Story Notes:
This is the first posted edition of my story Luca.
Luca is a special riolu who is given to the trainer Felix. Meant for each other, the two endeavor to make the best of their lives together. However, what is life without trials to make bonds grow stronger?
A Grunt's Revenge
We eventually came across another big city, unfortunately it didn't have a gym, but we decided to have a bit of fun anyway. I treated everyone to a nice lunch and dinner while we explored, but none of us realized our arrival hadn't gone unnoticed. We hadn't explored enough of the city to realize that there was a Darkrai facility in the industrial section. Seeing as we didn't know, we got a room in the pokemon center and settled down, planning to leave for the next town in the morning.
We got up early in the morning and left the center, taking the southern path out of the city. As usual Luca was at my side with Lady and Umbreon on the other, while Leo rode atop my head. We had no real cares at the moment and walked casually down the path when the base of an enormous tree suddenly exploded and fell to block our path. Our entire party was shocked at what just happened and Leo clenched my head in fear. We turned around to face whatever had just attacked us and got one hell of a surprise. There was a Darkrai grunt smiling menacingly with a... Lucario standing next to him, its paw still raised from firing the blast that felled the tree. Luca wasn't sure what to do, but she was slowly regaining her instincts and getting ready to fight. Lady was snarling at our attackers with her tails writhing and weaving through the air, while Umbreon, to my surprise, was firmly standing beside Lady and growling with her.
"What do you want?!" I asked quickly but he only smirked back and said "Revenge for what you did on that island! I should have killed that fox when I had the chance! I had no idea you would come back to destroy our facility."
All at once I realized what was going on. This was the guy who had attacked Lady on the island, and he had probably been punished for letting her go, let alone after we destroyed the facility the blame on him must have increased ten fold.
"I almost got kicked out of the organization because of you and now I'm not even considered worthy to clean the bosses freaking office! Luckily he gave me the chance to redeem myself. All I have to do is make sure you pay for what you did!" With that he ordered the Lucario standing next to him to fire another focus blast at... ME!
The Lucario closed his eyes for a split second then opened them with a very strange look for a supposed killer. I couldn't tell if it was my imagination or if it was real, but I thought I saw a hint of guilt and regret. None the less he charged the pulse, much slower than Luca usually did, and fired it straight at me. I immediately realized Leo was still on my head and I reflexively grabbed him, heaving him off my shoulders and into a tight embrace as I spun to put my back to the attack to protect him. All of this happened in one fluid movement and I clutched my son close to shield him from the sphere rocketing towards us...
Unknown to me Luca stepped in front of the blast and put a single paw up to block it. She was week to fighting type attacks and this was one of the most powerful out there, still she knew what she was doing better than anyone else. The blast collided with her open palm and with little effort she stopped it dead in its tracks until all of the energy had expended itself.
As the wisps of dust cleared I realized nothing had hit me, which is when something worse came to my realization. One of the others must have taken the attack! I spun quickly, still holding Leo in my arms, to see who it was. My fears only worsened when I saw Luca standing there motionless in a defiant pose with her paw raised in the direction the attack came from. Much to my relief she glanced over her shoulder at me and Leo to see if we were alright, but the look on her face scared even me. She was relieved to see we were fine, but she had that glazed look of rage in her eyes as she turned her head back to look at the Lucario that fired the attack. He froze when he looked in her eyes and was obviously regretting the attack more now than before, but with an order from the grunt he regained a bit of composure with a hard swallow.
The attack hadn't even fazed Luca which amazed me. She hadn't used protect she just took the attack, and she was weak to fighting! I had no idea how she did it but I had more important things to worry about now. I set Leo down where he quickly hid behind my leg for protection, a look of terror in his eyes both for his sake and his mothers. I firmly added for him to stay with me no matter what before I turned my full attention to the imminent fight. Leo was still terrified but he gripped my leg tighter which told me he understood.
Seeing that his smash and run technique wasn't going to work the grunt cursed his luck and tossed out his other two pokemon. I saw him grab two balls and immediately told Lady and Umbreon to be ready for a fight, which was a rather pointless command because if Luca hadn't taken the blast so quickly they would have.
In another instant my team and I were staring down the original Lucario, a Rhyperior, and a Feraligatr. Umbreon became enraged when the Feraligatr was released and only fell silent as his eyes went wide, nearly charging just at the sight of Feraligatr. For a tense moment everyone was still, until the grunt gave an order to all three of his pokemon. Lucario immediately vanished, which Luca followed nearly at the exact same time. Rhyperior began charging and without an order from me Lady ran off to engage it. Lucario was the first to move and when he did Umbreon rocketed towards the Feraligatr throwing a dark pulse as he went. I wasn't sure exactly what was happening, and why all of my pokemon had suddenly lost it and gone into battle without consent from me, but soon realized they would desperately need my help if they didn't already.
I first gave my commands to Lady and Umbreon in an attempt to help them out before I closed my eyes and easily went into a wave guidance trance (those random lessons with Luca were really paying off). I limited my field of view and began scanning for Luca as I kept an eye on Umbreon and Lady. I could find Lucario, but was having a hard time with Luca. She was moving just as fast as in our one gym battle, if not faster, which made it extremely hard to keep her in sight. Still if she was moving that much faster than her opponent she would have no trouble beating him so I turned my attention back to Lady and Umbreon who would really need my help. Lady actually seemed to be having fun. She was easily dodging the rock pokemon's fierce punches and staying so close to him that her fur would brush against his plates every so often. When she got the chance she would quickly hit him in an unguarded spot with an iron tail before resuming her quick weaving to avoid his attacks. Umbreon however was fairing much worse so I focused all my attention to helping him.
