Lisa the Legend: Chapter 82 - Last Night on Earth now up! (24th June 2013)

[Gavin Luper]

Brian: Thanks for the quick read and reply, as always. You're right in seeing that this chapter didn't have much by the way of plot progression. As far as I could see, everyone would be completely bombarded by the sheer volume of information revealed in Chapter 58 - from every angle, it seemed a wise move not to keep throwing out the high-intensity revelations, especially seeing as this was the summing-up chapter of the book. The conflict and the climax have already passed: Chapter 59 was the resolution, the tying-up of things for the time being - and as you said, it serves to bridge the gap from the hospital awakening to the departure from Mt Fairfax. I couldn't end my entire book on Chapter 58 - it didn't feel right or complete enough - so this was essentially a closing chapter, a short bridging chapter to book III. I'm glad you liked seeing Gavin again - he and Lisa haven't been together for a few chapters now - and I'm pleased that the end sequence with Paddy and the helicopters was effective, as it initially seemed a little bumpy to me.

Everyone: Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year's celebrations! The contents page and book titles I promised before Christmas are on hold - I've had a change of heart with the titles, and I've got to decide which ones suit best.

I've had my post-book II rest now and I'm back working away at Book III. It's a mixture of the older LTL style merged with the new direction that Behind the Glass and Burnt Sunset began to take, and I hope you all like it when the first chapter comes along. In the meantime, if there's any more feedback from Chapter 59 and Book II, please let me know! Only having heard one response from readers makes me unsure whether you found the conclusion good or terrible, whether you like what has happened to Lisa or not, or what criticisms and advice you have for the whole fic and my writing! I really love to hear it, and it's the only way I grow as a writer, so feedback is much appreciated.

Cheers!

- Gavin.

[Master Kirby]

I think it makes sense not to end the book with an action packed chapter that changes a lot of things. By just concluding the events from Chap. 58 you place the book in a good place where you could leave it for a while until the next book comes around. If this was a published book, this kind of ending would make sense.

War has been declared on the Union, Lisa is on her way to the hospital, and we are waiting to see what will happen next. At this point you could even pull off a "One Month Later" opening to the next book if you wanted to, and it would still fit well. The future is wide open, with many possible directions to direct the plot. Now it is up to you to take us there.

You have done a great job keeping us interested in the first two books since you started years ago, and I'm sure you will continue to do so. LTL is probably the biggest reason I am still here at TPM. Good luck on the next chapter, and the final book. We'll probably all be old an have our own kids by the time you finish it, but thats OK! The purpose of a Fic like this shouldn't be in reaching The End. The fun comes from just learning how we get to that point.

[Sike Saner]

……………WHY did I not read this sooner?! D:

Well, at least I finally have, and damn, am I glad I did. o.o Best…*thinks a moment*…sixteen-or-so non-consecutive hours I’ve spent in a while. There’s just a hell of a lot to like about this, not the least of which are the terrific suspense and a plot that has steadily grown deeper and more engrossing as it’s progressed.

I love all the surprises; Gavin’s “baby Lugia” turning out to be a Ditto, Morty turning out to be part of the Union, and Lisa’s parents turning out to have been with the Guard were among my favorite moments. Characterization is strong and emotions are very adroitly depicted, particularly in the later chapters. AND THE ORIGINAL POKÉMON! =D Yes, I’m very much a fan of seeing new Pokémon in fanfiction, and the ones here are pretty boss. I especially like Lunanine and Issechu. ^^

I’m quite fond of the darker, more complex turn the story has taken; I love dark fanfiction in general, and muchly. But I’ve enjoyed the lighter side of this fic, too; in addition to the nice, tasty action, suspense, and tragedy, there’s also been some great, humorous moments. Issechu being used as a gun…the “Incredible Bouncing Furret”…the “suite”/“sweet” mix-up…classic stuff. ^^


Simply put, this is a damned good story. I will most certainly be back for more; until then, boss work so far. *salutes*

[Gavin Luper]

Hey everyone!

Master Kirby: Hi again. Thanks for the reply; I'm glad you thought this chapter fitted into the scheme of things, I certainly hoped it would be viewed as such. Thanks very, very much for your continued readership - hearing that people have enjoyed the chapters makes it very rewarding to still be writing LTL after so long. I'll keep churning out the best chapters I can so that, hopefully, we'll all still be under 50 by the time I finish Book III. Oh, and one more thing, I sometimes wonder if you might possess some kind of psychic ability ...

Sike Saner: ^^ G'day! Thanks for reading - I'm impressed that it only took you sixteen hours (Only?!) to read the whole fic, I know it would take me much longer than that to wade through all those chapters! I'm glad you like this, especially that you like the deeper twists the plot has taken as well as it's light moments - thanks for the comments on Lunanine and Issechu, too. There's going to be at least one new original pokémon coming up in Book III, hopefully you like that one as well! Hope to see you next chapter!

Everyone: Well, I'm pretty stoked at the moment. The results for the 2007 Silver Pencil Awards were just announced and Lisa the Legend took home an astounding EIGHT awards, thus earning me the Awards Award as well! The awards LTL won were:

- Best Fiction Overall
- Best Action
- Best Plot
- Most Suspenseful Moment (The Beginning of the War)
- Most Emotional Moment (Ryan and Maria revealing the Truth)
- Best Chapter (Chapter 58 – Behind the Glass)
- Best Character in a Leading Role (Lisa Walters)
- Best Villain (Joseph Sterling)

Thanks muchly to everyone who nominated and/or voted for me and LTL in the awards! I'm very grateful.



Now for a progress update: The next chapter is coming along well! I've pretty much finished it, it just needs a few things altered and a couple of problems ironed out before it's ready to post. Shouldn't be too much longer now.

On a side note, I remember someone asking a while back who was on Gavin's team now, as there have been a few changes in the past. Seeing as smilies are enabled now that we're back on the vB (though only 10 per post), I thought I'd list which pokémon are known to be on the main characters' teams as of the end of Book II to make it clear - so here goes:

Lisa Walters:
Aipom, male
Vulpix, female
Electabuzz, male
Dratini, male
Fiskmire, male [original]

Gavin Luper:
Natu, male
Skarmory, male
Seel, male
Girafury, male [original]
Staryu [Temporarily stored with Walters family.]
Lanturn, male, green [Temporarily stored with Walters family.]
Ditto [Temporarily given to Wesley Walters.]

Marina Frost:
Golduck, male
Tentacraw, male [original]
Mudkip, male
Starmie
Kingler, male
Bayleef, "Herby", female

Darius Hudson:
Dragonair, male
Stantler, male

Wesley Walters:
Omanyte
Ditto [Temporarily given to him from Gavin.]

Jean Walters:
Bulbasaur, male

I could go on ... but it would take too long; those characters should do for the time being. I hope that clears things up!

I also have a contents page that I'm still working on: titles have never been my strong point, so it might take some time before I settle on a title for each of the three books of LTL.

*phew* That was a long post ... Anyway, Chapter 60 coming soon!

Cheers!

- Gavin.

[Gavin Luper]

G'day!

Here's Chapter 60, the beginning of Revelation, the third and final book of Lisa the Legend.

NB: The chapter title used to be 'Redwood City Blues', influenced by the Blondie song 'Union City Blue', because it seemed to fit at the time; but as I keep planning, it jars uncomfortably with the mood of the rest of the fic. So it's been renamed.

I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Cheers!

Lisa the Legend III: Revelation.

Chapter 60 – Letters.


The Richardson Ward of Redwood District Hospital had always been a place for strict routines. It was the ward designated exclusively for the care of long-term patients, and many of them liked to see a semblance of order and functionality about the place. Each morning, just as the sun crept over the low eastern hills, the kitchen ladies would bustle about the eight rooms of the ward, doling out cold toast and asking whether patients would prefer Weet-Bix or All-Bran. Each afternoon, right on one o’clock, the attending doctors could be seen gliding down the halls efficiently, slipping into each room for a minute or two and re-emerging with a sharp tap on their clipboards and a frown or a faint smile, depending on the progress of their patient. Each night, just as twilight descended upon Redwood City, a nurse would come around to the rooms to close the curtains for each patient.

Each night, without fail, seven of the patients would kindly thank the nurse and settle themselves in for a peaceful, secure night’s sleep.

And each night, without fail, the eighth patient would wait until the nurse had left the room before tossing back her covers, hobbling to her window and throwing it open again, sure that if she did not at least taste the outside world she would suffocate.

This patient was known under a number of guises by the hospital staff. The accounting staff knew her simply as patient number 03/09557. The kitchen ladies knew her as Room Four on Level Three. The attending doctors knew her as ‘the lung infection in 301-4’. Even the nurses, though they knew her real name, were more likely to refer to her amongst themselves as ‘that rude so-and-so’ or ‘that poor girl’, depending on their sentiments towards her. It was only the newest nurse of all, a young woman by the name of Emma Reid, who referred to the patient by name.

“ … so everything looks perfect, Lisa. Your phlegm is back to normal colour and your cough sounds much better. You’ll definitely be all right to leave tomorrow morning. Lisa? Lisa, are you even listening to me?”

Lisa Walters jerked her head up and glanced at her red-faced friend. Her mind had been a thousand miles away; she had been staring wistfully through the open window, down to the sweet-smelling gardens below, wishing she could leap outside and lay on the rolling lawns in the last rays of the sun. She had barely even noticed Emma enter the room, checking her specimen sample and altering dials on the bedside apparatus.

“Sorry Em, I was thinking … what’d you say?”

Emma put her hands on her hips and shook her head. A few weeks of working in a high-grade hospital had brought out her stricter side; it seemed to take her a second to overcome the urge to scold Lisa for her rudeness. “I said your phlegm is fine. There’s no sign of infection anymore.” A warm smile broke out over her freckled face. “You’re going home tomorrow!”

Out of this damn place at last!, thought Lisa. But for some reason she couldn’t get herself excited about the prospect of finally leaving the hospital. There had been so many false alarms over the past three weeks, so many delays and setbacks, that she no longer let herself become buoyed by the hope of leaving. When I’m actually outside the doors – THEN I’ll be excited.

She forced a smile for Emma. “Cool. Can’t wait.”

The auburn-haired nurse looked incredulous. “Um … calm yourself down, Lisa!” she said sardonically. She raised an eyebrow inquisitively. “Come on, you whinge to me every day how much you hate being here. You can’t pretend you’re not excited to be getting away at last!”

“If they actually let me leave tomorrow,” Lisa muttered. “If they don’t discover something else wrong with me that they need to keep me here for – again.”

Emma shrugged and rolled her eyes; she had heard Lisa’s laments many times before. “Well, whatever, Lisa. I’m not official – one of the doctors is doing rounds in about half an hour, and he or she will tell you for sure whether you’re going to be discharged. But there’s no way they can keep you here another day, you’re fine. At ten o’clock tomorrow morning you’ll be walking out those glass doors, I guarantee it.” She knelt down to adjust a lower setting on the piece of equipment by the bed. “Anyway, did your parents visit today?”

Lisa coughed. “Not today, no. Tom and Miki came but. And my friend Marina – remember, you met her last week?”

“Blue-hair-girl?”

“That’s her.”

“Right.” Emma returned to her feet and brushed her hands off. “How was your tea tonight?”

“Bleh. OK. Corned beef. It tasted like nothing. Still, better than actually having nothing.”

Emma laughed. “Well, I’m done here, Lisa.” She moved over to the window and pulled the glass panel down. “Anything else I can do for you?”

Lisa eyed the window longingly. “Um, actually, yeah. Could you leave the window open for me? I’m a bit warm, that’s all,” she lied. Though she and Emma had grown fairly close over the past weeks, she didn’t want to tell the truth about why she needed the window open at night.

Emma grinned and reopened the window. “Sure, no worries. Just remember to close it before you go to sleep, you know how people are with security at the moment.” She put on a serious voice and quoted one of the posters that had been put up all around the hospital. “All windows must be locked at night. Nobody should be in the grounds after dusk.” She frowned. “The worst thing is, they’re not overreacting … but on the third floor you should be pretty safe …” She trailed off. “Okay, I’m off, Leese. I’ll see you before you leave tomorrow, my shift starts at six. Have a good night, ay?”

“You too, Emma. Night.”

The door clicked shut behind Emma. Lisa listened out intently, her ears now well trained for hearing the disappearing footsteps of the nurses. When she was sure Emma had left the corridor, she threw the bedclothes back and crept toward the open window.

A cool autumn breeze ruffled the maroon velveteen curtains. Lisa stood at the window and placed her hands down on the wooden pane. The rush of fresh air in her face was like a drink of water on a hot summer’s day. She closed her eyes and felt her worries begin to slide away, felt her heart rate slow down to normal. She could smell something different on the air tonight, something mingled amid the strong honey scent of the golden wattles in the hospital gardens. It took her a few sniffs to realise what she could smell: it was the dewy scent of approaching rain.

She opened her eyes to inspect the world beyond the window. As always, the northern half of Redwood City was sprawled before her: a beautiful maze of tree-lined avenues and stately red brick houses. A prominent steeple in the centre of town indicated St Mark’s Cathedral; beside that lay the crystalline meanders of the Acacia River. Lisa thought this was the first big city she had seen that could rival Ecruteak in terms of beauty.

Hanging above the city, illuminated by the pinkish-blue haze of twilight, was a mess of ominous-looking clouds that did, indeed, promise rain on the horizon. Even as Lisa stood at the window, she heard a rumble or two in the sky above; barely five minutes later the first heavy drops of rain began to fall, spattering the window pane and the maroon curtains with water. She scowled at the sky before drawing the window closed in a huff.

She collapsed backwards on her bed and sighed. Just a few minutes each day, was that so much to ask? It felt like the world had been conspiring against her ever since she first set foot in the wretched place, a little over three weeks ago. As she, Gavin and the other patients had been wheeled down from the helipad, Emma had explained quite clearly that Lisa would only be kept in the hospital a few days, a week at the most. The bullet would be removed from her back immediately in a quick procedure and she would spend a few days recovering before going home. The operation itself went smoothly: Lisa had been under anaesthetic at the time and of course, remembered nothing of the operation other than a groggy, giddy sensation. But a whole host of complications had arisen post-surgery. It transpired that in the surgeon’s rush to treat all the victims of Mt Fairfax he had stitched up the wound quickly and poorly, and it had become infected, forcing Lisa to stay in the hospital for another week. Just as it seemed she was finally about to leave, the cough that had plagued her during her stay in hospital deteriorated into a lung infection, apparently as a direct result of smoke inhalation whilst she was down in the Sepulchre of Entei. It was then that she had been transferred to the Richardson Ward, where she had now spent more than a week.

As much as she hated being cooped up in her hospital bed, Lisa had to admit there were a few advantages to staying in the Richardson Ward. For one thing, it certainly had made her stay more comfortable: she had a soft bed, a colour television and the thing she most valued, her own space and privacy. The wards downstairs were white and cramped and there were constant battles with other patients to turn the volume on their television down. Here, as confined as it still was, Lisa at least had a bit of space to call her own – and she had certainly made the most of it.

She sat up on her bed and gazed around her room. It had a lived-in feel that Lisa didn’t think many hospital rooms had. The nightstand was cluttered with a mess of gifts – flowers, cards and the like – Lisa had received for her 15th birthday, which had been earlier in the week. Many of the cards and flowers, though, were accompanied not by birthday wishes but messages of ‘get well soon’, from the huge number of people who had come to see Lisa while she was in hospital. Not only did her parents drop by every second day, but also Tom, Miki, Wesley and Jean, as well as Daniel and Nova, and Lance and Darius and Azura and Marina – followed by members of the Guard Lisa barely knew, such as Jim Donovan and Derek, who she had met on Mt Fairfax, and Natalie, the woman Lisa had shared a ward with after the Union’s attack. At first Lisa had found all the attention stifling, and she grew resentful of having to retell her story time and again when she was so sick of hearing it herself. But as the weeks dragged on and the visitors slowed to a trickle, she began to despise the isolation of her hospital room. She felt her heart leap whenever one of her friends came by to wish her well. And the time between visits seemed to stretch forever – gaping chasms of loneliness where she would lay by herself, staring blankly at the television or curled up in an effort to get to sleep, so that she could dream of a world where she was not caught up in a war.

Even thinking of the war caused a whole torrent of emotions to pour over her. Fear, hopelessness, anger, terror, despair, detachment. They all blended into a horrible cocktail of cold, prickly discomfort; and the more time she spent alone, the more time she had to bathe in the horridness of it all.

It was three weeks into the war and the news was all bad. Not a single glimmer of hope had made itself known to the Guard. Not a single step of progress had been made. Lisa glanced across the room at the bench that ran the length of the far wall opposite her bed. It was almost hidden beneath the piles of old newspapers that her visitors had brought to keep her updated. With each day that passed, the war had gone from bad to worse. A glance at the headlines was all it took: March 7 – “Prof Oak Among Mountain Victims.” March 9 – “Govt Declares War on Terrorist Organisation.” March 10 – “Six Die in Hospital Attack.” March 11 – “Army To Guard All Public Institutions.” March 13 – “Battle Tower Destroyed, Union Claims Responsibility.” March 17 – “13 Dead as Army Counterattack Goes Awry.” March 25 – “18 Dead, 44 Injured in Goldenrod Bombs.” March 26 – “State of Emergency Declared Across Johto.”

Lisa stared emptily at the ceiling. The declaration of a state of emergency had come only two days ago. She hadn’t noticed much of a change at the hospital, but she had never really found the hospital to bear much resemblance to normal society. Hospitals across the province had already been given soldiers to guard them after the Union attacked Olivine’s hospital, killing six people; according to Lisa’s father, several convalescing Guard members had been targeted and killed in the attack. So for Lisa, the presence of khaki-clad soldiers patrolling the hospital was nothing new; the stories she heard from the others, however, suggested more widespread changes were taking place beyond Redwood District Hospital.

“We can’t visit you at night anymore,” Lisa’s mother had explained on Wednesday afternoon. “The Prime Minister declared a temporary state of emergency because of the Union’s attacks, and part of that is a curfew. We all have to be off the streets by eight o’clock. We’ll try to see you in the mornings instead, alright love?”

It scared Lisa how much the world had changed in the space of three short weeks. She couldn’t get her mind around the fact that the Union had wreaked so much havoc and caused such a powerful response from the government. She hadn’t heard of a ‘state of emergency’ before, but from her father’s explanations it sounded almost as scary as the threat posed by the Union themselves.

Perhaps the worst part about the state-of-emergency decree was that all non-Government approved associations had to be disbanded immediately. Dad had explained that that obviously included the Guard, and since Lance and the others had no intention of ever dissolving the Guard or giving up on their war against the Union, that meant all members of the Guard were now considered law-breakers. Lance had met with the Prime Minister’s secretary the day he declared war on the Union and tried to explain that the Guard and the government were fighting for the same thing, but to no avail. The government wanted things done their own way. They saw the Guard as an irritation, a distraction, because they had their own clandestine agenda in their pursuit of the Seven Keys. In the end, nothing had been resolved. Dad said that if the government caught a Guard member they would still imprison them for breaking the law, even though they were fighting on the same side. The whole thing made Lisa’s blood boil, but there was nothing she could do about it sitting around in her hospital room, which made her all the more frustrated with the world.

Two things had been getting her through the days. One was the time she spent alone by her open window at twilight, breathing in the cool night air and watching the beauty of the sunset. The second was her correspondence with Gavin.

He had been in the Richardson Ward since the first day they arrived in Redwood. He had suffered some internal bleeding as well as mild burns and the doctors already knew it would take him a long time to recover. When Lisa moved into the same ward she had made one disastrous attempt to visit him in room seven, three doors away, but the attending doctor had caught her out within seconds: the patients weren’t supposed to leave their rooms unless escorted by a hospital staff member.

They had instead resorted to letters to one another, delivered by their faithful pokémon, usually Natu, who could teleport from room to room, or Aipom, who was the fastest runner. Not a day passed when they didn’t write to each other. Aside from their first letters to each other, in which they had both admitted to feeling terribly lonely, worried and, in Gavin’s words, “like shit”, they had been remarkably upbeat letters. As much as she could find empathy with Darius and Marina, Lisa found that Gavin was the only one who had been through as much as she had in regards to the Union and the Legendaries – and that somehow pulled them much closer than before. Lisa knew that Gavin, like her, didn’t want to keep talking about the Legend and the war. Their letters were a little escape from what the world was becoming. They chatted about basketball and the latest trashy reality TV show that Gavin had seen that day, and how their pokémon were coping with being cooped up so much, and how bored they were, and how crap the hospital food was, and how one of the night nurses looked remarkably like Supernanny.

