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

[Gavin Luper]

Wow. I never would have thought, after more than nine years, I would still have new readers picking up this story and actually finding it interesting, despite the dubious thirteen-year-old writing skills for the first twenty chapters or so. And yet here the two of you are (Louis and Matt). Thanks so much to both of you for your feedback - I absolutely love hearing it, whether complimentary or critical.

So over this past weekend, I decided I'm going to sit down and start reading LtL. The attempt at reading this gargantuan tale has extended into the middle of this week already, and I've only just reached Chapter 20 at this writing, but it's a start, at the very least. I also decided I would do my best to offer comprehensive reviews of each chapter as I go along, and I also want to make sure you get a running score from me. So here goes!

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Chapter 1: I'm immediately hooked. Most kids of Lisa's age have a sense of adventure and a wandering mind, but at the same time parents who don't really want them going off and doing anything on their own just yet. Don't much care for Tom, but the way it's written, sounds like that was sort of the point - foisting responsibility off so he can go do what he wants. The kids are little hellions... they remind me almost too much of my sister when she was that age, looking to get me in trouble over something or other. The battle with Ray was good, very descriptive... and it was silly to see Lisa putting down his Koffing when she'd done nothing yet to demonstrate her Aipom could do any better. Touch of overconfidence, maybe? And finally, the legendary dogs. If none of the rest of your chapter got me, this did, seeing her "jump on board" and hang on for dear life. (Sounds a little familiar to me! ) I'm enthralled with your vocabulary - a writer who uses a broad range gets major kudos from me. A wonderful first entry in what looks to be a very promising read.

Indeed, Lisa might have thought she was more of a hot shot than she actually was. What does the Suicune-jumping-aboard thing seem familiar to? I can't place it. Thanks for the vocab comments.

Chapter 2: Haha, nice try, attempting to capture Suicune! But a Wooper works, too - it's invaluable. I could swear I've met people like Anna all my life... hated every one of 'em and, like Lisa, would go out of my way to oppose everything they told me. And Lisa's behavior at her loss to Kris and Hiro sounds about how I'd feel, I think, at losing at pretty much anything. So I'm really feeling like I can identify with her.

Yep, Annas are out there. And an important first loss - she did really need to be brought down to reality a bit, I think.

Chapter 3: Gotta love Aipom gnawing on Lisa's ear. Those little tics and eccentricities help make it feel more real. Also... three hundred dollars? Good lord, I certainly hope she meant three! Ribbing at the currency inconsistencies in the games, perhaps? And Kipp Anderson - the name itself made my skin crawl. Visceral reaction, I suppose, but looks like it was well-founded when I saw his description. Tom's phone call came at an inconvenient and unexpected point in Lisa's activities, but that's the way these things usually go... and I'm tilting my head at him. He's letting Lisa go, as long as she comes back to explain herself and he won't be blamed for anything? What, is he three years old? I fully expect that their parents will still go nuts on him for allowing it. Dude just doesn't want to make an effort. He can't avoid responsibility forever. Moving on to the contest... that's now the second time - third time! - in a row Lisa's had a ball hit a Pokemon she didn't mean to catch. I sense her luck's going to continue in this fashion. I like Hiro's despondence... "I won! But now I have to hang out with a ladykiller... damn!"

Tom is classically irresponsible and self-serving at this point, I agree! I swear there are Kipps out there in the real world, as well as Annas.

Chapter 4: Uh-oh, here comes the rival. I suspected when I read his description but knew it had to be him when Hiro and Kris were suddenly hush-hush. I'm rather glad I never had friends who became enemies, but I know many who do. Usually it involved superiority complexes or misunderstandings. Tyler's personality reflects a spoiled brat... and obviously accustomed to getting his way. Attacking during evolution, how cheap. Poor Hiro. Hoping to see him kick Tyler's ass later on... assuming we'll see him again!

Mayyyybeeeee ...

Chapter 5: My my. Sounds like a pretty cool librarian... if a bit of a five-year-old at first. Though I'll bet that was mostly revenge for Lisa calling him "Eugene". I like that he's a nerfed psychic; you'd want him not to be able to do much, at least in the beginning. Maybe as he gains more Psychic Pokemon, he'll be able to do more? Cursing galore towards the end, but then again, I probably would be letting loose a blue streak of my own if I was under that sort of attack... ready to find out what it was!

Yes, Lisa again was a little bit tactless - shows how nascent she is on her journey, I feel.

Chapter 6: Eusine strikes me as a very strange sort... also, it doesn't seem to have struck Lisa how lucky she is to be alive when there were twenty other people killed. Then again, I suppose I shouldn't expect it... she's fourteen, and still trying to deal with the fact that she lost two days. I was wondering what happened to Natu... after all, it seemed to be the one responsible for getting them OUT of the tower... and it seems kind of a funny descriptor, emotion "stealthily" creeping into his voice. He's yelling at her - sounds like it's pouring off him in waves! But still, I'm interested to find out what happens next. Onward!

Hmm, interesting thought. I think I imagined the emotion gradually building in his tone as he spoke, but perhaps "steadily" would have been a better word, since it wasn't that hidden. I think when I wrote it I meant it from his point of view: i.e. the emotion was creeping in stealthily whether he wanted it to or not, if that makes sense?

Chapter 7: I wonder how the conversation between Lisa and Gavin went down so that they were able to make up with each other. I also wonder what happened to Natu in the interim, beyond evidently appearing to Officer Jenny... Hmm, Tom shows concern, but I'm left to wonder how genuine it is in regards to the safety of his sister, versus his level of complicity. Feh, that's a bad reporter, asking how they feel - how are they expected to answer that question? Nice retort from Aipom, though. There's your answer. Gavin being kind of a jerk about Jenny for no apparent reason, though. Moving on to the battle... a Granbull and a Mankey weren't quite what I expected to see in those balls at all, never mind seeing Lisa decide to battle with them. But hey, it worked. I notice that Gavin has a habit of opening his mouth and then closing it again, as though constantly second-guessing himself on what to say... it appears enough in the story to be a tad nagging. But I'm going to assume there's a reason for it. Someone likes Lisa, maybe? Looks like it...

