21. Of eating contests and battle woes

The day after Nila's win at the gym, it was the time of Reid's eating contest and, as they all went to sleep that night, everyone was thinking about the following day's activities. Kaida couldn't challenge Whitney, as it was her day off, but she had arranged the battle for the next day, which her Pokémon didn't seem to mind. It gave her a little longer to think of strategy and required skills, which was always helpful, although it wasn't helping her nerves.

At breakfast, Eevee was happily licking the milk still left in its cereal bowl while Cyndaquil and Gastly finished off their own breakfast. Nila was cleaning her three badge while her mug of milk on the counter was guarded by Chikorita and Eevee as they also ate their breakfast. Sandslash and Mareep were playing on the floor, teasing Rina's two Slowpoke.

Rina had left her Magikarp in the bath, much to Flo's horror when she went for a shower. Nila, at this point, had threatened her that if it was not moved soon then Rina and the fish would be thrown from the forth floor window. Rina had luckily taken the hint. Flo still claimed that Magikarp was glaring at her, since she called it useless, and that it wanted her blood, but no one paid attention to this.

John had only let out Totodile as he felt the place was too crowed and was now reading the paper as the happy Pokémon danced all over the apartment, investigating the new environment, much to Reid's dismay. He was keeping an eye out for potential damage to his Aunt's expensive furniture.

"So what's the plan for today?" John asked, as he flicked through the paper, looking for any news of importance.

"Well." Reid looked up from where his head had been buried in the fridge. "I was hoping to enter the eating contest at lunch today. Today is spicy pies" He rubbed his stomach at the thought. "There's some good cash to be won at these eating contests."

"So, what? You get paid a ridiculous sum of money for stuffing your face with food?" Flo raised an eyebrow gazing up from her magazine "Contest Cuties."

"Curries wrapped in pastry?" John grinned. "I'm in."

"What about if we all enter?" Kaida pondered, taking the bowl from Eevee and putting it in the sink. "Then Reid has more chance of getting the money for his bike."

"Will there be cheese?" Rina's head popped up from behind the sofa.

"We know," Nila muttered, sipping her milk, trying to avoid the urge of killing Rina so early in the morning.

"No?" Reid said, baffled. "You could take your own, I guess."

Reid was confused by her love for cheese as he much preferred it accompanied by other food where as Rina would just bite into the block. They had discovered this when trying to make sandwiches the other day. Much of the cheese had large chunks taken out of it, marked by pointy teeth. They had given her the rest of that and told her not to contaminate anything else.

"Yay!" Rina smiled in triumph, like she had won an extremely long and hard battle.

"CoughFreakcough," Kaida muttered, returning Gastly to its Pokéball before it scared Rina again. As funny as it was, she didn't trust Rina and her cheese knife.

After a long debate, mainly with Nila, everyone decided they would enter so that there would be more chance of winning so Reid could get some money towards his bike. At noon they arrived at the contest area, which was being held in the garden of a large cafe that was producing the pies. The rules stated that each member had to have a Pokémon partner to help them complete the challenge of eating all the pies. There was no time limit for this contest, as Reid was pleased to see, as it was an 'eat until you burst' contest (in his words) where the winner was the team that ate the most until they gave up. He hoped that Snorlax would stay awake long enough to eat as many pies as possible but, as he said, at the prospect of food Snorlax did tend to be quite lively.

Kaida chose her Cyndaquil hoping that it would enjoy the hot spicy food. Nila had opted for Chikorita. She didn't expect she would win, being so picky with her food, and she doubted she would enjoy the contest at all. John had gone for Totodile, hoping that its enthusiasm would help him. Rina had chosen Wally, after much deliberation, and Flo had decided on Weepinbell, due to the fact that it had the biggest mouth.

They all took their seats on the stage, with the exception of Snorlax, who was so big it had to sit on the floor next to Reid, who was on the end. It could still easily reach the table. The competition, Reid noticed, only comprised of three people: an old fat man and his Granbull; a bug catcher and his Ledyba; and lastly, and most importantly, his rival, the girl and her Swinub, which Reid saw had evolved into a huge Piloswine. It looked more then capable of eating more then its own body weight in pies.

The girl glared at him down the table at Reid. Reid returned the look. She would not win, not with Snorlax on his team. When everyone was seated, the judge explained the rules as the pies where brought out in front of each contestant. Each team had a person sat in front of them, counting the number of pies properly eaten. Reid twitched his fingers impatiently as the mini mountain of pies was placed in front of him. Snorlax sniffed excitedly as the smell wafted towards it.

