The late morning found the odd collection of Pokémon wandering the beach, heading west. Wingull flew overhead, curious, and other Pokémon would vanish into the surf ahead of them. They walked, wandering into the surf to cool off now and then, but to no avail.

It wasn't until mid-afternoon that someone spotted anything worth attention. Kabu, wandering further north on the beach than anyone else, noticed a lake between the beach and forest. There was a Magikarp flopping weakly toward the beach and, though it had covered quite a distance for not having legs, it was clear the large fish would die before reaching the ocean.

Kabu came running through the sand to the rest of the group.

"There's a Magikarp up over there that needs help," he said. "If we get it to the ocean, it might be able to help us find a ride."

"We should go and help anyway," said Kanzo. He and Kabu started up the last dune before the grass.

"I would like to," said Kabu, "But it looks too big for me to just drag around on my own. At least you can use your arms to carry things - and you're probably strong enough to lift it."

The rest of the party ended up following after them, mostly out of boredom and curiosity, as they walked over to the Magikarp. When they got close enough to be within earshot, they could hear Magikarp gasping, exhausted. Kanzo approached and knelt down.

"Hey," he said, "If you're heading for the ocean, stick out your tongue."

Magikarp's tongue flopped out of its open mouth and it looked at Kanzo with sunken eyes.

"Say no more," said Kanzo. He tilted Magikarp up partially onto its belly, got his left hand under it, and lifted the huge fish over his head.

The six returned to the beach at a hearty jog before Kanzo used a quick spin into a Seismic Toss to launch Magikarp out into the water. It landed in a gigantic splash, vanished for a moment, then resurfaced and swam through the surf toward them.

"Hey," it said slowly, though not nearly as slow as Noah, "Thanks for the help. I don't know what I would've done without you."

"Why were you doing that?" asked Kaname. "You could've gotten very hurt. You're lucky a Flying Pokémon hadn't snatched you up."

Magikarp blew bubbles for a moment, but it responded.

"My trainer left me in that lake because I wouldn't evolve for her. I really tried, and I grew this big from our training. She got mad at me and released me back there. I tried to stay put - in case she came back - but then the food ran out… And I was all alone."

"That's horrible," said Lea. "Well, you're free now. I guess you should just try and stay away from humans after all that."

"Actually," said Kabu, "Could we ask you to help us, in return? We need a Water Pokémon to take us to Hoenn. Something like a Wailmer, a Milotic, a bunch of Alomomola-"

"Bunch of what?" said Lea.

At the same time, and quieter, Pear said, "A Gyarados."

Kabu started to answer Lea, Kaname started to scold Pear, and the resulting clamor just ended up a jumble of voices and words to Magikarp and Kanzo. While they had their conversations, Kanzo leaned down to Magikarp.

"We just need help getting across the ocean. I've heard that Lapras do that, too, but if you can find any big Water Pokémon we can all ride - or more than one - we'd really appreciate it. We didn't help you so you'd help us, but- We could use the help."

"I'll see if I can find one," said Magikarp.

When it started to swim away, the other four were taken out of their conversations.

"He's going?" asked Kaname.

"He is. Let's hang out here and take turns in the surf so he can find us again. We've been walking all day in the sun, so I bet you all are tired."

"I'm not," said Lea. "I could do this all day!"

"I'm fine," said Pear, "Especially with the water."

"I won't complain," said Kabu.

Kaname was already sitting in the wet sand. She looked up at the others.

"Well," she said, "I'm exhausted. If it weren't for the water, this would be like a desert. It's hot."

Pear grinned. "Yup! I love it!"


Magikarp returned several times to report failures, and the sun began to set after a few hours. When at last they would have just enough time to reach the forest and find a place to sleep, Kanzo stopped Magikarp when it returned.

"Hey," he said, crouching in the shallow water, "We've got to go. I appreciate that you looked - and sorry about the Tentacruel thing you mentioned - but we need to find a safe place to sleep. We'll keep heading west and see what we can do for ourselves. You should head out into the ocean; you've spent enough time stuck here."

Kanzo got up while Magikarp floated, speechless, and he returned to his group. Magikarp watched as they turned to go, and he blew bubbles into the water. Rather than sad, he found himself angry. He'd lost a trainer because of his weakness, and now, after these Pokémon had saved him, he'd been useless. After all the battles he'd been in, the training he'd done, it was infuriating.

The party stopped when they heard splashing water. As they turned, the sand began to jump and the ground shook. Magikarp was turning blue, growing fangs and a crest on its head, and Thrashing about in a fit of Rage. As he gnashed his teeth and flopped about, he began to glow brighter than the fading sun and grow, grow, grow.

