The water was colder than I could have ever imagined.

  In an instant all of the warmth in my body was transformed into ice, and my breath was knocked out of my lungs with the sheer shock of the cold.

  The ocean’s water was black, and for a moment I thought I had died again, floating there weightless in an empty void.

  My heart clutched with fear and pain. I’m not done yet!

  Then the world above me lit up with blazing light as the Gyarados unleashed another thunderbolt, illuminating the top several feet of water for a second.

  Kane’s Arcanine, Blaze, was thrashing in the water, desperately trying to doggy paddle its way back to land, and my heart lifted as it disappeared in a flash of red light.

  Kane may have been an awful person, but I guess that even he wouldn’t let his Pokémon drown.

  I hated the fact that I had taken a gamble on his personality, and had almost condemned a Pokémon to death, but at the same time, I knew that it wouldn’t have given Kōjin that same kindness.

  And then I had to put the Arcanine out of my mind, because I had to quickly deal with my own issues.

  I liked swimming. I wasn’t an olympic-level swimmer or anything, but I’d enjoyed going for a nice dip in the local pool, or the ocean when I could afford to get out to a beach for a weekend.

  Every time I had gone swimming before now, I had been in an actual swimsuit - of course. I was currently wearing a full set of clothes, a raincoat, and heavy leather boots, and the weight of it all was starting to drag me down.

  My lungs were screaming for air as I started clawing my way back up to the surface, my legs pumping with all of their might as I tried to swim up.

  It was so dark, I didn’t even know which way was up. For all I knew I could be swimming down.

  A last trickle of air escaped my mouth as I panicked, and the bubbles went sideways. I hurriedly reoriented, and started swimming again.

  Even as the water started getting a little bit clearer as I got closer to the surface, the edges of my vision were starting to dim as blackness edged in.

  I pushed myself to my limits, kicking as hard as I could.

  Just as the blackness was about to swallow my world, my head finally breached the boundary, and I took a deep breath in.

  Air, wonderful air filled my lungs, and then a wave caused by the flailing form of the Gyarados slapped me in the face.

  Awful salty water rushed down my throat and I gagged, coughing and spitting as I tried to clear my airways.

  I was bobbing like a cork, waves continually washing over me, and I was barely able to keep my face clear.

  During the short amount of time I’d been underwater, I’d gotten pushed and pulled by the current away from the dock, which now looked like a warzone.

  Mayfly and Switchback were laying into the Rhyperior, although both looked badly hurt from the experience, and although I couldn’t see Venus, I did see Terror howl in pain and turn to snap at a random patch of blackness before getting slammed by Hardy.

  Lucas’ other Pokémon were also giving as well as they could, although his Fire-types weren't as effective as they could have been in the slashing rain.

  For a moment, I thought I was going to drown there, my waterlogged clothes continuing to weigh me down and pull me into the deep, until a hand grabbed the back of my neck, hauling me out of the water.

  “Fool girl!”

  I laid there on the damp bottom of a boat for a minute, desperately gagging and retching sea water out of my lungs.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” The voice continued, and I blearily looked up to see a man huddled over me.

  He was wearing bright yellow rain gear, the kind I thought only existed in movies and tv shows about deep sea fishermen. The man was older, perhaps in his fifties or sixties, and a concerned looking Vaperon poked its head around him to see what the fuss was all about.

  “What?” I asked. “You doing?”

  “Me? I’m here because somebody spotted a commotion in the middle of a storm and somebody had to check it out! What are you doing here?”

  “Battle.” I managed to whisper, pointing at the dock.

  “I can see that! That’s a blasted Gyarados out there! I’ve already tried radioing for the Coast Guard or the Rangers, but who knows when they’ll get here!”

  The world swam around me for a minute as I tried to get my voice back.

  “What? What's wrong with Gyarados?”

  He stared at me as if I had grown another head.

  “Girl, a rampaging Gyarados is no small matter! It could devastate the whole town if it got loose! I’m taking a huge risk just being here right now!”

  Right.

  Gyarados were not fun Pokémon to be around, especially if they were wild or hadn’t been trained properly.