It was now, as Lisa lay listlessly on her bed, staring at the white ceiling and listening to the sharp rapping of the rain against the window, that she thought of writing to Gavin. With a great deal of effort she hauled herself up off the bed and plodded over to the bench. Clearing away a few old newspapers, she found a pen and the last sheet of paper she had swiped from the nurses’ station, tore it in half and began to write:

Hey Luper,

How was your day today? Did you watch Survivor: Orange Islands? I can’t believe Elaina broke the alliance, of all the people to do it! You always said she would betray them but I never believed you, spose you watch it more than I do … Anyway, I had a couple of visitors today, Marina dropped off The Lost Umbrellas’ new album, which is really really good, she lent me her discman so I could listen to it. ‘All Over’ and ‘Smoke and Fire’ and the best songs, if you want I can give the CD to you before I leave tomorrow, that is if you like that kind of music. Tom and Miki came around too, I think that thing you and me talked about might be true, but they didn’t announce anything, so I dunno. She does look a bit bigger though. Anyway, Emma was here a while ago and she told me I’m definite to go tomorrow, so hooray for that! IF I actually get out of here this time, that is … but I’m really hoping I do now. I don’t care if it’s raining tomorrow I just wanna get to the safe house that everyone keeps telling me about. Marina said it’s kind of rural which makes me think it’s huge, but Mum and Dad won’t tell me anything until we go there tomorrow. Ah well. I’ve only got this half a sheet left and I’ve almost run out of room now, stupid me for writing so big. Write back straightaway!

Lisa the Legend.

Lisa gave a devilish grin as she signed the note. She and Gavin had been signing their letters like that almost since they began. It had been Gavin who started it, mostly because of his own ego, she thought. He had seen a basketball game on TV, one of the finals between the Goldenrod Redbacks and the Cianwood Sharks, in which one of the players had pulled off an astounding three-pointer. The commentators went on and on about how great it was; Gavin had spent the next three letters trying to convince Lisa he had performed exactly the same shot thousands of times before, and it had earned him the name ‘The Great One’ with his school friends at the time. Lisa refused to believe him, saying that he was nothing special at basketball and she had much more experience, resulting in a series of fervent letters between them for a few days. Though they had both tired of the discussion long ago, Gavin still signed every letter as ‘Gavin the Great’.

Lisa mulled over her choice of name. A Legend was certainly superior to a Great. That would definitely be enough to get under Gavin’s skin. Besides, it seemed to have a bit of a ring to it.

She folded the letter in half; now for the tricky part. It was always easier when Gavin sent Natu with a letter, because they could teleport letters back and forth without being noticed by the nurses. But when she wanted to begin a correspondence she needed to send Aipom to venture forth into the hall, and that always posed a risk that they might be caught out.

“Go Aipom,” she said softly, once she had located Aipom’s pokéball beneath the pile of newspapers. The ball burst open and her purple, monkey-like pokémon bounced out, looking ecstatic to have been released from his cramped home.

“Ai ai ai ai pom!” he bellowed loudly.

“Ssssssssh!” hissed Lisa. “It’s night time, you moron! You have to be quiet!”

Aipom regarded her dubiously before fixing her with a very reproving glare. “Ai pom ai ai pom!” he said, a little more softly but with just as much indignation.

Lisa always found it odd when she met trainers who claimed they could understand every word their pokémon uttered to them, because she only heard a haphazard string of the syllables of her pokémons own name thrown at her. She was experienced at reading her pokémon’s body language and tone, not their actual words. Sure, she understood what he meant with short responses, when it came to simple things like ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘hungry’, ‘in pain’ and the like, but complex messages had never been her thing.

Now, however, she thought she understood completely for the first time what one of her pokémon was saying to her. Aipom was yelling at her for keeping him cooped up for so long. But he was also angry that the other four pokémon – his friends – were scarcely being released at all, only once a day for feeding.

“You’re right,” said Lisa, when he finished his rant. She felt a little shocked and wondered how she could possibly have neglected her pokémon for so long. Her mind had been solely on her welfare, how hard her life was at the moment; she had been so absorbed in her own misery that she hadn’t stopped to think her pokémon might also be affected by the great battle they bore witness to. “I’m really sorry. I know how all that feels, I really do.”

Aipom surveyed her closely. “ Ai?”

“Yeah, I’ve been stuck here for three weeks, haven’t I? I didn’t care for you guys like I should have been, and I’m sorry. Look, we’re getting out of here tomorrow anyway … from then on I’ll be taking care of you like I used to, OK?”

Aipom smiled in a way that Lisa had never seen before – he was being sympathetic. “Leeeeesa …” he cooed softly.

Lisa rubbed his head affectionately. “Thanks, Aipom. Now, the reason I actually got you out wasn’t to have a deep and meaningful, I’m afraid …”

A minute later, Aipom was crouching by the slightly open door, letter to Gavin grasped in his peculiar tail. Lisa could see shadows passing by in the corridor. He waited for about five minutes until the coast was clear, before nipping around the edge of the door and disappearing in a streak of purple.

And now I wait. Lisa didn’t think Aipom would be back very quickly. Gavin always seemed to take an age to write a response, even when Lisa instructed him to write back instantly; plus, there was always the chance that there would be too many nurses around in the corridor for Aipom to make his way safely back for some time.

Lisa took a hopeful glance toward the window but rain was still fiercely pelting against it. She drew the curtains dismally and fell back on her bed once again, to stare at the ceiling.

After nine days in room four of the Richardson Ward, Lisa knew the fine details of the ceiling like Gavin knew each and every contestant on Survivor. She knew that from one wall to the other there were exactly two hundred and eighty four lines running parallel to the wall and five hundred and twelve between the other two walls. She knew exactly where Fiskmire had been sitting when she gave him too much diet coke because there was now a small patch of brown by the air conditioning duct. And she also knew exactly where to look to find her unauthorised roommate: a small, unkillable black spider.

The spider had been there since Lisa was first shuffled into the room. It always appeared in the same place, creeping silently out from a crack in the cornice before merrily making a web in the apparent hope of catching a fly. Lisa had never been a fan of spiders, but after leaping through not one but two webs of agitated Spinarak, they didn’t bother her quite as much as they used to; plus, she didn’t mind having a form of company with her during the lonely days in the hospital. For this reason, she never asked the nurses to get rid of her eight-legged roommate.

She had discovered, though, that they didn’t need asking. A spider signified a lack of perfect standards in their hospital’s hygiene. Every time one of the nurses or doctors caught sight of the black spider they would invariably leap up on one of the guest chairs, reach out with any weapon they could find and try to squash their quarry. Interestingly, the spider had bested them for a good nine days: every time someone tried to kill it, it would hastily retreat into it’s safe little nook and wait there in hiding for a few hours before gingerly stepping out once more.

Now she found her friend perched on his long web, not too far from the diet coke stain. The nurses had left him alone for a couple of days now, maybe because they hadn’t noticed him or maybe because they had finally given up. Either way, the spider seemed to have become quite emboldened by this; he was now sitting out quite a long way from his home in the cornice, drawing in a recently-caught fly and probably, Lisa thought, feeling quite relieved to no longer be under constant attack.

The door creaked suddenly and she sat upright. A second later, Aipom scampered into the room, grinning and gambolling about the place, clearly enjoying being outside of his pokéball – but he carried no letter.

“What’s going on?” asked Lisa bemusedly. “Didn’t Gavin –”

She was cut off mid-sentence: there was an enormous flash of purple light in mid-air before her. As Lisa’s eyes recovered from the brightness she realised that a small, green-plumed bird had just appeared in the room, clutching a note in its beak.

“Natu!” she said. “That took me completely by surprise – I was expecting Aipom to deliver the letter.”

“Tuuuu,” cooed Natu jovially, fluttering over to Lisa’s shoulder and rubbing up against it. When Lisa had stroked him a few times, he opened his beak and she took the small piece of paper within:

Hey Lisa,

Elaina’s been angry at Steve and the girls since they took her make-up stash away, everyone knows that. It was a matter of time before she broke their pact. Hope she goes next time. As for The Lost Umbrellas, of course I’ll listen to it! Alternative girly rock is better than the crap they play on the hospital radio channel - a bunch of old people discussing gardening and playing the greatest hits of 1874! Drop it off to me before you leave tomorrow. And yeah, you WILL be leaving tomorrow. Emma told me you’re definitely going cause they have someone else coming in to take your room and everything. Yay for you, sucks for me, cause now I won’t have anyone to write to. I get another week watching my brain slowly disintegrate from lack of stimulation, hooray! Tom and Miki came to see me again today, too. I reckon she is, you can tell just looking at her, plus I think that might be why they put the wedding back. They’ll tell us anyway eventually, if it’s true. Anyway, I did sweet fuck all today – just for a change – let the pokémon out for a while this morning before the nurses came in – Natu and Girafury are fine, Seel, Staryu, Skarmory and that BLOODY Lanturn are getting pretty aggro. Lanturn tried to kill me again. Other than that, same old same old – watched CSI: Celadon this arvo, total crap compared to the original. But hey, what do I know, I watch Survivor!

By the way – ‘Lisa the Legend’, are you kidding me? At least ‘Gavin the Great’ is accurate. The last time we played I flogged you, Miss-I-Can’t-Help-It-I-Keep-Travelling-By-Accident. Try again next time.

Gavin the GreatEST!

PS: Call me ‘Luper’ again and I’ll break your CDs.

PPS: Make sure you come and see me tomorrow morning, I have to talk to you about something.

Lisa finished the letter with a flutter of surprise. What did Gavin have to say to her that he couldn’t say in a letter? It would be just like him to say something ridiculous like, “Lisa the Loser is more like it!” before dissolving into peals of laughter. But, then again, Lisa had never really been able to pick Gavin’s moods. He could be light-hearted and jovial one minute and become serious and surly the next, especially since his uncle died. He might really have something serious to talk about – but what on earth could it be?

She didn’t get a chance to think it through much further. There was a brisk, forceful knock at the door and an efficient voice said, “Evening rounds!”

Lisa heard the door creak open as one of the night nurses entered. There was a radiant flash of bluish light and Natu teleported back to Gavin’s room; Aipom leapt courageously from the foot of the bed to the ground and swiftly rolled beneath the mattress.

A doctor wearing a white coat strode in, clutching a silver chart.

“Good evening, Miss Walters,” she said briskly, placing the chart neatly on the foot of the bed and unfurling a stethoscope from around her neck.

“Evening, Doctor Rogers,” said Lisa with forced politeness; she didn’t really like Doctor Rogers. She had been the doctor who caught Lisa out in her botched attempt to visit Gavin and ever since then she had been less than cordial toward Lisa. Lisa didn’t really have much time for her, either: even if they hadn’t had their altercation, she doubted they would have got along well – Doctor Rogers was a picky creature, with a thousand opinions and a sharp nose that reminded Lisa of a Murkrow.

Doctor Rogers got straight down to business. After five minutes of prodding and poking Lisa’s tongue, checking her lungs with her stethoscope and scribbling away on her chart, she nodded satisfactorily. “Hmmm. Well, it looks like your lungs have finally cleared up. There’s no sign of any infection now, although it would have cleared up much earlier if you had stayed away from the dairy products like you had been instructed to.” Lisa scowled openly – she had eaten a chocolate bar given her by Marina a few days ago and Doctor Rogers had caught her; she had mentioned it at every check-up since. “Nonetheless, we don’t need you here any longer, you’d just be taking up space.”

Lisa ignored her. The doctor flipped a few pages on her silver chart and, unexpectedly, held it out toward Lisa.

“What?” she asked rudely.

Doctor Rogers looked down her pointy nose reprovingly. “You need to sign this discharge form,” she said crisply, brandishing a pen impatiently before Lisa’s eyes. “You sign in this box here – your parents can countersign tomorrow morning when they pick you up. I’ve already signed it.”

Lisa took the chart and pen and signed the box in mild amazement. This had never happened before. “So I’m really going?”

Doctor Rogers scrutinised the form closely. “Your ‘W’ went outside the box … Yes, of course you’re going!”

Lisa had heard this all before, from Emma and Gavin, but somehow it had much more weight now that she had actually signed the discharge papers. A forgotten feeling fluttered gingerly back into her heart.

Doctor Rogers tapped her chart. “Well, that’s all, Miss Walters. You will need to clean this room up before you leave, though; it’s a pigsty. Good eve-” She stopped short suddenly and pursed her lips. Her eyes were fixed at a point on the ceiling, close to the air conditioning duct. “That rotten creature!”

Lisa cast her eyes up to the ceiling. Her eight-legged friend was dangling from his web, apparently unaware of his approaching enemy. Doctor Rogers removed her flat, mannish shoe and stepped up onto one of the bedside chairs. Come on, Lisa willed her roommate.

Doctor Rogers held out the sole of her shoe and swiped at the ceiling; there was a loud SMACK. She removed the shoe, a satisfied look on her face, only to see the spider scuttling frantically along his web, back to the dark nook in the wall. Screwing her face up in annoyance, she tried again and again – smack, smack, smack – but each time the spider ducked, weaved and scrambled away from his enemy. At last, the arachnid slipped skilfully into the narrow crack in the cornice, back to his home and safety.

Red-faced and panting, Doctor Rogers returned to the ground and slipped her shoe back on furiously.

Lisa couldn’t help but laugh in her face.

[mr_pikachu]

All right, it's up! Excellent!

Well, I've already given most of my comments, although I noticed you've made some small changes since then. Loved the extra description of Dr. Rogers; that part seems a little more complete now. Also, I think the ending was a little more suitable for the tone of the chapter. The original just didn't fit the lighthearted mood quite as well.

There were some small grammatical things and an occasional missing word (I wasn't aware that there was such a noun as "a deep and meaningful"), but nothing too serious. The one aesthetic point that I will comment on was the use of the word "law-breakers" when describing the Guard, as that's fairly roundabout compared to simply saying "criminals." Just a thought.

All in all, I thought this was quite strong, and the way you ended Book II is a bit easier to understand now. I was also slightly pleased to see that you kept Lisa's self-proclaimed title - I don't think that causes too much of a problem even with Ho-oh's words at the end of Book I, so it looks nice. This was a nice chapter and a good way to calm things down so that the coming plotlines will be all the more intense.

That's all I have to say, so I'll just look forward to Chapter 61. See you then!

[Master Kirby]

So, you think I'm psychic? Reading that made me laugh. I guess I was right about the "One month later" thing, though that was just an example of one of the possible scenarios that I saw. One thing that you don't need to be psychic to predict is that you'd win a few awards in the Silver Pencil. Congratulations. That wasn't a small list of awards.

You certainly put a lot of time and work into this story. As I have been reading this chapter, I've noticed how rich the description is and how well you are able to get us to feel what the characters are feeling. When Lisa went to the window and stood, taking in the feel and scent of the wind, it felt so peaceful. I could easily imagine being there, looking out over her shoulder taking in the sights of the city as the rain began to fall.

[Sike Saner]

YAY, SPIDER! =D

I love spiders, and Lisa’s little roommate reawakened fond memories of the “pet” spider I used to have, a little black-and-white, fuzzy thing I named ‘Freak’. He (she?) hung out on the ceiling and ate pesky mosquitoes for me. ^^

Man…having had to stay in the hospital for longer than Lisa had expected—and even during her birthday, what’s more—that certainly had to suck for her. I hope I’m never in the hospital during my birthday—it’s bad enough that flu season seems to like to coincide with Christmas and New Year’s… X.x

And Doctor Rogers made me laugh, especially when it was mentioned that she has “mannish” shoes. XD What a delightfully unpleasant creature she is.

I’ll be back for the next chapter, of course. ^^ Before I go, here’s a couple of little excerpts from the latest chapter that I’d like to highlight:

She opened her eyes to inspect the world beyond the window. As always, the northern half of Redwood City was sprawled before her: a beautiful maze of tree-lined avenues and stately red brick houses. A prominent steeple in the centre of town indicated St Mark’s Cathedral; beside that lay the crystalline meanders of the Acacia River. Lisa thought this was the first big city she had seen that could rival Ecruteak in terms of beauty.

I just thought that was a particularly bit of description there. I especially like the phrase “crystalline meanders”. ^^

PS: Call me ‘Luper’ again and I’ll break your CDs.

That got quite a laugh out of me. XD

[Gavin Luper]

A few days ago at work I stumbled directly into a box-thorn. As I extricated myself from the sharp thorns stabbing me, I suddenly remembered how often I've had Lisa run into box-thorns at various points during the story, and thought, I'd better reply to people's comments. Of course, it's taken me about three days to get around to it, but better late than never, I suppose.

Brian: Thanks for the ever-punctual reply! I'm pleased you found the end appropriate to the mood of the chapter - something really was bugging me about it and it took some work to fix it up. As for the "deep and meaningful" ... that WAS a noun ... I mean, not technically, but it's used as such, as least in Australia, and (mostly) with teenagers I suppose ... mostly girls. It means a deep and meaningful talk, sometimes shortened to a D&M ... at least in WA. I didn't even think about it as being a bit odd, but there you go. As for the law-breakers/criminals thing ... I don't see the difference, really, they are just synonyms. Anyway, as you pointed out, this chapter was a way of calming things down from the more action-packed chapters of the last book's finale.

Master Kirby: Possibly psychic, yes, or perhaps just intuitive. Thanks for the congrats, too. I'm so glad you liked the description in this chapter - I actually really enjoyed writing the scene where Lisa was at the window: I just created this description of Redwood City on the spot, and I could really picture it in my mind, it looks beautiful to me. I'm glad it was real for you, too.

Sike Saner: The spider thing was actually a little bit based on a spider we used to have in our kitchen - my mother grew particularly fond of it for some reason and none of us were allowed to kill it - it hung around for months. I don't know why, but it entered my head during the writing of this chapter and it seemed like a nice kind of friend for Lisa during her loneliest times. ^^ Doctor Rogers just kind of came to me, and what a perfectly nasty piece of work she is - glad you found her amusing. And as to the other quotes - they were both chapter highlights for me, too. Seeya next chapter!

Everyone: I sat down the other day to write Chapter 61, but I couldn't get going. Pretty frustrated, I tried several times before giving up and deciding to instead write a few notes about the fates of the characters at the end of the fic. Well, I couldn't have expected what happened. All these ideas that have been skulking around my imagination for five years or more suddenly came spilling out: not just ideas for what will happen at the end, but pages of backstory from before Lisa began her quest, as well as detailed plans for the rest of book three. After a few hours I looked back and there was about four or five thousand words of solid notes - I'm more pleased with this than I would have been if I'd finished Chapter 61 that day. As such, I'm probably going to focus on finishing off all those notes before I get on to Chapter 61, which could mean the chapter is a few weeks away yet, but I'm convinced the notes are infinitely more important at this stage in the fic.

Cheers!

[mr_pikachu]

Brian: Thanks for the ever-punctual reply! I'm pleased you found the end appropriate to the mood of the chapter - something really was bugging me about it and it took some work to fix it up. As for the "deep and meaningful" ... that WAS a noun ... I mean, not technically, but it's used as such, as least in Australia, and (mostly) with teenagers I suppose ... mostly girls. It means a deep and meaningful talk, sometimes shortened to a D&M ... at least in WA. I didn't even think about it as being a bit odd, but there you go. As for the law-breakers/criminals thing ... I don't see the difference, really, they are just synonyms. Anyway, as you pointed out, this chapter was a way of calming things down from the more action-packed chapters of the last book's finale.

Okay, I have to reply to this. I never would've expected that a "deep and meaningful" was actually a slang noun. It just seemed so much like a word had been dropped that the thought of a region-specific slang term never occured to me... frankly, even if I'd considered the thought, I probably would've absconded myself for being afraid to criticize. My apologies for the confusion, though.

With the law-breakers/criminals part, you're right about them being synonyms. I guess the latter just sounds a little crisper to me as a shorter term, but I see your point nonetheless. Just an aesthetic opinion.

By the way, I'm glad to hear you got so much done in notes. That can be extremely helpful; expanded into prose, such notes could comprise several chapters. So it's good to hear that you're making such great progress even if the chapter itself is going to be delayed a little while. Keep up the good work!

I guess that's it. I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labor, whenever you're ready to present more material! Until then!

[Karania]

Holy cats! I got swamped with work from school and from a job I had over christmas at the DIsney store and now a law firm where I'm helping preparing files for a big Zyprexa settlement against a drug manufacturing company, to find at least 4 if not more updates in my absence!

@@

I got some serious reading to do now!!! Hope you didn't think I fell off the face of the earth or something, I've just been incredibly busy.

From what I skimmed over the story, it looks like incredible update material. I'll tell ya more of what I think after I get caught up on the reading.

~*~

On another note, I've begun writing two fics based off of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. One's called 'Destiny of a Rescued Eevee' and the other is called 'Human in a Pokemon World'

Oh yes... And I managed to get a wondermail generator so I Can make my own wondermail codes and I'm having way too much fun with that!

~*~

Though, I will say this, I'll be back with feedback on the content of your chapters as soon as I have time to read them!

[mistysakura]

Look who can't be bothered to reply on time... Anyway, a good start to Book III. It follows on nicely from the end of II; it could be said to be another filler, but its logical that these guys need a bit of rest and recuperation before the next massive action scene or plot twist. You did a good job with this chapter; it could have been very boring, but little things like the spider, Doctor Rogers and the letters between Gavin and Lisa (particularly the touch with the "Lisa the Legend" title). Very good word choice when describing the spider's scuttling actions. What else did I want to say... can't remember. That'll teach me to procrastinate on writing a hundred measly words.

[Gavin Luper]

After I made my last reply in this thread, I promised myself that I wouldn't post here again until I had completed all my notes and planning for the entire fic. Over the past month, it became clear that that wasn't the most practical decision ever: first was working full-time, then moving to Perth, and last week I started Uni. So things have been pretty full-on in the last month.

