Chapter 28

Fly

"Never thought I'd be flying without using the old flappers. Quite a pleasant experience, I say."

Peroo spread his wings enough to briefly lift away from Magon the Salamence, but the hold his talons had on one of the harness loops kept him attached. Squirtle, Quil, and Loria held onto their own loops of rope, but none gripped a loop more firmly than Bein. He even held the loop with his eyes as he stared fixedly downward, presumably to keep the sky and clouds out of his vision. Or more importantly, the landscape that was racing by far below them.

The first of Weird Wood's trees crossed beneath as they glided down the mountainside. Squirtle picked a tree that he estimated to be half a mile further along their flight path, and counted the seconds until it passed by below. Fifty six seconds. A quick calculation. Magon was flying approximately thirty miles per hour. But how far was Karprest? How long would the flight be?

Right on cue, Magon swung his head to the side to look back at his passengers. "Our flight time will be no more than two hours. Shout if you have any worries I can help with."

Squirtle half-expected a groan from Bein at the announcement, but the Cubone continued staring silently at the hoop he grasped. Had he even heard the Salamence? Squirtle had asked Bein to wear the backpack, which he'd agreed to with no complaint despite the ridges on his back. Now, in Bein's current miserable state, he felt the sting of guilt in burdening Bein so much. Squirtle reached out a hand to clasp the Cubone's shoulder in support. He twitched in surprise and looked up only for a second.

"It's faster this way," Squirtle said loudly so he could be heard over the wind. "We'll be in Karprest before you know it!"

"Should. Not. Have. Come."

From anyone else, Squirtle might have interpreted the pauses between each word as a dramatic way of fishing for sympathy, but coming from Bein, he knew that the Cubone genuinely needed that recovery time in order to put the sentence together. Squirtle squeezed Bein's shoulder and withdrew. He could do nothing further, and he was not going to apologize. Greater issues were at stake than one Pokémon's fear of heights or flying.

Quil, in contrast, had had a smile etched onto his face since take-off. The spiky flames atop his head shook and rippled from the action of the wind, and his ears were laid low. He caught Squirtle's eye.

"This makes me wish I'd hatched as a Charmander. They get to look forward to flying as a Charizard one day!"

Squirtle laughed. "I can look forward to weighing in at a couple hundred and having two cannons on my back, so I can't complain."

"We won't be able to fly, but you can still 'fly' underwater."

"That can't compare to this." He held out his arms to indicate the clear skies all around them. Yet even as he said that flying was more enjoyable than swimming, his gut rebelled against his words with a twinge of discomfort. He'd been lying, and he only now realized that. Swimming brought him a sense of peace and clarity that not even this wonderful, expansive world of blue could offer.

Quil's turn to laugh. "A Wet who'd rather fly than swim?"

Squirtle shook his head to dismiss the matter. "Wait, you don't want wings. You told me, on that first night in Karprest, that you didn't want to have to go on your Pilgrimage. You said-" Quil flinched and gave him a pleading look. Squirtle cut himself off short.

Quil doesn't want me to talk about this? It must be a point of embarrassment for him that he wishes he didn't have to go on an arduous journey. Hm, that does make sense. Oops. I shouldn't have brought it up when anyone else might hear us.

"I remember what I said," Quil said, and Squirtle could hear the strain in his voice over the wind. He cautiously shifted his position to a loop adjacent to Squirtle's. When he spoke again, it was quiet enough that no one else would be able to hear. "What I mean is that it'd be fantastic to be able to fly, as long as I didn't have to struggle through a thousand hardships and worries in order to evolve up to a Charizard."

"You're going through that right now by fighting against these supercharged Electric-types," Squirtle pointed out. "But it's worth it, isn't it?"

"Definitely!"

"So wouldn't it also be worth it to earn your wings, so to speak?"

"I don't think so. I'd still be happier at home, not having to worry about battling, getting tougher, trying my best every day."

