Eris stood up from her laying position and began to speak about why it wasn't a bad thing to feel as if she was mooching off of them. But there was some kind of strange thing that happened with her that made her just stop suddenly. Lucia frowned and then went to quickly lean over in confusion.

"E-Eris? Are you-"

A hand slowly reached out to see if she was alright before Eris came to in an instant. The older girl hurried back around the corner and left Lucia and Vulcan to themselves. She had felt bad about just leaving all this stuff here. Lucia bent down to pick all of the pencils and paints that Eris had left behind and set them on the counter.

"Don't worry, Eris! I left your stuff here on the counter, if you can hear me!"

On that note, the trainer and her Charmander hurried out back home.

Eris Halla

☉

"Robot versions of the Sacred Swords sound cool though. I bet Coballion would be fun to ride, but are they really made of metal? I thought that steel-types were all...not like robots. Just stuff made of metal." Lucia said. She was a bit surprised about how there could be multiple versions of a legendary that could be out in the world, especially considering the state of things going on.

"Sometimes. I figured that they couldn't be kept in Pokeballs because they could break out easily. I guess it does make sense that they don't want to show themselves a lot. The essence thing is kind of weird though. Unless it's kind of like a copy of a legendary. But then how would it stay in the ball when you defeated it? Wouldn't it just disappear?"

Josh's answer about why he adored Raikou out of the three dogs was a few things that she had guessed. It was kind of cute in a way, a person who was supposed to be super serious gushing about something they loved. It was a lot like how she could list off everything about a Dunsparce just by her hyper-fixation on them from early on in her training career. Everybody had their favorites after all!

"Wow, you must really love him then, if the stuff in your office is anything to go off of!" she smiled, checking on their progress as the party was nearing the bottom of the crater. "We're about half way there, I think. Imagine climbing this by foot."

Josh Devlin

☉

Lucia had been fully ready to spend the remainder of the day picking up plastic bottles and other various recyclables to scrounge up enough cash where she could afford to get her Pokemon something to eat in hopes of getting some food. But what she hadn't expected was Eris allowing her to use some of the used bottles that the gym had that hadn't been pitched yet. No doubt they would be a huge help!

"Are you sure? I don't want to take them without paying you or anything..." Sure, Eris technically didn't own the gym and could give her permission to take something that was theirs, but it was garbage either way. Any little bit helped in the long run.

"But thank you, still. I wish I could pay you back somehow. I keep meeting nice people here, but I feel bad for just leeching off of them. Have you ever felt that way?"

Eris Halla

☉

He introduced himson as Jason, with the small blue Popplio by him chirping to her in greeting. Lucia was taken by how adorable the little gal was! Some of those water-type just were perfect at being the cutest things on the planet! Hero did relax a bit at her showing some bits of friendliness.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Lucretia, but Lucia is fine." she introduced herself, "And this is Hero."

At Jason's suggestion, she took a moment to gather her courage and shake her head at his suggestion to leave. If she was going to take on those gym leaders, she was going to need a team of the best Pokemon she could find. And they weren't going to be laying around safe places. She would have to take risks, and this was one of them.

"I'm sorry, b-but I can't. I have to get stronger so I can participate in the Gym Circuit. And the only way I'll get some of the good ones are going into the dangerous zones. My parents..." she flinched a little at the combination of words. An unpleasant reminder. "They won't mind if I do."

[pass this round]

Jason Huang

☉

The way down through the ravine was a perilous journey. Lucia clung onto Nala to ensure she wouldn't slip off, but every so often stuck her head over to peek at what would like below. It would be a pretty long hike down, but at least she had somebody to talk to! The robotic Pokemon Josh had been talking about sounded pretty neat.

"I've never heard of them before." Lucia said, trying to imagine a Terrakion but as a robot. It seemed pretty improbable, but she was willing to be surprised. "Wait, they're down here too? SO that must mean that Kyle's down here too! We gotta meet him if he is. I promise I won't ask him way too many questions."

"I was gunna ask, too. How come you like Raikou so much? Is it because he's super fast? Or do you like electric-types?"

