Story Notes:
The story has been finished, the follow-up will be written soon, and it will the be called: The Primal Spark: Another Time, Another Place.
Chapter 30 (the threat absolved, and a new face)
(Lucas's P.O.V.)
"are you really gonna do this? alone!?" the galactic grunt shouted, as the small crowd kept exchanging glances, unsure about the situation...
"what happens here today..." I started, shutting my eyes, "you will NOT inform the others of your team about this..."
she paused slightly, before saying "and what if I do?" , through a somewhat smug look, she was already testing my patience, but, I really didn't want to do this...
"all I can say is..." I responded, before locking my eyes with hers "...you'll regret that decision...no-one in Team Galactic deserves to have my gift..."
"...gift?..." she asked, raising an eyebrow, I sighed lightly, looking away as I thought to myself
"I've said far too much...", I then looked back at her before saying, "put away the pokeball and walk away, you don't want to do this..." she seemed to become irritated at my statement
"what are you, a coward?"
"the only thing I'm afraid of..." I started, before focusing inward, attempting to start a fire punch "is what's going to happen to you!" I thrust my fist forward, expecting flames, but...nothing happened, she saw this as a sign of aggression though, as she released her first pokemon, a Zubat...
"why didn't it work!?" I thought to myself, as an expression of panic crept across my face, before I thought "...no matter, I've fought without these powers before..."
"show him the power of Team Galactic!" the Grunt shouted, before saying "use 'plan b'!"
the Zubat nodded slightly, before rushing forward, it's left wing glowing faintly as it attempted to swing at me, it was fast, but, it was no problem to avoid the attack, as I jumped to the left, letting the wing sail right past my right arm, but then, I saw it, the Zubat smiled suddenly, as if it expected me to act the way I did, as it brought it's fangs into my arm, it hurt, but, I wasn't about to show it...
I turned my attention away from the bat, giving a stern look to the Grunt, before grabbing the small bat in my hand, holding it's wings together, preventing it's escape, looking down to my right arm, I had started bleeding, this didn't surpise me, but I heard some gasps escape the small crowd, holding the Zubat tightly, I turned back to the Grunt and said
"do you even CARE about your pokemon? why would you put them into combat against me?"
her expression was unchanged by this, as she said "pokemon are tools to our ends, if I lose these ones, I'll just get more..." this really struck at me, and everything I stood for, but, knowing that I had a Zubat in my hand prevented me from clenching my fist, instead, I turned my attention to the small bat and said, "did you hear that? she doesn't even care about you..."
"so?" the Zubat started in response, while struggling to free itself from my grip "I was raised to expect this..." clearly, it didn't expect me to understand it's statement
"that's not right..." I started, my expression changing to one of sadness, "no-one should have to go through that..." I heard some confused reactions from the crowd, clearly, they were wondering what was going on, the Zubat looked up at me and asked
"you understand me?" it had stopped struggling in my hand, so I loosened my grip slightly, before responding
"yes, I understand your speech..." I turned my attention to the Grunt, who was already preparing a second pokeball, releasing a Croagunk, I turned back to the Zubat and said "I don't want to fight you, or anyone else, please, you've done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment..."
the Croagunk stood there, utterly confused as to what it was seeing, the zubat frowned and said "but, I bit you..."
"I don't care, you were working under the orders of Team Galactic..." I responded, cutting the bat off
"what are you waiting for!?" the Grunt shouted at the confused Croagunk "Attack him!"
the Croagunk looked back at her and said "really? I thought we were under orders not to attack humans..."
I released the Zubat from my grip and said, "stay out of this..." as I walked forward, the Grunt was startled by my course of actions, as was the crowd, I marched right by the Croagunk, grabbing the grunt by the collar and shouting "Who do you think you are!?" she responded by shouting to the Croagunk
"do it!" I looked back at the Croagunk to see it's fingertips glowing purple,
"a poison jab..." I thought to myself as the frog came towards us, poised to strike, I decided, I would make her face the consequences of her mistreatment, as I ducked out of the way of the strike at the last moment, as the frog's arm slammed into the Grunt's chest
"hrk!" I heard her shout, as she fell from my grip, hitting the ground, the Croagunk was shocked to see what it had done, as it scrambled to her side and said "I'm so sorry!"
she slapped the Croagunk and responded "you're useless!" she then turned her attention to the Zubat and continued "both of you, useless!" she then threw their two pokeballs off to the side, before unclipping a third, releasing an abra, she then turned to me and said "don't think I'll forget what happened here today, kid!" before teleporting away...
after she left, someone in the crowd asked "are you okay?" I wasn't even sure if they were referring to me, so I responded, "I'll be fine, but I'm more concerned about these two..."