You could put Gavin's behaviour down, at least in part, to classic teenage boy insecurity and uncertainty.

Chapter 8: Aha, now we have a Gavin-centric opening. Good - I was hoping for a different perspective soon, since it lets you inhabit the head of another character and show us his take on situations. Can't tell you how many times I've done the dine-and-dash rush you describe... in fact, almost exactly that way, head under the tap and all.

Yep, me too, before running out to the pub etc.

Pretty desperate to go leaping out the window, though... I'd have thought his fifteen minutes of fame were already gone. Guess they're lasting more like half an hour. Woop, Halloween... and why's Suicune angry at Lisa? Well, duh, she's instructing Quagsire to attack it! Who WOULDN'T be a bit peeved at that? Still, Gavin to the rescue! And my my... Lisa's a bit quick to offer Girafarig to Gavin... and odd that she would forget Quagsire on the beach, the poor thing was still "in battle" with Suicune... hmm... sure, NOW the beach has Pokemon on it, like they knew she was coming to catch them before... but now Quagsire's pissed, and I get why. Wonder what'll happen next...

I'm gonna do a Gavin on this one and open my mouth and close it again without saying anything. You'll know why in due course.

Chapter 9: Heh, the image of a Staryu walking - I figured it might try to tumble its way to her like a wheel but yours is a more striking and memorable image. It might be worth noting that the time it takes you to write/post chapters is evident in the way they're written; in the continuity of your story, Lisa only caught Girafarig the day before, but it's made to sound like it had been a long time since the capture was accomplished. Anyway, on with the review - nice interlude with Lock and the evil grunt-type dude... bwahaha, Aipom caught Dratini! Wait, does that mean Aipom has to give it orders now? Probably not. I'm surprised Irene agreed to a rematch for Quagsire, since she won the first time... and how's she to truly know it was Lisa's to begin with? Hell of a Poliwhirl... what'll happen to Aipom?

I think it had been a couple of days since Girafarig was caught, but yes, good point, the kind of sweet moment between Lisa and Girafarig doesn't work much given they probably only had two battles together. I'll put that down to the writer being young and a little more rampantly sentimental at the time. ^_^

Chapter 10: I see a little narrator's bias against Irene - spoiled, accustomed to having her way, carefree, doing anything to win, evil - so I can only conclude this was not to be a nice person from the very beginning. But then, at the end of the battle, she's actually being informative and even a fair sportsman. What a contradiction. ... Green Lanturns? Guardians of the ocean? "In brightest day, in blackest night..." Nice catch. Lisa's jealous, since I haven't seen her make a "proper" one yet! Funny how she almost tried to get Gavin to "return" in a ball. I like Aipom's jealousy - "Hey! That's MY spot!"

Guilty as charged of the bias - Irene was a bit of a cow, let's face it. Also, I genuinely had no idea what I was alluding to with the Green Lanturn: I literally just wanted to make a shiny one that was green instead of blue. It was only when my early readers responded with "ha, we see what you did there!" that I looked it up and realised the unintentional reference. Interestingly, Green Lantern is now my favourite superhero. Glad you liked Lisa returning Gavin.

Chapter 11: Been a while since Aipom's nibbled on her ear. And that is one seriously cranky Nurse Joy - I've only ever seen her slightly huffy, not full on grouchy. But evidently her mood doesn't even compare to Lisa's after Jack just vanishes like that. I'd want to hear a "thank you" as well. But even then it wasn't good enough... I like that the smallness of what she's after only catches up to her once she's in his face, as it so often happens in real life. The start of the battle reads more like something out of ASB, and I do like that the Pokemon know more than four attacks. That makes more sense to me. Though why does Lisa get annoyed with him calling for two attacks in a row when she called for three in the very beginning? But she won, so it's all good. And another whirlpool? Well, all right, then...

Haha, I had never even noticed the hypocrisy before. I'll put it down to Lisa being in the heat of battle. ^_^

Chapter 12: Knock Gavin out and oh, he can wait. Feh. Poor guy gets no respect. Lisa could demonstrate a little more thanks to him - she can be so awkward sometimes, as I suppose befits someone of her age, experience, and temperament. She gets an Elekid for her trouble? Hot damn, I want one. Gavin's cousins with Sabrina and Will? Yikes. Yes, that would be a fairly cuckoo family. And an odd curse to have to endure. Poor guy, though, always having to look over his shoulder - psychically speaking, I guess.

Indeed, Gavin's got quite a burden, really, poor dude.

Chapter 13: There's a bit of a scary experience, waking up somewhere unknown with nary a clue as to how you arrived... at least, at first. The familiar faces must've been a welcome sight. I like Jack's inflections now, slurred and blurry. I note that at first Gavin has no truble running, then suddenly is panting for breath - a sprinter and not a cross-country marathoner, I take it. Nice trigger for his abilities, unbearable pain. May as well use it if he's got it. Moving on to the Cup - rolling my eyes at randomly sexist Lisa. Alicia's hair... green or blonde? I saw it described as both. But I did enjoy the battle; sometimes I wonder if Pokemon just suddenly "know" a move or if they concentrate as you describe Staryu doing.

I love Jack a lot, I have to say. Yes, Lisa's little thought was quite sexist yet it is quite fitting to how girls are encouraged to view boys, I think.

Whoa, never noticed the green/blonde hair slip-up before. Will fix - it was meant to be green. I'd wager the descriptive line about the blonde hair was added in during a hurried edit during the second posting of this fic on the ezboard; this version here is the third posting of the fic.

Chapter 14: At first I was wondering if Lisa was going to catch the Vulpix or not! Seems cruel to leave a Fire-Type Pokemon floating there in the water... all it wanted was a bath, dammit! She's pretty randomly rude, slapping Gavin around, knocking around defenseless Pokemon... I'm never sure whether to like her or hate her. Though I do worry for her after the dude with the knife attacked Irene. ... Ugh, Anna. Awesome battle! Great description and effect. I can visualize it. But - what's to become of Dratini and Psyduck?

