Chapter 4: Rising Action

[sublimity]

    He exited the Skytouch forest in the evening. The temperature had cooled down and was quite comfortable. A small break to change from his shorts into his pants, and to have a quick bite to eat was all that he took between the Skytouch and the Acrelea Valley.
    His party was a little worse for wear, most of them injured in the double battle that took place in the forest. The exception was Yami, who took minimal damage in the scuffle as she came in to clean up the situation. However he had two strong additions to his party, Patra, the rowlet, and Anton the crabrawler, both of whom were able fighters, all five of his party members grew immensely from the fight, it was a great sign for Lucas as he now knew that there was going to be a large shift for his party after this return the Scurarte and defeat of the gym. Kage would need to be healed up at a centre but other than that they could fight on for the time being. He was in good spirits, his stamina was high, and he felt like he could carry on well into the night.

    As the purple sky of dusk faded the stars above revealed themselves. The stars were dense in the sky above, dotting the infinite sky with innumerable shining gems. Lucas had always loved the night sky, it made him feel as if the entirety of space was just out of reach.
    A cool breeze blew from the east, originating from the valley. He would eventually come to the winding valley, a river running through the middle deep below as the walls towered high above the base of the valley. The stars and moon illuminated the valley, ghostly silhouettes of the flying pokemon inhabiting the valley swept across the night sky and against the walls of the cliffs. The windmills dotted the edges and hills of the valley, the energy they produced powered a large amount of Eastern Godai and much of the region. It was a marvel to be here looking at it with his own eyes. He smiled a wide smile as he looked down into the valley before him.
    Following a narrow, winding pathway down the valley face to the bottom of the v that cut the valley in the first place. Lucas descended into the lower part of the valley to search for the ancient windmill amongst the plateaus and twisting passageways.

    Tightening his bag on his back he prepared for another bunch of battles that would no doubt push his team to their limit as they stood now. He hoped that he would be able to sharpen up a little more before returning to Scurarte town to face off against the local gym.
    He could see the slowly flashing red lights on the windmills as their massive black blades spun silently in the night. A warning to the flying pokemon to not avoid the windmills most likely. He thought that maybe if he looked through the skyline enough he might be able to see the ancient windmill Okura had spoken about, there must be some different indicator of this windmill to differentiate it from the others. Descending into the valley Lucas prepared for the next part of his journey, still realizing that he had the return trip to do as well. In the back of his mind he truly wondered if his entire party would be able to make it through this.

    The footing on the pathway down was at least stable, pokemon and travellers had come through here before. It was much less travelled then the pathway he had first taken through Skytouch but at least he wasn’t slogging through marshland. He descended the wall of the valley slowly towards the valley’s bottom. The plateaus of the valley would give him plenty of chances to make his way through at different elevations. He saw one that wouldn’t be too much further down, his first goal in the valley would be to find the ancient windmill.
He knew he would probably be fighting here, so he had to really think about his party’s health, no doubt Ace would lead the one once again. He was most confident in Ace, he liked what Patra and Anton brought to the mix, but he hadn’t tested them in battle on their own. It would be a tough go if the rowlet was only willing to fight with her partner, and he had no idea how Anton would act without Patra there. He chuckled to himself, “there’s alot more to this than having strong pokemon…” he thought to himself as he approached the first plateau in sight, he would use that to look over the valley for any signs of the old windmill in the moonlight.

Wordcount - 808

[sublimity]

    Lucas came to a small plateau off the path that overlooked the valley. The moonlight was bright enough that his eyes had mostly adjusted to the darkness of the night sky. He still couldn’t make out the silhouettes of most of the pokemon in the night sky but there were a few he could pick out by their more recognizable shapes. It was only a small climb off the path to the overlook, he lowered his bag and figured he would be fairly safe here if he wanted to take a rest.
    He didn’t really need the rest, he more so was looking for any sort of indicator on which direction he would travel in order to get to this old windmill. He set his bag down a ways away from where he finally sat down on a large rock.

    The warm summer air was cooled by the ever blowing breeze from the valley below, the rock he sat on was cold at first. He stretched out his legs in front of him, stiff from the climbing up towards Acrelea and then the descent halfway down from the valley.
    The sound was something else, he heard the cries of pokemon echo through the valley. The sounds of the bug pokemon chirping and rustling in the night were all backdropped by the steady blowing of the breeze through the valley. He inhaled a deep breath through his nose.

    His father took Lucas and Claus camping once when they were kids, about a year before they were sent overseas to school. It was a night like this, it wasn’t at all in this sort of wild area, actually a small meadow near Dianette that was mostly for tame camping. But still, he remembered the isolation of it all. That it was just the three of them out there that weekend.
    Lucas hated it, he hated the hard ground, how there was nowhere for him to charge his holocaster, how they did not have television and his friends weren’t there and he hated how much Claus liked it. He remembered he couldn’t sleep in the tent the first night, so he got up in the middle of the night. His dad's silhouette was cast on the tent by the fire. He was sitting on a stump looking out at the stars holding a pokeball in his hand. Sometimes Lucas forgot that his dad was a trainer as well, he wasn’t very good, and by that point either of the boys were able to out battle him. But he had a farfetch’d that Lucas always thought was awesome. On this night the farfetch’d was out of its ball the pokemon first noticed that Lucas was standing out the tent.
    “Luke? You ok buddy?” His dad was a nice guy, he was always nice to the boys, and to everyone. He had this smile on his face that came from deep down in his soul, “Come sit by us and watch the sky,” his dad said calmly as he patted the log next to him before putting his arm around his son. He liked that, sitting with his dad and the farfetch’d looking up at the endless sky. It was one of his fondest memories.

    As he sat in the warm summer night sky looking up at the stars he thought about that night. Reaching behind him onto his belt he pulled out a pokeball and it grew in his hand to its baseball size. It was Ace’s ball. Ace had been fighting like crazy since they first started travelling together and he hoped that they would keep fighting together as long as they could, until they were both champions of Godai. A smile came across his face and his eyes welled up. “Shit…” he thought to himself as he sniffed a sharp breath. He smiled again and chuckled to himself as he thought about that night, and about tonight. He opened his holocaster and fired off a quick text to his dad, simply saying, “Thanks dad.”
    It was a bittersweet time for him to be adventuring, he was just on the cusp of being a man, he felt like he was already there but it was moments like this where he missed his whole family being together that he felt like he wasn’t quite there yet. Or maybe this was a sign that he was more mature than he thought. Wiping his eye with his forearm he huffed.

