Chapter 4
The Desert Titans
(Part 2)

Scarlet's thumb-up fist dropped to their side as they planted the biker-gloved hand onto their hip, their helmet wedged against the other side of their waist.

"So... Need me to finish these Titans off for ya?" they asked Nemona.

Nemona's eyelashes, heavily dusted at this point, blinked rapidly with confusion.

"They... They seem pretty finished already," Nemona balked, gesturing an aching arm up at the bleeding Camerupt in the sand.

Letty's face was still pointed at Nemona, but those red eyes of theirs slid over to their fallen victim, then back to Nemona.

"Not that kinda job, huh...?" they muttered, shrugging it all off.

Nemona's insides quivered with anxiety at the implication.

"So, what, then?" Letty asked. "We catchin' 'em?"

"I, uhh-..." Nemona's mind was reeling a little. Scarlet sure seemed to be living a different life these days... but they were stronger than ever for it, clearly. "Y-Yeah." She fumbled around the thoughts spiraling through her head, managing to grasp two modified ultra balls from the pockets of her cargo shorts. "Here."

Nemona tossed one to Letty, who caught it with ease, not even flinching.

"We'll send 'em to the League," Nemona explained. "They'll handle it from there."

"Tch. Bet they will..." Letty grumbled with a cold, dry layer of disdain.

Nemona raised a brow at this, but Scarlet was hoofing it over toward the Coalossal, so Nemona dropped the subject before it could go anywhere. She watched Scarlet whistle with their lips (a trait Nemona wished she possessed, herself) before popping their helmet back on. On command, Koraidon trotted over and scooped Letty up, nimbly placing them onto their back and casually galloping to their quarry.

Nemona, suddenly realizing how sore she was from the action, carefully walked over to the fallen Camerupt. Her left ankle twinged with a bit of pain, and she found herself slightly limping. But if sand in her boobs, a sore arm, and a slightly hurt ankle was all she was walking away with, then this had gone way smoother than she'd expected it to... No thanks to her own actions, anyway. A few of her 'mons had been KO'd, but that was still less than how these Titan bouts sometimes went...

Scarlet spoke into their headset as they galloped and Nemona limped.

[ "Where the hell's your Quaquaval at?" ]

Nemona swallowed a lump in her throat at the question. She should've known Letty would heckle her about that...

"O-Oh, erh-..." She shrugged, to herself, since Scarlet was out of range to see her body language. The gesturing helped her convince herself of her statement's validity. "He's, uh, helping the Elite Four with some cleanup duty after a Tera attack this morning..."

Nemona felt her neck tighten with anxiety as she awaited a reaction.

[ "... Couldn't'a picked literally anyone else's Water 'mon to help?" ] they dryly criticized. [ "What about Penny's Vaporeon?" ]

"H-Her 'mons aren't... really fit for community service," Nemona chuckled warily. At least that statement she could say definitively.

[ "Ugh. Yeah, sounds right..." ] Scarlet heaved a slow sigh. [ "Fine, but... why'd you wait to send out your Goodra, then?" ]

The unspoken implication added the question, 'Why not send out Goodra first thing and use a Water ability?'

Nemona contemplated the inquiry. She hadn't really been thinking about it in the moment, but-...

"Guess I... just wanted to test out my other Pokémon," she confessed. "Give them some experience with-"

[ "Job wasn't to test yourself," ] Letty pointed out bluntly, evidently confused by Nemona's reasoning. They added, [ "Client just wanted two Titans knocked down. That's it. You've got a strong Water-type, n' you left it behind? And then didn't even use one with a Water move?" ]

Nemona's impatient self-defense leaked out as she grumbled, "Look, it's more fun this way, I get more of a challenge, I need to test myself and my Pokémon if I want to get stronger, OK?!"

Having realized the irresonsible childishness of her intentions as soon as they'd been spoken aloud, Nemona cleared her throat, tipping her cap over her face with embarrassment, even though Letty couldn't see her in the moment. Eyes closed with shame, she absorbed Scarlet's conclusion.

[ "This ain't a fuckin' game, 'Mona. This ain't training. It's. A. Job. Don't go handicapping yourself just 'cause it's more interesting. These aren't kids who need you to take it easy on 'em. They're wild fucking creatures out of control. If this is how ya handle fightin' these things, no wonder Geeta called me. Get your shit together, yeah?" ]

At Scarlet's bitter criticism, Nemona's stomach felt empty. She was the Head of Security's right hand gal, and this freelance merc was mouthing her off about discipline or... or whatever?! But it was Letty, it was her Rival, her cherished friend, she couldn't just dismiss the criticism outright... And forcing to accept it as valid critique made her queasy and hungry at the same time.