It's so cool to hear feedback on Lisa's character, because to a large extent she seemed a petulant, teenage girl but overall, quite lovely to me when I initially wrote her, then got feedback saying things like, "wow, what a bitch" or "can't believe she said that". Which probably reflects on me a lot more than her. ^_^ I think it's good, she's a tough and carefree kind of character at this stage - maybe because she's fourteen and she hasn't had a whole lot of life experience to shape her yet?

Chapter 15: Professional commentator, I'll give him that much, but at this point, it's pretty clear it's no longer standard battling environs. Finally Anna tries to help, and Gavin... nobody else wants to throw a Pokemon or two in there? Diffusion of responsibility for the fail. Whoop, spoke too soon... or maybe too late! Fifteen minutes and NOW they come rushing in. Gavin comes to the rescue in a very different way - shame he ends up in a bigger mess than the one he's trying to resolve. Hah, I knew Lisa was liking him. And now Tom knows about Gavin's psychic "problem"? Makes sense, he does train under Morty. But Gavin's trying to blow off the legend as not a big deal... not such a good idea for him.

Indeed, trying to ignore your demons doesn't banish them in the slightest, only gives them more time to gestate.

Chapter 16: Hah, stray Water Gun hitting a spectator. I've wondered what happens to attacks that go astray in a colosseum. Gavin thinks Octillery looks happy, then thinks it's too hard to tell? The boy's a mound of indecisiveness, poor guy. Hey, lookie there, a win for him. Nice digs they're in - once again, I enjoy your description, and I also like Gavin's attempt to make the best of a less-than-mediocre setting. I wondered when Lisa would remember that she'd been out to find Legendaries... no kidding, she got massively sidetracked. The "Psyspin" idea fascinates me - up until the point it heads for Quagsire.

Haha glad you liked the stray Water Gun!

Chapter 17: Gavin punching himself in the head to activate his abilities? That's sort of asking for it, right there in the middle of the battle. Until that point he had no indication that he could control the amount of energy he unleashes each time it happens. He's ballsy, though, turning it all around on Lisa and Marina by using psychic instructions instead of spoken ones, and letting them think the spoken ones were what he wanted. Ah, well, good show to Lisa. But on to the rest of the fight - it's been a few weeks since Lanturn's capture? Only a few days, I thought... and what in the world? Tentacraw? A ghost jellyfish? Sheesh, keep me away. Lanturn would have some resistance to its own electricity, so I wouldn't expect much damage to it, if any. But it seems it wasn't enough - and probably that's for the best. There'd be too much resentment between Lisa and Gavin if one of them had won. Besides, she and Golduck had done the smart thing by withdrawing from the fight until those two got their issue worked out.

Yep, Tentacraw is a scary beast. Indeed, Marina played the game very well there - she's quite a good trainer.

Chapter 18: Heh, that Aipom just can't resist a nip. And I'll be honest, Lisa's reaction was more amusing than anything else - "You're a STALKER!" I'm more curious about Gavin's exploration of the cave, although this Westwood character is exceedingly strange. Lugia? Yes, please... though to find it in a cave would be weird for me, as I'd expect to find it in the water. Perhaps that's part of its strategy, though - keep people from finding it too easily. And... well, if I were Lisa, I wouldn't bother consulting Gavin, either. A room is a room, after all! And... a Ditto? Now that's funny. Looking forward to seeing what happens with the Black Beast - that is to say, Lunanine...

Westwood is a bit intriguing, isn't he?

Chapter 19: A sweltering December... I sometimes forget weather on the southern hemisphere opposes that of the north. The story's moved ahead quite some time now. Ha, I knew we'd be seeing Kris and Hiro again - except this seems to be without Hiro for the moment. Poor Gavin, feeling left out of the loop. And now Suicune is behaving even more oddly than before - there's been nothing about its behavior so far that indicates any sort of normalcy when dealing with these kids. Hmm... I wonder what that Raichu was up to. Quite a random encounter. Once again, nice battle. But the aside at the bottom confuses me - if Suicune (and the others, for that matter) can turn invisible, why hasn't it done so on previous occasion so it can be left alone? Why keep appearing to Lisa and Gavin? Guess I'd better keep reading to find out.

Oh, what a question! Indeed! Read on, my friend.

Chapter 20: Gavin's less than enthused, I see, but Lisa's got his number. But I wonder how it is Lisa's feeling back at the start of her journey - didn't it have to do with legendaries? She doesn't really seem to know what it is she wants out of the journey. Giving up Vulpix? I wouldn't! But I'm not her. I wonder what's happening to Professor Oak. For that matter, I wonder what's going on with this Rocket - what is it Lisa's been "interfering" with that's set him after her? Not much of a contest for Gavin, but it looks like Julia's feminine wiles (and other attributes) seem to be wowing him. But so much for romance. Maybe he'll be a bit more careful next time! And Lisa gets a Magneton - well, maybe two Electric Pokemon are better than one. And above it all, the burning question: why are the legendaries so interested in her and her friends?

Why, indeed?

Too many questions and not enough answers at the end of Book 1. I guess that's why I'll have to keep reading. Congrats, Gavin, you've gotten me into this. Twenty chapters down... fifty-plus to go. Hooray?

Hahaha, I can only imagine the looming task of fifty chapters - I hope they are all interesting enough to keep you engaged. My writing style develops enormously over the second book, I think, so hopefully it is more captivating from here on in.

Thanks so much for the Book 1 review, mate. It was awesome to get the feedback and as always, I felt the need to reply, since you took so much time of your own to give me the feedback. Also, getting a full recap on Book 1 was quite helpful for me, it made me re-examine a few things in previous chapters and refresh myself on a few plot points. Some of them are about to be very, very relevant in the next few chapters!

Thanks Matt for your readership and detailed responses and I hope I have you on board for the rest of this ride!

Well, I have a practice interview in a few hours, so I needed to calm down a bit. Why not read a bit more about LTL?

Glad that LTL can be of service, my friend!

You know? I wonder how she managed to hold on for a whole hour. I mean, hanging onto Suicune's fur would be somehow similar to riding a motorcycle, except that you aren't controlling it. Still, it was a fitting description for the legendary pokemon.

She clung on for dear life!

This definitely caught my attention. Why would Suicune "need" Lisa, a young and inexperienced trainer? The only thing that came to mind was that, just like a master recognizes a student's potential, Suicune must have felt the potential within Lisa. If this is right, then this promises to be an interesting story.