    As he put the holocaster away into his pocket he looked back out at the valley. There was no way he was going to find this windmill, he thought as he scratched the back of his head. Then from the valley below came a great crash. Lucas stood up and looked down below him as flying pokemon scattered from a group of trees below as a loud roar echoed up the walls of the valley. “Well well, what do we have here?” A grin crept across his face, what was more fitting to end this trip then a boss battle, “sounds like the big fella is pretty pissed!” The feeling of hunger welled up inside him again, spurred on the passion he felt. He rolled the ball between his fingers as he watched the flying pokemon scatter away from the forest.
    Turning to grab the bag from the ground he spun around on his foot and gripped his empty hand into a fist. As he turned, a pokemon flew up from behind the overlook, clearly escaping as quickly as it could before tumbling down onto the overlook. A pink bat looking pokemon scrambled to get up from the ground, clearly in panic. It got up and glanced around a few times, making sure it was in the clear before letting out an audible sigh of relief. “What a loser…” Lucas thought to himself before the pokemon had even noticed him there. He recognized it as the pre evolution of gliscor, a popular pokemon amongst edgy trainers at the academy. “This guy looks pitiful…” he thought again as the gligar tried to maintain its composure after cowering in fear. It looked around before it caught a glimpse of the trainer standing before it. Lucas grew the ball again and tossed out Ace in a brilliant flash of red light that lit the rock face up the brightest it’d been since he entered the valley. Inhaling another deep breath as his partner materialized, Lucas barked, “Let’s go Ace!”


Wordcount - 1,093


Encounter Request Link

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

Pokemon
Scorbunny Caught at Level 5 Nickname: Ace Gender: Male Type: Fire Ability: Blaze Height: 1’ Weight: 10 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Medium Slow EXP Gauge: (32/36) EXP Gained: 26 Level: 14 Division: D8 Total Stats: 155 [154 + 1] Attack: 46 (29%) [45 + 1] Defense: 24 Sp. Attack: 19 Sp. Defense: 24 Speed: 42 (27%) Vitamins Used: Pokerus Atk + 3%	Moveset: 1. Tackle 1. Growl 6. Ember 8. Quick Attack 12. Double Kick Unique Moves: - - - - Item:

Pokemon
Nincada Caught at Level 5 Nickname: Kage Gender: Male Type: Bug/Ground Ability: Compound Eyes Height: 1’ 8" Weight: 12.1 lbs Health: Weak EXP Rate: Erratic EXP Gauge: (21/25) EXP Gained: 12 Level: 8 Division: D8 Total Stats: 88 Attack: 8 Defense: 32 (36%) Sp. Attack: 8 Sp. Defense: 16 Speed: 24 (27%) Vitamins Used: None	Moveset: 1. Harden 1. Scratch 5. Absorb Unique Moves: - - - - Item:

Pokemon
Gastly Caught at Level 3 Nickname: Yami Gender: Female Type: Ghost/Poison Ability: Levitate Height: 2' 3" Weight: 0.2 lbs Health: Weak EXP Rate: Medium Slow EXP Gauge: (17/18) EXP Gained: 14 Level: 9 Division: D8 Total Stats: 99 Attack: 10 Defense: 13 Sp. Attack: 33 (33%) Sp. Defense: 14 Speed: 29 (29%) Vitamins Used: None	Moveset: 1. Hypnosis 1. Lick 5. Spite 5. Confuse Ray 8. Mean Look Unique Moves: - - - - Item:

Pokemon
Rowlet Caught at Level 8 Nickname: Patra Gender: Female Type: Grass/Flying Ability: Overgrow Height: 1' 0” Weight: 3.2 lbs Health: Intermediate EXP Rate: Medium Slow EXP Gauge: (17/18) EXP Gained: 5 Level: 9 Division: D8 Total Stats: 99 Attack: 26 Defense: 20 Sp. Attack: 13 Sp. Defense: 25 Speed: 15 (15%) Vitamins Used: None	Moveset: 1. Tackle 1. Leafage 4. Growl 8. Peck Unique Moves: - - - - Item:

Pokemon
Crabrawler Caught at Level 9 Nickname: Anton Gender: Male Type: Fighting Ability: Hyper Cutter Height: 2' 0” Weight: 15.4 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Medium Fast EXP Gauge: (23/26) EXP Gained: 5 Level: 10 Division: D7 Total Stats: 120 Attack: 36 (30%) Defense: 28 Sp. Attack: 16 Sp. Defense: 22 Speed: 18 Vitamins Used: None	Moveset: 1. Bubble 5. Rock Smash 9. Leer Unique Moves: - Superpower - Egg move - - - Item:

[sublimity]

    The red lightning shot from the ball and Ace materialized in front of its ball but didn’t let out a cry. As soon as the gligar saw the bright flash it scurried towards the cliff before launching itself off and gliding down to the valley below, being sure to avoid the patch of trees that it had originally fled from. “Lame…” Lucas thought as he watched the gligar glide away. Turning back he looked at Ace, who huffed for breath. “You ok pal?” He hurried towards the pokemon and knelt down beside him, rubbing his warm back. The pokemon looked tired, he still had the scuffs from the battle before. “I told you not to eat that berry,” Lucas scoffed as he rubbed the pokemons back. He was most likely just a little tired from the battle. “Can you keep going? I need ya buddy,” the scorbunny breathed deep a few breaths before crying in agreement. He had to get him to a pokemon center sooner rather than later, but at least for the time being he would be able to fight on. “Let’s just get through this valley, then you have a big rest comin’ up cool?” The scorbunny nodded its head in agreement, steeling himself to carry on, or so Lucas interpreted.