With Bebop taking a breather behind her, Nemona reached the Camerupt, its face more disfigured up close than Nemona had realized from a distance. She couldn't help staring at it, marveling at the sheer strength of Koraidon... and finding herself a little envious. It was easy for Scarlet to 'just do the job' when they had Pokémon like that in their stable... And it wasn't like Koraidon was the only special Pokémon Letty had access to either. Nemona didn't have a single one-of-a-kind type of 'mon like that.

Instead of bringing any of these tangled thoughts up, Nemona just replied warily, "... Right. Yeah. Good call... I got... a bit of tunnel vision, I guess."

She dropped the ultra ball into the fallen foe, and it was captured instantly.

[ "Heh. Classic Nemona," ] teased Scarlet, their mood lifting a little – or at least, what slight changes in mood Nemona had learned how to detect. [ "That was kinda fun, though. Sorta like old times, huh?" ]

Nemona caught herself smirking fondly with nostalgia as her eyes glazed over, gawping blankly into the horizon. 'Classic Nemona' was Penny's line. Clearly had rubbed off, huh? Penny had a habit of doing that, Nemona thought with a fondness. And Letty's remark about 'old times' magnified her nostalgia.

"... Yeah," she agreed, slide-showing some of those 'old times' in her mind's eye.

[ "Been years since I kicked a Titan's ass." ]

"Well," Nemona cleared her throat, pushing windswept bangs from her face. "We didn't get any Titans for a couple years, there," Nemona sighed with some worried confusion. She turned to watch Letty, meters and meters away, sucking up the enormous Coalossal into the provided ultra ball. Twisting an anxious finger through one of her damp bangs, she mumbled, "Don't know why they seem to be showing up so much lately..."

[ "Hmph. Beats me," ] Letty verbally shrugged through the radio. [ "Good for business, anyway. Let Geeta know I'm happy to keep thrashin' 'em if she's happy to keep payin' me for it. Give me forewarning next time and I won't need to charge the emergency premium, either." ]

"Uhh-..." Nemona uncurled hair off her finger, off-put by Scarlet's salesmanship. It was reminding her of Cordia, her Big Sis, and not in a good way. "Sure. I'll, erh, pass that along..." But she couldn't deny just how easier the mission had gone with Letty's help.

You really did get what you paid for, it seemed... And Nemona was willing to bet that Scarlet had just earned more in fifteen minutes than Nemona earned in an entire week. Normally, thinking about money in terms of time just hadn't been a thing for Nemona. But now that she was starting to plan moving in with Penny and cutting herself off from Father's cash flow, she was slowly beginning to comprehend how and why money seemed to 'make the world go 'round'. And she wasn't liking what she was discovering...

Her Cyclizar curiously gurgled in her direction as she grew closer. She could feel a sudden weight burdening her. The familiar pang of exhaustion coming on after a hard battle, after all the adrenaline wore off... For Nemona, it was essentially like the crash after a sugar rush.

Koraidon came bounding over, still seemingly full of energy even after fighting two Titan Pokémon. Nemona couldn't understand it. She still got a little winded climbing the steps to Naranja Academy, even after all of her training... Pokémon clearly were capable of so much more than she was...

[ "So," ] said Letty, galloping over. They tapped a button on their helmet, switching the radio off again when they were within earshot. "That went pretty quick. Never got to see this 'new talent' of yours you've been braggin' about..."

"O-Oh, that?" Nemona shook her head and crossed her arms, hovering beside Bebop – which she was suddenly quite self-conscious about, given just how much smaller the Cyclizar was than Koraidon... "Ah, I only bust that stuff out as a last resort, heh."

"Tch. Too bad." Scarlet's Koraidon padded to a stop in front of her. She couldn't see Scarlet's eyes behind the dark helmet visor, but she could see a mischievous taunting little smile. "Way Penny says it, I'd get a real kick out of... whatever it is..."

"M-Maybe some other time," Nemona faintly offered. And now she was self-conscious that this secret technique she'd been slowly sneaking training at for the past three years was something Scarlet would ultimately be underwhelmed by...