Umbreon wasn't about to back down from this fight even though he didn't have the attack power that Lady or Luca had. I was worried though. I wasn't sure how he was going to pull this off other than pure endurance and outlasting his opponent. I gave what instructions I could to help him and he managed to land a few direct hits, but this Feraligatr was very strong and it would take power that Umbreon just didn't have to bring him down. At least I didn't think Umbreon had the power... until I remembered an attack he had been learning how to use. I made a mental note of it and continued doing what I could to help him. He never took a direct hit from his attacker, but all the minor grazing hits were beginning to take their toll. He had many small cuts from Feraligatr's claws and bruises from other attacks, yet he was still fighting just as fervently as when this all started.
I took a small chance I had to see how Lady was doing during Umbreon's fight. She was faring very well against Rhyperior, but it was such a resilient pokemon that it would take a lot more punishment to bring it down and Lady was beginning to tire. She needed a surefire way to end this now and luckily I thought of an attack that we almost never used. I tried using Luca's wave speech technique and to my surprise it actually worked. Without saying an actual word I told Lady to use solar beam. She broke her pattern and got away from Rhyperior for a short time to try and figure out who had just talked to her. She looked back at me and I nodded. She smiled ever so slightly as she turned back to her opponent who had taken the time to catch his breath and was now running full out towards her.
I knew Lady could do this so I tried once again to see how Luca was doing. She was still moving to fast for me to see her, but Lucario was now moving faster than before which made things harder for me. I still couldn't see what was going on very clearly and what I did see wasn't comforting. Lucario was letting loose with many attacks and some of them seemed to be hitting something. Weather it was Luca or just her attacks I didn't know, but hoped it was the later.
Seeing as I was only useful to one of my partners at the moment I turned back to Umbreon. He was still fairing very well against the Feraligatr and had managed to really tire it out, but with a heavy price. Umbreon kicked off of Feraligatr's chest and back flipped to land, quite unsteadily, a short distance in front of me. Both pokemon were out of breath and pretty beaten up, but Umbreon had many more physical wounds to show it.
At about the same time Umbreon broke the fight Lady had charged her solar beam. She had started when Rhyperior charged her and her tails slowly gathered sunlight as she continued her weaving through the rock pokemon's terrifying attacks. When she had the energy fully gathered she stopped directly in front of Rhyperior to fire the blast. Rhyperior hadn't notice a thing and was still in a rage trying to hit the slippery fox, so when she stopped he brought his clenched fist down towards her with a hammer arm attack fully charged. Lady fired the solar beam point blank and with such a force that it catapulted the incredibly heavy Rhyperior an impressive 20 feet away while shrouding her in dust, but the hammer arm attack had managed to land a hit and she slid out the side of the dust cloud. I saw her get hit, but luckily the solar beam had cut Rhyperior off before the full force was delivered and Lady soon shook the hit off to regain her feet and bearings, much to my relief. However Umbreon and Lady's breaks came at exactly the same time, which would turn out to be disastrous.
Umbreon and Feraligatr stared defiantly at one another, neither willing to concede defeat. The Darkrai grunt gave a command to Feraligatr and it began charging an attack. I too gave a command to Umbreon although this time in my normal speech. I yelled for him to use last resort and as soon as he heard me he ran toward Feraligatr with all the strength he had left. When Umbreon started running Feraligatr fired his attack. It was a hydro cannon! The most powerful water attack out there, but it wasn't aimed at Umbreon... At the last moment Feraligatr turned his aim towards... Lady! Umbreon saw this and his speed nearly double. He leapt at Feraligatr and knocked heads with it. The impact of the attack was astounding and a dull, but loud, thud rang out through the forest.
From there everything seemed to be in slow motion. Umbreon still had a furious look in his eyes as he followed through with his attack. Feraligatr's attack began to fade when Umbreon collided with him and Feraligatr's eyes rolled up into his head. I couldn't tell if the impact had killed the pokemon or just knocked it out incredibly well but at the moment I couldn't care less about my opponent's pokemon.
Lady had just regained herself and was now staring down the incredibly powerful water attack that was fired at her, but instead of acting on it she froze with fear. I yelled for her to use protect, but she either didn't hear me or couldn't bring herself to move. It was an absolutely horrible feeling watching her like this and I couldn't think of anything to do. I watched in horror as the attack engulfed her on all sides, and a tear fell from my already shut eyes as I tried to find my "remaining" pokemon with wave guidance since I hadn't come out of my trance. I knew where Umbreon was and that he was alright so I quickly searched for Luca, whom I couldn't find anywhere, but her opponent, Lucario, was now standing next to the Darkrai grunt. Another sense of dread hit me as I thought of what he might have done to my mate, but that sense was replaced when I suddenly realized something...
After his attack was finished Umbreon quickly jumped off of his unconscious opponent and used quick attack to get to my side in an instant, wanting to know what had happened to Lady and Luca.
Lady stood there frozen, and unable to move in the face of the insanely powerful torrent of water that was now careening toward her. Just before the impact she closed her eyes in fear and thought to herself "I hope Felix forgives me..." ...But the impact never hit her. A split second after it should have she opened her eyes to see what was going on. To her surprise there was a green shield around her. "...But I... didn't..." She thought as she continued to look around. When she looked straight ahead she saw who had put the shield up.