    If Ace is in this rough of a shape did he want to really go down and try to tussle with the big bad at the bottom of the valley. “Who are we kidding, we got more bullets in the chamber,” he assured himself, confident of the rest of his team. He had nothing to worry about. He still had the ball out in his hand as he held it up to return Ace to his ball. The tendril of energy reached out and pulled him back in, “rest up for now, I might need you later,” he said to the ball as he clipped it back into place. He thought about the crash from the forest below, which was now followed by another loud bang. He knew whatever was down there needed to be handled, for the other pokemon in the area.



    If that gligar was that scared, maybe he wasn’t just lame and this thing was actually a beast. This thought excited Lucas, to do something for the pokemon of the area by removing this monster would be a good deed that he would definitely be able to be proud of.



    He swung around to pick up his bag from the ground and slung it on his shoulder before returning to the edge of the overlook. Looking out into the valley he couldn’t help but focus on the patch of forest that the roar came from, forget the windmill, that was his new goal.



    Hopping down from the outlook back onto the pathway he made his way down the path continuing down into the valley.



    It took him a little while before he descended the valley wall downwards and the tree cover began to grow around him. It wasn’t at all like Skytouch or Kagereta but it was patches of forest that dotted the bottom of the valley. Entering into the sparse treeline he reached back and pulled an apple from his bag, one of the few pieces of fresh food he had for this trip, the rest was protein bars and were frankly disgusting to him. He had been saving the apple for when he needed a little kick, and what better time to be refreshed than the present. Tossing the apple into the air he took his time moving through the night as he didn’t want to slip and fall out here, if something were to happen to him out here it might be a while before someone found him. As aggressive as he handled battle, he wasn’t about to get stuck out here, he wasn’t sure the injured Ace could carry him out of the valley if that was the case.



    As he tossed the apple up in the air, a black shape swooped down from one of the trees. Lucas’ eyes followed the shape as it swept past. A small pokemon grabbed the apple out of the air, Lucas couldn’t help but be impressed. He smirked as he watched it swoop by, that pokemon deserved that apple. Before he had a chance to second guess, the pokemon crashed into a tree before dropping the apple and falling to the ground. “What’s with the pokemon in this valley?” he thought to himself. Pulling a ball from his back he tossed it out to the ground, unwilling to let the pokemon get away with stealing from him.



Wordcount - 785

[sublimity]

The ball hit the ground before opening with a flash, “You’re up Ace!” He knew that Ace was tired, and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to fight too many more battles on this trip. He did have the potions in his bag still but he didn’t want to push too hard either way. Ace came from the ball with no cry, the scuffs and exhaustion of battle were obvious. Lucas felt a tinge of guilt as he sent Ace out for yet another battle. “Start off with a quick attack!”

Ace bent his knees to shoot off from the ground as normal, but before he could spring off he dropped to a knee. The noibat shot a gust of wind from its wings that knocked Ace backwards as the wind shot out from between the flying pokemon that took off into the air at the same time.

Lucas scoffed under his breath, was he in that bad of shape? Reaching into his bag as quick as he could he pulled a potion from the bag and ran towards his pokemon before sliding down next to him, “hey, heal up buddy,” the spray medication covered the scorbunny who nodded as the medication coated the scuffs and scrapes. “How’s that? You good to go?” the scorbunny nodded again in confirmation but still breathed hard, was there something else going on with him? Before he could think the noibat came swooping towards the pair, fluttering its little wings it looked like it tripped mid air and fell head first into Ace before struggling to remain airborne. “This is ridiculous,” Lucas felt like this pokemon was a complete joke compared to his partner and almost felt slighted by the pokemon not even being able to fly, “Ace quick attack!”

This time Ace leaped off the ground in a flash, leaving behind a cloud of dust and ash. The attack landed spot on and knocked the tiny bat careening downward, following clean through Ace slid on the dirt as he landed and spun 180 degrees around to face his foe. “That’s more like it!” Lucas shouted out to his partner who looked like he had some energy back. “Watch out for the counter attack!” Ace cried out. The noibats ears started to glow red before shooting out a thin red beam of energy, no doubt an absorb the same as Kage’s. As the beam shot towards the scorbunny it jumped out of the way with relative ease.

“Let’s wrap this up,” Lucas wiped his nose with his thumb as he grinned, “another quick attack should do the job!” Almost like he knew exactly what his trainer would say scorbunny made off towards the noibat darting side to side before leaping off a large rock on the ground and dashing through again. As he followed through, without turning around the noibat fainted out of the air. Lucas’ eyes lit up, “so cool!” He exclaimed in admiration as the noibat fell limp to the ground. Scorbunny knelt down and breathed heavily still. “Shit…” Lucas thought as he watched his strongest partner struggle to fight, it had to be that berry he ate. He wouldn’t push him too much harder while they were in the valley, “good work pal. Another strong fight, come on back now, no more fighting for you.” He wanted to believe that, whatever happened, he needed to keep his word to Ace as his trainer and partner. Pulling out his ball and returning the fire pokemon to its ball he clipped the ball into his slot. “We can get through the rest of this one without you having to carry us.” He hoped he wouldn’t have to go back on his word, it was first instinct to just count on Ace to handle his battles. He wanted to prove to Ace and to the rest of his team that he could count on them as well.

Picking up the apple that noibat dropped, he dusted it off on his pants and carried on through the sparse forest into the valley once again. It was a quick battle, his team was getting stronger, and somewhere in the valley there was a true test of their strength as a team. He wanted to take that test, for himself, and for his team. If he wanted to take a run at the gyms, helping out this small ecosystem would be a good start. As he tossed the apple up one more time he took a bite out of it and looked towards the rambunctious patch of forest that was alive with the roars of the pokemon that inhabited it. A grin crept across his face, his hooded eyes looking as unimpressed as ever, “A hero’s work is never quite done is it?”

Wordcount - 841

Battle Summary

SPOILER: Click to show

Ace used quick attack but it failed
Noibat used gust

Lucas used potion on Ace
Noibat used... tackle?