"what should we do?" soemone asked, another person responded
"hand them over to the police?"
"no!" I shouted, before turning to the crowd as the two pokemon stayed where they were, almost as if frozen, I then continued "that won't solve anything, I've dealt with this before, I know how to handle this..."
"...she called us useless..." the Zubat started, as I turned back to them
"don't believe a word she says..." I said, sighing as I walked over to the two discarded pokeballs, picking them up, the Croagunk saw this and asked
"are YOU going to be our trainer, now?"
"no..." I responded, looking back to the two, before continuing "I'm going to free you..."
"free us...but, why?" the Croagunk then asked
"this isn't something you should question, you'll be free to make your own choices now..." I said, before breaking the balls apart.
The Zubat came closer and said, "thank you, but...I haven't known anything BUT servitude to team Galactic..."
"then you need a new life...I know of a place where a lot of Golbats are, you're welcome to come with me until we get there..."
"that sounds...interesting...I'll have to take you up on that offer..." the Zubat said, flying a little bit closer
"...what about me?" the Croagunk said, getting my attention to shift to it, "where should I go?"
"I think you're already in the best place possible..." I said, pointing towards the entrance to the Great Marsh
"what do you mean?" the Croagunk said, turning to look at the building, I turned back to the crowd and continued
"maybe you guys should explain this..."
I heard one of the people ask, "is this what you meant by gift? understanding the speech of pokemon?"
"yeah...and now, it's kind of going to happen to all of you, too, sometime later..." I responded scratching the back of my head, the crowd had a few mixed responses, one of which was a negative one
"I'm a fisherman! how do you expect me to do my job if the things I catch start talkin' to me!"
"really!? you're really going to question this now!?" I said back, angrily, before continuing "can someone PLEASE explain to the Croagunk here, what the Great Marsh is?..."
a child stepped forward and said "the Great marsh is a place where people go to catch Pokemon, it has mud, water, grass and other things..."
the Croagunk turned back and asked "but what if I don't WANT to be caught by someone?" I then echoed his question to the child, who responded
"well, you could just live in the town..."
"what are you suggesting?" the Croagunk asked, folding it's arms, echoing it's response to the child, I caught on, but didn't interrupt...
"well, I live here with my family, and, maybe...you'd like to live with us?" the croagunk turned to me and asked
"is this...okay?..."
"it's your choice, no-one else's, and don't ever forget that..." I responded, smiling
"so...THIS is freedom, then..." the Croagunk started, looking around, before saying, "tell the kid, I'll take them up on their offer, but I may not be able to stay for good..."
"very well..." I said, before turning to the child and saying "the Croagunk said that they'll do it, but it may not be a permanent decision"
the child smiled as I said this and asked the frog pokemon, "would you like to see my house now?"
the Croagunk started past me, saying "I'd like that..." before standing beside the child, before they left, the Croagunk turned back to me and asked "how long will the language barrier be an issue?"
"I don't really know..." I started, bringing a hand to my chin "I'll get back to you on that..."
"well, I guess that means I'll see you sometime in the future?" the Croagunk asked
"yeah, I've got some friends that may be moving here, maybe I'll introduce you..." I said, smiling
the Child said "thanks for your help, mister..."
"the Croagunk can understand you, so, it would be most effective to converse by asking yes or no questions, at least, until you can understand pokemon speech yourself..." I responded, folding my arms
"sounds pretty exciting" the child said, happily, before turning to the Croagunk and saying, "come on! I'll show you around" before leading the frog pokemon off... (author's note: some of you may think Croagunk is something more like a toad, from the colouring and bodyshape, however, I'm assuming it's based on a poison-arrow frog)
after this, some of the the crowd dispersed back to their homes, talking amongst themselves, leaving the aforementioned fisherman, a young lady, and one of the trainers from Wake's gym, Turning my attention towards the fisherman, I said
"look, I'm sorry if this ability interferes with your job, but, I can't stop it from spreading, to tell you the truth, I've been considering just going vegetarian, myself..."
"you'd give up meat altogether? woah...that sounds pretty harsh..." he responded, looking down
"but, from what I've seen, you should have around four months before any changes start to take place..."
"hmm...maybe I should re-think this whole situation..." he responded, rubbing his chin
"look" I started "there are pokemon that naturally fish, just like how there's predation in the wild, I just need to talk to the right ones to find out how they do it..."
