Wavemaster
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or anything associated with Pokémon or the games. They belong to Nintendo and Game Freak.
Chapter One
He held onto the driftwood plank with more willpower than he ever thought he possessed, the salt of the seas stung his eyes but no matter what, he wouldn't let it get to him…
But it's all gone.
The tidal waves came and took it all away, plank by miserable plank…
The place he was born. The place he could've lived and died now had lived and died itself…
And he saw it all; swept away, and never to come back.
Pacifidlog Town had been sent to the depths and he was the only survivor.
Klaus Crawford remembered that day all too well. To the very direction of the wind that had blown, to the brief but terrible cries of all the people he had ever known. The days afterward had been spent fighting off Tentacruels and Seadras – the scars and stings from their attacks still remained on his skin – until he had wound up here, on Crawford Island, a little kingdom of his own.
It had been five years since it had all changed, and look, here he was, a grown man of eighteen. Chapters of his life had been literally swept away. There was nothing he could do, and he didn't try. And so it was that he built himself anew on another shore.
The only living memories of Pacifidlog Town he had were his two Pokémon, Umbra the Zangoose and Toby the Spheal; without whom the Sharpedos would be feasting on his flesh. Watching Toby frolic in the glittering azure sea, a slight smile crept up on his lips, happy yet sad with the buzz of memories both images conjured up.
Umbra, noticing Klaus's distant face, plodded up to his master and sat himself beside him on the fallen log of a palm tree, trying to pry the thoughts from his mind.
It was the boy's unruly pine green hair that he always noticed first, though.
Klaus's eyes were more dark and obscure than a forest at midnight, hiding behind a pair of badly fixed spectacles. It was a little internal game that Umbra liked to play; what were his master's glasses for? To catch the light of the sun? To make it easier for the Goldeens to see him in the water? He would amuse himself with the countless possibilities, but time and time again he would stop himself from asking his master, else his game would be ruined.
Klaus noted the speculative expression on Umbra's face, and grinned.
"You want to know what these are for, hm?"
Umbra's eyes widened, but the Pokémon took a step back. "Zaaaaangoose!"
"Heh." Klaus held up a hand to shade himself from the sun. "To you, I must look really stupid…"
"Zangoose!" Umbra said brightly, nodding. Klaus's face drooped.
"Yeah, thought so…"
Klaus paused to listen to the sounds of the island, the sounds he loved so well; the Staryus and Starmies splashing into the water, the chirping of Beautiflies and Volbeats in the forest behind him, the clicking of a Corphish's pincers as it scuttled across the sand…and the deep, bass groan of what could be a Wailord as it swam beneath the ocean; the largest Pokémon in the world. He would never find a place like this on the mainland. He didn't want to leave.
"Umbra, this is the best place in the world. Nothing is going to make me go. What do you think?"
Umbra blinked and grinned, his sharp teeth peeking out from his mouth. "Zangoose." He replied, nodding.
"You're right. Nothing is better than-"
"SPHEEEEAL!"
Klaus and Umbra bolted.
On the beach, Toby was dashing for dear life towards them, distressed.
"What's happened?" Klaus demanded, sand flipping in the air as he ran.
"SPHEAL!" Toby explained.
"What?"
"SPHEEEAL!"
"I don't understand you!" Klaus protested.
"SPHEE-"
And in a flash of blue, Klaus's life was on the verge of being turned around.
Again.
"Holy SHIT!"
As the cascade of water fell, a huge Gyarados plunged back down into the water, its cry drumming through Klaus's ears, the resulting splash plunging down upon the trio.
"ZAAAAAANGOOSE!" Umbra screeched.
"HahAHAhaHaha!" someone laughed hysterically. Scrambling to his feet, clothes sopping wet, Klaus gaped at the massive Pokémon whilst adjusting his glasses. He wanted to make sure what he was seeing was real.
Leaping off the Gyarados's back was a person. An actual person.
Fuck. How long's it been, Klaus? Five, four years?
Yes. Five years since he last saw a single human.
They had all, of course, been dying around him. This one was different.