Ace used quick attack
Noibat used absorb, missed

Ace used quick attack (KO Noibat)

[sublimity]

    The night was abuzz with activity, with all of it centralized on the rowdy pokemon in the shaking woods. Now that he was in the valley he realized how busy it actually was. Pokemon flew to and fro within the valley, a sense of anxiety filled the air. Whatever was waiting in that forest was big, bad, and causing a problem for the locals. Lucas was eager to face off with whatever was in there, but at the same time he was worried, his team was running nearly on fumes, he still had a return trip to make, and the night was growing deeper. His lip curled into a scowl as he thought about it, had he overextended himself?

    “Doubt it…” he muttered to himself as he walked through the shadows of the valley.



    As he walked through the centre of the valley his eyes caught something sitting on a rock in the distance. Gligar, most likely the same one that he had seen before. He wasn’t sure if it’d noticed him yet and he wasn’t going to let it get away this time.

    Quickly, Lucas devised a plan that he wasn’t going to startle it, instead he would catch it by surprise. He remembered how flighty it was when they saw each other on the overhang before. It was possible that this was another gligar, but he didn’t want to take the chance to scare away such a juicy prey. He wanted to get some more work in for his team without Ace, but on that same wavelength he wanted to make sure that these pokemon who were making him look stupid out here in the valley were paid back for doing so. He wasn’t a big fan of a pokemon showing up that close to him only to run away. “Is this cruel?” He thought to himself, thinking about his plan to trap this pokemon. Then he shrugged his shoulders remembering he had this big bad to worry about as well.



    Crouching down behind a nearby rock he pulled out his jacket and a ball from its slot. Draping the jacket over his arms he dropped the ball, the plan was to cover the flash of light that would draw the attention of anything in the area. Yami came forth from the ball as her gas expanded around her and quickly filled the jacket’s coverage. He was face to face with the ghost pokemon who smiled a wide toothy smile at him, clearly excited to play. He pulled the jacket off the two of them before putting his finger up to shush her.

“See over there?” He pointed at the gligar that was sitting on the rock further down the pathway. “Last time he ran away,” he thought while he was talking, can pokemon even understand him? Aura theory says they understand ideas but that was all theory, “so we are going to trap him. Go around that way, keep it down. And then I will scare it,” gastly floated nearby gleefully, keeping her gas tight around her. She was kind of cute in the way she loved to play, Lucas looked out of the corner of his eye at her and hoped she knew what was going on. “When he gets scared, we’ll trap him. Got it?” Then he looked at his pokemon, who looked pretty much the same. Lowering his eyes wondering what he was even doing, he sighed a small breath. Pointing to a bush behind the gligar he nodded.



    Surprisingly the gastly began to float low to the ground into the nearby bush, staying quiet as she moved. Maybe she was in it more for the prank, either way he thought his plan might work. Making his way back to the path it was pretty quick before he noticed that the pokemon was looking his way as it tensed up on the rock, trying to stay as still as possible. What was it even doing over there? Gastly could surround it with mist and keep it from running, that was his hope anyways, it would be a funny prank. She wasn’t all that strong but could alter the fight in her favor without much trouble. If a fight broke out he would likely have to switch pokemon out, but he wanted her to be able to hold her own as well as she wasn’t a very strong attacker.



    As Lucas approached he watched the gligar in his peripheral vision. The pokemon had definitely seen him. He could see gastly’s black form, dark even in the night sky, its mist brought in tight to leave as little an impression as possible. Lucas grinned before he yelled, “hey!” The gligar jumped from the rock and spun around quickly, as it began to run gastly exhumed a bunch of gas from her body. The gligar turned to escape it, but Yami was prepared. The gligar froze in its track as a pair of eyes appeared before it before shooting open with wide yellow pupils exuding a baleful gaze. “Mean look…” Lucas thought. He hadn’t thought of that, the grin grew wide on his face, the battle was on and Yami had impressed him once again.

    With a quick reaction the gligar flew towards Yami to defend itself, throwing its stinger forward toward the ghost type. The poison sting hit but its damage was negligible. Yami’s double typing was hard to hit with any poison type attacks and the gligar wasn’t strong enough to simply overwhelm gastly.



    Without orders from Lucas Yami swirled around the gligar and licked it with its outstretched tongue. The gligar shuddered with uncomfortability. At first it tried to turn tail and run, before being met again with the floating, glaring eyes trapping it in the battlefield. Her trainer almost thought of Yami as cruel, whittling down her opponents without need to be told what to do. It was almost grim. Gligar, realizing it was trapped again, kicked sand up with its tail, causing Yami to recoil and squint her eyes.Yami floated back, turning her head upside down she released a massive puff of purple gas from her body, shrouding her in the night.



    Lucas gritted his teeth, she was something else.


Wordcount - 1,053

Battle summary

SPOILER: Click to show

Yami used mean look

Gligar used poison sting (¼ damage)



Yami used lick

Gligar used sand attack

[sublimity]

    As the gas enveloped Yami, not even her trainer could get eyes on her, his gaze darted through the smoke wondering where the ghost pokemon was. As he tried to track her the gligar stood its ground and rushed forward into the smoke, prideful, Lucas liked that. As the gligar entered the periphery of the smoke a blinding light flashed out, reflecting off the smoke and pulsating, lighting up a large area of the valley.



    “Confuse ray?” Lucas thought to himself as he shielded his own eyes from the glare. Yami was completely fighting on her own now, it was something else, she was hardly more than a wild pokemon with resources to be healed. He wiped his nose with his thumb as he thought about how clever she was on the attack, “way to go Yami, keep it up!”

Gligar recoiled from the dissipating gas, it’s pupils small in its yellow glazed eyes, the confuse ray worked and this pokemon should hardly know where it is. Dashing too and fro it let out a cry before launching a poison sting into the empty gas, falling down onto its face as it did so. Yami hovered above and let out a shrill cackle at her opponent. “What are you…”



    The gligar looked around wildly trying to pinpoint the black mass of Yami in the night sky, with the smoke, and the confusion, Lucas couldn’t blame it for not being able to locate his pokemon. Darting out of the smoke Yami lashed out with its bright tongue licking the gligar before ducking back into the smoke.