"Begin!" The main judge yelled, causing the small crowd to cheer excitedly.

Reid dove into his pile stuffing in pie after pie, Snorlax, on the other hand, was throwing in twenty pies at a time and, in about thirty seconds, his mini pie mountain was almost gone. The pies had to be rushed to them by the waitresses constantly. The others, however, weren't doing as well as the black hole Snorlax. John was on his second pie and was munching away happily until Totodile got too excited by the cheering crowd and had started to eat erratically sending pie everywhere. John grimaced as he saw the state of the counter. In addition, his entire torso was splattered with pie pieces.

"Disqualified!" The counter raised a red flag from his lap.

Totodile ignored the fact he had just ruined their chances and started to dance happily on the table, perhaps exacerbated by the bright shade of red. John decided to take it in his stride and started to cheer on Reid, throwing his unused pies onto Snorlax's ever lowering pile. The bug catcher further down the table began screaming that his mouth was on fire and resigned from the contest. Totodile, being the helpful Pokémon it was, fired a Water Gun in his direction to help cool him down. However, it was so powerful that it sent him and his Ledyba flying off the stage.

Nila had not touched her pies: one sniff and she decided that they weren't her taste and resigned almost instantly. Chikorita had also turned its nose up at the plate and was now curled asleep on the table while Nila sipped her water and watched Kaida epically fail. Although Kaida had a hot headed personality, she was not fond of hot food, and these pies were extremely hot. After many glasses of water, she had got through half a pie, the same as her Cyndaquil, who was starting to struggle with the heat. As the Reid's rival and her Piloswine at the end of the table burped, so did Cyndaquil, causing Flames to erupt from its mouth. Their counter set on fire but Totodile was prepared and sent another Water Gun and again knocked the man off the stage and into the crowd.

"I'm so sorry!" Kaida yelled as she lent over the table. "I'm sure your eyebrows will grow back in no time."

Nila sniggered into her glass. Watching Kaida cause trouble was always amusing.

Flo had also been disqualified as her Weepinbell had decided it would rather eat her than the pies. This meant that two members of the audience had to try and pull it off of her. Unfortunately, Weepinbell was very determined.

Rina was failing just as miserably. She had spent so much time grating cheese to go onto the pies that she had become bored and started to eat the cheese. Her counter had given up on her fairly quickly. Now that the old man and his Granbull had given up, it was between Reid and his Snorlax and the girl and her Piloswine. She had to be giving up soon, he thought, as even he was starting to feel full. Snorlax was still chucking back the pies along with barrels of water: it looked no way near full.

"She's struggling!" John clapped Reid on the back. "There's no way you can lose with Snorlax!"

"We are now out of pies!" The judge called. "Once your plate is empty the contest is over"

Reid grabbed one of his pies and grinned. They must have already beaten them with the amount of refills that Snorlax had eaten. Snorlax tipped the remaining pies into its mouth and threw the metal plate into the trees behind it. The girl raised her hand and shook her head. She couldn't continue. The score read sixty-eight to four hundred and seventy-nine. He had won!

"Hell yeah!" Reid jumped from his seat and punched the air. "We won! Oh yeah! Looooser."

He kept singing this tauntingly at the girl as he danced around, making made an L with his finger and thumb and holding it to his forehead. The girl was too stuffed to speak and so settled with a good glare that said he would pay for this.

Reid was still celebrating when they got back to the flat. It was all right for some. The girls were not so amused. While Rina had been eating cheese, her Slowpoke had actually been slowly digesting pies, and now it had horrific flatulence. Try as they might, they could not go to sleep with that thing farting through the night.

"It's foul!" Nila said.

"I can put Wally in the bathroom," Rina suggested.

"No way! Nila shook her head. "I don't want to have to deal with that in the morning! He'll have stunk the place out! I need a long shower!"

"Well…" Rina shrugged.

"Put it in its Pokéball!" Kaida said. She wanted to sleep.

"No!" Rina said. "It is sick! It needs hugs!"

"And how would it get that in the bathroom?" Nila demanded.

"I could go in there with it," Rina said. "Or maybe Reid's Aunt's room."

"No!"

Reid's voice came loudly from the spare bedroom that he and John were sharing. He did not want his Aunt's bedroom to be filled with a horrible smell when she returned, especially since she had been so generous – and trusting – by letting him stay here without her.

