FLOOD [Pokémon]

Chapter 4: Fear of a Monster

DARWIN

Thursday, March 15, 2018

"Hey, look! I caught a Staryu!"

"I caught a Seadra!"

"Screw both of you: my Wailmer will kick your asses!"

"What was that? You wanna fight?"

Back at the docks, the guys in my group were, as usual, acting stupid, shouting at each other and trying to decide who had caught the strongest Pokémon. Thomas was right there in the middle of them — he'd captured his Squirtle, and was betting money that it could take down Travis's Seadra in three moves. Inevitably, their conversation dissolved into a pissing match.

Arceus, shut up, I thought.

One of our teachers went over to break it up, but the damage had been done — my headache was three times worse than when I'd conceived it in the water, and the sun was threatening to drive it into a full-blown migraine.

"Excuse me." One of the girls in my class poked me in the shoulder. "You all right there, Darwin?"

I squinted at her. Heart-shaped face, sharp eyes, a harsh slant to her brow, and red-rimmed glasses. Helena Stern,  the projected valedictorian.

"You look like you're about to pass out," she remarked.

"I'm fine, thanks," I said, wiping my face. "Just a little hot."

She didn't look convinced. "Are you sure? I saw that Dewgong pulling you towards the boats. Did something happen?"

Dammit, I'd been hoping that no one save for Ms. Kayla and my teachers had seen that. It had been embarrassing enough sitting through their fifty questions – I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone else about why I'd been rescued by a patrol Pokémon.

"I'm fine," I said again, striving to sound reassuring. "It was nothing, really. Just...thought I saw something. Better to be safe than sorry, right?"

She raised a brow, but shrugged and went to join the rest of our group, where they were gathering further down the boardwalk. Relieved, I worked my way after them, my thighs aching and shaking. Still. I felt more exhausted than after a Combat II workout, and not just in body but in mind — my skull was primed to pop at the sutures at any moment, headache or no. As I reached my rowdy classmates, the image flashed behind my eyes again: the tail of a Milotic. But not a Milotic. Not a Pokémon at all. A person, a person with a Milotic's fluke. And white hair, blue eyes, wearing—

I pressed my fingers to my skull, hoping that would stop the storm building up between my temples. It didn't. Enough, idiot. You just caught a Sharpedo. You were stressed, you were seeing things. Mermaids aren't real.

Right. Yes. Absolutely. So why didn't I feel more assured?

Then what? You actually saw a mermaid?

I rubbed my temples harder. I want to sleep! Maybe if I laid down for a nap, I'd wake back up in a world that made sense again.

"Hey!" Thomas threw an arm over my shoulder, and I jumped. "Look, Snowman, I did it! Caught myself a Squirtle."

He shoved his Safari Ball in my face, forcing me to read the small screen on the back of the capsule; it displayed the captured Pokémon's species name after internal scanners identified its DNA sequence. Indeed, it currently read SQUIRTLE, followed by the pink symbol for female.

"Congratulations," I said, sounding just a little pitiful.

Thomas re-clipped his Pokéball and put a hand on his hip, still leaning on my wingspan. "What's the matter? Didn't catch anything? Where were you, anyway? I lost track after we entered the Zone. Weren't we supposed to stay within three yards of each other, swim buddy?"