"Darn..." Lucia looked frustrated at her second incorrect answer to the ex gym leader's question. She was embarrassing herself big time in front of the worst person to do so! "Ugh, this is hard to keep track of sometimes. How do you memorize all these Pokémon and what they can do?" She asked Navy, hoping for some type of guidance on how people even remembered what Pokemon was what type. No wonder a bunch of trainers in school would drop out during testing week in Blueberry!

"Yeah, I know about Mega Evolution. There were a couple of people that had used it back in the Tournament a while back. I always wanted one, but then I read that it hurts them to be mega evolved. Is that true, Navy?" Lucia asked, her eyes looking to him for some amount of guidance, or to confirm her suspicions. He did mention that Gyarados could mega evolve, though she hadn't ever seen that one before. Lucia pondered the idea of such a thing like that. What would it even turn into? Would it grow wings? It was hard to say without seeing it for herself.

Then he mentioned a typing that was perfect for defeating water and flying types. That was easy as pie for her to remember. "Oh, I know! Electric-types, right? Because both have it has a direct weakness, so when together, it should deal way more damage!"

Navy

☉

Her eyebrow raised at the correction given to her about the Gyarados typing. Lucia was stunned by this revelation, a shocked expression painted on her face as the young trainer looked on in doubt. "What?! It's not a dragon-type? And ice doesn't just body water-types? No way!" Navy did say both were a common misconceptions, so maybe she couldn't fault herself too much? She was still going to though! At his question, Lucia would give it another shot.

Her lips pursed together in intense thought. "Ummmm..." So Gyarados for a water-type, yeah. But what other types could it be beside dragon? It did hover, yeah, but maybe it was some kind of trick question? It definitely spent time in the water, but maybe they spent a bunch of time in the ground? A lot of snakes did that, some in the water! So maybe that was an answer? But it did intimidate her a lot, and there was one other typing that excelled at that!

"Is it dark-type? It looks scary enough for it."

Navy

☉

"I didn't want them to take her away. I caught her during a safari run one time and I've tried to make sure she's happy, but it's been hard..." Lucia admitted, looking away for a moment as she had began to think about the possibility of maybe she was oversharing. But this was an ex-gym leader! He certainly would know just what could help her out, even attempting to help her directly! Anything would be appreciated at this point.

His offer was definitely something she could see as chance of her losing the Gyarados, but she only looked frazzled at the mention of such a future. "B-But I know I can train him when I get better! But for now, I just..." she frowned. That classic conundrum when a child knew that something was the right choice to make, but obviously didn't want to do it. Lucia remained quiet for a moment before letting out a frustrated huff. "O-Okay...Maybe I'm not ready. But I need to make things right at least. If we can calm her down enough to listen, maybe she'll listen."

Then, team building time!

"I don't want to hurt her too bad, but I don't think we should hold back if it's coming at us with 100% rage. Can you bring something good against a Gyarados? It's a water-dragon type, right? So ice should be good against it then, I think."

Navy

☉

Even after their scuffle with the Gible, Lucia and Vulcan were still more than willing to go the extra distance for their last remaining safari ball. The young trainer winced and continued to walk forward through the brush. It wasn't much longer before they encountered a Scyther stalking in the undergrowth here, its saturated green color able to be seen through the brush. Her eyes lit with joy, spotting the easy prey in front of them.

Even if they were pretty roughed up, she was going to see things through to the bitter end. ”Think you've got one more battle in you?” The Charmander nodded in tandem with her and moved forward, catching the bug-type's attention. The two stood before one another, as the Charmander used FIRE SPIN in an attempt to blast the Scyther away. As the flames burst from his mouth, the attack scorched the Scyther whole into a proper crisp. The bug-type was defeated and Lucia saw her chance.

”Go, Pokeball, go!” The safari ball left her hand, sailing straight to the Scyther as it disappeared into the safari ball.

☉

Just as they would be doing a minor amount of celebration, a silhouette rushed Lucia from behind. "Huh? What the-" She turned around, only to have a Gible sized bullet bull rush into her. With its tiny body colliding with the smaller body, the child was sent flying backwards across the safari area. Her form splattered across the ground while skidding away. Although their relationship was rocky, he could recall the many times that she had been trying her best to impress him.

---

A memory, a picnic of the many Pokemon in Lucia's team. "Here, Vulcan! Try some of Paldea's finest!" Lucia handed the Charmander a sandwich packed with lettuce, tomatoes and bacon. She had sliced it apart from her own sandwich and smiled down at him. "We used to make these all the time back home." The taste was a little funny, but the slices of meat in between had made the meal. He ate it up and was treated to another by Lucia, forgoing her own food.