Squirtle hesitated before bringing up another sensitive subject. "If I recall, you weren't exactly relieved to evolve into a Quilava without having to journey all the way to that volcano."

"That's different," Quil said immediately. "I was upset because you triggered my evolution. And like I said, I'm glad now that I evolved in such a short time."

Squirtle considered that before replying with another question. "Would you feel as satisfied helping out against the Electric-types if it were easy to set things right? If we could fix Karprest, for example, by showing up and asking Stolt to leave?"

Quil frowned as he looked out past the Salamence's head to the grassland of Blind Prairie. "No, I'd feel like we were cheating. Freeing Karprest that way probably wouldn't be very rewarding."

"A hollow victory." Squirtle smiled and didn't reply, his point made.

Quil made a grumbling, growling sound in his throat. "Ruining this gorgeous scenery with your deep questions and sly suggestions."

"I apologize." He meant it, too. Proving someone's beliefs wrong, even if it was for their own good, always felt condescending and callous to some degree. "I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all, I just wanted to get my point across without being so blunt about it. Being a know-it-all is how I accomplish that sometimes I suppose."

"It's fine, it's fine."

Squirtle went over the conversation in his mind for a few minutes, cursing his smug attitude. Next, he decided to talk to Loria. For the advancement of the world's understanding of science, he wanted to learn about her relationship with Aura. Or at least his personal understanding. By moving with care from loop to loop, he moved three feet toward Magon's tail to place him next to the Riolu.

"I've never spoken with a Riolu or Lucario before. Is it true that you can use Aura?"

Loria's gaze meandered away from the views down below to come upon Squirtle's own eyes. Her pupils were tall and narrow, almost like a Meowth's.

"Only Lucario."

Loria was not forthcoming with further explanation, though she did keep her attention on Squirtle.

"I see. What about Riolu like yourself?"

"With experience and practice, I might one day direct Aura into tangible shapes. Barriers of light. Globes of force. On that day I will evolve. Today, I can only feel Aura when I am near. It shies away from my touch if I pull."

Squirtle compared her description with the paper abstracts about Aura studies that he could recall. As best as experts in that field could tell, Aura was a byproduct of the biochemical processes within certain neurons in the body. "Hm. Aura comes from life, right? Specifically, life with a consciousness, no matter how rudimentary. Not trees, for example."

A smile touched her short snout. "You've conversed with others in my line about Aura. Does Aura fascinate you so?"

"I've only heard about it. I'd like to know more. My curiosity gets the better of me for interesting phenomena like Aura."

Loria finally looked away, to the skies above the distant horizon. "Aura ebbs from every Pokémon, like the slime from Sliggoo."

Her mouth was open to say more, but she closed it when Squirtle laughed at her description. He couldn't help it. Was that supposed to a beautiful simile? Comparing an enigmatic energy to a Pokémon's natural goo secretions?

"Sorry. I'm really getting on the nerves of everyone in Team Equalize today without meaning to. I must be in a good mood," he reflected. "I do love it when my plans come together. That's probably the reason."

Loria was looking at him again. "The fashion of your words is strange to me. Have others told you the same?"

"They certainly have. No doubt you've received the same treatment?"

"Often. Your questions are like the flames of your friend." She lifted a forepaw to point at Quil. "They blaze continuously."

Squirtle sighed. "I know. Like I said, I'm a curious Pokémon. So where are you from that you talk so differently?"

She smiled, and Squirtle realized he'd instantly asked another question. "Singing is my greatest joy. I choose my words shrewdly, and speak only after I've considered them. I hope my songs shine with more beauty, for that care I have with my words." Her smile faded. "Even calling myself a singer, I'm unused to speaking as much as this. Why are you so interested in me?"

It was the sort of question that didn't expect an answer. Squirtle provided one anyway. "You're different from the Pokémon I've met. I know we're a diverse lot, but you strike me as an exception from the few hours I've spent in your company. You look and sound like you're above it all, but at the same time, you're living in the present more than anyone. That doesn't even make sense, but that's how I feel." He looked away. "Anyway, I don't mean to be a chatter-box."