"well, if you come back, and KNOW this stuff, come find me, I'm usually fishing out on route 213..." he said, bringing his attention back to me
"...why haven't you been there lately?" I asked
"what do you mean?" he asked in response
"I've been camping out on route 213, and I haven't seen you..." I said, raising an eyebrow
"well... I'm usually there from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m." he said in response
"that would explain it..." I said, chuckling lightly
"what? why?" he asked
"I've only been there since yesterday afternoon, and I'm moving on later today..." I said, turning to face the Eastern entrance of the City
"well, alright then..." the fisherman said, I turned back and responded
"I'll talk to you later though..." the fisherman then left, heading through to the other side of Pastoria
the trainer from Wake's Gym had only one question "does Wake know about this?"
"yeah..." I started in response "I told him about it yesterday afternoon..."
"alright, well, I'm gonna' head back to the gym then..." they said, before leaving, the Lady just stood there, appearing to be lost in thought, looking at her waist, I noticed she was also a trainer, she appeared to be wearing only black, too...
"hello?..." I said, getting a response of
"I knew I'd find you eventually..." this confused me, so I had to ask
"Do I...know you?"
"Once Oak told me about you, I knew I'd have to meet you in person..." she started, folding her arms "but I never expected to meet you quite like this..."
I started thinking about WHO this mysterious Lady was...and thinking about WHO was important enough that Oak would tell them about me...
"who are you?" I asked
"well, I guess you could say, I'm the strongest trainer Sinnoh has to offer, at least for the moment...the Champion of the Elite four" she said, before smiling and continuing "I'm also your older cousin..."
things started falling together now, "...Cynthia?..." I asked, utterly confused as to why a family member was the Champion of this region
"that's right, and Oak told me that you're capable of more than just talking to Pokemon..." she responded, almost expectantly
"yeah...I can fight like one, too...but I don't know why I couldn't today..." I then turned to the Zubat and said, "you've been pretty quiet..."
"oh..." it responded, before saying, "but, no-one was talking to me..."
"that doesn't mean YOU can't say anything..." I responded, smiling slightly, before turning back to Cynthia and asking, "so, you're the Champion...shouldn't you be ,y'know...at the pokemon league?"
"I guess I should, but, the others said it would be okay if I took a few days off...speaking of which, I guess I should head back soon..." she said, looking around
"well..." I started, looking towards the Tailor's house, "if you want to meet the others, can you give me a moment, first?"
"shouldn't you get that bite looked at?" she asked, concerned
"I'll be fine" I responded, waving my hand dismissively, before continuing, "I know first aid..." I then started walking towards the Tailor's house, knocking on the door...it soon swung open as a blue scarf and a smaller chunk of Ice were put in my hands
"you took too long getting here!" the man said, almost angrily
"what are you talking about? I said noon, and it's about eleven-thirty now" I responded, before asking, "did you even sleep last night?" looking at his worn-out face
"not really, I was busy, you see, and these things won't make themselves..." he said, before yawning
"maybe you should get some sleep..." I said, concerned
"I will, after I give the other scarf to the girl in Veilstone..." he said, coming out of the house, locking the door behind himself...
...after he left, by flying on the back of a bird pokemon, I turned back to Cynthia and said, "well, that was strange..." while draping the scarf over my shoulder, I then turned to the Zubat and said "right, follow me, I'll show you" turning to Cynthia, I continued "both, the others..." I then turned to the Eastern entrance of the City, making my way back to the campsite, being followed by Cynthia, and the Zubat, as we made our way to the campsite, I asked
"now, I wanted to know...do you have a name?" Cynthia didn't say anything, she was quite aware I was talking to the bat
"not one I can remember, I only recall being called Zubat..." it responded, a tone of sadness in it's voice...
"maybe I should give you a name then..." I said, as we made our way through the checkpoint, coming out on the other side, the others were keeping to themselves
"hey, guys..." I said, getting their attention, I then continued, "could everyone gather around the fire, please?"...
...there were some murmurs, wondering about who was with me, but they complied, staying at their sleeping spots...after that, I waved Cynthia and the Zubat to follow me, as I sat in my sleeping position, Seena sat beside me, quietly asking "who are they?"
"I'm about to explain that, Seena..." I responded, quietly, as Seena's attention drifted to my right arm, seeing the bite mark, then, her focus drifted up to the Zubat, noting the similarities between the bat's fangs, and the mark on my arm,
"the bat did that, didn't it?" she asked, in a tone of irritation
"Seena, please..." I said, softly, while placing the ice on the ground, before continuing "now, first things first, I ran into another Galactic grunt in the City, this WAS her Zubat" I said, before pointing to the bat, and continuing "it's going to accompany us back to Snowpoint, I plan to drop it off at the temple..."
Garudan spoke up at this point "Another Grunt, huh? why was she there in the first place?"
