"All due respect Steven, you have the gall to cause madness in the mines and just run off? Do you have any idea how hard it was to stop the Onix and Graveler from busting peoples' heads open?"

As expected, Roark was furious when he found them. He was still dressed in miner's clothing-- not that he's usually seen wearing anything else usually, but his soot-covered figure probably means he was in the middle of mining work, not Gym work.

Steven just laughs. "I'll leave on my Metagross to not be a menace to society! Promise."

"And leave me with all the interviews trying to figure out where you went? Forget it," Roark grumbles, arms crossed.

Luce stays in his spot, watching the exchange with mild amusement.

"And you. Luce, am I right?" Roark suddenly turns his attention to the boy, who straightens nervously, incubator in his arms. Roark scrutinizes him, up and down, a few times-- before, "okay, you don't seem injured. I don't know how serious Gardenia was about you kids being reckless Tauros against a set of red carpets."

(Did she seriously call every gym leader to ask to babysit?)

"Don't hound the kid, he helped me out, you know?" Steven comes up to him, "we dismissed the Machamp a while ago and hey, I've never seen a Machamp so reluctant to leave. Being loved by Pokemon's a hallmark of a great trainer, you know?"

Luce instinctively grimaced.

Can't he just be loved by Pokemon in peace? (Though if they were a little less like fussy mommies it would be nice.)

"That is exactly why I'm worried, Steven," Roark says, irritated in the way only longtime friends could heatlessly be against each other.

Luce briefly considered the casual way Steven had an elbow rested upon Roark's shoulder, and decided he was fascinated. Monferno cheers as it leaps from Luce's shoulders to grab onto Beldum in mid air.

The Beldum fluters, panics, nearly somersaults by accident-- but in a shaky, carefully droop-- it began to rise and regain its altitude, gainins a balance as Monferno beams. They then began a slow ride across the rooftop on the Beldum go-kart, and Luce wonders if it's fine to just let them drift around.

"It's not as if I don't get you, but it's better to just let things flow."

"Like you guys did? Come on Steven."

"Low blow."

"You walked into it and now you're complaining?"

Roark frowns at the rock-collector (who actually turns away with some semblance of a slightly guilty pout, but maybe that was Luce's imagination?) and turns to Luce.

"Anyways-- I'm Roark. Gym Leader of Oreburgh, it's nice to meet you. I heard you're here with Barry?" the man extends a hand to shake, but Luce only takes it for a moment before Roark asks piercingly, "so what's with you ditching him last time?"

(Tact! This man has zero tact! No mercy! At all!)

Luce doubles over in agony, clenching his heart.

(It's super effective! Luce takes 99pts of damage!)

"I'm sorry," Steven walks up to Luce, almost sympathetically patting him on the shoulder. "I promise he's usually nicer than this."

Luce doesn't know if he can believe that right now.

-

"Ehh, they're out of rooms?!"

Luce finally parts from Steven and Roark and returns to the Pokemon Centre-- only to find sheer chaos at the lobby.

"Yes, we're really sorry," the Nurse Joy bows in apology, "the Pokemon Center will still attempt to acquire accommodations for all the trainers here. The Grand Oreburgh Hotel and Oreburgh Inn still have a number of rooms left--"

"But we'll have to at least partially foot the bill, won't we..."

"We're really sorry for the inconvenience. Oreburgh City is really overpopulated today."

Luce can just imagine Roark giving Steven one hell of an earful, but he staves off that thought to turn his attention to the girl at the counter.

Dawn looked honestly troubled. From her muddied clothing, she had just gone through one hell of a trek and was in dire need of a proper bath and bed. From all the used Poke Balls at her belt-- she was probably also out of cash.

Monferno notices her too, cheerfully yipping before rushing forward.

With a sigh, Luce retrieves his notepad, beginning to write.

"Luce!" Dawn's already rushing over by the time Luce finishes writing, and Monferno is around her shoulder. "I'm happy to see that your Chimchar evolved. He looks really cool! Oh is that an egg? Where'd you get it?"

-

"Ahh, you really saved me!" Dawn cheers, entering Luce and Barry's shared room. "Are you sure Barry won't mind?"

Well, if he had any complaints, it's his fault for not being here while the decision was made. Luce sets the egg down at the desk and takes Dawn's coat from her as she thanks him, letting out her pokemon.

She had already sent about half a dozen pokemon to the professor with the Transfer system, so these were the only ones she was keeping on her team, apparently.

"I'll introduce you. This is Bonsai, Tempest, and this baby here is Kazza," she holds up an Abra at the last part. "I traded for him with someone just today! Isn't he adorable?"

Well, they all are.

Luce smiles at Abra, double high-fives the overexcited Shinx, and rubs Turtwig on the head. Meanwhile, Monferno carefully, warily, approaches the Abra-- and hisses at it, but the Abra only stares back, confused.

