Ducky POV

  Messing with the newbies had been fun, but it was well past time Ducky got back to work. There was no official structure, just a whole lot of rich people saying get me this Pokémon, get rid of that one, I want an Arceus-damned Moltres to give to my son for his birthday. She’d bought the last guy a Torchic from a reputable breeder and told him it only looked different because it was a baby. The son better be taking care of it, she was one hundred percent going to drop in to see how Torchic was doing in a couple of days. The little guy deserved the best. Those were usually personal requests. The bounty hunter builds their reputation and the rich Grimers would contact them directly. Naturally, the kind of reputation was crucial. Ducky was waiting for that special request that crossed over into the blatantly illegal. Then she could properly start weeding out the corruption in the system.

  There were also the desperate people. The ones without many resources, but with an actual problem that needed solving. Ducky only took them because few others ever did. They weren’t very lucrative. Those were usually open requests posted on bounties.mon, a website that was squeaky clean and completely above board.

  Finally, there were the big ones. Also posted on the site, these were open requests calling for aid to deal with severe, city-wide issues. There hadn’t been one in over a decade, those kinds of things didn’t happen often after all. Then two sprang up almost simultaneously. Both offered astronomical rewards. And both were equally frightening. The closest was in Lake Aria, specifically the Popplio Town area. The reports were of a massive thunderstorm that simply refused to subside disrupting power-lines, flooding roads, and making Lake Aria near impassable.

  “That’s it up there, Crest,” said Ducky. She stroked her Pidgeot’s feathers as they flew towards the dark clouds. If anything, it was worse than what she had heard. They had only just passed Rondo and already the wind was getting violent. She stashed her brown cowboy hat into her bag and took out her raincoat. She tightened the hood over her head as they ploughed into the heaviest rains she had experienced in Silín. Crest did a marvellous job of dealing with the gusts and turbulence, but Sunny still found herself having to cling on to him for fear of plunging into the tumultuous waters below. She wasn’t usually scared of falling, she trusted her Pokémon enough to catch her if she ever did, but in this weather even Crest might have trouble doing so. Especially with the weight of her travelling bag on top of everything. It was at times like this that she wished her family weren’t so hung up about tradition and encouraged her to get a saddle. Or even some straps. Not that she would have listened. As much as it pained her, she was just as bad as her parents.

  A white flash made her shield her eyes, and a crash of thunder followed much too soon after.

  “I’m beginning to think this was a bad idea,” she shouted. “Pull back, Crest. We’re going north to Lake Rin. We’ll go around to Popplio that way.”

  Crest screeched in agreement and swerved back the way they came. Ducky crouched into his feathers until they were out of the worst of it.

  “That was stupid,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to get that bad that fast.”

  The next part of the flight was tame in comparison, though it took several hours more than she had planned. She relaxed and let herself enjoy the view. With the storm to her right and the Greenwood to her left, she could almost pretend she was in one of the wilder parts of the world that were still unexplored. When they reached the shores of the mirror-like Lake Rin, they took a hard right following the Two Lake Trail to Popplio. I meant they had to venture into the storm again. This time, she was more prepared. They flew slower, and at a lower altitude. After thirty minutes, they landed and Ducky let Crest take a break in his pokeball. She released Down instead. The Togekiss would fly her the rest of the way. She was complaining the whole way of course, Down hated getting her feathers wet, but she was able to provide an even smoother ride than Crest. Ducky made a mental note of the comparison so she could mention it offhand later. The two had a rivalry thing going on and it was very amusing to stoke the flames. She also made a note to tell Down she looked like a boy with too much gel in his hair when wet because her reaction was also going to be, undoubtedly, quite funny.

  Keeping close above the land, they managed to stay away from the worst of the storm and finally approached Popplio. It was in a pitiful state. There were still plenty of hours left in the day, but with the blanket of black clouds above it could have been the middle of the night. No lights were on, however. It seemed all electricity was cut off. Several buildings had suffered damage from falling trees, and near the coast, the houses were all flooded. Ducky directed Down to the Pokémon Centre. As was typical in the small towns of Silín, it was the largest building by a fair margin. It was built out of stone and had a red slate roof, but was otherwise plain, even ugly compared to the straw-roofed cottages that made up the rest of the town. At least, in normal conditions. Right now, the stone walls stood like a bastion against the wind and rain. A fact confirmed when she entered, and was unsurprised to find it had become a refuge for the people currently without houses. She gave them a nod, tidied herself, and headed to the other group gathered in the Pokémon Centre. They were easily identified by their belt of six pokeballs each, and their diverse and outrageous fashion styles. Top bounty hunters had an image to maintain, maybe even more than traditional circuit trainers. They were all figures she recognised and at least half of them were on her naughty list. Now wasn’t the time for grudges though, so she went to the one face she was pleased to see.

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  “Iwan, good to see you old man, how are you doing? I thought you would be up north,” she said as she walked up and punched his shoulder.

  “Ducky, of course you’d be here. I was passing through. We might be here for nothing though. I don’t think there’s anything to be done.”