"Truly? Of all the Pokémon you've met in your travels, my disposition is unique?" He could see her searching his face with those slit pupil eyes.

What was she trying to imply? He'd just explained how her demeanor was so different from that of others. "I believe so. You-"

Then the realization struck him with the force of a slap across the face. Warmth rose into his face, and the cold wind was helpless to cool it down. He looked at her for a second with a mix of incredulity and horror to verify if she'd meant to be so flirtatious. As he watched, her mouth fell open, a mirror to his own. Her eyes were wide before she jerked her face away.

Squirtle was absolutely unprepared for the situation. What did he say, or do? Did he want her interest? Was she only pretending to have been clueless, or had her words and intent gaze been intentionally flirtatious? He frantically glanced at the other members of the team, to see if they'd heard their words over the wind. Peroo met his gaze, but the Tranquill's peaceful expression indicated ignorance. Bein was in his own world. Quil's back was to them. Maybe he'd heard?

"My words did not carry the intent that you heard in them," Loria said.

Squirtle still had no idea how he wanted this conversation to end. If at all. Remaining silent didn't seem like a good option though, so to acknowledge her he simply said, "Okay."

The silence between them stretched. Squirtle found he couldn't think properly with the source of his discomfort sitting next to him. He got to his feet and returned to the loop he'd originally been holding, this time with reckless speed.

Gradually, his thoughts fell into line. Foremost among them was the looming fact that he couldn't afford to worry about this at the moment. Like with Bein, any personal dilemma he was facing was negligible in importance. The fate of Karprest was in the hands of Team Equalize. Squirtle refused to worry about the possibility of a romantic relationship with Loria instead of attending to matters such as how to depose Stolt without having to battle. He refused to replay the conversation with her. He refused to think about what she might be thinking now. He refused, even, to examine his own feelings about the Riolu. He put all thoughts about Loria out of his head, and promised himself that he would think no more of the matter while on the Karprest job.

Of course, Squirtle was quickly reminded that you always think about what you're trying to avoid thinking about.

After some minutes of mental wrestling, Squirtle stood abruptly. He decided to talk to Peroo. If the team was forced into battle together, having had at least a conversation with each member seemed a requirement. How could teammates trust one another in danger if they hadn't even exchanged a few words in safety? Peroo was the last Pokémon remaining.

Peroo was agreeable, even charming in the way he spoke so easily and rapidly. Squirtle avoided bringing up Mistyfern Jungle and Peroo's request for assistance there, as he didn't want to provoke any bad feelings about his team selecting Karprest and Needleloft instead. They talked about Peroo's experience with flying, and how he felt about flying for once without his own efforts. The Flying-type explained some of the intricacies of flight about which Squirtle was oblivious. How the land's topography affected the currents of wind in the air. How land temperature gave rise to warm columns of rising air called thermals. He responded to Squirtle's inquiries about how clouds and rainclouds affected a Pokémon's flight, too. Peroo politely asked about Squirtle's experiences beneath the water's surface, a realm which the Tranquill had never explored.

The conversation was light and pleasant despite Squirtle's nagging thoughts about his previous conversation. After a few minutes, Squirtle excused himself, as he wanted to save some time to strategize and worry over the team's approach to the Karprest problem.

First, he made his way to the base of Magon's neck, and shouted to get the carrier's attention.

"How can I help?" the Salamence asked.

"What's your policy on the return trip?" Squirtle said.

"You received a large discount for this portion due to the charitable nature of this trip. We all want to support you how we can. That can't change the fact that the carrier business is booming from all the unrest, and that we're forfeiting a considerable amount of Poké to help out." Magon's tone continued to be professional as he finished. "I don't love gold as much as the average Cofagrigus, but I can't offer the same discount to return. My apologies, Squirtle."

