Jubilife City


    19:52 PM, Thursday, 15 January 2044


    <hr>


    "Here you go, your little ones are all better now. We look forward to seeing you again..."


    The nurse said in a voice sweet enough to give Lucas a toothache, with a sugary smile, holding out a tray with two polished Pokéballs sitting on it. She radiated a welcoming energy, and her rosy, cotton-candy hair really brought out her sky-blue eyes... or something else corny like that. Anyway:


    "Thank you very much, Miss!" he said, plucking the two cherry-red orbs and shoving them into his pocket.


    "As for you… are you okay? You look tired and beat up. We have a few rooms left if you''d like to settle down. How does that sound, sweetie? A nice warm bed for the night?"


    "Yeah! That sounds awesome, Miss, I''d appreciate it!" Lucas''s face lit up, something like a Lanturn.


    "Great. Single bedrooms go for an easy twenty thousand. Double beds are a bit bumped up at forty. Are you traveling with anyone else?"


    "...Wait, what? I thought it was free!"


    "Oh! My apologies, sir. If you can show me your League ID card, I''ll be happy to show you to your room—"


    "League ID? I''m not part of any Leagues! Since when do I need one of those?"


    "All members of the Pokémon League Association have free access to our facilities twenty-four-seven. I''m guessing, since you didn’t know that, you''re not a League associate?"


    Lucas shook his head sheepishly.


    Why didn’t anyone tell him he needed to be a League associate—what the hell was a League associate? He knew there were the Elite Four members and the Champions, but they had special IDs for that sort of thing? Were there other members—no, "associates"—he''d never heard of?


    "Well, we still have empty rooms if you''re interested, dear. It is getting late out; I''d hate for you to sleep out on the streets," the sweet nurse said.


    "I don’t have enough money… no, thanks," the boy said, scratching the clotting red cut on his cheek. His body still stung and felt heavier than usual, like someone had put an anvil in his pocket.


    "Well, if it''s any consolation..." The nurse opened a pink metal box behind the counter and handed Lucas a plaster. "Please take care, sweetie."


    Lucas nodded, turning around and walking towards the door. The room was quite large and spacious. It smelled like love and kindness, a lovely jazzy jingle warming up the rosy atmosphere. People were relaxing on sofas, waiting for their Pokémon to be tended to in the back. Some people even had their Pokémon out. One man was passed out on a sofa, a little brown swinub soundly snoozing on his lap. Another guy, leaning against the wall with his nose in his phone, had a cool blue lucario beside him, arms crossed and eyes closed.


    Talk about aura-maxxing. Well, you wouldn’t expect any less from a nonchalant, dread-headed Aura Pokémon.


    It was Lucas''s first time being inside a Pokécentre. You know what they say about first impressions. He could pass out on one of the couches and not have a single worry in the world—he felt that safe. The floor was a warm peach, polished to sanitary perfection.


    And the nurse...


    She reminded him of his mother. Something about her. He didn’t know what. Maybe her calming blue eyes. Maybe her soft, lulling voice. Who knew? Maybe if his mother was a nurse working at a Pokécentre, she''d have more time for him. But that was a dream. Though, it didn’t hurt to think about it.


    Yeah, a nurse mum would definitely beat his real one if that was the benefit that came with her.


    Still a dream, though. And reality demanded his attention. He needed to find a place to sleep and fast. His eyes froze on the clock hanging above the sliding door.


    "It’s not that late, right? Just a bit to eight. I wonder if Dawn''s still out in the city. Maybe I can find her. She probably knows a place I can stay for the night. Maybe I’ll even run into Barry—AAAAGHH!"Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    "Hey, what’s wrong?!" The nurse ran out from behind the counter, the agonized scream of a young boy shaking the entire room and shattering the air of ease.


    Nobody looked drowsy anymore. All eyes were on the teenage kid gripping his head with both hands as he had what looked like a—


    "Seizure! I think he''s having a seizure!" the man holding a newspaper shouted.


    "Everybody, please stay calm!" the nurse said in a gentle yet urgent voice. Seeing the poor boy''s flickering eyes filled her heart with sadness. She removed his backpack and flipped him onto his side, feeling him spasm and twitch as if possessed until he eventually calmed down, his eyelids shutting and his body relaxing.


