Chapter 24 – Oreburgh
The shelter was solid enough. Two walls missing but the roof held and there was dry wood stacked beside the fire pit, which meant someone had been here recently and had left it better than they found it.
Ryan got the fire going while Lucas dropped his pack. He watched Lucas' Pokemon come out without making it obvious Bolt immediately investigating every corner of the shelter like it had been hired to do so, Arc claiming the highest point of the remaining wall without asking anyone, Mag drifting to Lucas' shoulder and pulsing blue once like it was checking in.
They were comfortable. Not just trained comfortable, the kind that came from time. Bolt didn't check back with Lucas every few seconds the way newer Pokemon did. Arc had already decided where it was sitting without looking for permission. Ryan had been around enough Pokemon in six weeks at the Center to know the difference between a Pokemon that trusted its trainer and a Pokemon that was still figuring out if it should.
Three weeks, Lucas had said.
Ryan looked at Bolt moving through an unfamiliar space like it owned it and thought about that.
He let his own Pokemon out once the fire was settled. Prinplup appeared and Arc looked down from its wall immediately sharp, assessing. Prinplup looked back up with the calm of something that had already decided it wasn't impressed and was giving Arc exactly one chance to change that.
Arc looked away first.
Rhyhorn appeared and Bolt froze mid-investigation.
"Buizel," Bolt said. A very clear complaint.
"It's fine," Lucas said, not looking up.
"Bui bui bui." Three complaints. Escalating.
"Bolt."
Bolt sat down exactly where it was and watched Rhyhorn with enormous eyes and the posture of something that had decided stillness was the correct survival strategy.
Deino appeared last Ryan had timed it, waited until Lucas was looking at his pack. Deino did his sweep and settled beside Ryan's bag.
"Your Dragon type," Lucas said, looking over. "It's blind isn't it."
"Yeah."
"I noticed the way it moves. Using the ground more than its head." Lucas watched Deino for a moment. "How long did it take to figure out how to work with that?"
Ryan looked at Deino. Thought about the forest outside Sandgem, the stone-throwing sessions, the way they'd built everything around what Deino could do instead of what he couldn't. "We're still figuring it out," he said. "But it goes faster than you'd think. He compensates better than most Pokemon with full sight."
"Because he's never known anything different."
"Yeah." Ryan looked at Lucas. "Exactly that."
Lucas nodded slowly, still watching Deino. Not the nervous curiosity most people had around Pokemon they didn't recognize. Just genuine interest, the kind that asked real questions. Ryan didn't know what to do with that so he filed it and went back to the fire.
---
They ate across from each other and Lucas talked.
About the route, about a Geodude he'd nearly walked into that morning, about how Mag had magnetized his belt buckle three days ago and his keys still stuck to it every time he reached for them. Ryan listened and found that Lucas was actually easy to be around in a way he hadn't expected he didn't seem to need anything back, didn't perform or fill silence for the sake of it. He just talked because that was how he processed the world apparently.
Ryan had met people who talked to be heard. Lucas talked like he was thinking out loud and anyone listening was welcome but not required.
"Your Rhyhorn," Lucas said at some point, poking the fire. "Where did you find it? They're not common on the southern routes."
"North of Sandgem. Rocky terrain above the main path."
"You went looking for it specifically?"
"Yeah."
Lucas looked at him like he was waiting for more. Ryan thought about how much to give.
"I wanted a defensive anchor," he said. "Something that could hold ground and take hits while the others work. Prinplup and Deino are both fast but if something gets through I need something between us and it." He paused. "And I thought Rhyhorn had more potential than most people give it credit for."
"More potential how?"
"Long term." Ryan looked at the fire. "Hard to explain."
Lucas looked at him for a moment. "You talk about your Pokemon like you've thought about them for a long time. Like you knew what you wanted before you had them."
That was sharper than Ryan expected. He looked at Lucas and Lucas looked back, open and curious, nothing aggressive in it, just observant.
"I do a lot of research," Ryan said.
"On Pokemon that most people in Sinnoh have never heard of."
"Yeah."
Lucas held his gaze for another second. Then he smiled and looked back at the fire. "Smart," he said. Just that.
Ryan looked at the fire too. Thought about the fact that Lucas had noticed all of that the specificity of his choices, the long term thinking, the Pokemon that didn't fit the usual Sinnoh roster. Thought about Bolt moving like a Pokemon twice its age and Lucas reading battles the way experienced trainers did.
"How long have you actually been training?" Ryan said.
Lucas glanced at him. "Three weeks on this route."
"That's not what I asked."
A pause. Bolt looked up at Lucas from where it was sitting. Something passed between them that Ryan couldn't read.