"Keep your secrets," Scarlet retorted with a smug little smirk and a certain odd warmth to their words.

It sent a pleasant tingle through Nemona's chest, being reminded and reassured of what the pair of them had once had, even if it hadn't been all she'd made it out to be – and the reminder of what they could yet rediscover in one another.

Nemona fished into the pouch attached to her Cyclizar's saddle, pulling out a small towel and a sealed canteen. Unlike older days in her youth, she came better prepared now when she set out into the wilderness. She guzzled some water – refreshingly cool despite the heat – and began wiping sweat from her flushed face with the towel, which had insignia woven onto it advertising Stow-On-Side, the town in Galar her Sifu resided in.

Nemona coughed a little, having chugged her water a little too quick – she ought to have known better, but was flustered by everything she'd just experienced.

Scarlet paused in front of Nemona, and whatever mischievous glint they'd found, they suddenly dropped it like a stone.

"Fuck's up with you?" Scarlet suddenly asked with bluntness that caught Nemona off guard, yet was unsurprising.

"Huh?" Nemona coughed out, unbuttoning her shirt partway to fan air into her bra while playing dumb. She tried using her small towel to clear sand off of her chest, letting that serve as a distraction from acknowledging that her old friend could see right through her masking.

Scarlet hopped off Koraidon, making it look so easy to do so... They crossed their arms with scrutiny, their lips frowning stand-offishly.

"Don't 'huh' me, jackass," Scarlet goaded, punching Nemona in the left shoulder. This caused Nemona's eyes to pop open as she now realized that hey, shit, ouch, when she'd taken a tumble back there, she might have done something to her shoulder... Scarlet pressed further, "You're totally off today." They jabbed a finger against the top of Nemona's right boob, and with enough force to cause Nemona to lean back slightly. "Don't tell me this weak-sauce bullshit is the new standard from you."

"No," Nemona immediately defended herself, shrugging Scarlet's invasive finger away. She was irritated at the implication that Nemona's standards for herself were anything remotely close to 'weak-sauce.' "Fuck no," she added, a bit of confidence in her language that she didn't used to have before dating Penny. She slung the training towel over her shoulders, shielding their freckled surfaces from the stinging sun. "I-... I still run circles around anyone who challenges me, you know."

"Oh? And who's that? High-schoolers?" Scarlet stuck out their tongue.

Nemona couldn't not giggle a little at the sight. Just any sign of emotion from Scarlet that wasn't ice cold anger was welcomed and reminded her of when they'd become friends in the first place – peeling back those layers of Scarlet Koito, like hunting for rare forest 'mons... You could search and search and turn up nothing exciting, but when that rare specimen you were looking for finally showed up, the tingle of excitement was invigorating.

"I get challenged by adults, too, you know," Nemona scoffed, picking up Scarlet's playful intentions. Scarlet was playing Rival, trying to shit-talk and rile her up. And it was working. "... Sometimes," she added with self-deprecating humor, scratching her temple coyly.

"I'll give ya this much," Letty offered. "If you've been handling these guys all on your own the past few months, that makes you better than basically anyone this shit island's got to offer, 'sides maybe the top five."

Nemona's nose wrinkled at Scarlet's casual dismissal of Paldea – the region she called home. But at the same time, Nemona knew deep down that they weren't wrong. No one had become Champion since Letty had earned the title five years ago... And Nemona had barely experienced any difficulty fighting a single trainer besides Letty ever since, not without handicapping herself for the thrill of it... At least, she didn't have trouble winning battles strictly in terms of Pokémon, that was. Heh... All of her physical training had entailed a lot of losing, especially against Sifu Bea.

Nemona realized she'd already downed her whole canteen supply of water by the time she was done ruminating on this. Her eyelids felt heavy as her head became a little unsteady in the sweltering summer heat of the desert, lulling a bit without her say-so. She coughed a little on the last of her water, having still drunken it a bit too fast. Scarlet slammed a padded glove against Nemona's back a few times as Nemona cleared her passageways.

Scarlet grunted teasingly, "Don't die on me. Arc..."

"Pleh-! Yeah, thanks..." Nemona groaned, bemused. She wiped saliva from her lips with the towel still hanging over her shoulders, and brushed the towel across her face yet again to shove clinging hair strands off.

Scarlet tapped at Nemona's clavicle with the back of their wrist, scoffing, "Let's get you outta here before ya fuckin' wilt, ya little flower."