  The man was in his late sixties, or possibly early seventies if Ducky’s suspicions about him knocking a few years off were correct. His bright red hair was thinning and turning an ethereal pink, and his wrinkles and skinny arms belied the strength Ducky knew he had. A Vulpix sat on his shoulder waving her tail lazily. Ducky didn’t let the innocent eyes fool her. She was at least as old as her trainer and had quite literally walked all over Crest in their first battle.

  “That bad, huh. What’s the deal?” she asked.

  “How much do you believe in the legends?” said Iwan.

  “That depends, I guess. I believe there are a lot of Pokémon out there that haven’t been properly documented. Of course there would be stories about them.”

  “But do you believe there are Pokémon beyond our ability to comprehend?”

  “I’m not religious or superstitious if that’s what you're asking,” said Ducky. “And I didn’t think you were either.”

  “I don’t have to be religious to believe in creatures with god-like powers. The proof is outside.”

  “So it really is one Pokémon causing all this. Have you seen it?”

  Iwan shook his head.

  “No, but you can hear it roar sometimes.”

  “Any ideas on what it is?”

  “You know the legends as well as I do,” said Iwan. “One of the tribes that lived in Silín before the hero united the region worshipped a god of thunder, and their territory used to be around these parts too.”

  Ducky supressed the urge to roll her eyes.

  “If it turns out to be some freak hyper-powered flock of Kilowattrel you’re going to look very silly,” she said.

  “Kilowattrel, really? That’s the best you can come up with.”

  “I’d rather believe that than talk of gods and cults. Anyway, has anyone seen it? Why is everyone huddled here doing nothing.”

  Ducky wasn’t speaking quietly, and her comment earned her a few dirty looks from the other bounty hunters. She wasn’t an unfamiliar face among them, but she was still a new face as far as they were concerned, and she had a feeling most didn’t like her. Better.

  “We’ve tried, Ducky,” said Iwan with not a little of exasperation in his voice. “We’ve tried, but we can’t get anywhere near the centre of the storm. If it’s not the wind, it’s the lightening, getting close is impossible. No, there’s no point fighting against that, what we’re debating is whether or not to try to evacuate the townspeople to Caprice. As long as we can get to Lake Rin, we can get a boat the rest of the way, but moving that many people through the storm is the difficulty. However, if the storm continues for much longer, they’ll all die here. The problem is we have no way of knowing if it will.”

  “This is why we need rangers,” said Ducky. “Escorting people isn’t a bounty hunter’s job. Anyway, you can decide what to do and I’ll follow along. Mind my bags, I’ll be back shortly.”

  She turned, threw on her raincoat, and walked to the exit.

  “Ducky! What are you doing? Don’t be stupid.”

  “I’ll be fine, you know I’m the best flyer in Silín. If anyone can get close to that thing it’s me. And if it really is a god out there, I want to see it for myself.”

  So saying, she crossed the threshold and released Crest.

  “No extra weight this time, just me and you,” she whispered to him. “We’re going to get to the centre of this.”

  Without further hesitation, she hopped on his back and flew into the darkness.

  A few minutes in and the wind was tossing them about like a leaf in a salad spinner. Crest always managed to come out upright. Ducky, for her part, was enjoying the thrill far too much. They headed southwest, staying close to the surface of the water, just out of reach of the waves. Lightening blasted down in increasingly shorter intervals and on many occasions only Crests perfect instincts from fighting powerful electric-types allowed them to dodge. Ducky whooped as they rolled to the side and a bolt struck where they were. The static build-up raised the hairs on her skin, and it was possible that she was a bit singed in some places, but they had yet to be directly struck.

  “Come on! We’re getting close.”

  A stretch of earth partially divided the waters near Popplio with the larger lake, forming a quasi-double-spiral of land and water. As Ducky approached this stretch, she could feel the static in the air. Sparks jolted from her skin, and she felt as if she was being slowly fried by the air. They passed over land and the wind died down. She didn’t notice at first, so suddenly did they cross into calm air. But the electricity was worse than ever. The atmosphere was completely saturated. She tried moving her hand and it jerked unsteadily. She didn’t even try to speak. Crest wasn’t faring much better. Fortunately, without the turbulence, he could focus all his energy on gliding.

  Lightening flashed and thunder rumbled, deafening Ducky. In the moment the sky was illuminated, she saw it. Vaguely dragon-like, twirling in the air, it must have been about three meters from head to tail. It was covered in blue scales, and wisps of clouds covered its claws and parts of its head. It looked at her with cold, yellow eyes below a purple horn jutting from its forehead. It roared and it was as loud as thunder.

  Ducky tapped Crest frantically, awe and terror pressing down on her. Crest needed no more encouragement and turned sharply back the way they came. A bolt of lightning narrowly missed them. Fortunately, after that, the Legendary didn’t give chase.

  The return flight took forever. They were both exhausted and the thrill had disappeared. It was lucky that it got easier the further away from it they were, and they did, eventually, get back safely. Ducky had never been gladder to touch down on solid ground.