The sound of another voice behind her had caused Lucia to jump straight up, possible right out of her skin. She spun around to face the blonde man that had wandered closer to her. On cue, her personality shriveled back down inside of her while taking a step back. Hero puffed himself up and went to stand in front of his owner to defend her from this new threat!

"Mmm..." she whined, her brows furrowed together in caution.

But then he pulled out a badge she had recognized from her time researching some of the gym leaders! Her mouth opened in awe at who the man in front of her was. An actual Gym Leader had come down here?! Should he back back in his gym and, like, battle people her age?

"You're Gwyar Wledig, Gym Leader of Mossdeep City!" Lucia said at the same time as he had. Her eyes lit up with the strength of a thousand suns. Her previous inclinations towards the man had changed to admiration, though still contained traces of hesitation.

"It's such an honor! I, u-um, I'm Lucia. Trying to train to do the gym challenge. I was searching for Pokemon to join my team before I heard about some people here who went missing a while ago. So were were trying to find them."

Hero had stood down from his defense of Lucia. He returned to her side and looked happy enough that the man meant no harm to his trainer.

"So I was trying to look for them. But why are you here? I though Gym Leaders couldn't leave their Gyms..."

Gwyar Wledig

☉

It wasn't much longer while Lucia and Doug followed behind Garo the frowny bug and Doug the best teacher ever. Her smaller footsteps hurried behind theirs like a highly spirited Lilipup treading behind its Herdier boss type.

Garo had been speeding off in front of them, leading the two to their quarry and the Pokemon who would have attacked Lucia before and caused her such strife. She was ready get a little revenge for what this ancient beast had caused her, with a Pokeball in hand and adrenaline pumping through her system.

"I'm gunna catch this and make everyone in the gym challenge jealous!" Lucia smiled in elation as they barreled over the horizon and spotted the fearsome beast in front of them. Her eyes widened in surprise, the child's finger pointing at the Gouging Fire.

"That's it! That's what attacked me!"

John Sullivan

☉

"Hey!" Lucia called out while in Area Zero, standing on top of a medium sized rock with her hands cupped over her mouth. Her voice echoed all around the vast area, while the Dunsparce by her would be on the lookout around the lip of the giant rock. "Anybody out there?!"

Nothing, not one shout or answer. Lucia huffed and looked out over the horizon for any kind of blip or silhouette that was in the shape of three teenage boys who had been missing over the course of a few hours. The younger girl looked down at Hero with a worried expression. her arms crossed with one another before she would shake her head.

"See anything, Hero?" she asked, "Nothing's sticking out for me."

The Dunsparce shook his head while squinting at the scenery around them and continuing his search.

Gwyar Wledig

☉

Lucia peered up at the Orbeetle when Doug had been introducing it to her. She hadn't seen one before back home in Paldea, but from what it looked like, it reminded her a little of a Ledyba. Or just one that was pretty mean looking.

Either way, it found its way into the child's affection.

"Hello Garo. You're cool looking!"

Just as quickly as he greeted her, Garo was zooming off into the lands beyond and leaving the two to catch up to it. If it was a radar type of Pokemon, there was no doubt it might be useful in collecting some of the more powerful Pokemon! She made a mental note to keep it mind as a Pokemon to catch if she ever did cross paths with one.

Lucia was quick to run in the direction, throwing out a Paldean Wooper as it let out a rather empty-headed noise while his owner and her ran alongside Doug and Garo.

"Let's catch this dinosaur!"

John Sullivan

☉

"Thanks! I've been practicing since my first safari visit. That one trip was a bit rough. I got attacked by a Charmander and a Magikarp."

She said in a kind of "just another day in the world" tone that was pushed past the whole being attacked by a pokemon angle that she may have been used to by now. Lucia plucked her new pokemon up and put it inside of her bags before another shape would form itself across from them. Except it looked weird...

"A Koffing!" she said, pointing it out to Jason, before her eyes furrowed in confusion. "But how come it's all...discolored? Is it sick or something?"

[skipping this round!]

Jason Huang

☉

"It's feeling way better now! I can move it around without hurting as bad!"

Lucia bounced around as if he show him that she could walk around without fear of just falling down now. Did her leg really need an ice pack to feel better? Usually bruises, even the light kind, lasted far longer than just a couple of minutes like this. She was eager to get going, but found it strange that it had just disappeared like that.

Maybe Doug just had the magic touch?

AT his mention of medicine, Lucia did seem a little hesitant, but interested at least. She had never really been one to think about healing Pokemon. That seem,ed like super smart people stuff. She was just kind of smart. But if was easy to get into...

"I'd love to! I bet you know a whole lot if you can treat my leg and make it better so fast! I'll do whatever it takes!"

Her lips curled into a beaming smile while wrapping her arms around Doug. She was as happy as could be, a totally different Lucia than what she had been roughly ten minutes ago.