In another memory, Lucia had been working on a fire pit that Navy had been training her to make. The young trainer would motioning to the shoddily made fire pit. "Sorry it's not good enough. I've been practicing and I think I'm getting better." She had worked so hard and while not exactly perfect, there was an effort. He laid down in it and let the fires wash over him.

---

The Charmander's tail fire went from a quiet dim to a visible inferno while he ran at the Gible with just as much fury as the smaller dragon-type. Rearing his head back, the Charmander breathed out a ring of fire around the Gible, the flames brushing against the smaller Pokemon. Its typing worked against it, as the fire damage had damaged it, though by a slim margin.

The Goble was quick to back into the fray, using Bulldoze against its salamander opponent. The ground cracked beneath him as the Charmander went flying. It landed harsh on the ground and pushed itself back up. The fire-type growled and attacked ate Gible again, only for it to jumped at the Charmander's tail and bite down. He cried out in pain, trying to swing the enemy off. Both Pokemon scrapped in a mess of biting and clawing, but in the end, the Gible raised its arm into the air and thrust it at Charmander with a fierce DRAGON CLAW.

In a wounded, hurt mess, the Charmander would end up groaning, trembling to push itself up as the Gible hissed at it. Despite being so much smaller than it, Vulcan was outmatched. It had been a bitter pill to swallow, one that caused him to only grow even more furious. He was lost by himself, fighting a losing battle. With a broken pride and an even harsher anger, he was only able to lay broken on the ground. Until a faint voice called out from him.

"...can! Vulcan! Are you okay?!" Lucia ran up to her pokemon on the ground, clutching her stomach with a pained expression in her eyes. At seeing he was hurt but alive, the girl smiled as she always had, then turned back to the hissing Gible. "We can do this, but we have to work together, okay?" The Charmander breathed heavy for a moment but slowly got back on his feet and let out a defiant cry. The Gible met the cry with its own as the battle continued.

"Let's use Smokescreen!" The Charmander exhaled thick, black fumes of smoke that enveloped the area around them. The Gible swung its form around the veiled air while its vision was obscured. After a bit without being able to see, a dimly lit fire could be seen. "Fire Fang!" Vulcan stepped out of the smoke and chomped down on the Gible's head. The fire was weak, but the force of the bite had caused the Gible to stumble backwards.

Lucia was divided. A part of her knew full well that a dragon-type was a huge responsibility, but she couldn't let the fight go on longer than normal and risk Vulcan's well being. But she also had really really wanted a Garchomp, and a shiny one at that! Lucia bite down on her lip while recalling the advice that Navy had given her. "Damn it..." she cursed under her breath, watching as Vulcan was thrown away and was preparing to use Bulldoze again.

Panic struck Lucia. She threw the safari ball at the Gible as its form would be captured into the ball. The realization of what she had done hit her as every shake of the ball was another inch of her heart sinking into her stomach. Could she afford to feed the Gible if she caught it? What about caring for it? This was entirely way out of her league!

CLICK!

Vulcan turned back to Lucia as the child looked down at her Charmander beyond her little mental funk. They shared a long silence before the Charmander raised its paw to her, though somewhat tired. Lucia's eyes widened at what was offered to them, before mirroring the action and sharing a high five. She cheered on, with Dunsparce wriggling around in celebration. "Good job, Vulcan!"

Baby steps, that's what progress was.

☉

With an audible click, the strange little ghost type was caught! Lucia celebrated her catch by picking up the safari ball with gleeful hands. "Great job, Hero! You're the best!~" She reached down to pluck her Dunsparce from the ground up by its sides and lift him into the air. With the world's biggest hug done, she'd laugh and nuzzle her head against his cheek.

One celebration later, and the two were off onto the next catch of the day. This one took them into the more coastal area of the park's premiere area. There were several Qwillfish that surrounded the area, with a lone one wandering about aside from the others. Lucia looked down at her pokeball by her hip and smiled, knowing just who to call for a situation such as this one. "Alright, Vulcan, let's blow off some steam,. just like Navy said!" She tossed out the Charmander in question, the grumpy fire-type letting out a sharp cry as he stared down the competition ahead of him.

His eyes went over back to Lucia, sizing her up again. She did her best to remain unfazed and still, doing her best to show no fear. "I, uh, thought it would be nice of you to stretch your legs a little! Don't you want to train more, anyway? These guys are super tough!" Vulcan snorted at her, his tail swaying left to right again before running forward and going towards the single Qwillfish isolated from the rest. The Charmander's scuffle was short lived with the poison type, who ate a direct FLAMETHROWER to the face.

"Nice job, Vulcan!" Lucia smiled, holding her hand up to him while the Charmander continued to huff at her. A moment of silence rang out before she slowly put it down and threw the safari ball at the Qwillfish.

