Lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating Kane from behind as thunder rolled, an awful punctuation to his sentence.

  “Your little friend isn’t as good at being inconspicuous as he thinks.” Kane said, stepping forwards.

  “Sorry guys.” Lucas croaked from his spot on the dock.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Ted said.

  “Yeah, don’t worry about it.” Kane parroted. “Because you’re going to have a lot more problems to handle here in a second.”

  My hand had already been hovering over my belt since Kane first showed up, but at those words I grabbed my first Poké Ball.

  Venus emerged into the rainy night again without a sound, her red eyes flashing in anger upon seeing Kane. The yellow circles on her body glowed brightly for a second, then went dark, rendering her just a vague silhouette in the night.

  “So, you managed to evolve that little runt of an Eevee, huh?”

  “She’s big enough now to handle you!” I spat and I reached down for my second Poké Ball.

  “Cute.”

  “Don’t forget me.” Ted said, releasing Mayfly and Switchback. “I still have to pay you back for what you did to Rakkyo.”

  “Who? Ah, your Flygon. Heh, that was a good punch, I still think about it from time to time.”

  Ted’s face, barely visible in the night, twisted with fury.

  Zetian was released with an ominous hum, hundreds of bee wings beating as she released her horde.

  “Ohh, scary.”

  This… wasn’t right. Kane wasn’t taking us seriously, and I couldn’t tell why.

  There was a reason I wasn’t letting Kōjin out right now, and I bet it was the same reason he hadn’t released his own Growlithe. The continual downpour would have made any of their Fire-type moves less effective.

  I really needed to find another party member to add to my team, hopefully somebody who could resist Water.

  With a lazy motion, Kane released his first Pokémon, his Rhyperior.

  Then he grinned.

  “You see, I know something you two brats don’t. You think you’ve seen all my Pokémon, but far from it.”

  He bounced a Poké Ball in his hand.

  “The thing is, we’ve just never been in a place that’s allowed me to go all out. And I think, just this once, I’m going to indulge myself.”

  Kane turned and tossed his Poké Ball into the sky above the ocean.

  It flew out and hovered over the raging water before releasing a Pokémon in a flash of red light and returning to Kane’s hand.

  I instinctively took a couple steps backwards as Kane’s ace-in-the hole emerged with a tempestuous roar.

  A terrifying form, far taller and longer than anything I’d ever seen before - even dwarfing the Steelix under Oreburgh City.

  Lightning crackled and the beam of the lighthouse swept over us once again, revealing Kane’s Pokémon for a terrifying second.

  Blue scales, a tan belly, white fins, and a pair of glowing red eyes.

  The Gyarados roared once again, throwing its massive mouth back and screaming into the air.

  Kane smiled.

  “Checkmate.”

  /^\

  If it was just Kane’s Rhyperior and his other Pokémon, we might have stood a chance, but as the Gyarados began swirling blue and white Type Energy around its body, I knew that it was a losing battle. Rain that had been blowing sideways picked up speed with a new ferocity, and then-

  The world went white.

  I blinked, and everything around me slowly started to swim back into clarity. Somehow I had ended up sitting on the ground, and there was a constant ringing in my ears.

  “...ina!” Ted was saying, sounding like he was under water.

  I looked up at him, wondering why his blond hair was standing on end.

  Then there was Venus who was crouched over me, and her hair was also standing up, like she was a stuffed animal that had been run through the dryer. It was almost cute in a way, if not for the horrific snarl on her face.

  All hell broke loose, the Gyarados’ opening strike urging all of the Pokémon to begin fighting.

  A flash of green streaked across the sky as Kyūdō launched himself like a missile from where Lucas was lying, and the Dartrix began flapping around the Gyarados’ head. Glowing green leaves continually spun out of his wings, slashing into the other Pokémon’s scales.

  Switchback leaped into combat with the Rhyperior, barely dodging the massive fists to strike back with his claws.

  Ted’s hands closed around my upper arm and back, helping to my feet, and I blinked in surprise at the large black mark that spiderwebbed across the aluminium dock just in front of me.

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  Venus used the opportunity to jump off of me, launching herself at the Rypherior while Mayfly backed her up, pincers striking at the armored Pokémon.

  “Wha’ happened?” I slurred, muscles twitching and not responding properly.

  “Thunderbolt.” Ted said quietly.

  I squinted at him, trying to ignore the white streaks still in my eyes as I wondered why he was whispering.

  Oh. I took another look at the black scar on the dock. Gyarados knows some Electric-type moves, that’s right.

  The Thunderbolt had almost hit me. A couple feet closer, and it would have fried me to a crisp.

  There but for the grace of Arceus. I had to suppress a giggle.

  “Can you stand?” Ted said, voice getting louder as the ringing in my ears started to subside.

  I nodded, and stumbled as he let go of me.

  “I’m going for Lucas!” He said. “Be safe!”

  There wasn’t a chance to nod before he was dashing through the rain, rushing towards the still-bloodied Lucas.

  Another form hovered over to help support me, Zetian.

  “Good girl.” I said, patting her back as bees formed a loose, protective shell around us.

  My hand fumbled for the last Poké Ball on my belt, and awkwardly released Kōjin.

  “Kōjin! Focus on the Gyarados!” I said. “Rock Tomb! Again and again, as much as possible! Keep away from the Rhyperior and try to avoid any Water attacks!”

  He yelped in acknowledgement, a metaphorical fire in his eyes.