Despite that, I did get quite a lot of ideas down on paper - in particular, a lot of info about characters (mostly Lisa, Gavin, Marina and Darius) and their personalities: the hours I spent doing that were some of the most rewarding and enjoyable I've had in a while. I also picked up on a few themes running beneath the surface of the story, and dredged up some of the key ideas that I really want to explore in Lisa's story - so I've come a very long way. The whole story seems to be coming into it's own now, like it now has a purpose as opposed to being a piece of fanfiction. There's things I want to say to people through these characters and scenarios, messages I want to put out there through my writing, which is something I've never really sought to do before. As such, it feels like the whole story is growing up quite rapidly from what it was - which has me very excited, because the original Lisa the Legend is now merging with it's proper purpose - the same story, the same characters, but now it feels like it might really have a point.

Anyway - I'm waffling. The long and the short of it is, I'm still making notes, I'm still planning things for the rest of the fic, and when I get frustrated with that, I throw my pen down and nonchalantly sidle up to the computer, luring it into a false sense of security as I casually open the word document entitled "Chapter 61", before abandoning my cool pretences and launching vehemently into Lisa's next adventures. The results? Mixed, which isn't surprising considering how many things I have my mind on in real life at the moment. But I'll get there soon!

Now - replies! Sorry to leave you guys hanging for so long!

Brian - No worries - I suppose 'deep and meaningful' as a slang noun is kind of unassuming. Anyway, no big deal. You're spot on about the notes though: it's becoming clearer and clearer how the rest of the book is going to play out now, and I really like that.

Karania - Good to see you back! Read whenever you can - at the rate I post new chapters, there's really no rush. Thanks, and seeya next chapter!

Ada - ^^ Nothing wrong with procrastinating. Thanks for the read, as always. These chapters really are something of a break for Lisa and Gavin - like you said, they need a rest. The amount of stuff they're been through in such a short time really does take it's toll. Glad you liked the letters, cause I had heaps of fun writing them - when you're writing the lives of characters in third person all the time, it's really cool to be able to go in their heads and write as them, even just for a little bit. Having Lisa sign the letter as 'Lisa the Legend' was entirely spontaneous, and yet it seemed to work so well I couldn't not keep it in ... I really enjoyed doing that. Anyway - thanks for reading!

Chapter 61 coming. One day ...

Cheers!

[mr_pikachu]

Don't fuss about the time writing takes, Gav. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - actually, I probably have said it a thousand times by now - if it takes a long time to make your writing as good as it can be, then take as long as you need. You're one of those writers who we know isn't just sitting on his hands during the downtime; you're working hard to refine everything before continuing. That's a mark of true dedication.

[Karania]

Yeah, take as much time as you need. When I write my stories I always strive for quality over quantity. I'll still be here for the next chapter no matter how long it takes. I figured out the other day how many chapters I was behind on reading and it turned out I was about 7-8 chapters behind on reading... Haven't had time to read yet due to job interviews, a full-time temporary job that just ended, family stuff, and a couple other things...

[Gavin Luper]

Hi everyone.

I've gone back and forth on whether or not to make an update post, but it really has been a long time since I've posted in here (sorry if you thought this post was Chapter 61) and I feel bad for making you all wait more or less in the dark for such a long time, save for the e-zine interview - but that was conducted over a month ago now.

So: the story has come a long way. Last time I posted here, I'd been doing notes and planning on the themes and characterisation; I'm still doing both of those, but I've recently moved on to getting the plot straightened out and some finer details sorted. It's been really rewarding to do and I get quite into it. I've never done anything near the amount of planning and preparing that I'm doing for this last book of LTL, so it's still a bit like unexplored terrain and I'm still discovering how to go about it. Thus, it's taking a while. However, I really have made a lot of progress over the last two and a half months.

The thing I'm really posting to inform you about is that I recently (a week or two ago) completed a Story Plan that I'm fairly sure is my good working copy. Details may change, a chapter added in here or there maybe, but the general plan is all down there on paper now. What's going to happen at the start of the book, the middle, the climax and the resolution - and then how it's all going to actually play out. Lisa and Gavin's characters are becoming increasingly more interesting, in my opinion - though that's a bit irrelevant for the moment. Quite a few plot details still have to be worked out, of course, but it's really starting to take shape now. I'd tentatively say I'm about halfway through the note-making/planning process, but don't quote me on that. I haven't started actually writing the chapters yet (despite a few attempts at Chapter 61) but I'm not bothered; I firmly believe that I'm going to need to really finalise the Story Plan before I get back to writing again. Chapter 61 and 62 are actually planned out scene-by-scene anyway, so they will hopefully flow easily when I resume writing.

So - that's that. To all readers (assuming you're still out there) - I'm sorry it's taking so long, but I really think it will be worth it. Thanks for being patient and stuff. Hopefully when I start posting chapters again, there won't be massive gaps like there have been over the last couple of years, because this time I'll know exactly where it's all going. I think it will read much more fluently as a result.

The next time I post an update here will probably be when I finish the planning stage and start writing again; so if I don't mention LTL for the next month or two or three, assume that no news is definitely good news.

Until then - cheers!



- Gavin.

[Karania]

I'm still here, don't worry about that. I've been busy too and still haven't gotten caught up on reading yet.

Take as much time as you need and I'll be back soon!

~Karania

[Gavin Luper]

Hi everyone.

This was initially intended to be a relatively short chapter, but it ended up being fairly decent in length. I'm not finished the whole 'planning stage' for the book yet, but I'm getting closer, and this chapter hopefully will tide you over for a bit.

I didn't like this chapter when I wrote it, but in hindsight I find it a bit more pleasant. Don't be fooled by appearances, this chapter is very important. There's also a subtle tie-in to Chapter 12, but I think it's so obscure I'd probably be the only one who notices it.

Anyway - I don't want to waffle. Here's Chapter 61. Please enjoy, and please give me your comments and feedback! Especially for this chapter, because I'm not sure if the intensity and emotion of it will be well received or not.

Oh, and I'm reasonably sure 'unquashably' isn't a real word, but that's never stopped me before.

Cheers!

-----------------------------------------

Chapter 61 – The Promise.


After a red-faced Doctor Rogers stalked out of Lisa’s room, muttering murderously about the falling standards of the hospital, Lisa found herself, once again, alone. The visit from Emma, and the ensuing debacle with Doctor Rogers and the spider, had been a welcome distraction from an otherwise mundane day. Indeed, Lisa had briefly forgotten how much she hated her hospital room.

But now, as she stared blankly at the white walls of her wretched room, Lisa felt the usual cloud of lethargy sweep over her. It was the same every night. As soon as she was left alone, in the isolation and sterility of her room, her mood plummeted quite uncharacteristically. Lisa found it impossible to resist her turbulent emotions; it was as though she were being forcibly dragged into a black hole.

She shivered slightly and drew her covers more tightly around her chest. It was an unusually cold night: the storm that was now shaking the windowpanes had evidently brought with it a fierce autumn chill. Lisa rummaged in the top drawer of her bedside table and found the tiny remote control provided by the hospital; she switched the light off and lay quite still in her bed, listening to the roar of the rain pelting the side of the building. In the past, she had always loved drifting off to sleep while listening to the rain pattering against the windows, but tonight, for the first time she could recall, she found it distracting. The events on Mt Fairfax had wrought quite a change on her sleeping habits. When once she had been able to fall asleep almost the instant her head hit the pillow, she was now quite accustomed to laying awake for two or even three hours, lost in thought.

Lisa knew this was unusual for her, because she had never considered herself an introspective person by any means. Yet each night she found herself troubled by thoughts, thoughts that trapped and took hold of her just as irresistibly as her down moods.

She could never escape her own thoughts, and tonight was no exception. Lisa found herself tossing and turning in bed, frustrated by her thoughts. Thoughts of the war, which still confused and frightened her; thoughts of the Legend, which still seemed overwhelming and which she had not been able to speak of since the conversation with her parents at the Fairfax Inn; thoughts of the Guard, and what they might be up to; thoughts of Gavin and his strange letter; thoughts of her parents, her brothers and sister, her grandmother, her family and her friends …

And, most unquashably of all, thoughts about what was going to happen to her when she re-entered the world outside the Richardson Ward in the morning.

Lisa fluffed up her pillow for the umpteenth time and threw her head against it with unnecessary violence. What was going to happen after she was discharged tomorrow? Lisa hated herself for posing the question, but she could not help but wonder. Her parents had remained tight-lipped about their plans, other than to say they would be taking her to a safe house. But what then? Was she going to be hidden away from the Union and the rest of the world, just like now, while her parents and the Guard waged a dangerous and shadowy war? Or could it be that she, too, would be made to help the Guard fulfil the Legend, and even fight against the Union again?

Lisa didn’t know which option scared her more.

She rolled onto her other side with a restless grunt. Her worries and fears played over and over in her mind, and as much as she hated laying in bed, stuck in a spiral of misery, she did not think she had the energy anymore to pull herself out of it.

*

Lisa did not feel any better the following morning. She had not fallen asleep until almost midnight, and was woken quite abruptly at seven-thirty when the kitchen lady hammered on the door to announce the arrival of her breakfast. She spent five minutes staring emptily at her bowl of corn flakes before she could bother herself to actually pick up the spoon and begin eating.

What the hell is wrong with me? Lisa found herself wondering as she forced down a second mouthful of cereal. The black hole that had sucked her in last night seemed to have followed her through her string of bad dreams and flashbacks and into the morning.

She pushed the food tray away from her bed and fell back against her pillows miserably. This wasn’t her. She should have been excited about leaving hospital. She should have been curious to see what Marina and Darius and the Guard were doing at the safe house. She should have been inventing new theories as to what Gavin wanted to talk to her about. But she didn’t care about any of those things. She didn’t think it made much of a difference anymore whether she left hospital or stayed right where she was.

She glanced outside the window and saw nothing to brighten her spirits. The sky was a swirl of sombre grey clouds; rain was still spattering against the glass.

Lisa turned away from the window and gazed despondently at the collection of birthday cards and photo frames on the bedside table. One particular photograph caught her eye: a snapshot of her with her mother, her father, Wesley, Jean, Tom, Miki and Nanna, all seated around a wooden table on the patio at Lisa’s house. Marina had taken the photo last Christmas. Lisa examined the picture closely. There she was, grinning broadly, one arm around her younger brother, the other around her elderly grandmother’s shoulders. Even back then, thought Lisa, she had been through quite a lot – yet she was still smiling, and not falsely. She had never been so affected by her experiences before, yet now, she felt like an emotional mess.

But why?

Lisa knew there was an answer, and she knew there was a person in the hospital – a trained professional – who would be able to give it to her. There was a youth psychologist situated on the second floor, a woman named Doctor Tanner, whose assistance had been offered to Lisa from the moment she was wheeled into Redwood Hospital.

Actually, thought Lisa seriously, it had not been so much offered as pushed upon her. Her parents had insisted that Lisa attend regular counselling sessions with Doctor Tanner. After everything that had happened to her, before and during the siege on Mt Fairfax – not to mention her shock at discovering the truth about her parents and the Legend – they believed she would need to sort through everything with an expert. Within herself, Lisa knew they were right. She knew, even if she couldn’t say it aloud, that she had needed to talk to someone like Doctor Tanner for a very long time. And yet when the opportunity finally arose for her to discuss her problems with a psychologist, she had baulked. No matter how much Mum and Dad pressed that she would probably need counselling, Lisa suddenly felt repulsed by the idea of disgorging her innermost thoughts to a stranger. She had never been able to tell her parents, or Gavin, even, the extent of her fears and worries; the closest she had come was in her short discussion with Darius at the Fairfax Inn. So she had vehemently refused to see Doctor Tanner, and after a mere few days, her parents stopped trying to make her. Lisa wondered if this was because they still felt bad about the shock they had given her on Mt Fairfax, and were trying to keep the fragile relationship between them happy. Whatever the case, Lisa had squirmed out of visiting any kind of counsellor, knowing all along that that was what she needed most, and with every lonely, miserable day she spent in the Richardson Ward, she found herself regretting it …

Lisa stared restlessly at the ceiling. She wanted to find some hidden source of power within herself, something that would enable her to throw off her depression and push past her terrible memories. She actually screwed her face up in concentration, thinking that maybe if she focused enough, she could resolve everything. If she could make herself believe that everything was alright, then she would be … she had to be …

Lisa could never be quite sure of what happened next. She had her eyes screwed shut, willing herself to feel better, when a blinding pain shot through the back of her head. At first she thought it was a one-off, but a second, then a third, flash of pain struck her within a few seconds …

And then she collapsed. The fear and weariness suddenly bore down on her, an enormous tidal wave of terror crashing down and drowning out every ounce of control and composure she had ever possessed. She was shaking, completely uncontrollably – the pain in the back of her head gave way to a sudden, agonising tightness in her chest. She could not breathe, her stomach was churning … She put her hands over her face and screamed, but silently; no noise escaped her mouth.

Eventually she heard, as though she had gone nearly deaf, a muffled cry of someone else in the room, though the words were incomprehensible and meaningless. Someone touched her arm but Lisa could not see who. There were more cries, this time more audible … then suddenly the pain in her chest lessened slightly, and she found that she was no longer shaking, though she was still gasping for air which seemed as though it would never come.

“Doctor Rogers is on her way,” said one of the voices around Lisa. Her vision was still strangely blurred; she could only make out a vague reddish blur.

A few seconds passed. Lisa finally felt like she was getting some air into her lungs; she was taking in deep, grateful gulps of oxygen. She suddenly realised that she was soaked in her own sweat.

“What happened?” a loud, commanding voice rang out suddenly, and this time Lisa heard – and saw – quite clearly. Doctor Rogers had burst into the room, her grey hair flying behind her as she broke through a cluster of three or four nurses standing around the bed.

“I came in to check on her and she was just shaking and gasping for breath,” said one of the nurses.

“How badly was she shaking?” asked Doctor Rogers. “She doesn’t have any history of epilepsy.”

“We don’t think she was fitting – we thought it might be a panic attack.”

“Hmm. Well, that wouldn’t altogether surprise me. She’s broken out in a sweat, too … and it seems like she’s recovering herself a bit now.” Doctor Rogers moved in closer, placing a hand on Lisa’s shoulder and meeting her eye with a face full of compassion. “Lisa, can you hear me properly now?”

“Yes,” said Lisa, but it took her three tries to actually produce any noise, and when she did, her voice was wispy and faint.

“Tell me what happened.”

Lisa hesitated, then suddenly found that she no longer cared what people knew about her feelings.

“I got scared. I just felt it all build up – I felt like everything was coming down on me at once and I couldn’t stop it. It was so s-scary.” She choked slightly and then the tears began to flow rapidly.

“You’re alright, Lisa. But what happened to you physically? I need you to tell me.”

“I just – I started shaking. Just out of nowhere. I don’t even know why, but I couldn’t help it. And my head hurt, and my chest too – it was really tight, like I couldn’t breathe anymore. I didn’t know what was happening – I thought I was –”

But she couldn’t say it. Doctor Rogers, however, nodded sagely.

“You’re safe, Lisa, and everything is fine. We’re going to make sure you’re okay. There’s nothing to worry about and no reason to be scared.” She patted Lisa on the shoulder warmly, and Lisa felt her feelings about Doctor Rogers melt away completely. “It sounds to me like you had a panic attack,” the woman said, “and if you ask me, it’s no wonder.”

She turned to one of the nurses assembled around the bedside. “Ashley, please go down to Doctor Tanner’s office and inform her that Miss Walters is in need of her services.” One of the nurses disappeared immediately. “Bridget, Joanne – thank you, but this situation is now under control.” Two other nurses dispersed. “Emma, I believe you are on good terms with Miss Walters – I’d like you to stay here with her until Doctor Tanner arrives.”

“Of course I will,” said Emma quickly. Lisa saw that she was very pale.

Doctor Rogers turned back to Lisa and gave her a kind smile. “You’re not the first person to be overwhelmed by what they are feeling, Lisa. It’s an entirely natural response, and personally, I think in your case it is slightly overdue. Doctor Tanner will be in shortly, I hope, to help you.”

“To help me,” repeated Lisa faintly. “That’s good. Thank you.”

Doctor Rogers winked at her and left.

Lisa looked around her room vaguely. She felt dazed by what had just happened, and also rather spent. She made eye contact with Emma, who gave her a mild smile before moving closer to Lisa’s bed and holding her hand firmly.

They waited for about five minutes before there came a knock at the door.

“Come in,” said Emma.

The door swung open and a tall, grey-haired woman swept into the room. Unlike Doctor Rogers, she carried a simple handbag and wore casual clothes – a crisp white blouse with a gold pin on it and a conservative grey skirt. Her steel-coloured hair was pulled back into a rather old-fashioned ponytail, and there was something about her face – perhaps her hard, yet kind, blue eyes, or the absence of any make-up, which made her look very sensible.

“Hello,” she said, in a surprisingly soft voice, “I’m Doctor Tanner, and you must be Lisa Walters.”

“Yes, that’s me,” said Lisa, still in her small voice.

“It’s a pleasure,” said Doctor Tanner. She looked expectantly at Emma, who was still holding Lisa’s hand comfortingly. “Will you be staying during our talk?” she asked simply.

“No, sorry, I’ll go,” said Emma. She looked Lisa in the eye before squeezing her hand firmly and striding from the room, pulling the door shut behind her.

“Well, Lisa, I thought I might not get to meet you before you left the hospital,” said Doctor Tanner lightly, approaching her and proffering her hand; Lisa shook it and was surprised at the psychologist’s strong grip. “Your parents had you booked in for several appointments, but they explained to me that you didn’t want to talk about what you had been through.” She caught Lisa’s eye directly, and Lisa squirmed slightly. “You should know that this is a very common response, especially in younger people like yourself,” she said kindly.

She took a seat on the end of Lisa’s mattress and smiled; Lisa managed a feeble smile in return.

“However, according to Doctor Rogers, you have just had what appeared to be a ‘panic attack’, as they are sometimes called. Could you describe to me what happened?”

Lisa proceeded to do so.

“And how are you feeling now?” probed Doctor Tanner.

“Sweaty. And tired.”

Doctor Tanner nodded, apparently satisfied. “It certainly sounds as though you had some kind of panic attack. This is often a natural response to a traumatic event, such as what happened to you a few weeks ago at Mt Fairfax, but taken out of context. It is your body’s way of telling you that it needs to escape something.”

“OK,” said Lisa, by way of quiet acknowledgement. “So how do you fix it?”

Doctor Tanner smiled once more. “Panic attacks do not necessarily need to be fixed. You have never had a panic attack before, have you?”

Lisa shook her head.

“If these attacks occur regularly, they can often be representative of some kind of anxiety disorder,” explained Doctor Tanner. “But I think, in your case, Lisa, that this is the manifestation of the terror you felt during your ordeal. It is something like a latent response to what has already happened. Do you follow me, Lisa?”

“I think so,” replied Lisa. “So there isn’t really anything you can do?”

“It’s more a case of there isn’t a need to do anything, at least at this stage,” said Doctor Tanner. “This may well be, as I said, a natural response that you will simply push through and recover from. However,” she said, clasping her hands in her lap, “I believe it would be beneficial for you to talk a bit with me, even if you still don’t feel like it. You might feel strange discussing your feelings with me – that is entirely normal, for we all feel protective of our personal information – but it would be a very good idea to do so. To get that burden off your chest might just make you feel better. What do you think?”

Lisa did not hesitate. “I want to talk it over. I think I need to,” she said very quickly.

Doctor Tanner nodded knowingly. “Yes, I think you need to too.”

“But you have some – some kind of oath, don’t you?” asked Lisa. “You can’t tell anyone what I say to you, right?”

Doctor Tanner leaned forward seriously. “There is confidentiality between a psychologist and patient, that is true,” she said, “but as you are still underage, your parents will need to be informed – at least, in short – of what we discuss.”

“But you can’t tell anyone else, right?”

“It would be ethically and legally wrong for me to divulge anything you tell me to anyone other than your parents, unless demanded by a judge. So, no, Lisa, I can’t tell anyone else. You can speak freely to me.”

Lisa felt herself relax very slightly.

“So, now, Lisa, your parents informed me about some of what you had been through, and it doesn’t surprise me that you might be feeling overwhelmed. Shall we begin at the beginning, then?” She pulled out a notepad and pen from her handbag. “I believe you were one of the only survivors of the Radio Tower collapse in Goldenrod City last year …”

Once Lisa began talking, she found that she was unable to stop. Doctor Tanner asked enough questions to keep her going, but she also paused respectfully while Lisa told her story. Often Lisa was surprised to hear some things coming out of her mouth – it felt strange to divulge feelings that she had so successfully kept to herself since October or November. At some points, she even found herself breaking down while explaining certain events, even if she had not cried at all when the events had actually taken place. Doctor Tanner was comforting, though never mawkish, and she did not try to do anything as silly as hugging Lisa, which Lisa felt extremely grateful for. She continued on with her story – navigating through the months of December, January, February, and finally, March. Doctor Tanner was extremely patient, and though she asked Lisa how she felt about almost everything, not once did Lisa grow tired of the question; she felt compelled to keep talking, compelled to keep expelling her deeply repressed feelings until she could feel them no longer.

When they finally reached the present, and Lisa had finished explaining, at length, how terrible she had been feeling during her time in hospital, Doctor Tanner said, “And how do you feel now, that you have told me all of this?”

Lisa dabbed at her eyes with her umpteenth tissue; a pile of dirty tissues lay in her lap. “So much better,” she croaked, a stray tear leaking from her eye.

