Never Lost

Six: Finally Found

"And you said it's heading out of the city?" Luca was still chasing the Toxicroak when she got the call from Brock. "I'm already headed that way." She looked up and spotted the Drifblim high above. It was following the same direction the other offender was. "Man they're fast!" She said as she headed towards her motorcycle. "I'll catch up with you guys later." She ended communication as she chucked her Pokégear into the pouch on the side of her bike. Taking the helmet off of the seat, she put it on her head as quickly as she could. She then hopped on, starting the engine, and set off after them. There wasn't much road outside of the city as the side they were on bordered a thick forest.

She rode till the trees became too thick for her bike to get through. She took her helmet off and set out on foot to find the Pokémon that had Pokénapped the others.

Brock, Ash, and Pikachu had lost sight of the Drifblim. However they caught sight of something else.

"Hey," Ash tapped Brock on the shoulder, "isn't that the same Lucario that bumped into me?"

"I think it is." Brock raised his hands up in the air and waved. "Hey! Over here!"

The Lucario had heard them and altered his course so he could meet up with them. "What are you three doing out here?"

"We're trying to catch the Drifblim that Pokénapped those Meowstics." Brock replied. "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm sensing light and shadow aura." The light aura he was sensing... well he had hope that he would find what he was looking for after many years. He had found many false positives from other minor aura users like the human before him now. On top of the fact that tracking a Ranger was next to impossible since they mostly freelance and travel all over the world.  Since he had gotten word that there was a Ranger that had actually been grounded by post in a city, and not just any city... Ever Grande City.  It had been his next planned stop. The shadow aura was his mission to end. End the corruption of Pokémon because of villains like Team Rocket, and the more recently formed Afterburners. "There are those who are corrupting Pokémon with shadow energy. Forcing them to do their evil bidding." He looked across the open field before the woods started. "I must keep going. I have to stop them."

"We're coming along to help." Ash raised a balled fist at chest height. "This isn't the first time we've run into trouble like this."

"Ash is right. We have quite a bit of real world experience outside of tournaments and gym battles." Brock added.

"Then we must hurry." Lucario ran with the two close behind him.

"The name's Ash by the way. That's Brock, and this is Pikachu." Ash offered as they stayed on course.

"Please, call me Luke." He gave in return.

"Wait... like Luke from Oblivian? From the Pokémon Preserve?" Brock asked.

Luke came to a halt out of surprise. The others stopped by his side. "How did you know?"

"Well, you're an aura user that can speak to us telepathically. Plus we just heard that name this morning. I put two and two together. Ranger Hart said that you were taken away a long time ago." Brock replied to him.

"Ranger Hart?" Do they know where she is? Luke thought. "Do you mean Luca?"

"Yeah. We met her yesterday. She told us a story about losing her father and her best friend when she was a kid. Didn't know she was talking about a Pokémon though." Ash said.