First of all, she was alive.
She was roughly twelve years old, if height was anything to go by. Her face was cranked up into a cheeky snarl, and Klaus instantly got the impression that snarling was something she did often. No, not just often. A lot. She looked like she had been freckle-blasted with a machine gun, her eyes were little shots of grey and a black basketball cap was worn to the side on her messy auburn hair. Her clothes were plastered with just about every designer label Klaus could think of, each one displayed as if the girl couldn't get enough. Umbra and Toby stared in amazement, looking back and forth between Klaus and the girl, unable to get used to the idea.
"Zangoose?" Umbra suggested.
No, the only words that sprang to Klaus's mind with the girl's image in his face were spoiled brat, and it had been such a long time since he had used that phrase.
All he could do was blink.
"Uh."
"Hey, you!" the girl yelled, sprinting up towards him with her snarl in full swing. "My name's Dominique and I'd like to kick your scrawny ass!"
Her voice was so blunt and furious, Klaus couldn't help noticing. It was defiant to everything he was used to. It was the sound of Something Else.
"Uh."
"Are you just gonna sit there gaping at me like a goldfish or are you gonna battle me? Hm?" Dominique placed her hands on her hips, fingers lingering onto a Pokéball. It didn't seem to bother her that she was absolutely dripping wet.
"Uh."
Pokéballs. He'd never really known what they were; most of the domesticated Pokémon on Pacifidlog were allowed to roam the floating town freely.
But now he was completely terrified at what he might find inside them. Dominique herself was bad enough.
"Uh."
"Well you can start by telling me what your name is, Mr Goldfish. Or would you like me to call you Mr Goldfish? Kinda suits your goofy face, asswipe!"
"Uh…er…wait, hey, you're too young to be using words like asswipe all the time, missus. Swearing is not nice." Klaus blinked again. For the first time in five years, he was talking to someone other than his Pokémon.
And that is what you say?
"Pah! This coming from the same guy who just yelled, 'HOLY SHIT!'" Dominique raised her voice into a falsetto imitation of Klaus's. "So please, don't lecture me, Mista Miser. Are you like, forty or something? Whatever! Shut up and draw!"
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Klaus protested. "My name is K- I mean, it's –"
And then, for reasons he couldn't fathom, he finally said, " – It's Wave. My name's Wave."
"Wave, huh?" the girl replied, suspicion glinting in her eyes. "Sounds kinda stupid. Any reason why?"
The question he was dreading. Thinking quickly, Klaus splurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Uh, it's because, er, yeah, I'm the, well, yeah, Wavemaster of these here parts. Yeah, I totally rock. Yeah."
The brick of anxiety collapsed on his thoughts.
"Wavemaster, eh? PAH! I think you'll find I'm the Wavemaster around here, Wave! I wish to challenge your right to this lovely title! So HA!" Dominique stuck her tongue out at him, and grabbed a Pokéball from her belt. But then she paused, as if a strange thought had come along and snatched her snarl away. "And what is your obsession with the word 'yeah'?"
"I don't-"
"I said shut up and draw, asswipe!" Dominique snapped, and cast her Pokéball onto the sand.
With a flash of light, a massive Wailord came forth from the Pokéball, groaning mightily.
The biggest Pokémon in the world. And he was up against it.
"Ah-" He stammered.
"I vote Wimpy behind you goes first!" Dominique suggested, pointing at the quivering Toby, who was trembling in fear at the Wailord. "Hah! This'll be a laugh!"
Toby froze.
"SPHEEEEEAL!" he squealed, hiding behind Umbra, who was just as terrified.
"Hey, wait, you have two Pokémon…Yes! This means we can do a double battle! Oy, Gary! Come over here!"
Klaus gulped.
Dominique waved impatiently at the Gyarados, who thundered forward.
"Hehe! I'll go first, no questions! Gary, HYPER BEAM!"
"What the-"
"SPHEEEEEEAL!"
A strident blast of light powered out of the Gyarados's mouth, flinging Toby up into the air and creating a small crater in the sand.