The larger he became, the more the ground shook and the more water was sprayed through the air from his tantrum. Just before the glow faded, he let out a roar that was all Gyarados - furious and known throughout the world.

When it was over, though, Gyarados wasn't tired, he was enraged - blinded. He couldn't remember himself, let alone tell friend from foe. As he opened his mouth and another, distinctly yellow glow shone from it, everyone leapt aside to dodge the Hyper Beam Gyarados unleashed. The attack missed and turned sand behind them into a crater of glass shards.

"Magi- Gyarados!" yelled Kanzo. "It's us! We got you to the ocean, remember?! We- Whoa!"

He dove aside to avoid a blast of energy, probably a Dragon Pulse if Kabu were to guess. Kanzo was having less trouble moving, after the day of walking, but he stayed back while Lea and Kabu stepped up.

"We need to calm him down," said Kabu. "If he leaves now, he might not ever remember us."

The massive sea serpent snapped his jaw closed where Kabu used to be standing, while Kabu dodged. When he landed, he continued.

"We need to weaken him and keep his attention. Sometimes, when my family evolves, this happens to them!"

"Got it!" said Lea. She jumped in, before Gyarados fully recoiled from lashing out at Kabu, and used Metal Claw. When the Gyarados didn't react much, she started to back up and just barely avoided getting hit by Gyarados swinging his entire head like a club. When he turned to face her and coiled up to lash out, Lea hopped aside, vanished, and appeared in the air.

Her Feint Attack was a slash down at Gyarados' head, but also didn't seem to do much. A Dragon Tail from Kabu saved her as she fell through the air, because it helped Kabu get Gyarados' attention. Gyarados missed a Crunch for Lea, then swept his tail over the sand as Aqua Tail and smacked Kabu through the air and into the surf.

As the group started to make attempts to damage or weaken Gyarados, he moved further and further from the water, trying to pursue them over land while defending himself. Kabu stayed too close for too long and ended up in Gyarados' jaws, was hit with Ice Fang, and thrown to the sand. Before Gyarados could follow up, Pear jumped to intercept and used Needle Arm.

The blow diverted Gyarados, but it seemed that he still had plenty of fight left… Until Pear followed up with Leech Seed before she backed off and started dragging Kabu back. Kabu got to his feet, and they ran, but the fight was just about over. Leech Seed took effect quickly and restrained Gyarados somewhat before sapping away his strength.

Despite that, Gyarados roared and sprayed Dragon Rage suddenly, flailing his head about. The resulting blast hit Kanzo, Pear, and Kaname mostly by happenstance, before Gyarados crashed to the sand in the waning sunlight, Leech Seed taking its toll.

Pear ran over to remove the Leech Seed right away, and they all gathered near Gyarados' head. Kanzo patted Gyarados on the ridge above its eye and Gyarados opened the eye to look at him.

"You ok? Do you remember us yet? Have you calmed down?"

The eye never moved, and neither did Gyarados. He listened, paused when Kanzo was done speaking, then used Thrash and smashed Kanzo with his head. Kanzo flew back into the sand and Gyarados whipped and coiled about, not so much trying to attack anyone as just being so angry that it threw himself about in another tantrum.

In the middle of all this, Gyarados had half-tied himself in a knot and was undulating through it when he paused - stopped entirely without warning. For the most part, the huge serpent was belly-up in the sand, mouth open. He untied himself and laid still.

Kaname went to Kanzo and used Heal Pulse, but everyone else kept their distance and remained cautious.

"You could have asked me, ya know," said Kaname. "I can sense emotions, remember?"

Kanzo, covered in sand and still a bit dazed, stared up at the sky as she said as much.

"No," he said, "I didn't until you reminded me."

He sat up and waited with the rest.


When Gyarados finally moved, it was slow, deliberate, almost displaced. His eyes shifted from each of them to the forest he must be able to see over the slope of the beach - to the lake where he'd been trapped. To the others, he suddenly appeared transfixed by something, unmoving. Then…

"I am," he said, in a voice entirely new, low, gravely, but calm, "Free."

His entire form seemed to relax for a moment, but his eyes didn't leave the lake for several more seconds. The first Pokémon he looked at after his statement was Kabu. He leaned, ever so slightly, in Kabu's direction.

"You told them," said Gyarados. "Thank you."

"You ok now?" asked Kanzo. He rubbed the side of his head and started batting away all the sand covering his body.

Gyarados snorted. "No. Not for long. If I help, we go. Now. Soon."

