*

“ Welcome, you four teenagers,” said the Judge in her booming voice.

Lisa felt small and insignificant in the massive courtroom. She was sitting right up the front, near the lawyer’s desk, between Jessica and Gavin. The rows of seats behind her were completely full with silent onlookers. At the front half of the courtroom were the judge’s stand, witness box, the stenographer’s desk and at the side of the room sat the twelve jurors, looking very serious. The Judge cleared her throat loudly and, as if on cue, everyone in the courtroom stood up.

“ Now that the Crown has presented their four main witnesses, I’ll allow opening statements from firstly the prosecuting Crown before the defence,” she said. Everyone sat down again. Lisa’s gaze flicked from the lawyer to the Judge, who was, oddly, chewing at a Mars bar and taking surreptitious gulps from a can of diet coke.

The Stenographer looked up at the Judge, trying to get her attention. When she finally looked down, the stenographer made violent signals to her. The Judge nodded, still stuffing her face with chocolate and caramel, and said thickly, “ Bring in the Accused!”

This was it, the moment Lisa had been both dreading and looking forward to. The doors opposite the Jury swung open and in walked Lenina. She wore a navy jumpsuit and handcuffs, which came as no surprise to Lisa, but her feet were unchained. However, Lisa didn’t have much time to ponder this: she had just noticed Lenina’s head.

The left side of her face was a dangerous-looking scarlet colour – it appeared to have been permanently damaged in the fire Lenina had been caught in two months ago. There were horrible burns covering most of her left side, most prominent on her face and neck. Lenina’s hair was mangled, thin and wispy, and most of it had not grown back. What really stood out about Lenina, though, was her face; her thin smile showed that she looked relatively happy, considering she could face life imprisonment for her crimes.

Lisa felt a small nudge at her left side – Jessica. “ What’s she so happy about?” Jessica hissed, sounding unnerved.

“ She’s up to something …” said Lisa under her breath, as Lenina was placed in the Accused area by a police officer, then left there.

Lisa watched tentatively, feeling completely powerless as the prosecution lawyer – the man who was supposedly going to convict Lenina – stood up and made his opening statement. The prosecution lawyer cleared his throat loudly, got the Judge’s attention, and stood up, half-facing the Jury, half-facing Lisa, Andrew, Gavin and Jessica.

“ Your honour, the courtroom, my esteemed colleagues and members of the public,” said the lawyer; “ We are here today to convict Professor Lenina Johnson of illegal genetic testing, kidnapping, verbal abuse, assault and Pokenapping. As you can see, our four young whippersnappers here are going to tell you what happened.” He glanced at them, and Lisa felt a tiny surge of pride. The old man now looked at the jury. “ Members of the jury, do not be fooled by this woman’s appearance. This lady has committed many serious crimes. During the course of this trial, it will be uncovered that these young men and women overcame great difficulties to defeat her in the name of self defence.

He sat down and gave a grin to the four of them. Lisa smiled back – he was old and wrinkly, but he evidently knew the ropes, which she was grateful for.

“ Will the defence please give their opening statement,” said the Judge lazily, now moving on to a packet of maltesers. She seemed unaware that she was in the middle of a very serious trial.

Lisa watched the pompous defence layer stand up and sidle over to the Jury area, leaning over the barrier and winking at a blonde woman, who flinched and looked ill. The lawyer seemed unabashed and strolled back to his desk as he gave the opening statement.

“ Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we are here today because of a total lack of respect for the elderly,” he said. Lisa tried not to be effected by this statement, but she still felt instant indignation at the smug defence lawyer.

He continued. “ Andrew and Jessica Hall, Lisa Walters –” Lisa shuddered upon hearing her own name, “ – Phillip Steiner and Gavin Luper are nothing but DIRTY LIARS!”

Lisa felt her insides turn glacial. Liars? What was he on about? She exchanged glances with Gavin, who looked furious and apprehensive about the lawyer’s next words. All through the courtroom, nervous chattering had spread throughout those sitting in the benches behind Lisa.