"Balcony!" Nila said.

"What?" Rina said.

"Go on the balcony!"

"It's cold out there! I can't stay there!" Rina protested, snuggling her Slowpoke closely, despite the horrible gases emitting from it.

"The balcony or the Pokéball!" Nila said, rubbing her temples. She was losing her patience. "I want to sleep and I do not want to be suffocated. Get out or put it away."

Sighing, Rina returned Wally to its Pokéball. She could always release it again when Nila went to sleep.

"And if you think for one second that I won't notice if you let it out later… You are mistaken," Nila said dangerously, "and you will pay."

"Listen to her," Kaida urged. "Do not interrupt her sleep. She's crazy."

Nila pulled her sleeping bag over her head. Rina retreated sulkily into her own. Foiled again. It really wasn't fair. Well, at least it had been a good cheese eating day, although now she was craving cookies…

"Kaida," she said, meaning to ask if there were any cookies in the fridge.

"I have a gym match tomorrow!" Kaida shrieked. "Quiet!"

Rina fell silent for another moment and then opened her mouth again. "But…"

Nila growled. Rina quieted. Instead of speech the city sounds filled the room – with slammed doors and cars and distant sirens and alarms – until they had all drifted off into an oblivious sleep.

-

It was the day of Kaida's gym battle and she was ready to go. She had already formulated her plan of attack so ate her breakfast without feeling too sick with anxiety. Cyndaquil, Gastly, and Eevee sat beside her, eating from their food bowls. Gastly soon got bored and slithered up to the sleeping Rina, hovering by her face. One scream – and Lick – later and Rina awoke. She ran to the bathroom and shook the door desperately. It refused to open. Then Rina twirled the lock from the outside and entered. There was a great yell from Nila, who had been happily showering, and Rina squeaked and emerged again.

"I didn't see anything!" she said. "There's a shower curtain!"

"I don't care!" Nila's voice was furious. "Get out!"

Gastly seemed to snigger.

The shower seemed to have been ruined for Nila because she came out a few minutes later, enraged and fully dressed. She was rubbing the towel over her wet hair but she threw it at Rina as soon as she saw her.

"Do we have to go to your battle today?" Flo asked, sounding extremely unenthused.

"Well you didn't go to Nila's," Kaida said.

"Because I told them not to," Nila said. "Last thing you need when you are trying to concentrate is those two getting in a poking fight or something."

Neither Rina or Flo protested because, at that very moment, they were proving Nila right about their squabbling. Rina had thrown the towel off her and it had landed on Flo. Flo had thrown it back. This had started a mini slap fight as their hands swatted each other.

"Stop it!" Kaida ordered.

She did not want to have to put up with them today.

"She started it," Flo said childishly.

"Did not," Rina said.

"Did too,"

"Oh Lugia," Kaida moaned.

"You did!" Flo said shrilly.

Rina poked her. Flo poked back. Rina poked her again. Flo poked her back again. They soon descended into mad poking and then, once again, slapping each other's hands away. Kaida resisted the urge to scream and instead picked up her bag.

"We're leaving," she said. "Come on, Nila."

"But, breakfast," Nila said. She sighed morosely as Kaida walked out of the door. Going to the gym hungry it was then…

It was a little difficult to navigate and get to the gym but they managed it in the end and were only a few minutes late. Whitney was waiting for them and a small crowd had amassed again. Apparently Nila's lies about her formerly being a man had either not spread or did not faze people.

"I really have to battle now," Whitney said, inching towards the door of the gym room. "Come back later!"

Nila elbowed through the crowd again and Kaida followed her. They went into the room for the fight and Whitney darted in behind them, slamming the door shut and locking it.

"These people sure are strange," she said.

Kaida noticed, in the corner of the room, there was now a small Clefable statue. She pointed it out and Whitney smiled.

"I thought it was cute," Whitney said.

Nila sat behind Kaida with Kaida's Pokémon and her own. She wanted them to gain experience by watching other battles, which was why her Eevee was sat in her lap and watching intensely as Kaida called up Cyndaquil as her first Pokémon. This time Whitney didn't send out her timid Clefairy but, instead, called on Wigglytuff. Kaida hoped this Pokémon wasn't as tough as Miltank or she would have a lot of trouble.

"I just evolved this Pokémon," Whitney said. "It needs some battle experience. Wigglytuff, use Doubleslap!"