He'd expected as much. "No problem. We'll likely return on foot then, save for our resident Tranquill of course. One more thing: would you care to join us at Karprest? Your presence, and should it come to it, battling skill, would definitely increase our odds of being successful. You'd be helping a great deal of Pokémon."

"Fight well, Squirtle, but I can't help you in Karprest. Zappers these days are more than I'm willing to become involved with, though you have my respect and gratitude for for doing what you do."

Again, Squirtle had expected as much. "Very well. I hope we can do business again in the future."

"Yes, I hope to see you again, Squirtle." Magon straightened his neck to its neutral position.

With the matter of the return trip out of the way, the only puzzle remaining was the most significant one. Karprest. Squirtle chose a loop of the harness closest to Magon's left foreleg so he could watch the grasses of Blind Prairie roll by hundreds of feet below without distraction. The view was perfect for a good, steady pondering. He had, of course, already considered what they were getting into and how best to solve the issue at Karprest, but now the moment was nearly at hand. It would not do to arrive without being certain of their method.

Squirtle was not bothered by his teammates while zoned out. Now and then he heard conversation striking up and eventually concluding, but Squirtle was left alone to his thoughts for a full hour.

"I smell smoke," Quil declared in a shout. His voice was more curious than alarmed.

"And that there's the fire," said Peroo, pointing a wing earthward. All save Bein followed his point.

An arc of grasses a hundred feet long was being consumed by a blaze. The fire showed no sign of spreading, so defined was its shape. No way it was a natural phenomenon.

"What Pokémon might cause that?" he shouted to Magon. Though maybe Quil would know better, being a Fire-type and resident of a similar grassland.

"Fletchinder," said Magon, composed as ever. "They make a wall of hot flames to trap 'mon into fighting them. If a Fletchinder is active down there with the wild in its eyes, prepare yourselves for some choppiness in our flight. Again, nothing to worry about."

This time, Bein did groan. The others ranged from neutral to excited about the news. Squirtle was opposed to any hiccup in their flight plan, but couldn't deny that part of him was riled up by the thought of battle. Especially one in the skies.

"There! It's coming, fast! I'm using my Ember!" called Quil over the wind, and Squirtle watched him spray motes of light overboard.

"Everyone hold a loop, please," said the Salamence. He checked with one eye to make sure everyone was complying with his instruction..

Squirtle's reflexive yell joined his companions' chorus of surprise as Magon took a nosedive. The Salamence arched his neck toward his belly, and purple light flashed from the belly side of Magon. His body followed his neck, placing everyone upside-down. Were Magon not still accelerating earthward and pressing his passengers against his back, Squirtle was certain he would have fallen into empty space. When Magon smoothly rolled upright, a Fletchinder trailing purple flames drifted downward past them, its whole body lax.

"Is everyone al-" began Magon.

A second Fletchinder, this one flapping like mad, reached their altitude and pecked at Loria. She raised her arms to guard against the tapered beak, releasing the loop. The Fletchinder screeched as it landed a strike on her forehead. Her head jerked backward and she toppled, backflipping off the Salamence. The Fletchinder followed after her.

"No!" Squirtle shouted. He had half a mind to heroically leap after her, but really, what would that accomplish?

"I'll snag her, back in a jiffy," said Peroo before following the Fletchinder with a flourish of his wings.

"Loops!" called Magon over his shoulder, and yawed to his left while keeping his right wing raised. The motion sent Squirtle's innards to acrobatics, but he held on. The wind howled all around. The ground below was tilted at a crazy angle. Agonizing seconds later, the three Pokémon came into view.

The Fletchinder was rolling from side to side, its wings opening, now closed, now open again. The agile maneuvers looked like a warm-up, or display of its speed. Loria slowly rotated in free fall, completely disoriented by the looks of it. Peroo was hovering above her, making minute adjustments to the angle of his wings to slowly descend atop the falling Riolu. His talons were open and ready to grasp when he made contact. Blind Prairie approached with terrifying rapidity. Squirtle saw that every combatant would only have time enough for one or two moves before they had to ascend or meet an abrupt halt on the ground.

