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[right]New Bark Town >> Route 29[/right][hr]
Lucia frowned at Isaac’s grunt and shrunk back, the teen knew she fumbled the greeting pretty hard, she even forgot to give her name. Lucia thought about introducing herself properly but felt the time had passed and it would just be awkward to blort out her name. She had no idea why she was freaking out so hard, Isaac was just the champion nothing too crazy… She could feel the Butterfrees in her stomach again just thinking of how important the champion was, and suddenly Lucia felt a tap on her forehead as Ralts reached over and her little arm on Lucia and gave her a reassuring smile.

Of course, Ralts could sense her nervousness, and Lucia felt guilty for making her pokemon worry. She just needed to calm down, yes Isaac was a champion but she was here to learn from him and not treat him like a celebrity. Lucia took a breath and held it for a few seconds and released it and could feel herself calm down. Lucia looked up at Kick smiled and almost laughed at the contrast between the trainer and pokemon and gave a little wave back.

Lucia’s frown returned as the next trainer who would be joining them stepped up to Isaac and just stared him down. Jeez, at least her pathetic greeting was better than this guy, was he looking to get into a fight with the champion on the first day?

Shortly after the broody black-haired teen showed up, Lucia heard a pokemon start barking, she turned to find the source when she noticed a frail-looking boy holding an excited-looking Rockruff before it slipped out of its trainer's hands and shot directly for the oher dog pokemon. Luckily it seemed the other boy's pokemon was just as excited to meet the pokemon, however, she almost cringed as the pokemon began to affectionally rub on Isaac’s leg. The boy really needed to train his pokemon more before he let it out of its pokeball around other pokemon.

When the champion stood up to his full height, Lucia took a step back, Isaac towered over her and felt naive for thinking he was shorter than she thought; he was almost freakishly tall in fact. Lucia listened as Isaac relayed the plan to head to Cherrygrove, she was a little annoyed that she would have to make the trip back to where she had been, but it was unavoidable.

As Isaac gestured for them to follow, Lucia took her academy jacket off, revealing her white short-sleeve button-up shirt and a black long-sleeve athletic shirt underneath, and tied the jacket around her waist. Her run from Cherrygrove had left her a bit hot and prepared herself to go through the route once more. 

Lucia’s frown deepened when Isaac made the remark about the pokemon in the area not being worth catching, she understood the champion was more than a bit grumpy but he couldn’t be so crude and say a pokemon was not worth a pokeball. The pokemon she had seen while coming through the route had been some Pidgey and Hoppip, she could reason there were more powerful pokemon and with the champion’s help they would surely have a chance to catch such pokemon, but still there was no reason to be so insulting.

The blue-haired trainer was deep in thought and almost missed the boy with the Houndour committed about having to walk. Lucia hoped the trainer wouldn’t complain the whole time they were traveling together, that could become annoying quickly.

That was when she noticed the final traveling companion as she voiced her opinion on Isaac’s commit, a tall rainbow-haired girl dressed in a black tank top that revealed her midriff in contrast with her baggy cargo pants. She suddenly felt overdressed in her academy outfit, it really couldn’t be helped she was on a school assignment and would lose points if her teachers saw her out of school uniform and surely this trip would be televised. Lucia caught herself staring at the girl and felt her cheeks blush again before snapping her attention back to Isaac. She felt the same way about Isaac’s rude commit about the pokemon, though she would have worded it more politely. 

Lucia turned as she heard the angry boy slam his hand against the wooden bench and told Isaac off. Lucia scowled at the boy’s remark, she could tell the boy mocking the champion, however, it still angered her.

[color=00aeef]“There is no worthless pokemon,” [/color]she said with an elevated tone. [color=00aeef]“Just trainers that don’t know what they're doing,”[/color] she finished evenly.

Lucia then looked Isaac in the eye and fought her urge to back down. [color=00aeef]“Surely the champion knows even a Pidgey caught on this route can evolve into Pidgeot and become a true threat in the hands of a good trainer.”[/color] Lucia felt her hands start to shake as she felt the adrenaline rush through her. She couldn’t believe she was talking to Isaac like this after just meeting him. The teen closed her hands into a fist, the Ralts on her shoulder seemed to back her trainer as it stood firmly with her hand on its hips.

[color=f49ac2]“R-Ralts!”[/color]