Doctor Tanner gave her another of her very sincere smiles and proceeded to explain what she thought about Lisa’s feelings, that she thought her courage to maintain a strong face had been admirable, but misguided.

“You might have felt slightly less overwhelmed if you had allowed yourself to go through the natural emotional processes associated with trauma,” she said, not unkindly, “but nonetheless, there is no changing the past; what matters is that now you have been able to talk everything through with me, you have been able to spill it all out, and also hear my view. Talking about things is an essential part of dealing with them and moving on.”

Lisa nodded from behind her tissue. She felt slightly exhausted, but she could not deny the sense of relief that had come over her during her talk with Doctor Tanner.

“Now,” said Doctor Tanner, “I understand that you are due to be leaving us this morning?”

Lisa pulled the tissue away from her face. “I can still go then?” she said abruptly. “You aren’t going to keep me here after what happened?”

Doctor Tanner looked politely surprised. “Well, not unless you particularly want to stay. As I said, there is not much that can be done to treat a single panic attack. If you ever have any more, which I somewhat doubt, you should probably contact me again, but aside from feeling a bit tired, you are as healthy as you were when you signed the discharge form last night.”

Lisa’s heart rose. She saw, on her bedside clock, that it was now nine-thirty – she must have been with Doctor Tanner for at least an hour and a half.

Doctor Tanner seemed to notice her checking the time. “Your parents will be here in half an hour, I believe?” she said gently. “You must be excited to be going back home.”

“I am,” said Lisa. And she finally was. Though, she reminded herself, she would not be going back to her real home.

“Well, unless there is anything else you want to discuss with me, I shall let you get ready,” said Doctor Tanner politely.

“I think – I think we covered everything,” said Lisa promptly, and they both managed a quiet chuckle. “Thank you.”

“You are quite welcome. Well then, I shall go,” said Doctor Tanner simply. “I hope I have been of some help to you, Lisa – it certainly looks like I have. You look much happier already. I must remind you, though, that very often, when you are recovering from a traumatic event – or a series of them – the road to convalescence is not straightforward. You may continue to have bad dreams and you will still feel the way you do – but with time, and love from your family, and some strength, I think you will slowly find yourself improving.”

“OK,” said Lisa. She could think of nothing else to say.

“Here is my card,” added Doctor Tanner, leaving one on the bedside table. “You can reach either myself or my secretary with those phone numbers. If you ever need to discuss something with me – if you ever find yourself overwhelmed again – do not hesitate to call me. I am always available to help. Although I have to say, Lisa, it would not surprise me if you now feel like you have the tools you need to cope. For all you have been through, you are quite an extraordinary young woman. Don’t forget that.”

Lisa nodded solemnly, slightly taken aback. Doctor Tanner shook her hand pleasantly, smiled kindly at her one more time and left.

Lisa cleared the tissues off her covers and lay down in her bed again. She knew she ought to clean her room and get ready for her parents’ imminent arrival, but she really did feel quite exhausted. She snuggled into her mattress, listening to the rain pattering against the windows. Suddenly she found the constant pitter-patter quite pleasant and relaxing again …

Her eyes had surely been closed for only a second when there was a sudden flash of light that she could sense even with her eyes closed. She looked around to see a green, nearly spherical bird-like creature flapping its wings above her.

“Natu?” Lisa muttered in surprise, before she remembered – she was supposed to go and see Gavin!

“Tu tu!” declared Natu thickly, fluttering down to land on Lisa’s stomach, his sharp talons tearing clean through the flimsy sheet. A folded piece of paper was held in his beak.

Lisa briefly considered ignoring Natu and going back to sleep, but her sense of loyalty to Gavin overcame her fatigue. She took the letter from Natu’s beak and read it quickly:

Oi, are you coming or what? I want to hear that CD.

- Gavin.

“Typical,” Lisa said aloud. Gavin was too macho to admit to her twice that he wanted to talk something over with her. Natu looked confused. “Tell him he’ll have to wait. I’m tired,” said Lisa, as slowly and clearly as she could.

Natu hooted softly and remained perched on her stomach.

“Ugh,” sighed Lisa. Natu probably wouldn’t leave without taking a letter back to Gavin. She flipped Gavin’s note over and looked around the bedside table for a pen. Nothing. She leaned over, almost tumbling out of bed, to check the drawers. Nothing at all. She knew there was a pen in her backpack, but that was across the room – and if she was going to get up to get a pen she might as well get up to see Gavin.

“Argh, fine,” she groaned, throwing back her covers grumpily; Natu took flight in astonishment. “Are you happy now, stupid bird? I’m up!”

With a considerable effort, she hauled herself out of bed. She discovered that her entire body was aching slightly, but other than that, there did not seem to be any lasting effects from the panic attack she had had earlier. Natu flew in circles around her head as Lisa changed out of her nightie and into a pair of jeans and her favourite jumper. She grabbed The Lost Umbrellas’ album from her bag with a wry smile. Then, with every fibre of her body aching to return to bed, she said to Natu, “Alright, let’s go.”

Maybe it was because of the conversation with Doctor Tanner, or maybe it was the knowledge that she would be leaving the hospital in less than an hour, but Lisa suddenly found that she didn’t care about whether or not one of the doctors caught her sneaking between the rooms. In fact, it seemed bizarre now that she had ever caved in so easily to the adults’ demands in the first place. She pulled the door open and, beckoning Natu to follow, strode brashly into the hallway.

It was completely empty. That figures, thought Lisa. I was too scared to ever do it again in case I got caught, but now that I finally try it it turns out there was nothing to worry about. Sighing at the strange way her fortunes had fallen, she walked briskly down the corridor until she reached – barely twenty metres away – a blue door with a small black ‘7’ affixed to it. She hesitated for a moment, stupidly, wondering what on earth Gavin wanted to say to her; then, suddenly, she heard a voice – one of the nurses was emerging into the corridor from another patient’s room. There was nothing for it: just as she saw a blur of auburn hair from the corner of her eyes, Lisa threw Gavin’s door open and swung it swiftly closed behind her.

And without meaning to, she gasped. Gavin was sitting in a white bed before her – but he did not look like the Gavin she knew. The first thing her eyes were drawn to was his hair – it was extremely short, almost shaved, and there was a large white bandage obscuring the top of his brow. But the thing that shocked her even more was how terribly thin he was: his cheeks looked hollow and his arms, previously strong and tanned, were pallid and weedy. The only good thing, it seemed, was that he was no longer covered in bandages.

“Hey,” Gavin said, his thin face lighting up at the sight of Lisa.

“Hey,” Lisa replied simply, unable to stop herself grinning back. Despite how bad Gavin looked, she felt suddenly excited to see him again.

For a second or two there was an awkward pause as they looked at each other, apparently both unsure of what to say, before Gavin said, “Sit down if you want,” indicating the chair beside his bed.

Lisa hastened to oblige. “Oh, I brought the CD,” she added, handing Gavin The Lost Umbrellas’ album as she settled into the plastic chair. Natu, meanwhile, fluttered excitedly onto Gavin’s bedside table, where he pecked at a small bowl of seeds Gavin had evidently left for him.

“Oh, right, cool,” said Gavin, in the slightly higher-pitched voice he used when he wanted to sound interested in something. “I heard it’s more rocky than their old stuff?”

“Yeah, well mostly – ‘Smoke and Fire’ is a pretty heavy song I suppose …”

As Gavin leisurely examined the back of the album cover, Lisa was silently fighting with herself. She supposed it was normal to make small talk with someone when you hadn’t seen them in a while – but this wasn’t just someone, it was Gavin! Never in Lisa’s memory had they been anything but blunt with each other, and she decided there was no reason why that should ever change.

“What’s the go with your hair then?”

Gavin whipped his head up abruptly, as though he had been nervously waiting for Lisa to speak. A lopsided grin came over his face. “You like it? I wanted to go for the whole tough, delinquent look.”

Lisa made sure he caught her rolling her eyes.

“They shaved it all off when they operated on me,” Gavin continued seriously, touching the bandage that still obscured his brow. “I had like ten stitches in there before, but then it got all infected, so it’s pretty gross to look at still.” He sounded slightly proud. “And what’s up with you – it looks like you had a sook or something?”

“What do you mean?” said Lisa – how could Gavin tell she had been crying? And then it struck her that her cheeks must still be tearstained.

Gavin confirmed this. “Your face looks – well – like you’ve been crying. And your eyes are red. Since when do you cry, seriously?”

“I had a panic attack,” Lisa countered.

Gavin’s eyes widened. Given how sunken his cheeks were, this gave the impression that his eyes were almost bulging out of his skull.

“Righto. You win then, I suppose,” he said eventually, catching her eye, and suddenly they both laughed. Being with Gavin again seemed to make it much easier to make light of things.

“So apart from that, then …” Gavin said, carefully skirting around the topic. “You’ve been good?”

“Well, yeah, more or less,” Lisa said. “I mean, hospital sucks, but you know that too.”

Gavin nodded at her fairly. “Yeah. God, has it been boring as batshit for you too?”

Lisa laughed. “Yes! If it wasn’t for your letters, I think I would’ve gone mental!”

She paused, wondering if she had gone too far by actually admitting aloud how much Gavin’s letters had meant to her – but, quite unexpectedly, Gavin said, “Me too. How stupid was it that they wouldn’t let us see each other? At least we could still talk about stuff though.”

“Mmmm,” said Lisa. “Speaking of talking about stuff – have they stopped feeding you or something?” The moment the words were out of her mouth she realised how terrible they sounded. “I mean … you look really skinny … what’s going on?” she amended, making sure to stress the concern in her voice.

Gavin didn’t look particularly fazed by what she said; he merely shrugged. “I dunno, when I was really sick I couldn’t eat a lot anyway. Then even when I started getting better, I didn’t feel like eating, it’s like I’ve lost my appetite or something. The nurse has to actually watch me and pretty much force-feed me my meals. I’m getting better though. You should’ve seen me a couple of weeks ago,” he added darkly. “I looked like a bloody skeleton or something.”

Lisa shuddered.

“But anyway, I’m getting better now, and hungrier. I ate all my Weet-Bix this morning!” he added, sounding like a proud six-year-old. “And now, it’s nearly ten, just about time for me to tune into Sleepless in Saffron. Wanna make fun of it with me?”

He grinned expectantly at Lisa, but she returned it only half-heartedly. Gavin raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“My parents are going to be here in a few minutes,” Lisa explained. “I don’t really have time to hang out or anything – I thought you wanted to talk to me about something.”

Gavin’s face plummeted at once. “Oh yeah. I forgot about that.” And, Lisa thought, he looked very unhappy about it, too.

There was a strange silence between them, broken only by the sound of Natu rummaging in his bowl for the best seeds. Lisa understood from the silence that Gavin was reluctant to talk; that he might even be regretting adding that postscript on his letter.

“Gavin – what did you want to talk about?” she said in cautious tones.

He directed his pale face away from her, apparently examining his bed sheets.

Lisa felt herself become slightly worried for him. “Come on, Gavin, it’s me – you can tell me anything –”

“No I can’t!”

He responded so quickly, and with such aggression in his voice, that Lisa actually jumped. Gavin was looking right at her now, his face indignant. Lisa did not want to say anything.

Then Gavin said, all at once, “I won’t be going back to the safe house with you.”

“What?” said Lisa in disbelief. “That’s crazy, of course you are. Why would you even say that?”

“Because I’m not going back with you,” Gavin repeated unhelpfully. His voice was slightly thick; it sounded as though his teeth were clenched. “You’re going back to the safe house because your parents are part of the Guard. In case you didn’t notice,” he added, and there was a sudden venom in his voice, “mine are dead.”

It never ceased to throw Lisa when Gavin brought up the fact that he was orphaned, and every time she felt a rush of guilt, as though she ought to have been more helpful to him. But what was she supposed to do when he never wanted to talk about it? And even if he did, what could she physically do? She was his friend, and her parents had always been kind to him and been more than happy to let him stay when he needed to – but what else did he expect her to do?

So she said, “I did notice. But I don’t – I don’t know why you’re saying this. I don’t understand, Gavin.”

Looking as though he was drawing from an almost dry reservoir of determination, Gavin continued. “You know how they died, right?”

Lisa felt the usual awkwardness of talking about Gavin’s family’s past. “Y-yeah … the great psychic being – or the Giant Gengar –”

“The great psychic legendary killed them,” Gavin finished, relieving Lisa of the necessity of remembering the exact details of what Gavin had told her so long ago. Then he said, “I’m pretty sure now – and I know we’ve kinda talked about this before – but … it has to be Lunanine, right?”

Lisa gave up trying to work out where Gavin was heading with this; she considered his question seriously. “Well, we never actually talked about it like it might have been the creature that killed your – you know …” She didn’t want to say it. “But it seems like it has to be Lunanine, doesn’t it? I used to think maybe it was Lugia. But – with Lunanine – I mean, the amount of times we’ve seen him …” She counted in her head. “Okay, so it’s been three times, but that’s more than just about anyone in history,” she said, recalling the research she had undertaken when creating Lunanine’s pokédex entry in November. “Gavin, what’s your point?”

He surveyed her intently. “So you agree that it’s probably Lunanine?”

“Yes, but –”

“I’m getting to it, Lisa,” he said abruptly. “You remember how my family’s curse works, right? You get your psychic powers. Then the psychic legendary – probably Lunanine – tests you. If you fail to defeat him you die. If you pass, then – well, I have no idea what happens, because nobody’s ever done that before.” He paused, apparently steeling himself for something; then he said, in a voice so rushed it sounded as if he was reading a list, “My Dad died when I was three. My Aunty died when I was nine. My Mum died eighteen months ago. My Uncle Eusine died in December.”

The way he listed the deaths of four of his family members so robotically raised goosebumps on Lisa’s arms.

“The beast moves on to the next Luper in line,” Gavin continued. “I realised, when my Uncle Eusine died, that I was next. But my psychic powers disappeared – they didn’t return to me until that night at the roadhouse, remember? Just before we walked to Mt Fairfax.”

“When you woke up screaming from that dream …” breathed Lisa, recalling the night after she and Gavin had rescued Marina from the Union.

“Right,” said Gavin, catching her eye. “I knew, then, that it was my time to do something. I thought to myself that night: ‘After we go to Dervine and find Professor Oak, I have to start preparing myself.’”

Lisa stared at him, bewildered and slightly afraid of the doggedness in his eyes. Suddenly she couldn’t help herself.

“Gavin, I still don’t see why any of this means you can’t come to the safe house with us!”

Gavin scratched behind his ear nervously. “I could come, Lisa,” he said slowly, “but I’m not going to. Don’t you get it? The Guard are taking you to the safe house because you’re a guardian. But I’m not! I’m part of a curse. And this is my chance to break it. I don’t want to die like my parents. I want to have a good shot at beating Lunanine. I’m going to train.”

And without waiting for Lisa to respond (she didn’t think she could find her tongue quickly enough, anyway), he said, “Once they discharge me, when I’m healthier and stronger, I’m going to make my way to Olivine City. I’ll take a boat across to Cianwood Island. There’s an old seer there who lives up in the Island’s wildlands. Apparently he might know something about how to harness your psychic powers.”

Lisa felt completely stunned. She could never have predicted this was what Gavin wanted to tell her. Rather than concern for him, however, she felt irrational anger bubbling within her. How could he just leave her like this?

“Couldn’t you train at the safe house?” she said very quietly.

Gavin sighed heavily. “Not really. Lance said I could …” He broke off temporarily as Lisa gaped at him in surprise. “Yeah, Lance came to visit me.”

“What did he say? What does he think about you doing this?” demanded Lisa.

“Actually, he visited me to tell me to do it. He didn’t know I was already planning it.”

“What?”

Gavin nodded seriously. “He said that my connection with Lunanine was important to the Guard.”

Lisa’s jaw dropped slightly lower. Gavin pushed on.

“Apparently my family’s curse is somehow tied in with the Legend. So Lance wants me to train myself and prepare. He’s the one who gave me the lead about the Seer. He’s going to get someone to help me on my journey and stuff, someone from the Guard.”

“How –” Lisa struggled to find the right question to ask, for it seemed that scores of them were springing into life within her brain. “How are you – connected to the Legend?”

Gavin looked away from her again. “Lance has some ideas, but he said I’m not allowed to tell anyone, not even you.”

Lisa was not particularly hurt by this; the idea that Gavin was not going to come to the safe house with her had cut much deeper. She had somehow – naively – always assumed that Gavin would be there by her side. They had travelled together for so long, and experienced so much side-by-side, that she somehow had not foreseen a future without Gavin around her. She wanted to yell and rage and sob all at once.

“So, what, we’re just not going to see each other again then?” she said sorely.

Gavin was looking determinedly out the window. “Don’t be stupid.”

Lisa scowled at him behind his back. “What does that mean?”

“Well, of course we’ll see each other again!” cried Gavin hotly, still averting his eyes; Natu raised his head, bemused by his master’s raised voice. “Lance said I can come to the safe house when my training’s done.”

“And when will that be?” demanded Lisa.

“How am I meant to know? A few months maybe, I dunno.”

Lisa felt tears spring to her eyes and blinked them away rapidly, glad that Gavin was looking everywhere but at her.

“Well, I’ll see you then I suppose,” she said suddenly, standing up. “My parents will be waiting for me.”

“What?!” cried Gavin, finally whirling around to face her. Lisa had turned and was half way to the door when Gavin shouted, “PLEASE, LISA, DON’T GO!”

It was the desperation in his voice that made Lisa stop.

“Please, just wait a minute, don’t leave it like this,” said Gavin quietly.

Lisa turned around on the spot very slowly and locked eyes with the boy she knew was her best friend. And without meaning to, she rushed to his bed and threw her arms around his shoulders.

“Be careful, alright? Just be careful,” she whispered into Gavin’s ear, as he entwined his skinny arms around her.

“So you’re OK with me going?” he replied in a muffled voice.

Lisa squeezed him more tightly. “No. I hate you for going. I can’t believe this is even happening. I can’t believe you’re going to leave me. As selfish as that sounds. But I know that’s what you’re going to do anyway, and I can’t stand in the way of that. So I have to let you go, don’t I?”

She blinked. She hadn’t known she felt that way until the words escaped her mouth.

“I’m pretty scared,” said Gavin.

“I’m petrified,” Lisa replied, still embracing him.

“Can I ask you something?” came Gavin’s voice, very close to Lisa’s left ear. “If something does happen to me – can you make sure everything’s sorted out? Like … I dunno how these things are worked out, but if I don’t come back from Cianwood Island, if the Union gets me, or Lunanine … would you take care of things for me? Would you take care of my pokémon and everything? I don’t have any family left now to do that for me, you know. And you’re my best friend.”

Lisa could not believe her ears. The revelation that Gavin worried about such morbid things completely threw her, and for the first time in her life she fully comprehended how alone he was in the world. Her heart filled with pity and compassion.

“Gavin, of course I would. Gavin, I’ll always – I’ll always be here for you. I'll always be your friend.”

And, almost unconsciously, she kissed him on the cheek and tasted a salty tear rolling down it.

Gavin breathed in sharply, as though he had been caught out doing something terribly unmanly. But all he said was, in a deep and raw voice, “Will you really?”

“Of course I will, Gavin. I promise.”

[mr_pikachu]

Huh. So the duo's finally splitting up, huh? It is hard to be believe, after all this time. The odds are definitely against Gavin in his mission, but something tells me that Lisa's path isn't going to be any easier. Odd to see this much emotion from our two leads; you're right that they usually put on a brave face. Very unique chapter, to be sure.

I really liked the descriptions in this chapter. You did a good job of conveying the paralysis, pain and confusion of a panic attack, I thought. And Gavin's physical description was also top-notch. Even though referencing a skeleton is a little cliche for being malnourished, it worked quite well. And I was glad you tied in the spider scene from the last chapter, as that was a useful reminder of where we were in the plot.

To be perfectly honest, though, this chapter seemed a little off-kilter. I think it was the amount of characters who were, as the saying goes, "out of character." Or rather, the fact that they were out of character without a clear reason. Lisa seemed to be well enough in previous chapters, at least emotionally, then suddenly she broke down and has an outright panic attack. Doctor Rogers' change of heart also seemed very unusual; it wasn't just the fact that she cared for Lisa after the attack, but the manner in which she did it (like the friendly wink). Considering that we haven't seen Gavin since he entered the hospital, his changes didn't seem quite so awkward. But the other two...

It was still a good chapter; between the touching moments, the solid descriptions, and the plot twist at the end, it was certainly very eventful and exciting. But I do wish that we had been given some prior context for some of the character changes we encountered this time. Maybe it's just me, but that seemed to be rather unlike your normal work. Hmm.

Anyway, I'll see you for chapter 62, Gavin!

[mistysakura]

Yay new chapter. I kinda agree with Brian here; Lisa going emo did seem a bit sudden. It makes perfect sense that she needs to confront her feelings after all this time, but I thought it could have been portrayed more gradually. She's more or less fine in Chapter 60, then at the start of Chapter 61 she's totally different. It's not like much time elapsed either. But the description of Lisa's emotions would have worked really well had there been some signs in Chapter 60.

I thoguht the panic attack was portrayed well (not that I'd know), and the session with Dr. Tanner was believable. I was snickering at Dr. Tanner continually asking her how she felt about things, which probably wasn't the reaction you were after, but it's good that Lisa feels a lot better (and strangely enough, I can see her spilling everything out to a stranger once she gets started; it's just that normally she wouldn't feel comfortable starting, like you said).