“ During this trial,” the lawyer continued vehemently, “ we are going to prove that Lisa, Jessica and Phillip trespassed on Lenina’s relaxation area, physically assaulted her, performed arson on the building and LEFT HER FOR DEAD. But that wasn’t enough for them, was it? The youth of today are vicious killers!

“ Those three –” he pointed accusingly at Lisa and Jessica, however, there was no Phil to point at, “ – then got Andrew and Gavin to attack her in an alleyway when she was injured and looking for help. Can you believe this? Five people, three strapping young men and two cunning young women ATTACKED an injured pensioner in an alleyway! Can you believe what a cowardly attack that was? Not only that, we are going to have them convicted for the murder of the pokemon which died in the fire – Lenina’s beloved Steelix and Slowbro amongst them. Now she only has two harmless pokemon left, Piloswine and Flareon. And because of the LIES these children told, she has been separated from the only things in this world that care for her!”

The icy sensation in Lisa’s stomach was gone; she now felt a total fury against the defence lawyer; tears of anger and frustration formed in her eyes, but she blinked them away. She didn’t have any intentions of showing the lawyer just how much he was upsetting her. She just had to wait until she got to the witness box …

But there was still more of the defence lawyer’s tirade.

“ See how they’ve made a poor old woman cry! Look!”

Lisa shifted her gaze to Lenina who sat near the defence lawyer. She was sobbing, apparently upset, but Lisa had seen enough of Jean’s tantrums back home to know Lenina was faking it.

“ My life’s been stolen from me,” she said pitifully, sobbing into her arms.

Almost all the people in the courtroom were now looking at Lisa, Gavin and the others with disgust. Lisa felt her face flush scarlet as the furious gazes of almost everyone – including their own lawyer – bore down on them.

“ You little good for nothings!” hissed the prosecution lawyer quietly, his voice filled with mistrust.

Lisa didn’t even feel hurt from this remark; she had just noticed something odd: Lenina was standing up (all traces of tears gone), clicking a pen that she had taken off her lawyer. Abruptly, and in a loud voice, she announced: “ I do hope these horrible attackers don’t try to hurt me again.”

Instantly, there was a loud bang as the doors of the courtroom burst open. Lisa turned automatically to look. A thick wave of pewter grey smoke was pouring through the doors and into the courtroom – and so was a stream of people carrying guns and smoke bombs.

“ Get down!” cried Gavin, as a collective scream went up from the back of the room – the invaders (and Lisa had a shrewd idea who they were) had reached the people sitting in the rows and were attacking them in some way or other. Lisa felt Gavin grab her arm and pull her down to the ground, beneath the lawyer’s desk – just in time; a bang went off and a bullet went whizzing past where Lisa had been previously standing.

She didn’t thank Gavin; there wasn’t time. Beneath the desk also crouched Andrew and Jess, both looking as petrified as Lisa felt. Andrew had already released his Dragonair, which curled up at his feet.

“ We need to get out of here,” he said.

“ Well …” Jessica began, but she seemed unable to finish.

In the background, Lisa heard the Judge shriek, “ You’ll never get me! I’ve got food that’ll last a week!” Even in a moment of terror, when smoke was clouding her mind and vision, Lisa managed a small smirk.

There were cries for help from the Jury; apparently the invaders had reached them already.

“ Let’s fight, then,” said Gavin, and he stood up along with Andrew and Jessica – Lisa followed.

Lisa pulled out Electabuzz’s pokeball and was about to throw it out when a boy about her age, but evidently one of the invaders, emerged from the thick smoke, which was still blossoming from an unknown source. He held a strange box, and pressed a button on it. At once, an odd beep emitted from the box, though Lisa had no idea what it did. “ No pokemon!” said the boy strangely, before disappearing into the smoke again.

