FLOOD [Pokémon]

Chapter 3: There and Back Again

NERO

Thursday, March 15, 2018

After three miles of swimming hard and fast, I knew that trying to leave my pursuer behind wasn't going to work.

It should have  –  bolting was what we Milotica were best at, after all, and unobstructed I was usually hard to catch in the open ocean. Besides that, I was no longer wearing that bulky, cumbersome armor that had weighed me down for the past two and a half years. A modified human dive suit now streamlined my body nicely, and I shot across the seafloor like an oiled arrow, nothing more than a white, blue, and black streak to anyone who happened to see me jet by.

But every time I looked over my shoulder, the Gyarados was closer than it'd been moments before. It was those accursed dorsal fins  –  paired with his long, muscled body, he made for a powerful swimmer, and when he was close enough that I could see the sunlight glinting off of his fangs, I decided to change tactics.

Ahead, the seafloor became rocky and wrinkled; I shot over a ridge and kicked downward, searching for a place to hide. I was far from the warm shallows of the coastline now, and the topography here had lost the inviting warmth and color of the reefs. Instead, there were stretches of craggy rocks, black pits, and narrow ravines, with tired-looking flora growing up from the cracks, giving this wasteland an illusion of vitality. I spotted a hollow hidden beneath several clumps of bony coral, one big enough to hold a teenaged merman, and ducked into the dark interior.

Just in time, too: not fifteen seconds later, the Gyarados appeared, its great shadow moving across the ugly rocks and cooling the already chilly water. I pulled my colorful tail up beneath me as best I was able, hiding it from sight, and took a deep breath, stilling myself. Its feelers were out: from here, I could see the Pokémon's colossal head moving back and forth slowly, and its array of whiskers and antennae stood erect across its skull like a mane, aware of every twitch of the current. If I moved in the slightest, it would know, and Arceus only knew what would happen after that.

Bullheaded blackguard! I'd been chased by a Gyarados before, but somehow this one was even more persistent: unless they were starving, they were usually, too lazy to run down a single quarry. Like nets, they hunted wherever there were large groups of Pokémon that they could swallow in bulk. This one should have long since lost interest in pursuing a slippery Milotica and turned back — the fact that he was three miles out to sea, searching the cracks and shadows for blue and pink scales, was unbelievable. Being commanded by a human really did make a difference.

A debilitating nausea stormed up my chest, and for a moment I forgot about the Gyarados. Human... Yes, just like the one who'd taken Magdalene. My gloved fingers ached as they dug into the rock — the pain was the only thing keeping me from succumbing to full-blown panic. Magdalene, taken? Even after I'd seen it with my own eyes, the very idea that anything or anyone could capture Magdalene baffled me. Mag hunted things — things did not hunt Mag. It shouldn't have been possible.

So how? How had a human boy barely old enough to leave his wet nurse managed to trap her in one of those tiny round traps? Those Pokéballs. It was so ludicrous that art of me was overly certain that this was just a particularly bad dream.

But no — I was definitely awake, and Mag was definitely gone. Else I wouldn't have a Gyarados peeking into shadows for me. My fingers dug in harder, and the pain made my head swim — pain and wretchedness. I wanted to scream, race back for the coast, or both.

I could do neither. Not yet.

Breathe. I tried, but with each inhalation I only grew closer to outright hysteria. How had this happened? How had this day taken such a horrifying turn so quickly? Was it because she was so close to the shoreline?  Why had she been so close to the shoreline? She knew how dangerous it was to hunt near human ports: they didn't often take kindly to Sharpedo swimming around in their shallows. Had she been stalking prey?