"Aah! Help!"
The little girl was frightened out of her wits, and crying hard with it.
"Rooaar—"
Perhaps goaded by the little girl's crying, the Gyarados went further out of its senses.
Watching that small fleeing shape, the crimson in its eyes grew thicker, and points of starlight gathered before it.
It was charging up the great move of the Gyarados line: Hyper Beam.
The little girl, on the point of getting away, registered the movement behind her, and her pupils went wide as despair welled up in her.
If that Hyper Beam caught her, she was dead beyond a doubt!
"Rooaar, rooaar—"
At the height of its madness something odd came into the Gyarados's eyes, and it turned its head aside toward another direction.
"Whoosh—"
The Hyper Beam fired, tearing off in the direction it was aimed, and there was a great explosion.
"Rumble, rumble—"
The floor shook apart, bricks and stone flying.
The buildings around it, struck like that, were wrecked.
It startled the performers and the audience out in front as well.
"Rumble, rumble!"
The floor shook violently, and cracks appeared in the walls.
"What's going on??"
"What happened?"
"Is somebody attacking the Cerulean Gym again?? And from inside the Gym??"
...............
"Oh no. It's the Gyarados."
Daisy, still in her dancing costume, said it in terror.
That Gyarados was one of the Gym's old Pokémon, of Gym-class strength. Later on it had been caught in a Team Rocket attack and left with lasting damage, and on top of that it had lost its Trainer, and the madness had set in after that. Nobody in their Gym could manage it. Fortunately it did not usually break out and was otherwise normal, so it had been put at the back of the Gym and given a broad stretch of water of its own.
Who could have guessed it would break out now.
"Quickly, notify the city bureau. And we need to get everyone out — wait, where's Misty?"
Daisy said it urgently. This was all she could do at present; what mattered most now was getting her family safe.
That was her first reaction as the eldest sister.
"Oh no. I think Misty went over there."
Violet, one of the group, said it after her.
They exchanged a look, and their faces went white as they remembered.
Oh no!!
Misty had gone over there, and now the Gyarados had gone berserk; put the two together and they could all see where it ended.
"Quickly, we have to get over there."
At that point there was no thinking about the performance, or even about the audience in the hall.
As a Gym Leader it was not good enough, but there was nothing she could do about it just then, irresponsible as it looked.
She snatched up a Poké Ball and ran for where the noise had come from, with Violet and the other behind her.
Misty was family. She could not simply leave her to it, and even facing the Gyarados she made herself go forward.
...............
The churning waves smashed out in every direction.
Several of the building's stone pillars rocked, and under the battering of the waves they came down.
And below them was exactly where the little girl was.
"Rooaar—"
Over there, the Gyarados was still roaring.
She had been watching its movements the whole time and had not noticed the building about to come down over her head.
It was only when grit began to fall that she realised something, and looked up; and what met her eyes were those stone pillars, crashing straight down.
"Boom—"
The pillars came down into the water and threw up a great burst of spray.
"Aah!! I don't want to die! Gyarados are terrifying! I'll never do it again!"
The little girl was struggling, arms and legs flailing, only to find her limbs beating at air — she was no longer in the water — and to find as well that she was being held by the scruff of the neck.
She opened her eyes and saw a handsome youth holding her up, who was at that moment looking at her.
In an instant she stopped struggling, and at quite the wrong moment a feeling of shame rose in her.
The youth was, of course, Vance, who had come running. The first thing he had seen on arriving was her struggling in the water, and seeing how urgent it was he had put out a hand and pulled her clear.
"Rooaar, rooaar—"
Over there, the Gyarados was still roaring. The presence of something stronger seemed to have goaded it further, and its grim, maddened face was turned toward him, energy surging over its body as it charged up a move.
"Rooaar, rooaar—"
A far more resounding roar went up, and a Gyarados of far grander and finer build appeared on the scene.
It went straight up to the other Gyarados, lifted its tail, and brought an Aqua Tail slamming down.
"Smack—"
The blow carried the force of ten thousand men. The maddened Gyarados was struck clean into the air and came crashing down on the far side.
And under that one blow, the crimson in its eyes cleared away.
"Rooaar, rooaar. What class of Gyarados do you think you are, roaring at my Trainer."
Having landed the blow, Gyarados dressed it down at the top of its voice.
Were Gyarados as high and mighty as all that? It was a Gyarados itself and had never heard of it.
When Daisy and the others got there, what they saw was their own Gym's lawless Gyarados sent flying by a single tail-blow from a far more powerful Gyarados that had appeared out of nowhere, and dropped on the far side, where it lay a good long while without getting up.
What was more, after that one blow its madness seemed to have passed off, and it was making no further trouble.
"Phew—" Seeing the situation brought under control, Daisy and the others let out their breath and wiped the sweat from their foreheads.
"The city bureau got here quickly this time. They must take our Gym seriously after all."
Daisy said it, and then thought of Misty, and hurriedly called her two sisters on to search.
"Misty, where are you!"
The Gyarados had quietened down; what had to be settled now was where Misty was.
"So your name is Misty."
Vance gave a soft laugh, looking at the little girl he was holding. He had thought as much — there had been something familiar about her.
So this was Misty. Only she was still a little girl now, and not at all the way she would look in a few years' time.
"Mm..., my name's Misty."
Misty nodded.
He set Misty down on the ground, and by then Daisy and the others had come running up. They saw Vance standing there with a calm expression, of striking presence and wearing a League uniform, and understood that the Gyarados was this man's Pokémon; and looking closely they felt his face was very familiar.
There was no time to think about it. Seeing that Misty was unhurt, they wept for joy and rushed forward to gather her into their arms.
In the ordinary way of things the sisters quarrelled, and looked down on one another, and sniped at one another; but they cared about one another all the same.
"Thank you for saving Misty in time."
After a moment Daisy stood up, came over to Vance and thanked him.
"Mm. She's all right, but you are not. Oh — I mean that your Cerulean Gym is not."