"she seemed to be there for recruitment purposes..." I responded, before continuing "you may also be wondering who this woman behind me is-" she cut me off saying
"My name is Cynthia, I'm Lucas's Cousin, AND, the Champion of Sinnoh..." I scratched the back of my head, before saying
"do you have to keep mentioning that you're the champion?"
"sorry..." she said, blushing slightly, before continuing "it was pretty recent that it happened, though, so I'm not fully used to it yet..."
"you'll get it eventually I suppose..." I responded, before turning back to the group and continuing "was there anything you guys wanted to know?"
no-one seemed to say anything..."I guess that's a 'No' then..." I said, turning back to Cynthia,
"I suppose the title doesn't carry the same authority to pokemon, then..." she responded, before looking over my shoulder at Garudan, and saying "you know...I have a Garchomp, too..."
"are you...suggesting something?" I asked, somewhat confused
"well" she started, blushing lightly, "she's been a bit...strange as of late, I believe she's in heat at the moment...and I can see that yours is a male from it's fins, so, I was thinking..." I cut her off at that point
"first of all, I don't OWN any of these pokemon, second, Garudan already has someone..." she seemed a bit surprised by this
"oh, I'm sorry if I caused any offence with this..." she said, before looking around at the group and asking "but, may I ask WHO?"
"I don't think he'd appreciate that..." I said in response, looking over to him.
"well, I guess, I should keep moving, I was going to stop by Celestic on the way back to the League, say hi to grandma..." Cynthia said, looking back towards the City, I stood up, saying
"I guess I'll walk you back to the City, then..." she stood up and responded
"thanks..." I turned back to the small bat and said
"you should stay here and get better aquainted with the others..."
"if you think that's best...Lucas, right?" the Zubat said in response
"yeah, that's my name..." I responded, before turning to Seena and saying "I'll be back in a moment..." I then waved Cynthia after me, as I made my way back to the City...
...after we were out of earshot of the others, Cynthia asked, "about Garudan...you don't have any other pokemon that have a dragon egg-group, from the looks of it..."
"just drop it, okay, even if he didn't have someone at the moment, he wouldn't be much help to your Garchomp anyway..." I responded, in a frustrated tone before continuing "I've said too much..."
"are you suggesting that he's?..." I cut her off at this moment, saying
"yeah, I guess you could say he prefers the 'company' of other males..."
"but, that still doesn't answer my earlier question, WHO is it?" she asked, as we continued
"it's actually the Crobat..." I said in response
"I...don't really see that working..." she responded, in a confused tone
"I don't really question it, Cynthia..." I said, before turning back and saying "this spot looks good...anyway, when you see Caroline again, tell her that her Grandson said hello"
"I'll keep that in mind..." she said, before releasing a Togekiss and saying "well, I guess I should keep going, then"
"maybe we'll run into each other again sometime" I said, folding my arms
"yeah...to think I'll be able to understand them soon, too..." Cynthia said, while getting on the back of her Togekiss, the Togekiss asked
"what's she talking about?" I smiled and responded,
"you'll see when it happens..." I then saw them off, watching them fly north, towards Celestic town, I then turned back and proceeded back to the campsite...
...when I got back, I talked to the Zubat first, asking "have you met some of the others?"
"not really...I only talked to the one named Seena right now, and she doesn't seem very happy..." it responded, frowning slightly
"it's because she knows you bit me, that's all, she'll warm to you soon, but for now, go see the others, okay?" I said,
"okay, Lucas..." the Zubat responded, before flying off to Tira, I then sat down beside Seena and said
"anyway, the 'thing' I wanted to get you is done..." I then took the blue scarf off my shoulder, handing it to her
"it's lovely, Lucas..." she started, holding it out lengthways, before looking back to me and asking "but why is this something that I'd need?"
"try it on, you'll understand..." I responded, smiling
"well, okay..." she said, before removing her red scarf, "could you hold this?" she said, handing it to me, before putting the blue scarf on, her eyes widened slightly before she said "Lucas...this feels...wonderful!"
I then picked up the chunk of ice and said "it's because of THIS, Seena" showing her the now smaller chunk
"there are pieces of that ice in this?" Seena asked, bringing her hands up to the scarf
"it's quite practical, under the right circumstances, wouldn't you agree?" I responded, smiling slightly,
"so..." she started, suddenly becoming nervous, "how much did it cost?"
"it actually didn't cost me anything, the tailor said the idea was enough, also, I let him keep some of the ice for himself" I responded, smiling, before continuing, "even if it did cost me a lot, I wouldn't want you worrying about it, okay?"
"thank you Lucas, I love it..." she responded, before throwing her arms around me, pulling me into a hug, resting her head on my shoulder.
"that's alright, Seena, I'm glad you like it..." I responded, lightly stroking the back of her head.
