"Sounds like you have a territory dispute on your hands," Professor Oak said, his voice coming from the speaker on Josh's phone.
He was holding his phone in one hand and the Poke Ball containing Pan in the other. There was something of a small-scale war happening on the beach of Route 25. As Josh had described to the Professor, a group of Bellsprouts had attacked a hive of Venonats that were resting in the shade of a large tree. It seems the Bellsprouts' strategy was to have one Bellsprout use Wrap to restrict the Venonat and then have another roll them away. Their feuding had spilled over onto the beach, and now a group of Krabby were involved.
Josh squinted against the sunlight in his eyes. He was really missing that hat.
Josh had mostly battled one-on-one with his own Pokemon. The incident with Ash and Team Rocket had involved several Pokemon all at the same time, but even that was nothing compared to what Josh was watching now. The clouds were thick and gray in the sky and the sound of the Wild Pokemon attacking each other was a chaotic mishmash of Vine Whips, Leech Lifes, and Water Guns. The whole thing almost reminded Josh of those dramatic, war movies his father liked to watch.
"I think I'll catch one of each," Josh said into his phone, "and then just leave."
"That would be best, it's easy to get overwhelmed with a large number of Wild Pokemon," Prof. Oak responded, "But make sure you do it quickly. Large skirmishes like that tend to attract stronger Pokemon, and the area you're in is known for especially powerful Water-types. Good luck."
Josh hung up and entered the fray. A fine, green powder shot out from Pan's bulb and floated to the ground — but the Sleep Powder missed, and the Venonat Josh had targeted turned to face Josh and his Bulbasaur. Its eyes glowed pink, and Pan became surrounded in a pink aura. Pan growled in pain.
"Pan, return," Josh said. Of course even the smallest Bug-types have Psychic-type moves, he grumbled to himself. "Go, Eevee, Quick Attack!"
Josh's Eevee emerged and zipped to the Venonat with blinding speed. Eevee slammed his head into the Venonat's face, the Bug-type flew back from the impact, and Josh caught it mid-air with a Poke Ball. All his years of baseball-pitching were paying off.
Josh sent his Zubat against the Bellsprouts, and he grinned to himself as their Vine Whip attacks barely deterred the incoming Supersonic. Josh plugged his ears with his fingers, the high-pitched screech still stung his ears, but Josh kept his eyes open through the pain. His latest battle with Ryan had taught Josh the importance of not missing even a single moment. A split-second he wasted with his eyes closed could cost him anything. Josh threw a Poke Ball at the Bellsprout nearest to him, which was stumbling on shaky vines, and caught it.
Finally, Josh moved to the beach. The clouds had darkened from gray to black, and the rain started to fall in heavy sheets. Josh's clothes were drenched, but he kept moving. He sent Hermes in against the Krabbys, but they had seen Josh coming, and clustered together in a group, holding out their pincers to make a wall of sharp points. Hermes battered the group of Water-types with Gust attacks, but they held firm.
"Hermes, return!" Josh shouted over the rain as he reached for Hermes's Poke Ball. But his fingers slipped on the Poke Ball's smooth surface, which was slick from the rain, and popped out of his hand and fell onto the wet sand. Hermes hovered in the air, and gave Josh a look of confusion.
Josh bent down to pick it up, but he couldn't get a good grip on it from the rain. Finally, Josh gave up, and stood back up — only to see that the group of Krabbys were gone. Josh looked around. The Bellsprouts and Venonats were gone too. Apart from the rain, it was eerily quiet.
Then, the water on the ocean broke as a Gyarados emerged. A massive spout of water flew out in all directions, spraying Josh in the face and almost knocking him over from the force. The Gyarados was massive, even bigger than Brock's Onix. It let out a deafening roar that shook Josh to his core. In the back of Josh's mind, behind the fear, Josh remembered that Prof. Oak's best Pokemon back when he used to be a Trainer had been a Gyarados. Even a look from a Gyarados could make a Pokemon freeze up with terror, the Professor had told Josh once, and he could easily see why.
This isn't a war movie, Josh thought to himself, this is a horror movie. And that's the monster.
"Hermes," Josh said shakily, "we really have to go, right now!"
Hermes squawked angrily, and glared at Josh.
"This isn't like before with the Onix," Josh said, "this Pokemon is too strong! Seriously, we have to go!"
Hermes huffed, and brought his wings together to launch a Gust at the Gyarados. It splashed across the Water-types face, but the Gyarados barely flinched. Then, it opened its mouth. A bizarre, brilliant blue flame welled up from inside, and it spat out a fireball that hissed in the air as it burned the raindrops in its path. Josh jumped back, and an explosion of wet sand peppered his face as the fireball hit the spot he had just been standing on.