  It was going to be an uphill battle, and I was scared to death about what would happen if he got hit by a full-on attack, but we didn’t have many options.

  The fact that we were all limited by the dock wasn’t helpful in the least. When Ted and I had last gone up against Kane, we’d all had plenty of room to move around and reposition ourselves in case something went wrong.

  Now? We were all on a narrow stretch of aluminium dock, which was getting more and more slippery by the second.

  A crackle of lightning zig-zagged out of the Gyarados’ mouth, striking Kyūdō with a muffled boom. The owl-like Pokémon cried out in pain, but astonishingly didn’t fall into the choppy waters, managing to recover and soar away again.

  He’s not just a Flying-type! Despite the fact that he was a bird, the Thunderbolt didn’t do the full amount of damage it could have done.

  That was probably all that saved Kyūdō from a terrible end, and Lucas realized that.

  Red light streaked out from his Poké Ball, catching Kyūdō mid-flight, and the Dartrix returned to whatever dimension Pokémon were stored in.

  That freed the Gyarados up to focus on the rest of us, only for it to howl with agony as Kōjin got off a Rock Tomb against the massive Pokémon. He’d had to manifest the rocks through his Type Energy alone, something he wasn’t very strong at, but the attack still caused his foe to writhe with pain.

  All of our training was paying off, especially in our teamwork.

  Kōjin was focusing on taking down the Gyarados, while Venus darted back and forth, keeping the Rhyperior’s attention away from him. Venus, now that I had mostly steadied myself, was jumping into the thick of the action at just the right time, managing to get a hit off here and there, while making sure to stay far, far away from the Gyarados.

  Switchback and Mayfly were likewise doing damage against Kane’s Pokémon, and I saw Hardy appear to ram into the Rhyperior’s side. Ted and Lucas were on the other side of Kane by now, the older man supporting the younger.

  Individually, each of Kane’s Pokémon were stronger than ours. But we had far more Pokémon, and they were able to work together.

  Then Kane released his other Pokémon, and my blood went cold as a duo of howls filled the air.

  First, there was Terror, the Mightyena, a dangerous but known factor.

  And then, the second Pokémon was like a primeval beast, awoken once again.

  The Hisuian Arcanine towered over all of us, even Ted, and its sides steamed as rain fell on it only to instantly evaporate.

  The battle which had been going well abruptly took a turn for the worst.

  Kōjin and his sibling locked eyes with each other, and my Growlithe went rigid with shock and terror.

  There had been a very good reason that I hadn’t yet evolved Kōjin. He was young, he was inexperienced, and he was still learning control. If I had given him a Fire Stone to evolve, he would have almost had the power of a pseudo-legendary Pokémon, but with none of the ability to handle it. I didn’t even know if he really wanted to evolve just yet, so I wasn’t going to force that decision on him.

  Kane obviously hadn’t cared about any of that.

  Smoke continually roiled from the Arcanine’s mouth, and every time it breathed small gouts of flame flashed into existence for a second. Muscles were clearly visible through the deep red fur, as well as a trace of its ribs.

  The Arcanine’s ears were pinned back against its head, and a deep, throaty growl rose out from its throat as it stared at Kōjin.

  “Blaze!” Kane shouted over the wind. “You wanted to be done with that weakling that was dragging you down? Well now’s the time! Go ahead! Kill it!”

  The Arcanine howled, and charged forwards, eyes promising death.

  Kōjin did the best thing he was capable of doing at the time and yelped, curling into a small ball on the dock.

  The problem with evolving a Pokémon when they weren’t ready yet was a tautology, because they weren’t ready.

  Even after a Pokémon evolved it still had to take time to get used to its new body. Mayfly, for example, was actually moving slower than she normally could because she wasn’t used to the new weight of her body.

  Kane hadn’t given Blaze the training it needed before evolving, and he clearly hadn’t given it the time and space necessary to get accustomed to its new body afterwards.

  The Arcanine lunged forwards, misjudged the distance, and missed Kōjin by a mile. It ended up slipping on the wet dock and stopped on the opposite side of my Pokémon from where it started.

  “Useless!” Kane roared, then pointed at me. “If you can’t kill that weakling, kill her instead! Roast her alive!”

  The Arcanine turned its furious eyes on me and began to open its mouth. Flames licked the sides of its jaws.

  Kōjin, the wonderful boy that he was, managed to get over his fear just long enough to jump up and bite his old partner’s tail.

  The fires were instantly snuffed out as the Arcanine yipped in pain, jumping and turning around on the spot to see what was biting it.

  It never found anything, as Kōjin was disappearing into his Poké Ball.

  “Let's see how you like this!” I shouted, and proceeded to do something very, very stupid.

  It was trying to hurt my dog.

  I rushed forwards, leather boots keeping a firm grip on the slippery dock, and shoved my shoulder into the Arcanine’s side.

  Already off balance, unused to its new body, and on an unsteady surface, Blaze had no chance of stopping me.

  If he had been in perfect health, I might not have been able to push him, even with all of those factors, but Kane had a bad track record of caring for his companions.

  I was also counting on one more thing. Kōjin didn’t know how to swim. Not only did he not know how to swim, he hated water. I’d tried teaching him, but the fact that he was a Fire-/Rock-type meant that even regular water was uncomfortable to him.

  If Kōjin didn’t know how to swim, then Blaze definitely didn’t know how.

  It still hurt a lot to tackle a couple hundred pounds of dog, but in a whirlwind of limbs and motion, Blaze and I both went toppling over the edge into the frigid waters below.