After he disappeared, more people emerged – a man appeared from the smoke, leering at them.

“ Dragonair, get them! Dragonbreath!” cried Andrew from behind Lisa, but his Dragonair was limp on the ground, it’s eyes a vermilion colour. Lisa had a feeling that had something to do with the box that the boy had held out before.

She took matters into her own hands. “ Go Electabuzz!” Lisa yelled, ditching the pokeball at the man. She watched expectantly, waiting to order Electabuzz to attack, but the ball stayed shut; it flew at the man at hit him squarely on the mouth, causing him to drop the gun he had, however, Electabuzz’s pokeball landed neatly in the man’s hands. He grinned, his teeth at funny angles, before running off into the smoke.

Lisa felt her face flush with fury. “ Get back here!” she screamed. She glanced around her to see Jessica beside her; grabbing her for back up, Lisa plunged into the thick smoke, her eyes watering and her throat feeling dry.

But the man was nowhere to be seen.

“ Come on, Jessica, we have to find him … he has my Electabuzz,” Lisa said, her teeth gritted. “ Keep an eye out for anyone …”

There were still people screaming and the sounds of several fights being undertaken in the courtroom, but Lisa couldn’t see much more than her own hand in front of her through the smoke. She inched onwards through one of the rows of benches until a figure appeared; the blonde woman, who had been in the Jury, was slumped over a bench, a tranquillizer dart in her arm. At least she hadn’t been shot.

“ Lisa, look out!” cried Jessica. Lisa turned to see a man armed with a Stun Gun standing right before her. He whipped out the Stunner, preparing to use it; Lisa dived to the ground, and at the same time she saw Jessica standing on the bench, waving her arms at the man with the Stun Gun. He turned to glance at her, and in that moment, Lisa mustered all her strength and kicked the man’s ankles; he went flying off his feet, and landed with a resounding crack on the floor. Lisa stood up, shaking, and grinned at Jessica, who said, “ No worries.”

“ Let’s keep going, then,” Lisa said to her, reaching the aisle and turning left. Together, she and Jess weaved their way through the smoke, which was as thick as ever. It was not making Lisa cough, though, which made her think it was some sort of smoke substitute.

A loud scream and a thud resounded from somewhere very close by. Lisa and Jessica exchanged nervous glances before continuing on; Lisa had a feeling they were walking towards the Jury’s area.

And then, fate stepped in at last; the man who had stolen Lisa’s Electabuzz crept past them, his gaze focused on Officer Rule, who had apparently entered the courtroom at some stage. There was, however, no sign of Aipom.

Officer Rule had his gun out, peering into the smoke, apparently unable to see the invader creeping up on him. Lisa and Jessica moved silently, as though they had rehearsed what they were about to do a million times; Jessica yelled, “ Oi!” and the Electabuzz-thief turned automatically; Lisa pulled her arm back and slammed her fist into his shoulder, causing a loud crack; as he turned around to her, his eyes pained, Jessica came charging up from behind and, with a clever, well-aimed kick, knocked him to the floor; the pokeball that was still in his hands went flying into the air and Lisa caught it.

Jessica’s face was alight with triumph as she and Lisa exchanged high-fives.

Officer Rule had seen them now, and pelted over to them, amongst the sounds of battle and fighting, and the hiss of the smoke pouring into the room. “ Stay there, girls!” he urged them seriously. There was a loud bang of gunfire a short way away, and he cringed. “ Uh … I’ll go check that out …” Without another word, he dissolved into the greyness.

Jessica stood beside Lisa as she pocketed Electabuzz’s pokeball. Jessica had quite forgotten to stare at Officer Rule like she normally did, which went to show how serious the situation was. Lisa stood beside Jess, feeling vulnerable in the smoke. The sounds of fighting were sparser now, but it appeared that there were still a number of fistfights and gun battles going on in the huge courtroom. Jessica tapped her foot almost impatiently.

“ So we just … wait?”