Josh Devlin

☉

Hero had managed to pierce through the wall of Glimmora that had impeded the progress of the party. With his drill shrinking back down to normal size, Lucia and Nala were quick to make their way into the hole with Josh. The sights inside of Chasm was something right out of a paper book!

"This is amazing..." Lucia gasped, leaning forward on Nala as she did her best to not burn herself on the mane. "Do you know if anybody else is down here? Or are we the first people down here in a long time?"

Josh Devlin

☉

"I kind of have experience with some Pokemon." Lucia said, turning back to face Eris. Vulcan continued to remain unruly but at least he wasn't attacking her. "When I was back home in Paldea, I looked after Pokemon my parents would bring home from work sometimes. I kind of learned as I went along. Some were kind of...what's the word for animals on two feet? Whatever those are. And his hunch is kind of like the ones some did when they were hungry."

Of course, Lucia didn't go full into detail, nor did she really need to! The memory of what those Pokemon were doing there exactly was painful enough to think about, much less imagine what she'd have to do to make up for playing her part in all of it.


The Charmander noticed the Luxray's gaze, shifting his attention towards the electric-type. It seemed to know when it was outclassed and relaxed itself behavior a bit under its watch. Lucia dug around in her coat pockets some before pulling out a berry that she had picked up on her travels. She offered it to Vulcan with a smile.

"Here. This should tide you over until we can get some actual food from the hotdog vendor. I think I can pick up enough bottles tonight for two bigs ones if I can push myself."

The Charmander stared at the hand offering the berry and sniffed it. Silence was met between the pair. But after a moment of waiting, he leaned forward to slowly take the berry offered into his own paws. One captured, he'd roast it over his tail before quickly consuming it.

Eris Halla

☉

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

☉

"It was a pretty short Pokemon that was chasing me, so I climbed up the tree. He wasn't really a fan of that..."

Lucia wasn't in the best spot to run if the both of them were going to be ambushed by that thing again if it did indeed come back. For now, she could maybe crawl away as best she could and pray it went after John. That was assuming Lucia would just allow anybody to get hurt on her watch. She may not have been a medic, but she could still be just as heroic!

Josh asked for her leg and she obliged. She set it before the doctor in a careful manner to reduce the amount of pain generated from moving her limb. A quick once over showed that there was now outward damage, at the very least. No bones sticking out or open wounds. But even the faintest touch to Lucia's upper thigh was enough to get her to wince in pain.

"Um, how have you been since the Tournament?" The child asked, trying to make small talk. "A-Are you doing okay? I saw that you placed higher than me."

John Sullivan

☉

"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

☉

"Yeah! I don't care what anybody says, Hero's perfect in every way!"

The Dunsparce blushed, or gave the sort of look one might have gave one they tried to blush. He chirped out in elation at his trainer's confidence in him. Lucia picked him up from the ground and gave him a soft little embrace before looking back to Elise once she gave the run down on what they wanted to do. Researching Pokemon? Sounds easy!

"I wonder if there's any that we can catch lurking around that we can snatch up. I heard that a lot of the gym leaders have pretty tough Pokemon."

Almost on contact, Lucia took off from Elise's side after catching some movement in a bush nearby. Her curiosity had overridden the promise she made to minor league gym leader. She stopped just short of that bush and moved back towards Elise just as the shaking had stopped. Just in front of them, the sound of paws hitting the ground could be heard.

Elise Calcifet

☉

Before Lucia's little expedition could even begin in proper, a sudden voice around her caused the child to nearly jump up into the air at his voice. The DUnsparce caught this action and quickly moved in front of her. With a fearsome puff of his midsection, Hero would attempt to appear far more intimidating that he was by outsizing the perceived enemies in front of him. Lucia, however, swung back around with a rather anxious expression.

"U-Uh, hi."

The Popplio by the man was cute, all things considered. Her eyes danced across the two walking over to her as she took a step backwards in preparation. He seemed pretty worried about her, but that was also a tell tale sign of people who meant harm! Or maybe he was just some local that really did show concern.

"Y-Yeah. They're nearby. Around the corner." she lied through her teeth. "I'm just looking for Pokemon, but what are you doing here?"

Jason Huang

☉

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

☉