☉

By the time that Lucia had been discovered by Desiree, she was fully entranced in the song of the kingdom, performing a ballet routine in full tutu and regalia. An empty look of elation was painted on her face as she dancing along, ignorant of the songstress's words as she approached. The child just danced along to an unheard melody.

"..."

A Dunsparce was still by her side, attempting to avoid being squashed by her movements. It hissed at Desiree in alarm, raising its tail for her to come and assist him is saving his trainer. The child continued on dancing for her imaginary audience silently, carefully spinning on the tops of her toes while Desiree's Pokemon cast DISARMING VOICE onto the child. The move had been enough to stir Lucia from what had controlled her. Very briefly, her eyes would flutter while emotion returned to her face.

"Wh-Whuh....Hoeh? What happened?" She muttered, looking around her as the Dunsparce by her feet would let out a joyful cry while the younger girl let out a confused, sluggish noise. "I remember a song and everything gets fuzzy...Thanks for the-" The child shook her head as the view of her savior came into being, only for Lucia to let out a sudden gasp at the face which she had plastered everywhere! On her phone background, the posters in her room, even on her many playlists. "D-Desiree? As in THE Desiree Blooms?!" A smile widened on the child's face, shaking off whatever stupor she had been in.

She was quick to come back to normal, ready to explode with excitement. "This is the best day of my life! I know you hear this always, but your music's helped me through so much of my life! I love your work! Augh!" She managed to reign herself in enough to focus on the task at hand. Desiree wanted to know about how she came to be here. Lucia nodded after a few more times of clearing her thoughts of singing praise after praise. "Hero and I were enjoying a day off when a weird hole opened up near us and sucked us inside." Her eyes went down to look at her attire, as Lucia's eyes narrow in confusion. When she put on a tutu? But something else had caused her to suddenly begin to panic.

"W-Wait, my jacket! Where'd it go? Did I put it somewhere when I changed into this?" Lucia sped around, trying to locate the article of clothing with a frenzy in her voice. "I can't leave it here. I-It's got to be around here somewhere!"

---

DESIREE BLOOMS

☉

Through the brush of the special zone was a pretty large looking rusty anchor! Lucia and Hero approached with curiosity brimming in their legs, but once it began to hover about, it had caused the pair to stumble backwards in fear. Hero slithered behind his owner as Lucia backed away after a frightened yelp.

"Ah-I don't think that anchors are supposed to do that..."

While a haunted cry, the ghost type would go on the offensive, launching a POWER WHIP at Hero while the Dunsparce did his best to avoid it. Her counter attacked just as the anchor had finished an attack of its own. Hero began to glow a bright blue color as he surrounded himself in fierce, engulfing flames and speeding towards the ghost-type with a DRAGON RUSH.

The sheer force was enough to send the attacker away, and Lucia collected a pokeball in hand. "Pokeball, go!" The capsule device whirled in midair and surrounded the Dhelmise in its energies. The Pokemon disappeared into the ball while Lucia waited with baited breath.

☉

The revelation about the badges did make Lucia feel a bit less whimsical. She thought it was just burned into every Pokemon's head that upon seeing badges, they knew they could trust their trainer. Maybe it was childish of her, but it was a genuine train of thought she had been following since she was younger. But at least it made sense!

"I think I get it then. So badges aren't the end all, be all for this thing. It's just a status symbol then? I kinda figured that Pokemon would see a badge and know whether or not they wanna follow you or not. That's what my brother always said, anyway. I guess I couldn't tell that he was just messing with me." Lucia nodded, eager to watch the match.

It was already progressing, as Tsubaki's Nhilego had coiled around the Gigantamaxed Blastoise, beginning to tighten in some attempt to bind the water-type on its back where the cannons wouldn't be able to fit anything. The small vibrations were enough to tell how smoothly that was progressing. What did catch her eye was the discussion of her Gyrados and its uncontrollable tendencies to just start rampaging around without a way to calm it down. But if what Navy said was true, then perhaps it could work on the principles of raising dragon-types despite not being one!

"She's female, her name is Wavecrest. I saw her whiskers when they were busy controlling her back at the harbor. I didn't really mean for any of it to happen either. I let her swim when I was out fishing one day and then after being picked on by some Pelipper, she just evolved and started going berserk. If one of your pokemon worked with mine, though, I'm sure that we could beat her in a fight."

Lucia crossed her arms with a troubled expression, her voice quivering and growing a bit more faint. Her eyes remained down at the floor while she couldn't help herself. Navy appeared to be somebody she could trust and it had been slowly eating away at her. The child fidgeted and took some coaxing to open up about what was on her mind.