There was an extremely loud crack from somewhere around them and Lisa was sure she heard Gavin’s voice.

“ Gavin?” she said cautiously, taking a step in the direction of the sound.

At once, another armed man appeared (how many are there? thought Lisa). He held a stun gun and was already pointing it at her; Lisa did nothing but cry out as a jet of blue light issued from the stunner and connected with her; for a second, she thought she was dead, but a moment after she found herself lying on the floor, shaken but alive and unmarked. She at once stood up, confused. She hadn’t been stunned, or electrocuted, just knocked off her feet.

But the man had disappeared – as had Jessica.

“ Help!” Jessica shrieked out suddenly from somewhere very close; Lisa pelted through the smoke to see the stun gun man with Jessica in a bizarre headlock; Lisa threw her entire body weight at the man; he went flying into the wall with a loud crack, and Jessica – luckily – did not have a broken neck, though Lisa realised her attack had been foolish. Instead, Jessica emerged from the incident holding a hand to her tailbone and wincing.

The man was already on his feet though, facing Lisa. He was big and strong, while she was not, but nevertheless, she balled her fists, ready to fight him. But before he used his fists or the stunner, Jessica came flying from behind and jabbed him deftly in the eye. He collapsed at once to the ground.

“ We’ve got to get out of here!” screamed Lisa, feeling faint. She grabbed the stunner from the unconscious man, feeling that she might need it. With Jessica by her side, and no sign of Officer Rule, Lisa stepped into the haze of the smoke, holding the stun gun before her.

“ Look out, Rambo coming through,” joked Jessica weakly, though she was very pale.

Lisa tried to focus her stinging eyes on anything she might be able to see. The progress she made was very slow, as though she was wading through butter, but eventually a shape emerged; without thinking, Lisa pulled the trigger on the stunner – a bolt of blue light rent the air and connected with the shadow, causing whoever it was to collapse. Jessica moved up beside Lisa tentatively as they inspected their sprawled victim more closely – a slender, brown-haired woman, wearing camouflage clothing, a gun tucked into her belt.

Lisa didn’t feel odd about knocking the woman out, but an idea of what these people were doing here had come into her mind. They had to with Team Rocket, surely, and Lisa suspected they had ambushed the court case to stop some evidence coming to light – probably the evidence Lisa, Jessica and the others were going to give. But why had they gone to so much trouble? Most of the knowledge Lisa, Jessica, Gavin and Andrew had about the trial was common knowledge amongst the police, it was all known anyway.

Before Lisa could draw any conclusions, Jessica gave a small squeak and jogged her back to reality.

“ What is it?” Lisa said at once, holding the stun gun at the ready. Jessica had picked up the judge’s hammer as a weapon and she, too, was holding it poised to strike.

“ There’s someone just there …” Jessica said, advancing nervously but resolutely. Lisa followed her, noticing that the smoke was clearing finally. All at once, Jessica stopped in her tracks, and as Lisa caught up with her, an incredibly bizarre scene, almost a freeze frame, met her eyes.

Andrew was lying on the green carpet, apparently unconscious and looking worse for the wear; Officer Rule was slumped against the wooden wall, his eyes open but pained as he held a hand to a wound in his leg; most strangely, though, were the two people in the centre of the aisle. Lenina, her eyes filled with a crazed look Lisa could not really describe, was flat on her back on the ground, Gavin standing over her, legs set apart and a black pistol held in both his hands, pointing directly at Lenina’s heart.

Lisa tried to speak, but her throat was dry. Jessica drew breath sharply and looked away almost flinchingly, her fingers plugging her ears. Lisa stared at Gavin, through his eyes were locked with Lenina’s and he could not see her. Don’t do it, through Lisa earnestly. She doesn’t deserve to be killed so quickly, painlessly almost …

“ You … Team Rocket, you tried to –” Gavin was saying, almost incoherently.

