***

  There was a glint in Glacia’s eye as she looked down and across at the rushing serpentine berserker.

  The first thing Gyarados did was lunge at the scanner with chomping jaws, crunching and making a meal out of it. A slight overreaction. A tad melodramatic – but it took little to push a wild gyarados into a tantrum.

  “You might feel that when it comes out the other end,” Glacia said, but Gyarados wouldn’t have heard her.

  It rose back out of the water, steady as the sunrise and furious as a red hot coal, with the thin veil fins on either side of its head vibrating, and its pair of fleshy whiskers coiling and whipping with a quiet rage, only a single degree away from boiling over.

  It would boil over.

  Those livid eyes… drawn as wide as their sockets would let them, and piercing straight through at Dormund – its closest available target.

  If Glacia flew away and let Dormund handle this his way, there was little chance Gyarados would survive. The Walrein might pick up a few new streaks along his hide, and there might come a little struggle, and it might drag on a little longer than it needed to, but it would end in almost certain death for the sea serpent – not because Dormund was a vicious killer, but because an enraged gyarados would not quit until the option of quitting was taken from it.

  Defending yourself and others against wild pokémon was one of the highest responsibilities of a trainer, but killing wildlife was not something you’d proudly speak about in public, and certainly not if you were employed by the League.

  There were cases where it might be unavoidable, but this wasn’t one. That’s what made it so fun.

  “Kara, spit a little ice at it,” Glacia smiled from up high. “Only a tiny bit.”

  The Glalie formed a tennis ball sized chunk of ice in the air and sent it whistling down at the Gyarados, still busy glaring murder at the impassive Dormund.

  It knocked it on the tough scaleless carapace around its neck, and a jolt went through its entire worm-like body. Those livid eyes found Kara and Glacia.

  It shrieked up at them, and Dormund reacted then, bellowing with another loud roar.

  Rage boiled over.

  Let’s begin.

  Gyarados lost the last sliver of its sanity and lunged at Dormund.

  “Let’s go, Kara!” Glacia went down on one knee and grabbed the rim of her icy seat as Kara sped through the air, down toward the clashing titans.

  Gyarados was much larger, but it was wild and untrained, and had a monster’s control over its power – not very refined. Only as efficient as nature needed it to be.

  Well trained pokémon were in a different league. Honed their power through years of deliberate and focused repetition, going beyond nature’s needs and into the sphere of awakened potential.

  Snaking tail wrapped around Dormund, Gyarados tried to pull him down beneath the surface, only to be dragged back up, rocked, and splashed around the water by Dormund’s enormous strength. Gyarados shrieked when it realized the Walrein was not going to be as quick a meal as the scanner.

  “Kara blow them with Icy Wind.”

  Dormund would shrug it off. Gyarados would not.

  A whistling fog of frosty breath blew toward the titans heaving at sea. It made Gyarados thrash in a furious panic and Dormund ducked, submerging himself beneath the water only to resurface again at a good stand-by distance.

  He was behaving himself.

  “Kara, ice on my feet, please,” Glacia ordered as the pair steered through the wind in a wide arc around the raging pokémon.

  Kara hummed as she began knitting new ice to the slab, encasing Glacia’s boots and rooting the elite trainer to the slab.

  Gyarados shot into the air at them, screaming.

  *flash!*

  And like a debt collector, Dormund made sure it paid for taking its eyes off of him.

  An icy ray shot out from below and struck the berserker on the low end of its tail, knocking it off its skyward course and sending it thrashing back into the sea.

  How shall we do this…

  Glacia took the moment to quickly mull over how she’d go about capturing Gyarados. She had brought three pokémon with her on this trip. Dormund for the water, Kara for the skies, and young Felia… young Felia was getting trained. The little Spheal would play no part in this battle.

  The fourth pokéball on her waist was a spare. It was always wise to travel with a few. The last two years had been busy, and she had hardly had the chance to tour the region. The spare was for any wild pokémon that caught her fancy.

  A raging gyarados did not exactly fit the bill, but sometimes in life, the plan you had in mind was really just the way of some higher power making sure you were at the right place at the right time.

  The spare on her waist had always had this Gyarados’ name on it.

  “Hmm…” she hummed. How about Freeze Dry? … No…

  The monster raged and flew out of the sea, whipping its tail at Dormund from a distance and summoning violent winds. Dormund dove down to avoid them.

  Freeze Dry was too risky a move to use – unlike regular ice-type moves, which did not suck the moisture out of its target, Freeze Dry worked more akin to salt. It would freeze a target with moisture-draining ice, making it one of the only ice-type moves a water-type should be extra weary of.