It was Luca! She had broken off of her fight to protect Lady and as the water attack faded Luca lowered the green protect shield. She was using her wave guidance and she looked over her shoulder to give Lady a smile. But this happy moment was short lived... As soon as he saw Luca was distracted the grunt ordered Lucario to fire an aura sphere. Before any of us knew what was going on Lucario did so, nailing Luca square in the chest. She gasped loudly in pain at the impact and fell forward completely unconscious.
There was a pause when Luca fell, and I was snapped out of my trance when she did. I looked over at the grunt who now had a cruel smile curled across his face. He ordered Lucario to fire a focus blast at Lady and Luca. Lucario hesitated and looked back at his "trainer" for a split second before the grunt yelled at him to do as he was told. Lucario turned back with his head held in shame, but that soon faded and he raised his paw to charge the powerful attack. It was only a few seconds, but again time seemed to slow as I watched my opponent charge an attack that would take my oldest and dearest friend as well as my lifelong mate away from me...
Leo was still clutching my leg watching every detail of this fight in absolute horror...
My mind raced, I couldn't let things end like this! I yelled for Lady to use protect, but she was again frozen at the thought of what this would do to her, and Luca! I knew there was only one other thing I could do and I wrenched free of my son's grasp as he cried out for me to stop.
Umbreon saw me start moving and understood why, but there was little he could bring himself to do as he too was in shock at the scene unfolding before him. However he instinctively managed to throw himself in front of Leo to stop him from following me...
Lucario closed his eyes and whispered "I'm sorry..." to himself before firing the blast at the two defenseless pokemon unaware of my movement...
Lady watched, utterly stunned, as the enormous ball of energy began moving towards her. She was completely frozen, unable to think straight, but she knew she would never leave Luca alone to this fate and again hoped that I would understand, but before the blast reached them she saw a figure step in front of it with its arms spread. She realized who it must be and as tears started falling from her eyes she cried out as best she could to try and tell the figure to get out of the way. At the last moment she tried to throw a protect shield up, but with how distracted she was nothing more than a green spark appeared. As the blast collided with the figure she closed her eyes and looked away, partly because of the whirlwind of dust caused by the blast, but mostly because she didn't want to see what had really happened...
Umbreon looked away as the blast exploded sending dust in every direction accompanied by a flash of blinding light. He had the same reasons as Lady for looking away, but also another. He didn't want to know if the blast had been powerful enough to continue past the initial impact...
Leo cried out louder when he saw the blast hit and clutched Umbreon's fur, smearing some of the dirt and blood from Umbreon's coat onto his own soft fur as he hugged his "uncle" tight, just wanting all of this to go away. He closed his eyes letting several tears fall to the ground as he hugged Umbreon for what little comfort it gave him...
Lucario wasn't quiet sure what had just happened, but he heard cries from multiply directions. When he opened his own eyes the dust was just starting to clear, but he couldn't find the trainer that had been standing next to his Umbreon and the little Riolu...
Lady quickly opened her eyes when she could no longer feel any trace of the attacks effects, hopping that she hadn't really seen what she thought. Much to her dismay, her fears were realized. There in front of her was her trainer, Felix, barely standing and entirely motionless. He collapsed in front of her and she immediately ran to his side, whimpering and nuzzling his neck in an attempt to wake him...
Leo turned to see what had happened and saw Lady nuzzling his dad. He immediately pushed past Umbreon who was doing little to stop him now and ran to his father's side, shaking his arm and pleading him to get up...
Umbreon opened his eyes to reluctantly survey the scene. When he did his eyes went wide. He was just as heartbroken as the others, but at the moment he could do nothing. His emotions were locked and he slowly walked over to sit next to the trainer that had been so kind to him when no one else would. He sat there motionless, staring at his trainer with wide eyes unsure of what he could possibly do...
Seeing this spectacle the Darkrai grunt actually began laughing! Lucario was horrified at what he had done. He hadn't thought things through enough in the first place, but to see his opponent's trainer willingly give his life to protect them was too much for him to bear. The more his trainer laughed the madder Lucario got, he clenched his fists and after a short time finally snapped. He whipped around and gave his so called "trainer" a hard left hook, nailing him square in the jaw and knocking him down. The grunt rubbed his jaw to make sure it wasn't broken then started cursing at Lucario for what he had just done, but Lucario couldn't have cared less. Seeing what he had put the trainer's pokemon through, he actually welcomed the death threats that were being fired at him.
Through her whines Lady heard the grunt laugh. She immediately froze when she heard this and her eyes narrowed. She slowly looked over to see him actually laughing at what, essentially, he had done! Unable to control herself in any way her tails flared to life with a blinding glow. She then put all her speed into overtaking them, and before they even knew what was happening they had at least four shining iron tails pressed to their throats. Lucario had knocked his trainer down, but it hardly mattered to the furious Ninetails. Lucario didn't fight back when Lady suddenly appeared in front of him, in fact he almost found himself leaning into her attack. The grunt fell silent at first but soon smiled and said "You don't have the guts!" Lady's face snapped to look at him and he finally saw just how mad she was. He swallowed hard and tensed up as Lady growled and pressed her tails harder against his bare throat causing a thin trail of blood to run down and stain his black uniform.
Umbreon's attention snapped to Lady when she suddenly glowed and disappeared. His mind was returning to him, but something had changed. He was no longer the scared creature that hid from any sudden uncomfortable action. No, this fight had awakened something he never knew he had, but he hadn't noticed the change.
