Chryssa’s eyes narrowed at the scientist, trying to gauge whether lack of sleep and exhaustion from the journey might be playing into his assessment. Maybe that’s all, she thought, trying to curb the thrill of growing excitement within her. Or maybe something’s out there. Something terrible.

She couldn’t wait.

”My my, Mr. Priam, you actually have some spunk!” she said, casting an admiring glance towards her mission partner. ”I positively can’t wait to see your grand battle. I just knew this mission would be exciting.” She clasped her hands, smiling. Some might have assumed the teenager was being sarcastic, but her sincerity was more alarming.

“Battle?” The researcher asked, voice pitching shrilly. “We’re not battling. We have to get the Corsola out of here!” He jabbed at the GPS in Priam’s hands, indicating a dark blob slowly inching on screen. “N-no, it’s not here yet. I’m not sure what it is, but this stalking behavior isn’t typical of Huntail or Gorebyss. I suspect an invasive species. It’s been following us since we left the harbor, picking them off one by one— if it follows them to their breeding grounds it’ll decimate the local population.”

“Well, I think the boat drives itself at this point,” Chryssa pointed out, indicating the many dots on screen that seemed to indicate the migrating corsola. There were many, many more than she’d expected. ”I’m not sure there’s any stopping them. Unless you have an idea, Priam!” Her tone of voice changed, becoming brighter, as she glanced at the blue-haired fellow. He said he’s been bored. Let’s fix that.

Holding onto the railing to steady herself, gesturing at the black splotch on the GPS, Chryssa smiled. ”I propose we act as decoys!”

"No! You can't!" the researcher blurted.

It was an overly serious response to what Chryssa assumed her mission partner had intended as a joke. Still, the sort of crude simplicity to "beating them up" appealed to her. She stopped and studied the disheveled scientist, smoothing over her expression. Was he hiding something? If so, Chryssa intended to pry it out of him.

"Why, you seem quite upset for a mere suggestion," she said, watching him carefully. She tried to keep her tone light. "Particularly for such an unfeasible one-- no offense intended!" The girl smoothed down her hair, eyes narrowing. "After all, it would require a Corsola."

The researcher looked deeply uncomfortable. Chryssa cast a triumphant glance towards Priam and turned back. "Pray tell, Mr. Scientist, you wouldn't have a Corsola we could use... would you?"

The man finally broke down, admitting that periodically along the journey, it was standard procedure to net a specimen or two for general examination and tagging. One such specimen was already on the research vessel behind him, awaiting release. It was likely that the predator would chase stragglers rather than taking on the full colony at once, even this close to the breeding grounds.

"But I won't let you use it as bait," he added in a rush. It was noticeably unconvincing.

Chryssa leaned over to look at the GPS pad in Priam's hands again, noting the dark patch growing closer. "So! Decoy it is," she said brightly, clasping her hands together. "Marvelous. Fetch the Corsola here, please." She turned away from the researcher, who, torn, finally moved to do as she'd said. "Do you have any water Pokemon, Priam?" she asked, looking out across the water with one hand on the rail. "I'd rather not actually sacrifice the Corsola once we catch this beast's attention."

“Just the one,” Chryssa answered with a sunny smile, waiting for the dependable-looking Samurott to join the “bait” Corsola in the water. She aimed her own capsule carefully at the ocean and released Ness. The Lapras formed already half-submerged and the boat rocked slightly at the sudden displacement of water, causing Chryssa to teeter slightly into Priam. Her smile disappeared for a moment before she righted herself. ”Ah, my apologies,” she said, easing herself back into one of the padded seats on the boat. ”I must not have my sea legs yet… so they say.”

There was a sharp twinge of pain in Chryssa’s legs, but the girl ignored it. She would not show weakness here, at the peak of their mission. Things were just about to start getting good.

The smart thing to do would be to split up - send the Pokemon off as a fortified diversion, while the humans finished escorting the Corsola colony to their breeding grounds. I can’t exactly let a mystery like this go unsolved, though, can I? She wanted to see more than a shadowy blob on a GPS screen.

“Mr. Researcher,” she said clearly, not caring to know his actual name, “I think you’re capable of handling the Corsola school from here, aren’t you?” The man sputtered something half heartedly and Chryssa went on sunnily as if he hadn’t spoken, ”Mr. Priam and I will be carrying on ahead. Fear not, we’ll return your Corsola in one piece. For now… the danger in the deep calls!”

The man returned to his speedboat and slowly motored off, leaving the two of them and their water Pokemon bobbing in his wake. ”Let’s get moving. Where’s the... thing?” Chryssa asked Priam, who still had the GPS. ”More importantly, what should we call it? The Creature? The Beast?” This was what was really on her mind. ”I suppose The Monster is overambitious...”

Well, she’d had enough of waiting. From her seat on the back of the boat, she pulled the throttle and heard the motor roar to life, chugging water. She had no fear the Pokemon could keep up. ”One last question: who’s driving?”

^{corsola conservation | priam conrad}

Chryssa wasn’t sure what qualified one to get a boating license, but at least Priam had enthusiasm. She’d been hoping to stand at the prow, laughing victoriously as they sped towards danger, but the ride was so bumpy she’d been forced to stay in the back of the boat near the motor instead. There was no way her legs could take that much stress.