In defense the wild pokemon hardened its skin, a move that would do little to help it now. Even with the sand in Yami’s squinted eye she was still able to land effectively enough with these low risk attacks.



    Lucas couldn’t do much other than watch, on one hand he knew he should rein in his pokemon. But on the other she was holding her own just fine, however cruelly she may be fighting. With another lash of her tongue the gligar fell to the ground as it was unable to move its body, “paralyzed too… cmon” he thought to himself as the gastly cackled ruthlessly at her downed foe, stuck in confusion and now paralyzed. Before he could act the purple rings of hypnosis echoed from her black mass towards the downed pokemon. As the hypnosis landed the gligar slipped into a slumber that was by no means peaceful.



    Paralyzed, confused, and put to sleep by the relentless gastly who hovered over him cackling with glee. Lucas felt bad more than anything. Pulling the ball from its slot he reached out as gastly lunged down for another lick, “Enough.” The tendril of energy caught his pokemon before she assaulted the injured gligar anymore. Winning was fine but this was not the way he wanted to do it. Placing the ball back into its slot he thought about this, it would be different if it stood a chance or if it was a trainer's pokemon. But leaving a wild pokemon like that was just uncool. He hated people who used ‘cheap’ methods to win when he battled at the Academy, at this point the fight was over and he wasn’t going to let it go on any longer than it had to.



    Picking up the gligar he put him on the large rock he was sitting on off the ground and laid him there off the ground. “Sleep it off buddy, you did your best against her.” There was a limit, and that was it for Lucas, he wouldn’t go down that route, he wanted his pokemon to fight til the end and would have hated to see Ace in a situation like this, he wasn’t going to let some other pokemon face that defeat. Pulling a small piece of jerky from his bag he placed it under the wing of gligar, “when you’re up and at it, this big guy in the forest will be gone so you’ll be able to glide wherever you want. ‘Till next time.” He patted the rock next to him and made for the forest in the valleys floor that housed the roars of the area’s ‘boss’ that Lucas was so eager to fight against.



Wordcount - 725 

Battle summary

SPOILER: Click to show

Yami used mean look

Gligar used poison sting (¼ damage)



Yami used lick

Gligar used sand attack



Yami used confuse ray/ inflicted confusion

Gligar hurt itself in confusion



Yami used lick

Gligar used harden



Yami used lick/ inflicted paralyze

Gligar cannot move



Yami used hypnosis

Gligar is fast asleep

Lucas withdraws Yami, ending the fight

[sublimity]

    Lucas approached the beast's den with his hands in his pockets, confident he could best whatever was in there and hoping he wouldn’t have to unleash Yami again. As he got closer he heard a deafening roar, so forceful that it fluttered the back of his undone jacket. He sighed and scratched his head, knowing whatever was coming up would be one to remember. He smiled, prepared to face whatever was ahead of him.



    Entering the small forest the trees on the outer edges were in good shape, but the closer he got to a clearing he could see in the middle, inhabited by a large shadow kicking up dust. As he stepped into the clearing the trees all around it were crushed and smashed all from his waist height, creating a ring of dust and dirt that was well tread. At the center stood the mass, roaring as it cleared the dust from stomping its feet. A rhyhorn, he recognized it immediately from the races. This one was exceptionally large and fierce, locking eyes with Lucas as soon as he entered the clearing and turning its body to face the trainer before grunting and sending dust flying. “Well, you’re makin’ all the racket in here huh? Time to see what you’re made of, give these guys a break,” he shot out his hand and pointed an outstretched finger at the pokemon, “what do you say big guy? Ready for the fight of your life?” The rhyhorn grunted again as it brushed its front clawed foot into the dirt, Lucas knew he was about to charge and readied himself to get out of the way. He knew a few things about rhyhorn, that they were insanely tough and they had a weakness, they could only charge straight.



    The rhyhorn kicked up another cloud of dust as it charged toward him, sending dust flying behind it and the ground quaked underneath it. Lucas dived out of the way before rolling up to his feet. The rhyhorn predictably ran into the trees, sending two huge trees crashing down in opposite ways as it turned around, “eaassssyy buddy, I’m not gonna fight you!” Grabbing a ball from his waist he tossed it across the ring from him to draw the attention to his pokemon, “but she might, Patra!” The rowlet came out of its ball and fluttered its tiny wings into the air, clearing some of the falling dust around it.


    
    “Four times,” Lucas thought about Patra’s type advantage, “leafage!” The rowlet whipped up a tornado of fallen leaves around her, the singed leaves in her coat still showing through from her battle with Ace earlier in the day. The leaves shot towards the rumbling rhino but as it charged against the rowlet most of them deflected off like bugs on a windshield of a car. If it did damage, it wasn’t much. Crashing through the leaves it thrust Patra with its horn and knocked her out of the sky. Turning around with a skid it raised its foot up above the grounded owl before bringing it down hard.

    “Look out!” Lucas said as the stomp crashed down on the grass pokemon, easily knocking her unconscious. “What the hell…” he marveled at the raw strength, but he still had more against this brute. Tossing a ball out from its slot Anton came forth in a flash of light near Lucas, his eyes shooting towards his friend. “Let’s get pumped buddy, see what this brute did to your girl?” Returning Patra to her ball the crabrawler let out a mighty cry as it jabbed twice in succession, ready to avenge his fallen comrade. The rhyhorn cried out as well as if to outshine his foe, and indeed it was a mighty cry. It was as if the earth itself was on the side of this mighty beast. Lucas liked it, he smiled as the rhyhorn walked in menacingly toward Anton, as if to taunt him. “Soften this guy up with a rock smash,” the proud pugilist stood firm as its gloved hand began to glow. Lucas wasn’t going to go down without a fight. As the rhyhorn stomped into Anton’s range he unleashed a mighty downward chop that split the air.