Umbreon knew Lady was completely justified in her actions, but also knew it wasn't what their trainer would have wanted... He calmly walked over to Lady as she threateningly forced her tails to the grunts throat. He spared a concerned glance back to Leo who had now collapsed on top of his father and was crying while pleading him to get up. Umbreon hoped the little guy would be alright for a short time. When Umbreon reached Lady he carefully rubbed her side to show he was there, and to calm her down.
Lady growled and spun her head to see who was touching her in such a situation. Through her rage filled eyes she recognized Umbreon... which began to calm her down. She kept her tails where they were, but her mind started to clear, rage being replaced once again with grief and sorrow. Umbreon continued to rub against Lady and she eventually lowered the four tails that were threatening the grunt. Still scared out of his mind he scrambled to his feat to escape the crazed fox while he could, but he made the mistake of saying "This isn't over." while still in the reach of her tails. Lady heard this and in a flash cracked the grunt over the head with a tail. Umbreon was grateful he had gotten through to her because she hadn't killed the grunt, only knocked him out cold. However Lady still had her tails held firm to Lucario. She turned to look at him and to her surprise he wasn't resisting in the leas, he wasn't even tense. It was as if he wanted her to do this, but now that her rage had subsided she didn't have the will. She growled once again at him, but her heart wasn't in it and she lowered her tails after another moment.
She slowly walked back to her trainer's side, dragging her beautiful tails through the dirt behind her the whole way. She reached Felix's side, but this time sat next to Leo who had given up trying to wake his father and was now sobbing while lying on his father's limp arm. Lady almost painfully brought her tails around and coxed Leo over to her and held him close with her tails. Leo didn't resist and hugged Lady's leg, still sobbing but grateful that he had a "shoulder" to cry on...
Lucario opened his eyes when he could no longer feel Lady's tails pressed to his neck. To his surprise she had calmed down and walked away looking extremely depressed. He was still afraid to move, but relaxed enough to look down to Umbreon who was still standing before him with a hate filled stare.
"Leave while you can. I won't protect you again..." Umbreon said coldly as he broke the gaze and began walking to be with his trainer and companions.
Lucario still didn't know what to do. His evil hearted trainer was unconscious and oddly enough he no longer felt any connection to him. As he looked to where his trainer had originally fallen he found out why. The pokeball forcibly binding the two together had broken in half. When Umbreon left him alone Lucario relaxed more, but still felt absolutely horrible about what he had done. He turned to once again observe the aftermath, and realized that the Riolu of the group was the one who was the most broken up, though he couldn't figure out why...
Umbreon rejoined Lady at Felix's side. She had focused all of her attention on Leo at the moment and barely noticed Umbreon's arrival. Umbreon however focused on his trainer, and after a few seconds he realized something. Felix was still breathing! Very faintly, but he was still alive! Umbreon pointed out his discovery to Lady who watched intently for a few seconds before realizing he was right. She immediately leapt to her feat and rushed to try and wake Luca, knowing that she was the only one who might be able to carry Felix to the center. In the process she knocked Leo over who had still been clinging to her leg sobbing. He didn't understand what was going on and looked around with tear filled eyes trying to figure out what was happening and why he was suddenly being ignored.
Lady was becoming distraught; her attempts to wake Luca were failing at every turn which only served to depress her more. Here she had one hope of saving her trainer and it was narrowly avoiding her. Umbreon continued to watch Felix, trying to asses the situation further, when he realized that Felix was bleeding, and badly. Although he couldn't actually see the worst wounds Umbreon noticed the slowly growing pool of blood seeping from under Felix, and began trying to think of any way to save his dear trainer.
Leo was a bit hurt at being ignored like this, but he continued to look around. He froze suddenly when he saw Lucario standing close to Umbreon and Felix. He tried to scream a warning, but the only thing that made it past his lips were a few gasps of fear. Umbreon growled when he notice Lucario had come closer and he barked a warning for him to get away. Lucario calmly... and carefully... said, "I'm sorry for what I did... You need to get him to a center right?... Please let me help..."
"Why should we trust you! You're the one who did this in the first place! You probably just want to get him away from us to let him die! Well I have news for you... THAT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!" Umbreon responded, his rage beginning to show. He wasn't about to let Leo and Lady down now that they had a slim chance to save the one they all loved...
Lucario knew this would happen and he cautiously open his paw to toss the broken pieces of his pokeball so that they landed near Umbreon's feet. Umbreon looked down and wondered what the gesture meant. After a very short moment he realized what Lucario was trying to tell him. This used to be Lucario's pokeball, and any tie he had to the grunt before was broken, not just because the ball was broken but because Lucario willingly renounced the grunt as his trainer, not that he had truly accepted it in the first place. Umbreon looked back towards Lucario to observe him a bit more closely, which is when he realized that Lucario had a pleading look in his eyes. He was subtly begging Umbreon to let him help. Umbreon didn't know why, but at that moment he found himself willing to trust Lucario. "You'll take him straight to the center?..." Umbreon asked firmly, but with a little more understanding in his tone.
"You have my word! I'll return here to you whether I fail or succeed." Lucario responded quickly and sincerely before he knelt down next to Felix's body.