Nemona's chest tightened at Scarlet's remark – especially since Nemona was noticeably the taller of the two of them, having hit a growth spurt in recent years. Had that remark meant to feel like flirting, or was Nemona just being an idiot and reading into things? She had an amazing girlfriend she was very happy with, why was being around Letty in this situation making her feel like she was 17 again? Was it Scarlet's simple, barer-than-usual attire? The sheer commanding strength of their Pokémon? The sensation of comradery, short-lived as it was, in spite of the stagnant past few years of their friendship?

"Psh," Nemona blew off their taunts, pulling her towel off and shoving her supplies back into her Cyclizar's pouch. "I'm not a flower, I'm a...hugh-... hoough...-?!"

Nemona had attempted to dismiss Scarlet's remark as she'd hoisted herself up onto her saddle.

But what had happened instead was that she was swept by a sudden, crushing wave of exhaustion mid-climb. Her vision had gone blurry, her chest hollow, she'd lost all sense of balance, her leg had buckled weakly, and she had tumbled off her mount and into the sand.

"-...ckin' Arc, 'Mona, y'allright?"

Before she knew it, Nemona was being lifted up onto her hip and the rough texture of biking gloves was brushing at her cheeks. Scarlet's helmet visor reflected Nemona's face back at her: baggy-eyed, freckles dark and plentiful, face flushed. She looked like an absolute mess. And the feeling of Scarlet's short but adroit limbs supporting her was a strangely welcoming sensation. And one that made her feel weirdly guilty, too, for multiple reasons that she wasn't used to worrying about...

Coughing sand and wiping grains from her cracked lips, Nemona rubbed at her bleary eyes, still in a bit of a daze. Scarlet roughly shoved Nemona's security cap onto Nemona's skull. Fussing the hat snugly on her head, Nemona nudged herself out of Scarlet's grasp, even though part of her wanted to stay there – another part of her knew that wasn't what she needed, or even what the whole of her wanted.

"Giratina's fuckin' wings," Letty huffed, steady as Nemona palmed at her forehead, catching her breath. Scarlet added, "Classic Nemona. Still wear yourself out quick, huh? Maybe y'oughtta start takin' naps, Grandma..."

Nemona's face contorted into a pathetic, whimpering frown at Scarlet's remark. She knew her friend meant it as more of a shit-talking tease – that was the dynamic the pair had landed on, and all. But it hurt. On this deep, fundamental level, it hurt. And Nemona was struggling to reciprocate the wise-cracking banter. Even on a metaphorical level, she wasn't able to keep pace with her Rival's jabs... And it made her mad.

Getting shown up so easily, getting out-coolness'd so hard, and having a ride that looked so puny next to one so much bigger and stronger... And even after years of training under Bea and Dendra, Nemona's body would still just give out on her so easily... It pissed her the fuck off. So much so that she pounded the side of her fist into the sand in front of her, forcing herself up on both feet even without all of her balance regained. She stumbled backward slightly, and Scarlet's gloved hands were there to catch her – but she jerked herself away again, nearly tripping over but clutching at her saddle for support.

"..." Letty had no words, but it wasn't like they hadn't noticed the hostility in Nemona's body language. They scratched their neck with the tip of their gloved finger, as if waiting for Nemona to explain.

Why'd it have to be in the desert? If it had been literally any other place in all of Paldea, Nemona was confident her body would have at least not... not 'withered' on her like this so fast. She abhorred looking weak in front of Scarlet. It made her feel sick. Absolute dread, sick to her stomach. Letty wasn't allowed to see Nemona like this. No one but Penny was, really. Maybe Arven, once in a while. No one else had earned the right to see her weak, uncool, a mess... But especially in front of Letty, it unsettled Nemona to her core. Letty was the person who deserved to never see her weak like this, in fact. This was her Rival, the one person she strived to look the coolest and toughest in front of. And she was totally losing her edge at even managing that much these days.

And it wasn't like she'd stopped training! She stuck to her exercise regimen so firmly. Barely any slip ups for months, years, by now... She could feel the results, of course. She absolutely was stronger than she'd ever been. Able to do so much more than she could've possibly imagined when she'd met Sifu Bea. Like that stunt that had spared Scarlet from eating a lava bath? No way Nemona of Academy days would've dreamed of pulling that off. She didn't need a brace on her arm, her throw had improved so dramatically, too... And yet her stupid, strangely handicapped body still felt weak by comparison to someone physically less in shape than her. It made no sense and was aggravating as hell. She had some muscle definition now, she could lift, she could fight... And she still fell easily, somehow.