    "Fast asleep..."


    The thought of him not traveling with anyone, all alone with no one to help, nor care. It hurt her heart. She couldn’t leave him.


    <hr>


    Lucas opened his eyes, unable to stop the sun''s rays from forcing his eyelids open. The wind''s warm gust blew against his black shirt and ruffled his hair. He was knee-deep in a field of tall grass, the weeds tickling his arms, and the sounds of the glistening blue river gently trickling into his ears.


    "Where am I—"


    Suddenly, a heavy wet force splashed him on the back and sent him tumbling into the grass, dripping wet.


    "What the frick, dude? Why... are... you..."


    Lucas couldn’t believe his eyes when he turned around. In front of him was a towering, sleek black penguin with huge wings like surfboards at its side. "No way... is that an empoleon—"


    "You two always seem to be picking on each other. It''s kinda cute..." a girl''s voice rang in his ear. It was her. No doubt. In frantic shock, Lucas peeked behind the giant bird and met eyes with her.


    "Dawn...?"


    "Hmm? What, you''re finally taking a break from calling me Deedee? Whatever, it''s way better than you calling me... what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a gengar."


    His face looked like a gargoyle''s, stuck in motion. His head may as well have been knocked off his shoulders and spinning in the air like a UFO. Plus, the empoleon wasn’t even the only crazy thing going on: behind Dawn, a gigantic woolly mammoth was there. Just there! Standing there menacingly, like the enormous ancient titan it was.


    Lucas shook his head, disagreeing with the entire situation and how insanely serene everyone else was being about it.


    "Dawn, where are we? What’s going on?" Lucas asked in an increasingly panicked voice.


    "What are you talking about? We''re still in—"


    But just as he motioned to pick himself up, and right when Dawn was about to answer him, the grass flickered and vanished, replaced spontaneously by the crude coarseness of gravelly ground. The words "We''re still in—" bounced off the jagged, dank walls of a cave, with the occasional echoes of droplets rippling into his ears.


    Lucas stumbled back onto the floor, his breathing picking up pace as his heart began to sprint. High-horsepower Agility Zebstrika-Style!


    "Hey!"


    An urgent voice snapped Lucas back into momentary focus.


    "Y-yeah...?"


    "You’re drifting away there. Take a look. I was asking if you recognize what kind of stone this is..."


    Lucas shook his head, trying to check if he’d really lost it and was hallucinating.


    "No? C''mon, kid, no way you can’t tell. Look at that gorgeous dark violet sheen—it’s almost like obsidian. This is a dusk Stone. I thought it was obvious; this couldn’t be anything else! I thought you were committed to being a hardcore trainer, but you can’t even identify one!"


    Though they were saturated with furious passion, his words didn’t even dent Lucas’s mind as he stared mindlessly at the gemstone, still covered in a rough casing of hard dirt.


    No.


    He was still trying to figure out who the hell this glasses-wearing red-haired guy was and why the hell he was in a cave. Lucas shook his head again, trying to get rid of the snow-globe effect in his mind. He must’ve been dreaming. There was no other explanation. What was worse was the snowstorm in his head was lightly salted with déjà vu, yet even so, he still didn’t know what was going on at all.


    "Wait, sorry… where are we?" he asked.


    "What do you mean, sweetie? We''re still here at headquarters…"


    Lucas physically flipped out, his body jolting and turning, fully in panic mode now.


    Something was horribly wrong.


    The coarse, condescending voice from before wasn’t the one responding to his question. The echoes of water droplets had been tuned out by a smooth humming noise—the sound of an air-conditioning unit pouring cool air into the room. A dimly lit office. But his panic was brought to a momentary halt as someone’s soft palm caressed his cheek.


    A pair of sharp red eyes beamed into him from right in front of his face.


    No, seriously. Right in front of him. In fact, her face was so close to him that he could feel the warmth emanating from it.


    "Uhhh…"


    "Shh… it’s just you and me, baby. You did such a good job today, you deserve a little award..." The weirdly foxy lady tugged his chin, reeling his face in before—


    "MERCURY!"