Inevitable

Lucas figured maybe he should try training some of his lower-leveled Pokemon, so he’s been re-visiting some of the routes he previously went through.

This was the first time he’s been here, though. Now that he thought about it, did he even catch anything in Route 212...?

Maybe he should catch something here first, and then check his notes. 

That reminded him...he never checked the stats on the Wingull he caught in Route 222, did he? Maybe he should do that while checking up on Arrow.

That was probably the most terrifying catch he’s ever gone through!

He was prepared when the Steelix started using Curse, but he hadn’t been prepared for Rock Polish! That nullified the Speed drop from Curse, and the Steelix nearly KO’d Garnet because of it!

Thankfully, the Steelix was caught before he could seriously hurt anyone, but he still had to turn back to get everyone healed up afterwards. That was annoying, hey...not every day you catch a Steelix.

It was a whirlwind of events. First Cyrus managed to summon Dialga and Palkia, then Giratina appeared to break the Red Chains and drag Cyrus into the Distortion World. Cynthia and Lucas hopped in after them to try to calm Giratina and restore stability between the two worlds.

Then, when they finally found Cyrus, he challenged Lucas to a battle. And it was rough. The fact that none of his Pokemon fainted seemed like a miracle in itself, but Cyrus really gave him a run for his money.

All of those events led to this: it fell to him to face Giratina and try to...what? Calm them down? Battle them? He didn’t think he could do that; he didn’t know much about Giratina, but he knew enough of its siblings(?) to know that they were just as strong as Dialga and Palkia. What hopes does a trainer like him have against a primordial force?

Catching it probably wasn’t the best option either. Even with the Master Ball. If Cyrus’ theory was right, catching Giratina would create even more instability. That’d be playing into Cyrus’ hands, and he did not want to do that.

So, as he looked up at the legendary quietly watching him, Lucas made his decision.

“G-Giratina...I don’t want to fight!”

This time though, he couldn’t afford to make a mistake like that. He had set the Lake Trio free, but that wouldn’t stop Cyrus from accomplishing his goal. In a strange way, he didn’t need Saturn to tell him that; the knowledge seemed to be instinctual.

So, after he set the Lake Trio free, he went straight to Mt. Coronet. He had to get to Spear Pillar. It wasn’t likely that he would reach it before Cyrus, but he could only hope that he could get there in time to stop him.

Current Team 

Garnet / Lucario / Female / Quirky / Highly curious / Steadfast

Arty / Crobat / Male / Lax / Good perseverance / Inner Focus

April / Blissey / Modest / Highly curious / Serene Grace

Bebe / Luxray / Female / Bold / Mischievous / Intimidate

Marnie / Gastrodon / Female / Quiet / Highly persistent / Sticky Hold

Lucas had given his Pokemon the time to relax and take a load off. After all, it was a long and hectic day they had; Lake Valor, Lake Verity, and then chasing Barry all the way up to Lake Acuity. The Gym Battle with Candice aside, everyone was exhausted. As much as Lucas wanted to chase after Jupiter too, he knew that everyone needed to rest. He needed to rest.

So, Marnie ferried them off to a patch of land on the opposite side of the lake. Why did he ask her to do that? Well....there were a few reasons. He did want to give his Pokemon a chance to rest, but he also needed a minute to process what was happening.

I was too late. I couldn’t stop it. Why does this keep happening, why couldn’t things be different this one time, why does all of this seem SO FAMILIAR-

He didn’t even realize that he was crying. He could barely process the cries of distress coming from his Pokemon, a rustling of grass and SOMETHING VERY COLD BUMPING AGAINST HIS BACK-

He shrieked and very nearly fell into the water. Well, that was one way to get him out of his head! The Snorunt (because that’s what had approached him) shrieked as well and ran off to hide behind April. 

It seemed to be a pretty awkward conversation between the wild Snorunt and Lucas’ team.....but Snorunt seemed to want to come along with them, so........

The fight started off pretty smoothly. Garnet OHKO’d Sneasel, and Jade held up well against the Piloswine. 

And since Blissey as a Pokemon were notorious for having a high Special Defense, Lucas got the idea to send April out against Froslass. She had Light Screen and Shock Wave, which would bypass Double Team. 

....He has no idea how he didn’t think that Candice would switch Froslass out for Abomasnow. 

It didn’t take long for the decision to be made for him; before Lucas could figure out what he wanted to do, Kale burst out of his PokeBall to face the Grass-type. It gave Lucas time to switch April out, but Kale took a beating in the process. Thank Arceus Abomasnow just used Wood Hammer; he didn’t want to think of what would’ve happened if she decided to use Avalanche. 

Roy took on Abomasnow once Kale couldn’t take anymore, and that was followed by a long standoff between April and Froslass. The Blissey eventually came out on top, and Lucas got the badge.

Lucas was actually hoping he would get a chance to befriend one of these! He just always thought that this Pokemon was really cute.

He knew that it was practically a perpetual blizzard in Route 217, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t totally caught off-guard! It was snowing so hard that he nearly missed the Swinub he had encountered.

Lucas must have reached this place in record time. And what a blessing that was, especially after he got lost the last time he entered Mt. Coronet. Thankfully Garnet was able to help him with getting to Lake Acuity.

...And they were almost immediately ambused by a Sneasel.

((It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

So I’ve been thinking about what kind of direction I wanted to take with this run, especially since I recently started writing on Lucas’ blog again. Crown Tundra did as expected and inspired his muse.

What I came to was tweaking the perma-death aspect of this run. I probably won’t remove it completely (because I can totally imagine Team Galactic or Cyrus trying something), but at the very least I’ll remove it in the case of Gym Leader and normal trainer fights (meaning I’m totally retconning Carly and Arty’s deaths for the time being). I haven’t decided on Marly (the Starly that Lucas caught in the first route and lost immediately after), since her downfall was a wild Pokemon. 

I’ll still keep the first encounter and duplicate clauses, if only because that’s probably how Lucas would approach catching Pokemon anyway.