  For all practical purposes, pokémon were either mono-type or dual-type. Two types was considered the limit of how many dominant affinities a pokémon could have. Triple typing was virtually unheard of, but it was undeniable that some pokémon had latent affinity for a second, if mono-type, or a third, if dual type.

  A gyarados’ latent affinity was Dragon-type.

  A less than perfectly-tuned Freeze Dry from Kara could very well end up killing it.

  Glacia looked up at the sky, overcast and grey, and lathered with moisture…

  It made her smile. How about a little rehash?

  “Kara, let’s get its attention with Ice Shards!”

  Kara arced downward, zipping through the air as Glacia ducked low with her boots firmly encased in the ice slab.

  When they got close enough, glowing shards of ice formed in the air around them and rained down on Gyarados, which was still whipping its tail to summon winds at the spot where Dormund had submerged.

  Another disadvantage of being a wild pokémon was that nobody ever taught you battle efficiency. Gyarados looked like it was trying to dig through the sea with wind, not considering that Dormund could just simply dive deeper. So much rage and natural power… wasted.

  Another shriek and another lunge, the great rage serpent sailed toward them with its mouth gaping. Glacia leaned hard to the right, and Kara steered sharply, avoiding those chomping jaws with plenty of room to spare…

  But Gyarados was a flying-type, and over open waters, it could fly as freely as a bird. It coiled and turned in the air, and chased after Kara and Glacia.

  “Turn, Kara! Fly backwards!”

  Any moment now, Gyarados’ fury would hit critical mass.

  The pair flew onward but facing the monster, wind beating against their backs. This was why Glacia preferred flying with Kara than a wing-beater. To do this kind of maneuver, a wing-beater would need an elaborate gimmick, whereas for Kara, it was an abc.

  “Icy Wind!”

  Kara blew the freezing fog in the path of Gyarados, and it took on that pale, frosty look as a layer of ice formed on every inch of its exposed self. It slowed down but it refused to give up the chase.

  Glacia’s eyes narrowed when she saw that the ice on its body had started melting and becoming steam. It was still snaking through the air after them, but it had closed its mouth and widened its eyes.

  Glacia lowered herself into a ready stance. She spotted Dormund far below, surfing on a wave in their direction.

  “Here it comes, Kara, get ready to Protect!”

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  “Ghnnnn!” Kara hummed, all too willing.

  Glacia, with her boots encased in ice, shifted her weight from right to left, steering Kara manually as the pair of them continued their backward flying maneuver.

  Gyarados opened its mouth and the rest of the ice on its body blew off in a sudden puff of steam.

  “Protect!”

  A white-hot river rushed out from Gyarados’ mouth and the sky darkened, as if even the sun itself wanted to hide.

  Glacia and Kara were no longer there, steered to one side like a pendulum. The Protect was only a precaution.

  She could feel the odd sensation the Hyper Beam left in the air. It wasn’t fire, but it burned. It wasn’t sound either, but it still screamed in your ears and skin. It wasn’t light exactly, because it didn’t illuminate – it darkened, greedily pulling every photon it could snatch from the air.

  It was bright, but only when you looked at it directly.

  Dormund roared from below, and Glacia took it as a cue. She shifted her weight backward, steering Kara down toward the sea and Gyarados whipped its body and shot after them.

  Watching the furious look on its face as it wormed through the air, singularly focused on chomping them between its jaws, Glacia allowed herself a little laugh.

  Some might say what she was doing was dangerous – and they’d be right… But it wasn’t as dangerous as picking a spot on the ground and commanding her pokémon from afar.

  This wasn’t a sanctioned battle with rules and a penalty of points for breaking them. This was a wild encounter of the upper ranks, and the penalty for failing could be lethal.

  The safest spot for Glacia was right there on top of Kara. Anywhere else would make her a sitting duck.

  “Turn us around, Kara,” she commanded, and the Glalie did so, facing forward once again without losing a touch of speed.

  “Ice off my feet!”

  The ice encasing her boots cracked and promptly became powdery as snow.

  “Closer to Dormund now!”

  Kara steered toward the Walrein who was tracking the Gyarados through the air with his eyes. She cupped one hand over her mouth and hollered.

  “Dormund! Gather some Hail clouds!”

  Dormund shook his mane and shook it again. “Wohrrrrr!” He sounded like a raiding horn. The sea rippled around him, and the hue in the cloud cover above them started changing.

  Glacia ducked as low as possible on the slab of ice before speaking.

  “Kara, lead it up into the hail cloud. When Dormund gives you the signal, I want you to snap the entire cloud – just not dry! Not dry, my dear!”

  “Hnnnnn!” Kara hummed loudly.

  Glacia took one last glance at the Gyarados before ordering that Kara get as close to the water as possible and freeze another patch of ice on the sea. Kara struck a swell with an Ice Beam and Glacia let herself drop. Boots hit the ice first, then her backside, then her arm, and like that, she slid along the ice road being frozen only yards ahead of her by Kara’s continuous Ice Beam.