  I was not willing to bet that Kane had put in the time and effort to make sure his had been.

  And my friends were currently fighting that thing, without me.

  I pointed back at the dock “Can you bring me back there?”

  “What?! Why would you want that?”

  “My friends are out there.”

  “Girl, you couldn’t pay me enough to take my little dinghy anywhere close to that Gyarados. We’d be as good as dead.”

  “Oh.” I stared at my Pokémon for a second, wondering where Venus was in the fight. “Alright then.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Shakily, I stood, and started taking off my boots.

  “What are you doing!?” The fisherman asked, aghast.

  “My Pokémon are out there.” I said, tossing my boots into the bottom of the boat. “My friends are out there.”

  My coat came next.

  “I need to get back there and help them out. If you’re not going to help me get back, I’m just going to have to swim.”

  I started pulling off my tights, and thankfully the man was a decent person and averted his eyes.

  “That’s suicide!” He said as I shucked off my top.

  “It would be suicide if I had to swim with all this shit weighing me down.”

  The belt with my Poké Balls stayed on, and I was glad that they had very strong magnets or something on them, otherwise they’d have fallen off by now.

  “Don’t be silly! Please, just stay here, we can wait until the Rangers come.”

  The Vaporeon started pawing at the man’s leg.

  “Can you keep my stuff safe?” I asked, preparing to jump back into the water. “I’m going to want those boots back, I paid good money for them.”

  “Blast it!” The man said, banging the edge of the boat. “I can’t take my boat there, do you understand? It’ll be broken into pieces the moment that Gyarados sees it!”

  “I get it, I’m not blaming you.” I took a deep breath, and was about to jump.

  There was a whine from behind me.

  “Wait!”

  I paused for a second looking back.

  The man wasn’t looking at me, but he motioned to his Vaporeon.

  “Puddles here will help you. He won’t battle for you, a single Thunderbolt from that monster out there would probably kill him, but he’ll help get you to the dock.”

  The man met my eyes, and there was a genuine look of concern and helplessness there.

  “I’m sorry.” He said.

  “That’s okay, I appreciate the help.”

  I turned, and leapt back into the ocean.

  /^\

  Swimming with a Vaporeon to help me along was a different experience from anything I had experienced before.

  I had spoken to Ted and Lucas about it, and as it turned out, the whole ‘Vaporeon can turn into water’ aspect of the Pokedex wasn’t actually true. Like many of the descriptions, it was more of an urban legend than anything. In reality, a Vaporeon’s fur coat generated a certain kind of moisturizing oil with the same refractive index as water. That meant that as soon as a Vaporeon entered a body of water, it was practically invisible, thus leading to the idea that they could turn into liquid.

  They were excellent swimmers though, and with the help of Puddles I was able to swim to the dock in what seemed like record time.

  Puddles made sure to stay just below me, using his bulk to keep my head above the water. He was also using a move, I wasn’t sure which, to keep a bubble of relatively calm seas around us. It wasn’t the biggest help, but with a raging Gyarados nearby it was the difference between life and death.

  The lack of clothes to drag me down helped too, and with those factors combined, I was able to get to where Ted and Lucas were fighting with no issues.

  With a little help from Puddles in pushing me out of the water, I was able to scramble onto the dock by my friends, where I got a wild reception.

  “Thanks Puddles!” I shouted, and the Vaporeon chirped in response before diving back underwater.

  “Alina?” Ted shouted. “I… what? You fell!”

  “I’m back now!” Without any flourishes I pulled Kōjin’s Poké Ball out and released him. “Kōjin! Back to work against the Gyarados!”

  He barked before concentrating, rocks levitating in the air around him before zooming off to slam into the much larger Pokémon, who roared in anger.

  “Your clothes!” Lucas said with a squeak, desperately trying to look in any other direction.

  “Had to ditch them with a fisherman to get back here! Come on, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, focus!”

  Ted chortled, and Lucas squeaked again, and I realized that there was a strong possibility he hadn’t seen somebody almost naked before.

  I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to be embarrassed right now, I was more focused on taking out Kane and making sure we all made it out of this alive.