I'll say nothing on this subject for fear of ruining the future chapters.

Lisa might not have notice it, but Suicune had just helped her catch a pokemon, Hey, that's quite a priviledge! To have a legendary pokemon (which does not belong to her) help her... it reminded me of the time Haunter helped Ash with Sabrina. I wonder if I will see a Wooper/Quagsire vs. Suicune battle in a near future?

True, it was through Suicune's presence that that capture occurred. As for the aforementioned potential battle ... I'll say nothing, either! ^_^

The rest of the story was simple, so I just followed it while reading normally. But anyways, I have to say that this promises to be interesting. And even though this was written a long time ago, I could feel the ability you had at that time as a writer. I can say for sure that I'll be expecting much from the progress of this story, as well as the progress of your writing skills.

Thanks Louis! I have to admit I'm torn between thinking "oh man, how crap was I?" and "well, for a thirteen-year-old, it wasn't too shabby, really". So, thanks. I definitely will say that I feel and have received feedback that my writing improves dramatically over the course of Book 2, so I hope you enjoy those chapters when you get to them.

Thank you so much to both of you. I'm going to go do some final Chapter 72 editing and will post it up later today!

Cheers!

[Gavin Luper]

Hello readers,

Here we are on the precipice, one chapter away from a thick and fast acceleration.

Enjoy it.

Cheers!

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Chapter 72 – Lotus Lake.


“We are close.”

Joseph Sterling swirled the remains of a vodka martini and downed it swiftly, a dark grin stealing over his swarthy face.

Veronica Stawell smiled and flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder. With a cautious glance around the rest of the Red Rock Island’s exclusive Emerald Club cocktail lounge – almost completely empty in the wee hours of the morning – she turned back to her black-clothed boss.

“How much longer before you have a location, Joe? My teams are restless. Especially after what happened at the Colosseum …”

“Don’t talk to me about that little bitch getting away, I’ll only get pissed off again,” Sterling snarled, glancing at the bar. “Barman! BARMAN!”

A blond-haired man in a waistcoat timidly emerged from behind the bar.

“Another martini,” Sterling barked.

“Y-yes,” the barman muttered meekly, clattering glassware nervously.

“Well?” Veronica prodded, tapping her nails on the table in front of Sterling.

Sterling smirked.

“Patience, Ronnie. I should have an exact location by tomorrow night. And within two days, I assure you, the Third Key will be ours.”

*

It was still dark when rough hands woke Lisa. She stirred.

“What’s going on?”

“Just me, Leese,” came Jack’s gruff voice. “C’arn, we gotta get an early start back to the mainland … C’arn … follow me …”

Making sure she had her new pokéballs on her person, Lisa allowed Jack to deck her out with rubber boots and wrap her in one of his wool-lined jackets; it smelled pungently of Seaking scales. Lisa mumbled a sleepy goodbye to Jamie, who winked by way of farewell, and, Marina and Gavin by her side, allowed Jack to walk her out of the hut and down to the nearby beach, where Frank’s white fishing vessel awaited.

Despite the stench of her jacket, Lisa was glad of it when she stepped outside: at five in the morning, the sun had yet to rise, and the salty sea air was frigid against Lisa’s cheeks. Jack seemed to sense that she was still half-asleep and helped her wade out to the boat, where she climbed the ladder onto the deck and, following Jack’s instructions, crawled below deck into the warm cabin, where two double bunks awaited them.

Lisa collapsed onto the bunk and immediately returned to a deep sleep.

*

“Tu tu!”

“Hrrrrmph?”

“Tu!!”

“Ouch!”

A sharp scratch on the cheek awoke Lisa: her eyes flew open to see a small orb of green feathers perched on her chest, talon digging into her band T-shirt slightly.

“That hurt, Natu …”

“Tuuuuu,” cooed Natu, completely oblivious to Lisa’s pain. He extended his yellow beak toward her: there was a folded piece of paper within it. Rubbing crusty sleep from her eyes, Lisa took the note and opened it.

Gavin had scrawled, in his messy handwriting, a single word.

Sorry.

Lisa was not sure that Gavin was the one who ought to be apologising – she felt rather guilty after realising where his fears stemmed from – but upon reading the note, she felt what remained of her animosity toward him dissipate completely. A smile crawled over her lips, and a weight that she had not even known she was carrying seemed to lift off her heart.

“Tu?”

“What is it, Natu?” Lisa asked.

The green bird’s eyes were darting around the cabin, as if searching for something. It looked quite distressed. Suddenly, Lisa understood.

“Aipom’s not here, Natu … He – um – he’s gone for now …”

The bird’s enormous eyes suddenly filled with tears; there was a small explosion of cobalt-coloured light and it disappeared, leaving behind an array of green, feathery motes cruising calmly to the floor.

Lisa sighed. Checking the small, white clock on the curved wall of the cabin, she was surprised to find that it was almost noon; sunlight was flooding through the four portholes. Neither Gavin nor Marina were anywhere to be seen, although their belongings were strewn over their bunks. Lisa caught her reflection in a small mirror near the clock and sleepily set about trying to tie her hair back into a ponytail before realising she no longer had enough hair to do anything with – it didn’t even reach her shoulders now. She regarded her blonde hair for a moment, still oddly enamoured with the new look it gave her, before finger-combing it as best she could and climbing up to the deck to find the others.

It was possibly the most gorgeous day since summer. The sky was an impeccable cerulean blue, punctuated sparsely with cirrus clouds that looked quite as crisp as new curls of butter. A cool sea zephyr blew in Lisa’s face, but it was not too strong to be unpleasant, and the day was warm enough for it to be more than welcome.

“Evenin’, sleepyhead,” boomed Jack, trudging from the bow to the stern.

“Morning,” Lisa grinned.

There were gleeful cries and shouts from the side of the boat. Lisa spied Gavin leaning against the silver railing on the edge of the craft, calling out something to his Seel, Staryu and green Lanturn, who were in the water, surfing alongside the vessel, along with Marina’s Golduck, Tentacraw, Starmie and Mudkip and, making Lisa laugh aloud, Marina herself, who was perched atop one of Starmie’s purple arms, playing with her Guardian Butterfree.