"Longer than three weeks," Lucas said. Easy. Not defensive. "I've had Bolt since I was twelve. We just haven't done the gym circuit before."
Ryan nodded like that was a complete answer. It wasn't but it was enough for tonight.
"Battle?" Lucas said, changing direction smoothly. "Just short. Bolt needs to move or he'll be impossible later."
"Buizel!" Bolt was already on its feet.
Ryan looked at Prinplup. Prinplup looked back with the expression of something that had an opinion and had been waiting to be asked.
"One Pokemon each," Ryan said. "Short."
"Great." Lucas stood. "Bolt let's go."
---
They went out onto the flat ground in front of the shelter. Cold enough that their breath showed, the fire throwing light across the first few meters and then just dark beyond it.
Bolt dropped into a low stance across from Prinplup, tail spinning, eyes bright. Prinplup stood straight and looked at Bolt with the calm of something that had already run the scenarios.
"Bolt Aqua Jet!"
Bolt launched water forming around it, fast, directly at Prinplup.
Same type. Aqua Jet into a Water type. Ryan had a fraction of a second to think that was a strange opening before he understood it wasn't about damage. It was about momentum. Bolt was already pulling up short and pivoting, using the speed to change angle.
Smart opening. Very smart.
"Prinplup sidestep, BubbleBeam!"
Prinplup moved right and fired. Bolt twisted under it too fast, already gone, coming back from the left.
"Bolt Swift!"
Stars hit Prinplup twice before Ryan could call anything. Swift didn't miss. That was the point. He'd committed Prinplup to a direction and Lucas had punished it immediately.
TOO SLOW. He'd called the sidestep without thinking past it.
"Prinplup Growl, hold your ground, make him come to you!"
The Growl rolled out low and Bolt's next approach stuttered just enough. "BubbleBeam, full power, right at him!"
Bolt didn't have the angle this time. The BubbleBeam caught it square and sent it skidding back across the ground.
Bolt shook itself off. Looked at Lucas.
"Good," Lucas said. "That's enough."
Bolt trotted back, tail still spinning, apparently satisfied with how that had gone. Lucas looked at Ryan with something thoughtful in his expression.
"You called the sidestep too early," Lucas said. "Left Prinplup committed."
"I know." Ryan looked at Prinplup who was looking back at him with the expression of something that also knew. "I do that when I'm thinking two moves ahead and forget about the one I'm in."
"Bolt went too aggressive on the approach," Lucas said. "He does that." He looked down at Bolt. "We're working on it."
"Buizel," Bolt said, without any indication that it agreed this was something to work on.
Ryan looked at Lucas. The way he'd called that opening Aqua Jet not for damage but for momentum, Swift the moment Prinplup committed. That wasn't instinct. That was a trained read. The kind that came from watching a lot of battles or fighting in a lot of them.
Longer than three weeks.
"Rematch sometime," Lucas said, heading back toward the fire.
"Yeah," Ryan said. And meant it.
---
Oreburgh arrived the next afternoon.
First the smoke against the spring sky. Then the machinery low and constant, never stopping. Then the buildings, dark stone that matched the hills like the city had grown out of the ground rather than been placed on it.
Ryan stood at the edge of it.
Six weeks of work and the actual thing was right here now. Not a field behind a lab, not a frozen post, not a route with no one watching. The actual thing.
He walked forward.
The Pokemon Center was near the entrance. Ryan put his balls on the counter before the nurse asked.
"Prinplup took two hits on the same shoulder," he said. "Rhyhorn took a Poison Gas moving okay after but I want it checked. Deino is fine."
She took them. Looked up. "You're Ryan?"
"Yeah."
"Nurse Joy in Sandgem called ahead." She smiled. "We'll take good care of them."
Ryan nodded. He'd known she would Joy said things and then did them, that was just how Joy operated. But there was still something about it. Being in a city he'd never been to and having his name already known. Having someone in his corner who'd put it there without making a thing of it.
He stepped back and waited.
Lucas was quiet beside him. Looking at the counter, then at Ryan, then back at the counter with something moving behind his expression that came and went too fast to read.
"She actually called ahead," Lucas said.
"She said she would."
"Yeah I just" He stopped. Looked at Ryan. "You have good people around you. That's not nothing."
Ryan looked at him. That wasn't what he'd expected Lucas to say.
"No," Ryan said after a moment. "It's not."
Lucas nodded and looked at the Pokemon Center doors and for just a second the easy expression was gone and something quieter was there instead. Something that looked almost like it meant what it said.
Then it was back. "Come on. You wanted to find the gym."
Ryan turned toward the doors.
He was still thinking about that look when they walked out into Oreburgh.