    Catching rhyhorn right in the center of its crown, it was clear that its defense wasn’t lowered as the ground type tanked the hit with little trouble. “C’mon, how tough are you?!” As he raised up his hand, crabrawler scuttled backward towards Lucas, “what’s up?” he asked as he looked at the rhyhorn, who looked up and had a look of pure menace on its face that scared Anton into back stepping. He wasn’t sure whether it was the face, or the fact the rock smash did nearly nothing. But Anton scuttled to the side, drawing the attention of the stamping pokemon, who asserted its dominance in the natural arena. Rhyhorn brought its head down towards its body and its crown began to glow, “what’s this? Anton throw out a bubble, try to keep some distance!” Lucas called out as the crabrawler nodded and spewed out a jet of bubbles from its mouth.



    The bubbles shot out at the menacing threat and hit it dead on, causing it to bring its head back in recoil, “another four times, nice. Not tanking that one eh?” He thought to himself as he had a feeling it was more susceptible to special attacks, which would have been nice if he had a singular special attacker amongst his party. “Time to go all out, superpower!” Anton began to glow with a red aura, the rhyhorn huffed as if he was smirking, as if he was invincible. Lucas smiled at the thought and huffed himself. As the rhyhorn charged across the arena with its head down it clashed with the superpowered attack, for a moment, before carrying the crabrawler up and into a nearby tree, sandwiching it before it fell limp.



    “Absolute monster..” Lucas muttered to himself as he pulled Anton back into his ball. They hadn’t done anything and he needed to think quickly or this thing would wipe him clean out, and who knows what would happen to him if that happened. Reaching back he ran his finger over Ace’s ball, “I made you a promise buddy, but I’m sorry about this…” He pulled a ball and threw it out towards the turning rhyhorn.


Wordcount - 1,084



Battle Summary

SPOILER: Click to show

Patra used leafage

Rhyhorn uses horn attack



Rhyhorn used stomp / Patra is KO’d



Anton used rock smash

Rhyhorn used scary face



Rhyhorn used skull bash (turn 1 defense up)

Anton used bubble (speed down)



Anton used superpower + Rhyhorn used skull bash / Anton is KO’d

[sublimity]

    This rhyhorn was a beast, he had easily knocked out both Patra and Anton, Lucas was running out of options. He wasn’t sure just how much this thing had in the tank so he had to take a drastic measure.



    The ball hit the ground, a flash came out from the ball, “I didn’t want to do this.” Yami’s cackling laughter could be heard as she flew into the air, drawing the eyes of the rhyhorn, “sorry buddy, but I’m gonna’ hafta wrap this one up. Yami, start with a confuse ray!” Yami cackled and flew towards the rhyhorn who looked up at her, before launching an echo of herself in all black. “That’s not confuse ray!” Lucas barked at Yami, who decided she would take things into her own hands with a spite attack. “This pokemon…” he thought to himself.



    Rhyhorn roared out again, shaking the trees and leaves on the stamped down dirt ground and gored at the ghost, it’s horn passing clean through. Yami floated through to the other side and laughed again at her foe. “What’s with you?” As he thought those words Yami shot a menacing glance over his way as if she could hear his thoughts. The rhyhorn gouged and launched a barrage at the gastly, all of them passing through her smoke with ease before she countered with the same array of flashing lights that Lucas was able to shield.



    The rhyhorn dashed out of her smoke before skidding around back again, that’s when Lucas noticed. The tip of its horn was splintered off, “the superpower?” he tapped Anton’s ball in its slot and grinned, “nice work.” That was the first time he saw any damage on the rhyhorn, this thing was a unit. And now it stood on the other side of the hovering Yami, who pestered and taunted her foe with laughter. As she floated around with her attitude he noticed that the rhyhorn had lowered its head again through her gas. “Another skull bash?” He thought to himself as he wondered what gastly would do here. “Slow him down! Hypnosis!” As he shouted his order Yami twirled in the air and let her tongue hang down. Then the two charged each other, Yami leaving a cloud of smoke in her wake. “What the hell Yami?!”



    

    Before Lucas could think to scold her the cloud dispersed. Like a truck the rhyhorn charged through the smoke directly towards him. Diving out of the way again he jumped head first to the left to avoid the stampeding pokemon. As soon as he hit the ground he felt a sharp pain in the back of his thigh as he heard the deafening crash of the rhyhorn hitting the trees behind him and the ground shaking as one of the other trees crashed down into the forest. “The hell?!” he shouted as he rolled up to his side. Pain.



    As he rolled the pain on the back of his leg flared up. Looking down he noticed a large splinter of rock sticking out of the back of his leg, wetting his pants with blood. “Shit…” he scrambled to his feet pulling himself up on a tree remembering that rhyhorn stomped out Patra. Clinging onto the tree the rhyhorn turned to face Lucas, who was maybe twelve feet away. Stamping at the ground he appeared ready to attack. Lucas thought about his journey, and his life up until now as the tank barked out another cry.



    Before he could charge he saw everything go black and then a flash of light, followed by another loud crash, and another, and another.



    Opening his eyes he saw the rhyhorn bucking and rampaging into the trees away from him. “Confuse ray?” He thought to himself, thinking that could be the only thing that would cover him in darkness then flash. As the rhyhorn leaped back and forth knocking down trees with its rock body it writhed and roared, terrifying the trainer. His leg buckled under him, “not good…” he thought to himself as he felt the blood leaking down his leg. He couldn’t feel it, yet, but the shock was going to be only temporary.



    Yami pursued the rhyhorn into the thicket and the two crashed about with Yami’s cackling echoing out in the night sky with the roars. Lucas slid down the tree as Yami rocketed from the tree cover in a spiral of smoke. She wasn’t hurt, instead she spun, somewhat beautifully followed by her trail of smoke and turned around before taunting the beast. It followed close behind as it charged her, knocking trees out of the way as it did. As it charged past her she licked it once again and Lucas noticed that it shuddered as it passed. It spun around and struggled to get its bearing. The horn chip gone, Yami stared it down, unafraid, the only one who was unafraid of the bunch. She was the smallest, the lightest, and the only one who was invincible.



    Dashing towards the rhyhorn she licked it once more, causing it to stumble in paralysis.