Luce lets Psyduck out to play, introducing her to everyone else, writing down her nickname and Monferno's on his notes so Dawn knows how to address them.

"Ohh, that's so nice! I wanted to catch a Psyduck so bad, couldn't find any," Dawn fawns at it as Psyduck stares at Turtwig in tired synergy. Behind them, Monferno and Shinx are screeching in excitement, chasing each other across the room.

"[I was looking for an Abra,]" Luce writes, chuckling at the irony.

At that, Dawn's eyes sparkle a little, hurriedly setting down Abra and signing back. Her moves are clumsy and she takes moments in between to remember the next sign, but Luce gathers easily that she's saying, "I could help you find one."

Luce is still too in awe of her actually managing a sentence to respond with anything except a "thank you" a few too many times. He barely remembers to clarify that it was fine he didn't have one-- he had Psyduck and that was enough for him.

Dawn giggles, "I'm still bad at it! But I'm practicing," she says, resolutely. "But if you're not getting an Abra, one day when Kazza evolves, we can try communicating?"

Luce tries to hide his grimace. He's had quite an experience with Kadabra lately.

But he signs out a "sure" if only to see that enthused smile bloom onto Dawn's face. She scoops up Abra, who is very startled, and starts cheering, swinging him around.

And then she starts telling him about her journey here.

She was catching every Pokemon in a serious attempt to fill the pages of the encyclopedia. They exchange Pokedex data, and Luce is baffled to see the great numbers fill his pages so easily. It sure was convenient.

Abra approaches the egg curiously, and Monferno starts hissing at him, curling arms protectively around the egg. Psyduck sighs at the sight, and when Turtwig and Shinx look at it, she seems to start explaining the situation, and the other Pokemon nod wisely.

Abra still looks confused, and Turtwig eventually has to orchestrate a sort of shake-hands-and-be-friends ceremony between them, though Monferno is visibly reluctant.

"A bike? For me??" Dawn is flabbergasted, "but why?"

Luce snorts, "dunno."

Luce tells her, bit by bit, about the trip they had in Eterna, pausing every alternate moment to write down the signs Dawn didn't know. It was a blessing that Luce was patient, unlike Barry, so their conversation dragged on as Dawn unpacked, gathered her toiletries, and Luce walked her to the Pokemon Centre baths.

Luce waits outside with the rest of the Pokemon, enjoying the way Shinx and Monferno fight over who gets which lap while Abra confidently claims the center. Psyduck leans on his back, snoring lightly, and Turtwig seemed to favour crawling under a hand and just sprawling out like that.

Spending time with Dawn was surprisingly fun on its own.

-

Barry comes back late, horribly disheveled, and probably needing a hospital.

"Hey Luce! Wanna hear about the tenth male Combee I found?" Barry immediately pipes up, still heavily leaning on Ponyta as a crutch, Luce is not missing the many bite wounds on his hands, several taped down with band-aids and a few more airing because there were just too many. "Oh and! I also found a Technical Ma– eep."

Luce had his arms crossed, his gaze turned down, his eyes flaring up with irritation.

It was one thing for Luce to get injured– another thing entirely for Barry to get injured. Either way, the immediate response from both best friends was pretty much the same: anger.

He raises one arm for a curt, very fierce word– "explain."

And Barry immediately straightens, "okay don't get mad," he starts, frantic, "I was genuinely going to take it easy. Seriously I was. And then this Sableye hijacked my rope and–"

Luce sighs.

Barry yelps and tucks himself a little further behind the Ponyta. "Well, you were reckless before too, so this is even?" he tries.

Luce gives him the look of actual death and Barry hurriedly shrinks, biding his life.

"Really sorry about it," the Hiker that escorted him back to town says. "We already got him checked by one of us that's a doctor, but you'll have to ask the Center if they've got proper dressings."

"Yeah, that's right!" Barry says, recovering quickly, "I'll head on in to get myself some nursing! Bye–"

"Hold it right there, you punk," Dawn interrupts, when the hell did she get here, "the Center's packed so it'll take forever. I've got some in my bag, that's enough."

"Urk, what're you doing here, Dawn?" Barry turns to her, slightly disgusted.

"Getting ready to bash your head in with my fist, depending on how long it takes for you to wipe that face off," she says. "Seriously, what is wrong with you two? Pokemon Journeys aren't supposed to be this dangerous!"

(It kind of is when you're the hero of the story, but Luce will withhold that information.)

"Come on, we're going to the room!" Dawn declares, grabbing Barry by the relatively less injured arm. "Luce, take the Pokemon."

"Wha– why are you leading me there? Did you not get your own room?!"

Luce sighs as they go, turning to the Hiker and bowing apologetically, and gratefully.

