The intense speed she was going was the most fun Lucia had ever had. The little speed demon held onto the Persian as she tried to let off of the cat's acceleration. No doubt that the poor egg might get a little bruised because of this. Oldale was slowly approaching the two over the horizon, and their brief little interlude was coming to an end.

but what perked her interest was Shalin mentioning Mauville's finest gym leader.

"Oh, Josh Devlin ?" she asked loudly, beaming at the other woman from a mixture of going fast and talking about a hyper-fixation. "Yeah, I know of him! I mean, who doesn't? He's one of the gym leaders, after all! He's pretty cool, super fast too! I've been trying to find a good Pokemon for his challenge, but we're working on it!"

The two then landed down at the entrance of town, with Serena and Lucia coming to a skidding stop as the latter of which slowly got off of the larger Pokemon. Her form shook with excitement, and she couldn't calm herself down from that little ride she had participated in.

"That was so cool! I wanna do that again, but faster! I bet without that egg, Serena can go as fast as she possibly can!" Lucia beamed up at Shalin. "Thanks for helping us, by the way! We would still be lost in the woods if you hadn't had helped us!"

Shalin Nariya

☉

It was all over in the blink of an eye. Lucia was by Doug and everything looked to be going well all before there was an intense shaking across the ground. She lost her footing and ended up on the ground just as a loud bang could be heard! Viscera and metallic parts flying everywhere and then...

Darkness.

Everlasting darkness.

She didn't know precisely where or when she was. Lucia just felt the world falling around her endlessly. There wasn't a speck of light to be seen while she fell into the abyss with the parts of the ship falling alongside her. It felt like it lasted for centuries until eventually, a light! It surrounded her entirely, engulfing her form until Lucia managed to pick herself back up on two feet with a soft groan.

"Ugh, my head..."

"H-Hello?" Lucia gazed around as they were...somewhere no Hoenn. The air here was fresh against her face, and the cool freeze slowly pushed the remnants of the mask from her face. For the first time, sweet, precious air would be inhaled. She held her head and glanced around for anybody she knew among the bodies.

"Doug?" she asked, to no reply. "Eris? Hideo!" Panic swelled up inside her before seeing the familiar shapes of her friends. Both Hideo and Eris were still caring for the AZELF found in the lake, while Doug and the Tapu Lele were facing off against the leader and the Pecharunt by her. Lucia slowly waddled closer to Doug.

But then fell onto the ground and lay still. Her spirit was spent, the past few days had been built up all to this. Her resilience had reached a breaking point and the child was thoroughly broken. The sulking started quietly, but quickly would become heavy, heaving crying. Just like in Doug's dream, the kid just looked up at the deity from Alola and her trainer, who was desperately trying to calm her down and everyone around them. People everywhere just crying, screaming, cursing.

It was all too much.

Lucia covered her ears and whimpered, trying to close out everything while wondering what was happening to her. Everything was overpowering, and she just wanted to go anywhere. Somewhere far away. She had grown tired of the fighting and prison sentence, wanting to crawl back into her hidey hole by the park in Mauville and just never getting up again.

"Augh-I wanna go home..." she sulked through reddened eyes, choosing to grant the woman Mercy.

z9MlaAp1

TL;DR:
- Oh no explosion, ahhhh!
- Lucia knocked unconscious, wakes up in Megaopolis
- Searches for friends and panics but finds them
- Tired, exhausted, and emotional, Lucia breaks down and tears up
- Wants to go home to Hoenn, doesn't care about the torture anymore
- CHOICE: MERCY

☉

"Th-That was you?"

Lucia was quick to go over to Doug as he crumbled into ax exhausted, panting mess. Whatever he had just done had certainly drained a lot of his energy. She did her best to comfort him while stuck in a broken heap like this, using her hand to stroke his back while the child watched him slowly get back up on his feet.

Could all doctors could do something like that? Maybe that was like, after a year of teaching...

His answers given about whether or not it was a good idea to be healing Rocket and League without taking their intentions into account was somewhat worrying, but Lucia trusted him. "The Hipopota what?" she asked, then just went along with his determined goal of finding Eris Halla and Hideo Kino once more. The aspiring protege of Doug nodded her head in a quiet agreement until...

That sound. It was faint at first, but growing louder the longer they stayed in place. Lucia's head swung all around.