    “Ok!” The adrenaline coursed through his bag as he reached into his bag and pulled a ball from it, “Now’s our chance!” Yami exhumed a large spray of gas from her body around the rhyhorn. Lucas threw the ball from the sitting position that he sat in. A steep curveball throw caused the ball to disperse gas around it as it sucked in the mighty rhyhorn. The ball came to the ground and Yami flew away, huffing as she breathed hard for the first time he’d seen. She shot a glance over to Lucas, and looked as if she was concerned for him. The ball shook violently before slowing, and with one more shake stopped. “Shit..” he looked at the menace of a ghost pokemon before smiling and giving her a thumbs up before he winced in pain.


Wordcount - 1,001




Battle Summary

SPOILER: Click to show

Patra used leafage

Rhyhorn uses horn attack



Rhyhorn used stomp / Patra is KO’d



Anton used rock smash

Rhyhorn used scary face



Rhyhorn used skull bash (turn 1 defense up)

Anton used bubble (speed down)



Anton used superpower + Rhyhorn used skull bash / Anton is KO’d



Yami uses spite

Rhyhorn used fury attack



Yami uses confuse ray (missed)

Rhyhorn used skull bash (turn 1 defense up)



Yami used lick

Rhyhorn used skull bash



Yami used confuse ray

Rhyhorn thrashed about in confusion



Yami used lick

Rhyhorn used horn attack (missed)



Yami used lick / paralyze

Rhyhorn couldn’t move because of the paralysis



Lucas captured rhyhorn

[sublimity]

    Lucas spent some time patching himself up, pulling the shard of stone from his leg and bandaging it up. A good thing his mother made him take a small first aid kit “Because you never know,” Lucas echoed his mother’s words in his head as he wrapped his thigh up. It wasn’t as bad as he thought at first but he would likely have a limp until the wound healed. He always recovered quickly but this was still a pain in the ass this far away from town.
    As he patched himself up he let Ace and Yami out of their balls, Yami pestered Ace as usual before he sneezed on her and caused her back off with disgust. Lucas laughed out loud when she recoiled back from the fairly timid sneeze coming from the scorbunny. He was happy that his pokemon seemed happy, even though one of them was sick.

    The battlefield looked like a bomb had gone off, the stamped down dirt in the middle surrounded by the knocked down trees falling outward. The ball that rhyhorn was captured in still sat in the middle from where Yami had slowed him down with the paralysis, which meant he wouldn’t be much good for the remainder of the trip back with the paralyze.

    Lucas sighed as he sat with his back to a tree, now he was in bad shape. He was down to Ace, Yami, and the newly caught and paralyzed rhyhorn. It was a long way back, and hobbled as he was, it would make the trip even longer. He leaned his head back on the tree behind him and looked at the bandaged leg. “What the hell am I doing out here?” He muttered to himself as he looked up at the fading night through the clearing. This was a bad trip, he had let most of his team faint to catch one pokemon and began to question how he would do against a gym leader. This was a different world than the Academy. There were consequences out here, evident by his leg. He would have to be more careful going forward, this much he knew. What a chaotic time. The wind blew through the trees and for the first time in the valley there was a calm, a calm that he brought. He smiled at this thought before closing his eyes to get some rest. When he closed his eyes he felt the warmth of Ace curl up next to his hip, even Yami settled in on his other side, before letting out a yawn. He opened his eyes just a crack to see his two pokemon cuddled up on either side of him before closing them again for the night.

    If he had a dream that night, he couldn’t remember it. He was awoken by the warm breeze blowing through the trees in the morning sun as it glared through the trees and into his eyes. His leg felt much worse after sleeping as the shock had mostly worn off by now. Checking his holocaster he saw that it was almost noon. “Surprisingly not bad,” he thought about the sleep he had, most likely because of the pure exhaustion of the day before. “Ok, now lets get out of here,” he said to himself as he pulled himself up onto his stiff leg. Putting weight on the injured leg shot a flood of pain up his back, “not right now apparently…” he looked around for some way that he would be able to get out of here.
Using a piece of one of the fallen trees rhyhorn had knocked down he fashioned himself a rudimentary crutch and got to his feet. It was going to be a long walk back to Scurarte town, this much was obvious.
    Approaching the middle of the battlefield he looked at the ball on the ground and wondered how he would get it, “Ace!?” As he called both Ace and Yami came from the forest together, Yami trailing behind him cackling as usual. “Can you toss that up to me buddy?” The scorbunny obliged and tossed the ball up with both hands to its trainer, who snagged it with his free hand and looked at it. “This guy is a monster, the kind of monster we are gonna need to take these gyms down,” he looked down at his partner who looked up at him, who looked a little worse for wear himself. Actually both Yami and Ace looked like they had terrible sleeps, Ace especially as his small nose was running before he wiped it off on his forearm.
    As he looked around to gather his bearings Lucas noticed something, a large rock covered in some sort of greenery. “Let’s check it out,” he crutched over to the rock with Ace at his side, _{“shit…”} he recognized it immediately. Ace looked up confused, “I have a pretty good idea why he was protectin’ this place…” he said quietly to his partner, who watched him with curious eyes. Leaning on the crutch he leaned down and wiped the moss away.

    It wasn’t a rock at all, it was a rhyhorn skull. Still and silent, dead. Lucas closed his eyes as they welled up, “he was just protecting his family. Even after they were gone.” He thought about his own family, and understood why the rhyhorn fought so hard. Putting his hands together in the crutch he closed his eyes and said a prayer for the rhyhorn in his head. Wishing it a peaceful rest.
    Reaching back he felt the ball in its slot. “What am I doing…” he thought about releasing it back, letting them be together. Pulling the ball out he tossed it on the ground next to him. The rhyhorn flashed out before spasming from the paralysis. It snorted wildly as Ace and Yami cowered behind Lucas, who turned to him. “I’m sorry we disturbed you. I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I lost my family.” The rhyhorns eyes shook as it looked at Lucas. Before they slowed and the rhyhorn looked to the ground. Lucas reached out and patted him on the crown. “You don’t have to come with us if you don’t want. But you can’t terrorize these guys either,” he said as he waved to the forest with his free hand, “you’re strong, I saw that, you took out half my team.” He still wasn’t sure if pokemon could understand him, but a tear rolled down his cheek, overcome with the emotion of the trip, of the battle, of this realization. “But we could use someone strong like you. Say goodbye, and let’s get out of here, we have lots more to do in this world buddy.” He stepped back from the stone and let the rhyhorn get past.
    The pokemon slowly moved past, still in the grips of the paralysis he approached the stone and huffed a breath out. Lucas watched and Ace peeked out from behind his trainer. The rhyhorn touched its crown with the fallen one’s crown before it sniffed back what seemed to be tears. And then it stood there, touching the crown of its fallen family member. Lucas empathized with the pokemon, he was glad it wasn’t rampaging as it had been before.

