4. Protective Passions

Lynn's phone—or the man's voice on the other end of it—was loud enough for Raios to hear from a few feet away.

"You know as well as I do that Lugia is better off over here," said the voice. "I couldn't convince you to move it, so I convinced your director instead. No hard feelings?"

"Well, he's in no shape to be moved about," Lynn argued. "Especially farther from the sea. I've already told you that I can help him here, right on the bay—"

"For goodness' sake, Lynn, you haven't made any progress. You need to get over your selfish attachment to that Pokémon, and stop gambling with its life."

Lynn slapped a hand to her side. "Well, look who's talking about being obsessed! How's your quest to become the most pure-hearted Trainer in the land?"

"That's not even—"

"And I'm not gambling. Lugia was stable here—and now he probably isn't. You're the one risking his health."

"What makes you think you can heal it—you, alone? You have already told me that the issue is neurological. You aren't a neurologist—"

"—And you are?"

"—I don't doubt your skills as a marine veterinarian, but now you're dealing with a brain that might be as complex as a human's. Maybe even more. Let's face it… you were out of your league." A loud sigh emanated from the phone. "I know this is… a special encounter for you, but you've done all you can already. And the help of random strangers off the street won't fix things. There are better resources waiting in Ecruteak. You know that. Just let us take care of things."

"…Fine, but I will be calling regularly to hear how he is faring."

"Fair enough. Bye, Lynn."

Lynn closed her phone. "Well …I'm sorry, Raios," she said. "It seems like this situation isn't in our hands anymore." After a quiet second she continued by saying, "I know you heard the conversation—I kept the phone loud on purpose. That was Morty, from Ecruteak City. He thinks I can't take care of Lugia properly. As you can see, he got his way." She sighed. "I would follow Lugia to Ecruteak, but… well, I can't abandon my work here."

"Don't worry," said Raios. "We can go to Ecruteak for you."

"I appreciate the gesture, but if you go, it doesn't have to be for my sake." Lynn shook her head. "Lugia is probably in good hands, if Morty backs off and lets the Kimono Girls do their thing. No, what upsets me is that I was forced… I had to consign Lugia to a fate that isn't in my hands. I had to give him up. Is that selfish of me?"

"No," said Salamence from afar. "I know those feelings… they're the protective passions of a guardian. Of a mother… of a father."

Since the dragon's musings went unheard, Raios began to offer his own encouragement. "It's—"

"Actually, don't answer," said Lynn, busily writing on her clipboard. She tossed it onto the bench with a loud clang and folded her arms. "There's no point."

"I guess our next stop is Ecruteak now," said Raios.

"Well, good luck. I hope you don't mind me staying here—you know the way to the lobby. I need to clear this room, as well as my head…" She gave Raios and his dragon a halfhearted shrug and began to pack up her instruments.

"Bye then," said Raios as he went to the door. Salamence followed, giving Lynn a long passing glance as he shuffled by.

"Farewell," he murmured to the human.

The dragon turned his head around when Lynn immediately responded with her own pensive goodbye. It was actually to Raios, but all the same Salamence felt strangely touched, like he had shared some sort of brief connection, in that room, with the woman. With her apparent solitude and no-nonsense mindset, Salamence saw some of himself in her—and he didn't quite know what it meant. In the end he dismissed the thought, because he felt too tired to ponder what separated him from a human. He realized with a half-smile that above all he wouldn't want to discover that the answer was nothing.

In the lobby, a tall brown-haired girl intercepted Raios before he could reach the door. "Hi—cool dragon," she said. "Would you mind refereeing a little battle between us, in the main pool over there?" She was one of the Trainers that Raios had watched yesterday. "It's one-on-one. This place is deserted half the time, and we would get Dr. Increst to do it but she went inside."

"What do I have to do, exactly?" said Raios as the girl led him along.

"Oh, just call out whenever someone's Pokémon faints. And declare the winners at the end."

"That sounds easy enough." Raios glanced backwards—Salamence was following, but reluctantly.

"Why must we linger here?" he whined. "With every passing minute, we fall farther behind those who spirited my son away."

"The battle shouldn't take that long," answered Raios. "And I want you to get a feel for how it works."

"I'm Annie, by the way," said the girl. "The loser over there's Tyler."

"Do we really need a ref?" he said from his end of the pool. "You said no one was gonna watch."

"It's just one guy—and being watched is more incentive for you to win!" Annie called back. She took her place. "I'm ready!"

Tyler groaned. "He looks like an expert. Look at his big dragon."

"Come on, it's not like you're fighting him." Annie lobbed a Poké Ball toward the center of the pool. "Show him who he's fighting, Basco!"

"Gotcha," said the Basculin as he entered the water.

His opponent charged right out of his ball. "Raaaaaaaaaaa!" yelled Sharpy, knocking Basco to the side of the pool.

"Yeah! Headbutt!" cheered Tyler.

Salamence sat down in front of Raios and watched the battle with hardly any interest. "I don't believe the actions are supposed to be ordered retroactively," he said. "Am I correct in judging that boy to be an amateur?"

"Yeah," said Raios. "These two Trainers are training together."

"Aqua Jet!" called Annie. Basco obeyed swiftly, charging through the water and spraying the sidelines in the process.

"You missed!" taunted Sharpy from somewhere else in the pool's agitated waters. "Actually, I guess you hit the sidelines dead-on!"

Salamence shook the water from his wings. "This still seems like nothing but a farce, Raios. Why would people dedicate whole careers to trivialized fighting like this?"

"It's all about the relationships," Raios said. He petted Salamence on the head. "Bonding with your Pokémon."