"Do you hear that?" she looked up towards the ceiling as the Tapu Lele above them. Was it making all that noise? Her confusion had grown just as rapidly as the thundering noises before something crashed through. Doug covered her from any debris, but the force had pushed the two of them back.

A cloud of dust obscured view of everybody else within the area. Yet inside of the dust were three distinct shapes, each having not looked too happy about the prison break that was occurring. She raised her head behind Doug's shielding body and flinched a little at the ferocious gaze of the canine keeper.

"What?! I thought we got away from them! What's with the masks?"

Her lone Pokemon behind her, Hero the Dunsparce, slithered out in front of her. He brushed his tail against her leg to try and pull herself out of the mental funk that she had been stuck in for a while. She knelt down to squeeze the snake once out of a need for comfort. There wasn't else much to do like this. The ground floor was the end of the line for them.

Nothing left to do but give them hell.

Doug's order had cleared her head of any remaining insecurities enough. Blue eyes traveled down to the hand offered to her as Lucia steeled herself for the fight ahead. "Ready, Hero?" The Dunsparce chirped in agreement and swung back to the challengers. "Give 'em hell, Hero!"

The Dunsparce pumped himself up in size, the drill tail swelling up to outrageous sizes while the fierce sounds of a drill whirling around came from the yellow colored creature. Once a reasonable size, Hero launched his tail at the Monkidori, using HYPER DRILL!

US0BD6x0

TL;DR:
- Comforts Doug after his healing trick
- Wants to meet up with Eris Halla and Hideo Kino
- Surprised by the trio's appearance and hides behind Doug
- She summons forth her courage and faces up to the enemies
- Hero uses HYPER DRILL at Monkidori!

☉

The sudden burst of speed was felt as Lucia's entire body felt like it was being folded in on itself, then blown backwards as Serena took off into a run. The child held onto the reins for dear life while the ride to Oldale began.

Shalin and the Type: Null caught up a short while later, with the green haired woman shouting out her love of speed that their rides were achieving.

Lucia, however, was a bit too preoccupied to fully digest the question that Shalin had asked. Her eyes grew wide with awe and elation at the speeds, the Paldean's hair billowing in the wind behind her.

”This is awesome!” She shouted out to Shalin with the biggest grin on her face. Once she had gotten comfortable enough, Lucia squeezed a little more on the Persian's sides with her saddle to accelerate a bit more.

For a brief moment, all of her troubles seemed to go away. The only thing that mattered were the trees that Serena was bounding around and the speed that the two girls and the Pokémon could achieve. Lucia turned back to face Shalin with the biggest grin on her face.

”How fast can we go?” Lucia asked with almost glowing eyes. ”I wanna go all the way around Hoenn like this!”

Shalin Nariya

☉

The man's tone was an icy shock that paralyzed her in place. She was intimidated by whoever this man was that had shown her people she didn't recognize on the phone. Was he trying to scam or kidnap her or something? Lucia eyed the path behind her while doing her best to think of an exit strategy.

He could definitely catch her for sure. If not by himself, it was going to be that mean looking Pokémon nearby. Maybe if she started screaming for help, some brave souls would come out and intercept him.

But she couldn't leave Sammy here with him! Something about him made her brave enough to keep from fleeing.

”Wh-What's going on? Who are you?” Lucia asked. ”Who are those people you showed me?”

If he was trying to calm her down from this terrifying situation, it was beyond helping his case. She was trembling a little as her eyes darted away every so often. It was only his previous threat from before that had prevented her from sprinting away.

Her mind digested the question that had come from this strange man. Hero remained close, puffed up and ready to defend her if things went south.

”They're following me?” Lucia repeated, astonished by the sudden bit of knowledge. She took a moment to wrap her head around the situation before managing to come to a realization that had slipped her mind before.

”Actually, the woman, I talked to her four…five? I think five, days ago. She was trying to reach her purse that was stuck in a small spot and asked if I could help get it out. I didn't get a name, b-but she kept asking questions and I got scared and ran. I don't know the other man.”

Nikita could see her truthfulness in her eyes, but the twitching, the inability to remain composed enough to give an answer was there. The child was starting to panic as adrenaline flooded through her system, and if pushed too hard, she would lock up, or far worse.

”I-I don't know! I didn't do anything! I-It's not my fault…”

Tears began to swell in her eyes as Lucia was growing unstable. She started to gently tug on her strands of hair while her story fluctuated in the same sentence. Eye contact was at an all time minimum as she avoided the gaze of the two boys.

