Gold's POV

"Eevee you need to get in your pokeball!" I yell over the thrashing waves and thundering clouds.

I make out her big worried eyes through the water pouring down my face. Unfortunately I don't have a free hand to wipe the water out of my eyes.

Eevee disappears into my duffel bag and a brief flash of light indicates that she listened. I zip the bag up the best I can with one hand and hold on to the raft as tight as i can.

I've already washed up on one beach in Elemente, I'd love to not do that again.

Even with my amnesia, I remember hating the water. I'm going to have a straight up phobia after this.

Green's not going to hear the end of this.

If I ever see her again.

Or Ash. Or Serena. Or my mom.

Granted she probably thinks I'm already dead.

"Ahh!"

I nearly slip off the raft distracted by my thoughts.

I wrap both arms around the mast, holding it for literally my dear life.

My eyes shut, partly because of the rain and partly because of the seasickness settling in. I feel my body weight shift with each wave, trying to keep my body upright.

My stomach flips.

But not just my stomach. Water goes up my nose as I presumably hang in the air upside down. It's over.

The mast slips out of hands and--

Darkness

Serena's POV

"Well that wasn't particularly close," I comment as Eric's battle comes to a close.

The crowd erupts in cheers as the Water District Leader waves to the crowd. He's certainly loved by the people here.

Someone brings the brunette a microphone and he addresses the crowd. Large spotlights shine on him, making it look like it's not late in the evening.

"My winning streak continues!" He boasts and everyone goes crazy. "You guys know what that means!"

People in their brightly coloured bikinis and bathing suits start jumping around and yelling. Ash and I look at each other and I mouth "What is going on?" to him.

Not sure I could yell above the crowd right now.

"It's time to party!" He cheers and heads out of the stadium.

Everyone heads towards the exits and we make the smart decision to stay in our seat and avoid getting crowd crushed. It goes from a rager to an empty stadium pretty quick. 

We climb up to the top of rock carved seats. Over the edge we watch a river of people move towards that large stage we walked by.

There's already a band playing, the music echoes across the flat beach. In a region with so much turmoil, it's kind of weird seeing this.

"It's like we're in some fantasy land," I say to Ash.

"Welcome to Los Lumeles," Green jokes and joins us. "This is the Capital's party city."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"This is one of the only places people in the Capital can travel to freely," She explains. "Almost everyone down there lives in the Capital. Or they have a condo here."

Bright white and blue spotlights dart all over, occasionally catching our eyes from all the way over here. This city may never sleep.

"Eric invited us to join the party," Green eyes the stage. 

"He wants us to join that?" I point to the hundreds of people down there.

"Yea I'm not too sure either," Green matches my uneasiness.

"Come on guys," Ash smiles. "It looks like everyone is having a lot of fun."

"You're right," I nod. "Let's go."

We walk our way along the beach. It's still fairly warm without the sun, but a crisp breeze rolls in with the waves. I was expecting to see some stars in the sky but I guess the light pollution from the city is hiding them all.

With each step closer, the music gets louder. My ears are already telling me to get out of there. Party music hits like a wave with each beat drop.

"Are we overdressed?" I yell to Green as we reach the edge of the crowd.

"Seems that way," She laughs.

We should've prepared for a beach party I guess.

"You made it!" Eric appears out of the crowd and immediately swoops up Green into a hug. "Isn't this great?!"

"So great! Green answers even though I'm not sure she means it.

"This is every night in Los Lumeles!" He has a big, maybe slightly drunk grin on his face. "Come on!"

He pulls the brunette girl deep into the crowd, never to be seen again. We try to follow but the sea of people didn't part for us.

Ash is pretty adaptable to any situation but I can tell he's a little uncomfortable. After a few more minutes of trying to get used to the music and turning down multiple drink offerings, we make some distance.

"That was not as fun as it looks!" Ash yells even though it's a bit quieter on this side of the beach.

His voice continues the ringing in my ears and I hold my hands over them to give them a break. "Sorry," He says in a softer tone.

"No I agree," I shake my head. "Not my crowd at least."

"Should we head back to Green's place?"

"I don't really want to leave her behind," I eye the party that will likely go until morning.

Ash leans back on the bench. "Okay," He smiles and puts an arm along the back of the bench. "at least she's with Eric."

I lean back, allowing his arm to wrap around me. "That's what I'm afraid of."

We watch the waves roll in. Not quite quiet because of the music but still relaxing. It would be a nice sight to see Gold roll in with one of the waves.

I still feel kind of bad leaving him on his own. "Do you think Gold's going to be okay?"

"Of course he will be," Ash pulls me closer.

"Travelling alone is hard though. Let alone having to cross a lake in a region you've never been too."

 "He has his Pokemon with him. Eevee will take care of him."