"[Thanks for the help. I'm sure he was a handful,]" he lifts his notebook.

"Ah, it's no problem. In fact, he even helped a little girl out of there. So go easy on him, please?" the Hiker chuckles, and Luce nods.

Dawn had hustled him in with Turtwig as a foot wheel, so the other Pokemon were left out. Luce crouches down just in time for Prinplup to slump right into his arms.

He returns the penguin to its Poke Ball, feeling Starly come to rest on his shoulder while Ponyta curiously picks at his hat.

...Ponyta.

(Oh no, we have to return you to your rental!)

Monferno hops onto Ponyta's back with a cheerful laugh, the egg incubator between them, cradled carefully. Psyduck stepped over to take Prinplup's Poke Ball, Starly jumping over to perch on her head so Luce could focus on wrestling his hat back.

"Take them in," he signs to his Psyduck, and then tries to figure out what to do with the Ponyta. Monferno and Ponyta were fast friends, cheering and chatting about the egg, and Monferno displaying it like it was the coolest thing in the world.

Well, he guesses they wouldn't mind if he returned it late? What's the worst that could happen anyways?

-

(The Ponyta got attached and now didn't want to go home. The rental relented and allowed Barry to capture it instead-- it worked fine because this was a misbehaving Ponyta anyway, and it's always better to respect the Pokemon's own wishes when it came to work like this.)

(Barry blames Luce for this, but everyone knows it's Barry's fault.)

-

-

-

"They're both down to one Pokemon each! Gym Challenger Luce and his Psyduck– Gym Leader Roark and his Cranidos! Cranidos has burrowed itself into the ground once more, is this the end?"

That announcer is surprisingly distracting.

Psyducks stands, battered, in the center of the field. Two more hits would take it down, even with the type advantage, and Cranidos was really abusing that Dig.

The Soothe Bell couldn't really be heard over the cheers of the crowd and the microphone, so Psyduck was frantically looking back just in case Luce gave a new order. It was so frustrating to not be able to leave the Trainer stand.

"C'mon, Luce! Just a little more, knock-'em dead!" Dawn yells from the audience stands.

She's echoed immediately by Barry, who adds that, "if you lose this, you're getting fined your entire life savings I tell you!"

Luce is a little embarrassed. Very. Ugh.

But alright– Luce was the best player of the waiting game. He signs out his next order to Psyduck, and takes out a whistle from his pocket.

"You've got some loud friends," Roark chuckles fondly, and Luce thinks he might just curl up and die of embarrassment. "Too bad."

The dirt shuffles behind Psyduck, and Luce immediately, with all of his lung capacity– blows the whistle, eliciting a sharp, shrill shriek. The noise goes beyond even the microphone and the cheering crowd, and everything halts in sheer horror, enabling a moment of silence just before the Pokemon hit each other.

Psyduck spins right around in time for Cranidos to emerge from the ground– and Psyduck throws up a translucent wall, scraping right by with just a hard knock.

Roark gapes, "it knows Protect?!"

Psyduck doesn't stop there. Her eyes gleam, and she holds her head, wailing out sharply– Cranidos freezes mid-step, flinching back in locked form.

"And that's Confusion!" Barry cheers, holding onto the Pokemon Egg. Beside them, Prinplup leans over the stands, absorbed in the battle. "She's getting good at it!"

"See that, Kazza," Dawn turns to the Abra in her lap, "that's a move you're going to want to learn soon."

"Water," Luce signs, and then, "go all out!"

And Psyduck obeys, leaping forth– and then, a vortex of water gushes forth, spiraling right into Cranidos' figure, sending it flying to the far wall.

Roark gawks for a horrified moment, "and now it's Water Pulse... What is with that Psyduck? Is it supposed to have these moves?"

"The match is over!" Gym guide Jim calls out. "Leader Roark is out of Pokemon. Challenger Luce is the victor of the match!"

The crowd roars into cheers, the loudest of which are Barry and Dawn in the front of the gallery.

Luce hurries onto the field, his Psyduck waddling over with an irritated huff before bonking headfirst into a knee, asking to return to her Poke Ball. With a laugh he picks her up, elated by her efforts.

"Well," Roark sighs, meeting the challenger in the middle of the field, retrieving his Cranidos. "I guess I've lost. Here you go."

Luce squeaks for a second, fumbling as he returns Psyduck to her ball– huh what do you mean no? You want to stay like this?-- before giving up and receiving the badge in one barely free hand.

It's a little rude, so Luce bows deeply in gratitude.

"Ah, no it's fine," Roark smiles. "I was rude to you yesterday as well. I apologize for that."

Luce sputters, unable to say anything to that and not having a free hand to indicate his words either– but by then, Barry and Dawn have managed to run down onto the field, jumping onto him with a congratulatory hug.

Roark huffs at the sight.