Lucia backpedaled in an attempt to start running away but tripped over herself, landing on her back against the ground. Still in this frantic state, she began to crawl away in a hysterical fit.

”Hero!”

The Dunsparce lunged in front of his trainer, tail pointed at the two and ready to launch at them if they took one step closer. He let out the most threatening chirp that he could manage and split his attention between Lucia and the man.

Nikita Sokolov

☉

"Okay, I don't wanna make anyone else scared, but we're falling a really long time!"

Lucia shouted out to Eris and Hideo while they continued to fall and fall. Her panic was growing larger by the second, leaving her body a worried, flailing mess. There wasn't else much to her as the older kids would just remain determined and all poised and cool. Lucia's worries dwindled once Eris Halla had wrapped her arms and her and Hideo Kino , leaving her to act as the pillow to cushion their fall.

"Augh! Eris!"

Eris was a little out of breath and had the window knocked out of her, but in good health considering the circumstances. She pushed herself off of Eris and the ground to then be greeted by the sight of a rushing Doug in the distance. Lucia felt a wave of relief over her and was there to greet the other man as he wandered closer. In true Doug fashion, he made sure each of the kids was in good health before then everybody raced off into the brink.

In front of them was a giant machine, some kind of weird ass thing that was spitting out Pokemon? Lucia had only a few seconds to absorb all of it before she was being tugged away from Eris. She protested this somewhat as she tugged against the older woman's grip while desperately trying to find her Pokemon.

"Wh-What? But I-"

She did trust the other two kids more than anything at all and blindly went along with Hideo and Eris' adventures further into the bowels of this weird prison. Lucia pitter pattered along with them as they would finally get to the center of what they all had been working towards: an Azelf resting peacefully in the void. It fell within Eris Halla 's lap as her and Hideo had tried their best to revive it, to what seemed like little avail.

Just as Lucia was about to open her mouth, it awakened with a shrill cry. It would enough to cause some of the items not nailed down to fly away. The more important were the effects the Azelf's cry had on the Toxic Chains wrapped around everybody. As it had somehow turned off the abilities that it had granted everybody present, along with it, the mask.

Lucia took a mouthful of air in, the first in what felt like years. It was muggy and choking down here, but she smiled at how fresher it felt than before. "Much better..." she murmured to herself before looking over at Eris and Hideo. There wasn't a whole lot she could do right now, other than to provide moral support. But maybe somebody else would need her help? Plus, one of them was a major gym leader. He could certainly figure out a way!

"I'll be right back!" she cried out to Eris and Hideo while running over to Doug. "Just be careful, alright?"

It was with Doug's help that she was reunited with a couple of her Pokemon. Her eyes lit up at the familiar sound of a Dunsparce slithering up to her. SHe cried out and tackled her bestest friend with both arms, squeezing him as hard as she could. "Hero! You're alright!" They nuzzled heads against one another before John Sullivan ushered her on further. More of more Pokemon passed through the machine and it wasn't long until Lucia met with everybody else.

Pinky the Tinkaton waved her little hammer around, and had been attacking the machine in anger before she had met up. Muck the Wooper didn't appeared to be too phased by what had gone on, though he was always a little empty-headed. Vulcan and Wavecrest had both been feuding with one another as Jin played the role of the mediator until much like the others, had been recovered.

"That's everybody!" Lucia said cheery as could be, smiling up at Doug. "Let's get going!"

She would have assumed that they would meet back up with the other two kids, but nope! Doug rallied her to search the smaller areas of the ground floor, where they came across a great deal of weird people. They were human, but the skin was a really weird color. Was this some other kind of test.

"Hey, how come they look weird?" she whispered to Doug, who didn't seem to phased by this, and noted how some were attempting to try on clothes meant for somebody else, often times, somebody larger. But as something began to turn inside of her head, she had an epiphany!

Lucia ran forward and began throwing articles of clothing aside. Her search was frantic and rushed, fingers digging through piles and piles old and new clothing. "C'mon, c'mon. Please be here..." she whined, desperately searching. It had to be here somewhere! She couldn't lose it, not after what she had been through. After a hurried search...

She found it.

"Yes!" Lucia screeched, holding up an oversized jacket that she hugged tightly against her body. She threw it on over her prison clothing, the sleeves hilariously fitting over her hands as the fingertips were just barely visible. The familiar rough fabric of the interior was a comfort that had been long absent to her as she smiled. "Can't lose you again, big bro. Let's get out of here."