  Kara ended the move with a forceful ‘sneeze’ that froze an ample stretch of sea before Glacia, then veered back off into the air and left her there, skidding across the ice.

  That was efficiency.

  Gyarados didn’t have a moment to consider whether it should target the now-helpless human stranded alone on a frozen patch of sea, because Kara gunned it down at close range with another flurry of Ice Shards.

  Another shriek and it gave chase. Glacia sighed, got up, then began pacing back along the gently rocking ice floor, keeping her eyes skyward as Kara lured Gyarados into the thick, grey hail cloud above them.

  She pulled out a whistle from a pocket and blew on it loudly.

  And now for the finale…

  Dormund, heeding the whistle's call, came surfing on the tide and Glacia wasted no moment in getting onto his back. She stroked his neck soothingly.

  “Well done, Dormund, you were very gentle.”

  A soft rumble purred within Dormund that said, I was, wasn’t I.

  “Glacia, we need an update – are you there?” Robert’s voice scratched through the headset. Glacia flinched. She had forgotten the rest of the team for a moment.

  “Glacia?”

  “Did you say Glacia?”

  Two of the temporary assistants were quick to bite. Glacia clicked her tongue.

  Nolan activated his microphone just to go, “Oooo…”

  She hadn’t expected to remain incognito the entire trip… but the very first day? Was she not allowed a little quiet? Of course not.

  “Everything is fine, Rob.”

  Robert was silent for a moment in which Glacia pictured the dimwit collecting himself in a fluster. Her fault. She should have put more thought into the whole affair. Should have come up with a fake name beforehand.

  “Hold on though, you said Glacia, right?” one of the assistants reiterated.

  Robert began to answer, but Glacia cut in. “Yes, my name is Glacia, dear – it’s not an uncommon name.”

  - - - - - -

  “No-no-no… Wait, I only know one person called Glacia…”

  You know them, do you? Glacia smiled snidely to herself. “Only one? Oh, what a special little cookie.”

  - - - - -

  “It’s you isn’t it!” he blabbered across comms. “The way you speak…”

  “Oh my god,” said one other girl. That other one with glasses. It was beginning to dawn on her too.

  A shrill shriek ripped Glacia’s attention back to more pressing matters. She took off the headset and let it hang from her neck.

  “Dormund,” she said, running a hand through his coarse white mane. “Call out to Kara. Tell her to snap it.”

  ***

  On Pelipper’s back, Luvia sat behind Nolan, reluctantly grabbing the sides of the boy’s coat for support.

  She had never flown before today, and now that she had, all she remembered about it was the horrendous and ugly face of Gyarados rushing at her and screaming like a devil out of hell.

  Nolan had brought the Pelipper down on the water some distance away from the shoreline, and he was being annoyingly keen on watching the battle from a “safe” distance.

  ...

  Had that thing always been down there? Sleeping? Waiting for the right day to snap?

  Luvia was horrified.

  Mida, not so much.

  She had let the Mudkip out when she realized she couldn’t convince Nolan to fly all the way back to the shore. Having Mida out of her ball was helping keep her anxiety in check.

  …

  There was a blue flash in the puffy white cloud that had formed over the battle zone and they watched as the giant form of the Gyarados fell down into the water like a statue.

  It bombed against the surface with a big enough splash to be seen from where they were.

  “Meehd!” Mida said, treading the sea.

  “Is it over?” Luvia followed.

  Nolan put both hands to his head and sighed like a proud grandad. “You have no idea what we’ve just seen.”

  …

  This boy was a dork.

  “I saw everything,” said Luvia.

  “She handled it like it was nothing!” Nolan ignored her, commentating to someone Luvia couldn’t see. “Hyper Beam – dodged. Crunch – dodged. Death – dodged. What the fuck!”

  Luvia’s eyebrow twitched. “You don’t have to swear.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at her like he’d just remembered she was there. “Did you see that?”

  Luvia stared at him for a long moment then rolled her eyes with a huff. Just how dumb is he? Why does he keep asking that?

  Not much later, Glacia got on comms and told the team that scanning could resume. After giving the other units a quick rundown on what happened, a few of the trainers wondered whether it was even safe to continue, thank god. Being absolutely honest, Luvia was scared to get back in the water, though she kept it well to herself.

  Unfortunately, not one of the four supervisors suggested they stop. Actually, Glacia was even keener to resume.

  “Don’t worry yourselves too much,” she reasoned, “the safest time after something like this is exactly right after it happens. Gyarados is captured, and they very rarely share territories. I highly doubt there is another one anywhere close… but in case there is, I wouldn’t mind another dance.”