"Dodge it, Cyndaquil!"

Cyndaquil was hit by the first two slaps but managed to evade the others, jumping backwards swiftly.

"Cyndaquil, use Flame Wheel!"

Cyndaquil spun into the flaming ball rolled towards Wigglytuff and a lot of its fire caught Wigglytuff badly on one side. Wigglytuff wailed in pain.

"Wigglytuff, concentrate and use Disable!"

There was a small flash as Wigglytuff screwed up its eyes in concentration and focused on the move. As Cyndaquil tried another Flame Wheel its flame extinguished and it looked around confused.

"You can't use that move anymore, Cyndaquil," Kaida said. "Just use Ember instead!"

"'Quil," Cyndaquil said, firing up its back again. It sent many of those little sparks of fire towards Wigglytuff, who hopped around, desperately trying to avoid the attack.

"Now use Tackle!"

Cyndaquil slammed into Wigglytuff and it crashed to the ground, twitching. Kaida frowned. It was unconscious already. That was a surprise.

"Wigglytuff, return," Whitney said. There was a flash of red as it returned to its Pokéball. "Now," Whitney continued, "Miltank, I choose you!"

Miltank towered above the tiny Cyndaquil, stamping its foot on the ground, ready to start its powerful Rollout attack. Cyndaquil used Ember but Miltank was already rolling, avoiding the attack.

"Cyndaquil, you have to dodge," Kaida ordered.

She watched Cyndaquil dart out of the way of the powerful Pokémon but Miltank's accuracy was scary and it slammed into Cyndaquil the second time it passed it.

"Quick Attack!" Kaida said.

Cyndaquil moved faster, and avoided Miltank's Rollout but, when it slammed into the other Pokémon, it did very little damage. Instead it was hurt by Miltank's spinning mass.

"Try Flame Wheel!"

Cyndaquil did but the attack was still disabled from Wigglytuff. It switched to Ember and sent flames flying across the room. Miltank was unperturbed and slammed into it yet again. Cyndaquil was severely weakened as the attack grew stronger and stronger. It landed on both feet but trembled.

Finally Miltank dealt the final blow and Cyndaquil crumpled. Kaida scooped her Pokémon up into her arms before returning it to its Pokéball. Poor Cyndaquil. It had done its best. Now, however, it was time to pull out the big guns.

"Go, Gastly!"

Gastly sped from the bench next to Nila to enter the fight. It looked very excited.

"Gastly, use Curse!"

Gastly shimmered as it placed the curse on Miltank. Its health was weakened but it was only a matter of time before the curse claimed Miltank. Rollout wouldn't effect Gastly and, even if it did, Gastly could easily hover above floor level to escape Miltank. Whitney frowned.

"Miltank," she said. "Use Zen Headbutt!"

Kaida had never heard of this attack before but Miltank swelled with power and leapt, slamming into Gastly with a strange psychic force. Gastly wailed and fell, instantly knocked out. Kaida gaped. Miltank… Gastly…

"I win!" Whitney cheered happily. "Well done, Miltank. Well played, Kaida. Sorry, but I've faced ghosts before and a well placed psychic move saves me there."

Kaida couldn't believe she had lost. She felt numb. She returned Gastly to its Pokéball and stood there, watching Whitney retreat into another room with her triumphant Miltank. She had lost. Yes, she had lost battles before, but not to a gym leader. She had seen how Whitney had fought. How had she been so naïve to think that Whitney – an experienced gym leader – would have nothing against ghost Pokémon?

"Come on," Nila said. "Let's go."

Kaida's Eevee jumped into her arms and she scarcely managed to catch it. She petted it absently, her mind elsewhere. Miltank had completely crushed Gastly. It was an amazingly strong Pokémon. Yes, Gastly had been weakened from using Curse, but still… It had held its own against Bugsy's Pokémon and even against Falkner's Pidgey.

Had she not trained enough? Had it been awful tactics? It had to be a combination of the two. She sighed as they walked out of the gym. The crowd had dispersed now Whitney wasn't out there but many people were still loitering around.

"Don't look so depressed," Nila said.

"I did just lose," Kaida said, glaring at Nila for her lack of sympathy. She sat down on a low wall next to some steps. She pulled at her hair. Gah. This was so frustrating. She'd lost. She was so stupid.

"Yeah, but moping won't get you anywhere," Nila said logically.