Peroo finally clamped down on Loria's shoulders with both talons and began to flap like Squirtle had never seen him flap before. While Peroo looked comical trying to lift a load larger and heavier than his own body, Squirtle had no doubt he would succeed. He was a Pokémon, after all. The Fletchinder appeared to descend by comparison, before it flapped upward to match Peroo. Its beak opened, and fiery embers like Quil's flurried out into Peroo's face. He squawked and shook his head, enduring the attack, and continued to rise. Immediately afterward, the Fletchinder executed an especially powerful flap, its two wingtips touching below its body, and launched itself into Peroo's exposed belly. At that, Peroo's hold on Loria was broken. Squirtle was amazed at how quickly the Fletchinder was performing its attacks.

"Water Gun!" shouted Squirtle to Magon as he readied his technique. For a moment, he was distracted by how silly he sounded in announcing the move he was about to use. Had the Salamence not requested a warning, he definitely would have kept his mouth shut. Not only was it an unnecessary waste of time and breath, but it told the enemy exactly what he was about to do.

His Water Gun was useless, as with all the sound and motion and wind, the water arced way off-target and quickly broke up into harmless droplets. He had to drop and hold the loop tightly again as Magon rolled and lowered his altitude even further to get below Loria. The ground was mere seconds away.

Quil extended his slim body upward as Magon brought his body beneath her. She would have landed perfectly onto Magon's back anyway, even if Quil hadn't hastened the process by pulling her down a second earlier. Then Magon was pointing downward and turning his nosedive into a huge arc forward then upward into the open blue. At the bottom of the arc, the ivory claws of the Salamence's feet flicked against Blind Prairie's tallest blades of grass.

Peroo landed smoothly back onto Magon by soaring toward the upward-rising Salamence. Squirtle turned to watch the Fletchinder behind Magon's long tail. It flapped with an impressive tempo, but even it could not keep up with Magon's speed now.

"Loops!" he called one more time. For once, Squirtle heard a measure of irritation in his voice. He arced even further, facing his belly to the sky and putting Blind Prairie above their heads. Squirtle spotted the Fletchinder directly below, and rising. Then Squirtle was pitched backward along with Magon's other passengers as the Salamence rotated forward forcefully and dropped toward the Fletchinder. His somersault continued, and Squirtle's could feel muscles bunching within the Salamence as he did something with his tail. A sound like a loud slap, then a muffled cry from the Fletchinder. Finally, after a full somersault and a half, Magon came to rest in his normal horizontal orientation.

When Squirtle's equilibrium had recovered, which was thankfully very quickly, he leaned over the side to check what had become of the Fletchinder. The Flying-type was rocketing downward, and slammed into the grasses far below as Squirtle watched.

Ouch. Magon must have smacked the Fletchinder with his tail. He certainly knows how to win a fight in the sky.

"Those two were a mated pair," said Magon to his passengers. "I wasn't expecting the second. I should have warned you all, my apologies."

"Eh, forget about it, no lasting harm done," said Peroo. He'd suffered the worst in the encounter, having sustained two attacks from the feisty Fletchinder. Fortunately, he didn't look hurt so badly that he wouldn't make a full recovery by the time the team arrived at Karprest.

"Is everyone else alright?" asked Quil with concern.

Everyone, save Bein, replied with an affirmative. Throughout the entire fight, he'd remained fixed on the loop he held. Squirtle was reminded of Quil's posture on the ferry across the Karp river, and felt a surge of pity for the Cubone. Bein was probably doing everything he could to shut out the world around him. Loria seemed hardly rattled by her unexpected fall. She'd returned to her serene self within a minute.

Squirtle raised his voice to Magon. "What happened to 'Should we be attacked by a wild Flyer, I'll subdue it with no trouble'?"

