Chapter 4 - Memories
The following night they were seated in Hearthome's pokemon centre. It was more or less the same as any other pokemon centre, so they made their way to the same table they usually sat at and got ready for dinner. Lucky was sitting close to Wolf, simply enjoying being close to him. He liked it too, as much because of his feelings for her as the fact it was a fairly cool night and her fur was warm. Everyone else was talking amongst themselves, but the conversation died down as a girl strode over with blonde scraggly hair and wearing an outfit that left little to the imagination. She stood right next to the seat where Lucky and Wolf were sitting, hands on her hips.
"Move rat," she ordered. "The humans are going to talk."
Five seconds passed with a very hostile silence in the air. Lucky brought her paw up to her mouth in an offended manner while the others were glaring daggers at the intruder. Wolf put one arm around Lucky, frowning at the rude girl.
"People I haven't invited to join me don't insult or give orders to my friends." He said with a small trace of irritation in his voice. "Try again." She gave him a slutty look that would have made a prostitute blush.
"Wolf, I'm a huge fan," she purred. "I bet it must be lonely on your journey, so let me keep you company..."
She reached for his hair, but paused when he edged just out of her reach, holding Lucky a little closer. She slid into the seat behind him and tried again, although he moved his head again and Lucky began to growl. She glared at the pokemon, matching the intensity.
"What's with the rat?" she asked, thinking Wolf would call the pokemon back into their poke balls so they could be alone. He did no such thing, his cold anger starting to rise.
"I do believe I told you not to insult my friends." He growled in a voice that would have frozen anyone actually listening. The girl seemed oblivious to it though, fully intent on giving herself to him.
"Come on, you know you want me." She tried again, in her most seductive voice. "You wouldn't want to hang around with that filthy rat over me, right?"
"Filthy?" The ice in his voice would have frozen Articuno. "For your information, she had a bath two days ago." He struggled to keep a content smile off his face as he recalled the events of that particular bath. "Besides, I just remembered some advice my mother gave me ten years ago about girls like you. Something along the lines of 'don't touch that, you don't know where it's been.'" She gasped in disgust, not registering how anyone could speak to her like that. Huffing in indignation, she got up and left while the pokemon cheered him.
"You showed that whore!" Ninetales barked happily. Evidently even the naïve Ninetales couldn't warm up to the girl. Serenity nodded her approval as well.
"I see even you can only take so much before your anger gets the better of you." She remarked, amusement in her voice. Lucky was looking at him with pride, her heart going out to him.
"I just can't take it when anyone insults you guys." He smiled. He embraced Lucky, and she returned the hug. It was in that moment she recalled the moment when she had first fallen in love with him.
***
The semi finals of the Kanto League were a very tense battle for Wolf and his team. Both sides were down to two pokemon each, and evenly matched at that. Wolf looked over at his opponent, wondering just what pokemon he was going to use next. Lucky and Serenity were his final choices, so he was fairly well covered no matter what pokemon was called out.
"Honchkrow, I choose you!" he cried, throwing the poke ball out so that Honchkrow could join the battle. Wolf frowned. Serenity wouldn't be able to fight a Dark type to her full power, so regardless of the Flying type Lucky was the best option.
"Lucky, you're up!" he said, Lucky bounding over the boulders on the field to face her foe. The announcer was saying something and the crowd was cheering, but Wolf and Lucky paid them no mind and focussed on the battle at hand. This wasn't going to be easy, but he was confident that Lucky would win.
"Aerial ace!" their opponent called, and Honchkrow went into a spiralling dive straight at Lucky.
"Lucky, double team!" he countered, and Lucky upped her speed in order to create a blurred ring of illusions that concealed her true whereabouts from the foe. His opponent grinned.
"You think that'll stop me?" he asked softly, not really asking. "Go into wing attack Honchkrow, along the circle!" The dark bird's wings started to glow as it began to banish the illusions at an alarming rate. However, Wolf hadn't become a formidable trainer by making stupid mistakes.
"Force palm!" he cried, and the illusions disappeared to reveal that Honchkrow was too close to truly dodge Lucky's paw as it came around in a devastating blow on the chest. With an extra hard flap Honchkrow managed to avoid the worst of it, but still needed to retreat some distance in order to regroup. Its trainer growled, admitting inside that it was indeed a cunning move. It was the semi finals though, so if he'd expected anything else he was very naïve.
"Get in close and use Dark Pulse!" he yelled. Wolf knew that while Lucky was a Fighting/Steel type, at that range Dark Pulse wouldn't exactly tickle.