I really liked the scene with Gavin. 'Gavin was too macho to admit to her twice that he wanted to talk something over with her' made me laugh, but anyway. Gavin's brooding seems a lot more in-character just because he's been changing ever since he escaped the Union. And he's definitely had a lot to think about. It sounds like he's been thinking about it a lot too; the way he lists the deaths and tells Lisa what he has to do is so... resolute. Lisa and Gavin parting was done convincingly as well. Lisa's stubbornness, then giving in and making the promise made so much sense. You know, like them, I took their being together for granted as well. It wasn't until this scene that I thought about how close they'd have to be having been through all that stuff, because I'd never really considered them as anything other than two halves of a whole.

Waiting for the next chapter, as we always are. Except I think we've gotten used to months between chapters now

[Sike Saner]

Good, potent chapter, there. o.o I’m very impressed with the attention to detail given to the thoughts and emotions explored in that chapter. No corners cut there—it was a nice, vivid view of the minds of Lisa and Gavin, particularly the former.

The panic attack was very well done. It was clearly a very harrowing experience for her; that it was was conveyed excellently. As it was actually taking place, before I quite knew what was happening to her, I was quite afraid for her. I was pretty concerned for her after, too, for that matter. I’m always impressed when a story can make me feel earnest concern for a character.

Fantastic work on the last scene, too. It was absolutely riveting to read—their interactions and emotions were spot-on, I’d say, very believeable, and a good, dramatic discussion is something that I always enjoy reading. Plus, that little kiss on the cheek that Lisa gave Gavin there near the end of the chapter was really sweet. ^^

A couple of my favorite excerpts:

And then she collapsed. The fear and weariness suddenly bore down on her, an enormous tidal wave of terror crashing down and drowning out every ounce of control and composure she had ever possessed. She was shaking, completely uncontrollably – the pain in the back of her head gave way to a sudden, agonising tightness in her chest. She could not breathe, her stomach was churning … She put her hands over her face and screamed, but silently; no noise escaped her mouth.

Again, it was very easy for me to get a good notion of just how dreadful the experience of having that panic attack was for her, especially with great descriptions of sensations like that there.

“I had like ten stitches in there before, but then it got all infected, so it’s pretty gross to look at still.” He sounded slightly proud.

Proud of how gross it was… that made me chuckle.

“Gavin, of course I would. Gavin, I’ll always – I’ll always be here for you. I'll always be your friend.”

And, almost unconsciously, she kissed him on the cheek and tasted a salty tear rolling down it.

Gavin breathed in sharply, as though he had been caught out doing something terribly unmanly. But all he said was, in a deep and raw voice, “Will you really?”

“Of course I will, Gavin. I promise.”

And again, that was a really sweet moment. ^^

I do wonder if Gavin and Lisa will reunite someday—I’m somehow more inclined to think they will (maybe just because I’d like to see them reunite), but of course, anything could happen. Well, whatever the future does bring for these characters—high or low, bleak or joyous or anything in between—I look forward to seeing it. ^^

[Gavin Luper]

Brian: Hey man, thanks for the prompt review as usual. It looks like I was right in being a bit concerned about how the emotion in this chapter would be received. Oddly, I was more worried about the Lisa-Gavin scene being overly melodramatic than the earlier parts of the chapter which focus on Lisa's isolation. In any case, I can't help but agree with you that it was a very off-kilter chapter; I kind of knew, as I wrote it, that it was rather different, yet I was also positive that it was the right thing to happen. I even considered re-writing chapter 60 before I posted 61, but that felt like a terrible step backwards, so I left it as it was. I thought I'd put enough hints in there as to Lisa's mental state, but I think it all got lost in the interaction with Emma, and the recapping, and the letters, and the spider. But, despite the way people have responded to chapter 61, I'm still sure it was all necessary, but I suppose that's because, as the writer, I have a different perspective on the story to the readers.

Ada: I hear you, and well, yeah - see what I wrote for Brian, I suppose, since it's the same explanation really. I suppose it didn't fit particularly well, but in my head it seemed logical, because I had been expecting Lisa to have this kind of breakdown-therapy thing for some time now. What I've learned from this is that I'll have to start looking at things a bit more from the reader's point of view. ^^ Thanks for reading though - and I'm really pleased that the Dr. Tanner scene and the Lisa-Gavin parting scenes worked, as they were probably the most vital things in this chapter plot-wise. I liked the way you spoke of Gavin and Lisa as 'two parts of a whole', too.

Sike Saner: Hi again, thanks for reading and replying once more! It's really good to hear that you found those discussions believable and engaging, because as I wrote them I thought I might get readers rolling their eyes at me or something. Yes, Gavin was rather proud of this particular wound, wasn't he? Rather more so than the scar the Union gave him earlier. His scar holds connotations of being trapped, helpless and, of course, tortured; while his latest wound reflects his (rather brave) fight on Mt Fairfax, hence the contrast. Oh, and the moment with Gavin was quite sweet I spose, but it was also a bit more than that.

About the panic attack: I'm glad you all thought it was depicted well - I tried to get the details as close as possible to described accounts of panic attacks. The reason it came out of nowhere was actually simply in the nature of those attacks, though: As Dr. Tanner explained, 'panic attacks' are kind of a latent response of fear and anxiety to something that has already happened. Whether or not Lisa was feeling calm and safe and emotionally sound one second before the attack is irrelevant, because they characteristically strike without warning and without any trigger.

About the next chapter: Lisa will be getting out of this damn hospital next chapter, I assure you. I've written some of this but I'm sure it will change, it always does with time. The planning of the rest of the book is still continuing, with very good results. I'm grabbing hold of all these flyaway threads and forcing them to weave. Much fun!

EDIT: 900 posts! I thought we'd never make it! Thanks to all my readers and reviewers and critics for all your feedback and support thus far, it's been great! [/unnecessary speech]

[mistysakura]

But, despite the way people have responded to chapter 61, I'm still sure it was all necessary, but I suppose that's because, as the writer, I have a different perspective on the story to the readers.

I'm not doubting that everything was necessary. I agree that Lisa had to let all this stuff out before she reenters the world and the war. It's just that I thought the transition was icky, as you said, lost in all the spider and Emma stuff.

[Gavin Luper]

I'm not doubting that everything was necessary. I agree that Lisa had to let all this stuff out before she reenters the world and the war. It's just that I thought the transition was icky, as you said, lost in all the spider and Emma stuff.

Well said. ^_^ Quite seriously. I'd like to blame the icky transition on the big gap between chapters, but I unfortunately have to accept it had more to do with my own ineptness and the fact that, in Chapter 60, I didn't quite know what I was going to do with Lisa's emotions. It would've been a lot cleverer of me to do this big planning phase BEFORE I started Book III ... better late than never I suppose. I'm just going to redouble my efforts to make the next chapters brilliant.

[Charles Legend]

Hey Gavin, Just lettng you know I am Slowly trying to catch
up to the latest chapter, anyways Gavin I think your done a grate job so far on this Story.

I realy like Lesa's Aipom.... *get's Spaped by my own Aipom Mr.Slaps*

~Charles Legend

[Gavin Luper]

Hey Charles, thanks for the reply! I wasn't sure if you were still reading or if you had disappeared. Good to hear you're catching up. Yes, I too like Aipom, despite the fact that he's inherently irritating as hell. Lisa somehow puts up with him; I imagine that Gavin's pretty much sick of him by this stage, though.

The plans continue! Without any evidence that sounds like an empty statement! But they do!

EDIT 2/8/07: I finally did the contents page! At long last! Now I realise why I put off doing it for so long: it took me, quite seriously, almost six hours to link all the chapters to the first post in this thread and make a nice, new, neat, shiny table of contents for all of us to enjoy. During that time I also made stacks of notes for the fic, edited almost all of the chapter titles (they had a crappy old format) and changed many of those titles, too (the new titles of which are old to me, but I never revised them online, so they will be new to you), and named each book of Lisa the Legend (somewhat dubiously, but I'm reasonably happy with the result). I also merged the old 'Prologue' with the first chapter, and additionally did a revamp of chapters 1 through 4: they now have proper spacing between paragraphs, (mostly) proper grammar and also there have been several new passages slipped into them that might make for interesting reading if you feel like it. It's mostly things that delve slightly deeper into Lisa's thoughts or add a touch more detail and realism than was there before, nothing fancy. Possibly the most important/interesting addition was in Chapter 3, where Lisa's background is actually mentioned properly, and Tuscany and Charmaine are spoken of early in the fic, which makes much more sense than the first reference to them being much later. Anyway, I hope you guys find the new contents cool and helpful: I definitely have already.

Also, during my travels through just about every post in this thread tonight, I discovered that Chapter 48 still suffers from a technical glitch we had back in 2004, which has skewed some speech marks, apostrophes and the like. I'll get around to fixing that as soon as I can, probably tomorrow night. I'd do it now, but I've yet to get document containing Lisa the Legend on the hard drive of this new computer. Plus, it's half-past two in the morning and I have Uni work to do tomorrow - not to mention I'm pretty damn tired.

Goodnight!

EDIT II: All fixed!

EDIT III - 23rd September: It didn't feel right to revive the whole thread just to post this. I just did a bit of a rework of the first chapter, nothing very major but it possibly reads better now. Hope you enjoy it if you decide to reread it. I've had a slow-burning epiphany with Chapter 62 over the past few days, so that's changing shape now. But it's coming soon. My planning continues, also - I'm sorry it's taking so long! Cheers!

[Master Kirby]

Hi Gavin. Its been quite a while since I posted here last, but I finally got around to reading the new chapter. I have a computer at my new job, so I was able to read during my lunch hour.

While the emotions may have been a little uncharacteristic of Lisa, they do a good job in showing you that she is just a normal teenage girl. She has been through a lot over the past months (months for her, years for us), and while she seems to have adjusted well, she is still human. Now that she has let out all her guarded secrets she will probably feel less of a mental/emotional burden when she reenters the world.

I agree with Lance, that it would be a good idea for Gavin to train his Psychic powers. If it is inevitable that he will be attacked by the legendary psychic, he will need to know how to defend himself. He has teleported a few times, and I remember him using a kind of psychic attack in the past (was it during a real big pokemon competition where someone's pokemon was trapped in the frozen water arena? dratini maybe?). If he is able to construct a kind of psychic forcefield and perfect his teleportation, that would help a lot whenever he is attacked.

I'm glad to hear that you are planning out the future chapters. Hopefully they won't take as long to write if you have the general plot figured out ahead of time. I'm looking forward to these future chapters. It will be interesting to follow Lisa and Gavin as they head out on their separate paths.

[Gavin Luper]

Master Kirby: I hoped you would come back! I saw that you hadn't been around since June, and wondered if you'd left us for good. Thanks for reading and replying once again.

The further away we move from Chapter 61, the more it feels like a real anomaly to me: it definitely was quite uncharacteristic in a number of ways. But what you said - "Now that she has let out all her guarded secrets she will probably feel less of a mental/emotional burden when she reenters the world" (and about showing Lisa as a normal teenage girl) - was exactly what I was aiming for with that chapter. It's just that I didn't carry it off very well, but at the time I thought it was all right. Oh well. You live, you learn.

Yup, Lance is a very clever leader, so he's got a whole lot of schemes going on behind the scenes. One of them is to work out exactly what Gavin's relevance to the Legend (and therefore, the Guard's plans) is; and of course, to help him master his psychic powers. As to the time you referred to in your post, that was at the Water Colosseum in (I think...) Chapter 15; and yeah, I think it was Dratini and Anna's Psyduck who were trapped. Good observation about Gavin, too: mastering his powers would be hugely beneficial, not just for him, but for the rest of the Guard.

To be honest I'm not sure how much of Gavin's journey will be shown ... we'll have to wait and see. Anyway, thanks very much for returning, mate; and I hope to see you back for the future chapters. (Btw - nice call about the 'months for her, years for us' ... We're coming up on six years now. It's terrifying.)

UPDATE

Everyone: Howdy. I think it's about time I shared some actual news of progress with you. Since July I've been fairly vague, so here's something a bit more quantifiable. For my plans for this last book of Lisa the Legend, I've basically split the book into 9 sagas, which are comprised of 2-4 chapters each (do the math if you want an extremely rough idea of how many chapters we'll be ending up with). These sagas are used purely for my sake as I write the book, just so it feels less onerous than embarking upon a massive novel; it breaks it up into achievable chunks. To give you a rough idea of how my planning is going, I've essentially done the planning for 7 of the book's 9 sagas. So I'm getting quite close to finishing the planning stage now. One or two of those sagas need some tweaking, and there's something giving me issues around chapter 67/8, but apart from that, I'm pleased to say it's shaping up really nicely.

I'm at the point now where the next step is to begin planning out the details of the Endgame of the whole fic - the big finale or whatever you want to call it - which is going to be heaps of fun and also quite difficult, I reckon, because it's so involved and full-on. But I'm excited nonetheless, because it's all falling into place now. And lately I've been getting more of an overview of the fic as a whole, and it's really helped to get that sort of "omniscient" perspective. For a long time I've been writing this with almost the same naivete that Lisa once had: now I feel like I'm getting a better grasp on how the world really runs (Lisa's world that is), and her place in it - and indeed, her character itself.

I hope that's a bit more satisfying to read than "planning going well" or whatever it is I usually say. Rest assured this fic is going to be charging onward once again very soon - I wouldn't be doing all this work for nothing! I'm flat out with exams until late November, but then I have three months off for the summer, and I intend to do a great amount of writing in that time.

Chapter 62 sits at just under 3000 words at the moment, but that doesn't mean much, because a lot of it will be changing. Anyway - thanks for being so patient guys (you know, assuming at least a few of you are still floating around somewhere) and sorry for taking so damn long to produce something!

Cheers!

[Karania]

After what seems like an eternity I'm finally back, been completely way too busy to even begin to describe it with school... I found upon my return at least four maybe five chapters that cropped up in my absence, which I think really are good, will definately take some more time to reexamine certain parts for things I may have missed, but I'll defiantley be around more now that my life has basically settled out finally. Though in any case, keep up the good work!

~Karania

[Gavin Luper]

Karania: Hi again! Good to see you back here. Thanks for the reply, and I'm glad you plan to catch up on the latest chapters at some point.

Everyone: Chapter 62 is here! I hope you all enjoy it. I've decided to get back to my roots with LTL: I always worked on 3000 - 4000 words per chapter for an average chapter, so I'm trying to get back to that from now on, though there will inevitably be some exceptions. Nonetheless, this new approach seems to be working. After eight months of planning and storyboarding, as well as wandering around in the wilderness with the actual writing of the story itself, I decided to just do what I used to do when I first started writing this: just enjoy it.

So, I wrote this chapter and I enjoyed it. I hope you do, too.

Cheers!

------------------------------------

Chapter 62 – Union Supremacy.


Lisa withdrew her arms from around Gavin’s shoulders.

“I really have to go, Gav. My parents’ll be here any minute now.”

Gavin wiped his face brusquely, as though determined to remove the tear that had just fallen in the most masculine way possible. The aura of solemnity that had fallen over the two of them following Lisa’s promise was suddenly broken; it was as if the moment had never existed.

“Yeah, okay,” he said, in a tone of forced casualness. He pulled further away from Lisa and slid quietly off the bed. For a second, Lisa wondered where on earth he was off to; then she realised he was headed for the toilet door. “Oh, before you go,” he added, a hand on the silver doorknob, “I meant to ask – do you still have my camera?”

Lisa racked her brains for a moment. “No. Did I ever have your camera?”

Gavin shrugged. “I think I chucked it in your backpack when we were on Mount Fairfax.”

“We were being shot at, and you thought to protect your camera,” she replied with a grudging smile. Sometimes Gavin was so illogical it was amusing. Endearing, even – though she would never admit it to him.

As if he could read her thoughts, Gavin flashed Lisa a dumb grin. “Anyway, could you go grab it for me? It’d be good to have something to record this trip to Cianwood on.” Without waiting for a response, he swung the toilet door shut with a soft thud.

Natu, who was still pecking fussily in his bowl of seed, gave a nervous tweet as Lisa made to exit into the corridor.

“Don’t worry, you’re not being abandoned,” Lisa said dryly. “I’ll be back in a moment, and Gavin’s just having a pee.”

She closed the door of room seven softly behind her, hoping not to bring any attention to herself. To her surprise, the blue-carpeted corridor of the Richardson Ward was, once again, completely devoid of human life. Maybe the nurses had gone on strike? There was no cause to complain, in any case: there was no one to impede her movements this time.

“Crap,” she muttered under her breath as she re-entered her room. She had completely forgotten about cleaning it, or packing her things, for that matter: her open suitcase looked like it had vomited clothes all over the thin, institutional carpet; the sideboard, meanwhile, was still strewn with old newspapers and a haphazard assortment of personal items – a couple of empty plastic water bottles, her pokégear, an uneaten packet of crisps from the last time Marina visited, her hairbrush and the belt for her pokéballs. She glanced hopefully at the clock to find that it was quarter past ten. Maybe her parents would feel like pitching in to help her pack? She couldn’t help but chuckle at her own hopeful naïveté.

Fishing around in her backpack, she soon located, beneath layers of junk and long-forgotten articles, Gavin’s camera. It was wrapped in what she had always assumed was one of her old yellow crop-tops; it was, in fact, an old, baggy T-shirt of Gavin’s. Lisa unfurled the T-shirt and examined the camera. She had always liked the look of it: it was a bulky, black camera with a large lens attached to the top of it; Gavin still preferred film to digital photography. Perhaps its nicest feature was the thick, durable strap, which, when worn around the neck, always seemed to give Gavin the appearance of an investigatory journalist.

A sudden, loud slam jolted Lisa from her thoughts. She stood up and glanced around the room, but it sounded like the noise had come from another room – maybe even another level – in the hospital.

Lisa appraised her messy room once more and sighed heavily; it wasn’t going to be a fun job. Still, it seemed like she was going to have enough time to do it: her parents were running late. Slinging the camera over her neck (why shouldn’t she get the chance to look like a reporter for once?), Lisa moved over to the window. Though it was rain-splattered from the overnight storm, it still offered a comprehensive view of the regal Redwood City as well as, closer to hand, the hospital carpark. Lisa scanned the four rows of parked cars, not really expecting a result; she did a double take when her eyes fell upon her father’s white sedan. Yes, that was it: a late model Holden, EC number-plates, an Ecruteak Fruitbats bumper sticker on the back window. She squinted harder. The car was empty; her parents must be on their way up.

Gavin could wait, she thought. She would go and stand outside the lift to surprise her parents. She jogged down the corridor, past the empty nurses station (were Emma and her colleagues at morning tea?) to the silver face of the elevator. She eyed the illuminated numbers above the sliding doors: the lift was still on the ground floor. A long moment passed, in which Lisa could hear nothing but the low buzz of the ducted air-conditioning and, on one of the lower floors, a couple of voices. After perhaps two minutes, the small number ‘1’ lit up with a soft ‘ping’, followed by the number ‘2’. Lisa readied herself, excited to see her parents – and maybe even Wes and Jean – again.

The number ‘3’ lit up with a soft yellow glow; a cool voice said, “Level Three” and the silver doors slid open crisply.

And there, sprawled on the carpeted floor of the elevator, was Emma’s body.

Lisa wasn’t sure if she screamed or not; certainly, she tried, but she could not tell if any sound came from her throat. Her ears had suddenly filled with an otherworldly static, her temples tingling from the volume of blood that had rushed to her head at the grotesque sight before her.

It couldn’t be real – it couldn’t! It still looked like Emma; her face was still whole and freckled, her auburn hair still tied back off her face. Lisa’s eyes scurried over the scene, unblinking, affixed to the horror. Emma’s garb was no longer white; dark crimson blood, almost black, had blossomed over her chest. The carpet was visibly soaked. A silver clipboard lay open in the corner of the lift, the pages within it torn.

A single bullet hole had burned through it.

The silver doors slid shut with an efficient whirr. Lisa stared at them silently, at her reflection: the pallid mask of horror on her face, her hands contorting, clutching at thin air, the camera slung casually over her red jumper. Her brain reeled; her stomach churned; she knew she was going to throw up. Then the cool patient voice repeated itself patiently, “Level Three” and the silver doors slid open once more, and there was the corpse, still horrendous, still dead, still covered in blood.

This time she knew she screamed.

Everything happened at once. Suddenly, someone was holding her from behind. She didn’t even think to fight them; her stomach lurched and she doubled over, retching horribly.

“Lisa! Oh my God …”

It was Gavin. He had an arm around her waist, physically supporting her, but at the sight of Emma’s body, the little strength in his weedy arms gave out. Lisa fell to her knees, trying to avoid the pool of vomit. She lowered her head, closing her eyes, trying to regain focus. She was suddenly aware of the voices present nearby: some of the other patients in the ward been alerted by the sound of Lisa’s scream. However, even above the cries of shock around her, she could hear new sounds: loud thuds, gunshots, shouts and screams on the lower floors.

The unmistakeable sounds of battle.

The elevator doors slid shut again. Steeling herself against the terror, Lisa wiped her mouth on her sleeve and, pushing herself back up to a kneeling position, turned to face the corridor.