"I guess that's true," I giggle. "I never really had to travel alone, what's it like?"

"Pikachu and I don't exactly have much experience with that either," He shrugs. "One of our only days travelling alone ended with Pikachu on a Pokemon Center hospital bed."

"That's comforting," I roll my eyes.

"He'll be fine," Ash grabs one of my free hands. "Gold does have the superpower thing going for him."

"True."

Raindrops start to fall out of the sky and in true tropical fashion, it doesn't take long to become a downpour. The music becomes drowned out by the rain and the crowds of people start to disperse.

"Let's go find Green!"

I grab Ash's hand and we run towards the stage. We hold Ash's jacket above us like an umbrella. The sand quickly becomes a soupy mud under our feet and it's hard to make any figures out through the rain.

"Serena!"

Our heads turn to see Green trudging her way towards us. The wind also picked up and it's nearly blowing her over.

She leads us back onto the streets of Los Lumeles and the skyscrapers offer a little more protection from the storm. Waterfalls of rainwater pour of the tops and onnings of the buildings like a water park.

Luckily the city is built for this type of rain and there's lots of sewers to keep the road from flooding. We follow the drenched brunette to the condo building.

"Wow," I catch my breath, water dripping off my face.

"Spontaneous tropical storm," The Elemente native sighs. "I'm glad I found you guys."

"Same here," Ash wrings out his jacket in the lobby. He gets a small glare from the receptionist.

"Where's Eric?" I ask.

"Don't know," She shrugs. "We got separated at the party and it took me forever to make it out. Anyway let's go get some rest."

"Gold should be here tomorrow."

Gold's POV

Ugh, this is a crazy headache.

I can't even open my eyes it hurts so much.

I must've forgot my pillow last night or picked a better spot to camp.

Where did we camp?

I really can't remember.

I've already gotten amnesia once, I can't do this again.

No I can remember my Mom this time. She would always get headaches, usually because of my sister's antics. 

Wait sister? That's new.

Kinda forgot about her I guess. I can't remember her name but I can make out her face.

She's a bit younger, always had her brunette hair in pigtails. She must miss me too. Unless she's relishing being an only child now.

I could see her doing that.

A blinding light starts to mix with the darkness. After trying to blink so many times that my face starts to ache, I can finally see a clear picture again.

I try to sit up and take in the view but my head and body are locked in place. I strain my eyes in all directions to see what's holding me back.

Thankfully I'm not chained to the bed like a criminal. It's some sort of cast system to keep my body in place.

"Ahh!" I yelp.

On cue, my nervous system gets going again and pain surges through my body. I stay still for a few seconds and the pain subsides.

My jaw relaxes and I take a deep breath. What happened?

After a few minutes of staring at the greenish blue ceiling, I hear footsteps approach.

"You're awake?!" A woman's voice exclaims and her footsteps quicken.

 It's probably not a good thing she sounds surprised.

She looks over the bed and into my limited range of vision. The woman has sparkling blue eyes, tan skin, and long braided turquoise hair. A necklace of sea shells dangles over me.

She flashes a light in my eye and I recoil, trying to turn my head to the side but I can't. "Hey!" I try to yell but it comes out coarse and quiet.

"Sorry," She laughs it off. "I don't get many patients."

What does that mean?

"Whe- Where am I?" I ask.

"That's a complicated question," She responds.

I didn't think it was that complicated.

"I'll be right back," She says the room goes quiet again.

What if this is a Triton hospital and I walked right in? One run through the system and they'll know what's up.

The footsteps return except louder. Here come the military police to arrest me.

"How about you let our patient sit up?" I deep voice asks but it felt like a demand.

"We don't know the extent of his brain injury," The woman from earlier says. "It may not be safe yet."

"He seems fine," The voice waves her off and I feel the cast to loosen and the bed start to fold up.

A brain injury would suck but at least I can look around now.

As the bed sits me up, I twist my neck trying to loosen it. My head may be free from the cast but I still can't turn my head very far. 

I notice the woman first, seemingly more worried than the others in the room. I expect a typical Nurse Joy outfit but instead her clothes look like scales. Rows of purple medallions cling to her body, forming a suit that goes from the neck to about mid thigh.

Seashells don't just adorn her jewellery but the others in the room as well. A couple of similar colour stand by the door. They're fashioned with bulkier scale clothing, but silver instead of purple. Gold helmets cover most of their face and they hold identical gold tridents in their hand.

The last person in the room is an older man, with fairly dark skin. His eyes are blue like the men others, but a little more stormy. He has long white hair that flows to his shoulder, about as long as the beard on his face.

His clothes are fashioned with gold scales but are more loose, going around his large figure. The final piece of his wardrobe is the crown on his head. Also gold and lined with sapphires.

"So?" He locks eyes with me when the bed stops moving. "What are we to do with you?"