Gavin’s Natu fluttered around her head happily.

“Hey Lisa!” Marina called, waving a tanned arm.

Gavin turned at this; apparently he had not noticed Lisa behind him.

“Hey,” he said gently.

“Hey.”

Lisa strode over to join him, leaning her bare forearms against the cool steel.

“I got your note.”

She looked up and found him looking directly into her eyes.

“I mean it,” he said slowly. “I – I shouldn’t’ve said that thing about this being ‘typically Lisa’.”

Lisa broke his gaze – it was oddly intense – and stared out at Marina and the water pokémon racing alongside the boat.

“It’s fine, it was a stupid argument anyway,” she conceded.

“It’s just – it seemed like you were – well –”

“Being ‘typically Lisa’,” Lisa finished.

“Well, yeah.”

Lisa closed her eyes and allowed the crisp sea breeze to fill her lungs.

“Gavin, I know it seems like –”

“I know,” Gavin interrupted her. He sighed. “I thought about it a lot last night … and Marina talked to me this morning … I think going straight for the Sepulchre is probably the smartest and bravest thing you could do.”

Lisa smiled.

“I don’t want to run away anymore,” she said, opening her eyes and facing Gavin again. “I wanna actually do something.”

“Me too,” said Gavin, holding his arm out for Natu, who was fluttering over to perch on him. “I’m in, Leese.”

Lisa smiled.

“Awesome …” she said. “Listen, Gav, I need to apologise too … I’m really sorry if it seems like I take you for granted or whatever.”

Lisa cringed inwardly at her hideous apology-making skills; nonetheless, Gavin smiled gratefully.

“It’s cool,” he said. “Let’s just forget the whole thing, ay?”

“Works for me,” Lisa nodded, rather glad to put the entire argument behind her.

“So what’s your plan?” Gavin prodded, removing his navy beanie and wiping the sweat off his brow with it. “I mean – have ya thought about logistics or what?”

“A bit,” said Lisa, giggling as Staryu attempted to ride alongside Gavin’s green Lanturn only to receive a surprise Spark attack. “Actually, the way I planned it initially, I was going to go on foot to wherever Lotus Lake is, you know? But like, now that you’re here … I’m thinking maybe you could … help?”

Gavin nodded slowly, comprehending. “You want me to teleport.”

“Well, think how much safer that would be …” Lisa began, but her argument died in her mouth. She could already tell from Gavin’s face that he was not going to comply.

“There’s a couple of problems with that, Leese,” he said. “Firstly, for me to be able to teleport to a place, I need to be able to visualise it. I can’t visualise a place that I’ve never been to before.

“And secondly, the main advice the Seer had for me was to stop using teleportation. It drains me way too much and saps my other abilities. He said if I resist teleportation, over time my telepathy and telekinesis and other abilities will get a lot stronger.”

“Didn’t see that coming,” Lisa sighed. “But I guess that’s fair enough.”

“We should find a map, though,” said Gavin. “At least so that we can get an idea of how long it’s going to take us to get to Lotus Lake. And how we can get there.” He glanced around the deck. “Reckon Frank has any maps lying around?”

“I’m sure he’s got loads,” said Lisa, scanning the deck; but there were only crates and boxes tied down to pallets. “Maybe up on the bridge …”

“Let’s look. I wanna find out where this lake is.”

Waving a temporary farewell to Marina, they strode up to the bow of the vessel, where Frank stood stiffly behind the wheel, white mariner’s cap on his head and a plume of putrid grey smoke issuing from the pipe in his mouth.

“Excuse me, Frank?” Lisa ventured.

Abruptly, and without turning around to see Lisa, Frank burst into a cheerful tune:

“Oh the seven old seadogs of the seven seas!
They ruled the famous oceans with tremendous ease!”

Gavin guffawed; Lisa wasn’t sure whether to giggle or be offended that the old man had ignored her.

“Um – Frank – we just wanted to ask if –”

“Leese, he can’t hear you, look!” laughed Gavin.

Lisa looked: Gavin was pointing to two white wires that led from the pocket of Frank’s white jumper, virtually camouflaged, to his ears: he was listening to an mp3 player.

Lisa giggled.

“Is it bad that all I’m wondering is who the hell would record a song like that?” Gavin laughed.

At that moment, Frank continued with his song, completely oblivious to the two laughing teenagers behind him.

“Oh the seven fine women of the seven ports!
They entertained the seadogs until they were caught!”

“It’s awful …” Lisa remarked.

“Tell me about it,” said Gavin. “Oy, look – there’s a couple of charts right there.”

Lisa followed his line of sight: posted upon the shelter wall of the bridge were a couple of maps, one which looked like a marine chart of the Whirl Islands area and the other which showed the Orange Archipelago.

“Neither of those will help us much,” said Lisa disappointedly. She cast her eyes to the shelf below the charts and located a thick lever arch file with ‘MAPS’ written on the spine in heavy black texta. “But I’m thinking this will …”

Throwing a surreptitious glance to a still-unaware Frank, she lifted the heavy folder, grasping at small pieces of paper as they slid out of the pages, and grinned at Gavin.

“Let’s take this downstairs, ay?”

*

Lisa and Gavin were clustered around the small pine table that sat by the portholes in the cabin, poring over three maps they had found of Johto and trying to make sense of a mysterious omission on the most recent one.

A clatter of footsteps on the stairwell announced Marina’s arrival in the cabin; she entered, towelling her wet blue hair and chaperoned by Mudkip and Gavin’s Staryu.

“What’s cracking, kids?” she asked breezily, throwing the towel on top of the mess of possessions she had strewn across her bunk. “Seriously, you guys should’ve come in – the water was gorgeous.” She looked over and glimpsed the charts. “Aw, you guys are starting without me?”

“Yup, it’s all Lisa’s plan. I think she’s trying to edge you out of the group,” Gavin quipped.

“You’re a loser,” Lisa sighed. She turned to Marina. “We found these in Frank’s collection of maps, but there’s something weird going on, to be honest.”

