Gavin's countenance is as cold as the bitter air within Shoal Cave.

Danny approaches, and the only warning he'll get is the way that Gavin's fingers curl at his side. But it's not likely to be warning enough, for miasma swirls around Rocket's underboss and grants him unexpected swiftness as he pulls back and punches Danny in the face.

He's aiming to break something, to cause even a fraction of the pain that Serena Malcolm must've gone through on behalf of this piece of shit.

Then he'd reach for the throat, squeeze, dig his nails into flesh and cut off air supply. Slam his back against the wall.

"If you fuck with Serena again, I'll break your neck."

A compression of force, perhaps to show how easy it would be, before he lets go with a look of disgust.

DANNY HALL

Ordinarily, Gavin does not relish in this part of his job. Violence is nothing more than a means to an end, and one he tries to avoid resorting to if it can be avoided. Now, though?

Danny crumples under the impact of his punch and blood sprays against throbbing knuckles that will surely bruise.

Worth it.

Gavin wipes the blood from his hand on his pants and scowls down at Danny.

"Get up. We've got a ways to go."

He starts walking further into Shoal Cave, sending out a dark-spined Sandslash who immediately burrows under the ice.

DANNY HALL

Should Danny not speak, Gavin makes the rest of the trek in cold silence. Ice crunches beneath his boots, the only sound this far in apart from the rumble beneath the ice where his Sandslash burrows.

It bursts from beneath, and Gavin halts.

"Something's wrong."

Everything looks calm, but his Sandslash snarls and scores its long claws through the snow, leaving deep gouges.

"Be ready to fight."

DANNY HALL

There is no wind this deep in Shoal Cave but the miasma that swells around Gavin's figure bends with a breeze unseen, swirls around the Sandslash and grants it a burst of speed allowing it to erect a protective barrier the moment Steelix bursts from below.

A sandstorm is countered by a fierce flurry of hail from the snarling shrew, and Gavin lifts an arm to shield his face from the harsh, rapidly changing weather conditions.

The beam cast by his Rotom phone's flashlight catches on something embedded in the Steelix's side.

"We want whatever that is."

Which meant they had to take down the serpent, first.

DANNY HALL

Gavin's not sure if Danny is yelling at him or his Pokémon; in the heat of battle, it doesn't matter. Hail and sand pelt his exposed skin and he's forced to dodge a chunk of ice flung by the steel serpent's tail.

Chaotic though it was, it quickens his heart and sets his blood aflame with adrenaline.

It's thrashing about too much.

So Gavin throws out another pokeball, his Dhelmise's weight causing its anchor to sink a foot into the snow and ice. Ethereal chains of seaweed and shadow snake out with a whistle and a click of his tongue, wrapping around the great metal titan in a stranglehold.

"We'll hold it down!"

His Sandslash protects them from another violent attack as the chains pull tight.

DANNY HALL

Dust sprays up in thick clouds. Gavin coughs, cursing his smoker's lungs as he doubles over with the force of it and struggles to breathe. His Sandslash keeps guard in the meantime, a violent blizzard howling through the cavern. A careful safeguard protects its own allies as the Steelix is set upon by bitter cold.

Frostbite forms along the steel segments of the titanic serpent, slowing it. Leaving an opening.

When Gavin recovers, he spots the Clobbopus in position.

"Now!" he calls, words rough in his throat. "While it's slowed!"

DANNY HALL

In spite of his loathing toward Danny, the sight of a Rocket in danger triggers the ferocity of his protective instinct.

"Arceus," he spits, then, "PROTECT!"

The Steelix, screeching in anger and agony, lifts its heavy tail with the intent to crush the offenders beneath its mass. At Gavin's command, given by shout rather than clicks or whistles to be heard over the din of battle, Sandslash throws itself into the path of Steelix's swing. There's a horrible, grating sound of metal-on-metal as they clash, hardened spines protecting the shrew from the worst of the impact even as its thrown aside by the force of it.

It leaps up from where it lands, snarling, and takes out all its frustrations in a killing blow.

"You trying to get yourself killed?" Gavin shakes his head, internally wincing from the pain in his eardrums. "Did you get it?"

With their foe defeated, the hail fades and leaves the cavern eerily silent.

DANNY HALL