Was what had happened to her as a kid just this... this permanent thing she'd never be able to get rid of...?

"I get it."

Scarlet had spouted the words with their usual blunt-as-a-rusted-nail tone. They slid their helmet's visor up and stared Nemona dead in the eyes, their left eye shrouded in sweat-drenched black bangs while their visible crimson iris flickered like a flare in the dark.

"It is what it is," they added. "Just teasin' ya. Don't... be a little bitch about it."

The fire in Nemona's eyes hollowed into ash as her brows furrowed, glaring at her friend's complete inability to reassure her. Letty noticed the reaction, lulled their head back with a slight eye-roll, and sighed softly.

"Sensitive subject now, huh?" they grumbled. As if inconvenienced, they murmured quietly, "Got it..."

Nemona went to try climbing onto her saddle again, but could still feel some uneasy trembling in her legs. She hesitated.

"Y-Yeah, it is a sensitive subject, 'cause I hate making you think I'm weak when I'm not."

"Ugh, I know you're not. Take a fucking joke, 'Mona." They huffed. "Palk. When didja stop takin' jokes?"

"Wh-?!" Nemona squeaked with offense. "I can take jokes! I can take... all the jokes. Water off a Ducklett's back!"

Scarlet's deadpan silence left space for Nemona to self-asses that she was only proving her friend's point.

"...Haugh," Nemona heaved out grumpily, unsure of what else to say in her shame as she pushed her cap's brim down over her eyes.

"Just hate seein' you all-..." Scarlet wriggled their hand limply at Nemona. "-... bothered, y'know? You used to go for two hours at a time battling me back in the day..."

"Yeah?" Nemona countered defensively, still lingering beside her Cylizar, arms reached up and ready to mouth. She pushed her cap back up. "Well, I wasn't... flipping around, dodging Titan Pokémon in the desert heat, or needing to save your ass from getting burned to a crisp..."

"Heh." Letty glanced at the lava-scorched divot in the sand beside them. "Good point... That was pretty sweet, y'know."

"Y-Yeah. I know it was. And... thanks." Nemona was caught in this weird plane of annoyed, tickled pink, attracted, and frustrated. It was a mess of tangled emotions that she had no means of de-tangling in the moment.

"Besides, you know this hot weather gets to me," Nemona grumbled, hating to admit it, but happy to pull out an excuse to defend herself in light of Letty's aggressive teasing.

"True," Letty conceded, gloves on their hips. "Guess I figured-..." They shrugged. "-... all that trainin', and whatever? Thought you'd grow outta gettin' worn out so easy."

Nemona sighed, attempting to stifle the flow of discouragement from her own nostrils.

"Mm. You're not the only one..." Nemona ruminated glumly.

"Maybe you, like...-" Letty paused, motionless. As if afraid to say the words, or something, without visibly showing an ounce of fear. They finished the thought just before the silence got awkward. "-... got some kinda health thing?"

"... Maybe," Nemona quietly contemplated, her left hand instinctively clutching at her right forearm. She'd not told Letty about the history behind her arm, why it had used to need a brace. And she still wasn't comfortable sharing that story with them. Not yet, anyway. Not here, not like this. "Let's... just say you might be right."

'OK, OK, enough of this pathetic pity-partying. You hate Letty seeing you in this state, and they hate seeing you in this state. Just push through, like Dendra's always taught you. You got this.'

Nemona frowned with determination to get herself some gumption going, then bounced off her toes and pulled herself up onto Bebop's back. She landed a little roughly on her nether-region and coughed from the impact and exertion of the whole motion.

Scarlet snorted a small laugh, their palms outstretched a little, as if ready to catch Nemona should she fall. The sight at once made Nemona feel grateful that they still cared, despite everything, and also disappointed in herself for showing such weakness to elicit the precaution.

Her head wobbled slightly as a shallow wave of dizziness swept by, but she held strong. Her hands regained enough strength to grip the handlebars and she could feel some balance coming back to her.

"A-Anyway. Let's head on back and report to Rika," Nemona advised with a firm nod.

Scarlet stepped gingerly on Koraidon's wrist as the big 'mon gave them a slight boost onto its back.

With some satisfaction in their voice, Letty amended Nemona's statement.

"Let's go get paid."