The girls wander out of the Hospital as the tour continues.

Jess eventually realises that her little pup isn’t following behind and starts to head back.

“It’s fine Jess, let him watch the Doctor work. He seemed very interested. On that note I'd like to brief you on why we are doing this tour right now.”

The girls turn around and stare at the Professor. Anna quickly pipes up.

“Obviously you want to put us to work.”

Jess has a blank look on her face as clearly she did not realise this was the case. However, it makes far more sense now considering the crash course introduction to what each and every trainer/professional was doing.

“I guess I don’t need to explain then. Any idea what you would like to do Anna?”

Anna takes no time at all and asks to work with the patrol team. “Ahh, well I’m sure we can arrange for that to be done. There are far more risks especially when you don’t have a very strong Pokémon, however, we believe in tempering oneself in the crucible of fire.”

Anna smiles and adds “It’s also a great way to capture more Pokémon and train myself to be stronger.”

Jess gets a spark of inspiration and asks if she would be able to join the aerial scouting group. “Well I’d like to say yes, however you need a Pokémon that you can fly first. I’d say maybe start with the regular patrol team, although I don’t think they will want two risks.”

Anna thinks again “How about she joins the researchers and helps them in their work when we go to explore? She can still discover and train whilst being relatively safe and helpful?”

“That’s a great idea Anna, let's do that. I’ll put in the suggestion right away and see what the decision is, let's continue our tour for now. I’ll take you to talk to the ACE trainers and the research division.”

The group heads higher up towards the ROOSTING area of the Avian Pokémon. Some trainers can be spotted tending to their birds and the Professor quickly gets the attention of one of them and asks for an introduction into what their duties and responsibilities are.

“Hi girls, I hear one of you might be interested in joining our team. First off, you need to not have a fear of heights, going super fast or riding a Pokémon. Problems?”

Jess “None, don’t threaten me with a great time. Sounds like fun!”

“Since you currently don’t have a Pokémon that can fly, one of the members can take you out on a brief sighting around the route of the boat if you would like.”

“Yippee!!”

Jess runs up to the nearest and largest Avian, a heavyset Corviknight who takes a snap at her for running too close without permission. Her trainer quickly calms the big bird brain.

“Easy there Corv, she means no harm. We're just going to take her for a ride to show her why bird Pokémon is the best.

“CAWWW”

With permission granted, the bird allows Jess to mount up with her ridiculous oversized riding jacket, tight fitting goggles and a cap with some cute Pikachu stickers slapped onto it.

The trainer ensures the harness is properly fitted and the bird launches off the boat and gains altitude into the sky above.

“Holy Shitttttt. Woooooooooohoooooo”

Wind buffets Jess’s face as her open mouth gets blasted into funny shapes, flapping like a cape in the wind.

Corviknight breaks through the sparse cloud with fluffy wisps trailing behind him as he hovers momentarily. Before Jess can catch her breath and appreciate the view above the clouds, the Avian dives and plummets back down through the cloud at breakneck speeds.

Before they hit the surface of the water, the bird quickly opens his wings and then rockets along just above the surface of the water.

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“Haha, good bird. Don’t wear yourself out, time to start our patrol.”

With that, they gain altitude and fly further away from the ship at a more moderate pace. The trainer points out various sights and what to look for such as dark shadows in the water, or storm clouds.

He describes the type of clouds to look out for (Cumulonimbus). They continue on for a while and then head back towards the boat as the young man explains how to navigate using a compass.

Jess is dutiful and continues to keep her eyes out for any of the potential threats. That is when she notices shadows above them but no clouds in the sky. The sun blocks her vision of what is above.

“Um, excuse me sir but I think we have something or things above us.”

The trainer notices too and swears loudly. “SHIT, CORVIKNIGHT evasive action!”

The bird banks hard to the left as a large metallic object dives past where they were just moments before.

A frustrated screech can be heard from below, a sound like metal scraping against metal.

Jess can make out a gleaming object before the Corviknight dodges again as moving metallic objects spear past them.

“Make for the boat! I’ll radio in that we are expecting some unwelcome guests.”

The bird squawks in the affirmative and Jess can see that there is damage to his left wing.

The angry looking flock of birds give chase and start flinging metal feathers in their direction.

The trainer behind her grimaces in pain and clangs can be heard upon impact on the armour of the Corviknight.

With the ship in sight, more of the avian squad converges on their location to try to provide backup. This however just seems to infuriate the Skarmories ever more.

Aerial combat ensues as some continue to chase the injured Corviknight whilst others break off and start to dog fight with the arriving squad.

Jess watches in horror and one unlucky rider and his Pidgeot gets slammed from both sides. The bird's wings fold like paper as it plummets downwards only to be caught by a group of the Skarmory and both the trainer and the Pokémon are torn to shreds.

Various ranged abilities fly from the boat to hit the approaching hostiles. Some plummet down into the waters and from the look of blood in the water, there seems to be hungry creatures attracted by the commotion making the most of the opportunity.

The Corviknight unceremoniously crashes onto the deck, the harness shredded and throwing Jess clear whilst the unlucky trainer gets his leg crushed under his Pokémon before it can be recalled.

He is quickly dragged away by some other trainers whilst an ACE goes to check up on Jess.

“You okay Jess?”

“Jeffrey, Behind you!”

Jess watches in horror as some of the few pursuing Skarmory attempt to skewer the distracted trainer.

He is impaled and dragged off into the sky screaming. Blood gushing from his still opened mouth.

A blast of heat from an Arcanine causes the bird to drop its prey. However, the trainer is heavily injured as well as burned.

Lightning comes flashing down from the skies as Pikachu on the shoulder of Jonathan Ketchum appears. More and more Pokémon are summoned from their pokéballs as a literal swarm of powerful creatures respond to defend their trainers and the ship.

A Skarmory zeroes in on Sparky, looking for an easy meal before she escapes. However, a blast of thunder from the little fish leaves the bird injured and downed. The Carvanha however is heavily damaged from her own attack and bits of her flesh look heavily charred.

The angry bird rushes at Jess instead, attempting to acquire her piece of flesh. She sprints towards the helpless girl as the bird charges up a powerful drill peck.

The Arcanine jumps between the two only to be heavily injured by the attack. The dog bites, scratches and fires flame breath at the furious metal bird. The bird in turn continues to scratch, peck and claw at the dog until they both collapse.

The dog is content he has won and drags his injured body over to the still smoking trainer that he tried to protect earlier. It whimpers, licks his trainer one last time and then collapses onto his side. His final resting place alongside his lifelong friend.

Tears stream down Jess’s face as she watches the remaining flock of Skarmory quickly escape into the cloud. The Avian squad was too concerned with the condition of the expedition members to give chase. They were also exhausted and heavily injured.

An angry black Charizard stands atop a small pile of dismembered Skarmory bodies, with scratches and stray metal feathers sticking out from his flesh.

Anna runs up to Jess and scoops her up in a big hug “I was so scared for you! They wouldn’t let me come fight… I'm so angry and frustrated! Are you okay?!”

Jonathan looks to the girls “Anna, take Jess to nurse Joy to get looked at.”

Kabu roars “I want double the watch, and who thought it was a good idea to go on patrol with only a single Trainer and Pokémon!”

Having said that, he knows that the outcome would have been the same even with another trainer and they would potentially have another fatality on their hands.

As the girls head towards the interior of the ship, Jess stops beside the downed trainer and his dog. “My Heroes, thank you.”