Misty walks back into the gym with a defiant swing of the door, ripping off her overshirt to reveal a one-piece bathingsuit underneath. The shirt falls to the floor in the water, floating with its arms flailing above the pool water, and Misty, lips pursed, turns to her posse.

"Alright girls, who ratted me out?"

One of the girls, wearing a red-and-white stripe bikini, flicks a finger towards one of the girls earlier. "It was Brittney."

Misty throws her hands up. "Oh my Arceus, Brittney, you bitch. Neil's going to kill me for this."

"Girl, you're way out of his league. He should be kissing your feet, not slitting your neck." says another girl to a chorus of 'yas, slay' in the background.

"We all know he's basic, but bailing on anyone is bad form. I'm never in bad form." Misty says with a swing of her hips and a seductive smile. I don't know if she's talking about swimming, Pokemon training, or... other things... but I don't really care at this point.

Using every bit of self restraint I can muster, I smile through gritted teeth and ask, "Not to be rude, but can we get on with the battle?"

"Ugh! You're such a dork!" She stretches her hand over her head, stretching out, and then jumps into the pool. Instead of landing in the water, she lands on one of her floating platforms, and walks from one to the next. "You coming?"

I have no desire to go swimming.

"If we put everyone away for a quick second, I could fly us over." Ten suggests.

"Right. I'd prefer not to weight the platforms down, either, so I'll just have the fighters for today's match out. That'd be Ten, Fang, and Reginae." I say. Hycanith bows out, though I can feel a twinge of disappointment through our bond, and Minerva, though upset, isn't stupid enough to ignore the most basic of type advantages.

Out of all of us, surprisingly, Fang is the most discontent with the match up. "I wasn't told I'd be fighting today," he says. "Can I... do this some other day?"

"Tsk, just be happy you're fighting." Minerva says, ruffling Fang's fur with her snout. He scowls as she touches him. "Have fun, nerds. You'd better do a good job, or I swear I'll burst out of the Poke Ball and take her whole team down myself."

"We'll be okay." Reginae says with a soft half-smile. "Right, see you all soon."

"Very soon," agrees Ten as the others disappear. He wraps his talons close around my shoulders and flaps hard, carrying us up and over the gap to the unsteady rafts that are supposed to make up our battle platform. There's no way fighting on these can be fair by any means of the word, but maybe it's just a Kanto thing. This is the same region that made us rummage through their garbage just for a shot at challenging Surge.

"You ready?" Misty asks. "You better not have done all this just to waste my time."

"Can these hold Pokemon during battle?" I ask, then, more cautiously, "Do they tilt?"

Misty, who's wearing a bathing suit anyways, waves my concerns away. "They haven't broken yet. What, are you afraid of getting your feet wet?"

Yes, I think, since these are expensive shoes sitting just inches from the point of uselessness from extensive wear, but also because falling into a pool surrounded by these guys is on the bottom of the 'things I wanted to do today' list. In fact, there are any number of reasons why this challenge and everything about it sucks, but I guess the best thing to do is just to get it over with. Seeing as Misty is tapping her foot impatiently (and I swear I can feel the platform shake), I blurt out, "Alright! Let's just do this. Reginae, take 'em out!"

Reginae bursts onto the battlefield, and Misty with a half-smirk throws out her Golduck.

This should be a cinch.

"Try to move as little as possible," I instruct Reginae. "Can you use Petal Dance without-"

A flurry of petals cut the air, and all the while Reginae is only stepping a little bit to the left or right to control them. He looks back, confidence gleaming in his amber eyes, and I give my huge, dorky Meganium a thumbs up.

The Golduck crosses its arms over its chest to deflect, and while it averts the worst of the blows, many of the razor-sharp petals have left cuts in its skin. While it's hard to do with a beak, I can swear the thing is smirking like its trainer.

"We can't have any of that, can we, now?" asks Misty.

The Golduck snaps and Reginae's petal storm dissolves midair. He tries to start it again but the attack isn't responding- it's as if he unlearned the move. I sense his frustration, the furious ache, and ask, "Do we have anything else we can hit her with?"

"Nope," Reginae admits. "I don't have any other Grass-type attacks."

The Golduck, which has nothing useful to fight us with, sucks in and launches a blast of water at us. Reginae takes it straight to the face, dripping and anxious, but unharmed (thank goodness).

"Yeah, because the only other powerful grass move we could teach you is Solar Beam, which is the worst." I yell. "Should I switch you out?"

"We don't have any other options," Reginae says. This time, when the Water Pulse hits him, he's shot back a little, his feet sliding across the smooth and slippery substance. He falls over and I withdraw him before hitting the ground.

Golduck... Water and Psychic...

"Fang!"

The Umbreon surges out onto the field, fur bristling. Something aches deep inside of his chest but he holds his ground, and when the Water Pulse comes, he jumps over it in an incredible, graceful arc.
The Golduck's beak opens just in time for him to slam it in with Faint Attack. With ruthless efficiency, he rounds on his foe and goes for another hit. The Golduck starts to wag its finger but stops midmotion as Fang barrels into its chest. It lets out a panicked quack but its already over.

Fang stands over his foe, a chilly coolness about him, and looks back to Misty.