Lenina actually snorted with disdain, even though she was in no position to do so, with a weapon pointed directly at her. “ There is no such thing as Team Rocket, boy,” she said.

Lisa glanced at Gavin; she thought she saw him begin to lower the gun, but in the split second before he could do so, a dark figure pelted up behind him and pushed him hard, sending Gavin forward and causing his hand to slip; a loud blast resounded from the pistol.

Lisa’s head swirled; blood, a scream, a few gurgled, incoherent last words, and that was it.

Lenina was dead.

*

The Trial of Lenina Johnson was officially cancelled. After all, there was no Lenina Johnson left to convict, and since Lisa, Jessica and Officer Rule had all witnessed that Gavin had not purposely shot her, he was not accused of anything.

A great weight was lifted from Lisa’s mind. The police wanted them to all make statements, but after that they would all free to go back to the hotel – even Andrew, who was injured but was coping after he was cleaned up by the ambulance officers who had arrived on the scene minutes after the last fight was finished. Jessica also had damaged her tailbone. Gavin was relatively unscathed, however Lisa found several bruises all over herself, which she could not recall obtaining in the heat of the moment.

After the police had finished their interviews at the police station, Lisa followed behind Gavin and Andrew, Jess at her side, when they walked past an enclosed room near the entrance to the station. Lisa glanced casually through the glass in the door; inside, ten of the people captured in the courtroom were being interrogated by four police officers. That was all that had been captured in the attack – ten men, and there had reportedly been almost forty. Lisa felt uneasy that so many were still on the run, but with the court case now out of the way, they had no reason to attack her or any of the others.

A great comfort to Lisa was that the press could not identify any names or publish any photos, just in case there were any of the Team Rocket members still lurking around.

But were they Team Rocket? Lenina’s last words, before dying, had been distinctly to tell them that there was no such thing as Team Rocket. Lisa knew that Team Rocket existed, or at least once had; they were very much an underground organization and were almost a myth in most people’s minds nowadays (Jessica and Andrew didn’t believe in them, for starters), however she had seen them before … Lucas, a member of Team Rocket, had tried to kill her once … and Lenina had apparently been a Professor of Team Rocket, according to Gavin. And the people who had invaded Lisa’s house a few nights ago had had scarlet R’s emblazoned on their uniforms, hadn’t they? And to top it all off, Gavin himself had been kidnapped by the Rockets. The only possible explanation for Lenina’s statement would be if Team Rocket had somehow disbanded in the past three days – which hardly seemed likely.

And so Lisa sat very quietly in the police car on the way back to the hotel, while the others talked to each other enthusiastically about the trial.

*

Lisa, Gavin, Andrew, Jessica, Olivia, Glenys and Ripper (plus Aipom and Olivia’s Spoink, who were playing quietly in a corner) spent the evening in the bar of the resort’s restaurant/bar after the older two returned from their short anniversary. The four of them who had been at the trial told their story rapidly to the others, who seemed completely amazed.

“ I’ll bloody tell you one thing, for a small seaside town, its never bloody peaceful,” said Ripper at the end of the story, and Lisa grinned.

It was a relaxing evening really, exactly what they needed after such an intense day. Music played in the background of the bar while everybody chatted over drinks (Ripper had smuggled them all a drink; Lisa’s was a sweet champagne that looked almost like lemonade).

Olivia floated across the room, towards where Lisa stood looking at an odd mosaic on the wall. Lisa saw her approaching and attempted an escape, but Olivia cornered her swiftly.

“ Hi Lisa, do you like being effluent?” she said at once.

Lisa snorted and champagne poured back into her crystal glass. “ What?”

“ Effluent,” said Olivia dreamily. “ You know, you have that crystal glass, and it’s expensive champagne, and you’re in a five-star resort … it’s just so effluent, isn’t it?”