After she released me from her grip, I stood up, saying "alright everyone, we're going to keep moving..."Chapter End Notes:okay then, the next chapter should be up within the next week
"are you really gonna do this? alone!?" the galactic grunt shouted, as the small crowd kept exchanging glances, unsure about the situation...
"what happens here today..." I started, shutting my eyes, "you will NOT inform the others of your team about this..."
she paused slightly, before saying "and what if I do?" , through a somewhat smug look, she was already testing my patience, but, I really didn't want to do this...
"all I can say is..." I responded, before locking my eyes with hers "...you'll regret that decision...no-one in Team Galactic deserves to have my gift..."
"...gift?..." she asked, raising an eyebrow, I sighed lightly, looking away as I thought to myself
"I've said far too much...", I then looked back at her before saying, "put away the pokeball and walk away, you don't want to do this..." she seemed to become irritated at my statement
"what are you, a coward?"
"the only thing I'm afraid of..." I started, before focusing inward, attempting to start a fire punch "is what's going to happen to you!" I thrust my fist forward, expecting flames, but...nothing happened, she saw this as a sign of aggression though, as she released her first pokemon, a Zubat...
"why didn't it work!?" I thought to myself, as an expression of panic crept across my face, before I thought "...no matter, I've fought without these powers before..."
"show him the power of Team Galactic!" the Grunt shouted, before saying "use 'plan b'!"
the Zubat nodded slightly, before rushing forward, it's left wing glowing faintly as it attempted to swing at me, it was fast, but, it was no problem to avoid the attack, as I jumped to the left, letting the wing sail right past my right arm, but then, I saw it, the Zubat smiled suddenly, as if it expected me to act the way I did, as it brought it's fangs into my arm, it hurt, but, I wasn't about to show it...
I turned my attention away from the bat, giving a stern look to the Grunt, before grabbing the small bat in my hand, holding it's wings together, preventing it's escape, looking down to my right arm, I had started bleeding, this didn't surpise me, but I heard some gasps escape the small crowd, holding the Zubat tightly, I turned back to the Grunt and said
"do you even CARE about your pokemon? why would you put them into combat against me?"
her expression was unchanged by this, as she said "pokemon are tools to our ends, if I lose these ones, I'll just get more..." this really struck at me, and everything I stood for, but, knowing that I had a Zubat in my hand prevented me from clenching my fist, instead, I turned my attention to the small bat and said, "did you hear that? she doesn't even care about you..."
"so?" the Zubat started in response, while struggling to free itself from my grip "I was raised to expect this..." clearly, it didn't expect me to understand it's statement
"that's not right..." I started, my expression changing to one of sadness, "no-one should have to go through that..." I heard some confused reactions from the crowd, clearly, they were wondering what was going on, the Zubat looked up at me and asked
"you understand me?" it had stopped struggling in my hand, so I loosened my grip slightly, before responding
"yes, I understand your speech..." I turned my attention to the Grunt, who was already preparing a second pokeball, releasing a Croagunk, I turned back to the Zubat and said "I don't want to fight you, or anyone else, please, you've done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment..."
the Croagunk stood there, utterly confused as to what it was seeing, the zubat frowned and said "but, I bit you..."
"I don't care, you were working under the orders of Team Galactic..." I responded, cutting the bat off
"what are you waiting for!?" the Grunt shouted at the confused Croagunk "Attack him!"
the Croagunk looked back at her and said "really? I thought we were under orders not to attack humans..."
I released the Zubat from my grip and said, "stay out of this..." as I walked forward, the Grunt was startled by my course of actions, as was the crowd, I marched right by the Croagunk, grabbing the grunt by the collar and shouting "Who do you think you are!?" she responded by shouting to the Croagunk
"do it!" I looked back at the Croagunk to see it's fingertips glowing purple,
"a poison jab..." I thought to myself as the frog came towards us, poised to strike, I decided, I would make her face the consequences of her mistreatment, as I ducked out of the way of the strike at the last moment, as the frog's arm slammed into the Grunt's chest
"hrk!" I heard her shout, as she fell from my grip, hitting the ground, the Croagunk was shocked to see what it had done, as it scrambled to her side and said "I'm so sorry!"
she slapped the Croagunk and responded "you're useless!" she then turned her attention to the Zubat and continued "both of you, useless!" she then threw their two pokeballs off to the side, before unclipping a third, releasing an abra, she then turned to me and said "don't think I'll forget what happened here today, kid!" before teleporting away...
after she left, someone in the crowd asked "are you okay?" I wasn't even sure if they were referring to me, so I responded, "I'll be fine, but I'm more concerned about these two..."
"what should we do?" soemone asked, another person responded
"hand them over to the police?"