Leo didn't understand what was going on and when Lucario knelt to pick up Felix he cried out and tried to rush Lucario, doing anything he could to prevent him from taking his father away. Once again Umbreon stopped him and forced the little Riolu to look away as Lucario picked Felix up. One thing Umbreon didn't want was for Leo to see his father's wounds, which looked absolutely horrifying since the blast had torn Felix's shirt to shreds. Once Lucario had turned away Umbreon stopped forcing Leo to look away and said "Don't fail!" to Lucario as a last warning and plea before Lucario nodded discretely and disappeared with Felix in his arms.
We got up early in the morning and left the center, taking the southern path out of the city. As usual Luca was at my side with Lady and Umbreon on the other, while Leo rode atop my head. We had no real cares at the moment and walked casually down the path when the base of an enormous tree suddenly exploded and fell to block our path. Our entire party was shocked at what just happened and Leo clenched my head in fear. We turned around to face whatever had just attacked us and got one hell of a surprise. There was a Darkrai grunt smiling menacingly with a... Lucario standing next to him, its paw still raised from firing the blast that felled the tree. Luca wasn't sure what to do, but she was slowly regaining her instincts and getting ready to fight. Lady was snarling at our attackers with her tails writhing and weaving through the air, while Umbreon, to my surprise, was firmly standing beside Lady and growling with her.
"What do you want?!" I asked quickly but he only smirked back and said "Revenge for what you did on that island! I should have killed that fox when I had the chance! I had no idea you would come back to destroy our facility."
All at once I realized what was going on. This was the guy who had attacked Lady on the island, and he had probably been punished for letting her go, let alone after we destroyed the facility the blame on him must have increased ten fold.
"I almost got kicked out of the organization because of you and now I'm not even considered worthy to clean the bosses freaking office! Luckily he gave me the chance to redeem myself. All I have to do is make sure you pay for what you did!" With that he ordered the Lucario standing next to him to fire another focus blast at... ME!
The Lucario closed his eyes for a split second then opened them with a very strange look for a supposed killer. I couldn't tell if it was my imagination or if it was real, but I thought I saw a hint of guilt and regret. None the less he charged the pulse, much slower than Luca usually did, and fired it straight at me. I immediately realized Leo was still on my head and I reflexively grabbed him, heaving him off my shoulders and into a tight embrace as I spun to put my back to the attack to protect him. All of this happened in one fluid movement and I clutched my son close to shield him from the sphere rocketing towards us...
Unknown to me Luca stepped in front of the blast and put a single paw up to block it. She was week to fighting type attacks and this was one of the most powerful out there, still she knew what she was doing better than anyone else. The blast collided with her open palm and with little effort she stopped it dead in its tracks until all of the energy had expended itself.
As the wisps of dust cleared I realized nothing had hit me, which is when something worse came to my realization. One of the others must have taken the attack! I spun quickly, still holding Leo in my arms, to see who it was. My fears only worsened when I saw Luca standing there motionless in a defiant pose with her paw raised in the direction the attack came from. Much to my relief she glanced over her shoulder at me and Leo to see if we were alright, but the look on her face scared even me. She was relieved to see we were fine, but she had that glazed look of rage in her eyes as she turned her head back to look at the Lucario that fired the attack. He froze when he looked in her eyes and was obviously regretting the attack more now than before, but with an order from the grunt he regained a bit of composure with a hard swallow.
The attack hadn't even fazed Luca which amazed me. She hadn't used protect she just took the attack, and she was weak to fighting! I had no idea how she did it but I had more important things to worry about now. I set Leo down where he quickly hid behind my leg for protection, a look of terror in his eyes both for his sake and his mothers. I firmly added for him to stay with me no matter what before I turned my full attention to the imminent fight. Leo was still terrified but he gripped my leg tighter which told me he understood.
Seeing that his smash and run technique wasn't going to work the grunt cursed his luck and tossed out his other two pokemon. I saw him grab two balls and immediately told Lady and Umbreon to be ready for a fight, which was a rather pointless command because if Luca hadn't taken the blast so quickly they would have.
In another instant my team and I were staring down the original Lucario, a Rhyperior, and a Feraligatr. Umbreon became enraged when the Feraligatr was released and only fell silent as his eyes went wide, nearly charging just at the sight of Feraligatr. For a tense moment everyone was still, until the grunt gave an order to all three of his pokemon. Lucario immediately vanished, which Luca followed nearly at the exact same time. Rhyperior began charging and without an order from me Lady ran off to engage it. Lucario was the first to move and when he did Umbreon rocketed towards the Feraligatr throwing a dark pulse as he went. I wasn't sure exactly what was happening, and why all of my pokemon had suddenly lost it and gone into battle without consent from me, but soon realized they would desperately need my help if they didn't already.
I first gave my commands to Lady and Umbreon in an attempt to help them out before I closed my eyes and easily went into a wave guidance trance (those random lessons with Luca were really paying off). I limited my field of view and began scanning for Luca as I kept an eye on Umbreon and Lady. I could find Lucario, but was having a hard time with Luca. She was moving just as fast as in our one gym battle, if not faster, which made it extremely hard to keep her in sight. Still if she was moving that much faster than her opponent she would have no trouble beating him so I turned my attention back to Lady and Umbreon who would really need my help. Lady actually seemed to be having fun. She was easily dodging the rock pokemon's fierce punches and staying so close to him that her fur would brush against his plates every so often. When she got the chance she would quickly hit him in an unguarded spot with an iron tail before resuming her quick weaving to avoid his attacks. Umbreon however was fairing much worse so I focused all my attention to helping him.
