Note: This is sort of based on my first run playing Pokemon Sapphire. I could not for the life of me find Sootopolis, and ( like a good little writer) started to monologue about it- most of the dialogue here is quotes from my in-character freakout. Of course, this has some stuff that can't happen in the games for obvious reasons, but I thought would probably happen to some poor kid swimming around in a storm/ the Kyogre Crisis. Now, It's been a while since I played a game full through, so I don't remember what Steven says to the character. Just go with it, Kay? Also, the whole swimming/being pulled by Mudkip rather than riding on him is taken both from early episodes of Pokemon and the fact that a little One foot dude the size of a person's head is not something that can just CARRY a whole kid across the ocean. Thanks for understanding.
Disclaimer: No, I don't own the Pokemon games or anything to do with Pokemon, unless you count my tapes of the first two movies, Sapphire, Soul Silver and a two foot tall stuffed Pikachu :)
The lightning strikes and the wind cuts cold
Through the Trainer's bones, to the Trainer's soul
'Till there's nothing left that we can hold
Except the roaring ocean
~Ready For The Storm
Through the Rain
Lightning flashed, and seconds later, thunder rolled, louder than any thunder attack I'd ever seen. In the sudden dark after the bust of light, I could hardly see a thing. Between the thick clouds and the mercilessly falling rain, everything more than a few yard out was a dark, blue grey blur.
I shivered, and not just from the cold. My clothes were already soaking from the dive up from a hidden cave moments before, and of course, the storm. But more than that, I was terrified. Kyogre, the monster of the sea, that Mama had told me stories about as a kid- was real, and more than real, it was loose.
And angry.
More lightning. I sat, hugging myself in the shallow water covering the tiny sandbar I'd found. " Kip?" squeaked my constant companion of the last six weeks, a Mudkip I'd named Tide. He leaned against my side, eyes closed. He didn't fare any better than I did.
In the last 12 hours, we'd traveled for miles across the ocean, trying to reach first the hidden cave where Team Aqua was trying to do Mew-Knew what to destroy the world, then back to Mossdeep to find the HM that would allow Tide to safely get me down to the cave's mouth. It had been hard work, and my poor buddy was still weak from one too many Tentacool attacks.
Thunder rumbled, echoing. I had to get to Sootopolis, wherever that was. Steven had said so. I had to stop this storm, stop that monster of a pokemon's rage before the world flooded.
"Why us?" I asked Tide, digging in my sopping bag and pulling out a handful of slightly smashed Oran berries. Offering most of them to my battered friend, I ate a few of them myself. They tasted terrible, but I was starving. " Why can't Steven fix all this? He has powerful pokemon, right? Why not one of the gym leaders? Why can't they stop this? I'm just a kid- I can't do this."
"Kip, mudkikip. Muip?"
"I don't even know how to get to Sootopolis! I don't even know where we are!" While my friends had opted for a fancy, waterpoof PokeNav map, I hadn't had the poke to buy one, and was stuck with my brother's old map of Hoenn, which I'd wrapped in plastic. But I'd left that at Lilycove's Pokemon Center, afraid it would get even more wrecked than it already was. It wouldn't have done me much good anyway. I was so tired I could hardly tell up from down, much less North from East, not to mention finding the map's landmarks in this storm.
Lightning struck again, closer. If I squinted, hard against the rain, I thought I could even see a blackened rock where it had it.
" I don't know what to do, Tide. Oh, Mew, I just.." Tears mixed with the rain streaking my face. I was so cold, so tired, so afraid. "I want to go home. I want to go home, and had a warm mug of Moo-Moo milk, and not have to face Team Aqua, or Kyogre or do any of this. It's too much. I'm just 12, Tide, I can't save th' world! I...How're you an' me supposed... to fight a legendary pok'mon?" I sobbed, trying to breath and speak normally. The rain fell harder, faster, with every second. I took a breath, let it go. Panic gripped me just as hard as earlier.
I hated storms. I hated rain, I hated oceans, I hated boats. No. Hate wasn't right. I didn't hate them. Feared them, yes. Dreaded them, yes. Wished my brother had never gone out swimming off of Pacifilog one rainy day...with everything I had.
"No," I hissed to myself, ordered myself. Tide looked at me, tilting his head, eyes brighter now that he had some energy. "Don't think about that. Think about this."
Not that the task was any easier to think about. My feet and hands were numb, my head ached from lack of food and sleep. But there wasn't anything I could do. I had to get to Sootopolis, find Steven, convince him that for all I had the Orb, I couldn't calm Kyoger, he would have to.
"But you asked him before, and he didn't listen," a little voice inside my head reminded me. " He wouldn't take the Orb, said it had to be you."
" Kippi?" Tide whimpered. I realized I'd spoken aloud.