A great roar of laughter arose in Lisa but she choked it down with vast difficulty. “ Um … yes, Olivia,” she managed, with a small smile. “ Very effluent.” Olivia gave an appreciative smile and hovered away again. Lisa watched her, laughing freely now that she was gone, and wondering whether she ought to tell Olivia that the right word was in fact ‘affluent’.

“ What’s so funny?” Andrew asked, walking up beside Lisa with a beer in hand.

Lisa proceeded to explain, and Andrew grinned broadly.

“ She’s like that with words,” he said, shrugging.

Lisa giggled again.

“ So, where are you heading off to now, Lisa?” asked Andrew, gazing at the mosaic. Lisa was still looking at it, too; it was oddly-shaped and difficult to interpret; depending on which way she looked at it, it was either an upside down volcano, or the sun on a hot day wearing an akubra hat.

Lisa thought about her reply to Andrew’s question; she and Gavin hadn’t yet told anyone their intentions, as they had only just finalised them back in their apartment when they were having showers. “ Well, we’re going to surf south,” she said truthfully.

“ Really? You’re not flying?”

“ No, we want to surf this time, I don’t want to act like a sponge,” she said, pointing over to Glenys and Ripper, who were holding hands and sipping drinks at the bar.

“ Fair enough,” said Andrew. “ So you’re surfing home, then?”

A direct question. Lisa shifted uncomfortably and then said, not looking at him, “ Sure … so, what about you?”

“ I’m heading on my journey again,” he said simply. “ Now that this court thingy is finished with, and that Lenina is out of the way, I can keep heading for the next town to get my seventh badge. Hopefully we can find a way to ditch Olivia on the way, though …”

Lisa giggled. “ Oh, well … she’s not all that bad …”

“ No, not bad,” Andrew agreed, “ it’s just that her brain cells drop off with each passing minute.”

Lisa hit him and looked around the room in case Olivia had heard, however she had completely disappeared. Across the room, though, Jessica and Gavin were talking happily (again, Lisa had that tiny twinge that told her they were flirting), until suddenly Jessica looked at Gavin in annoyance. “ Hey!” she said to him. “ You didn’t battle me because you didn’t have enough Pokemon!”

Lisa grinned. Gavin had presumably told Jessica about the Seel he caught yesterday; he had been oddly secretive about it even to Lisa, until she found the pokeball under his pillow a few hours ago.

She turned back to Andrew, who was again looking at the mosaic, tilting his head an odd way to look at it. Without warning, Glenys appeared at Lisa’s side and smiled warmly at both her and Andrew.

“ Do you like it?” she said eagerly. “ I made it from the spare tiles when they renovated our old house.”

Andrew didn’t reply, so Lisa took it upon herself to. “ It’s lovely,” she said as graciously as she could. “ Um … what is it, exactly?” She had a feeling that neither of her earlier guesses was right.

Glenys smiled. “ Oh, everyone asks that. You see, it’s the sun on a hot day wearing an akubra hat,” she explained, looking at it affectionately.

Lisa fought the urge to smirk, but lost the battle when she heard Andrew pipe up, “ You know, I see that now, but at first I thought it was an upside down volcano.”

At that moment, a dinging of a spoon on glass resounded through the bar – Olivia had some sort of speech to make, apparently.

“ Everyone, everyone!” she announced eagerly. “ I’ve got gifts for you all,” she continued, pulling up a massive bag from under a table, “ so close your eyes and I’ll give you one!”

Andrew’s eyes reflected Lisa’s sceptical feeling about this, however she good-naturedly closed her eyes and a moment later felt something heavy and spherical drop into her outstretched hands.

“ Open now everyone!”

Lisa opened her eyes quickly and looked down at the thing in her hands. It was an orb – like a magic eight ball – except it was a turquoise colour. Lisa wondered if Olivia was for real – but then again, the ‘effluent’ incident returned to her mind and she decided Olivia was serious.

Olivia was showing Aipom and Spoink their little friendship bands, which Lisa did think was nice, then the girl turned to Lisa.