"Use aura sphere!" he commanded, and Lucky's eyes glowed as she began hurling the powerful life energy blasts at the diving pokemon. It was agile though, and managed to avoid all of them until it was too close. One aura sphere collided with the dark pulse unleashed and a massive explosion rocked the stadium, with both trainers struggling to keep on their feet.
"Lucky!" Wolf cried. Soon enough the dust cleared and Lucky was still standing, but only just. Honchkrow wasn't so fortunate, on the ground in a daze.
"Honchkrow is unable to battle!" the referee announced, raising a flag in Wolf's direction. "Lucario is the winner!" Lucky walked back to Wolf, keeping on her feet in spite of the damage she had taken. Wolf looked at her with concern on his face.
"Maybe you should rest for a minute." He suggested. She shook her head.
"I can carry on," she said, not wanting to disappoint him. He looked into her eyes and saw she wasn't going to back down. He gave her a gentle smile.
"Remember, you don't have to do this." He said. "I care about you, Lucky. I don't like seeing you hurt." She simply nodded and went back to the field, Wolf watching her go with apprehension. His love of his pokemon was battling with his need to allow them to make their own decisions, and he desperately wanted to force her to rest. Unfortunately, he just couldn't bring himself to do it because she would think he didn't trust her enough. Turning his attention back to the battle, he watched his opponent send out his final pokemon.
"Dragonair, I choose you!" he yelled, and the Dragon pokemon appeared on the field. Wolf frowned at this. It wasn't like Dragonair would find it difficult to manoeuvre, and there was very little that could truly harm a Dragon type. He considered calling Lucky back so that he could make use of Serenity's ice punch, but deep down he knew Lucky wouldn't listen to him.
"Stay sharp, Lucky." He called, knowing that a match like this would be better suited to a defensive strategy. Lucky couldn't fight well defensively, so the only option was to hit fast and hard. "Start with aura sphere!" he called, and Lucky responded by hurling the powerful blasts at the foe. As they closed in, the opponent grinned.
"Shock wave!" he responded, and Lucky's attack was stopped mid air by the electric arc, detonating and covering the battlefield in more cloud. "Now use headbutt!"
Before Wolf could counter, Dragonair had launched through the dust and hit Lucky full on with the attack. She flew back through the air to land not far from Wolf, struggling to her feet.
"Lucky, are you okay?" he asked, worry plain in his voice. She ignored him, focussed only on getting to her feet. She suddenly fell to her knees, the last of her strength waning.
"Let's finish this Dragonair," he smirked. "Hyper beam!" Wolf looked with horror at the pokemon as it charged up its attack. Anyone who knew anything about pokemon battling knew that attack would do more than knock Lucky out.
"Lucky!" Wolf cried out as he leapt in front of her just as Dragonair launched the devastating beam. He yelled in agony as the full force of the attack hit him, but dug in to stop Lucky being hit.
"Wolf!" she cried as she realised what he had done. When the attack ended he collapsed on the ground, his breathing shallow and heart beat erratic. She crawled over to him, fearing the worst. What would she do if she lost her best friend?
"Help..." she mumbled, tears choking her voice. "Help..." she said a little louder, cradling his barely moving body in her arms. "Help!" she cried, her fur coated with a mix of blood and tears. The paramedics were just coming onto the field when she turned a helpless look at Dragonair.
"Why?" she choked, as the paramedics took both her and her friend to the waiting Nurse Joy.
***
A couple of days later, Wolf woke up in a hospital bed at Indigo Plateau's pokemon centre. He looked down to see that most of his body was bandaged, the results of the hyper beam detonating on him. He looked over to see Lucky sitting next to him, paw to her mouth and tears flowing freely. She must have gotten enough rest between now and that battle, looking in decent shape. When she noticed his weak gaze, she gasped.
"Oh Wolf!" she yelled, leaping out of the chair to give him a hug. Wincing a little at the impact, Wolf tried his best to soldier on through the pain as he returned the embrace. He could feel tears falling on his chest, but he knew that she was happy to see that he was going to be okay.
"Lucky..." he mumbled. "Are you okay?" She looked at him with a mix of anger and love, unable to believe that he could go through something like that and still be more concerned for her.
"Don't worry about me, damn it!" She said, looking him straight in the eye. "What the hell were you thinking?! You could have been killed!" He gave her a weak smile.
"You could have too, if it had hit you." He said softly. She hated him for saying that, because she knew as well as he did that it was true. However, the anger was short lived in the face of her love and happiness that he would be fine. "Where are the others?" he asked.