Umbreon wasn't about to back down from this fight even though he didn't have the attack power that Lady or Luca had. I was worried though. I wasn't sure how he was going to pull this off other than pure endurance and outlasting his opponent. I gave what instructions I could to help him and he managed to land a few direct hits, but this Feraligatr was very strong and it would take power that Umbreon just didn't have to bring him down. At least I didn't think Umbreon had the power... until I remembered an attack he had been learning how to use. I made a mental note of it and continued doing what I could to help him. He never took a direct hit from his attacker, but all the minor grazing hits were beginning to take their toll. He had many small cuts from Feraligatr's claws and bruises from other attacks, yet he was still fighting just as fervently as when this all started.
I took a small chance I had to see how Lady was doing during Umbreon's fight. She was faring very well against Rhyperior, but it was such a resilient pokemon that it would take a lot more punishment to bring it down and Lady was beginning to tire. She needed a surefire way to end this now and luckily I thought of an attack that we almost never used. I tried using Luca's wave speech technique and to my surprise it actually worked. Without saying an actual word I told Lady to use solar beam. She broke her pattern and got away from Rhyperior for a short time to try and figure out who had just talked to her. She looked back at me and I nodded. She smiled ever so slightly as she turned back to her opponent who had taken the time to catch his breath and was now running full out towards her.
I knew Lady could do this so I tried once again to see how Luca was doing. She was still moving to fast for me to see her, but Lucario was now moving faster than before which made things harder for me. I still couldn't see what was going on very clearly and what I did see wasn't comforting. Lucario was letting loose with many attacks and some of them seemed to be hitting something. Weather it was Luca or just her attacks I didn't know, but hoped it was the later.
Seeing as I was only useful to one of my partners at the moment I turned back to Umbreon. He was still fairing very well against the Feraligatr and had managed to really tire it out, but with a heavy price. Umbreon kicked off of Feraligatr's chest and back flipped to land, quite unsteadily, a short distance in front of me. Both pokemon were out of breath and pretty beaten up, but Umbreon had many more physical wounds to show it.
At about the same time Umbreon broke the fight Lady had charged her solar beam. She had started when Rhyperior charged her and her tails slowly gathered sunlight as she continued her weaving through the rock pokemon's terrifying attacks. When she had the energy fully gathered she stopped directly in front of Rhyperior to fire the blast. Rhyperior hadn't notice a thing and was still in a rage trying to hit the slippery fox, so when she stopped he brought his clenched fist down towards her with a hammer arm attack fully charged. Lady fired the solar beam point blank and with such a force that it catapulted the incredibly heavy Rhyperior an impressive 20 feet away while shrouding her in dust, but the hammer arm attack had managed to land a hit and she slid out the side of the dust cloud. I saw her get hit, but luckily the solar beam had cut Rhyperior off before the full force was delivered and Lady soon shook the hit off to regain her feet and bearings, much to my relief. However Umbreon and Lady's breaks came at exactly the same time, which would turn out to be disastrous.
Umbreon and Feraligatr stared defiantly at one another, neither willing to concede defeat. The Darkrai grunt gave a command to Feraligatr and it began charging an attack. I too gave a command to Umbreon although this time in my normal speech. I yelled for him to use last resort and as soon as he heard me he ran toward Feraligatr with all the strength he had left. When Umbreon started running Feraligatr fired his attack. It was a hydro cannon! The most powerful water attack out there, but it wasn't aimed at Umbreon... At the last moment Feraligatr turned his aim towards... Lady! Umbreon saw this and his speed nearly double. He leapt at Feraligatr and knocked heads with it. The impact of the attack was astounding and a dull, but loud, thud rang out through the forest.
From there everything seemed to be in slow motion. Umbreon still had a furious look in his eyes as he followed through with his attack. Feraligatr's attack began to fade when Umbreon collided with him and Feraligatr's eyes rolled up into his head. I couldn't tell if the impact had killed the pokemon or just knocked it out incredibly well but at the moment I couldn't care less about my opponent's pokemon.
Lady had just regained herself and was now staring down the incredibly powerful water attack that was fired at her, but instead of acting on it she froze with fear. I yelled for her to use protect, but she either didn't hear me or couldn't bring herself to move. It was an absolutely horrible feeling watching her like this and I couldn't think of anything to do. I watched in horror as the attack engulfed her on all sides, and a tear fell from my already shut eyes as I tried to find my "remaining" pokemon with wave guidance since I hadn't come out of my trance. I knew where Umbreon was and that he was alright so I quickly searched for Luca, whom I couldn't find anywhere, but her opponent, Lucario, was now standing next to the Darkrai grunt. Another sense of dread hit me as I thought of what he might have done to my mate, but that sense was replaced when I suddenly realized something...
After his attack was finished Umbreon quickly jumped off of his unconscious opponent and used quick attack to get to my side in an instant, wanting to know what had happened to Lady and Luca.
Lady stood there frozen, and unable to move in the face of the insanely powerful torrent of water that was now careening toward her. Just before the impact she closed her eyes in fear and thought to herself "I hope Felix forgives me..." ...But the impact never hit her. A split second after it should have she opened her eyes to see what was going on. To her surprise there was a green shield around her. "...But I... didn't..." She thought as she continued to look around. When she looked straight ahead she saw who had put the shield up.
It was Luca! She had broken off of her fight to protect Lady and as the water attack faded Luca lowered the green protect shield. She was using her wave guidance and she looked over her shoulder to give Lady a smile. But this happy moment was short lived... As soon as he saw Luca was distracted the grunt ordered Lucario to fire an aura sphere. Before any of us knew what was going on Lucario did so, nailing Luca square in the chest. She gasped loudly in pain at the impact and fell forward completely unconscious.