The dragon yawned and moved his head away. "If this is what it takes for humans to bond with something, then I suppose it's necessary."

"There are tons of other ways. This is just the easiest to get started with—you can train and battle as soon as you have a Pokémon."

Salamence sniffed. "I do not like that word. It's so possessive… and objectifying."

"Huh? It's just a word, you know."

"But I'm not a monster! And I would never want to languish in anyone's pocket—"

"HA!" went Sharpy in triumph.

The Sharpedo watched proudly as Basco sailed through the air and landed far from the pool. The red fish flopped fruitlessly for a few frantic seconds before giving up. "Hello?! Fish outta water… over here…"

When Annie put him tenderly back in the pool Sharpy said, "How's that for thinking outside the box? I thought outside the pool!"

"That wasn't fair," pouted the breathless Basculin.

"Well, I think that counts as a victory," said Raios. "The Sharpedo wins!"

"Yes!" Sharpy cheered.

Basco sighed. "For the love of…"

"Very good. Now can we leave?" Salamence whined. The match had failed to inspire him, if he had even been paying attention at all. He wasn't even interested in the talking Pokémon.

Raios wanted to get Salamence involved in a battle somehow, but the skeptical dragon was right—they had to get moving. "Well, we've got places to be," Raios said loudly. "So we'll be… going."

"Oh—by all means," said Annie. "Thanks so much for watching! And sorry we splashed you and your dragon." She turned to Tyler, who looked so upbeat now that he had won. "Okay, so there's no more referee—but get ready for a rematch."

Tyler froze in the middle of hugging his Sharpy. "What?!"

Basco voiced similar objections.

At Salamence's request Raios took a greener road out of town rather than the busier paved streets, and it seemed like they had the out-of-the-way route to themselves. But before they went on, Raios sat by the side of the grassy road and shrugged off his brand new backpack.

"Finally," said Salamence. "If you care at all for our survival, you'll have food in there," he surmised, sniffing at the bag hungrily.

"Yeah, let's eat." Raios unzipped the bag and pulled out a pack of food. "This is what I got from the store. I'm… out of money, so it's all we'll have for a while." He gestured at the backpack, which contained several more plastic cases of food.

But Salamence ignored them and nosed through the bag in search of something else. "No fish?" he said, snout buried in the bag, crestfallen.

"You're not a wild animal, Salamence—you have to eat Pokémon food. Besides, you can't even carry fish around."

Salamence pulled his head from the bag. "That is true. I once attempted to stockpile them for my son, when he was far too young to catch any for himself. I intended to provide a surplus of sustenance, so my young one could grow strong and stay warmer during the winter. But my efforts proved to be futile in the end… and rancid. The rotten fish sickened the both of us, so one day I took him out to hunt fresh ones. He loved watching me barrel through the water snapping up prey, so I repeated the trip day after day, sharing some of my catch with him. He quickly began to mimic my motions, lunging after fish and even pretending to conjure whirlpools. And when he caught his first fish… I remember how it protruded halfway from his mouth, and nearly escaped. As I embraced him… he gave it to me. He said he wished to… pay back each of the many fish I caught for him…"

"I can't wait to meet your son. He sounds well-raised." Raios saw Salamence's mood about to plummet like a boulder off a cliff, so he brought the dragon's attention back to food. "Anyways, fish has to be fresh," he said. "This stuff, on the other hand, lasts a long time." He tore open the food pack in his hands. "Here, try some."

Salamence came forward and sniffed the offering, but gave Raios a pleading look. "This looks so… unappetizing!" he protested. "Colorful, but clearly artificial. Processed and quite far removed from the original ingredients. Surely you procured something else I can eat?"

"Not every man-made spherical object is trying to enslave you for life, Salamence," Raios teased. He took one of the food balls and put it in his mouth. It tasted a lot like rice… which probably meant nothing to the fish-eater. "See? It's not fresh like you're used to, but that doesn't mean it's bad."

Salamence sniffed again. "My only consolation is that starvation would be the greater discomfort…"

"You like to blow things out of proportion, don't you?"

"Fine, I concede! Just let me eat in a dignified manner."

Raios pulled a large, plastic food bowl from the bag and emptied most of the food pack into it. "I hope you consider a bowl dignified," he said. As Salamence ate—slowly, as if taking care not to show any enthusiasm—Raios relaxed and finished the pack of Poké food. He felt vaguely eccentric in doing so, but he didn't mind because he felt a bit hungry himself. He glanced up and down the route, finding nobody around to take issue with his non-human diet.

A sharp tearing sound drew Raios's attention away from the empty road. He turned to see Salamence helping himself to a second case of food. "Haha. We should make those last, you know. But I'm glad you like them."

"I'm just hungry," murmured Salamence. "In my early clumsiness I only managed to catch one fish this morning." When he finished eating, he sat back and stared down at the mangled wrapper he left behind. "I—"

"Don't worry about it," Raios said, tossing the wrappers and bowl into the backpack. He stood up. "Let's just hit the road."

Salamence licked his mouth and followed his Trainer. "Playing the roles of Lugia and Salamence at the same time is quite challenging," he said.

Raios gave his friend a long look and decided that the word Lugia no longer applied to him. "Forget about Lugia." When Salamence grunted in surprise he added, "I'm serious. You can turn back into Lugia we reach your son or something, right? Until then, you're nothing but Salamence."

"But I still have the mind of Lugia," sighed the dragon. "If only I could hypnotize myself into my new role."

"I don't think you don't need that. The longer you pretend, the less it's pretending."

Salamence nodded and followed behind Raios, lost in thought. "I will try to forget myself," he murmured, "but I will never forget my son."