I don't need to feel her emotions to know she's realized she'd be better off fighting the Meganium.

Misty withdraws the Golduck and sends out Lapras, whose high level and snide confidence lets me know is her ace. The Lapras makes a gurgling noise in the back of its throat and shoots six Water Pulses at once. Fang dodges under one, over another, and careens around the rest.

"It's got a high defense stat," I warn him. "Head on attacks aren't going to do the kind of damage they did to that Golduck."

"Good to know." Fang says. From his head ring, a gold, dizzy ball of light emerges. It dances through the air before hitting the Lapras, whose neck slams to the side. Its eyes close, only to open again, filled with a glassy light that signifies confusion. Furious, it bays, aiming for Fang with an Ice Beam, but Fang stands right in the middle of the battle field and the attack misses him, my shoulder, and freezes a good half of the pool.

"Shiiit," I whisper, but Fang isn't done yet.

"Come at me, you bastard." he growls, his tone low.

The Lapras might not have heard him but it gets the message. It starts firing beams of ice left and right, all while Misty is yelling commands in the background, mainly "Sing! Use Sing!" and if hitting Fang was hard before, in its confused state it might as well be trying to nail down a shadow. Fang is moving like he never forgot Quick Attack, and when the Lapras settles, finally out of PP, the entire pool is frozen.

"That should take care of the jiggling." Fang tells me. "You're welcome." He takes a running jump and then uses Psychic to boost himself into the air and since he's used all his moves, surrounds himself in a shower of stars. They rain down from above on the Lapras, whose lack of mobility makes it a sitting duck. The shower goes on until he hits the ground on the other side, just inches from Misty's end of the battlefield.

The Lapras's head slumps to the ground and it shudders before lying still, defeated.

"Well, there goes the neighborhood." Ten says.

"I don't even think that was a relevant idiom, but yeah, that was terrifying." I reply.

Misty scowls, "Alright, you want to party?" and sends out her Starmie.

Nope, this is her ace. My Pokedex dings, Level 54, but in her rush to show us up, Misty's forgotten one crucial fact-

Starmie's also part Psychic-type.

Fang poises himself to strike and jumps forwards, dodging a Confuse Ray and hurling a barrage of stars from Last Resort.

The Starmie glows in gold light, healing itself, but Fang isn't going to let up. I can feel his fury coursing through his veins- it's like nothing I've ever felt from him before. He lunges again, scouring another savage hit from Faint Attack, then rakes his claws down the side of one of its arms. The Starmie spins to shake him off and he jumps back before turning on the spot and going straight for the center.

The spinning slows and halts. The Starmie's core goes dull, and Misty draws it back.

"Go on." Fang suggests to Misty, who can't hear him. I don't dare interrupt their silent face off.

Misty sends out her last Pokemon, a Quagsire, and I yell to Fang, "Reginae's got this one."

He opens his mouth to complain but I've already withdrawn him and sent Reginae out in his stead. The Quagsire yawns on the other side of the field, blinking its beady eyes. It moves into a defensive position, crouched with arms wide.

It might have decent attack and defense both, but it's sorely lacking in speed. The second the first petal flies just past the side of its blubbery head, it's done for. Reginae, with startling intensity, finishes the job with one hit of Petal Dance. The petals envelop the Quagsire and in a cascade, settle at the foe's feet. The Quagsire lies buried in them, hands spread wide, and Misty just says, "Fine."

She withdraws her Quagsire and stomps across the battlefield to deposit the badge in my hand. "Hope you're happy- we're going to spend all day reheating the pool."

I shrug. "Hey, don't blame me. That was your Pokemon."

Reginae looks to his sides and sees the whole pool is frozen. "What... huh?"

"Fang," I explain. "Let's get out of here."

He disappears back into his Poke Ball in a flash of red light. Since I'm less than willing to test the ice, Ten flies me back across and we exit the gym together into the chill morning. After the moist, tepid gym interior (even when half the field was frozen over), the cold air is a blessing. I send out the team, save for Ethan, and say, "Told you we could get things done."

"I'm just glad we're going to leave," admits Reginae. "This town is the worst in winter. It feels like it's almost dead."

"True. Gym was easy as hell, though, so that's something... thanks to Fang. Everyone's favorite Umbreon kicked ass today, okay? I've never seen him so fierce."

Fang, abashed by the praise, just mutters, "Oh... heh..."

"I knew you had it in you." Minerva says.

"You seemed a little angry, though. Are you okay?" I ask.

"Oh, I'm fine." Fang tells me, trying to give me a halfhearted grin. "I just... I wasn't taking battles seriously. I figured we were safe as long as we were with you, since it had been so long. It was a stupid assumption and if Pisces, the best fighter on the team, if she can-" he freezes up. A glance between us fills in all the words that are still to painful to say. "I need to be doubly cautious."

"Then that's what we'll have to be. Anyways, you looked like a badass." I tell him, ruffling his fur.

"That's because I am a badass."

(A/N: I'm about eight or so chapters out from the end of my queue- gotta get back to the actual game. Anyways writing Fang taking things seriously is super fun. The fluffy Eevee's come a long way tbh

still a dork)