"What do you mean? Each Fletchinder was knocked out by a single one of my techniques."

"I'd say that battle put us in serious jeopardy, Magon. Are you telling me you had the situation perfectly under control?"

"Yes, Squirtle." His voice was smoothly professional. "The second Fletchinder was unexpected, but I prioritized resecuring my lost passenger, followed by eliminating the wilder. No one was in danger of striking the ground. I apologize if you felt you were endangered. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No," Squirtle said with a huff. "You've done enough, I think."

Peroo hopped over to him. "Don't be too hard on the 'mon, you've got to be twice as strong as your average Unfezant to make it in the carrier career. Hm, carrier career, that's a tough couple words. Magon knows how to carry, I'm sure of it."

"Carry, yes. Carry safely? Doubtful. You got the worst of it. I'm surprised you're defending him."

"Only a battle, and a fun one at that. The boredom of the easy flight was getting to me anyway."

Arguing further was pointless, and Peroo wasn't the problem. "Mm. I'm going back to thinking for a while. Oh, and thanks for going after Loria. That's the kind of teamwork we need today."

"Right, not a problem."

The remainder of the flight was smooth sailing save for one last interruption by a Pidgeot. It was cruising at a lower altitude than Magon, but it nonetheless noticed him and broke off its course to approach with a battle-cry. Before it could get closer than a stone's throw away, Magon roasted it with a beam of purple dragon-fire from his mouth. The Pidgeot wasn't knocked right out, but it did abandon its plan of approaching.

When the sparkling waters of the wide Karp River came into sight in the west, Squirtle called for a team meeting around the stationary Bein. Quil had been looking at him expectantly when he turned away from his apparent silent contemplation of the view, but Peroo and Loria were perplexed at his desire to talk strategy. Together, they reviewed what they knew of Karprest. Loria was especially helpful, since she'd been there the most recently. Squirtle practically had to drag longer descriptions from her throat because of her disinclination to speak at length in any plain terms.

A discussion about their approach to the Stolt problem followed. As usual, suggestions from Squirtle's teammates were few and far between. From the way they reacted to his complex thinking, he guessed that Peroo and Loria were content to stroll into Karprest, find Stolt, battle him, and kick him out. The method might work, but Stolt would probably come back and try again, especially once Team Equalize took its leave of the town. Plus, that 'plan' wouldn't guarantee the establishment of firm leadership in place of Stolt, or minimize risks to the team's personal health and freedom. Squirtle ultimately explained what he had in mind, and after some slight modifications from the others' input, all agreed to follow it. With Viper absent, Squirtle had confidence that their compliance to the plan would be high, though either of the newcomers could prove to be a wild card.

Squirtle raised his voice to their Salamence carrier and told him how his team would prefer to dismount at Karprest. Magon's acceptance of the idea was borderline.

"This was not in the agreement we had, Squirtle, but I can accommodate your request since I will not be lingering in the area. What you propose is what we call an Inverted Dorsal Emergency Drop in the carrier business. Be sure to hold tightly to the loops of my harness, and I'll give a shout at the appropriate time as a signal. I'll reduce my speed at the final moment to facilitate your landings."

"Could you make that a roar? A loud one? That works better for my plans."

A pause. "That's not a problem. I recommend your Cubone companion take care during landfall. He looks unsteady at the moment. Do you have any questions about the procedure?"

"No," Squirtle said bluntly. "Once we visually locate Stolt, we'll be ready to do that Inverted...whatever maneuver."

"Understood."

When the maneuver was explained to Bein, it took over a minute for him to agree to it with a reluctant grunt. Squirtle knew that even in the depths of his anxiety, and perhaps nausea, Bein could see how this manner of finishing their journey to Karprest might prove beneficial to their success with the job.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Squirtle said as he opened one of the backpack's pouches and pulled out the Defense Scarf and Special Band. He tied the former around Bein's neck to drape over the straps across his chest, and the latter around the top of his shell. Again, he felt no different, but he knew from experience that the cloth's power would serve when the time came.