The mild diversion was over, and her attention went over to Doug who was working on some of the other people who had been wounded here. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea, as their intentions were still unknown, but would go along with whatever Doug would want. He focused on his healing before giving off a sudden aura of some kind of power. The sight captivated the young trainer, who took a few steps back to give him space.

Lucia felt the wave of healing power pushed through her body, and everyone else's. She wasn't severely harmed compared to everybody else, though no doubt the ones who were had been near fully healed. The sight was magical, as Lucia slowly looked back to Doug with eyes of curiously. "D-Doug. What...was that?" she asked, looking around the ground level as people were recovering.

"Are you okay?" Lucia tried to comfort Doug as he recovered. "We should check on Eris and Hideo again! B-But are you sure it was a good idea to heal everyone? What if they start fighting before we actually escape?"

wiGcrQEp

TL;DR:
- Falls with Hideo Kino and Eris Halla and landed on top of the latter once they reach the bottom of the hole
- Wounds mended by John Sullivan
- Gets pulled along to Azelf with Eris and Hideo and stares awkwardly before leaving to help others with Doug
- Has a tearful reuniting with her pokemon
- Lucia discovered the Megapoloans going through clothing and discovered her brother's coat she treasures the most
- Goes back to Doug just in time to see Doug using his healing gift via Tapu Lele
- Question if it was a good idea

☉

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine."

It came out a little bit too quickly to be truthful. Maybe it was how she was breathing heavy or the shifting eyes that refused to stay still. She looked at the Pokeball and frowned, needing to get him out of her and into a safer place. Lucia eyed behind her for an exit before mesmerizing which way she'd be moving to get out of this meetup.

"I, um, I should go...find my Uncle before he gets worried. Ah-I'll catch you-"

Lucia spun around to spot an approaching Toxicroak stepping towards them. The Dunsparce slithered in front of her to protect her from whatever harm that could come to her. He then hurried forward and used a HYPER DRILL to strike the offending Toxicroak. The poison type floundered backwards and launched a counter attack of his own. He threw a quick punch at Hero, sending it back.

"Agh, Hero!"

The Dunsparce hurried up and charged at his target once more. Hero surrounded himself in a blue light and slammed into the wild Pokemon with a DRAGON RUSH. It was enough to put the wild Pokemon into a hurt status, followed by a thrown Pokeball at the poison type. If the catch was successful, Lucia picked him up on her way out, scurrying away.

[attempting catch on Toxicroak!]

Jason Huang

☉

"Heh, my friend in Paldea had an Persian she got from vacation once, but it was Alolan. You look just as pretty~"

Lucia happily showed her temporary ride some affection as she ensured that the egg and its container were well seated on top of its back as she took the reins in hand and listened to a summarized version from Shalin. She mimed the actions while the tutorial was given, trying to get down everything in her mind settled. There was a lot that went into it, despite how simple Shalin made it.

Even Josh Devlin made something like this look easy. But then again, he was a gym leader and doing it way longer than her.

"I think I got it then." Lucia said as she looked to Serena. "Ready to go?"

One the Persian's mark, Lucia squeezed her legs and got this rodeo started, although she might have squeezed harder than she thought had. Hero slithered off behind her, trying to catch up as he was pushing himself to go fast enough to match their speed.

Shalin Nariya

☉

"Oh."

Lucia had grimaced a bit at Shalin's small chuckle. She had gave a pout at her inability to ride a pokemon the right way, even if she had never truly done something like that before. Lathiel at least was in a good enough mood to let her on her back, even if for just a small while. Lucia did offer her another soft pat on the side and then sloooooowly dismounting off of it.

"I can use Serena then, I guess..."

Lucia carried the egg inside of its incubator and then repeated the same process as she had done for Lathiel. Serena was at least easier to climb onto! Once the kiddo was all cozy and ready to go. She looked back to Shalin for guidance. "Okay, s-so how do I do this? Just tug on the Pokemon?"

Shalin Nariya

☉

The chain around Lucia tightened as it merged into her sheer will of wanting to break out of her prison by force. To rebel against the pokemon and strangers that had tried to imprison her in this dimension slash weird ass prison!