"Probably at the centre." She replied, placing her head back on his chest. "We all got a bit hurt in the finals." Wolf frowned at her. The last battle was the semi finals, wasn't it?
"Lucky, what's been going on?" he asked. She didn't look at him, merely wanting to lie next to him.
"When you got hit with the hyper beam," she began. "The judges said they would be forced to declare both you and the other trainer disqualified."
"Disqualified?" he asked, hoping that they hadn't.
"Princess argued with them for a while. She said that she could battle in your place, because she knew your battle style as well as everyone else's." He frowned at this. Would they really have let Princess battle as a trainer? "They said that she would need to have a team of six. It wouldn't have worked if Zapdos hadn't shown up."
"Zapdos?" he wondered aloud.
"Yeah," she continued. "Anyway, the other guy was disqualified because he knew full well what would have happened if the attack had hit me, and Princess was set to battle in your place in the finals. We won." Wolf looked at her in disbelief. They had continued to battle just so that he wouldn't be disappointed? "She's accepting the award on your behalf right now."
He laid his head back on the pillow, mystified. They had been so dedicated to him that they wouldn't allow him to be disqualified. They had fought on for him, while he was unconscious in hospital. A gentle smile etched itself on his face. They simply laid there for a few more minutes, saying nothing. Lucky closed her eyes, realising that it wasn't just friendship she felt for Wolf anymore. It was true love.
Just then the door opened, and the rest of his pokemon walked in accompanied by Zapdos and Lucky's parents. A few people in the hallway were gawking at Zapdos, as though they couldn't believe that a legendary pokemon was just walking through the halls. Serenity closed the door behind them, to allow them a measure of privacy. Lucky's father walked over to give Wolf the same intimidating look he had when they had first met.
"We saw what you did for our daughter," he said. "We are proud of you for being ready to sacrifice everything for her." She beamed, knowing that praise from her father was a nigh impossible thing to get. It made what she was going to tell him later a little easier.
Princess went on to tell him about the finals, with the other pokemon chipping in where they needed to. After the story, she put the medal around his neck. However, his weakened state wouldn't allow him to remain awake any longer and he fell asleep. Just before they left, Lucky spoke up.
"I have to tell you all something," she said, looking embarrassed. "I... I'm in love with Wolf."
***
"Lucky?" The voice snapped her back to the present. She looked around a little, realising that they were in the room at the pokemon centre. She noticed that he was in his boxers, having lost any embarrassment over changing in front of her. He had a slight look of concern on his face. "Are you okay?" She smiled, blushing a little.
"I'll be just fine." She answered as they both climbed into the bed, sharing a single kiss before they fell asleep. "As long as I have you."
"Move rat," she ordered. "The humans are going to talk."
Five seconds passed with a very hostile silence in the air. Lucky brought her paw up to her mouth in an offended manner while the others were glaring daggers at the intruder. Wolf put one arm around Lucky, frowning at the rude girl.
"People I haven't invited to join me don't insult or give orders to my friends." He said with a small trace of irritation in his voice. "Try again." She gave him a slutty look that would have made a prostitute blush.
"Wolf, I'm a huge fan," she purred. "I bet it must be lonely on your journey, so let me keep you company..."
She reached for his hair, but paused when he edged just out of her reach, holding Lucky a little closer. She slid into the seat behind him and tried again, although he moved his head again and Lucky began to growl. She glared at the pokemon, matching the intensity.
"What's with the rat?" she asked, thinking Wolf would call the pokemon back into their poke balls so they could be alone. He did no such thing, his cold anger starting to rise.
"I do believe I told you not to insult my friends." He growled in a voice that would have frozen anyone actually listening. The girl seemed oblivious to it though, fully intent on giving herself to him.
"Come on, you know you want me." She tried again, in her most seductive voice. "You wouldn't want to hang around with that filthy rat over me, right?"
"Filthy?" The ice in his voice would have frozen Articuno. "For your information, she had a bath two days ago." He struggled to keep a content smile off his face as he recalled the events of that particular bath. "Besides, I just remembered some advice my mother gave me ten years ago about girls like you. Something along the lines of 'don't touch that, you don't know where it's been.'" She gasped in disgust, not registering how anyone could speak to her like that. Huffing in indignation, she got up and left while the pokemon cheered him.
"You showed that whore!" Ninetales barked happily. Evidently even the naïve Ninetales couldn't warm up to the girl. Serenity nodded her approval as well.
"I see even you can only take so much before your anger gets the better of you." She remarked, amusement in her voice. Lucky was looking at him with pride, her heart going out to him.
"I just can't take it when anyone insults you guys." He smiled. He embraced Lucky, and she returned the hug. It was in that moment she recalled the moment when she had first fallen in love with him.