  Hearing the supervisors agree so nonchalantly made Luvia appreciate Nolan’s dorky gushing over Glacia a little more. Just what kind of woman did you have to be to face off against that kind of monster and say, ‘I wouldn’t mind another dance.’

  With Mida this time, Luvia got back on Dormund, Nolan headed to the marquees to pick himself a spare scanner, and the teams resumed their scanning.

  The rest of the day went by without a hitch.

  *SIGH*

  It was barely dusk when she got home, but Luvia had to drop herself on bed.

  She was tired. Body was fine, but mind was mush. Being on high alert for hours was more exhausting than she realized. Andrea had told her sometime that one of the worst things about going on a journey was the sleep – mostly if you camped out in the wild.

  There were trainers who never ever did so, and some who never bothered with wild pokémon either. They’d stick around cities full-time, battling other trainers there to strengthen their pokémon, then skip town when it was time to move on.

  The wild was great for catching new pokémon, but if you could afford to buy a well-bred one, well, that was just one less reason for you to go out there.

  Because sleeping out there was tough, and there was a different kind of tax you paid, and the wild made sure you paid it.

  After all the escapades she and Mida had been on the past few weeks, Luvia had been confident she could handle it.

  Now she more or less understood what Andrea actually meant.

  One day spent with better trainers had shown her that. She doubted Nolan or any of the other teens in the survey team were as tired as her right now.

  Then there was Glacia, of course.

  That’s so crazeyyy…

  She still couldn’t really believe that one of the region’s most important trainers was in Clearcloud Island, checked into a modest resort hotel only a thirty minute walk from her home.

  She hadn’t told Mom or Nana or anyone yet. She wouldn’t do so until after Glacia and the rest of the League staff had left.

  Despite the entire team of assistants being aware of Glacia’s identity now, the woman still cinched up her hoodie before heading into town.

  Robert got mercilessly teased and made fun of after the units had rendezvoused, and she had reiterated that nobody reveal the fact to anyone, whether in person, over the phone, or online.

  It had only been a personal request from her, nothing official, but Luvia intended to keep it, and she felt everyone else was on the same page. In a way, that made it even more special. They were the only people in the whole region in on the scoop!

  …

  She heard the sound of Mida splashing herself silly in the bathtub next door and smiled. Rubbing the exhaustion from her eyes, she sat up. “Time for a bath!”

  She tied her hair up in a high knot and peeled her wetsuit off. After spending the entire day in it, she let out another deep sigh as the blood rushed pleasurably to her skin.

  All the awkwardness from bathing in the nude around Mida had worn off two weeks in. It was now just a regular part of the day.

  “Mida, I’m turning on the hot,” she warned, reaching down into the bathtub to drain the lukewarm water. Mida darted under the surface and nibbled at her fingers with her wide and toothless little mouth.

  “I need a soak too!” Luvia laughed, gently shoving her away.

  Mida loved it lukewarm. She loved water, period, but when it was lukewarm, she could spend hours in there, and it was often times Luvia’s mother who would have to call her over to take the little one away, since Mida didn’t much listen to the older Juneworths when push came to shove.

  The hot water left Mida dozing. Luvia almost, but she wasn't yet ready for sleep, so her mind wandered vividly as her body melted in the comfort of the bath.

  Dormund… She pictured the Walrein’s amber-yellow eyes, bright and intelligent, and his shaggy white mane. The firmness of his thick skin and the rumble in his throat.

  When she heard his roar from a distance, back when they were battling Gyarados, it made her skin tingle. He had been so muted beforehand that she hadn’t been expecting a voice like that at all.

  He had been nothing but sweet with her, letting her walk up and down his back and humming occasionally when she sang out of boredom during a wait.

  She loved him. So calm and strong, and quiet… but not in the awkward way. He had that presence about him that was like a tree. You might forget that its there and act and talk as if you were in private, then you’d realize you weren’t alone – that kind of presence. The kind in which silence wasn’t uncomfortable.

  Ugh…

  And then there was Kara… Wow.

  Way to turn a dream into a nightmare. Luvia giggled, eyes drooping. What kind of face was that? Kara looked totally pissed off with that permantly open mouth full of slabby teeth. And the eyes? My god… The girl giggled harder. It looked like it wanted to kill something!

  What a nightmare.

  Then of course the cute Spheal Mida had battled with. Well, played with.

  …

  “Heyyy,” she slurred. It occurred to her just then.

  All those pokémon were ice-types, right? Was Glacia ice-type focused or something?

  The thought made her frown. That was interesting.

  Maybe tomorrow, she would ask some questions. Maybe a member of the Elite 4 could explain what had happened between her and Ziggy. Maybe someone like Glacia would know something about her sudden and inexplicable pull toward water-types.