"Yeah, let's go!" The child said, nearly pulling the older man towards the clearing and readying herself for another adventure.

John Sullivan

☉

Lucia gave Doug the biggest Yamper eyes that she could manage to try and convince him. Even not noticing her leg which was slowly in the process of healing in full. It had gone numb for a minute, though this likely could have just been the ice pack. When he did agree, he let out an audible gasp.

"Really?!" she asked surprised before beaming just as brightly at the man. "Thank you! I promise I'll be the best student ever! I still owe you lunch for the tournament as well! Can we start right now? I'm feeling better! I won't fall again, I promise."

She moved her leg again without any major pain, but the slight wobble at moving it showed it had become but a minor bruise.

"And if you need any help with anything, I can help out too! It may not look like it, but I'm pretty good with numbers and calculations. I actually got an award from it back home before I left."

She gave off enough infectious happiness to be bouncing around like some adrenaline filled Spoink. Just bouncing around and sometimes wincing as her leg still hurt somewhat.

John Sullivan

☉

Every breath that Doug spoke had only managed to entrap the child's whimsy more and more. She had forgotten all about her leg and that fall from the tree in an instant, focused entirely on the story from somebody who had seen far more than her.

There was word that a couple of the gym challenges across the world had different rules and stipulations. Some, like the one Doug had spoken about, had badge requirements to meet before even stepping foot inside of the door. It almost gave off the impression that it was a more "members only" type of gym.

"No way! That's so cool, Doug! You're amazing!"

Lucia proudly exclaimed. Her eyes widened in wonder at him as he worked his magic with his avatar powers, far too distracted to pay much attention to it on a first glance. Beaming up at him, she'd sputter out the next thought to cross her mind.

"C-Can you teach me how to be like you?! I really need to get better at training so I can finish this gym challenge. There's somebody I really need to do this for!"

John Sullivan

☉

The pokeball let off a small click as Lucia pumped her fist in the air in celebration. She let out a pleased squeal while hopping along to collect her new pokemon. Behind her, the Dunsparce would slither away to ward off any attackers.

"I did it!~ I bet the kids back at Blueberry haven't done this before!"

She laughed to herself, showing off her new catch for Jason and looking back around for more creatures to join her party of pokemon! She gazed all around the abandoned streets for their next quarry before stumbling over an emptied fish tank display of some kind of. It was super big, like one of those giant novelty ones that showed off water types to the public. Flowing around in the breeze was a patch of alge, swaying away while Lucia approached.

Until several of the strands lauched out to try and attack her!

Thankfully, Hero was in the way to intercept the attack. He cried out to the mysterious alge monster before it revealed itself to be a Pokemon, and one that Lucia had seen before.

"Oh, I know this one! From an aquarium visit once! A Dragalge, right?" she smiled gleefully and pointed at their foe. "DRILL RUN it, Hero!"

The Dunsparce sped along the ground, firing off its drill tail at the Dragalge, with a pokeball following not so long after.

[attempting catch on dragalge!]

Jason Huang

☉

Out of Doug's magical little wonder bag came an ice pack which was pressed against her leg. The sheer temperature difference between the ice pack and her body was enough to cause some minor discomfort at first, but it subsided soon enough as it was held against her skin.

But at least Doug's recollection of his first gym battle was enough to distract her for the time being!

"You've been a trainer for THAT long?! You must be, like, one of the best people in Hoenn right now! Can you show me your team sometime?"

Just for a moment, Lucia had forgotten about her little wounded leg and was happy to openly admire and gush over Doug's accomplishments. She was lucky that the ice pack had helped with the pain somewhat as she adjusted her posture to better be looking up at the man.

"Still, it's gotta be hard when your first gym leader battle is against the strongest in your region. Did you win on your first try, or did it take a few attempts?"

John Sullivan

☉

Lucia continued to pout at Jason, her cheeks puffed out in indignation. She had stuck her heels in the ground and shook her head at his comment about needing to get back to safety.

"I don't care...I have to do this! Even if it's dangerous, I'll do whatever it takes."

To her surprise, after some back-and-forth, Jason offered to join her. She thought on it for a moment but her head bobbing up and down was the telltale sign of somebody she had decided to place her trust in, for better or worse.

"Um, okay. I just wanna get a few. Then we can go back, I promise!"

Lucia led the way deeper into the derelict area, happy to have a plus one to watch over her. For such an independent kid, she was a pretty poor choice of character, had she known Jason's background. Still, she was far too focused on trying to improve herself. Jason would catch up and find her stalking a Sneasel that was picking through some of the remnants of a fallen building. Lucia smirked with a pokeball in hand.

"I got this one!" she whispered, tossing a pokeball at the little guy.

[attempting catch on sneasel]

Jason Huang

☉