"His mind's not very focused," said Kaname. "There's a lot of underlying, well, anger. It's all he can do right now to just talk with us and keep still. If we get him to start off swimming, give him a direction, it would be easier, I think. Right?"

Gyarados just snorted again and coiled its body a little tighter.

"We need sleep, though," said Kanzo. "If you can keep enough of your body out of the water for us to rest on, we can leave now, sure."

"I will," said Gyarados. He moved much like an Ekans would, on his belly, into the water. The group followed and swam out into the water with him. Lea was too heavy to keep afloat on her own, so she clung to Kanzo's back. Pear, likewise, was too slow in the water and held on to Kabu. Kaname experimented with driving herself forward by moving the water itself with her mind.

Once the water was deep enough for his body to sink just below the surface, they all got on. Before they could really get situated, Gyarados was off into the waves. Kaname was closest to Gyarados' head, so she sat down and put a hand on his back.

We need to get to Hoenn, to the west. Keep the beach sorta on your right, and we should be fine. What'll you do about food?

She used her Telepathy to project the thoughts to Gyarados, but he didn't respond with any direct thought of his own. She could feel his resentment at her intruding thoughts, his intense focus on what they needed him to do and how he was swimming despite just evolving, and the rippling instinct across his body to throw them off and dive into the water.

"We need to leave him alone, guys," said Kaname. "This really isn't easy for him so soon after evolving."

"What're we gonna do about food?" asked Pear. "I know we just ate, but there's no way a trip to Hoenn will take just one night, right?"

"I asked him," said Kaname, "But he doesn't have an answer either. We might just have to… I don't know - send Kanzo into the water to catch food or find plants to eat or something?"

"Or we go without," said Kabu. "A few days without food won't kill any of us, right? We can eat when we get there."

No one, even him, looked comfortable with that option.

"I'll give it a shot in the morning," said Kanzo. "But if the ocean's too deep, it might just end up like Kabu said. We'll just have to rest and save our strength."

The five did their best to settle down and sleep, as night had well and truly set in, but due to the movement from Gyarados and the spray of the ocean from time to time, most found it hard to fall asleep.


After the sun came up, and Kanzo admitted to himself his frustration over getting so little sleep, he jumped in the water without warning anyone.

Sure enough, just below the surface in the early morning sunlight, the ocean floor was at least a hundred feet down. He could still see where Johto's coast was, in the distance above the water, but under the surface it was clear he had no way to gather food for himself and the others. He itched at his back and stretched out from lying still so long, but he swam for the surface, then caught up with Gyarados.

He climbed up onto Gyarados' back again and shook his head at the others, then patted down his arms where the salt stung his exposed muscles. He felt the itch on his back again, reached back, and felt something there this time. He wasn't flexible enough to do more than brush whatever it was, and he felt it move.

"Uhh! Guys?! Can someone help me? What's on my back?!"

He tried a little harder to reach for it and grabbed the edge of something. As he did, he heard a shriek and nearly threw what he'd gotten ahold of into the water. He maintained his grip, though, and brought it over his shoulder to look. It was a Pokémon - a white shell with orange antennae and thin eyes.

He'd grabbed it by an orange ridge at the front of its body, and it was currently wiggling in his grasp and crying.

"Ahh! Please! Please don't hurt me! Ya gotta help me! I've been stuck out here for-"

"Whoa!" said Kanzo, "Hey, calm down! No one's gonna hurt you. What were you doing on my back?!"

"Uhh! Uh! C- Cleaning?! I was cleaning you. I'm so hungry, please, I didn't mean to-"

"Hey! I said calm down!"

"Stop yelling at it," said Kaname. "This… Whatever it is-"

"Wimpod," provided Kabu.

"Uhh, Wimpod," said Kaname, "Is already really scared. A burly Machoke yelling at it isn't helping!"

Wimpod tried to wiggle free again, floundering its tail and spindly legs hidden under its shell, but Kanzo didn't let go.

"Well, you asked for help," said Kanzo. "What do you need? What're a bunch of Pokémon who can't hardly swim gonna do for you?"

"Food!" said Wimpod. "I need food. Please? If you just let me go, I'll eat and leave!"

"Hang on," said Kanzo. "We don't have any food."

"We're in the same situation as you are," said Lea, before she groaned.

"What?" said Wimpod, "No, no. You are food! Err, the stuff on you is food. You don't have to give me anything!"

"They're cleaners," said Kabu. "Wimpod eat the dirt, dead skin, old scales - all kinds o' stuff. Just let it go, already."

Kanzo set the Wimpod down on Gyarados' back and knelt down to it.