"no!" I shouted, before turning to the crowd as the two pokemon stayed where they were, almost as if frozen, I then continued "that won't solve anything, I've dealt with this before, I know how to handle this..."
"...she called us useless..." the Zubat started, as I turned back to them
"don't believe a word she says..." I said, sighing as I walked over to the two discarded pokeballs, picking them up, the Croagunk saw this and asked
"are YOU going to be our trainer, now?"
"no..." I responded, looking back to the two, before continuing "I'm going to free you..."
"free us...but, why?" the Croagunk then asked
"this isn't something you should question, you'll be free to make your own choices now..." I said, before breaking the balls apart.
The Zubat came closer and said, "thank you, but...I haven't known anything BUT servitude to team Galactic..."
"then you need a new life...I know of a place where a lot of Golbats are, you're welcome to come with me until we get there..."
"that sounds...interesting...I'll have to take you up on that offer..." the Zubat said, flying a little bit closer
"...what about me?" the Croagunk said, getting my attention to shift to it, "where should I go?"
"I think you're already in the best place possible..." I said, pointing towards the entrance to the Great Marsh
"what do you mean?" the Croagunk said, turning to look at the building, I turned back to the crowd and continued
"maybe you guys should explain this..."
I heard one of the people ask, "is this what you meant by gift? understanding the speech of pokemon?"
"yeah...and now, it's kind of going to happen to all of you, too, sometime later..." I responded scratching the back of my head, the crowd had a few mixed responses, one of which was a negative one
"I'm a fisherman! how do you expect me to do my job if the things I catch start talkin' to me!"
"really!? you're really going to question this now!?" I said back, angrily, before continuing "can someone PLEASE explain to the Croagunk here, what the Great Marsh is?..."
a child stepped forward and said "the Great marsh is a place where people go to catch Pokemon, it has mud, water, grass and other things..."
the Croagunk turned back and asked "but what if I don't WANT to be caught by someone?" I then echoed his question to the child, who responded
"well, you could just live in the town..."
"what are you suggesting?" the Croagunk asked, folding it's arms, echoing it's response to the child, I caught on, but didn't interrupt...
"well, I live here with my family, and, maybe...you'd like to live with us?" the croagunk turned to me and asked
"is this...okay?..."
"it's your choice, no-one else's, and don't ever forget that..." I responded, smiling
"so...THIS is freedom, then..." the Croagunk started, looking around, before saying, "tell the kid, I'll take them up on their offer, but I may not be able to stay for good..."
"very well..." I said, before turning to the child and saying "the Croagunk said that they'll do it, but it may not be a permanent decision"
the child smiled as I said this and asked the frog pokemon, "would you like to see my house now?"
the Croagunk started past me, saying "I'd like that..." before standing beside the child, before they left, the Croagunk turned back to me and asked "how long will the language barrier be an issue?"
"I don't really know..." I started, bringing a hand to my chin "I'll get back to you on that..."
"well, I guess that means I'll see you sometime in the future?" the Croagunk asked
"yeah, I've got some friends that may be moving here, maybe I'll introduce you..." I said, smiling
the Child said "thanks for your help, mister..."
"the Croagunk can understand you, so, it would be most effective to converse by asking yes or no questions, at least, until you can understand pokemon speech yourself..." I responded, folding my arms
"sounds pretty exciting" the child said, happily, before turning to the Croagunk and saying, "come on! I'll show you around" before leading the frog pokemon off... (author's note: some of you may think Croagunk is something more like a toad, from the colouring and bodyshape, however, I'm assuming it's based on a poison-arrow frog)
after this, some of the the crowd dispersed back to their homes, talking amongst themselves, leaving the aforementioned fisherman, a young lady, and one of the trainers from Wake's gym, Turning my attention towards the fisherman, I said
"look, I'm sorry if this ability interferes with your job, but, I can't stop it from spreading, to tell you the truth, I've been considering just going vegetarian, myself..."
"you'd give up meat altogether? woah...that sounds pretty harsh..." he responded, looking down
"but, from what I've seen, you should have around four months before any changes start to take place..."
"hmm...maybe I should re-think this whole situation..." he responded, rubbing his chin
"look" I started "there are pokemon that naturally fish, just like how there's predation in the wild, I just need to talk to the right ones to find out how they do it..."
"well, if you come back, and KNOW this stuff, come find me, I'm usually fishing out on route 213..." he said, bringing his attention back to me
"...why haven't you been there lately?" I asked
"what do you mean?" he asked in response
"I've been camping out on route 213, and I haven't seen you..." I said, raising an eyebrow
"well... I'm usually there from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m." he said in response
"that would explain it..." I said, chuckling lightly
"what? why?" he asked
"I've only been there since yesterday afternoon, and I'm moving on later today..." I said, turning to face the Eastern entrance of the City
"well, alright then..." the fisherman said, I turned back and responded
"I'll talk to you later though..." the fisherman then left, heading through to the other side of Pastoria
the trainer from Wake's Gym had only one question "does Wake know about this?"
