The list of Sen's injuries was so long that by the time the nurse finished explaining them, Hayley had forgotten where she'd started. Fractured ribs, damaged ligaments, bruised everything, a concussion. And he'd still been conscious, after all that. Trying to walk—to fight! Once, at soccer practice, Hayley had taken a ball to the gut hard enough to leave a bruise, and she hadn't felt right for a week. If she'd been hit with all this, she wouldn't have been able to get out of bed for a month.

"And of course, all of this is complicated by his pre-existing injuries…"

Wait, what? Hayley tore her eyes from Sen, his veiny body sedated and unconscious in the healing pod, and stared at the nurse instead. "Pre-existing injuries?"

"Yes, he had a few that were in the process of healing before his run-in with the Graveler." The nurse drummed her fingers against the edge of her tablet. "It's obviously not uncommon for Pokémon to get injured in the wild. When they do, they'll usually retreat and avoid getting into new fights until they're healed, unless they're forced into them. There are always exceptions, though, and the Meditite family in particular are… interesting cases."

"What do you mean?" Hayley asked. The nurse sighed.

"Meditite and Medicham spend their whole lives training to reach their idea of perfection. You know that, right?" Hayley nodded. "For most fighting-types, 'perfection' would be reaching peak physical condition. For psychics, it would be expanding their brains and psionic powers. For the Meditite family, though, those two goals are interlinked. Training their body increases their psychic abilities, and the stronger their psychic abilities grow, the stronger their physical abilities become."

"I've heard about that," Hayley said. "That's supposed to be why they starve themselves and stuff, isn't it? But it doesn't really make sense. If making their bodies stronger makes their brains stronger, wouldn't doing that just make them weaker?"

"That's the thing." The nurse looked over at Sen again and chewed the inside of her lip—a gesture Hayley knew all too well. "Training their bodies doesn't always mean making their bodies stronger. In fact, it usually means the opposite. Meditite and Medicham will starve themselves, train for days without stopping, or fight until they're on the brink of death, in the belief that pushing past their limits and surviving will make them come back stronger. The problem is that it works. A Meditite's power doesn't come from its body—it comes from its aura, or its psyche, or its spirit, or whatever you choose to call it. Its body is just a conduit. As long as it's intact enough to keep them moving around and alive, its physical strength doesn't matter."

Hayley's mind was reeling. "But Riolu and Lucario fight with aura too, and they don't do anything like that." Not that she knew of. There was no way Cynthia's Lucario could be that buff if he didn't take care of his body.

"Not to this degree, no. As far as we know, Meditite and Medicham are the only aura users that take it this far. The main theory is that it's because of their psychic typing, although Gallade have the same typing and none of the same inclinations—there are a number of studies on the subject that you may want to read if you're planning on adding this Meditite to your team." She looked down at Hayley once more. "And if you do add him to your team, you'll need to be careful. A Meditite won't tell you when it's injured. It'll keep pushing itself further and further until it drops dead on the battlefield, or in its sleep. Sen might refuse to eat, or refuse medical care, or try to hurt himself, and it'll be up to you to talk him down. A Meditite will listen to its trainer on matters of health, but only if it respects them. Do you see what I'm telling you?"

"Yes," Hayley whispered. Her throat was dry. This had been way more than she'd bargained for when she'd set out looking for a fighting-type. Why couldn't she have just captured that Machop, or the Timburr?

But she didn't want the Machop or Timburr now. Despite herself, she'd already started envisioning Sen as part of her team. She wanted him to spar with Barrett. She wanted him to teach Ceres how to use her psychic abilities. As the nurse lectured on about the Meditite species' capacity for self-harm, the back of her head was racing to plan what signs she should learn next so that the two of them could have a real conversation—so that he could talk to her, the way he'd done with Amaya.

He wasn't part of her team yet, though. And whether or not he'd join wasn't up to her. In fact, it wasn't even just up to him. Barrett was going to have to approve of it, too.

----------------------------------------

She tried to restrain herself. But the sight of her Magby and Slowpoke standing before her, confused but unharmed, was too much for her to handle. Before she knew what she was doing, she'd dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around both of them in a suffocating hug.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry." Barrett snorted and clawed at her arm—he was not a hugger. Respectfully, regretfully, she sat back and let her arms fall to her sides. Barrett crossed his own arms across his chest, while Ceres just stared. "I'm sorry," she said again, voice growing thick and choked. "Those people, the police, they just took you before I could explain what was happening. I didn't want them to take you. I… Did they treat you okay? Did they hurt you?"