Gavin was kneeling beside her, his eyes grey and unseeing. Behind him, five other figures had emerged into the corridor from their rooms; two were jogging toward the lift, while the others remained hesitant at the thresholds to their rooms.

“What’s going on?” cried a wheezing male voice.

“Are you alright, love?” called a second, a female.

Lisa didn’t have time to speak, to warn them. As her two fellow patients arrived where she and Gavin knelt, the silver door opened once again, the robotic voice as cool as ever.

“Level Three.”

The man, overweight and in his thirties, stopped in his tracks, his eyes bulging. The woman, who was younger and fitter and had already reached Lisa’s side, fell to her knees in disbelief.

Abruptly, Gavin grabbed Lisa by the shoulders. “Leese …” he gasped, his face still white as a sheet, his voice tight with terror.

“I know, I know …” Lisa spluttered back. There was no need for words or questions. Somehow, the Union had found them.

Gavin looked at her imploringly. “What do we –” he muttered, cutting himself off as the female patient began to shake silently.

Lisa closed her eyes and hummed. It was an old method, but it was tried and tested. She forced the air past her larynx in a long, unbroken rhythm, focusing on slowing her heart rate down, on thinking clearly. She remembered back to a time not so long ago, when a bullet had pierced her back; when the Union agent on Mt Fairfax had pressed his boot down over her throat, threatening to kill her.

It’s not that bad. I haven’t been shot yet.

Oddly comforted, she continued to hum. Footsteps were pelting down the corridor of the Richardson Ward; the other patients were coming to investigate the source of the commotion. Lisa harnessed her thoughts.

We need to get out of here. We need to get them out of here.

BANG!

Everyone in the corridor jumped as sharp explosion rent the air; it sounded like an enormous firecracker, though Lisa flinched at the thought of what it actually was. The shouts from downstairs were constant now, and louder; it sounded like there were people fighting in the stairwell beside the lift.

“What’s happening?” demanded the overweight man of nobody in particular.

Lisa’s mind was churning over the same question. She was slowly piecing together a theory of what had happened. The Union must have gotten wind of the fact that she was to be extracted from the hospital today. They had launched an attack on Redwood Hospital in the same manner as they had attacked Olivine’s Hospital two weeks ago. Although judging from the roar of chaos below, Lisa thought grimly, there might be more than six casualties this time.

Mum and Dad!

An electric panic surged through Lisa’s body at the thought. Had her parents stepped out of their sedan and walked right into a Union siege? Were they downstairs fighting right now? Or had they ---

She couldn’t even think it.

“Okay, everyone, listen up,” she said abruptly, addressing Gavin and the five other patients in the corridor. She knew the toughness in her voice sounded forced, and feeble, but someone had to do something, and it seemed that she was recovering fastest from seeing Emma’s body. “Out of all of you, who is in the Guard?”

The overweight man and younger woman looked at Lisa with mild incredulity; the other three patients, who were considerably older and had just arrived, seemed unable to even hear her address.

“What’s the Guard?” asked the younger woman eventually.

“Lisa – they’re not members,” Gavin whispered.

“Aren’t they? Dad told me that eight Guard members were sent here from Mt Fairfax.”

“Yeah, a month ago. They’ve already been discharged by now. We’re the only two left.”

Lisa surveyed the ashen faces surrounding her and knew that he was right: not one of the patients seemed to have a clue what the Guard even was. As she exchanged a sober look with Gavin, a whip of realisation struck her in the face: it really was up to the two of them to take charge.

There was the unmistakeable crash of glass shattering in the stairwell beside the lift; a male voice roared, “FUCKING COWARD!”

“OKAY, EVERYONE INTO MY ROOM, ROOM SEVEN!” Gavin bellowed suddenly, getting back on his feet.

The other patients didn’t need to be told twice. The overweight man cast a dubious glance at Gavin, clearly unhappy with being told what to do by a teenager, but the other four responded without argument, scampering back down the corridor as quickly as their respective illnesses allowed. The man hesitated before following them.

“Oh my God,” Lisa breathed, as Gavin helped her up. “Okay … so we need to get our stuff … I don’t have my pokémon or my Buzzball or anything …”

“Get what you need from your room, meet me in mine,” Gavin said swiftly, already jogging toward the rooms.

“Gavin – wait a sec!” Nothing seemed clear – they didn’t have a plan, they didn’t have time to organise their thoughts. “How are we going to get out of here?”

As one, they glanced at the stairs; shouts were issuing from somewhere very near the door, accompanied by what sounded like the grunt of a Machoke.

Gavin cleared his throat.

“Lisa – the lift.”

“What?! Gavin, are you mental? That’s obviously how they got Em – oh!”

Lisa’s eyes found the panel above the silver doors. The number ‘3’ was no longer illuminated; the lift was slowly descending to the second, first … ground floor.

“Come to my room, we’ll work something out!” gabbled Gavin, his voice breaking slightly.

Together, they sprinted down the corridor, Gavin’s camera bouncing wildly on Lisa’s chest. Reaching Room Four, Lisa veered off. It seemed ridiculous that her room was so quiet, so perfectly ordinary, while downstairs, battle raged. As she quickly scooped up her possessions and crammed them in her backpack, something bright caught her eye. Through the window, she saw a burst of flame, blinding even in the mid-morning sunlight; a second later, the sound of the explosion rocked the windowpanes, though they did not break. Forgetting about haste, Lisa gazed, mesmerised, at the scene outside. The fighting had spilled out into the carpark: people in civilian clothing were running about, ducking between and behind cars, dodging the blaze that had just taken hold of one of the cars. There were no guns visible, though jets of fluorescent green light were being fired through the air. It seemed the Union had brought their stunners to the fight. An array of pokémon had also been introduced to the meleé – from what Lisa could make out, there was a small swarm of Beedrill overpowering what looked like a Pythir.

“LISA, HURRY THE FUCK UP!”

“Right!”

Feeling stupid for having been distracted, Lisa grabbed the last couple of things from her nightstand – a couple of cards and photographs, and her wallet – and threw them pell-mell into her backpack. Sweeping the room one final time, she farewelled her suitcase of clothes and bolted for the door.

As she stepped into the corridor, Lisa felt her spine flood with fear. Fifty metres away, the lift pinged softly and a cool voice said, “Level Three.”

She had never run so fast in her life. Doors flashed by her until she reached room seven; no sooner had she ducked inside it than a voice behind her shouted, “STOP!”

Gavin and the other five were already clustered in the room, apparently trying to open the window. Lisa slammed the door shut behind her and clicked the lock into place.

“Gavin – someone’s already here, someone’s coming for us!”

There was a collective squeal from the other patients; a second later, Gavin gave a grunt of triumph as he flung the window open.

“Go, Skarmory!” he cried, hurling a pokéball at his feet. A burst of radiant light revealed the sleek, metallic form of the steel-winged pokémon.

“Slash the security screen!” Gavin ordered fervently. “Everyone else, stand back!”

The five adults backed away from the window. Lisa let her mouth fall open as Skarmory raised a gleaming scythe and, in two deft strokes, reduced the security screen to shreds of metal frame and wire.

“Gavin, THAT’S your plan?!” screeched Lisa, losing her cool completely; she had just seen Natu fluttering about the ceiling in distress.

“You got a better one?”

“FOR GOD’S SAKE, YES, YOU CAN TELEPORT!”

Gavin let his eyes roll back in his head in bitter realisation. “Fuck – I forgot.”

“What do you mean, he can teleport?” piped up an elderly woman in a nightgown, who was clutching an empty bedpan as though it alone might protect her from any attacker.

“My Natu – and – my pokémon –” Gavin muttered dismissively, urgently pulling pokéballs out of his pockets. “Staryu, Girafury – go!”

As the room was enveloped in bursts of blinding light, there was a sudden pounding on the door.

“OPEN UP!”

The younger woman shrieked; the elderly lady raised the bedpan above her head.

“LISA, GAVIN – OPEN THE DOOR!”

“GO TO HELL!” screamed Lisa, backing away from the door and aligning herself with the patients.

“LISA – IT’S DAD – QUICK, WE HAVE TO GET YOU OUT OF HERE!”

“THAT’S NOTHING LIKE MY DAD’S VOICE, YOU ARSEHOLE!”

There was a violent tshkk tshkk tshkk as the door erupted in a screen of smoke and dust; the Union agent on the other side was firing something at it.

Lisa spun round to Gavin. “Hurry!”

Gavin was appointing a patient to each of his pokémon. Staryu was assigned to the eldest lady; Girafury, being a larger beast, took a couple in their fifties. Natu fluttered down onto the shoulder of the young woman; however, she shook him off.

“I have a Pidgeotto,” she said softly to Gavin, her tone almost dream-like as she dropped a Fast Ball to the ground.

“Fine then, fly, good luck!” said Gavin shortly to the woman, as her Pidgeotto materialised and she climbed onto its back. “Okay, Natu, you take the fat guy!”

“EXCUSE ME!”

“Tu tuuuu …”

Natu fluttered onto the rotund man’s sizeable shoulder; the woman’s Pidgeotto gave a courageous squawk and took flight into the sunlight.

The door gave a violent shudder; a large crack appeared down the middle of it. The man on the other side was now shouting for back up.

“Gavin, for the pokémon to teleport somewhere – they need to have an idea of what the place they’re going to looks like, don’t they?”

Gavin bit his lip and nodded. “Yeah, and I don’t think they’ll be able to move very far at all if they’re carrying humans. Let me think, let me think …” He began to scan the view through the wide open window.

“Think faster!” urged the man in his fifties, holding his wife’s waist with one hand and Girafury’s mane with the other; the door was shaking so violently it appeared to be seconds away from snapping in two.

“OF COURSE, THE ACACIA RIVER!” Gavin roared. “OKAY, NATU, STARYU, GIRAFURY – LOOK OUT THE WINDOW – SEE THAT RIVER, SURROUNDED BY ALL THOSE TREES? SEE THAT ONE REALLY TALL TREE? LOOK AT IT, MEMORISE IT, GO THERE NOW, GO, GO! EVERYBODY ELSE HOLD ON!”

The patients quickly grabbed on to their rides; Natu, Staryu and Girafury each gave a proud battle cry and disappeared in three brilliant flashes of hyacinthine light.

Suddenly, the room felt much larger; only Lisa, Gavin and Skarmory remained.

“Okay, so you’re going to teleport us yourself, right Gavin?” Lisa asked, hoping her assumption had been right. “I mean, you said you got your powers back …”

Gavin nodded calmly. “Yeah, I think I can do it. It’s only, what, five hundred metres away, maybe a kilometre at the most. Return, Skarmory,” he added swiftly; Skarmory dissolved instantly in a globule of scarlet light, returned to his pokéball.

“You can’t hide forever, girl!” snarled the Union agent at the door. A chunk of wood splintered off the door and tumbled to the ground; whatever was being done to the door was obviously working. “We didn’t come here today to fail!”

He took another shot at the door; a larger chunk of wood broke away; a hole was now gaping, through which Lisa could see a pair of hands grasping a stunner.

“Well, prepare to!” Lisa shot back, grabbing hold of Gavin’s hand. “You ready?”

Gavin nodded and clasped her hand tightly, but it was as far as they ever got; a bolt of electric-blue light sizzled the air and struck Gavin directly in the chest.

“NO!” Lisa screamed, as he dropped, a soundless deadweight, to the floor.

There was a cackle of triumph as the door finally split in two; a black boot kicked its way through the cracked panels of burnt timber. Lisa gaped in shock: Gavin was not moving; he could not teleport her away …

A yellow-toothed, Hispanic-looking man stood in the doorway, his dark eyes agleam with victory.

“Hello again, Lisa. It really has been too long,” he snarled, levelling the stunner at Lisa’s chest and swiftly pulling the trigger.

[mr_pikachu]

*whistles softly* Okay, now I see why you changed the style back. That was intense. It wasn't just the battle that was attention-grabbing, either; your writing style, as usual, was gripping. Awesome description, for one thing. I love the attention you pay to detail; it's something I still need to improve. And that first line with Emma pretty much made the chapter. You foreshadowed the daylights out of that one, but it still hit home.

Criticisms, criticisms... uh... well, I sort of alluded to it before, but there was a lot of foreshadowing. I'm not sure whether or not it was too much, really. I mean, you made it blatantly obvious that things weren't right; that in itself was a negative, but it may have increased the dramatic tension in the early parts. It's something to consider, though not necessarily something to change. I also couldn't figure out why the elevator door kept opening on its own. Maybe you all have a different system than what we have in the U.S., but if there was a secondary reason for it then that might have been worth explaining.

All in all, though, very strong as usual. You've left us with two cliffhangers this time: what will happen to Lisa and co., and what's up with Lisa's family? A lot to consider. Not to mention the creepy Union guy at the end. Why can I not remember who Mr. Spaniard is? WHY? Ugh. I'm so ashamed. At any rate, beautiful change in the tone, and nice developments in pure plot. I look forward to seeing what you pull out next!

[mistysakura]

Yeah, foreshadowing fun! Really, it would have been fine had you not said the thing about the nurses being on strike or something. It just draws attention to it (and the nurses being on strike would be stupid). It's cool that you're just doing what you enjoy I really wasn't expecting action so early on (well, not at the beginning of this chpater, anyway), so this chapter really reminded me how action-packed this fic is. ...damn, who's Hispanic guy? And if I were being really picky, I'd say the Hispanic region doesn't exist in your world, but meh. It gets to the point. It was chilling how the elevator door kept opening and revealing Emma's body (something was stuck in there, that's why it kept opening, right?). And the sheer chaos of escape and people not trusting the Pokemon and Gavin not remembering he can teleport (hehe, a Hermione moment there)...ah so real. Am I imagining this, of has the level of Lisa and Gavin's swearing really escalated? If that's intentional character development, which makes sense, cool, but if it's because you were an ickle school kid when you wrote Chapter 1... yeah just wanted to see if it was a conscious decision. On random notes, I thought 'she knew she was going to throw up' was pretty redundant after you said 'her stomach churled' and I think there's a word missing from "dark crimson blood, almost black, had blossomed over chest".

Really wasn't expecting the chapter so quickly. Had fun, glad you did too.

[Gavin Luper]

Well, this might be the only time I don't give full, detailed replies to my readers. I need to be leaving the house for Melbourne in about 30 minutes and I haven't packed, cleaned the place or done anything I should've. Brian and Ada, I appreciated your comments and feedback heaps, as always (and I think I've spoken to you both already about the chapter, at any rate). I'm glad you both enjoyed the chapter and the style change. I'll take the stuff about foreshadowing on board: maybe some restraint is in order. "Less is more" and all that. Re: the lift, I had one do that to me in real life completely randomly a few weeks ago (it was level six of a multi-storey carpark) and I thought it would be very well used for dramatic tension in that moment. So that's the background for that. Thanks for the criticisms and compliments. And the identity of the Hispanic man will be revealed momentarily ...

Hoping to see some of the other readers around, I always love hearing responses and feedback from you guys, too, so please let me know how you're liking the continuation of the fic!

Without further ado, here's Chapter 63, which is what I spent this afternoon finishing instead of packing. I really enjoyed writing this chapter; as always, I hope that enjoyment translates to you guys, too.

Cheers!

----------------------------

Chapter 63 – Submission.


A jet of ultramarine energy exploded from the tip of the Union agent’s stunner. Lisa reached for her belt, but her hand was not fast enough; she felt an overwhelming force strike her squarely in the chest. She was blasted off her feet; her backpack slammed into the wall behind Gavin’s bed, followed instantly by her head. An instant migraine cleaved her skull and Gavin’s camera dug into her chest as she landed, face-down, on the thin carpet by the bed, silver stars bursting to life before her eyes.

“STUNNED HER!” came Anthony’s triumphant yell.

Despite the splitting pain in her head, Lisa bit back the instinctive groan she wanted to release. Something had gone wrong: she was still conscious …

There was a sharp bang from one of the lower floors; spread-eagled on the ground, Lisa felt the ground tremble violently. The thought of her parents reared its head once more, her spine prickling with a rush of terror. It seemed they had walked right into a Union siege. Had they been prepared for battle? Or had they been taken completely by surprise?

“HELP ME LIFT HER!”

Anthony, the Union agent who, with Morty, had deceived Lisa and Gavin on Mt Fairfax, was right beside her now; one of his rough hands closed tightly, painfully, around her upper arm, while the other took hold of her right leg. He began to drag Lisa unceremoniously toward the door; her backpack, she forced herself to go limp.

A second pair of footsteps thundered down the corridor. An ocker, almost unassuming, male voice cried from the doorway: “Ha! Got ‘em both, Ant?”

Anthony’s deep snarl rumbled from somewhere too close to Lisa’s face for comfort. “Shut up and help me get her out of here before she comes to.”

The newcomer snorted derisively. “What, where you gonna take her?”

Lisa bit her tongue against the combined pain of the carpet burn on her face and the continued pressure of Gavin’s camera against her sternum, but forced herself to stay still. There were two Union agents in the room now, and she was unarmed. The fact that they thought she was unconscious was the only weapon in her arsenal.

“Just help me get her out of here,” Anthony spat again. Lisa was sure they were getting near the door.

Another loud bang sounded from below; a second later, there was a terrible, drawn out screech.

“What the hell was that?” demanded Anthony, stopping in his tracks. His grip on Lisa’s limbs loosened.

There was nothing else for it: Praying that Anthony had looked around at the other Union agent, Lisa plunged her hand down toward her belt, her hand closing at once on a cool pokéball. Opening her eyes, she rolled onto her back and ditched the ball at the floor, just as the Union agent at the doorway cried out, “OY!”

The explosion of radiance from the pokéball blinded Anthony as he spun round to face Lisa. She pulled herself up to a sitting position and garnered a brief glance of a tanned, stocky man standing at the door, levelling his own stunner at her.

“NO!” she screamed, throwing herself at the floor again; something white-hot grazed her hair a second before she hit the ground.

“GET HER!” roared Anthony wildly. It sounded like he was in excruciating pain, though Lisa, face down on the floor again, could not see why. In desperation, she tried to commando-crawl beneath Gavin’s bed, but she knew there was no chance she would make it before the Union agent at the door recharged his stunner and fired again …

“AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!”

Lisa’s body surged with something hard, something beyond pain; her nerves had become strands of barbed wire, spiking her flesh from within. It was agony; it was hell: she was in darkness, languishing in her own mind … there could be no level of pain past this …

And then, at once, it was over; and Lisa was shaking, almost vibrating, on the carpet, a cold sweat running down her forehead, her arms too weak to even move.

Something small, metallic and cylindrical pressed into the back of her head.

“That was a taste of what you’re up against,” snarled the voice of the stocky Union agent. “Now stand up, or I’ll pull this trigger again.”

Lisa’s arms were like water.

“I can’t,” she quavered, eyes on the grey carpet. In the background, Anthony was shouting at his partner for assistance, but the second agent was not interested.

“Get up,” he repeated, prodding the tip of his stunner a little harder against Lisa’s skull. The casualness in his voice was dangerous.

Lisa tried again; her mind was still spinning, her arms still aching and unresponsive.

“It hurts too much …” she tried to say clearly, but her voice came as a whimper. “I can’t get up …”

She waited for a second current of pain to course through her, but it never came. There was a sudden flare of light from behind her and, to her complete surprise, a loud thump. Mustering all her strength, Lisa cocked her head to the left; beside her, collapsed on the ground, was the stocky Union agent, his eyes closed.

“OH NO YOU DON’T, BOY!” yelled Anthony, barely a metre away. He no longer sounded in agony, but there was something frightened in his register.

“YES I DO!” bellowed a teenage voice.

Lisa’s heart flooded with hope. This time Lisa actually heard Gavin grunt with the effort: another blast of intense light flared behind her, followed by a subdued swearword from Anthony and a dull thump.

Silence fell in the room, punctuated by the sounds of battle from the lower floors and carpark.

“Lisa …” Gavin was kneeling beside her, a sweaty hand against her jaw. “You okay?”

Lisa nodded painfully; she wasn’t sure how many times she had hit her head in the previous two minutes.

“Sit up … what did he do to you?”

“The Stunner … he had it set to something else. It was just …” An electric shiver, perhaps an aftershock, wriggled down her spine. “… pure pain.”

Gavin’s hands had moved down to her shoulders. “Come on, get up, we need to get the hell out of here.”

“I know.” With Gavin’s assistance, Lisa managed to pull herself off the ground, but no sooner had she regained a sitting position than her head spun with giddiness. She closed her eyes, trying to keep herself conscious.

“Leese – you right?” demanded Gavin, his voice urgent.

Lisa did her best not to slur her words. “I think I need some water …”

“Righto. Cup your hands, then,” said Gavin swiftly. Lisa obeyed without thinking.

“Fisky, get over here and give Lisa a drink,” said Gavin, in a louder, clearer voice. Lisa wondered what on earth he was doing until she realised that Fiskmire must have been the pokémon she set on Anthony earlier.

She felt Fiskmire’s heavy footsteps approach her before a cold liquid trickled into her cupped hands. She brought her hands to her mouth and gulped a cool mouthful down. She had never drunk water from a water-type pokémon before. It was purer than she expected: clean and sweet and with an almost earthy taste, like how she imagined water from mountain springs might taste. As she swallowed the final mouthful, she found that her dizziness had ebbed somewhat.