“ It’s a magic eight ball Lisa!” she said, taking Lisa’s blank look for confusion. “ Ask it a question and it tells the truth! It’s how I answer all my tests at school!”

Oh Dear God, thought Lisa, but she still shook the ball and said, “ Is this gift useless?”

Everyone gave a small laugh, including Olivia; the ball replied with a vague ‘Ask again later’.

Lisa watched as everyone else had their presents explained by Olivia – Andrew had been given black hair dye, Gavin received a green tub of vitamin E cream, Jessica was less than amused to get a personalised doll based on herself, and finally Ripper and Glenys were handed a polaroid camera.

“ To record memories and stuff, so when you go crazy like old people do, you can look at the pictures and remain sane,” she explained to a disapproving Glenys and Ripper.

Olivia appeared unabashed; she grouped everyone together, took three snapshots, and handed one to the old couple, one to Lisa and Gavin, and kept one for herself, Jessica and Andrew. Lisa pocketed the photograph with a small smile – it was one way of remembering the extremely eventful spell in Port Valeo.

*

Unnoticed by Gavin or Aipom, Lisa slipped out of the hotel apartment very early the next morning – at about four am. She knew there would be at least one officer on duty at the Valeo Police Station, and that was all she needed.

At such an early hour, the village was remarkably quiet. Lisa passed through the main street in the semi-darkness, seeing all the places she had become used to – the Berry Boutique, a few cafés, the courthouse down a side street, the Valeo Library, the other shops. Finally, Lisa reached the modern police station and walked in through the sliding glass doors.

“ Lisa, back again?” said a blonde female officer who was behind the front desk – Lisa knew her from the interviews yesterday, her name was Officer Frost.

“ I have to … report a crime,” Lisa said quickly.

Officer Frost swept her scraggly fringe from her tired eyes. “ Sit down,” she said immediately. Lisa did. “ So, is this crime anything to do with what happened yesterday?”

“ Yes, well, I think it is … you see, it happened the other night, Tuesday night actually.” Before she knew it, Lisa had launched right into the story of how her home had been invaded a few nights ago – it seemed much longer ago, but it had been Tuesday night, and it was only Saturday morning now. Officer Frost listened, apologising for her yawns and taking notes. When Lisa finished off by saying how she had not seen Marina since, Officer Frost nodded calmly.

“ I haven’t heard from them since Tuesday,” finished Lisa. “ I haven’t even heard from my brother Tom or his girlfriend, Miki. All I know is that my parents said they had some urgent matters to attend to at work, and that’s all they said.”

Officer Frost looked extremely concerned. “ Lisa, just answer me this – how is it that you have gone over three days with this knowledge and not told any police!? You should have contacted this station as soon as you arrived here in Valeo. Why did you wait?”

“ I – well –” Lisa was cut off as the telephone rang and Officer Frost answered it. Lisa felt dense. She looked down at her hands. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t know why she had been keeping it all to herself. The logical thing, she thought, would have been to tell the police at once. That was obvious. Why hadn’t she?

When she looked up, Officer Frost had the telephone receiver to her ear and was listening to someone shouting frantically from the other end. Officer Frost’s mouth was set in a rigid line.

She slammed the phone down.

“ What is it?” Lisa said, without thinking.

“ I have to go, we have an emergency to the north of town. If you just go down that corridor there you’ll meet Officers Sanderson and West. They’ll listen to your story and keep you safe here in our custody –”

“ What?” Lisa burst out. “ In your custody?”

Officer Frost was gathering up a notebook and a baton from a locked drawer beneath the desk. “ Yes, of course, Lisa,” she said. “ Did you really think we would allow you to go back into the public when such a thing has occurred? We have to hunt down the perpetrators, and keep you safe!”

“ Um, well I think it was Team Rocket,” Lisa said.