Ceres hummed, and Barrett huffed. He was watching her out of the corner of his eye, the way he always did when he was angry. Like she wasn't worth his full attention. "Amaya blew up the cave, and I had to run, and I didn't have time to let you out and explain what happened before the police showed up. And I'm sure they didn't explain anything, either... I'm sorry."

Every time she said sorry, Barrett's scowl deepened a little further. Apologizing wasn't going to cut it. Even if it had just been for a couple hours, even if it hadn't been her fault, Barrett had been separated from her, found himself in the hands of strangers without warning or explanation. It had to have reminded him of being tossed aside by his old trainers. And it had to have hurt. It would take more than words to make things right.

"I'll make it up to you," she said. "Except for when I'm getting you healed, I won't recall you the rest of the time we're on Dewford. You either, Ceres, unless you faint—you're too heavy to carry." Ceres gave an indignant-sounding grumble at that, and Hayley let out a wet laugh. "It's a good thing. You're growing. So are you, Barrett. I could feel it when I picked you up after the fight with the Machop—you're heavier than you were. A little bigger, too."

Barrett lost some of his edge at that—he was intrigued. Inspired, Hayley pulled out her Pokédex, flipped it open, and went to his scan history. "Yeah. In the time I've had you, Barrett, you've grown two inches and put on five pounds. Ceres, you're the same size, but eight pounds heavier." Barrett scoffed, but she didn't miss the way he stuck his chest out a little further. Ceres hummed again and shuffled forward, bumping Hayley's leg with her head. Hayley smiled and reached down to pet her. "I'm proud of both of you, you know? The work you've done. You're stronger than you were a month ago, and a month from now, you'll be even stronger. Barrett, two months from now, I think you might even be ready to evolve."

Barrett's head snapped up, and he sprang to his feet. Smoke leaked from his beak as he began crossing his arms over and over again—fight. Fight. Fight!

Hayley laughed again, and it came out stronger this time. "Calm down. Two months is still a while from now. It's as long as all the time we've already spent training, and then a little more." Barrett, unperturbed, signed fight once more. Hayley gave in. "Okay, okay. It's too late in the day for us to start looking for trainer battles, but maybe we can find some Wingull for you two to bother." Barrett's snout wrinkled at that. "What? You're the one who said you wanted to fight. Don't tell me you're scared of a few water-types."

The little jab worked like a charm. Barrett huffed, turned, and began running towards the beach as fast as his short little legs would carry him. Hayley raced after him, and Ceres trundled behind them both.

They would discuss Sen later. Right now, she wanted to enjoy having Barrett and Ceres back with her.

----------------------------------------

"Are you ready?"

Hayley and Miriam stood on the beach with Barrett and Xena between them. Ceres was a safe distance away, dozing in the sand. Unlike all the other times they'd stood like this, they weren't preparing for a battle—at least, not with each other. Miriam was holding Yuna's Pokéball in front of her, clenched so tightly that her knuckles had gone white. It was like she thought the ball itself might snap open and bite her.

Getting face to face with an unwilling capture for the first time was always risky business. And Yuna had already tried to bite three different nurses during her intake checkup, which didn't bode well. Howie was back at Dewford Cave today—it had been closed to the public in the aftermath of Amaya's stunt, but the rangers were working double shifts trying to mitigate the damage she'd caused and search for other signs of sabotage. So they were on their own.

"I think I'm going to throw her over there," Miriam said, pointing at a spot a few yards away. "Xena, prep a thunder wave. If she runs—either at us or away from us—hit her as hard as you can and I'll call her back."

"If she runs, maybe you should let her go," Hayley ventured. Miriam turned to stare at her. "I mean, not let her go here, but give her to the rangers so they can put her back in Granite Cave."

"No way. I told you, she's got to make me back enough money so I can buy another Gameboy."

"The rangers already paid you almost enough to buy one, though."

"That doesn't count. She needs to make me that money. It's the principle of the thing—she can't just screw with me and get off scot-free."

"If it's about principles, then my principle is that I want to keep all my limbs attached to my body."

"You're just scared," Miriam said. Hayley pulled a face.

"She tried to bite off that nurse's entire arm! You're scared too."

"No I'm not. Pokémon can smell fear, right? So I'm not scared." As if that settled it, she tightened her grip on the ball, took in a deep breath, and faced the spot she'd pointed out before. "Xena, get ready. I'm throwing on the count of three. One, two—three!"