"What's your name, then?" he asked.

"My family used to call me Yan," said the Wimpod. "We got separated a long time ago, so I hitched a ride with a Mantine and ended up somewhere nearby before it got sick of me."

"Well," said Kanzo, "You're welcome to stay with us if you want. We're trying to get to Hoenn, but Gyarados here can't swim very fast with all of us on top of him. We don't have any food for the trip, either."

"If you let me stay," said Yan, "I could get food underwater to bring back."

He backed up a little and left behind a few small seeds.

"I already have seeds for my favorite with me. I'll find things you all can eat… Just let me eat too."

"If you have berry seeds," said Kabu, "Why do you need us?"

Yan turned to look at Kabu and looked like he would cry again.

"Do you have any idea what it's like down there?!" said Yan. "Everyone wants to eat me! If I don't move quick, I'll be food!"

Kabu raised a brow.

"Should we want to eat you?" he said.

Yan skittered back and climbed into Kanzo's calf.

"Ha ha ha, I'm kidding!" said Kabu. "If you can help us find food, we'd appreciate it. As long as you do, I agree with Kanzo; I don't mind you sticking around. We can keep you safe until we get to shore, at least."

Yan didn't move right away so Kanzo grabbed him and set him down on Gyarados again.

"You'll be fine," said Kanzo. "Eat up - whatever that means for you - but then we really need your help. Kaname, would you be able to sense where he is now? I might be able to go with him, or we could try all staying up here while he and Gyarados go. The big guy needs to eat too."

Yan didn't wait to hear the rest of the conversation. He started flitting about to each of them, then crawled all over Gyarados while the continued.

"I can sense him now, yeah," said Kaname. "That would be a good idea, but you'd have to help Lea stay afloat. Can you do that?"

Kanzo patted a bicep with his opposite hand.

"I'm a Machoke! As long as I'm not using crazy moves like Dynamic Punch, I don't get tired from stuff like that. I can keep us afloat safely while the two Water Pokémon dive down; that way, we can all just wait here safely."

"Couldn't we have asked Gyarados to do that anyway?" asked Pear. "Why'd we wait til Yan showed up?"

Everyone looked at her.

"I, uhh," said Kanzo, "I didn't think of it until we were talking about Yan. Sorry. Besides, Kaname said Gyarados has a hard time concentrating on the goal, so asking him to do anything more for us just doesn't seem right. If we do it like this, then Yan can ride on Gyarados while they dive, then Gyarados can find food for himself and Yan can find food for us."

"Huh," said Pear, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"You hear that, big guy?" said Kanzo. "Anytime you're ready, just give us a little warning and we'll wait here for you."

Kanzo patted the back of Gyarados' neck - or what would be the neck on anyone else. Gyarados flattened out in the water, looking down to the ocean floor and continuing to move ahead. His tail whipped above the water and splashed down once.

"Was that the signal?" asked Kanzo to no one in particular.

"Hmm," said Kaname. "I think when he does it again, he wants us to wait here."

Right? she asked Gyarados. She felt, more than anything, his affirmation.

"That's a yes," said Kaname. "Get ready to swim, guys."

Lea got up and Kanzo knelt down so she could hop on his back. She retracted the blades in her arms and on her torso, then hugged her arms around his neck. Gyarados' tail slapped the water again and it started to dive - quickly - leaving the others to tread water on the surface and wait.

It wasn't terribly long before Gyarados returned for them. When he did, one of the large ridges on his back poked out of the water nearby first, then all the others a moment later. Kanzo swam over, trailing behind the others somewhat with Lea's weight and how he had to position himself to swim with her on his back.

They climbed on and found that Yan wasn't anywhere to be seen… Until Gyarados lifted his head out of the water and they could see Yan behind the crest on Gyarados' head, pinning underwater fruits and kelp under his body.

"H- Hey! Wait! They need to get the food first! It'll fall!" said Yan.

Gyarados flattened out again and Kaname used Psychic to pick up both the berries and Yan, then brought them and the small Pokémon closer. She set Yan down near them and made sure Kanzo caught all the food.

There were Kelpsy, Liechi, and a few Passho berries, and a single Pamtre berry. The Pamtre berry was one Kabu recognized right away.

"Oh! I bet Yan found that floating in the water somewhere!" he said. "Those are my favorite!"

"They grow on the water?" asked Pear. She floated similarly.

"No," said Kabu, "They grow on land. But they wash away sometimes and they float out to sea. They're tough to crack open unless you know the trick."

"What're these other ones?" asked Kanzo, directed at Yan.