"yeah..." I started in response "I told him about it yesterday afternoon..."
"alright, well, I'm gonna' head back to the gym then..." they said, before leaving, the Lady just stood there, appearing to be lost in thought, looking at her waist, I noticed she was also a trainer, she appeared to be wearing only black, too...
"hello?..." I said, getting a response of
"I knew I'd find you eventually..." this confused me, so I had to ask
"Do I...know you?"
"Once Oak told me about you, I knew I'd have to meet you in person..." she started, folding her arms "but I never expected to meet you quite like this..."
I started thinking about WHO this mysterious Lady was...and thinking about WHO was important enough that Oak would tell them about me...
"who are you?" I asked
"well, I guess you could say, I'm the strongest trainer Sinnoh has to offer, at least for the moment...the Champion of the Elite four" she said, before smiling and continuing "I'm also your older cousin..."
things started falling together now, "...Cynthia?..." I asked, utterly confused as to why a family member was the Champion of this region
"that's right, and Oak told me that you're capable of more than just talking to Pokemon..." she responded, almost expectantly
"yeah...I can fight like one, too...but I don't know why I couldn't today..." I then turned to the Zubat and said, "you've been pretty quiet..."
"oh..." it responded, before saying, "but, no-one was talking to me..."
"that doesn't mean YOU can't say anything..." I responded, smiling slightly, before turning back to Cynthia and asking, "so, you're the Champion...shouldn't you be ,y'know...at the pokemon league?"
"I guess I should, but, the others said it would be okay if I took a few days off...speaking of which, I guess I should head back soon..." she said, looking around
"well..." I started, looking towards the Tailor's house, "if you want to meet the others, can you give me a moment, first?"
"shouldn't you get that bite looked at?" she asked, concerned
"I'll be fine" I responded, waving my hand dismissively, before continuing, "I know first aid..." I then started walking towards the Tailor's house, knocking on the door...it soon swung open as a blue scarf and a smaller chunk of Ice were put in my hands
"you took too long getting here!" the man said, almost angrily
"what are you talking about? I said noon, and it's about eleven-thirty now" I responded, before asking, "did you even sleep last night?" looking at his worn-out face
"not really, I was busy, you see, and these things won't make themselves..." he said, before yawning
"maybe you should get some sleep..." I said, concerned
"I will, after I give the other scarf to the girl in Veilstone..." he said, coming out of the house, locking the door behind himself...
...after he left, by flying on the back of a bird pokemon, I turned back to Cynthia and said, "well, that was strange..." while draping the scarf over my shoulder, I then turned to the Zubat and said "right, follow me, I'll show you" turning to Cynthia, I continued "both, the others..." I then turned to the Eastern entrance of the City, making my way back to the campsite, being followed by Cynthia, and the Zubat, as we made our way to the campsite, I asked
"now, I wanted to know...do you have a name?" Cynthia didn't say anything, she was quite aware I was talking to the bat
"not one I can remember, I only recall being called Zubat..." it responded, a tone of sadness in it's voice...
"maybe I should give you a name then..." I said, as we made our way through the checkpoint, coming out on the other side, the others were keeping to themselves
"hey, guys..." I said, getting their attention, I then continued, "could everyone gather around the fire, please?"...
...there were some murmurs, wondering about who was with me, but they complied, staying at their sleeping spots...after that, I waved Cynthia and the Zubat to follow me, as I sat in my sleeping position, Seena sat beside me, quietly asking "who are they?"
"I'm about to explain that, Seena..." I responded, quietly, as Seena's attention drifted to my right arm, seeing the bite mark, then, her focus drifted up to the Zubat, noting the similarities between the bat's fangs, and the mark on my arm,
"the bat did that, didn't it?" she asked, in a tone of irritation
"Seena, please..." I said, softly, while placing the ice on the ground, before continuing "now, first things first, I ran into another Galactic grunt in the City, this WAS her Zubat" I said, before pointing to the bat, and continuing "it's going to accompany us back to Snowpoint, I plan to drop it off at the temple..."
Garudan spoke up at this point "Another Grunt, huh? why was she there in the first place?"
"she seemed to be there for recruitment purposes..." I responded, before continuing "you may also be wondering who this woman behind me is-" she cut me off saying
"My name is Cynthia, I'm Lucas's Cousin, AND, the Champion of Sinnoh..." I scratched the back of my head, before saying
"do you have to keep mentioning that you're the champion?"