Josh looked up, another blue fireball flew through the air, which Hermes just barely dodged. The feathers on his tail were black and singed, half of them had been burned off completely. Hermes looked at Josh with big, wide eyes, and gave a panicked chirp.
"Yup!" Josh said. "Just run!"
Josh scooped up Hermes's Poke Ball with both arms and held it tight to his chest as he ran, listening to the sound of Hermes's desperate wing-beats and the Gyarados roar after them. Josh glanced behind him.
The Gyarados was moving through the water and onto the beach. It was faster than Brock's Onix, too, apparently. It slithered across the sand, leaving a jagged trail in its wake. Even on land, Josh could tell he couldn't outrun the Water-type.
Josh stopped running, and turned on his heel to face the Pokemon. He could see the blue fire welling up again in the Gyarados's mouth. Josh reached into his bag and threw a Poke Ball.
The Poke Ball hit the Gyarados just as it reared back its head to unleash the attack, and the Water-type disappeared into the Poke Ball. The Poke Ball fell to the ground, and for a brief moment Josh almost believed he had actually caught it — only for the Gyarados to break out the second the Poke Ball hit the sand below.
It roared as it emerged, the sound overpowering the deluge of rain for a moment, and Josh flinched so hard he jumped in place. The Gyarados glared at Josh. He was out of tricks. Josh could already imagine himself waking up in one of the Poke Center overnight rooms. He had already seen Trainers being brought in on a stretcher, after they had blacked-out, since he had started his journey. Josh used to wonder how something like that even happened, how a single wild Pokemon could do all that. Now he understood why.
The Gyarados reared back as it prepared to launch another fireball, and Josh shut his eyes to brace for the impact. But, instead of searing-hot pain, the rain continued to drench Josh as he had a strange sound overpower even the Gyarados's roar. Josh could only compare it to the sound of a power drill, like the one his father always used to fix furniture around the house.
Josh opened his eyes, and his jaw dropped at what he saw. The Gyarados was writhing in pain, its eyes clenched shut, and its jaw open from a roar that Josh somehow couldn't hear. Because there was a Seaking driving its massive horn into the Gyarados's throat. Josh could see the horn spinning in place, and white sparks jumping off the point of impact like it was a soldering iron. The whine of the horn's spinning grew higher in pitch, and Josh had to cover his ears to shield himself from the worst of it.
Finally, the horn stopped spinning, and the Gyarados's eyes rolled into the back of its skull as it went limp and fell backwards. The impact shook the ground and kicked up a massive amount of mud and sand. The Seaking floated gracefully to the ground, expanding its fin like a pair of parachutes.
"Seaking, return!" a voice behind Josh called out.
Josh turned to see Yukari, sheltering under an umbrella. Josh trudged through the mud to meet her, but Yukari gracefully skipped across the ground with delicate steps in her rain boots.
"Thanks," Josh said, "I thought I'd be waking up in a Poke Center."
"Gyaradoses tend to show up any time there's a storm like this," Yukari said with a smile. "So Misty always sends one of us out here, just in case."
"Right," Josh said, "that makes sense."
Misty was only 16. Even younger than Ryan's sister, Avery, and the same age as Jake. But any time that Ash had talked about her, Misty always seemed so much more put-together than Josh's brother. Watching Jake catch that Poliwhirl had shattered some of the illusion for Josh that his brother knew what he was doing. And Josh had heard plenty of embarrassing stories of Avery getting busted for sneaking out of the house from Ryan. Misty had been the youngest person to ever become a Gym Leader in Kanto when she was 14, and yet she was taking care of the city while helping the police with… whatever it was they needed help with, Josh couldn't remember. He hadn't even remembered to pack an umbrella when he left Pallet Town.
Yukari held her umbrella forward and Josh stepped under it. Incredibly, Josh could smell her perfume through all the rain and mud in the air. Being this close to her made looking her in the eye even harder. They stood in silence for a moment. Josh searched for something — anything to say to her. Then, Yukari giggled.
"You don't have a Water-type Pokemon, do you?" she said.
"Huh? How did you know?" Josh said.
"Those have seen better days," Yukari said, pointing at Josh's shoes. "Come on back to the Gym, I'll dry them out and wash them for you."
Yukari turned and started walking back to the city. Josh followed, silently cursing Ash and every Trainer he had ever seen with a Water-type Pokemon for his walk of shame.