She was right. Moping was useless. Still she couldn't help but be angry at herself. It only fuelled her determination though. She was going to work furiously and beat Whitney. The next time she wouldn't fail.

-

"This is getting quite ridiculous."

They were sitting watching John and Reid train their Pokémon together. Except, Reid's Snorlax was asleep while John's Hoothoot pecked it furiously to no avail. John sighed. Reid also looked bored.

"I don't have any other Pokémon," he said apologetically. "Munchlax was all I needed for contests and fighting. But now it has evolved… I really do need to catch something else."

"When we leave Goldenrod then we can help you find something," John offered.

Reid nodded his thanks.

"Do either of your Slowpoke every battle?" Flo asked Rina, who was daydreaming quite happily.

Rina shook her head.

"Do they do much of anything?" Reid asked.

Rina shook her head again.

Reid scratched the back of his head. "So what do you want to do in life then?"

Rina thought about this quite seriously. She then said, "I was thinking of becoming a Pokémon nurse." She tapped her finger on her chin. "Maybe I should start by helping your Pokémon heal when they get injured."

John paled, imagining the possibilities and the pain that she could inflict on Hoothoot, Totodile, Dunsparce, and Pineco. Well, if she could ever catch Pineco…

"Maybe I should try to train Pineco again," he said. "Hoothoot, get ready to knock this thing out. This thing is such a pain but I really do need to see what moves it knows."

He readied himself to pounce on the Pokémon. Reid braced himself to start running after the pesky Pineco. John released the Pokémon and jumped on it as he attempted to run. He clung on gamely.

"I just want to see what moves you know," John cried. "Come on, Pineco!"

Pineco struggled harder. John tightened his grip.

Boom.

Reid, Flo, and Rina all jumped as there was a small explosion. They saw John lying dazed and bruised on the floor with an unconscious Pineco next to him, who was smoking slightly at the edges.

"What was that?" Flo gaped.

"That," Reid said, "was Selfdestruct. Well," he said weakly, "I suppose you found out one move it knows…"

On the ground, John groaned.

A while later and John had recovered enough to sit up, although all his limbs were sore. He turned down a trip to the hospital, claiming he was perfectly fine, and instead sat to watch Flo attempt to battle against Reid, which turned out to be the most ridiculously stupidly boring match in existence. The battle commenced. Snorlax slept. Psyduck watched. Snorlax slept. Psyduck cocked its head to one side.

"Come on, Psyduck," Flo urged. "I've seen you do a really powerful attack. Come on, do it again!"

In response, Psyduck wagged its tail from side to side, performing Tail Whip to lower Snorlax's defence.

"It's not paying attention!" Flo said, exasperatedly. "Besides, without an attacking move, that's completely useless."

Even she knew that.

"This fight is boring," Rina said. "Maybe Magikarp can help!"

She released the Pokémon from its Pokéball, where it flailed helplessly on dry ground. Not, John thought, that it would be much better in the water…

"Magikarp, use Splash!" Rina ordered happily.

Magikarp jerked back and forward uselessly. Snorlax grunted in its sleep. Psyduck continued to look pained and confused. Reid started to laugh.

"If I wanted something that useless, I'd send out Hoppip," Flo said crossly.

She didn't get the reply she was expecting.

"I want a melted cheese toastie," Rina said. "It's lunch time."

"Lunch sounds good," Reid said.

John nodded. "Yeah, I think I can stand…"

He struggled to his feet and began hobbling towards the exit of the training grounds. Rina recalled Magikarp and followed along with Reid. Flo, however, hadn't budged. She was still urging her Psyduck to perform another move.

"No, wait, Psyduck will do something," Flo said.

"Yeah, we'll come back after lunch," Reid called, waving her off.

"You're just going to leave Snorlax here?!" Flo called desperately.

"What could possibly happen to it?" Reid shouted back as he disappeared around the corner. John and Rina followed.

Flo bit her lip and yelled, "Psyduck can do some damage!"

She was out of earshot. It was clear that Reid didn't think that Psyduck could deal Snorlax any harm while he was gone. Well she'd show them. Psyduck was powerful. It was!

"Come on, Psyduck," she said. "Just do the move."

Psyduck looked up at her, clueless, one hand on its head.

"Will it help if I poke you?" Flo asked.

Then she thought of Rina's fate and decided not to. She sighed. Still. She could beat Snorlax. Reid was so arrogant to think he could just leave it here…

"Psy?" Psyduck said.

