actual member of the gym leaders here was enough to pull her out of her more timid and quiet personality.

The child tossed out two pokeballs and in a flash of white, two Pokemon would phase into being beside her.

The first was a Decidueye, letting out a vain cry as a wing went over to fix the hood and quill that sat on top of his head. He took a bow to Josh and his team while his partner would then be the second Pokemon to show themselves.

A Zeraora, fresh out of the Tournament. Volt was Lucia's newest member of the team and ready to go kick some ass! The electric type was a bit smaller for its species but would no doubt be a big help in terms of what he could do.

"I'm ready when you are, Mr. Devlin! I'll show you what the best of Blueberry Academy can do!"

Josh Devlin

☉

"Yeah! I worked pretty hard to get it during the tournament. I was worried I had run out of time if it wasn't for all the people I met!"

Was this supposed to be the participation reward or was it given out to a select few people? Lucia had lost like 80% of her matches, enough to where it might as well had been the hardest milestone to achieve yet. One more mountain everybody else seemed to do better than she could...

Pushing these thoughts away, she watched Josh's own Zeraora(s) who were slightly larger than her own. He even had a cool little saddle for him. But was he actually going to use him as a ride? Wouldn't a large and non-bipedal Pokemon be better suited for that? He must have been some kind of skilled to be doing stuff like this.

"How come this one's white?" Lucia asked Josh while leaning closer. She hadn't really ever seen anything like it before, though was still a bit reserved with somebody else's pokemon to go any further than a single step. "And my Zeraora's name is Volt!"

Josh Devlin

☉

Lucia continued to move alongside Josh as they went about their way through the chasm. Her eyes were glued to the larger Zeraora as it was moving in a way similar to most animals, all four legs down. It looked a little silly, as if a Machamp or even a Gardevoir had started doing something similar. But there was no doubt in her mind that it would take off in a flash if it wanted to.

She needed a fast Pokemon like that for his gym. Air, land or sea. It had to be something that could handle all three.

"The shiny phenomenon?" Lucia asked, azure eyes looking to his own. It was her first time hearing about such a thing, even after all of her classes. She was better in some area than others, those mainly being more mathematical and analytical things than what was used in practice.

"I remember hearing about it back at Blueberry, before I leeeee-" Shit! She almost slipped. Lucia hung on that syllable before floundering with what to rebound with. "-eeeeet my studies take me abroad."

Smooth.

Josh Devlin

☉

So far, so good. Even with her little mistake, Josh didn't expect anything! Lucia was a bit envious about him having 2 Zeraoras. He even got one from THE person to get it to! Even just the mention of his name got the young trainer incredibly interested in his little relationship with him.

"No way! You got a Zeraora from kyle lopez?! THE Kyle Lopez?!"

Lucia gasped, stunned. Her high energy was coming out again as she had stepped out from the pillar of anxiety that she normally parked herself behind.

"Is he as strong as people say he is? Have you battled against him? How did he become a Champion so easily?! It's important, I gotta know!"

Josh's own inclusion of Raikou wasn't lost on her. She had known that Josh was a bit of a nut over the legendary from the photographs online during her research of the Challenge Circuit. She thought it was cool, a neat quirk that even adults could have something that they could nerd out over. And honestly, who wouldn't dream of riding on a legendary Pokemon?

Would Rayquaza be a bumpy or or a more fast one? Questions for another time!

She did listen to his explanation on shiny Pokemon. During this, Lucia would look over at the other Zeraora and think back during her time at school. The one her parents probably had been told that she technically ran away from. It was quite the anomaly, one that she had found cool. A discolored Pokemon must have been worth millions, especially for some of the popular ones.

"I remember learning about recessive genes back home! That's the genetic code that's dormant in living things, right? It's confusing stuff...I sucked at science but I was in AP math classes from when I first entered Blueberry! I kinda thought science would be similar."

With the tweo Zeraora firing off at top speeds in front of them, Lucia shook her head at Josh's question.

"I don't. I was trying to train a Charmander so I could do your gym challenge, but it's...complicated."

Josh Devlin

☉

The mention of Kyle's more well known traits to the general public had been told to Lucia. Although she blinked as Josh reached the end of his explanation. She wore a confused expression.

"Great One's...Avatar? So he's like one of those people that controls social media? Wait, Entei?! How did he get him? Does he have the other two?"

Lucia hadn't done much research on the man, considering how hyper-fixated she was on the Gym leaders over anything else. It also didn't help that she was from Paldea and really any news of the current going ons in the world had reached over there beyond some communication every now and again. Maybe just League matches and things like that, and half the time, she was busy at school.

Josh threw out a female Pyroar that would pop into view and look down at her. The child noticed the saddle on her back as she put two and two together. It was weird trying to ride a Pokemon like this. She had never really ridden in a saddle like this. Was this what everyone did? Those movies where they did this bareback made it seem so much easier...

"Thanks, Nala." Lucia said, trying to show her some affection. "And if you were willing...I kind of need help. He doesn't listen to me. Sometimes he even attacks me. Same with my Gyarados..."

Josh Devlin

☉

"Ohhhhh." Lucia said, surprised by the explanation from Josh. "So they pick a human and they're sort of a like a friend to help them? Can they understand Pokemon speech? Or is it like a human is talking to them? Can Kyle grow bird wings like Ho-Oh? Or lay eggs? What about flying? Do you know if..."

About one thousand questions later, Lucia had managed to ask every question imaginable about sygna suits and avatarship. It was still fairly new for a beginning trainer such as herself. Would they have ever tested her about this back at the academy? It was hard to say but the other kids would definitely be jealous of her!

Nala was a pretty quick Pyroar. SHe had never been much to try and control mounted pokemon and now was a good time to learn on the fly. She did her best to maintain a steady speed but frequently accelerated a bit too much trying to catch back up to her normal speed where she could understand Josh. After winding her down of questions, she did appear a mixture of relieved and eager to talk more about taming Charizards and Charmanders.

"That would be great! Thanks a lot, Mr. Devlin. I'll try and get a fast race with you yet!"

Josh Devlin

☉

Josh must have not known much about how the Avatarship worked after all the main stuff. Which just meant that she would just have to ask kyle lopez whenever she ended up meeting him! He definitely would be able to answer her questions!

Nala made for a pretty smooth ride all things considered. It was just another day controlling a super fast Pokemon, while she was hanging on for dear life. Their dash was interrupted by a horde of Glimmora that would stand in their way. Hero and Volt would catch up a short distance away as Josh commanded his Pyroar to use a fire-type move. While she was still on it. Her mane lit up with heat and energy before unleashing it on the rocky-poison types. Not a lot to be done with these rock types against flames.

But Lucia knew what could.

"Hero, aim for the center on that Glimmora swarm and drill through!"

The normal-type slithered forward as its drill would swell with a mysterious energy. The size of its tail tripled until it dwarfed even his main body! With a whirring sound, the Dunsparce charged forward, using HYPER DRILL to try and pierce through the group of Glimmora.

Josh Devlin

☉