***
The semi finals of the Kanto League were a very tense battle for Wolf and his team. Both sides were down to two pokemon each, and evenly matched at that. Wolf looked over at his opponent, wondering just what pokemon he was going to use next. Lucky and Serenity were his final choices, so he was fairly well covered no matter what pokemon was called out.
"Honchkrow, I choose you!" he cried, throwing the poke ball out so that Honchkrow could join the battle. Wolf frowned. Serenity wouldn't be able to fight a Dark type to her full power, so regardless of the Flying type Lucky was the best option.
"Lucky, you're up!" he said, Lucky bounding over the boulders on the field to face her foe. The announcer was saying something and the crowd was cheering, but Wolf and Lucky paid them no mind and focussed on the battle at hand. This wasn't going to be easy, but he was confident that Lucky would win.
"Aerial ace!" their opponent called, and Honchkrow went into a spiralling dive straight at Lucky.
"Lucky, double team!" he countered, and Lucky upped her speed in order to create a blurred ring of illusions that concealed her true whereabouts from the foe. His opponent grinned.
"You think that'll stop me?" he asked softly, not really asking. "Go into wing attack Honchkrow, along the circle!" The dark bird's wings started to glow as it began to banish the illusions at an alarming rate. However, Wolf hadn't become a formidable trainer by making stupid mistakes.
"Force palm!" he cried, and the illusions disappeared to reveal that Honchkrow was too close to truly dodge Lucky's paw as it came around in a devastating blow on the chest. With an extra hard flap Honchkrow managed to avoid the worst of it, but still needed to retreat some distance in order to regroup. Its trainer growled, admitting inside that it was indeed a cunning move. It was the semi finals though, so if he'd expected anything else he was very naïve.
"Get in close and use Dark Pulse!" he yelled. Wolf knew that while Lucky was a Fighting/Steel type, at that range Dark Pulse wouldn't exactly tickle.
"Use aura sphere!" he commanded, and Lucky's eyes glowed as she began hurling the powerful life energy blasts at the diving pokemon. It was agile though, and managed to avoid all of them until it was too close. One aura sphere collided with the dark pulse unleashed and a massive explosion rocked the stadium, with both trainers struggling to keep on their feet.
"Lucky!" Wolf cried. Soon enough the dust cleared and Lucky was still standing, but only just. Honchkrow wasn't so fortunate, on the ground in a daze.
"Honchkrow is unable to battle!" the referee announced, raising a flag in Wolf's direction. "Lucario is the winner!" Lucky walked back to Wolf, keeping on her feet in spite of the damage she had taken. Wolf looked at her with concern on his face.
"Maybe you should rest for a minute." He suggested. She shook her head.
"I can carry on," she said, not wanting to disappoint him. He looked into her eyes and saw she wasn't going to back down. He gave her a gentle smile.
"Remember, you don't have to do this." He said. "I care about you, Lucky. I don't like seeing you hurt." She simply nodded and went back to the field, Wolf watching her go with apprehension. His love of his pokemon was battling with his need to allow them to make their own decisions, and he desperately wanted to force her to rest. Unfortunately, he just couldn't bring himself to do it because she would think he didn't trust her enough. Turning his attention back to the battle, he watched his opponent send out his final pokemon.
"Dragonair, I choose you!" he yelled, and the Dragon pokemon appeared on the field. Wolf frowned at this. It wasn't like Dragonair would find it difficult to manoeuvre, and there was very little that could truly harm a Dragon type. He considered calling Lucky back so that he could make use of Serenity's ice punch, but deep down he knew Lucky wouldn't listen to him.
"Stay sharp, Lucky." He called, knowing that a match like this would be better suited to a defensive strategy. Lucky couldn't fight well defensively, so the only option was to hit fast and hard. "Start with aura sphere!" he called, and Lucky responded by hurling the powerful blasts at the foe. As they closed in, the opponent grinned.
"Shock wave!" he responded, and Lucky's attack was stopped mid air by the electric arc, detonating and covering the battlefield in more cloud. "Now use headbutt!"
Before Wolf could counter, Dragonair had launched through the dust and hit Lucky full on with the attack. She flew back through the air to land not far from Wolf, struggling to her feet.
"Lucky, are you okay?" he asked, worry plain in his voice. She ignored him, focussed only on getting to her feet. She suddenly fell to her knees, the last of her strength waning.
"Let's finish this Dragonair," he smirked. "Hyper beam!" Wolf looked with horror at the pokemon as it charged up its attack. Anyone who knew anything about pokemon battling knew that attack would do more than knock Lucky out.