"sorry..." she said, blushing slightly, before continuing "it was pretty recent that it happened, though, so I'm not fully used to it yet..."
"you'll get it eventually I suppose..." I responded, before turning back to the group and continuing "was there anything you guys wanted to know?"
no-one seemed to say anything..."I guess that's a 'No' then..." I said, turning back to Cynthia,
"I suppose the title doesn't carry the same authority to pokemon, then..." she responded, before looking over my shoulder at Garudan, and saying "you know...I have a Garchomp, too..."
"are you...suggesting something?" I asked, somewhat confused
"well" she started, blushing lightly, "she's been a bit...strange as of late, I believe she's in heat at the moment...and I can see that yours is a male from it's fins, so, I was thinking..." I cut her off at that point
"first of all, I don't OWN any of these pokemon, second, Garudan already has someone..." she seemed a bit surprised by this
"oh, I'm sorry if I caused any offence with this..." she said, before looking around at the group and asking "but, may I ask WHO?"
"I don't think he'd appreciate that..." I said in response, looking over to him.
"well, I guess, I should keep moving, I was going to stop by Celestic on the way back to the League, say hi to grandma..." Cynthia said, looking back towards the City, I stood up, saying
"I guess I'll walk you back to the City, then..." she stood up and responded
"thanks..." I turned back to the small bat and said
"you should stay here and get better aquainted with the others..."
"if you think that's best...Lucas, right?" the Zubat said in response
"yeah, that's my name..." I responded, before turning to Seena and saying "I'll be back in a moment..." I then waved Cynthia after me, as I made my way back to the City...
...after we were out of earshot of the others, Cynthia asked, "about Garudan...you don't have any other pokemon that have a dragon egg-group, from the looks of it..."
"just drop it, okay, even if he didn't have someone at the moment, he wouldn't be much help to your Garchomp anyway..." I responded, in a frustrated tone before continuing "I've said too much..."
"are you suggesting that he's?..." I cut her off at this moment, saying
"yeah, I guess you could say he prefers the 'company' of other males..."
"but, that still doesn't answer my earlier question, WHO is it?" she asked, as we continued
"it's actually the Crobat..." I said in response
"I...don't really see that working..." she responded, in a confused tone
"I don't really question it, Cynthia..." I said, before turning back and saying "this spot looks good...anyway, when you see Caroline again, tell her that her Grandson said hello"
"I'll keep that in mind..." she said, before releasing a Togekiss and saying "well, I guess I should keep going, then"
"maybe we'll run into each other again sometime" I said, folding my arms
"yeah...to think I'll be able to understand them soon, too..." Cynthia said, while getting on the back of her Togekiss, the Togekiss asked
"what's she talking about?" I smiled and responded,
"you'll see when it happens..." I then saw them off, watching them fly north, towards Celestic town, I then turned back and proceeded back to the campsite...
...when I got back, I talked to the Zubat first, asking "have you met some of the others?"
"not really...I only talked to the one named Seena right now, and she doesn't seem very happy..." it responded, frowning slightly
"it's because she knows you bit me, that's all, she'll warm to you soon, but for now, go see the others, okay?" I said,
"okay, Lucas..." the Zubat responded, before flying off to Tira, I then sat down beside Seena and said
"anyway, the 'thing' I wanted to get you is done..." I then took the blue scarf off my shoulder, handing it to her
"it's lovely, Lucas..." she started, holding it out lengthways, before looking back to me and asking "but why is this something that I'd need?"
"try it on, you'll understand..." I responded, smiling
"well, okay..." she said, before removing her red scarf, "could you hold this?" she said, handing it to me, before putting the blue scarf on, her eyes widened slightly before she said "Lucas...this feels...wonderful!"
I then picked up the chunk of ice and said "it's because of THIS, Seena" showing her the now smaller chunk
"there are pieces of that ice in this?" Seena asked, bringing her hands up to the scarf
"it's quite practical, under the right circumstances, wouldn't you agree?" I responded, smiling slightly,
"so..." she started, suddenly becoming nervous, "how much did it cost?"
"it actually didn't cost me anything, the tailor said the idea was enough, also, I let him keep some of the ice for himself" I responded, smiling, before continuing, "even if it did cost me a lot, I wouldn't want you worrying about it, okay?"
"thank you Lucas, I love it..." she responded, before throwing her arms around me, pulling me into a hug, resting her head on my shoulder.
"that's alright, Seena, I'm glad you like it..." I responded, lightly stroking the back of her head.
After she released me from her grip, I stood up, saying "alright everyone, we're going to keep moving..."Chapter End Notes:okay then, the next chapter should be up within the next week