Abra was holding the egg now, and Barry had thrown an arm roughly over a shoulder. Ponyta was beside him, being used as a crutch to get this far. Dawn was clinging onto Luce's arm, fighting for attention, and Psyduck looked like it was getting annoyed by the jostling. Prinplup was lagging behind, trying to catch up. Turtwig was even further back, and Shinx was scurrying between them, the fastest of them all cheering on the slower ones like a cheerleader.

"You guys seem like good friends," Roark deems, catching their attention. "Were you two in a quarrel last time or something?"

At that, Luce and Barry sputter at the same time, "well, that was–!!"

Dawn smirks, "Well, you know what they say," she chuckles, "the closer they are, the more they quarrel!"

"Now you just sound jealous," Barry accuses.

"Wha–" Dawn fumbles, "that's out of nowhere! And enough clinging to him, I'm the one that gave him the whistle! I'm integral to his victory!"

"I'm the one that drilled battle tactics into my best friend," Barry sneers.

Luce looks between them in defeat. Psyduck jumps off him to go rest Turtwig the moving pillow instead, so now his friends had one of his arms each. He glances toward Roark for help, and the Gym Leader just bursts out laughing.

"You guys are hilarious, I swear!"

Luce couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.

-

"So Luce's is red," Dawn pastes the name sticker onto the side of the bike, "and I'll take the blue one over here... and finally, Barry's."

Barry's bike was green.

"There! Now we're a trio," she grins.

Barry was still glaring at his Pokedex, which was orange but pasted over with so many stickers of the green variety that you could barely see the orange under it anymore. His Poketch was in the same state, albeit with smaller stickers.

"Where did you even get this many?" Barry wonders, exasperated.

"I have my ways," Dawn says, retrieving two Ball Capsules from her bag. "And these are for you guys!"

Luce takes it, recognizing it with fascination. Roark had one too, one that unleashed a clod of dark smoke when he released his Cranidos. For Gym Leaders specifically, they were required to indicate the ace of their party– but for civilians and trainers, it was just becoming more common as a statement of experience.

"I don't need it," Barry says.

"Now don't say that, here's a Foamy Seal," Dawn somehow already had Prinplup's Poke Ball in her hands, pasting the seal onto the front. "He'll look really cool when you let him out! Riiight Admiral, don't you wanna look cool?"

Prinplup stares at her with a sparkling eagerness.

Monferno climbs onto Luce's shoulder, looking at the Ball Capsule with a Fire Seal with interest.

Dawn holds up her own, with a Floral Seal.

"You don't have to match us up in everything we do," Barry says, a little annoyed. But he wasn't going to be taking any of this off anything soon, if his behaviour of safely tucking it away was any indicator.

"But it's fun," Dawn beams. "Right, Luce?"

Luce nods.

Well, it kind of was fun to colour code everything like this. They had parallels, and that was already a given seeing as the three of them were designed to be a set to begin with. Plus Barry was the one that started the colour coding system between them– might as well go all out on it.

"Geez, you two are such children," Barry mutters.

-

"Well, it looks like you got the free bike just fine," Roark observes with amusement, when he finds them at the Cycling Path.

"Well, a lot happened..." Barry chortles dryly. "Thanks so much for it!"

"You guys are Pokedex Holders and all, so I guess that can't be helped," Roark sighs. "Trouble always seems to find you guys somehow."

Barry and Luce simultaneously groan. Dawn looks between them, not so sure what they were talking about.

"Anyways, I forgot something last time," Roark says, fumbling around his pockets.

"If you're giving us something to help us on our journey please don't," Barry says, "If I get any more random gifts from people I might just let Spitfire burn it."

Roark pauses halfway through handing off a letter with surprise.

"Well, uh," he shrugs, "tough luck. I'll just give it to Luce instead," and Luce actually takes the letter. "If you guys are headed to Eterna anytime soon, there's a guy called the Underground Man..."

"The Underground!" Barry cheers, "I've heard stories about it oh Arcy you're introducing us to the Underground Man?!"

And all of a sudden Barry was the most enthusiastic person in the group.

Roark sighs fondly. "It's a general right usually reserved for veteran trainers or those with four-badges and above– but you've got Pokedexes, so you've kind of got an extra privilege."

"May Arceus forbid this not the damn Pokedexes again!"

"...is he okay?" Roark has to ask, when Barry goes screaming into the distance, Monferno curiously imitating his exclamation into the mountains.

Dawn and Luce shake their heads in unison.

"I'll be headed that way, so I'll make full use of it!" Dawn beams, bowing deeply, "thanks so much, Mister Roark!"

"Well, as long as you can make use of it and you're all careful," Roark says. "Take care, alright? I don't want my next rumour of you guys to be any more injuries or unnecessarily heroic endeavour anymore, you hear me?"

"We'll try, Mister Roark!"