"Lucky!" Wolf cried out as he leapt in front of her just as Dragonair launched the devastating beam. He yelled in agony as the full force of the attack hit him, but dug in to stop Lucky being hit.
"Wolf!" she cried as she realised what he had done. When the attack ended he collapsed on the ground, his breathing shallow and heart beat erratic. She crawled over to him, fearing the worst. What would she do if she lost her best friend?
"Help..." she mumbled, tears choking her voice. "Help..." she said a little louder, cradling his barely moving body in her arms. "Help!" she cried, her fur coated with a mix of blood and tears. The paramedics were just coming onto the field when she turned a helpless look at Dragonair.
"Why?" she choked, as the paramedics took both her and her friend to the waiting Nurse Joy.
***
A couple of days later, Wolf woke up in a hospital bed at Indigo Plateau's pokemon centre. He looked down to see that most of his body was bandaged, the results of the hyper beam detonating on him. He looked over to see Lucky sitting next to him, paw to her mouth and tears flowing freely. She must have gotten enough rest between now and that battle, looking in decent shape. When she noticed his weak gaze, she gasped.
"Oh Wolf!" she yelled, leaping out of the chair to give him a hug. Wincing a little at the impact, Wolf tried his best to soldier on through the pain as he returned the embrace. He could feel tears falling on his chest, but he knew that she was happy to see that he was going to be okay.
"Lucky..." he mumbled. "Are you okay?" She looked at him with a mix of anger and love, unable to believe that he could go through something like that and still be more concerned for her.
"Don't worry about me, damn it!" She said, looking him straight in the eye. "What the hell were you thinking?! You could have been killed!" He gave her a weak smile.
"You could have too, if it had hit you." He said softly. She hated him for saying that, because she knew as well as he did that it was true. However, the anger was short lived in the face of her love and happiness that he would be fine. "Where are the others?" he asked.
"Probably at the centre." She replied, placing her head back on his chest. "We all got a bit hurt in the finals." Wolf frowned at her. The last battle was the semi finals, wasn't it?
"Lucky, what's been going on?" he asked. She didn't look at him, merely wanting to lie next to him.
"When you got hit with the hyper beam," she began. "The judges said they would be forced to declare both you and the other trainer disqualified."
"Disqualified?" he asked, hoping that they hadn't.
"Princess argued with them for a while. She said that she could battle in your place, because she knew your battle style as well as everyone else's." He frowned at this. Would they really have let Princess battle as a trainer? "They said that she would need to have a team of six. It wouldn't have worked if Zapdos hadn't shown up."
"Zapdos?" he wondered aloud.
"Yeah," she continued. "Anyway, the other guy was disqualified because he knew full well what would have happened if the attack had hit me, and Princess was set to battle in your place in the finals. We won." Wolf looked at her in disbelief. They had continued to battle just so that he wouldn't be disappointed? "She's accepting the award on your behalf right now."
He laid his head back on the pillow, mystified. They had been so dedicated to him that they wouldn't allow him to be disqualified. They had fought on for him, while he was unconscious in hospital. A gentle smile etched itself on his face. They simply laid there for a few more minutes, saying nothing. Lucky closed her eyes, realising that it wasn't just friendship she felt for Wolf anymore. It was true love.
Just then the door opened, and the rest of his pokemon walked in accompanied by Zapdos and Lucky's parents. A few people in the hallway were gawking at Zapdos, as though they couldn't believe that a legendary pokemon was just walking through the halls. Serenity closed the door behind them, to allow them a measure of privacy. Lucky's father walked over to give Wolf the same intimidating look he had when they had first met.
"We saw what you did for our daughter," he said. "We are proud of you for being ready to sacrifice everything for her." She beamed, knowing that praise from her father was a nigh impossible thing to get. It made what she was going to tell him later a little easier.
Princess went on to tell him about the finals, with the other pokemon chipping in where they needed to. After the story, she put the medal around his neck. However, his weakened state wouldn't allow him to remain awake any longer and he fell asleep. Just before they left, Lucky spoke up.
"I have to tell you all something," she said, looking embarrassed. "I... I'm in love with Wolf."
***
"Lucky?" The voice snapped her back to the present. She looked around a little, realising that they were in the room at the pokemon centre. She noticed that he was in his boxers, having lost any embarrassment over changing in front of her. He had a slight look of concern on his face. "Are you okay?" She smiled, blushing a little.
"I'll be just fine." She answered as they both climbed into the bed, sharing a single kiss before they fell asleep. "As long as I have you."