The ball landed slightly to the left of where Miriam had apparently been aiming—her throwing arm left something to be desired. There was a pop, a flash, and a moment later, Yuna the Mawile was standing before them.

She wasn't much bigger than Barrett or Xena, if you didn't count the giant horn-slash-jaw sprouting from her head. With her horn, she dwarfed them. And unlike Barrett and Xena, she looked solid enough to knock Hayley off her feet if she decided to charge. She didn't look about to charge, though. She stood perfectly still, looking up at all of them.

"Listen up," Miriam said. She crossed her arms—maybe to look authoritative, but more likely to keep her fingers out of easy reach. Hayley quickly followed her example. "You ate my Gameboy, and you're going to pay me back. And since you're a Pokémon, and Pokémon don't have money, you're going to do it by beating up whatever trainers I tell you to so I can take their money. Got it?"

"The trainers' Pokémon," Hayley cut in. "Not the actual trainers."

"Whatever. The point is, you're going to fight for me. And if you complain about it, I'm just going to make you fight more."

That was… a cruel way to put it. Hayley was pretty sure that Miriam was just posturing to look tough in front of her new catch. If she wasn't, well, they could have words about it later. Maybe Hayley would lie and say that the League would fine her if she was too mean, or something.

Yuna, for her part, watched Miriam with wide-eyed attention throughout her entire speech. When Miriam fell silent, she tilted her head, blinked, and raised a tiny hand to her mouth. "Weh?"

"Ugh. Do you even understand me? I said you're mine now, okay? And from now on, you have to do what I say."

Yuna blinked again, and then, abruptly, her entire face crumpled. She collapsed to her knees, lifted her face to the sky, and broke into long, loud, racking sobs. Miriam froze mid-insult and, after a moment, glanced back at Hayley. But Hayley was just as lost as she was. At their feet, Xena stilled her arms and let her spark fizzle out, and Barrett rolled his eyes and sighed.

"It's probably a trick," Miriam said. Hayley wasn't so sure. Those were real tears rolling down the Mawile's cheeks, and she looked just as miserable as the little Timburr had.

"Maybe you shouldn't have been so mean," she suggested.

"I wasn't being mean. I was establishing dominance. Howie said I should do that."

"I don't think this is what he meant."

Miriam gritted her teeth and turned back to Yuna. "Hey! Quit crying! I know this is a trick you're pulling, and I'm not falling for it."

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

But Yuna continued to wail. Hayley was seconds away from breaking and walking over to comfort her herself when Xena beat her to it. The Elekid took a cautious step forward, then another. "Careful," Miriam muttered. Xena didn't even look at her—it was the first time Hayley had ever seen her ignore her trainer. Slowly, she inched closer and closer to Yuna, and when she was within arm's reach, she held out a hand.

The horn swung forward before any of them had time to shout a warning. It smacked hard into Xena and sent her rolling across the sand. In the blink of an eye, Yuna sprang upright, her sobs transforming into a shrill giggle. Then she raced towards where Xena had fallen.

"Fuck! Xena!" Miriam tried to recall Yuna, but the Mawile was too quick. Barrett scrambled to his feet and charged, either in defense of Xena or because he didn't want to miss out on the fight.

"Feint forward!" Hayley shouted. "Fire spin!" Barrett ghosted forward and reached Yuna just as Yuna tackled the prone Xena, but Yuna smacked him away with her jaw before he could complete his attack. Miriam shouted a stream of curses and raced towards the three of them. As she tried to activate Yuna's ball again, Yuna swung her horn in a sharp arc, and a gust of glittering wind cut through the air and knocked Miriam back. Barrett, back on his feet again, breathed a ribbon of fire and sent it spiraling towards Yuna. Just before it hit, Yuna opened her jaw wide and roared. It was a horrible, guttural sound that had no business coming from a Pokémon that had looked so innocent just moments ago. Xena screamed in fear, and even Barrett staggered back, his flame winking out.

Hayley's body filled with cold, numbing dread. Was she about to see Xena die? Miriam staggered upright, holding Yuna's ball out for one last attempt—

And then, just as abruptly as she'd started the fight, Yuna stopped it. She hopped off of Xena, shut her slavering jaw tight, and fixed her gaze on Miriam again. Then, she crossed her arms across her chest, the same way Miriam had done while speaking.

"Weh," she said decisively.

Miriam, for once, didn't have a response. She stared at Yuna, slack-jawed and wide-eyed, as she fumbled with her ball and nearly dropped it. At last, she managed to activate it, and the beam found its mark. Yuna disappeared into red light.