Flo groaned. "Let's go to lunch."

She returned Psyduck to its Pokéball and began to run after the others, calling for them to wait up. Behind her, Snorlax grunted, perhaps at the mention of the word lunch. Then it continued to sleep.

After lunch Reid returned to pick up his Snorlax and then they went to wander around the town. John started to talk about his aspirations in the field of Pokémon research and this gave Reid and idea. They took a shuttle bus to the outer parts of the city and Reid then dragged them along several roads until they found what they were looking for. It was quieter in this part of the city but they could still see the tall, central tower blocks, and some of the noise drifted over.

"Some of Bill's family live here," Reid told him. "I'm friends with his sister and I think he's in town. There was some important meeting at the Pokémon Association and he had to show up in person."

"Pokémon Association?" Flo said.

"Yeah, the rule makers," Reid said. "They do all sorts of stuff like employing gym leaders, saying you should only carry six Pokémon, you know. Bill is a famous researcher and inventor."

John's eyes were shining. "He is one of my idols."

"Really?" Reid said. His plan had worked out well then.

"As well as several of the Pokémon Professors, of course," John added, "but he worked on the technology for the Pokémon Transfer system."

"I'll see if you can meet him," Reid said, knocking sharply on the door to the house.

Bill's sister, a girl a little older than them with dark hair, opened the door and smiled as she saw Reid. Her eye then twitched erratically and Reid laughed.

"You still can't wink," he said.

"Shut up," she muttered. "I'll learn! Anyway, I only saw you the other day. What brings you down here?"

"John wants to be a Pokémon researcher. I was wondering if Bill was around. He could give him some tips or something."

Bill's sister shook her head. "He's still at the Pokémon Association. I don't really know what's going on…" She shrugged. "Anyway, come in. Introduce us."

Reid introduced them to Lucy.

"Bill's a technician really," Lucy said to John. "Not a researcher. Though he does dabble."

"His work is still amazing," John said solemnly. "What a great mind."

"Um, sure," Lucy said. "Milk anyone? It's pretty much all we have."

"No thanks," Reid said, pulling a face.

The others, however, agreed, feeling a little thirsty. Lucy poured them some milk and brought it over. Flo took one sip and spat it out.

"It takes like feet!" she gasped.

John kicked her under the table for her rudeness. She winced.

"Sorry," she apologised.

Lucy was laughing. "Don't worry. It's soya milk. Bill is lactose intolerant."

John drank the milk more gingerly, pulling a face, but Rina seemed perfectly content.

"I like it," she said. "Though it would taste better with cookies."

"Sorry," Lucy said, "no cookies."

Rina sighed despondently.

"I can give you a call," Lucy told Reid. "When Bill has a free moment I'm sure he'd have a talk to John. I dunno. I'm a bit useless with this Pokémon stuff. Clearly he inherited all those genes."

Rina finished off her milk and started on Flo's. Flo cringed in disgust. She still had the foul aftertaste in her mouth. Words could not quite describe how revolting it was. She watched John sip his. How could he stand it?

"Well, don't leave now," Lucy said. "I have video games, snacks, uh, water instead of milk."

Flo reddened a little. She felt bad for being rude and spitting it out but really.

They hung out with Lucy for a while longer, mostly watching her smash Reid on the video games. It was pretty impressive. They waited for Bill for a long time at his sister and mother's house but he did not return. John was a little disappointed, but they had had a good day, and Lucy said she could give Reid a call if he popped up with any free time.

"He's really busy though," Lucy continued. "Gym leader issues in Kanto. Koga and Koga's daughter. I don't know. Something about the poison gym anyway."

"Don't worry," John said. He could meet one his idols another time.

"We better go back or Kaida and Nila won't be able to get in the house," Reid said. "Bye."

"I wonder how Kaida did," John mused. "Bye, Lucy."

"Thanks for the milk," Rina said happily.

Flo paled at the remembrance of that horrible taste.

Lucy waved them off and they walked back to get the shuttle back into the city centre where the flat was situated. It was strange, Flo thought, moving in darkness but with a thousand million glowing lights illuminating everywhere around them, blocking out the very stars. Violet City had nothing on this man made jungle. The houses flashed by, growing taller and taller as they reached the centre and then, finally, returned to a despondent scene outside the flat. Kaida had lost but she was soon riling herself up for the rematch.

John made sympathy soup. It did not help.