Others share this same sudden resurgence of confidence as everyone made a sudden break to the elevator for their lives. Lucia ran as fast as her legs could allow before joining the amassing group on the elevator lowering them down. She came just in time to see Eris Halla hugging Hideo Kino and other meeting up with their comrades once more. She smiled at the two of them. Her expression laid the non-physical wounds bare. Lucia hurt, but was determined to live another day.

"I was so worried..." she said, shoving her way into Eris and Hideo's hug. Although she wasn't as close enough to either, both had impacted her in pretty big ways. She'd have to start going over ideas on how to thank both later on. Maybe they'd like some delicious Paldea cuisine sometime? Things to ask them later, as the youngest in the group watched the other two kids focus their attention on something else unknown to her. She blinked, thoroughly lost.

"Wh-What are you guys talking about? I don't feel anything."

Thankfully, Hideo Kino had come forward to help her sort things out, until it left her more confused. Azelf? Down inside of this place?

"What? I don't...Mm." She frowned, shooting Hideo a look for a moment and turning back to Eris. Shouldn't they be trying to escape this place rather than search for one of the lake trio? If it was important to Hideo though, Lucia knew it must be important! "Okay." She gave a silent nod before following Eris Halla and Hideo Kino down the hole that the duo had climbed down.

Down, down, down they fell...

"Where are we going?" she shouted out to the other two kids. "Isn't Azelf supposed to be in a lake or something?"

Lucia flailed on the way down, spinning back up to see the group behind them shrinking ever so slightly. Somebody else had jumped into the hole after them. Though it was hard to discern who it could be given how far behind they were compared to them.

bSbfcnSF

TL;DR:
- Runs to the elevator platform and gets to safety
- Reunites with Eris Halla, Hideo Kino. John Sullivan and Yuina Higashi
- Watches the kids commune with something or other, then is told that they're saving Azelf?
- CHOICE: Lucia follows Eris and Hideo down the hole
- Hears somebody following after them, but isn't able to see who?

☉

While his presence was a reassurement that things were going to be okay, Doug’s words were anything but. Lucia stopped the waterworks for a moment while he gave his answer, even if it hurt her to hear so. How naive it was to believe that he was the skeleton key to any and all issues.

The child frowned in silence for a moment at the bad news. She looked at the ground for a moment before her entire being just collapsed entirely. Her arms tightened around Doug, legs shaking as she pressed into him more and began to launch herself into hysterics. The cool city winds brushed against her red, warm eyes while she could only speak after pausing to catch her breath.

”Augh-I wanna go home!”

She leaned into him more, the small trainer clutching onto Doug as if for dear life. Lucia only came back up from his shirt to speak again after a solid minute of sobbing.

”D-Did I do something wrong? Is that why we're here? Ah-I…” She pleaded with Doug, tears still flowing from the corners of her eyes. She knew the answer to that deep down in her soul, at what she had done back in Paldea. But how would they have known from all the way back then? Maybe it was some of their powers to judge them based on their background. And then the ones who had done the worst possible things were punished so severely. It made sense, to her, anyway.

That was why she was in the weakling ward. She had dealt with evil hands that had infested her very being.

”I deserve this…” She whined, tiring herself out of crying for the time being. Lucia faced away from Doug, and would look to the ground in defeat. ”I'm a horrible person for what I did, b-but I didn't know! Mom and Dad said we were just taking a trip! Ah-I didn't know…”

John Sullivan

☉

”Huh?” Lucia looked up at Shalin once she showed some aversion to her getting on top of the Type: Null. It wasn't until that pause when the child began to worry. The mysterious beast didn't seem to be against her riding it.

”Ah-I'm sorry! I didn't know! I just saw it kneel down and- But if it didn't- I don't know…”

She let out a soft whine but was thankful that the Pokémon wasn't really feeling like mauling her for the bad decision. In fact, it wasn't even reacting to any sort of petting or affection. Was it upset? It was hard to get a read on it like this, but hoped Shalin could provide some support.

She introduced her and the Persian that was called out in front of her. Lathiel the Type: Null and Serena. Both of which were nice names for them. Hero waddled up to the Persian, the snake-like buddy doing his best to investigate the newly called out Normal type.

”It's nice to meet you both!” Lucia said, smiling at the pair. ”Thank you for letting me ride you, Lathiel.” She said before looking up to Shalin.

”I rode a Ponyta once back home, but I was with my Mom and I was four. I guess it's a little different from letting somebody else take charge. Do you just sit down in a saddle and let the Pokémon take over? Won't they know how to control themselves better than me?”

Shalin Nariya

☉