stoked

Almost walking into Lucas a second time, Benjamin was able to stop himself. But he looked curiously at the other trainer, who had slowly turned to face him. The look on Lucas’ face signaled an epiphany, but Benjamin wasn’t too sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. 

“Shortcuts, duh.”  Lucas put his hands on his hips and gave Benjamin an uncharacteristically devious look.  “I know for a fact that there are several areas where regions are actually connected.  I already found the location of the one hidden in the back of PokéCenters because the NPCs told me, but I can’t access the others.”  He folded his arms.

Laughing at Lucas’ quick change in attitude, Benjamin trailed after the other trainer. Lucas was almost buzzing as he mentioned the donuts, and he couldn’t deny that the prospect of a sweet treat was too good to pass up. Weather he was paying or not. His past employer had sent over compensation money, so Benjamin was all for splurging. 

“Fancy that, I’m the same way.”  Lucas began carefully maneuvering around puddle to prevent his pants from getting anymore soaked than they already were.  “But it’s sort of nice; I have so much free time it’s given me the chance to map out pretty much every place in this game.  There’s a few areas I haven’t gotten to yet.  Plus those forbidden ar-”

Noticing that Lucas didn’t take too kindly to his teasing, Benjamin clapped him on the shoulder. “It still worked, didn’t it?” He watched as Lucas’ Pokemon chased each other around the plaza. “And at least they seem happy. Never without company.” Though, having a Pokemon that wouldn’t listen to their trainer would pose a problem if one was caught in a risky battle. 

Lucas laughed and shook his head.  “No, I wasn’t doing anything.  At least we managed to drum up some excitement.”  He clapped his hands together at the offer.  Anything for free food.  “Well...there is a place around here with some really good donuts.  They have free snacks for Pokémon too.”  Scooping up Hoshiko, Lucas gestured for Benjamin to follow him.

      Floaroma Town was having that festival for all the flowers, huh. They really did think of absolutely everything, even including the hanami festivals. He’d never liked going to them in recent years, but as a child they were his favourite thing. So why not go there just for a little bit of nostalgia? It wasn’t like anyone would know.

“Er, yeah, sorry for bumping into you.”  Lucas continued to inspect his outfit.  “Quite a snazzy look you have going for you.  Did you buy all that in Lumiose?”  He walked around the man, looking him up and down to view the full outfit.  Rubbing his chin, the boy nodded in approval.  “It’s bold, it stands out, it just screams ‘cool guy that couldn’t care less’.”  His eyes finally met the taller man and he paled.

Benjamin watched as Lucas’ Cleffa tottered around the field, serving as a distraction for the grunts. Seizing the opportunity, his Pokemon quickly took out their opponents before zoning in the Swalot. 

Lucas laughed uncomfortably at Benjamin’s first comment.  “Yeah, that wasn’t the Pokémon I wanted to throw out.”  Cleffa seemed pleased to be out of her ball regardless and began chasing Miyako around.  “As you can see my Pokémon aren’t exactly the most battle ready team on the planet.  Battling is just nerve wracking.  Plus, I like to just walk with them more.  Pokémon are more fun as companions.”  He shrugged

He didn’t expect Lucas’ Gastly to swing into battle without a a second thought. Maybe it was a new addition. But seeing as Lucas wasn’t about to call her back, Benjamin decided to toss in another one of his Pokemon. With a deft flick, Absol burst of of its Pokeball. 

Lucas was relieved that Benjamin’s Pokémon weren’t quite as careless as his own.  Miyako was attempting to help by hitting their opponents with wave after wave of Hypnosis.  As the tides began to turn Lucas got a little cocky and began jumping back and forth.

Nodding, Benjamin trailed behind Lucas, following him down the alley. The rain had stopped while they’d been in the cafe, and all that remained were the puddles they occasionally splashed through.  