There was a pause when Luca fell, and I was snapped out of my trance when she did. I looked over at the grunt who now had a cruel smile curled across his face. He ordered Lucario to fire a focus blast at Lady and Luca. Lucario hesitated and looked back at his "trainer" for a split second before the grunt yelled at him to do as he was told. Lucario turned back with his head held in shame, but that soon faded and he raised his paw to charge the powerful attack. It was only a few seconds, but again time seemed to slow as I watched my opponent charge an attack that would take my oldest and dearest friend as well as my lifelong mate away from me...
Leo was still clutching my leg watching every detail of this fight in absolute horror...
My mind raced, I couldn't let things end like this! I yelled for Lady to use protect, but she was again frozen at the thought of what this would do to her, and Luca! I knew there was only one other thing I could do and I wrenched free of my son's grasp as he cried out for me to stop.
Umbreon saw me start moving and understood why, but there was little he could bring himself to do as he too was in shock at the scene unfolding before him. However he instinctively managed to throw himself in front of Leo to stop him from following me...
Lucario closed his eyes and whispered "I'm sorry..." to himself before firing the blast at the two defenseless pokemon unaware of my movement...
Lady watched, utterly stunned, as the enormous ball of energy began moving towards her. She was completely frozen, unable to think straight, but she knew she would never leave Luca alone to this fate and again hoped that I would understand, but before the blast reached them she saw a figure step in front of it with its arms spread. She realized who it must be and as tears started falling from her eyes she cried out as best she could to try and tell the figure to get out of the way. At the last moment she tried to throw a protect shield up, but with how distracted she was nothing more than a green spark appeared. As the blast collided with the figure she closed her eyes and looked away, partly because of the whirlwind of dust caused by the blast, but mostly because she didn't want to see what had really happened...
Umbreon looked away as the blast exploded sending dust in every direction accompanied by a flash of blinding light. He had the same reasons as Lady for looking away, but also another. He didn't want to know if the blast had been powerful enough to continue past the initial impact...
Leo cried out louder when he saw the blast hit and clutched Umbreon's fur, smearing some of the dirt and blood from Umbreon's coat onto his own soft fur as he hugged his "uncle" tight, just wanting all of this to go away. He closed his eyes letting several tears fall to the ground as he hugged Umbreon for what little comfort it gave him...
Lucario wasn't quiet sure what had just happened, but he heard cries from multiply directions. When he opened his own eyes the dust was just starting to clear, but he couldn't find the trainer that had been standing next to his Umbreon and the little Riolu...
Lady quickly opened her eyes when she could no longer feel any trace of the attacks effects, hopping that she hadn't really seen what she thought. Much to her dismay, her fears were realized. There in front of her was her trainer, Felix, barely standing and entirely motionless. He collapsed in front of her and she immediately ran to his side, whimpering and nuzzling his neck in an attempt to wake him...
Leo turned to see what had happened and saw Lady nuzzling his dad. He immediately pushed past Umbreon who was doing little to stop him now and ran to his father's side, shaking his arm and pleading him to get up...
Umbreon opened his eyes to reluctantly survey the scene. When he did his eyes went wide. He was just as heartbroken as the others, but at the moment he could do nothing. His emotions were locked and he slowly walked over to sit next to the trainer that had been so kind to him when no one else would. He sat there motionless, staring at his trainer with wide eyes unsure of what he could possibly do...
Seeing this spectacle the Darkrai grunt actually began laughing! Lucario was horrified at what he had done. He hadn't thought things through enough in the first place, but to see his opponent's trainer willingly give his life to protect them was too much for him to bear. The more his trainer laughed the madder Lucario got, he clenched his fists and after a short time finally snapped. He whipped around and gave his so called "trainer" a hard left hook, nailing him square in the jaw and knocking him down. The grunt rubbed his jaw to make sure it wasn't broken then started cursing at Lucario for what he had just done, but Lucario couldn't have cared less. Seeing what he had put the trainer's pokemon through, he actually welcomed the death threats that were being fired at him.
Through her whines Lady heard the grunt laugh. She immediately froze when she heard this and her eyes narrowed. She slowly looked over to see him actually laughing at what, essentially, he had done! Unable to control herself in any way her tails flared to life with a blinding glow. She then put all her speed into overtaking them, and before they even knew what was happening they had at least four shining iron tails pressed to their throats. Lucario had knocked his trainer down, but it hardly mattered to the furious Ninetails. Lucario didn't fight back when Lady suddenly appeared in front of him, in fact he almost found himself leaning into her attack. The grunt fell silent at first but soon smiled and said "You don't have the guts!" Lady's face snapped to look at him and he finally saw just how mad she was. He swallowed hard and tensed up as Lady growled and pressed her tails harder against his bare throat causing a thin trail of blood to run down and stain his black uniform.
Umbreon's attention snapped to Lady when she suddenly glowed and disappeared. His mind was returning to him, but something had changed. He was no longer the scared creature that hid from any sudden uncomfortable action. No, this fight had awakened something he never knew he had, but he hadn't noticed the change.
Umbreon knew Lady was completely justified in her actions, but also knew it wasn't what their trainer would have wanted... He calmly walked over to Lady as she threateningly forced her tails to the grunts throat. He spared a concerned glance back to Leo who had now collapsed on top of his father and was crying while pleading him to get up. Umbreon hoped the little guy would be alright for a short time. When Umbreon reached Lady he carefully rubbed her side to show he was there, and to calm her down.