She opened her eyes. Fiskmire crouched before her, his beady eyes filled with concern. The fine blue fur on his back was ruffled and patchy: it looked like Anthony had scratched his back quite savagely.

“I’m alright, Fisky,” Lisa said softly. “Are you?”

Fiskmire shrugged his heavy, squared shoulders. Lisa reached out her arm to rub his head when, quite abruptly, Gavin cried, “My camera!”

Lisa tore her eyes from Fiskmire to find Gavin gaping at her chest, open-mouthed. She glanced down. Gavin’s black camera looked like it had been run over by a car: pieces of the camera shell had splintered off entirely; the place where the battery had once resided was now an empty hole; the flash had smashed into pieces and, most dramatically of all, the lens was no longer clear, but made opaque by hundreds of spidery cracks.

“So that’s why that first Stunner beam didn’t knock me out,” Lisa said slowly. “Anthony shot the camera instead …”

Gavin did not look comforted by this fact: indeed, his face was even more pale than it had been; he looked devastated.

“Give it to me,” he said shortly, slinging his backpack onto the ground.

Lisa didn’t even think to question the seriousness in his tone: she unfurled the camera strap from around her neck and, cradling it in both her hands so as to keep it from falling apart, passed it to Gavin. He placed it gently in the smallest pocket of his rucksack, his face still pallid.

The continued screams and blasts of battle below tugged at Lisa’s ears again.

“Right – we have to move,” she said abruptly. For a minute or so after Gavin defeated Anthony there had been a lull in the room, a deceptive sense of safety born from the relative quiet, but Lisa knew there was no time for resting on their laurels: more agents could arrive on the third floor in a matter of seconds.

She scanned the floor for Fiskmire’s pokéball and found it lying in the spray of sawdust from the erstwhile door.

“That was good work, Fisky,” she said, as if they had just defeated a wild Raticate in the bush. She threw a glance at the motionless form of Anthony: his black pants were almost shredded by Fiskmire’s teeth, and it looked like Fiskmire’s claws had drawn deep scratches on the Mediterranean-looking agent’s arms. “Return.”

A surprised expression stole over Fiskmire’s chubby features as the scarlet light washed over him; it seemed he had been expected more opponents.

“But Fiskmire didn’t knock Anthony or this other guy out, did he Gavin?” Lisa continued, double-checking that she had all her pokéballs on her belt after being thrown across the room.

Gavin zipped his bag up solemnly.

“No. I did. My powers …” he murmured, not looking up. “It was scary, because I actually knew what I was doing this time. I wanted them KOed, I tried to make it happen … and it did. Two big things of purple lights – took ‘em both out straight away …”

Lisa let her gaze wander from Anthony’s body to the form of the stocky Union agent. A surge of curiosity flooded her sense of urgency.

“What do you think they came here for?” she asked, feigning nescience. She knew, of course: her father’s words from a month ago had been on constant loop in her head since she first comprehended that Redwood Hospital was under attack by the Union:

“The only way anyone can take the fragment of key hidden within the Sepulchre of Suicune is to have you enter it, Lisa, as you are the guardian of Suicune. That’s why the Union tracked you down so vehemently over the past four months, Lisa; that’s why you’ve been the object of their attacks so many times. Once they possessed you, they could effectively force you into the Sepulchre of Suicune, once they found it, and lo and behold, they’d be a step closer to having all the keys and finally having access to the secret in the shrine of the legendaries.”

Gavin stood up and slung his rucksack onto his back. “You, of course,” he said simply. “Somehow they got wind that your Mum and Dad were taking you to the safe house today and decided to attack.”

Lisa’s blood ran cold at the mention of their names.

“Do you think they’re okay?” she said in a rush.

Gavin scratched his shaved head for a second. “Probably,” he said, finally, and Lisa was strangely comforted that he hadn’t just given her a thoughtless, “I’m sure they’re fine.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well,” Gavin said seriously. “From the sounds of it … and the looks of it …” He glanced through the window, and Lisa followed suit: a dozen or so figures were running around amid flashes of vibrant light from Stunners, jets of lurid flamethrowers and clouds of Poison Gas attacks. “… it’s not just your Mum and Dad fighting the Union. That’s a big battle. They must have brought some of the Guard with them just in case something like this happened.”

Lisa’s heart lifted, then plummetted: so how many Guard members were going to be injured, maybe killed, because of her? How many innocent bystanders? Emma’s corpsed flashed through her mind’s eye again …

“Lisa, this isn’t the time to be thinking this over,” said Gavin sharply, correctly reading the pensive silence that had crept over her. “Come on, I’ll teleport us out of here – we need to go meet the other patients, and my pokémon.” He focused his eyesight on the wooded area on the banks of the Acacia River, still visible over the plumes of smoke issuing from the battlefield below.

Lisa took his sweaty palm; their fingers locked together tightly.

“Ready? Here we go,” said Gavin confidently.

Lisa closed her eyes. Gavin’s hand squeezed hers tighter still. A second passed, then another. Her feet were still firmly on the ground.

“Gavin?”

She opened her eyes, disenchanted: they were still surrounded by the wreckage of Gavin’s hospital room. It looked like the stocky Union agent sprawled beneath the bed was beginning to stir.

“Sorry, I was trying,” muttered Gavin breathlessly. “I think I needed to wait a bit longer to recharge my energy stores or something like that.”

“Well, recharge faster!” cried Lisa: the Union agent was shaking his head from side to side as if he had water in his ears.

“Okay, I think I’m ready!” cried Gavin, equally urgent. “Hold on, here goes!”

Lisa closed her eyes once more, readying herself for the queasy whirlwind of teleportation. She gripped Gavin’s right hand tighter, tighter, until, suddenly, her hand closed on nothing but thin air.

“Gavin – what the -?”

Her eyes flew open in fear. There was nobody standing beside her. She was stranded, still, in the hospital room.

“NO!” She couldn’t stop herself: how could this have happened – how could she be left behind?

The stocky Union agent pushed his hands against the carpet, lifting him off the ground.

“You won’t get out of here, girl!”

He got to his knees and, with a menacing glare toward Lisa, reached for his Stunner, still splayed on the floor beside him.

Lisa’s feet were carrying her before she had even thought about what she was doing: she leapt over Anthony’s body, glided over the mess of sawdust and darted smartly through the remains of the door. Reaching the corridor, she glanced left and right, hesitating for one infinitesimal moment before throwing her weight left and sprinting. The lift and stairs might have been dangerous, but they were a known escape route. She had no way of knowing whether or not there was a flight of stairs to her right – and if there weren’t, she would be cornered in an instant.

She ran on, past the nurses’ station, barely metres from the lift now. The Union agent bellowed at her from a long way behind, but she knew her headstart would make all the difference. Shuddering at the thought of what was in the lift, Lisa grabbed the silver handle of the stairwell beside the lift and, steeling herself, pulled it open wide.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” screeched a female voice.

Lisa ducked in the nick of time as a bolt of blue light soared past her head and into the corridor. It took her a second to realise that neither the curse nor the jet of energy from the Stunner had been directed at her: Barely a foot in front of her, a blonde woman was clinging to the yellow handrail in an effort to stay on her feet, her back to Lisa; a black-clothed man stood on the landing, wielding an oversized stunner, the form of a steel-blue Machoke slumped at his feet.

Sure that the Union agent had not yet spied her behind the frame of the blonde woman, Lisa plunged her hand into the pocket of her jeans. The cool, rubbery surface of the Buzzball was as welcome and reliable as ever, and as Lisa extracted it, she felt herself transported back to the chaos of Mt Fairfax. She was back in war mode.

“ELECTRIFY!”

As she screamed the command, Lisa held the red orb over the shoulder of the blonde woman. A spear of white-hot electricity crackled through the air, splitting into two forks of energy: one struck a small ‘Mind Your Step’ sign on the wall, showering them all with orange sparks; the second fork of electricity found the man’s stunner. There was a loud fizz of electricity and an unexpected burst of smoke from the stunner; then the man’s body gave a wild jerk and he collapsed to the concrete with an unpleasant whack!

Lisa spun round in terror suddenly: she had forgotten the Union agent behind her. Her mouth fell open slightly as she spied his silent form sprawled on the floor ten metres down the corridor; his stunner had landed by the nurses’ station.

“That’s some skill, Lisa!”

Lisa glanced back into the stairwell. The blonde woman stood a short way behind her, a shaky grin on her pale face. Lisa felt a rush of joy: she recognised the woman from the makeshift ward at the Fairfax Inn. She was a Guard member.

“Christina,” she boomed, holding out a large, rough-skinned hand. Lisa took it weakly. Christina’s eyes scanned her briefly. “God, I’m glad you’re alright,” she said eventually, and it came with a heavy sigh. “I was fighting two of them at once, and I couldn’t keep track of everything – that bastard got past me on the second floor landing,” she added a little abashedly, jerking her head toward the unconscious form of the stocky Union agent. “But it looks like you took care of him anyway.”

Lisa shook her head gently. “I didn’t. I think that shot from the stunner that was meant for you hit him – I still had the door open …”

Christina placed a hand on Lisa’s right shoulder; Lisa was surprised that, for such a strong, well-built woman, she was shaking violently. “You did good with that jerk in the stairwell, at any rate,” she said seriously, poking her thumb behind her; the black-clothed man was still slumped beside the unconscious Machoke on the landing. “Your parents told me about this thing. What’s it called again?”

Lisa lifted the Buzzball up to show Christina, but she didn’t relinquish her hold on it.

“It’s called a Buzzball. It’s saved me and Gavin from strife more than once …” she explained.

Christina suddenly glanced around the corridor wildly. “That’s right! Gavin! Where is he?”

Lisa verged on explaining about the botched teleportation, but the thought that Christina might not know about Gavin’s powers bubbled in the back of her mind. “He was lucky, he got away in time, but I couldn’t – this guy got to me –” she said briefly.

“So Gavin is safe. Good. And again, I’m sorry I let this tool get past me, but once they took out my Machoke, they had an advantage,” she explained. Letting the door to the stairwell close behind her, Christina strode toward the unconscious Union agent, her gait heavy; she was quite solidly built. “Well, we won’t be letting him get away too easily.”

As Lisa watched, her heart rate slowing from the previous moment of conflict, Christina released an Ivysaur from a rather grubby red-and-white pokéball.

“Cuff him, Ally,” Christina commanded.

Ally the Ivysaur gave a menacing growl. With unexpected fluidity, two serpentine vines unfurled from the back of Ivysaur’s dark green bulb, twisting around the wrists of the Union agent and binding them tightly together. Ally gave a second growl and the vine whips broke off, leaving two long lengths of vine hanging from the man’s cuffed wrists.

“There’s another one, Anthony, in Room Seven,” Lisa chipped in.

“Ally, get to it! Room Seven, cuff him!” boomed Christina.

“Saur,” mumbled Ally, scampering down the corridor in the direction Lisa pointed.

Lisa waited for Christina to turn in her direction before she finally exploded.

“So, what’s going on? Are Mum and Dad okay? Did the whole Guard come here? Are the Union –”

“I’ll explain what I can, Lisa,” said Christina, in a level voice. “Your mum and dad drove here today, as planned, to pick you up. Two cars of back-up Guard members were to follow, in case the Union managed to get wind of what was happening.”

“And they did –” Lisa interjected uselessly.

“Things went wrong the moment your parents stepped out of the car,” continued Christina, as though she had not been interrupted. “Union agents – dressed in civilian clothes – launched an attack on them. Your parents seemed ready to defend themselves; I think maybe some of their pokémon were released before they exited the vehicle. In any case, they weren’t hit by the Union’s stunners – some kind of Reflect or Light Screen, maybe.”

Lisa’s heart rose slightly.

“That’s when we stepped in. There were six of us acting as back up. I lost track of everyone straight away: the Union had back-up too, of course. There were attacks and jets of light and even bullets flying everywhere – then someone set one of the cars on fire – it was hard to see anything for a minute there.”

“So it started in the carpark.”

“Right. I’m not sure who went into the building first, us or them. Might have been them. One jerk tried to pistol whip my sister Lauren – she’s in the Guard, too – so I shoved him then, when he didn’t fall over, I jumped on his back. I thought my weight would destabilise him – guess he was stronger than I thought. We ran through a heap of smoke … next thing I knew, we were in the reception area.”

“So much for the Army Reserve guarding all the hospitals in Johto,” said Lisa derisively.

Christina’s eyes grew dark. “That’s the scariest part about this,” she said slowly. “I saw them – saw them with my own eyes – the moment the fighting broke out. All six soldiers abandoned their posts at the doors. Ran inside.”

“WHAT?” cried Lisa.

Christina nodded soberly. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself. Either the Union agents have infiltrated the military somehow, or … well, I don’t know if there is an ‘or’. I think the reserve troops were sent into the hospital to clear out anyone who might get in the way of the Union. You know, get rid of the nurses and doctors and any other staff, make it easy to get to the patients – to get to you, Lisa.”

This was strangely not the biggest worry on Lisa’s mind. “But if those troops were acting on Union orders – then the other soldiers, the other hospitals – everywhere in Johto –”

“I know,” Christina bit her lip. “But we can’t afford to think of that now, or we’ll go crazy, absolutely crazy.” There was a light scampering of feet: Ally had returned from Gavin’s room sporting a proud grin. “Well done, Ally. Here,” Christina dug a hand into the pocket of her stonewashed jeans and threw a small, brown pellet at Ally, who chomped it up at once.

Lisa shot a questioning look at Christina. “So – what do we do now?”

Christina placed a hand on the silver door handle of the stairwell and opened it; at once, the sounds of battle below became more audible.

“The most important thing is that the Union don’t get their hands on you,” she said firmly. “Not only would we lose you, which would be terrible enough, but the Union would then practically have free access to the Sepulchre of Suicune. Return, Machoke,” she added swiftly, holding out a Great Ball; the bulky form of Machoke dissolved in a blast of translucent red.

“So – I wait here?”

Christina hesitated, her foot on the first step.

“I think that’s the best move we can make. I’ll clear the stairwell, and then you can follow at a safe distance. Hopefully everyone’s still out in the carpark – the reception area should be relatively clear by now.”

With a curt nod to Lisa and a sharp call to Ally to follow, Christina trudged heavily down the first flight of stairs, taking care to step hard on the unconscious Union agent’s back. Lisa hung back at the very top, one hand on the yellow metal handrail, the other firmly clasping the Buzzball. Christina’s footsteps echoed as she disappeared from sight. Lisa tried to listen for signs of nearby battle: certainly, there was audible chaos in the carpark, but it sounded markedly quieter in the hospital building now.

After two minutes, Christina called, “Alright, Lisa, it’s safe all the way. Come down to the landing right before the ground floor.”

Lisa scurried down the stairs two at a time: somehow the thought of the stocky Union agent waking up and attacking her from behind was scarier than the thought of full-on battle. Along the way, she stepped over three Union agents, their hands all bound by Ally’s vines, as well as two unconscious Arbok and a motionless Magmar.

Christina was crouching by the door, Ally at her heels.

“It sounds silent out there, Lisa,” she said confidently. “I’m going to go out and scope things out. When and if – AND ONLY IF – I give you the all-clear, you follow me closely, alright?”

“Okay, Christina,” replied Lisa, grasping the Buzzball and retreating a few steps.

Christina winked boldly at her before apparently steeling herself, and pushing the door wide open.

Lisa saw it happen: the flash of metal, the explosion of blue light. The burst of razor leaves scorched by a roar of vermilion flames. Christina’s scream.

“NO!” Lisa roared. Not again, it couldn’t be – they’d been so close – it had been silent in the reception area!

She froze for just one second, then tried to run away without turning around; her heel caught the concrete step behind her and, with a sickening realisation following her all the way, Lisa fell up the stairs, the Buzzball spinning from her grip as her hand collided with the railing. Her backpack cushioned her fall, but it was a hollow win:

Two men and a Charmeleon stood in the open doorway, exultant. Lisa could see an open, fiery mouth, a Stunner and a sleek black pistol all aimed directly at her. Despair flooded her veins. There was no escape.

“Fight’s over, bitch,” said the taller of the Union agents. “Joseph Sterling’s gonna be very happy with us.”

Lisa gaped at the pistol in his hand, cocked and ready.

But instead the shorter agent, the one with his stunner pointed at Lisa’s heart, pulled his trigger. And there was no mistaking it this time: no camera, no luck, no defence; Lisa saw the cobalt beam, felt the energy surge through her, heard the Union agent’s triumphant exclamation chase her into blackness:

“Gotcha!”

[mistysakura]

Hehe, I'm impressed with the pace of updates! Eh, I never said I liked the new style. I do, but I kinda miss the old style. Ah well, whatever makes you happy. The military's with the Union? Ouch. I had an inkling something like that may happen... who can you trust any more? The reminder of who "Hispanic guy" is fitted in nicely, and the twist of Gavin only teleporting himself away was executed well (I knew something would go wrong but I didn't know what). I also like Christina's snap summary of what happened when Lisa's parents came. The battle scenes were great as usual; I especially like the bit occurring before and in the stairwell. Overall, the pace of this chapter felt dodgy though. Too often, distractions like comments on Fiskmire water would appear. The battlefield is not a good place to discuss Buzzballs, people? Because you've done such a good job in convincing us that danger is behind every corner, the digressions are really out of place. At least it could have been mentioned that Lisa scoured the area and the coast was clear for the moment or something. I also didn't like the chapter ending because it was way too reminiscent of the last chapter's. It felt as if absolutely nothing was accomplished with this chapter.

Nice chapter, good job, insert sandwich bread here etc. Seriously though, looking forward to the next one.

[mr_pikachu]

When was this posted, and how did I not see it?

Well, this changes things. Thanks to Lisa, Gavin escaped... and thanks to Gavin's screw-up, Lisa was caught anyway. Had he not "charged" enough, then? Or did something else interfere? Curious. Well done with that part, as Ada said. Loved some of the descriptions, too, and the way that Gavin's camera sacrificed itself for Lisa. Very nicely explained; the action as a whole made a lot of sense (never thought of someone falling up stairs, but it worked). On a side note... how long has Gavin had a shaved head? ^^;;

I do agree with Ada, though, that the digressions were a little much. In particular, it seemed odd that Lisa would need any explanation if there was a massive battle just beyond the door. Kind of unrealistic (and reminiscent of battle anime with over-talking). On the other hand, I actually disagree about the ending; I viewed it as a repetition technique that, for the most part, worked. Perhaps you could have waited a few chapters before pulling that rabbit from your hat - although I have no idea how or why you would add filler chapters there - but it still didn't hurt.

(Okay, maybe the repetition kept me from realizing there was a new chapter. But still!)

At any rate, I liked the plot progression, and I'm very curious why you wanted Gavin to escape but not Lisa. It's pretty clear what the Union has planned, but what awaits Gavin on the outside? A rescue mission, perhaps? Or an encounter with Lunanine? Hmm. Of course, yet again, we have a cliffhanger: what happens to Lisa now? And what of her family? At any rate, I'm too tired to think of further comments beyond typos and the like, so I'll just look forward to the next installment. See you then!

[Sike Saner]

DAMN. O___O Things sure have taken a very exciting turn in this story. Those last two chapters were intense--great action in both of them, and each had a shocking surprise of that very special sort that I like to call "Holy Shit! Moments", or HSMs.

Another great surprise was when Gavin teleported but Lisa didn't get taken along with him as she was supposed to have been. I can't help but wonder if he might not have ended up inadvertently leaving her behind like that had he not had to hurry up in the "recharging" of his energy... o.o

Once again, character thoughts, emotions, and reactions were handled well. Lisa's reaction to seeing Emma's corpse is a prime example of this. Speaking of reactions to that, another thing that I thought was done well was the way that those who saw the body didn't all react in an identical way--I thought that was very realistic.

And there was even some great humor in those chapters, with the part where Gavin forgot that he could teleport being my personal favorite funny moment.

Highlights:

“Oh, before you go,” he added, a hand on the silver doorknob, “I meant to ask – do you still have my camera?”

Lisa racked her brains for a moment. “No. Did I ever have your camera?”

Gavin shrugged. “I think I chucked it in your backpack when we were on Mount Fairfax.”

“We were being shot at, and you thought to protect your camera,” she replied with a grudging smile. Sometimes Gavin was so illogical it was amusing.

Amusing indeed. ^^ That part got a smile and a laugh out of me.

The number ‘3’ lit up with a soft yellow glow; a cool voice said, “Level Three” and the silver doors slid open crisply.

And there, sprawled on the carpeted floor of the elevator, was Emma’s body.

That was HSM #1. My reaction upon reading initially reading it: --What?! O___O Yeah, that was definitely not something I was expecting to be on the other side of those elevator doors...

Lisa wasn’t sure if she screamed or not; certainly, she tried, but she could not tell if any sound came from her throat. Her ears had suddenly filled with an otherworldly static, her temples tingling from the volume of blood that had rushed to her head at the grotesque sight before her.

Excellent description of her reaction to what she'd just seen. ^^

The silver doors slid shut with an efficient whirr. Lisa stared at them silently, at her reflection: the pallid mask of horror on her face, her hands contorting, clutching at thin air, the camera slung casually over her red jumper. Her brain reeled; her stomach churned; she knew she was going to throw up. Then the cool patient voice repeated itself patiently, “Level Three” and the silver doors slid open once more, and there was the corpse, still horrendous, still dead, still covered in blood.