“What do you mean weird?” asked Marina, taking a sip from her bottle of mineral water and, as there were only two chairs, she perched herself unreservedly on Gavin’s lap. His eyes bulged slightly but he swiftly put an arm around Marina’s waist.

Lisa felt something stir within her as Gavin’s arm slinked around Marina, but she abruptly realised that she must be staring at them. Breaking her gaze and clearing her throat loudly, she explained the map situation to Marina.

“Okay, so we’ve found three maps of Johto, but they’re all from different eras,” she explained. “This one,” she said, smoothing out a grubby, black-and-white chart. “Is from 1974. We managed to find Lotus Lake here.”

She pointed to a tiny grey circle situated approximately twenty kilometres north-east of Goldenrod City. The circle was inscribed ‘Lotus Lake’.

“So you’ve found it then, that’s awesome,” said Marina, tapping her water bottle absent-mindedly against the leg of the chair.

“Well, yeah, it seems so, but it’s weird because – the other maps don’t show it at all.”

“Huh?”

Lisa hunted beneath the current map and produced an enormous, dog-eared fold-out map of black ink on yellowing paper.

“This one is the oldest one … nearly as old as Frank,” she grinned. “It’s from the early fifties. Now, if you look at the same place on the map … about twenty k’s from Goldenrod … there’s the same circle but it’s called ‘The Lake of Purity’.”

Marina peered at the faded chart intently.

“Hmm … okay, so they changed the name by the ‘70s. ‘The Lake of Purity’ is pretty froofy.”

Gavin snorted.

“Well, that could make sense, seriously,” Lisa said, chuckling. “But the really bizarre thing is what happens –” (She foraged beneath both maps and produced a sleek, full-colour chart.) “– on the newest map, which is from –” (She double-checked the date.) “– 1991.”

Marina’s eyes scanned the place twenty kilometres north-east of Goldenrod; after a moment, her eyes widened.

“There’s nothing there.”

“Exactly,” said Gavin.

Marina’s brow furrowed.

“But – how does that happen? Unless the lake was filled in somehow …”

“That’s all we can think of, too,” Lisa said. “But the chart I saw at the Union’s base was pretty new, and it definitely showed Lotus Lake as – well – existing.”

“That’s really weird,” remarked Marina. “But … I suppose that at least tells us where Lotus Lake should be, right? So that’s where we’re headed?”

“Yeah,” said Lisa.

Marina seemed to be crunching numbers in her mind; her eyes rolled upwards for a moment.

“Jack’s dropping us just outside of Olivine. If we walked from Olivine to Goldenrod, plus one extra day to get to the lake … it would take something like two weeks, right?”

“That’s what I figured too,” Lisa said. “And I suppose that’s going to be the best option. We can’t hire a car without the Union probably picking up on it – and flying is way too dangerous. If we hike on the back roads, we should be relatively safe.”

Marina nodded.

“We could try taking the Dunmore River system – you know, surfing our way up,” she said half-heartedly. “Although I ran into trouble with the Union following me via water once before …” she muttered.

“I’ll teleport,” Gavin said suddenly.

Both Lisa and Marina looked at him in surprise.

“But I thought you said you couldn’t,” said Lisa.

“I think I can,” Gavin countered, shrugging. “Think about it … I’ve been to Goldenrod City a million times, I used to live there. I can visualise it easily. Plus, I haven’t used my powers since the hospital, so they should be charged up. If I get Natu and the others to add their psychic energy to the mix …” An excited grin stole over his thin face. “I’m sure we could teleport, all three of us.”

“But it’ll completely drain your powers,” Lisa argued, but feebly; the thought of Gavin teleporting them excited her.

“So what?” Gavin shrugged again. “They’ll build up again over time. The more important thing is how quickly we’d get to the Sepulchre. If we land in Johto tonight, we can teleport tonight, be in Goldenrod instantly and set out for the lake tomorrow.”

Lisa and Marina exchanged excited glances. Tomorrow! It barely seemed possible.

“The upshot of that is that we’d be less exposed to the Union, too,” Gavin continued. “Instead of two weeks out in the open, we’d only be trekking for, like, a day.”

Lisa couldn’t stop smiling. This was really happening …

“And you’re sure one of us won’t be left behind this time?” Lisa said, only half-jokingly.

Gavin nodded. “I’m pretty positive, yeah. I’ll have my pokes to back me up, we’ll be right.”

“So, really, the only question will be what happens when we get to Lotus Lake,” said Marina pensively. “You know, if there’s even a lake there anymore or not.”

“And if it’s actually the location of the Sepulchre or not,” added Lisa cheerily.

They sat at the table for perhaps only half an hour more, discussing their plans and playing with their pokémon. At one point, Gavin took the psychic pokémon of the group above deck to prepare for the planned teleportation. Once he returned, Lisa released Altaria, Cubone and Kingler to mingle with Gavin and Marina’s pokémon, with mixed results. Kingler took an immediate liking to Starmie and Staryu, and the three reposed near Marina’s bunk, apparently deep in a conversation that involved a great deal of arm-waving and pincer-snapping. Altaria struck up a warm relationship with Herby, although it came over to Lisa after a few minutes for a rub. Unfortunately, Cubone had to be returned to his pokéball after five minutes after he spent the entire time sobbing melodramatically in the corner.

As Lisa, Marina and Gavin sat at the table, now talking about music, Jack gave a loud cry from above deck:

“LAND HO!”

*

It was almost four in the afternoon when Jack and Frank finally decided to depart. After they had arrived at the deserted stretch of coastline east of Olivine City, they had decided to disembark along with Lisa, Gavin and Marina for a picnic lunch, which had evolved into a picnic afternoon tea.

The three teenagers had tried not to show their impatience, especially as Jack was providing them food – and had transported them – free of charge. Nonetheless, as four o’clock approached, Gavin said, “Well, we need to get going, guys, otherwise we’ll be stuck walking in the dark.”

Thankfully, that hint had been enough to mobilise Jack and Frank. They had packed up their remaining foodstuffs and farewelled each of them in their own way: Frank had grunted mildly in each of their directions, and finished up with a particularly warm, “’Bye.” Jack, on the other hand, had shaken Gavin’s hand firmly before taking first Marina, then Lisa, and sweeping them each into his bulging arms, crushing them slightly with the force of his hug.