Officer Frost glanced at her in a worried way. “ Lisa, what do you mean? Team Rocket was disbanded two months ago,” she said as if it were common knowledge. “ Officers in Dervine captured five men, who were apparently the leaders, and they officially dissolved the force.”

“ But – huh?” Lisa said, her mind bulging with what she had just been told. Team Rocket was dissolved? And Dervine … that’s almost spooky, thought Lisa.

“ I have to go, just stay in this station, ok? Down the corridor, the blue door, Officers Sanderson and West. I have to dash – stay here, Lisa.” Panting heavily, Officer Frost pelted down the corridor and Lisa heard the back door slam.

Lisa stared at the desk. “ Stay here, Lisa,” she mimicked. She grinned rebelliously. “ As if I’d stay here, when so much is happening everywhere else,” she said aloud to herself, and strode back on to the street, completely ignoring Officer Frost’s orders.

*

The ocean water was bitterly cold at five o’clock in the morning. Lisa waded out, her teeth chattering as she stared out to the horizon. A misty streak of pinkish grey was spreading across the sky, too weak to give off much light.

“ Look out for the seaweed!”

The shrill call came from the shore. Lisa turned, her boardies sopping wet and swirling in the water, to see Jessica pointing at the clumps of reddish seaweed. She grinned and gave her friend the thumbs-up; she had already said her goodbyes and exchanged email addresses and phone numbers with Andrew and Jessica.

“ Don’t worry, we will,” Gavin called back, waist-deep in the water. He was pale and looked cold, but he seemed to be fighting the urge to let his teeth chatter; he wanted to look strong in front of everyone.

Lisa looked back at the shore. “ Seeya Jess!” she called back to Jessica. “ Hopefully we’ll kick butt again!”

“ Hell yeah!” Jessica replied happily, smiling to herself as a wave came up from behind Lisa and drenched her from the chest down in icy water. She shivered and Gavin guffawed loudly.

Lisa dismally checked her backpack – it was relatively dry, except for the bottom bit. She waved one more time to Jessica and Andrew and Olivia, then turned to face the vast ocean. Fiskmire was floating in the churning water, his eyes happy to see her again. He had not carried her across the ocean for a long time; it would be fun for all of them to return to the sea. Aipom sat on Fiskmire’s azure back, propped up on one of the squishy cobalt-coloured extrusions, waving goodbye to Olivia’s Spoink on the shore, who waved back.

Gavin leapt onto the back of his newly-caught Seel – Lisa hadn’t even known about it until last night, when he told her abruptly in their apartment. That was when they decided to surf, instead of walk.

Lisa leapt onto Fiskmire’s back happily as Jessica and Andrew called out goodbyes to everyone and waved enthusiastically. Olivia had a delayed reaction. “ See you new people! Oh – and boy with scar! Three times a day! On a hot day, five times!”

Lisa laughed loudly – the first real, hearty laugh she had given in a long time, as Gavin blushed violet.

“ See you guys, travel safe! Don’t run into any more trouble!” called Andrew from the shore, but his words were being drowned out by the growing roar of the waves. Gavin and his Seel floated right alongside Lisa, Fiskmire and Aipom, ready to begin. But Andrew hadn’t finished. “ And don’t run into any more ‘Legendaries’!” he added, yelling.

Lisa and Gavin both turned and shot glares at him, and he appeared to grin, but the ocean had already taken the two of them twenty metres away, so it was difficult to see properly. With a wide, final wave, Lisa and Aipom began moving out to sea at last; Lisa felt the speedy rush of Fiskmire’s body churned quickly through the water as if her were still a Quagsire; he was still an excellent swimmer. Gavin and his ice-white Seel (who looked excited to be in water) were at her side. And they swept off through the turquoise-grey currents, still waving, not looking back.

Lisa smiled to herself. The journey ahead should be interesting, for she was not – as she had pretended to her friends on the shore – going home. She and Gavin were headed to the coastal town of Dervine, back in Johto.

They had a mystery to solve there.