This time she knew she screamed.

Everything happened at once. Suddenly, someone was holding her from behind. She didn’t even think to fight them; her stomach lurched and she doubled over, retching horribly.

And there's some more great description of what she's feeling. ^^

There was a collective squeal from the other patients; a second later, Gavin gave a grunt of triumph as he flung the window open.

“Go, Skarmory!” he cried, hurling a pokéball at his feet. A burst of radiant light revealed the sleek, metallic form of the steel-winged pokémon.

“Slash the security screen!” Gavin ordered fervently. “Everyone else, stand back!”

The five adults backed away from the window. Lisa let her mouth fall open as Skarmory raised a gleaming scythe and, in two deft strokes, reduced the security screen to shreds of metal frame and wire.

“Gavin, THAT’S your plan?!” screeched Lisa, losing her cool completely; she had just seen Natu fluttering about the ceiling in distress.

“You got a better one?”

“FOR GOD’S SAKE, YES, YOU CAN TELEPORT!”

Gavin let his eyes roll back in his head in bitter realisation. “Fuck – I forgot.”

XDDDD Again, that was glorious.

“LISA, GAVIN – OPEN THE DOOR!”

“GO TO HELL!” screamed Lisa, backing away from the door and aligning herself with the patients.

“LISA – IT’S DAD – QUICK, WE HAVE TO GET YOU OUT OF HERE!”

“THAT’S NOTHING LIKE MY DAD’S VOICE, YOU ARSEHOLE!”

XP I'm glad Lisa didn't fall for that.

“Okay, Natu, you take the fat guy!”

“EXCUSE ME!”

XD Another moment that made me laugh.

Lisa’s body surged with something hard, something beyond pain; her nerves had become strands of barbed wire, spiking her flesh from within. It was agony; it was hell: she was in darkness, languishing in her own mind … there could be no level of pain past this …

Damn, that does sound seriously agonizing. o_o

Lisa closed her eyes once more, readying herself for the queasy whirlwind of teleportation. She gripped Gavin’s right hand tighter, tighter, until, suddenly, her hand closed on nothing but thin air.

“Gavin – what the -?”

Her eyes flew open in fear. There was nobody standing beside her. She was stranded, still, in the hospital room.

“NO!” She couldn’t stop herself: how could this have happened – how could she be left behind?

Again, that was a great surprise. ^^

With a curt nod to Lisa and a sharp call to Ally to follow, Christina trudged heavily down the first flight of stairs, taking care to step hard on the unconscious Union agent’s back.

XD Awesome.

“It sounds silent out there, Lisa,” she said confidently. “I’m going to go out and scope things out. When and if – AND ONLY IF – I give you the all-clear, you follow me closely, alright?”

“Okay, Christina,” replied Lisa, grasping the Buzzball and retreating a few steps.

Christina winked boldly at her before apparently steeling herself, and pushing the door wide open.

Lisa saw it happen: the flash of metal, the explosion of blue light. The burst of razor leaves scorched by a roar of vermilion flames. Christina’s scream.

And that was HSM #2. Like the finding-Emma-in-the-elevator moment, this took me by surprise in a major way.


The latest chapters were seriously awesome. ^^ I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what happens next.

[Gavin Luper]

Sorry guys, this isn't a new chapter, just a reply to you guys, since I didn't do it back in April. Somehow I got it in my head that it was going to automatically induce productivity if I didn't let myself reply to this thread unless I was putting up a new chapter. Seeing as it's been - er - a little while, I've kind of figured that was foolish.

Ada: I was impressed with the pace of updates too! Then something happened - I think it was Melbourne, then Uni, then work ... bleh, I have no excuse. Yes, the Union infiltrated, if not the whole military, at least the unit that was guarding Redwood Hospital. Scary stuff. I'm glad you liked the battle scenes - the stairwell was really fun to write; as in, almost Chapter 42-esque fun (I really enjoyed that chapter).

Yeah, I realise there were issues with pacing in this. I think I wanted to put in certain ideas and pieces of dialogue that I felt were important, but I didn't give a lot of regard to the fact that this chapter was essentially an action one. Thanks for the feedback. I understand your comments about the ending of the chapter being too reminiscent of Chapter 62, too, but I kind of liked the circular idea. Maybe it didn't translate. Anyway, cheers for reading as usual!

Brian: Yes, how DID you miss it? Hmm? HMMM?

With Gavin's teleportation, I could leave you hanging in curiosity, but ... no, wait, actually, that's better than just telling you the answer. Enjoy the suspense, mate!

Glad you liked the unusual falling up stairs thingo. Hehe. Gavin has had a shaved head since shortly after arriving at Redwood Hospital in late March (just after the end of book 2) - doctors shaved his head to clean up his wounds/operate, if I recall my own material correctly. The first time we (as readers) saw him with a shaved head was in Chapter 61.

Duly noted about the awkward digressions. And it's nice to see that the repetition technique did work for some, if not for others. In hindsight, I'm not sure if I'd have left it in there after all, but the more thought I give to it, the more I can't find a decent way of summing up the chapter at that point.

What awaits Gavin on the outside might be revealed in Chapter 64. I haven't quite decided whether to show it or not. You've made sound guesses, in any case.

And yeah: cliffhangers again! Friggin hell. Although I love using them, the downside is that I find a heavy weight on the beginning of the next chapter, which is maybe part of the reason it takes me so long to write new installments (it's never the chapter that takes me months, it's always the BEGINNING; the rest usually follows in the space of a few days).

Cheers for the review man. I swear I shall get up to date with WotF ... soon ... give me ... a few ... days ... *ducks airborne tomatoes*

Sike Saner: Why, hullo! Thanks for the quote-filled reply. I love those. Well done on the coining of HSMs (I'm assuming it's a new thing you made up?); glad that the last two chapters of LTL produced some, anyway.

Good theory about Gavin being hurried to recharge - you may be right. Poor Lisa, trying to force Gavin to teleport only to be abandoned. That's gotta suck.

Yeah, I've tried to put a bit more effort into character emotions and reactions lately, and it seems it's paid off. I still feel like I'm a long way away from achieving a narrative that has a firm hold on "fantasy realism", but hopefully your response to scenes like that elevator one mean that I'm edging my way there.

Great that you found some humour in all that action-packed stuff. It's cool that my writing can actually amuse someone as well as entertain them in other ways. I especially enjoyed Gavin instructing Natu to take the "fat guy", and the scene where Christina steps on the Union agent's back. The latter was actually a very enjoyable moment, because it was the kind of action that probably wouldn't fit too well with Lisa's character, yet a more aggressive type like Christina (or Marina, if she had've been there) could easily get away with it, and look cool doing it, too.

Thanks so much for reading and replying again - your reviews are always a pleasure to read. Seeya next chapter, I hope.

Chapter 64: Okay, looking back at this reply, maybe it's long enough to be called 'Chapter 64' itself. ^_^ A little humour there to deflect from the fact that it's been a week or two since the last chapter. Progress report: I'm bubbling with all kinds of energy for the next two chapters, and every five minutes I get a new idea that pulls the story in a different direction. I'm doing my best to harness all this, exercise some kind of control over it, and get it onto the page so that we have a new chapter (or ten) very soon!

Thanks for your eternal patience, everyone (what a weird phrase).

Cheers!

[Mew2-formally known as Evee67-]

Wow so this thing has been going on steadily since 2002?? Thats insane. Good job man!

[Gavin Luper]

Mew2: Yep, insane is exactly what I'd call it, too. Actually, this has been running since 2001, which is even more of a milestone. Thanks for your congratulations, although it would probably be an even better job if I steeled myself and wrote the rest of this fic at a reasonable pace. One day I'll get there ...

Cheers!

[Gavin Luper]

As usual, I take 5 months to think, plan, dwell, postpone and procrastinate and then on one single day I get hit by inspiration and the urge to write, and the whole chapter comes out in one day.

This chapter is partly what my earlier poll in the Writer's Lounge was concerned with. It's nearest cousin is Chapter 30 - Juxtaposition, but this chapter is a lot more significant on a lot of levels.

I hope you guys enjoy it.

Cheers!

-------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 64 – Heart of Ice.


1977, December

It was a summery afternoon in Blackthorn City. The main street was bursting with loud teenagers wearing lurid T-shirts, housewives carrying wriggling babies and brown paper bags of groceries, and stoic, silent men with briefcases, darting from one office building to the other as though they were afraid of the sun.

A lanky teenager wearing a sensible white shirt and slacks was almost jogging down the street to keep up with an older man in a formidable grey suit.

“… but overall, I think I passed. Oh, and there was an essay question on the science behind Everstones, which is so dumb to put in an exam, right Dad? I mean, I wrote double the word limit ‘cause I studied up on them, but who would ever use an Everstone on a pokémon? There’s no point.”

Without slowing down or turning to face his son, the suited man said sternly, “There are plenty of reasons why someone might want to use an Everstone, Lance. Delaying evolutions can be vital to some forms of competition, or skill developments. If you’d studied, you’d have known that –”

The black-haired teenager scowled. “I did study, Dad,” he snarled, tone brimming with adolescence, “but it just seems stupid. If you had a Dratini, like I do, why on earth wouldn’t you want to evolve it into something more powerful?”

“There are things more important than power,” grizzled the older man, clutching his brown leather briefcase tighter to his body as he passed a homeless man slumped on the pavement outside a hostel. “And why did you go over the word limit? You lose marks for that, you know.”

Lance shrugged indifferently. “So what? That doesn’t mean I don’t know enough, it just means the marking system is stupid.”

The older man halted abruptly. Glancing around and finding that section of the street relatively free of shoppers, he rounded on his son.

“I am starting to wonder if you have any regard whatsoever for your education, boy. The college examiners won’t bend the rules for one person, however intelligent they may be. You’ve shot yourself in the foot, and for what?”

Lance fell silent. His father’s voice had become dangerous, but deathly quiet.

“I’ll tell you for what,” the suited man continued, pointing a long finger at his son, “for that lady-friend of yours. I won’t let you jeopardise your entire future for a few weeks of frivolity. You will terminate your relationship with that girl by the time you get home tomorrow afternoon, or I will call her parents and end it myself!”

Then, without another word, he adjusted his steel-coloured trilby and continued his brisk walk to his office building.

The teenage boy was a statue for five seconds, staring, stunned, at his red-faced reflection in a puddle, before his father called him to hurry up and follow.

*********

2003, March

Lance Hudson contemplated his reflection in the glossy surface of the mahogany drawing room table. Even in the sparse light of dusk, he could see that the cluster of grey hairs on the front of his head had seemingly doubled in size over the past few hours. He reached for the ‘World’s Best Dad’ coffee mug that rested on one of Susan’s hand-painted coasters and felt a vague thud of disappointment when he realised it was empty.

He shook himself sternly and returned to the thick wad of printed documents he was meant to be reading through. He had never been less motivated to work in his entire life. The contents of the makeshift dossier would only tell him what he already knew, and what he already knew was devastatingly clear. He considered the page of tables and tallies before him for the hundredth time.

No, it simply wasn’t an option.

Just as he put his head in his hands, there was a sudden crackle of static from the small, metallic intercom fitted into the table. Stubbornly massaging his temples, Lance awkwardly manoeuvred his elbow onto the green button on the interface.

“What is it now, Sarah?” he thudded, several hours past being polite.

The female voice on the other end of the intercom was young, crisp and unabashed.

“I have Jim Donovan here to see you.”

Lance didn’t remove his hands from their station, just massaged with more vigour.

“Fine. Send him in.”

“Okay, sir. I’ll bring you another coffee, too.”

A small portion of Lance’s brain danced at the mention of caffeine.

“Thank you, Sarah.”

“You’re welcome, sir.”

Barely a second after the intercom’s final crackle, there was a clean click from the double doors at the far end of the drawing room, and Jim Donovan entered, looking for all the world as though he had just stepped out of a war zone and into Lance’s office. His grey polo shirt, emblazoned with the logo of his favourite brand of beer, had an enormous purple stain across the chest, while one of the legs of his faded jeans had an enormous slash in them, through which a deep scratch mark was visible. He also sported a very raw graze on his left cheek, which he had apparently refused any treatment for. His eyes were rocklike.

Lance regarded him coolly. “Sit down, Jim,” he said wearily, unsurprised by his associate’s appearance.

“Nah – I’m gonna stand, ta,” said Donovan, his tone both baiting and aggressive.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Jim, sit!” snapped Lance.

“Not ‘til I get some answers,” snarled Donovan, leaning a hairy arm on the backrest of one of the chairs and pointing the other one at Lance accusingly. “Did ya know about the army? Did ya know they’d been compromised by the Union before you sent us in?”

Lance summoned what little mental strength he had left and looked Donovan directly in the eye.

“No, Jim. I didn’t.”

Donovan didn’t lower his threatening finger.

“Yer’d better not be bullshittin’ me, Lance. ‘Cause it musta bin goin’ on for at least a month, prob’ly a year, who knows? Them soldiers were loyal to the Union, not the Government. And it seems to me that you mighta heard at least rumours of Union infiltration through Nate’s sources. It seems pretty fuckin’ obvious to me. So right now I’m wondering why the fuck yer’d send me and my team in to back up Ryan and Maria in extracting Lisa if you knew the whole time that we were WALKIN’ INTO A BLOODY AMBUSH!”

There was a smooth click from the doors, and a young, brown-haired girl walked in to see Jim Donovan punctuate his tirade with a thudded fist on the mahogany table.

“Oh – I can come back –” she said, startled, holding a hand over the mug she carried as if to protect it from the violence of Jim Donovan.

“It’s alright, Sarah, come through. Jim was just taking a seat.” Lance threw a significant glare at Donovan, who, perhaps because of the presence of a teenage girl in the room, appeared to have come to his senses. He lowered his arm and brusquely sat in one of the grey tub chairs that surrounded the long table.

Sarah walked carefully into the room, clearly determined not to spill the coffee. Only once she had swapped the full mug for the empty one did she address Lance.

“I know you’re busy, but Darius is on the phone.”

Lance wrapped his hands around the ceramic coffee cup; this one was a glossy obsidian-coloured mug emblazoned with the crest of the Blackthorn Tigers basketball team. “What does he want?”

Sarah twirled a strand of her wavy brown hair nervously. “Some of the Guard members who were at the hospital attack this morning are staying overnight at the safe house. Darius heard from them what happened to Lisa. He wants to know what the truth is – he wants to hear it from you, I think.”

Not without difficulty, Lance suppressed a deep sigh. “Tell him I’ll call him back when I can,” he said eventually.

Sarah’s rust-coloured eyes looked concerned, but when she spoke, it was only to say, “No problem, sir”, before walking briskly from the room and back to her desk.

The first few drops of scalding coffee already making their way into his system, Lance turned to face the agitated man seated beside him.

“Alright now, Jim, listen to me. If I’d had any idea of what was going to happen today, do you really think I would have sent you in there? Of course not.” Donovan crossed his meaty arms tightly. “I consulted every relevant agent within the Guard before I made any decisions, and I can assure you that none of Nate’s contacts had heard of anything like what we saw today. Nobody knew the Army had been infiltrated, even the Army itself. The Union wormed their way in with stealth, and now we have no way of knowing which branches of the military we can trust and which we can’t.

“I know you’re upset about what happened at Redwood Hospital this morning, but blaming me for what happened won’t bring Robert back, nor will it undo what’s happened to Lisa. And the fact is, Jim, we all knew there was a risk involved with extracting Lisa. We all knew the Union would surely be watching every hospital in the province. We just didn’t realise how far they had gone in their surveillance. To a degree, I suppose we underestimated their doggedness to get hold of Lisa, and a small part of the blame for that does rest with me. But remember who’s behind all this, Jim. Joseph Sterling. The Union. We can’t afford to lose focus on what we’re here for. We need to stop them at every turn. We can’t afford to dwell on our losses. We need to keep an eye to the future. To what comes next.”

Donovan unfolded his arms and rested them expectantly on the wooden table.

“And what does come next, then, boss?” he asked laconically. “I mean, now that the Union have two of the bloody Seven Keys, and one of the three guardians as well.”

“Are you asking this to show me up, or so you have something to tell your team to keep them focused?” demanded Lance.

“The second one, of course.”

Lance forced his face not to become a scowling mask. “We go about business as usual. Our aims and operations haven’t changed. Everyone still needs to be on standby at all times to counter any Union attacks. Information on the location of the Third Key is still pending. When we know where it is, a full-scale retrieval will be launched, and everyone needs to be ready for that.”

Donovan’s face remained expressionless; eventually, he said, “Fine. So whatta ya gonna do ‘bout the damages? Two of our cars went up in smoke. Bloody Union bastards torched ‘em. They had Magmars that looked like they were on steroids … Anyway, there was no way we could save the car or the van. Both blown to pieces by the end of it. We were lucky to all cram into the last car. Anyway … if we’re going to have a decent shot at extracting Lisa, then we’re sure as hell gonna need two new cars. I spoke to Julia an hour ago, she’d tried to call Albert Cripps, but she only got his voicemail. Azura said he’s on a charity cruise in the Whirl Islands until Monday, so we might not be able to reach him ‘til then, which means we might not be able to rescue Lisa until Monday night at the earliest …”

“Jim, we’re not rescuing Lisa at all.”

Lance felt the fact burn his tongue as he said it.

“What?” asked Donovan, cut off.

“We can’t extract Lisa. It’s not an option.”

“What – whaddaya mean?”

“Joseph Sterling was successful in extracting her from Redwood Hospital. Your entire team, plus Ryan and Maria, weren’t able to prevent that from happening. Those agents had her loaded on to that chopper before anyone could stop them. And there was barely a fraction of the Union present there. Sterling will have already transported her to the Union’s most heavily guarded headquarters underneath Silver Rock Island. That is their impenetrable fortress. I’ve known the location for months, as have the police. The reason it hasn’t been attacked by either of us is the same. It would be a suicide mission. We stand absolutely no chance against the Union if we attack them at their base.”

Donovan was shaking his head like a fox terrier that had water in its ears. “I don’t believe what I’m hearing …”

“Believe me, Jim, I wish this weren’t the case, but I’m sure that it is. Sterling tried to get Lisa Walters into the Sepulchre once already, and the only reason he failed is because he had been given the wrong information and believed Lisa to be the guardian of Entei instead of Suicune. He’s a ruthless man, and he’s brilliant. He will not let her escape twice. I have no doubt that Lisa is now locked up beneath Silver Rock Island, and guarded with the heaviest security Sterling can manage.”

“SO YOU’RE GOING TO LET THEM KEEP HER?!” Donovan’s voice cracked hoarsely, like a teenager’s. “YOU’RE JUST – GIVING UP, THAT’S IT? THEY WIN?!”

“You’re losing focus, Jim,” said Lance in the most level voice he could manage. “The Union haven’t won anything. There are still five keys to be found. We still have our other two guardians, Marina and Darius, safe at the Stone’s station. Losing Lisa is damaging to us, yes, and beneficial to our enemy, but that does NOT mean our operations fall apart. The Legend of Ecruteak still stands, and Lisa is not the cornerstone of that Legend, she is only a part of it!”

But Donovan was now beyond cool reason or dialogue – he was looking at Lance as though he had just committed murder.

“I can’t believe I’m hearin’ yer say these things, Lance. ‘She’s just a part of it’, is she?” he demanded hotly. “S’that whatya told ‘er parents?”

“What was said between Ryan, Maria and I is between us!” snarled Lance, quite forgetting to keep his cool; the wound of that morning’s explosive argument was still very raw.

“Ya dog,” spat Donovan, getting to his feet. “Ya won’t even rescue the child of one of yer best mates –”

Lance was on his feet before he knew it; thoughts of having a cool discussion were long forgotten. “YOU FUCKING HYPOCRITE! Five minutes ago, I was the bad guy for apparently sending you into an ambush, and now you’re losing your head at me for trying to prevent the same thing from happening again!”

“That’s –” Donovan spluttered angrily. “That’s – not the same thing –”

“My position is final, Jim. You don’t know how hard it was to decide –”

“Oh, poor you, having to sit in yer big office with yer big window and decide the fate of another human!” Donovan raged. He pointed his finger at Lance’s face once again, his air both threatening and disillusioned. “I – cannot – believe ya.”

There was an odd pause: it seemed that Donovan had run out of accusations and Lance seemed unwilling to inflame the argument any further. The two men stood two feet apart, facing each other with tense expressions for perhaps thirty seconds, before Lance said, with steely indifference, “If that’s all, then, Jim, I’ll see you at the meeting on Monday.”

An incredulous smirk came over Donovan’s ruddy face; he shook his head almost warningly before stepping around the tub chair behind him and marching from the room.

The door clicked smoothly behind him.

Lance collapsed into his chair at the head of the mahogany table and stared blankly at the door for several minutes. Then, steadying himself, he reached down to the Blackthorn Tigers mug and took a sip of still-hot white coffee with one sugar. He looked down at the dossier before him. At least it hadn’t been opened to the pages of Nate Thorne’s month-old report on the Union’s rumoured infiltration of the Johto military, or Donovan might really have lost it.

Lance flipped back to the beige cover of the dossier. A yellow sticky note had been tacked onto the front by the person who had prepared the file for him. He frowned and took another, deeper sip of bitter coffee as he reread the message that had been scrawled on it:

Don’t worry son. It gets easier with time.

- Dad.