"Fuck." Her voice was hoarse, and, alarmingly, she grabbed at her stomach as she spoke. "Xena, are you okay?" Xena gave a quiet, shaky chirp.

"Are you okay?" Hayley asked, nearly skidding into Miriam in her haste to reach her. "Your stomach—she hit you?"

Miriam scrunched up her face and lifted the hem of her shirt—Legend of Zygarde again today, though this one had a Celebi playing a blue flute instead of the Politoed and the legendary birds. There was no blood, Hayley was relieved to see; just a long, red abrasion that looked like a nasty case of rugburn. "I'm fine," she said, haltingly, as though she barely believed it herself. "But… What the fuck. What was that?"

Hayley looked at the Pokéball that was once again clenched in Miriam's white-knuckled grip. She'd heard that fairy-types could be temperamental and prone to violent outbursts that came out of nowhere. Was that what this was?

Then again, it hadn't really been out of nowhere. Miriam had provoked Yuna first—Yuna had just responded. Miriam had tried to bully her, and Yuna had bullied her right back.

"Uh." Hayley rubbed the back of her neck and looked down at the ground, fighting away the urge to say I told you this was a bad way to do it. "I think she might have been establishing dominance."

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Having one badge under her belt meant that the Pokédex's automatic match call feature had started pairing Hayley against stronger trainers. Still, she wasn't doing too badly—she won two out of every three fights with Barrett, and about half her fights with Ceres. It was just above breaking even, just enough to keep herself in potions and Pokéblock treats without dipping into her savings from Rustboro. That was good; it meant she should have enough to pay for a week of classes at Brawly's gym, maybe two. It wasn't as much as she wanted, though. What she wanted was enough to start looking at technical machines.

Even the cheapest TMs were out of her price range for now. If she improved her win rate by just a little bit, though, and socked away the winnings to add to the prize money she'd get when she (hopefully, eventually) beat Brawly, she'd have enough to buy a single-use protect TM for Ceres. Being able to block attacks instead of just tank them would increase her survivability by a ton and make her an actual threat in battle. Teaching her to use the move would be tricky, but Connie also wanted to teach it to Marcie, so while they were in Slateport, they planned to have both Pokémon learn it together. And Clarissa's Snorunt already knew protect, Connie had said, so if they really needed to, they could ask her for some help—though neither of them was really fond of that idea.

Similarly, when she (ultimately, ideally) beat Brawly, Hayley was going to pick detect as her prize TM and teach it to Barrett. Barrett would probably be disappointed she wasn't giving him something that could shatter mountains, but cross chop and whatever techniques they could learn at the gym would hold them over offensively for a while. She wanted to improve his defense, and the way she envisioned it, combining detect with feint attack and smog would make it almost impossible for his opponents to land a hit on him. Meditite learned detect naturally, so Sen could help Barrett master the move when he (maybe, finally) joined her team. For Sen himself, she had the rock tomb TM she'd picked from Roxanne. It was an amazing and versatile move, but unfortunately, neither Ceres nor Barrett could learn it. Most fighting types could, which had been part of why she'd wanted one so badly.

With her team coming into focus, Hayley couldn't help but fantasize about the glorious future they all had ahead of them. But her mother had always told her not to count her Pidgey before they hatched. And she was reminded of that lesson with a metaphorical punch to the gut when, a few days after Granite Cave, she stopped by the Center to drop off Barrett and Ceres and check on Sen, only to be told that Sen was gone.

According to the nurse, the moment they'd eased up on Sen's sedation, he'd woken up and requested to be discharged. Hayley, slackjawed, asked, "He can do that?"

"He can. If a Pokémon doesn't belong to a trainer and is able to make their wishes known, then we as medical professionals have to respect them, the same as a doctor would do for a human patient."

Hayley cast another wild glance at the now-empty healing pod. "Why didn't you message me? I would've come and gotten him."

"You're not registered as his trainer, and he didn't request you. It wasn't protocol to bring you in." Hayley bit her lip and looked down at the floor.

"Does this mean he's recovered, at least?" But she knew the answer even before the nurse shook her head.

"He's recovered enough that he can manage light activity without endangering himself. But I wouldn't say he's recovered, no—not fully. Ideally, we would have wanted to hold him for a few more days. On his own, it'll be a few weeks or more before he's back to a hundred percent, assuming he lets himself heal at all."

At that, Hayley could only hang her head lower. "I wish you would've called me," she said in a small voice.