  “A fisherman called the Rangers and told them about the Gyarados!” I called. “We just have to hang in here a little bit longer!”

  “Good!” Ted called back, then whipped off his raincoat and threw it over to me. “Borrow this! It might help the kid keep his head in the game!”

  I was pulling the coat on when everything went wrong.

  It had only been a matter of time, even though we were beating Kane in terms of pure numbers, his Pokémon were all individually stronger than ours.

  Crusher the Rhyperior made to go for a massive overhand punch, but at a barked order from Kane it feinted, turning the punch into a backhand that sent Switchback flying.

  “No!” Ted shouted, and hurriedly recalled his Pokémon before he could land in the water.

  Things happened quickly as Kane pounced on the opening.

  A bolt of lightning came down and slammed into Zetian, sending her tumbling to the dock. She stirred weakly as the Gyarados roared in triumph.

  Without a partner helping to draw attention, Mayfly was focused on by the Rhyperior, where a heavy punch audibly cracked her metal exoskeleton.

  Venus yipped in triumph as Terror finally collapsed with Hardy’s help.

  After recalling his last Pokemon, Ted charged forwards, fist flying towards Kane’s head.

  Ted was taller than Kane and in good shape, but he obviously hadn’t had any martial arts training.

  Kane took the punch on the chin, and while he staggered back a couple of steps, he quickly recovered and lunged forwards to slam a fist into Ted’s stomach.

  The two began brawling, and despite Ted giving it his all, I was fairly certain I knew how the fight was going to end.

  Lucas launched himself from where he was crouched on the ground to tackle Kane's feet, earning a kick to the head in the process of bringing the larger man to the ground.

  I wanted to join in, but Kane’s unattended Rhypherior caught my attention, and I had to hurriedly direct Venus to try and distract it.

  If that Rhyperior got its hands on Venus it’ll hurt her, but if it gets a hold of Ted or Lucas it’s going to kill them.

  Humans were so much weaker than Pokémon, after all.

  Kane managed to weasel his way out of the brawl, kicking Lucas again in the ribs and throwing Ted from him as he got back to his feet.

  He reached behind his belt and pulled out a long knife, the silver blade gleaming in the rain as it caught the beam of the lighthouse.

  “Fine!” He roared. “I’ll take you all on! If I’m going down, you’re going down with me!”

  Then there was a pop as air was displaced, and a new figure was standing next to me.

  The world seemed to hold its breath - even the raging Gyarados was silent for a second.

  “I’m sorry for the delay.”

  I staggered backwards as Byron appeared, pulling his arm back from the Magnezone floating just beside him.

  “There was a meeting, and my phone was off.” He explained, almost casually, before releasing several more Pokémon from his belt.

  A Bronzong and a Skarmory took to the skies, while the Magnezone focused its three eyes onto the Gyarados.

  If I had thought the light from the earlier Thunderbolts had been blinding, the lightning bolt that smashed into Kane’s Pokémon blew that out of the water.

  The entire world went white, and everything was silent for a long moment as the only sound was a faint ringing in my ears.

  “...render.” Byron was saying to Kane, who had backed away from my companions and was now frantically looking for a way out. “I am here, and the Rangers are on their way. You have nowhere to run.”

  The Gyarados was floating in the water, spittle frothing at the edges of its massive mouth.

  Crusher, the Rypherior, was being pummeled on all sides by Byron’s Pokémon.

  The boat, his one lone chance to escape, was cut off by Lucas and Hardy.

  Kane was trapped, and he knew it.

  Fear and anger warred on his face, and he held the knife up threateningly.

  The Bronzong tolled once, a deep, reverating sound that shook me to my core, and Kane’s eyes rolled into the back of his head.

  The knife clattered to the ground, followed shortly by Kane’s limp form.

  With its Trainer unconscious, the Rhyperior began to go into a frenzy, only to be quickly knocked out as all of Byron’s Pokémon focused on it.

  And then… it was over.

  Kōjin - Male Hisuian Growlithe. Joined Alina on the outskirts of Eterna City.

  Kyūdō - Male Dartrix. Joined Lucas in the Grand Underground.