"Toby!" Klaus cried, as the Spheal landed with a thud on the sand.
"Spheeeeeeal…." He whimpered, and then fainted.
"HahAHAhaHaha!" Dominique cackled again. "Too easy! Get douchebag behind you to attack next, O Almighty Wavemaster!"
"Uh-"
"Zaaaaaangoose!" Umbra squealed. He stared pleadingly at Klaus. Klaus knew what that face meant. It meant: Please. No.
Klaus could barely let the next words slip through his lips.
"I'm sorry Umbra, but…"
"ZANGOOSE!" Umbra wailed, and dashed forward into the centre, diminishing under the looming shadow of the giant Wailord.
There was a slight catch, of course.
Klaus had absolutely no idea how to properly battle a trainer. He remembered his grandfather saying something about trainers knowing their Pokémon's techniques, and calling them out. The problem was, Klaus had never known what Umbra could actually do ("Hey, do something! I'm freaking bored here, asswipe!" Dominique yelled.). He cycled through his memories, as hidden as they were, looking for that attack his grandfather had mentioned –
"Yes! Umbra, Quick Attack!" he yelled.
The Zangoose's sharp red ears pricked up, as if hearing a strange song, and then –
Umbra bolted across the beach, his body a blur, and leapt at the Wailord with all his might as adrenaline built up in Klaus's body with the excitement and thrill of the battle –
And he bounced off.
"Zaaaangoose!" Umbra mumbled as he flopped back onto the ground, sand ruffling his fur.
"That was pathetic!" Dominique sneered, as Umbra glanced up from the ground at the upside-down image of Klaus's face.
We're screwed.
"Okay, my turn! Zacra, Surf!"
The Wailord plunged into the sea, and then surged out again, propelling itself as forcefully as it could towards the budding victim.
"ZAAANGOO - "
Umbra's scream was literally drowned within the deluge of water that roared from the ocean, and all but Klaus heard Dominique's laugh through it.
As the wave receded away, the beach was left covered with seaweed, driftwood, and a very unconscious Umbra.
"Zangoose…" He simply mumbled, and didn't make another sound.
"Umbra!"
"Forget it, asswipe. He's out. I win! Oh yeeeeeah! One nil to the new Wavemaster! Adios!"
"Hey-"
But before Klaus could get another word in, Dominique was already leaping on Gary the Gyarados's back, leaving a trail of water from her sopping clothes, and casting a Pokéball onto the ground. A red light zigzagged through the air, hitting the Wailord and zapping it into the Pokéball.
"How did she-"
"Wanna rematch, asswipe?"
"Uh-"
"Get yourself a decent Pokémon before you even think of it, Wave!" And with a snarl, she chucked an empty Pokéball aggressively onto the beach, hitting Klaus square in the forehead, making his glasses tumble onto the sand.
"Ow!"
"HahAHAhaHaha!" she laughed again, her laughter dying in the air as the Gyarados leapt into water once again, roaring.
And Klaus's contact with humans for the first time in five years went with her.
He had to stare out to the horizon, and the vanishing spot that lay on it that was Dominique, to understand.
He couldn't stay any longer.
The very moment I thought it would last forever…was the same moment it ended.
He blinked.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw the unconscious forms of Toby and Umbra.
"Um…guys, wake up…please?"
All he got was a chorus of incoherent mumbles.
With his Pokémon in this condition, there was no way he could leave. At the same time, it was the exact reason he had to leave.
But how?
Get yourself a decent Pokémon before you even think of it, Wave!
Klaus glared at the Pokéball lying in the golden sand. In the sunlight, the red and white halves seemed to wink at him cheekily, daring him.
Looks like she came in useful after all.
After sighing heavily, Klaus gave up and wandered towards it, scooping it out with his frail hands. He stared at it disapprovingly. It symbolised all he had to go up against, and what he had to do; and where he was going. A land of red lights, skyscrapers, cars and blackened streets of pitch.
He had to catch a Pokémon without using any Pokémon of his own, and a Pokémon that could get him the hell out of here.
This is going to take a while.