Ness kept pace with the boat as it drove, long neck outstretched. He opened his beak in a wide grin as he made eye contact with her, then dipped it again to scoop up the researcher’s Corsola by one horn. It squeaked, stumpy legs wriggling, as Ness swished it around it in the water before tossing it playfully at Priam’s Samurott like a game of water polo. Oh, well. I’m sure it’s fine.

Chryssa looked away, squeezing her watering eyes half-shut as the boat skipped across the water like a stone. The balmy ocean air suddenly seemed stinging, and her cheeks were turning rosy from the cold. The book she’d been reading earlier slid off the seat beside her. She made a halfhearted grab for it, but movement on-screen of the GPS caught her attention instead.

“It’s changed course towards us, ten o’clock!” She pointed ahead and to the left, wind whipping at her hair. “ONWARD, BRAVE PRIAM! Ness, dive down and see if you can flush it out. I wish to see this fiendish creature with mine own eyes!” The Lapras’ blue head dipped and the creature submerged, disappearing down below. On the GPS, Chryssa watched him swimming towards the dark, amorphous shape.

A moment later, a flash of blue light lanced from beneath the water. Ice Beam? Chryssa had time to think before the waves surged and a long, crackling sheet of ice broke the surface like a hidden iceberg, sending a wave of water rolling towards them.

^{corsola conservation | priam conrad}

Involuntarily, Chryssa cried out when the surging wave was reduced to a sheet of ice, one hand thrown up to shield her face. She lowered it and immediately seized the rail as the boat turned, Priam driving them beyond the ice and closer to the Creature.

Her stomach lurched. Funny. I didn’t think motion sickness would be a problem on this mission. She turned her head to look back behind them. What had that Ice Beam been before? Had it been Ness, or had it been the Creature?

Speaking of which, she didn’t see the researcher’s Corsola. Oh, well. It was bound to happen. Last she’d seen, Ness had been playing with it in the water. Had the Lapras taken it down to the depths with him?

Chryssa shivered. The warm, balmy ocean had taken on a strange chill, and not just from the dual sheets of ice now floating behind them. She checked the GPS and blinked in surprise. The dark core seemed to have spread, and a multitude of tendrils were branching out from its center. “Something’s happening,” she murmured, then louder, “I think it’s coming to the surface—”

The waves shuddered, then bristled suddenly with what Chryssa could only describe as spines. Moving on thick, jagged branches, they broke the surface of the water like the tentacles of some enormous monster, blindly grasping for its prey.

The strangest part was that they were translucent— like it wasn’t quite there. They looked like they were made of mist, risen and given sentience from the depths. And worse, the boat would soon be surrounded.

^{corsola conservation | priam conrad}

The boat was buffeted like a leaf in a gale, its hull shuddering as the waves rocked it. Chryssa was only narrowly saved by Priam as she fell and slid along the floor of the boat, sliding towards the opposite railing. She seized the back of the driver’s seat with both hands, the GPS gone, bruises already forming under her sensitive skin.

She had a habit of putting her life into other people’s hands.

“I said, it’s coming,” Chryssa repeated herself, dazed. She couldn’t take her eyes off the sight as the misty, translucent branches streamed up from the water, joining and braiding together. At long last, a ghostly visage rose up at the heart of them. It was not so much a face as a mask, a piece of white coral mosaic whose vessel had been broken. Something else was floating inside the main mass of the creature’s body as well: a small, pink shape that looked somehow... familiar.

“Oh dear. It appears to have captured the researcher’s Corsola,” Chryssa said, trying to sound sympathetic. Well, they had been using it as bait, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Ten other hazy, ectoplasmic antlers bristled from the water, each bearing another trapped and paralyzed Corsola. Their pink color seemed dull, faded, and some had turned an ashy gray. “Aha! Yes! I’ve got it!” Chryssa exclaimed, tone entirely inappropriate for the scenario. She snapped her fingers. “A vengeful spirit crawls along the sea floor, looking for vestiges of its lost life. For some reason it is drawn to these creatures. Its family? Its friends?” Her eyes blazed as she kept narrating. “But everything it touches fades, and its attempts only hurt them more!”

Taking advantage of the momentarily stable boat, she stood up despite her bruises, pointing gleefully at the Cursola. “You who trawl the sea for memory, and feed on the living to take back what you’ve lost! The Corsola breeding grounds are a place for new life, not for those who cling to life long passed.”

Chryssa paused dramatically. “You will never be with them. So begone!”

Unsurprisingly, the floating face didn’t seem to like that. It scowled, hollow mouth twisting bitterly. Whatever its real motivation was, Chryssa certainly had not endeared herself to it. More horns bristled out of the waves, shooting towards the boat.

The blue-white light of Ice Beam flickered across the water as Ness resurfaced, the Lapras sweeping the incoming rush of spikes with the beam of crackling cold. Frozen, the ectoplasmic tendrils no longer seemed so insubstantial. Perhaps, they could be broken...

^{corsola conservation | priam conrad
<the creature> appears! it’s cursola!}