Ben, too, was distracted by the appearance of the zapdos, but Lily saw the blue-and-white flying-type go down, and its rider drop out of the sky and into the less-damaged part of the main greenhouse. She grabbed Ben's arm and broke into a run, pulling him along with her. "Come on! Someone's fallen! I think it's Faye!"

As they sprinted into the greenhouse, a group of people and pokémon appeared behind them: some kadabra, lots of xatu, and at their centre a pale young woman with red eyes and straight black hair.

... ... ... ...

Zeke swallowed. Two legendary birds — two! — and they had barely been able to scratch one. The birds weren't attacking yet, but they would, and the ten or so trainers who were left couldn't hope to fend them off. They were circling each other, screeching and snapping their beaks. For a moment it seemed like they would fight each other and save everyone else the trouble, but suddenly they broke apart, the moltres dived down on the gym, and the zapdos wheeled to face the trainers, sparking. Out of the corner of his eye, Zeke saw the last gyarados disappear into its pokéball.

For a few seconds more, nobody moved, then the zapdos shot forward. Everyone frantically dodged out of its way. It clawed a golbat, dived after a pidgeot, shot electricity back at a charizard that was shooting fire at it. It was far, far worse than trying to battle the moltres had been.

Just when Zeke was considering throwing in the towel, between desperate dodges and futile attempts to fight back, a dozen xatu joined the battle. In seconds the balance had shifted, as the psychics ran rings around the legendary. It swung its wings and sparked at them, and they dodged almost before it had moved, keeping up their own attacks. It discharged the electricity it had stored in its feathers, and they teleported away, to pop back a second later.

The trainers couldn't do that. Some of them were far enough away that the attack had mostly dissipated. Zeke was not. His fearow took the hit, one hit too many, and fainted. He fell, screaming, but not far. When he looked down, heart pounding, he saw a kadabra below him, its eyes and spoon glowing, holding him and the fearow up.

A calm female voice sounded soundlessly in his head. "Thank you, trainers. We'll take it from here."

... ... ... ...

Faye was lying, unconscious and bloodied, on a pile of clear plastic and smashed trellis. She'd brought part of the roof down with her. By breaking her fall a little, and then itself breaking, it had probably saved her life.

"She's breathing," Lily said with relief. "Quick, go and get help."

Before Ben could go anywhere, a red-and-cream shape passed over the hole in the roof. The moltres swooped back down along the side of the greenhouse, blasting it with fire. The plastic blackened and shrivelled.

"It's attacking the gym again!" Ben cried.

Sudden realisation hit Lily. "No, it's attacking Faye! Where's the articuno?"

Faye had lost some of her pokéballs in her fall, but the ultraball was still on her belt. Lily grabbed it and threw it out of the hole in the wall the moltres had melted, as the moltres came around for another pass. The articuno appeared in a flash of white light, surprising the moltres. It stopped with a squawk and hovered. The pokéball bounced back to Lily's hand, and she pressed the three buttons on the inside to deactivate it. The articuno shrieked at the moltres. The moltres clicked its beak. The articuno shrieked again, and the moltres flew away.

Lily expected the articuno to leave too, but it didn't. It turned back to Lily, Ben and Faye and gave them a glare of pure passionate hatred.

"Oops," Lily breathed.

The articuno spread its great translucent wings. The temperature dropped several degrees. Lily dived for cover behind a fallen girder, and Ben ducked behind a broken trellis. The temperature dropped again. Lily put a hand on the girder and peeked over — her arm jerked back reflexively and she yelped with pain. The metal was already freezing, and had frozen to her skin. Shivering, blinking back tears, she tugged at her hand, but it was stuck fast.

It got colder. Ben leaned out from behind his trellis, pulling the greatball off his belt. The articuno's head snapped round and it shot a beam of ice at him, encasing his hand and arm in ice and knocking him down. He didn't get back up.

It got still colder. Lily reached with her left hand for her growlithe's ball, and dropped it from numb fingers. It rolled just out of reach. Sobbing with frustration, she tried to hook it with her foot, but only succeeded in knocking it further away.

And colder still. The articuno made a soft sound, low and soothing. Lily looked up, tears freezing on her cheeks. Its black eyes glittered and it shook its beautiful wings, sending a fine snow drifting to the ground. Faye's lips had turned blue, and Lily couldn't see her breathing. Lily realised that the articuno was trying to kill them, and might very well succeed. She didn't think she wanted to die. She'd never get Erika's badge if she was dead.

