lake acuity

[the_very_best]

The other two lakes supposedly harboring legendaries didn't pan out. If this one doesn't either, Bella's going to have to befriend someone who's got a Pokémon that knows Dive so she can check out the lake bottom, or pick a new lead. Zag can happily swim her around all day long, but he can't get them under the water.

...Huh. She didn't know there was somebody living here. But that's definitely a building. She can only see it because she's high above the ground, riding Rachis, but yes, in the dense forest around Lake Acuity is a lone structure, definitely artificial.

She steers Rachis, and the Pidgeot obeys.

They land neatly outside the tower, and she turns the handle on the front door curiously.

Comments

[the_very_best]

"Got his mind on other things?" Bella asks, sitting down on the ground and looking up at the sky. "That's fair, I'm just lucky that my project requires a team that can take me anywhere so I've got a good reason to focus on them much of the time."

[bitofafiction]

"What, pray tell, is your project?"

[the_very_best]

"Looking for legends. That's why I'm here, it's supposed to have Uxie around somewhere."

[bitofafiction]

"Have you found any yet?"

[the_very_best]

"Nope, not a one. If this lake's a bust like Valor and Verity, I find another ace who's got Dive in their party moveset, we look at the bottoms of the lakes, if that doesn't turn up anything either I fly south, check Kanto and Johto and Hoenn."

[bitofafiction]

"And what do you plan to do if you find one?"

[the_very_best]

"Some of 'em can talk, and they're all smart, smarter than even particularly bright ordinary Pokémon like Zag, so, first port of call is striking up a conversation. I want to figure out how and why they're immortal."

[bitofafiction]

"To what end?"

[the_very_best]

"To see if I can replicate it. I have to display a creditable effort towards beating the region Champ to remain a member of the Ace Trainers in good standing, but my endgame looks more professorial than like retiring to a little off-league gym on an island," she laughs. "Beating the Champ would just be for the international passport that sort of accomplishment buys; I'd be able to go anywhere."

[bitofafiction]

"Sounds like fun."

[the_very_best]

"Well, after a fashion. Lots of hopeful flying to this location or that, hiking for days, finding rocks and plants and wild 'mon, and giving up and going back to civilization for a tournament or to visit my parents or to restock on potions."

[bitofafiction]

"Sounds like it would be fun, if you managed it," he amends.

[the_very_best]

"Yes," agrees Bella. "Yes, it would. So that's me; what do you do, besides keep your Pokémon and Tony's too in shape and play the violin? Or is that the sum total?"

[bitofafiction]

"You have more or less described my existence, yes."

[the_very_best]

"Eh, at least it's not just one thing, gotta be well-rounded."

[bitofafiction]

"I also read books."

[the_very_best]

"Me too, what do you like?"

[bitofafiction]

"Elderly literature. But really, anything I can get my hands on."

[the_very_best]

"Yeah, it's a bit of a hike from here to the nearest bookstore, has Tony at least got something that flies?"

[bitofafiction]

"Tony has nothing that doesn't."

[the_very_best]

"So he doesn't have one of the flock of Porygon picked out special, or his is evolved all the way too?"

[bitofafiction]

"He has a Porygon2 named Dummy. He built it a jetpack."

[the_very_best]

"A jetpack? That's adorable," laughs Bella.

[bitofafiction]

"He was," Sherlock explains, "afraid it would get jealous of the other three."

[the_very_best]

"Pfffft."