    The pause lasted quite some time. Lucas inhaled a deep breath in his nose as he knew they couldn’t wait forever. “Cmon guys lets go,” he said quietly and began to crutch away from the stone that the rhyhorn was still head to head with. The three made their way off away from the skull towards the way they’d originally come in.
    A loud grunt came from behind and Lucas was prepared to fight. He couldn’t get out of the way, if this thing charged him it was over. He turned and saw that the rhyhorn was standing in the centre of the battlefield, with his head held high and proud. Lucas smiled at him, his own face worn down from the trip, rings under his lidded eyes red from tears, “you comin?” The rhyhorn looked at his trainer with determined eyes. Pulling the ball from its slot he reached out and the red tendril of energy sucked up the mighty ground type. “You guys too, let’s go,” he returned both other pokemon to their balls before making for the pathway he’d come in on.

    As he set off out of the forest his holocaster buzzed, it was a text back from his dad for his earlier text, "Thanks for what Luke?" He smiled as he keyed in a response, beginning to tell him of his journey as he walked. It was going to be a long trip home…

-- Until next time --

Wordcount - 1,435

[Revelation]

Thank you for your patience. Your topic has been evaluated!

RP said:

• Alright, here we go again!
• Okay, good, learning there’s more than just power.
• Gosh dang it, I want to visit these locations. They sound so fun.
• Oh boy, that’s actually a touching moment there.
• Ah, battle time!
• That was… a bit one-sided?
• OOF. That poor gligar was just existing.
• Is there a Godai version of the Geneva Convention?
• That rhyhorn is putting in work!
• Aw, what a lovely way to tie that back to the emotional start of the topic
  

Topic said:

• Lucas is in Acrelea Valley!
• Lucas has a fond memory!
• Ace beats Noibat! (+5 EXP)
• Yami maliciously beats Gligar! (+9 EXP)
• Petra is unconscious and unable to be used until treated at a Pokemon Center!
• Anton unconscious and unable to be used until treated at a Pokemon Center!
• Rhyhorn is captured! (-1 Pokeball)
• Ace needs to visit a Pokemon Center before being able to be used again! (See Wrap-Up)
• Lucas heads on his adventure!
  

Topic Evaluation
Lucas Albrecht TAT: Making Friends: 5 AP To Be The Best: 6 AP Nursing: 5 AP Dedication: 5 AP	Topic: 14 EXP Evaluation: 14 EXP Total: 28 EXP	Dians: 2316	Bonuses: N/A Penalties: N/A

SPOILER: Click to show {Evaluation Wrap-Up} Hey Sublimity! By now you are more than familiar with my evaluation process, so it’s go time. First of all, I want to say that I appreciate the consistency you keep with your strengths. Settings are described well, the battles are pretty good, and I like the personification of Lucas. This thread shows some growth that I really like and was not expecting yet, honestly! Showing more on the emotions of Lucas was good, and I appreciated seeing the impact the memory with his dad had on him. I also like how that is tied into the end with the rhyhorn. Also, Lucas wasn’t the only one to become more complex. Yami’s characterization was quite well, and I enjoyed the fact that she didn’t immediately listen to her trainer’s every command. These were great strengths and something I want you to build more off of, but I’ll get to that in a bit. Now, there is a bit of a flip side to Yami unfortunately. I was a bit disappointed with Anton and Patra. Those were antagonistic pokemon who were not caught in the best manner, and then when they were used they were missing a lot of their personalities. There was a bit of a mention of Anton’s protective instincts, which helped prevent this slipping into a penalty warning, but otherwise they were just obedient pokemon. This is particularly an issue because we were never really shown Lucas bonding with them or learning about them. How does he automatically know their movesets, and how are they automatically listening to him? Pokeballs do make them a bit more docile, but there still is no trust built up that the audience has seen. I’ve been relaxed on this before because Ace is your starter and Yami was a friendly capture, so that was fine, but these two would not be just ready to listen, or even know how, immediately. This brings me to something else we need to discuss. Here on Godai, we have a nickname for a particular type of thread: ABL (Arrive Battle Leave). These are threads we generally recommend people avoid, and I think you might be beginning to fall into that with the last couple of threads. These threads have been good, but there hasn’t really been anything besides battles. I know you’re wanting the traditional protagonist experience, which is fine, but think about how the anime goes with Ash generally. He has both friends and rivals that he constantly is in contact with in some way. Every episode, there’s some sort of miniature plot or setback that he has to overcome. Seeing more of things like that would go a huge way in expanding and deepening your story. The flashback to camping in this thread was a great example of that, as was the call with Claus two threads back! There’s been little bits of that here and there, but seeing more would be great. Heck, we are four threads into Lucas’ journey and we have not even seen him directly encounter another trainer yet. Not even battle, but just talk to one. Finally, just a quick note: due to the amount of battles had, as well as the onset of pokerus that Ace is experiencing, I had to mark him as unable to battle until he gets treatment. If it wasn’t for the virus, he could probably go a slight bit more due to the potion, but the illness would just be a bit too much to take up along with all the fights. Also, I did lower the EXP just a bit, due to the short and quick nature of it. Not that you did anything wrong with it, but it was a short and repetitive fight, so not a lot for Ace to learn from it. That’s it! It was a good thread overall, just like I expect from you at this point. I just think there’s a few things that need tweaking, and beyond that there is room for new growth moving forward. I look forward to seeing how Lucas progresses!

Note: Bonuses/Penalties have already been calculated into your rewards!