Lady growled and spun her head to see who was touching her in such a situation. Through her rage filled eyes she recognized Umbreon... which began to calm her down. She kept her tails where they were, but her mind started to clear, rage being replaced once again with grief and sorrow. Umbreon continued to rub against Lady and she eventually lowered the four tails that were threatening the grunt. Still scared out of his mind he scrambled to his feat to escape the crazed fox while he could, but he made the mistake of saying "This isn't over." while still in the reach of her tails. Lady heard this and in a flash cracked the grunt over the head with a tail. Umbreon was grateful he had gotten through to her because she hadn't killed the grunt, only knocked him out cold. However Lady still had her tails held firm to Lucario. She turned to look at him and to her surprise he wasn't resisting in the leas, he wasn't even tense. It was as if he wanted her to do this, but now that her rage had subsided she didn't have the will. She growled once again at him, but her heart wasn't in it and she lowered her tails after another moment.
She slowly walked back to her trainer's side, dragging her beautiful tails through the dirt behind her the whole way. She reached Felix's side, but this time sat next to Leo who had given up trying to wake his father and was now sobbing while lying on his father's limp arm. Lady almost painfully brought her tails around and coxed Leo over to her and held him close with her tails. Leo didn't resist and hugged Lady's leg, still sobbing but grateful that he had a "shoulder" to cry on...
Lucario opened his eyes when he could no longer feel Lady's tails pressed to his neck. To his surprise she had calmed down and walked away looking extremely depressed. He was still afraid to move, but relaxed enough to look down to Umbreon who was still standing before him with a hate filled stare.
"Leave while you can. I won't protect you again..." Umbreon said coldly as he broke the gaze and began walking to be with his trainer and companions.
Lucario still didn't know what to do. His evil hearted trainer was unconscious and oddly enough he no longer felt any connection to him. As he looked to where his trainer had originally fallen he found out why. The pokeball forcibly binding the two together had broken in half. When Umbreon left him alone Lucario relaxed more, but still felt absolutely horrible about what he had done. He turned to once again observe the aftermath, and realized that the Riolu of the group was the one who was the most broken up, though he couldn't figure out why...
Umbreon rejoined Lady at Felix's side. She had focused all of her attention on Leo at the moment and barely noticed Umbreon's arrival. Umbreon however focused on his trainer, and after a few seconds he realized something. Felix was still breathing! Very faintly, but he was still alive! Umbreon pointed out his discovery to Lady who watched intently for a few seconds before realizing he was right. She immediately leapt to her feat and rushed to try and wake Luca, knowing that she was the only one who might be able to carry Felix to the center. In the process she knocked Leo over who had still been clinging to her leg sobbing. He didn't understand what was going on and looked around with tear filled eyes trying to figure out what was happening and why he was suddenly being ignored.
Lady was becoming distraught; her attempts to wake Luca were failing at every turn which only served to depress her more. Here she had one hope of saving her trainer and it was narrowly avoiding her. Umbreon continued to watch Felix, trying to asses the situation further, when he realized that Felix was bleeding, and badly. Although he couldn't actually see the worst wounds Umbreon noticed the slowly growing pool of blood seeping from under Felix, and began trying to think of any way to save his dear trainer.
Leo was a bit hurt at being ignored like this, but he continued to look around. He froze suddenly when he saw Lucario standing close to Umbreon and Felix. He tried to scream a warning, but the only thing that made it past his lips were a few gasps of fear. Umbreon growled when he notice Lucario had come closer and he barked a warning for him to get away. Lucario calmly... and carefully... said, "I'm sorry for what I did... You need to get him to a center right?... Please let me help..."
"Why should we trust you! You're the one who did this in the first place! You probably just want to get him away from us to let him die! Well I have news for you... THAT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!" Umbreon responded, his rage beginning to show. He wasn't about to let Leo and Lady down now that they had a slim chance to save the one they all loved...
Lucario knew this would happen and he cautiously open his paw to toss the broken pieces of his pokeball so that they landed near Umbreon's feet. Umbreon looked down and wondered what the gesture meant. After a very short moment he realized what Lucario was trying to tell him. This used to be Lucario's pokeball, and any tie he had to the grunt before was broken, not just because the ball was broken but because Lucario willingly renounced the grunt as his trainer, not that he had truly accepted it in the first place. Umbreon looked back towards Lucario to observe him a bit more closely, which is when he realized that Lucario had a pleading look in his eyes. He was subtly begging Umbreon to let him help. Umbreon didn't know why, but at that moment he found himself willing to trust Lucario. "You'll take him straight to the center?..." Umbreon asked firmly, but with a little more understanding in his tone.
"You have my word! I'll return here to you whether I fail or succeed." Lucario responded quickly and sincerely before he knelt down next to Felix's body.
Leo didn't understand what was going on and when Lucario knelt to pick up Felix he cried out and tried to rush Lucario, doing anything he could to prevent him from taking his father away. Once again Umbreon stopped him and forced the little Riolu to look away as Lucario picked Felix up. One thing Umbreon didn't want was for Leo to see his father's wounds, which looked absolutely horrifying since the blast had torn Felix's shirt to shreds. Once Lucario had turned away Umbreon stopped forcing Leo to look away and said "Don't fail!" to Lucario as a last warning and plea before Lucario nodded discretely and disappeared with Felix in his arms.