"Kelpsy, Passho, and my favorites," said Yan, "The Liechis. I still have the seeds for those ones. They're hard to find, but I've seen a bunch out here."

Kanzo picked one of the Kelpsy berries out of the bunch he held against his chest in one arm and chewed it.

"Hmm," he said, "Not bad. Salty. Here guys, try some of this stuff. Just leave me one of each, I guess, aside from the- Which one was that?"

"Kelpsy. That's easy to find," said Yan.

Everyone grabbed a few berries and bit into them. Pear was revolted, right away, by each one she tried until she got to the Kelpsy berry. She pulled a face, but at least she chewed and swallowed without complaint that time.

"Bleh," she said, "They're all gross. The Kelpsy isn't too bad, but still."

"I don't think they're too bad at all," said Kanzo. "I don't like the Liechi much, but I guess that's fine since Yan likes them… And so does Lea, I see."

Lea looked up with Liechi all over the blades on her hands and blinked. She glared at Kanzo for a second, then went back to eating.

"Try this," said Kabu. He rolled the Pamtre berry up to Kanzo. "Hold it by the sides for me."

Kanzo sat down and crossed his legs, put what he had left in his lap, and held the Pamtre berry steady. Kabu turned, raised his tail, and smashed it down on top of the berry. Kanzo could feel the hard shell shift under his grip.

"Alright, careful," said Kabu. "Lift it up, turn it to one side, then pull the two halves apart."

Kanzo did so, revealing white flesh and cloudy juice in the lower half, and just the white flesh on the upper half.

"Oh, I see," said Kanzo. "Pretty cool."

Kabu bit the edge of the upper half and took it, then laid down and used his forelegs to cradle it and bite into it.

"Try it," he said. "I like the juice too, but you've never had it before."

Kanzo drank some of the juice and tried a bit of the fruit.

"Oh, hey!" he said, "This kinda reminds me of Wiki berry juice. Well, it tastes a little similar, anyway. Can we eat the shell?"

Kabu shook his head.

"I can't," he said. "I can chew on it if I'm bored - it still has the taste of the fruit - but it's too tough to eat. It'll make you sick if you swallow it."

"Hmm," said Kanzo.

Conversation died away after that while they ate. When they were done, Yan cleaned up any scraps and they rested.

"Well," said Lea, "At least we've got an established system for eating while we travel. This trip would've been a lot worse without you, Yan. I'm glad we ran into you."

"Really? Thanks," said Yan. "I just didn't wanna get eaten and I thought Machoke had spotted me."

"Oh, right," said Kanzo. "Introductions. My name's Kanzo. I asked yours but I never gave you mine."

"I definitely said your name," said Kabu. "He was probably still freaking out and didn't catch it. I'm Kabu, by the way, a Jangmo-o."

"Kaname, a Kirlia."

"Penthesilea, a Pawniard, but you can call me Lea."

"I'm a Cacnea. Right now my name's still Prickle Pear, and you can just call me Pear, but I kinda want to think of a new name. I miss my old family, but the past few days have been way more fun with you guys."

"And we never heard if Gyarados had a name," said Kanzo, "But we could ask, I guess. He's got to, right? Magikarp usually live in big groups, don't they? I think?"

Do you have a name? asked Kaname.

'Forty-three,' was what she received.

That's… Your name? Should we just call you Gyarados?

Affirmation instead of any kind of sentence followed.

"Uhh, he does have a name, kinda," said Kaname, "But he just wants us to call him Gyarados. I think he was raised by humans with a bunch of other Magikarp, because he said his name was a number."

Kanzo rolled his eyes, but no one else had much of a response.

"Well, hey," said Lea, "Now we all know each other and we have a goal. I guess we just get to it, huh? Err… I guess Gyarados 'gets to it,' and we just try not to make this any harder on him, huh?"

"Guess so," said Kabu. "How long d'ya think it'll take?"

"My sister and I crossed with a Wailmer," said Kaname. "That took about three days, and I think we were going about this fast. It's almost been a day, right? So tonight will be day one, tomorrow night is two, and we should be there the night after that. Sooner if we stop on one of the other islands during the day. I bet Shoal Island would be close enough for us to see it after tomorrow night."

"That's not too bad," said Pear. "But this is gonna be boring."

"Why don't we tell stories?" said Kanzo. "I bet Lea knows a lot of those, right? You said your old human told you a lot of stories and named you after a character in one."

"I could do that, yeah," said Lea. "Sure, I know a few. Why not?"


The group gathered around to listen to Lea to pass the time, and traveled on through the ocean - through so much water, it seemed it had stolen them from the world.