“Take care, buds!” he boomed. “And Leese, next time I wanna see Electabuzz again – no excuses, ay? Hahaha!”

Lisa smiled and agreed: she had lied and told Jack that Electabuzz was temporarily in the care of her younger siblings; it had seemed impossible to tell him that the Union had stolen the pokémon he had once owned.

“Thanks so much for everything, Jack,” Lisa said.

“Pleasure, Leese – like I said, we were headed to Olivine anyway, got some freight we gotta drop off,” Jack grunted. “Anyway – if yer ever on Red Rock again, don’ be a stranger, orright?”

“Deal!” said Lisa. “Take care! Bye!”

She, Gavin and Marina watched as the dusty-haired, muscular sailor and the old, wizened captain waded through the shallows and clambered aboard their boat.

“I thought they’d never leave!” said Marina exasperatedly.

“I know!” Lisa laughed, as she waved in the direction of the boat. “I mean, it was a really fun arvo with them all … but all I could think of the whole time was that we were wasting time.”

Gavin was kneeling down on the sand, riffling through his rucksack.

“Just making sure I didn’t forget anything,” he explained. “You got everything, Marina?”

Marina patted her own backpack.

“I was taught to pack by Azura Frost, which may or may not mean anything to you,” she said with a wry grin. “Suffice it to say: I’m all sorted.”

“As am I,” grinned Lisa, patting her poképort and the Buzzball and two pokéballs in the pocket of her shredded jeans. “I’ve gotta say, not having a backpack is pretty stress-free.”

Marina smirked.

“Alright, I reckon they’re far enough away now, right?” Gavin asked.

Lisa glanced out onto the crystalline shallows, off which the sun’s setting rays were beginning to shimmer. Frank’s boat was now chugging slowly out to sea.

“I reckon,” she said.

“Awesome,” Gavin said. “Alright – go Natu, Girafury and Staryu!”

“Go, Starmie and Golduck!” Marina cried.

There were five explosions of radiant light. The five psychic pokémon in the group materialised around them.

“Alright guys, now remember your instructions from the boat,” Gavin said sternly, as Natu fluttered onto his shoulder and the rest of the creatures interspersed themselves among the humans and held hands with them, creating a circle. Lisa took hold of Golduck’s slimy webbed mitt in her left hand and knitted the fingers of her right hand into Girafury’s thick mane.

“Is everybody ready?” asked Gavin loudly.

“Tu tu tu!”

“Goooold.”

“Fuuuuuuur.”

“Hi yaaah!”

“Staarr!”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Marina added, amid the cacophony of pokémon cries.

Lisa laughed.

“Okay then, let’s do this! Everyone power up – and on the count of three, we’ll appear at the destination point. Visualise it, everyone. Ready? One …”

Lisa took one final, sweeping glance of the deserted beach, the tranquil waters, the silhouette of the white fishing boat against the golden rays of the setting sun …

“Two …”

Lisa closed her eyes; and, all of a sudden, a nervous panic swelled up within her, blocking her throat …

“THREE!”

Instantly, Lisa felt as though she was being squeezed through a wringer as cold blasts of air whooshed against her body – and then, quite as abruptly, she fell unceremoniously against a hard, thinly-carpeted floor, her body aching, her throat still restricted, leaving her gasping for breath.

“Everyone here?” called Gavin’s voice.

Lisa heard the calls of five pokémon, and then Marina’s voice said, “I’m here … feel like death, though.”

“No shit,” said Gavin. “At least we all made it!” He let off a weary cheer that was echoed by a couple of the pokémon. “Leese – you alright over there?”

Hearing the voices around her was all Lisa needed to calm her down: her heart stopped hammering, her throat cleared and she gulped down deep breaths of stale – but welcome – air, suddenly aware that she was acutely thirsty.

“Yes, I’m okay,” she said, a little feebly. “God, teleporting really takes it out of you …” she added, trying to explain her weakness to the others. She didn’t want to admit that she had had a mild panic attack before they teleported, struck by the fear that she would be left behind again, as she had been in Redwood Hospital.

She opened her eyes gingerly and surveyed her surroundings. They were all sprawled on the dirty brown carpet of what seemed to be the combined living room, dining room and kitchen of a seedy, cramped apartment. All the curtains were drawn, giving the apartment a dreary, depressing vibe that was exacerbated by the bland décor: the walls were all painted beige, the curtains light brown. Even the kitchen bench was fawn. Oddly, there was almost no furniture in the room, aside from a small table with a teetering pile of mail by the door and a thick, chocolate-brown rug spread out before an ancient wooden TV set.

“Where are we?” Lisa wondered aloud, clambering to her feet as Marina and Gavin followed suit, returning their pokémon in flashes of translucent red light that briefly illuminated the apartment.

“This,” Gavin said ceremoniously, “is my old apartment.”

“Ritzy,” said Marina dryly.

Lisa caught Marina’s gaze and smirked. She scanned the kitchen bench and approached the sink; her throat was parched.

“It’s a heap of shit,” Gavin admitted unabashedly. “But it’s all me and my mate Dave could afford when we lived here.” He glanced through a beige-coloured door into a tiny bedroom. “Looks like he leased it out to someone else after I left …”

Lisa hovered by the sink. “Uh – is it safe to drink the water?”

“Should be fine,” Gavin smirked.

Lisa hunted in the cupboard for a glass, and eventually located a solitary china mug, coated in a thin layer of dust. Rinsing it off gingerly, she filled it up with tap water and gulped it down gratefully. The water tasted mildly chemically, but otherwise satisfied Lisa’s thirst completely.

“Man,” Gavin muttered, flipping through the stack of mail on the table near the door. “I haven’t been here for ages … not since before the trial in Port Valeo …”

“Has anyone?” Lisa quizzed. “It looks like nobody’s been here for a while.”

“Dave works up on the mines now, near Azalea Town,” explained Gavin. “He’s only here for one week out of every three. I guess his roommate does the same thing.”

“Oh right …” Lisa muttered, stealing another drink.

Marina pulled the curtains open, allowing the late afternoon sunlight to gush into the dusty flat.

“Well, that’s a bit better,” she sighed.