The beautiful blue waters of the Karp passed beneath them as Quil became abruptly interested in the featureless sky above. Magon began their descent to Squirtle's desired altitude of twenty feet. Once they were most of the way across the river, Quil finally lowered his eyes. From each of Magon's shoulders, Squirtle and Quil scanned the alleys and roads of Karprest for the black, blue, and yellow of a certain Luxio.

"Pokémon are clearing away the plants around the dock area," Quil said. "Making room for more tents or buildings?"

"They're building watercraft, too," Squirtle pointed out. He could see the frameworks of simple boats like canoes and larger ones like the Karprest ferry. Multiple Pokémon were currently working on them with their construction materials on hand. They craned their heads and watched as the Salamence brought them over the docks and into Karprest proper. More Pokémon watched their approach, and Squirtle could hear them reacting to the Salamence's presence.

"That's new," Quil said with a foreleg pointing to the landward edges of Karprest. There, a multitude of Pokémon were at work within partly-completed large circular walls.

"An arena for competition," Loria explained from behind them. She was also peering down at the town below. "They have been busier than Combee in a flowered meadow since I left."

Squirtle swept his eyes through the rest of Karprest and was surprised to find so many Pokémon out and about. All were involved in one task or another, bustling about and chatting like the inhabitants of any other town in the afternoon. He couldn't see any indicators of unrest, or anything particularly amiss. The mood of Karprest could not be more different than Blindhollow's had been. But the truth would be difficult to spot from such a detached vantage point. They needed to get in there. Get to the heart of matters.

"Stolt. There he is," Quil said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Squirtle followed his gaze and spotted the Luxio in a clearing at the center of town. He recognized the house on the clearing's edge, raised on supports like all the other buildings as a countermeasure to flooding. It was the mayor's house, where Biba the Bibarel had argued with Stolt on Squirtle's first day. Pokémon were coming and going at the clearing, never tarrying long. Like it was a command post.

Standing next to a familiar Nidorino, Stolt's face was upturned, watching them soar low over the buildings. Squirtle couldn't make out his expression at that distance, but his mind filled in the blanks with a sour frown and malicious, disdainful eyes. He looked away, and swallowed.

"Alright Magon, take us in! Thanks for the almost-smooth ride."

"Fight well," said the Salamence again as he angled toward Stolt.

Suddenly everyone atop the carrier's back looked alive with nervous energy, even Bein. Peroo's head twitched this way and that, and he kept refolding his wings. Squirtle shared his apprehension. They were both weak to electricity, after all. Not that it would matter against a supercharged Electric-type technique. Anyone but a Grounder would be wiped out. Squirtle licked his hard lips.

"This is it!" said Quil as the buildings of Karprest rushed by. His eyes were alive with some inner fire. "Our chance to help! I know it's scary, trust me, I do. But I'm going to confront Stolt so Pokémon don't have to live scared. So they can live their life however they want. This is our one chance to make that possible for the 'mon down there. I believe in Squirtle's plans, and you should too. Let's introduce Team Equalize to that Luxio!"

Squirtle joined his voice with those of his teammates, though their cries could barely be called a cheer.

It was far better than nothing.

"Remember," Squirtle said in the final seconds of their approach, "shock and awe. Give them your most impressive entrance. Intimidate them. We're Team Equalize!"

"Loops!" Magon called over his shoulder.

They each clutched a loop of rope as the central clearing began passing by underneath them. Squirtle pulled up on his curled fingers to keep his feet pressed against the Salamence's back. He would need that pressure for the maneuver Magon was about to perform. His blue-black claws dug into the fibers of the rope with his tight grip.

The Salamence bellowed a truly impressive roar that startled Squirtle with its majesty. The signal!

Time for Team Equalize to make an entrance.