The nurse lifted her hand, hesitated, and then put it gently on Hayley's shoulder. "There's nothing we can do now except hope he keeps healing. And, keep your eyes out. I'm sure he knew you were interested in adding him to your team. If he's interested in joining you, he'll manage to find you again."

And he did. He found her that exact same day, in fact, on the beach, as Hayley was running Barrett and Ceres through their drills.

The sand was staked erratically with tent poles, each of which had a battered tennis ball on top—improvised targets. At the moment, though, they weren't seeing any use. Hayley was kneeling down next to Ceres, and Barrett stood beside them both. "Let's go over it again," she said. Ceres blinked at her slowly, dimly. "So, when you create water, like when you use your water gun, you should be able to feel the water for a bit like it's still part of your body. And you should be able to move it, just like you can move your legs or your tail. Can you wiggle your tail for me?" Ceres obligingly flicked her tail against the sand. "Good! Now, when you use water gun, you're going to pretend the water is just like your tail, and you're going to move it. Barrett, can you show her again?"

Barrett gave a long-suffering sigh, but Hayley knew he wasn't really bothered. He loved being reminded he could do something better than Ceres could. He huffed a small ball of flame and caught it between his hands at it detached from his snout, letting it bob gently in midair.

"Great! You're really good at that." A little flattery never hurt. Barrett lifted his chin and expanded the flame to twice its size, though she caught his brow furrowing deeper as he did so. It wasn't quite as easy for him as he wanted it to seem. "Now, Ceres, can you do that? Give me a tiny water gun, but instead of letting it hit the ground, keep the water floating in front of you."

Ceres thought it over for a moment, as deep in concentration as Barrett, before opening her mouth and gurgling out a stream of water. She squinted her eyes just like Barrett had done—but to no avail. The water fell and disappeared into the sand.

"Okay, good effort." Barrett scoffed, and she nudged him pointedly. She'd already warned him that he wasn't getting any Pokéblocks tonight if he was mean to Ceres. "Give it one more try?"

Ceres screwed up her face again and spat another trickle into the air. It arced gently, and—nope. It fell to the ground just like all the others. Ceres bellowed in frustration, and Hayley patted her head.

"Hey, it's all right. You tried really hard, and you made great progress." They hadn't actually made any progress, but again—flattery and encouragement could only help. Sure enough, Ceres relaxed under her touch and nuzzled her hand. "Let's go back to regular water guns for now, and we'll try water pulse again tomorrow."

It was a little early for Ceres to be learning water pulse. But they had no TM moves or psychic techniques to fall back on, and Hayley wanted something more than water guns and headbutts up her sleeve when she fought Brawly. At this rate, though, they'd be all the way in Slateport by the time Ceres figured out how to make a single ring of water.

For all his posturing, Barrett's fire spin wasn't coming along great either. The instinct for fire manipulation had come easily to him, but despite two and a half weeks of practice, his control was still sloppy, slow, and took all of his focus. If he had fighting-type heritage like Hayley suspected, then that might have been holding him back—there were always tradeoffs when a Pokémon was sired by a species outside their own, and stunted flame control as an exchange for Barrett's impressive physical strength made sense. But whatever genetic limitations he had, Hayley was sure he'd find a way to overcome them eventually. He just loved fire that much.

"Ceres, let's do some target practice again. Hit that ball with the blue dot as many times as you can." She pointed at a sad, soggy tennis ball over on the right. "And Barrett, keep your fire spin going and run to the red ball and back. I'll time you." That ball was so scorched that the red dot of paint was barely visible.

She ran them through a series of exercises, mixing them up so they didn't get bored. Aside from target practice and running to and from the poles, she had them practice dodging and intercepting with the soccer ball, which she finally felt comfortable kicking at them rather than alongside them. She had them do strength exercises—squats and push-ups and sit-ups for Barrett, leg lifts and crunches for Ceres. She had Barrett weave his fire spin through the tent poles like a long-range slalom course, and had Ceres push against her to try and drive her back. They did breathing and stamina exercises, trying to spit jets of fire and water for as long as they could, and dragging bags of sand across the ground. As much as she could, Hayley tried to do the same things they did. She ran alongside them when they ran, did sit-ups and push-ups and leg lifts like they did, dragged sandbags adjusted for her own weight. She wanted to show them that even if she couldn't fight in a Pokémon battle, she wasn't just going to sit on the sidelines and let them do all the work. She was a part of this, too.

Also, Barrett seemed to double down and train just a little harder whenever she outperformed him. She was going to take advantage of that while she still could.