"I'll deal with that when I find him." I told that annoying little voice. "I'm not some chosen one, not like Ash Ketchum from all those movies, all those bedtime stories. He'll understand, he'll have to."
Lightning blazed across the sky, a monster of a bolt, lasting one, two, three seconds. In the light, I saw a familiar dark patch of deep water- If I followed that, I'd reach Mossdeep in ten minutes- longer with the storm. half an hour, tops. It was a daunting prospect, but what other choice was there?
"Come on, Tide. I know you're tired, but if we get back to Mossdeep, we can find someone with a boat," I didn't like the idea of riding on a boat in this weather, but better that than swim/surfing in unknown water, who knows how far from land during a storm. "Or get directions or something." I tried to get to my feet, stumbling and handing on all fours in the surf. The waves were getting higher. Time was running out. "Mew help me," I whispered as I inched into the deeper water.
"Mudkip Kipkip!" Tide cried, swimming in front of me and waiting until I had a firm grip around his middle.
As the storm raged on, Tide towed me through the waves, weaving to avoid jagged rocks or the shallows. Which way was north? Squinting, I saw a gap between two walls of brown stone, gray in the flashes of bright light and the sheet of rain. We'd come through such a gap on our way to the underwater cave, I remembered. " Tide, that way!"
" Ki? Mupmud!" he changed directions, swimming for the opening.
Whitecap after whitecap slapped our faces, until I was certain I'd never be warm or dry again. Nothing looked right, but I could hardly seen above the waves or through the rain. I couldn't feel anything, my legs were nothing but dead weight. My fingers slipped. Oh, Mew, help me, I was going to die. I was going to drown, here, now, in the middle of a storm, in the middle of the ocean. " Just like..." I thought as ice water flooded my mouth as I tried to breath. Now my only though was, "Swim!" I kicked, or tried to, but my feet were so heavy. I was sinking.
Something soft brushed against me, then latched onto my shirt, pulling my upwards. Tide! We broke the surface- there, just ahead of me, a rock. I released my pokemon and clung to the rock, grateful for something solid to rest against. Beside me, Tide did the same, his sides heaving. I don't know how long we lay there, but the rain did not slow. If anything, it came fast, harder, pounding the gray water around us, stinging my skin. Still weak from hunger and numb to boot, I reached a hand to my little friend.
"Tide, we have to keep going. It can't be much farther, we'll find a Pokemon Center and you can take a long rest while I find someone to fly that Trio-cursed Orb to Steven. Can you make it?" I was worried for my little friend- he'd batted dozens of Aqua thugs and some guy I'm pretty sure was one of their leaders, on top of the long journey.
" Kip!" Stubborn as a Ponyta, Tide nodded. On we swam, nearly crashing into a huge bolder as we were blinded by the brightest lightening strike yet.
Where was Mossdeep? Surely I'd have seen the green of the trees by now, or, looking up, the tower that was the space building. But all I saw was rain and waves and rock. We were lost, lost at sea, in this tempest. What was the use? "No! don't quit." I ordered myself, unsure if the wetness on my cheeks was sea water or tears and not really caring. "People are counting on you. Maybe you can't stop Kyogre, but right now, you have that Orb, and no one else does, and who ever is gonna save the world is gonna need it. So Just. Keep. Swimming."
It was so much. Too much. If I drowned here, what would happen? Would someone find the Orb in a last ditch attempt to find a way to stop the storm? Would Steven and the Gym leaders come searching for me when I never showed up? " Oh, Tide. Why us?" I asked again, more out of dispair than anger or confusion. A white capped wave was before me, towering as Tide and I treaded water. I braced for impact... If I went under now, I wasn't sure I'd have the strength to surface.
More lightning. In the flash, the wave- no, the white mountain, seemed to glow. It was huge, a wall of stone that reached the every sky. I remembered from my map, Sootopolis was marked by a ring of light stone, and deep water. " Tide," I gaped, as a wave crashed over us both. "I think this is it. We must have gotten turned around in the storm. We're almost there. I think.. if we dive.." I coughed water from my burning lungs. I just hoped I could last a few minutes longer, just hold my breath for a few more precious seconds.
Tide dove, deeper than before, down to a small opening in the rock. Carved into the rock was a small notice. "Welcome to Sootopolis!" We surfaced on the other side of the bright stone, inside a crater filled partway with water.
Air! My eyelids drooped, the last of my adrenalin gone along with my energy. Through the rain, I could make out a small Island in the middle of the lake, and houses on ledges carved into the walls. Thank Mew, Thank Lugia and the Trio, we were almost there.
We'd made it. Tide and I, we'd made it. We'd braved the storm and found the city.
Now we just had to save the world.
Well, what didja think? I hope you liked it as much as I liked writing it. Thoughts? Impressions? what to see more of this character? Remember, Reviews make the world go 'round!
~HEDGI