"I still feel awful about what happened. She destroyed a pier and some housing by the seaside. But I think what I did is the reason why I can't really control her any more...I didn't mean to, I-I just got scared of getting in trouble with the League. I didn't want them to find me, so I lied and didn't say she was my Pokemon and pretended to catch her for the first time."

Navy

☉

"I spent extra money on this trip, so that means that this will be an even better safari trip, right?" Lucia asked Hero, the Dunsparce walking into the safari zone after flashing her ticket to the employee inside. She was more than happy to do so, considering the savings she had gotten from people, alongside a bit of an allowance from Doug that she had to spare wisely.

So naturally, why not use it to get Pokemon?

The normal type let out a "harumph" noise while they began to search for their first target! The sign said that this special area was supposed to be have all shiny Pokemon! So what colors would all of the Pokemon in here be? Hopefully all cool!

"Let's go, Hero!"

☉

It had been a fairly normal day all things considered. Lucia had been enjoying a day to herself. Lounging outside in the park after trying to train with Hero and the rest of her team before something had felt "off" around her. Something like the air was just shaking. Could air vibrate like that? Microwaves worked that way, didn't they?

"You feel that, Hero? It's weird but, it's like something's happening."

Suddenly, a hole in the space beside her had opened, drawing her inside. She tried to clutch the ground to keep in place but she was pulled inside and sucked into wherever this led. Hero, not one to allow his trainer go, jumped in after her as the two were transported elsewhere. Lucia spun in place as she continued to fall downwards.

The world around her would continued to spin and spin, until it can to a merciful end.

Lucia landed in some strange building, the roof was nonexistant and landed on something soft below. She let out a soft thud on top of an old mattress and looked up to see the familiar shade of Hero speeding towards her. The sight of him falling so fast caused her to quickly clutch onto the mattress and pull it over to his incoming landing. Much like his owner, he landed safe and sound, while a bit rattled.

"That was a close one." Lucia said, breathing a sigh of relief. "But where are we?"

This didn't like like the park in Mauville. Or any sort of place that was in Hoenn. It was like they had been transported into some strange clockwork area. A look outside a dilapidated window showed the landscape consisted of gears and more. It was like she had been shrunk down and shoved into one of those weird old clocks that every old person had in their house. The two slowly picked themselves from the bed and began to explore.

The bed room was connected outside to what appeared to be some type of theater. An empty stage lay outside with a backroom of untouched costumes and an audience seating area which was caked with dust. The child wandered on stage and looked up at the giant clock tower standing in the middle of the area. The pair gazed forth as they continued to explore around the theater.

But then, it began to emit a strange sound as the panels opened to exposed its innards. A mysterious melody erupted from the speaks inside, crackling to life and bathing the area in its glow.

"What? It's some weird cuckoo clock or something! I wonder why..."

Lucia's eyes glazed over as her body fell limp, becoming entranced in whatever melody had been playing in the clock tower. The song wormed itself into her head and seemed to cycle on endlessly, even after it had closed. The child quietly would feel a smile warp onto her face as she began the steps to a ballet recital that the tune had reminded her of.

"..."

Hero buzzed at his owner, wondering what had been wrong with her as she would begin to dance for him. His cries and buzzing didn't seem to shake out of of the trance, as all he could do was to try and nudge her until she came to.

---

04. experience your emotions being overridden by the song sung periodically throughout the kingdom; conversely, become cursed by the song and find yourself perpetually dancing before breaking the curse (e.g. dampening sound).

DESIREE BLOOMS

☉

It had been another quiet day in the town of Dewford. Lucia had been enjoying her time training for the upcoming Gym Challenge and this time, spending time with some of lesser used Pokemon. A Paldean Wooper had been roughing up some of the training dummies placed outside to focus on using some of their moves. While instended for combat, however, Muck had other options.

"Poison Jab it, Muck!" Lucia called out behind the fence.

The Wooper turned to look at her with a mindless cry, before then following orders in his own, empty headed way. Spinning around once, he summoned forth the latent poison in his body and spat out a glob of mud at the target, drenching it further in caked mud. Once done, the Wooper would throw himself into it and begin to goof around.

"What? No, not Sludge Shot! We went over this!"

Lucia groaned, trying to snap her fingers together to get Muck's attention. It took several tries, but he had caught on and looked back to her with that mindless smile.

"Urrrgh! You're lucky you're cute. Focus up for a second. I want you to look at that dummy."

He turned his head and nodded, bouncing up and down.

"Yes! Okay, now you know how to use Poison Jab, right?"

Muck nodded his head again.

"Good! Now do it."

Another Sludge Shot as he spun back to his trainer, just in time to see her holding in her frustrations.

Mission: Bond Bridge

Eris Halla

☉