Lucas cringed.  “Yes?”  He didn’t sound too sure of himself.  But he wasn’t, his Pokémon were anything but battle ready.  Miyako, however, seemed delighted to see the three rather intimidating looking Pokémon standing before them.  The type match-up didn’t bode well for the Ghost-type, but she didn’t seem to care.  Rather than wait for her trainers orders, she immediately slammed into Golbat with Sucker Punch.

“It’s a normal name.” He focused on the boy, using the peripherals of his vision. His brilliance, mixed with his general grumpiness, taught him a skill that made him appear to blatantly ignore others even if he was listening. It worked great at parties and meetings.

Lucas realized his mistake but attempted to keep a smile plastered on his face.  “Heh, no, no, there’s no need to knock out any walls.”  Everyone knew Sunyshore’s gym leader had a penchant to knocking out the entire cities power.  Lucas really didn’t want to be the one who caused the next power outage.  Although it seemed the damage was already done.

While a thick screen on smoke was blooming, Benjamin made the mistake of taking a sharp inhale. His coughs didn’t get any better when Lucas grabbed him by the collar and half throttled him, half saved him by dragging him out of the building.

“Hey, I don’t appreciate that tone.”  Lucas pouted before swiping open his map of Lumiose.  “I think I have a better idea anyway.  I’ll just get rid of any café near a PokéCenter.  You said you already check all those, even with the crowds they still would’ve noticed a kid walking around by herself.”  He started tapping the map to knock out any cafés that were close to Centers.

Benjamin nodded as Lucas approached one of the oddly dressed patrons. He’d heard of each region having groups of people forming teams, using the power of numbers to meet their ends, but had yet to meet any himself. He eyed the red suits with mild curiosity. It was certainly eye catching, if not the most stylish choice. 

Lucas - in an attempt to look suave and fit in - leaned on the bar counter, only to knock over the woman’s coffee.  Benjamin immediately came in to save him, but clearly the damage was already done.  While the detective was being manhandled by the woman, the other members of Team Flare were looking ready to fight.  Lucas chuckled nervously.

His eyes flickered down to Kouki’s scarf. Was he nervous? That seemed to be the social cue. “They tend to run like rattatas in a cage but some are brilliant.” He hummed. “Yes, it does, doesn’t it? It interested him to see humans interact with his mechanics. They rarely understood the constants that came with technology.

“Ah, Lucas is fine.”  He knelt down and looked at the long string of code that quickly scrolled past the screen.  Several loose wires stuck out from underneath the panel from where Volkner had been fiddling with them.  Lucas rubbed his chin and nodded thoughtfully.

“N-nothing!” Giving what he thought was a winning smile, Benjamin twisted one wrist in his other hand nervously. So he hadn’t noticed? 

Lucas nodded and the pair entered the café.  Several Team Flare members turned to look at them, but immediately turned their attention back to what they were doing before.  The café wasn’t quite as crowded as the others considering it wasn’t exactly popular with normal players.  “I guess we should just ask around.”

“Oh god, I never explained did I? I’m in the detective class, so I take on requests like this.” Pulling up his menu, he opened his trainer card and swiped it over for Lucas to see. “My client’s her sister. Not out for abduction, if that’s what you were thinking.” 

Lucas scanned his trainer id and confirmed his identity.  His eyes flashed over the words Game Master for a moment but Benjamin swiped his menu back down before he could read further.  The detective seemed a little panicked, but Lucas just smiled.  “What would I think?” 

“I guess playing this game is a hazard in itself.” Lucas was definitely living dangerously, but at least he was able to joke about it. The other trainer didn’t elaborate further, and soon enough they were at the tower. He waved to the other, before stepping into the building. 

Lucas scratched his head, trying to think of the next place to look.  “There’s a PokéCenter nearby, we could try there.”  There were a billion cafés in Lumiose City, and she could be sitting in any one of them right now.  It would be better to keep looking while it was still raining; she would probably stay inside to keep from getting wet.