She could feel herself drifting away. You weren't supposed to fall asleep, right? She pinched her arm, digging in her nails, but barely felt it. Faye was already asleep, and so was Ben. It seemed a shame, but there didn't seem to be anything she could do.

She heard a roar, and made the great effort to look up. It was a charizard — a charizard was breathing flame at the articuno. It spat ice back, and the charizard faltered, but then electricity joined the flames. With a final furious scream, the articuno leaped into the sky and flew off. Just a little too late, Lily thought vaguely. A magneton drifted past the hole in the greenhouse wall, and she thought she saw someone running after it, but by then the world was dissolving into fog and she didn't see any more.

... ... ... ...

She woke up in hospital. "Lily! How are you feeling?" Zeke was sitting next to the bed.

"Not bad." Her right hand stung, and was wrapped in bandages, but other than that she didn't feel any injuries. "Really good, considering. Where's Ben? Is he okay?"

"He's fine." Zeke moved back to let her see the next bed, where Ben was lying, still asleep.

"What about my pokémon?" Zeke picked up her belt off the bedside table. "I dropped my growlithe, and my onix-"

"They're all there," he said. "It's okay, I checked. What happened?"

"Faye fell into the greenhouse, and we — Is Faye okay? Do you know?"

Zeke shrugged. "I didn't think to ask. What happened, Lily?"

Lily told him everything as best she could remember, though she was a little fuzzy towards the end. "How long was I out?"

"A few hours." Zeke looked at his watch. "It's five past two. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot." He took Lily's badge case out of her bag, which was beside the bed. "Open it."

Lily opened the case. Six badges glinted at her. She pulled one out. "This is the Rainbow Badge. When did I win this?"

"Erika gave her badge to everyone who helped out. She's closing the gym while they fix it, so nobody's going to be winning it for a while."

A little later, Ben woke up, and shortly after that a nurse came to check on them. When he'd finished telling Ben to keep his arm elevated, Lily asked him about Faye. "She probably came in with us. Fell through a building?"

"Oh, her," he said. "I think she's still under from surgery."

"Is she okay?"

"She will be. She didn't get off as lightly as you two."

"How long do we have to be here?" Ben said.

"At least overnight," the nurse said, "but you should be fine to leave in the morning."

Later in the day, he stuck his head back in. "Your friend's awake. She's three doors down, if you want to see her."

Faye, wearing a lot of casts and bandages, was sitting up in bed watching TV. The gym was still all over the news. "Was this my fault?"

"Um..." Lily said.

"How are you doing?" Ben said.

"I broke a leg, a wrist and a few ribs, I cracked a vertebra, and there's a few other things I can't remember, but I survived. Actually, I feel great. It might be the painkillers."

"I released your articuno," Lily said. "I'm sorry."

"That was you?" Faye said. "Thanks, I guess. They said-" She waved at the TV. "-that was when the other two left." She looked away. "I'm such an idiot, aren't I?"

"What do you mean?" Zeke said.

"I should have realised if one of them was there, the other one would show up, and I was still flying around on a bloody water-type. And... you know. Everyone told me I didn't know what I was doing."

"Hey." Lily sat down on the end of the bed. "You didn't realise-"

"I had no idea," Faye said flatly. She cracked a smile. "I guess I'll have to find another way to beat the gym. I might even be walking by the time it's open again. Want to sign my leg?" They all signed her cast for her, Lily a little awkwardly. "What else happened while I was unconscious?"

Lily was halfway through her explanation when there was a knock at the door. It was Erika, neat and tidy again, and Sabrina. "Hi," Erika said. "We'd like to talk to Faye."

"In private," Sabrina added.

"Oh, okay," Zeke said. "We'll see you later, Faye."

Faye gave them a little wave as they stepped past the gym leaders. Erika took the chair beside the bed. Sabrina looked at the door and it swung closed.

"We should go," Ben said quietly. "I don't think she wants us to hear her getting her head bitten off."

Zeke looked at his watch. "I should go. I'll meet you at the pokémon centre tomorrow?"

"I know you're still there," said the soundless voice in their heads.

"Um, okay," Lily said to Zeke. "See you tomorrow." They left in opposite directions.

Thanks to Gen, my beta, for pointing out some things I'd missed; to my brother, for suffering through my terrible handwriting to be my test audience and primary chivvier; and to Farla, who inspired this story and whose NaRe encouraged me to actually finish it.
And to you, I suppose, for reading this far. I wouldn't have bothered if it wasn't for you.