Modern showers were something out of heaven. This was what Sir Aaron believed to be the most wonderous invention that humanity had ever created. Not the delicious food of today, not the devices his niece was obsessed with, not whatever the internet was. The showers. Especially, taking a shower after being washed out of a building by a giant sea monster.

The knight finally understood why Amanda took so long to get ready in the mornings. The showers were just simply bliss. The warm clean feeling they gave was a great comfort after being doused in salty ice-cold water. The soft sleep clothes only added to this effect.

The same couldn't be said for Lucario however, his auratic partner just couldn't see the appeal of modern showers and had to be convinced to be rinsed off. The re-wetting certainly didn't do anything for Lucario's mood. The Jackal like Pokémon was now back to burrowing into the sofa of their hotel room.

And misery loved to have company.

"I never need to see another Gyrados again," Goh groaned, flopping onto his bedding.

"Oh, then how will you fill your pokedex?" Amanda chimed in from the small breakfast table on the other side of the room.

"Don't patronize me," Goh groaned, "Wait you could hear me?"

"My main pair of hearing aids may be waterlogged, but that doesn't I don't have a spare," Amanda said, not looking up from her laptop screen.

Goh hummed and nodded.

"Is it more common to see, sea beasts such at that one?" Sir Aaron asked.

"Any water-type trainer is likely gunning for one," Amanda said.

"Sea Beasts?" Goh said.

"That's what my sailor friends called them. I haven't seen one in person before today, and I'd rather not meet once again," Sir Aaron.

"Wait you've never seen one?" Goh sat up on his elbows.

Sir Aaron shook his head, "Cameron Palace was not near a seaport. I was never in the right location to see one."

Thank the Alpha for that. Lucario grumbled, amazingly allowing Riolu to climb all over him. Sir Aaron suppressed a smile at the sight; that pup had his partner wrapped around his small paw.

"Huh, I guess you wouldn't, after all wild Gyrados live in open deep water, and none of them were domesticated before the late 1800s," Goh mumbled to himself.

The door opened and in walked Ash, still in damp day clothes, and many white bags in hand. Pikachu jumped from his trainer's shoulder and ran into the room at Pichu, inciting a game of tag.

"Dinner!" Ash shouted, "That's little place I remembered from my time traveling for the Unova league was still open!"

Ash walked over to the breakfast table and began unpacking the bags. Amanda leaned away with slight distaste.

"Uhm, are you not going to shower before you eat?" Amanda asked.

"No, why?" Ash raised a confused brow.

Amanda's expression flattened, "Do you know how much saliva in is a Gyrados's hydro pump attack?"

"Annnnnd! Shower sounds like a good idea!" Ash slapped the table top as he walked towards the washroom, "Can you keep my food warm?"

"No problem!" Goh said, walking over to the table, and resuming the unpacking of evening meal, "'Teriyaki Hoohoot on rice with wasabi?'" He read out loud.

"That's my order," Amanda said, Umbreon waking from her nap to sniff the food on the table.

Amanda continued to comb through the recently claimed data with a fine tooth. Her eyes never left the screen, scrutinizing every detail, every line of code, or file she opened. Her throat felt dry when she swallowed. This slight discomfort pulled her out of the hacker's trance so to speak. Taking a second to glance at the clock, the young woman wasn't too surprised to find that she had been at this for nearly seven hours straight.

Rubbing her eyes, Amanda leaned back into the cheap hotel chair that hadn't been in style since the 70s. A drink. She needed a drink.

She slipped out of her seat carefully, not wanting to disturb Umbreon. Her partner had fallen asleep at her feet. Amanda crept across the room towards her bed and opened her bag. Pulling out her wallet, she tried to remember where exactly that vending machine she saw earlier was.

"What are you doing?"

Amanda froze and twisted around in the second, finding Goh awake in his bunk.

She bit her tongue, before whispering, "Getting a soda, you want one?"

"Sure."

The venting machine was in the hotel lobby, which was just a short walk away thanks to their room being on the first floor. Amanda paid for the drinks. A cold orange juice for her, and cherri berry soda for Goh.

"Thank you," Goh said.

Amanda took a sip of her juice, "Don't worry about it, it's just a soda."

"No...uh...I mean…well yeah thanks for the soda…but that wasn't what I was talking about," Goh said, "I just realized I never thanked you for what you did for me…in the river…so thank you."

Amanda blinked with surprise, before shaking her head, "No problem, it wasn't much anyway."

"Wasn't much? You saved my life, and you call it nothing much?"

"It was just a reflex on my part. What I was trained to do."

"Right, you worked as a lifeguard, didn't you?"

Amanda huffed, "Yeah, wasted two years of my life."

"Wasted?"

She hesitated before speaking, "I didn't have enough money to pay for tuition saved. So, I took the job when my old swimming coach told me there was an opening. I graduated standard schooling a year early, so with that extra time plus the gap year I took, I managed to make enough for college. At least the first four years."

"Didn't have money for tuition? Isn't your mom this hotshot professor? Shouldn't she be loaded?"

"Yeah, she is, but that doesn't mean I am."

"And she didn't pitch in to help you with school?"

"I didn't want to study what she wanted me to, so she wasn't obligated. Mom was also pissed at me for taking the gap year in the first place. I could be halfway to a bachelor's right now if I didn't. Technically I could try to beg for her forgiveness, but that doesn't mean she'll pitch in even if I do transfer majors."

"Wait, so she's ticked off at you, for working to go to school, because she won't pay for it, because you want to study something you pick for yourself?"

"I know it was an idiot move, but don't worry I'm dealing with the consequences. It's not going to affect my work here."

"I'm not worried about your work. Amanda that is messed up! It's like textbook financial abuse or manipulation or something."

"It's not abuse," Amanda snapped, "She's away a lot this is just how she can show me what's the right path for me."

"Yeah, no. My parents are absent a lot, but they don't try to control my life. You are you own person you're allowed to have autonomy, your own choice of college."

"Can we just stop?" Amanda said, "Look, I already have at least three more hours of hacking through code before I feel remotely okay with going to sleep."

"It's 2 am you'll be up all night."

"Not the first time."

When they arrived back at the room, Amanda went straight to her laptop. Goh laid back down in his bed. There was a simmering emotion underneath her skin, but she shoved it away. Bottled it up. She didn't have time for that nonsense. Her mother was distant yes, but she wasn't abusive. Mother never hurt the twins. Amanda was just messed up.

She bit her lip and breeched another firewall. More files, more building specs…wait…what was that?

Her face relaxed, jaw dropping open slightly…Oh Arceus…She found him.

A/N:

HI, everyone! Moving on to the next arc and I'm sure, you'll all are going to be enjoying this. Riley is coming back!

See you all next time.