Hunkering down for the evening, they resorted to clustering onto the rug, leaning on Dave’s pillows and watching soap operas on the flickering TV set. When the six o’clock news came on, Lisa watched intently for any news that could relate to the Union. She wasn’t entirely disappointed – there was a short report that the Ecruteak Library had been ransacked, possibly by Union agents – but there was no news of a particularly grand scale.

As the six-thirty current affairs programs came on, Gavin slunk out of the apartment for dinner, returning with an enormous stack of oily pizzas, which both the humans and their pokémon tucked into heartily. Returning their pokémon, the teenagers passed the rest of the evening talking over bottles of cool drink and, as the night grew late, they rehashed their plans by re-examining the charts they had stolen from Frank’s boat.

When at last it came time to turn in, Lisa and Marina took Dave’s double bed, while Gavin took his old single one in the other room. As she lay down, Lisa wrinkled up her nose against the acrid smell of dirt and sweat: it seemed that Dave habitually fell asleep on his bed whilst still wearing his dirty work clothes. Trying to ignore the smell, Lisa stared up at the ceiling, and long after she whispered the words, “Night, Marina”, her eyes remained open, her mind conjuring up what was going to unfold when she finally located the Sepulchre of Suicune.

*

Lisa awoke early the next morning. Even the depressing décor of Gavin’s old apartment couldn’t dim the excitement surging through her veins: in a matter of hours, they would be arriving, hopefully, at Lotus Lake. At long last, she would be doing something constructive to fight back against the Union.

She eagerly woke Gavin and Marina, and after having some much-needed showers, they left the apartment shortly after eight o’clock. Despite the fact that she was now blonde, wore a grotty band T-shirt and face-obscuring aviators, Lisa still felt slightly on edge as they strolled down the main thoroughfares of Goldenrod City: from what she had heard, it was the city in Johto with the highest population per capita of Union agents. However, despite the statistics, she found that, at least in appearance, Goldenrod had scarcely changed from the last time she had been there: it was still a bustling metropolis, with streets packed with buses and sleek limousines and footpaths loaded with jostling tourists, businessmen, students and pokémon trainers.

After an hour of solid walking, Lisa, Gavin and Marina found themselves away from the throng of the city centre and in clearer, more open parklands, scattered with young trainers.

“If one more kid asks me to battle his Weedle, I swear I’m going to scream,” Marina said under her breath to Lisa as they strolled through a field populated by bug-catchers.

“Weedles can actually be pretty powerful,” Lisa remarked, thinking back to Hiro’s, which she had seen perform an acrobatic display to defeat Lance’s Dragonite.

“Right,” Marina drawled, swatting a fly away from her face and taking a sip of her mineral water.

They continued onwards down a route known as Armitage Road, avoiding more eager trainers and some artisan markets. As the day heated up, Lisa found herself wishing she wasn’t wearing black, as it was becoming oppressively warm; nonetheless, she soldiered on, swigging at her water, her eyes on each crest as it approached, hoping that it would reveal a sign that Lotus Lake existed, but no such sign ever appeared.

Presently, they came across a roadhouse and a turn off for the Bug-Catching Contest.

“God, I remember coming here,” Lisa said, and she nostalgically recounted the story of how she, Hiro and Kris had participated in the contest, despite the fact that both Gavin and Marina had heard it several times before.

They followed the route onwards, until encountering other trainers became first uncommon and then rare. The parkland became more heavy forest, with trees surrounding them from all angles; and the route, initially a broad bitumen path, dissipated into a track of orange gravel.

“Okay, according to the map, we’re right about where the lake should be,” said Gavin, at around noon, as they turned a corner into a deeper part of the forest.

A few minutes later, he stopped in his tracks and stared around at their environs.

“This is supposedly it,” he declared. “According to the old maps, there should be a lake right alongside this track at this point. To the right.”

Lisa did not say anything; indeed, she had fallen progressively more silent as they had walked deeper into the forest. The lack of signage for Lotus Lake had stopped worrying her. Her mind had been tingling ever since they walked past the Bug-Catching Contest.

As Marina fanned her face and sighed, Lisa walked a little further along the track, sure that she would find what she was looking for. A moment later, her heart leapt into her mouth.

Cutting into the thick maze of ferns and shrubs was a narrow, loamy track, almost overgrown completely.

“Through here!” Lisa cried out, and then, without waiting to see if Gavin and Marina were following, she charged down the path, jogging at first before breaking out into a full-scale pelt. She bounded over several Metapod and a rotting old log that crossed the path before, gloriously, the vegetation cleared, and she arrived.

Footsteps pounded on the orange dirt behind her; Gavin and Marina came running to join her, their faces alive as they, too, clapped eyes on the sight before them.

“Oh my God …” breathed Lisa, as she took in the sight before her.

The lake that geography had forgotten was sprawled out before them at the base of a stunning hundred-metre high cliff. Spanning an area the size of a soccer pitch, it was murky brown and covered in green algae, but it was undeniably a lake.

Lotus Lake.

Lisa’s mouth had fallen open. She took in the impossible details of the sight before her: the grey, rocky cliff wall framing the lake; the murky brown, almost opaque surface of the water …

Her heart was vibrating as never before; her mind spun. How could this be?

“Lisa – are you okay?” Marina ventured, a note of fear in her voice.

“I’m fine,” breathed Lisa. “I’m … I’m better than fine. I’m … fantastic.”

She felt, rather than saw, a curious look exchanged between Gavin and Marina behind her back as she approached the shoreline of the lake.

“How come?” Gavin asked seriously.

“Because I know now that the Sepulchre of Suicune is definitely here.”

There was a short silence, then Gavin said, “How can you be so sure?”

Lisa felt as though she had swallowed some kind of drug: the whirling in her head and stomach was making her slightly dizzy.

“Because …” she said, trying to contain her excitement; she spun around to face her bemused friends. “Because I’ve been here before.”

Marina blinked in disbelief; Gavin’s eyebrow edged toward the bottom of his beanie.

“When?” he asked.

Lisa revelled in the broad grin that stole over her face as she spoke.

“Last October,” she said.

“Suicune brought me here on the very first day of my journey.”