The sun was dipping lower in the sky, signaling the end of their training, when Hayley felt a familiar pressure on the back of her skull. She froze in place and swiveled around, scanning the dunes, and there he was. Sen. He sat cross-legged, levitating slightly above the ground. He was posed as if in meditation, but his eyes were open. He was watching her.

Barrett saw what she was looking at, dropped what he was doing, and ran in front of her with a snarl. In response, Sen floated to his feet with a motion like he was getting off an invisible chair. "Stop," Hayley said, with enough force that Barrett actually halted. Could the two of them really think about nothing but fighting? "I want to talk to him first." To Sen, she said, "How are you doing? The Center said you weren't healed all the way yet."

He looked mostly healed. The bruises that had sprung up over his body had mostly faded, and he wasn't holding himself like he was in pain. But from what the nurse had told her, she knew that whatever injuries he did still have, he was going to hide them. She expected him to shrug or scoff at the question like Barrett would, but instead, he just stared, like he was peeling away her skin with his eyes. Hayley shuddered. "I guess I understand why you left? I don't really like hospitals, either."

Sen wasn't in the mood for conversation. Or maybe this conversation was just boring him. He turned from her, looked again at Barrett, and raised his hands into a fighting stance. Hayley balked. "Wait. Hang on. The two of you..."

She couldn't stop them from fighting, she realized. Not without recalling Barrett, which would piss both of them off and break her promise. She'd kept saying later, you'll fight later, and now it was later. They were going to fight.

She looked over her shoulder at Ceres, hoping she would come in and break the tension again, but the Slowpoke was stretched out on the sand, basking in the sun. She watched all of them intently, but made no move to join them. Hayley swallowed. "All right. You can fight. But. Barrett, no close-range fire spins. And Sen, maybe don't do that... that fist-exploding move you used on the Graveler." Force palm, probably. If it could crack a Graveler, she didn't want to imagine what it might do to Barrett's bones.

Sen had no reason to listen to her—she wasn't his trainer. She felt the weight of his gaze on her again before he even turned his head. "It's a compromise," she said. "When you're better, and when we've beat Brawly, neither of you will have to hold back. But right now, I don't want either of you to get seriously hurt when you have a rematch coming up against that Mienfoo and you don't want to go to the Pokemon Center." She nodded at Barrett and Sen in turn. Barrett was scowling, and Sen's displeasure radiated off him in waves. She sighed. "Barrett, I'm not rescheduling our match if you get stuck in the Center for a week. I'll have Ceres fight Drew's Mienfoo instead. Is that what you want?" Barrett swiveled to face her again, spat fire at the ground, and stomped his feet in indignation. "Then you both have to be careful. If you can't accept that, then you can't fight."

Barrett hunched his shoulders and crossed his arms. Sen kept staring. And then, finally, he gave the tiniest of nods. A concession to her terms. A concession to communication. Hayley let out the breath she'd been holding. "Okay. No close-up fire spins, no force palms. Barrett, do you want me to give you battle commands?" Barrett shook his head. "All right. Then good luck."

Both Pokemon squared off on the sand. Sen took a wide-legged stance and clenched his fists at his sides. Barrett crouched down like a sprinter at the starting line, inhaling deep breaths. For a while, both of them just observed each other. Then, Barrett moved. He darted forward and disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappeared behind Sen, and landed a cross chop on the Meditite's back. Sen tilted forward, absorbing the blow, then reached around and grabbed Barrett by the shoulders. He threw him to the side, and before he landed, drove his fists into Barrett's stomach—though there was no flash of aura, Hayley noted with relief. Barrett landed hard on the sand and twisted to right himself, but Sen was already coming in for another hit. He interrupted it by spitting a cloud of embers directly into Sen's face. Ascetic or no, Sen couldn't ignore embers in his eyes, and stopped in his tracks to swipe them away. Barrett saw his chance and lurched forward again—then froze and and was flung backwards by an invisible force. Sen had knocked him away with a confusion attack without even needing to see him. Now recovered, Sen dove at Barrett and brought his fists down once more. Barrett choked and gasped as the wind was knocked out of him. Before he could even catch his breath, Sen spun and kicked him in the chest. Barrett toppled over, and didn't get back up.

Sen looked once more at Hayley, as though asking if she had another fighter to send out. Hayley was reminded uncomfortably of the Machop on the beach. She swallowed. "Uh. That's all we have for now. But... we train here on this beach every afternoon. If you come back tomorrow, we can give you a rematch?"

Sen stared, and she didn't know whether it was in scorn or agreement.