Author Note: Hi guys, and welcome! To start off, I wanna say that I subscribe to the thinking that the names of species of pokémon should be lowercased (rattata, pikachu, etc). Hopefully this doesn't bother anyone!
Also, like, pokémon plurals are kinda weird so I'll just add an "s" to the end of the species' name and hope that doesn't look wonky.
Of course, I don't own Pokémon. I hope everyone enjoys, and if you do or have any constructive criticism feel free to leave a review!
Ding, ding! The pleasant tone rang from the intercom system, followed by a smooth feminine voice. "Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you so much for joining us aboard the S.S. Anne! We will be making our leisurely way to Olivine City in Johto from Vermillion City in Kanto, with many scenic spots between the way. We will be departing in mere moments, and we hope you enjoy your stay!"
Sidney glanced away from the small speaker in the wall above his door and glanced around his room. It was pretty modest, decorated with only a plain white bed, a nightstand, and a small circular window overlooking the Vermillion docks. There had apparently been some sort of drama, he had heard, with the captain's stomach, resulting in the voyage being delayed some. Apparently that was finally fixed, though, and they were about to embark.
Sidney mused about why one would become a sea captain if they were prone to seasickness when a sharp knock on his door caused his green eyes to dart towards the portal.
His hand twitched towards one of the four pokéballs at his belt as he called out, "Yes? Who is it?"
"It is I, ze waiter! I am 'ere to take your order!" Sidney's eyes narrowed, but he reached up and pulled the door open with a twist of the doorknob.
Standing before him was most definitely not the waiter, but instead an old man wearing posh clothes, including a top hat, monocle, and vest. His white goatee surrounded his grin.
Sidney raised an eyebrow, his hand slowly reaching for one of the pokéballs again. "You don't look like a waiter to me…."
"Of course not!" His fake accent dropped as he pushed past Sidney, closing the door behind him, and began scrutinizing the room's walls.
Sidney crossed his arms and eyed the character sternly. "Sorry, but what exactly are you doing here?"
"Shush now, you know the rules." The old man grumbled as he ran his hands along the window and nightstand. After a few moments and a lot more grumbling, the man turned back to him and clapped his hands once. "Well, now! Pleased to make your acquaintance, Agent 127, as I'm sure you know, I am Looker! Do you fully understand our mission?"
There was a brief moment of silence before Sidney slowly uncrossed his arms and plucked a pokéball from his belt, ready to release the creature inside. "I'm not sure if this is a prank or not, but I can assure you I'm not amused. Please leave my room."
The old man's features drooped, eyeing the red and white sphere. "But are you not…." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handheld device, similar to that of a pokédex. After a few button presses, he turned the device around, showing the screen to Sidney. A picture of a girl, probably twenty or so, was displayed with only the head and shoulders visible. She had long green hair and bangs covering her left eye. "Are you not Agent 127, also known as Fiona Summers?"
Sidney's face began to redden as his patience wore thin. "Again, I'm not sure if this is a joke or not. Are you asking me if I'm that girl?"
"Apparently not," Looker mumbled as he turned the device back to face him and began pressing more buttons. "That's very odd, I was told to meet her in this room, I'm sure of it. Please," he glanced up at Sidney quickly before returning his attention to the device, "if you could just humor me a moment, I'll be sure to explain everything."
Sidney tilted his head forward in response, placing the pokéball back on his belt. Looker placed the device to his ear, similarly to a phone, and paused a moment before speaking.
"Yes. Pink. Agent Looker. Not Arceus. No, I said not Arceus. Right. Okay, great, thank you." After a few more moments of silence, Looker spoke up again. "Ah, yes, it's Agent Looker. Mm hmm. Well, I'm out here in the field, but there seems to be some sort of misunderstanding. My partner-" He paused as he was cut off. "Right, yeah, Agent 127. She's-" There was another pause as Looker's expression became very unamused. "I see. Well, I-" This time he was cut off from the ship's horn bellowing and the boat lurching forward as it pushed away from the dock. "No, I don't think I'll be able to get her. Thanks." With that, he closed the device and slipped it back into his pocket.
He sighed and took his top hat off, running his hand through his gray hair. "Please forgive me for the rather peculiar way we were introduced." He stretched his hand out to Sidney, who shook it in return. "My name is Looker, I'm a member of the International Police, and my superiors stationed me upon the S.S. Anne in an effort to get some intel on Team Rocket. I was supposed to meet my partner here," annoyance flickered across his face, "but it appears she is too busy getting drunk at the only bar in Vermillion to join me."
"I see…." Sidney replied, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. He had heard quite a bit about Team Rocket, but had never come across any of its members himself. "Well, sorry your partner isn't here."
"Indeed." He placed the top hat back atop his head and said, "Well, I guess I'll be off, then. If you see any suspicious characters, be sure to let me know."
Sidney nodded and opened the door, allowing Looker to stride past him and out into the hall.
"What a way to start my vacation," he muttered, closing the door behind the retreating figure. He turned back to his room and stared out the window, watching the shrinking docks of Vermillion.
Looker slid his hands into his pockets, trying to look as casual as possible as he paced throughout the many halls of the ship. His disguise was working perfectly, not a single person gave him so much as a second glance.
He passed through the doorway outside onto the main deck, and made his way to the front of the ship.
"Geez, what a mess," he grumbled, scratching the back of his neck. Although he had never actually met Agent 127, he had heard plenty of stories of her blowing off assignments and just not showing up. She would have been fired long before now, but apparently she was the daughter of some higher-up in the International Police, or something.
"Hey!" A burly sailor walked up to him, muscles straining against the white uniform. "Are you a trainer? You know what they say, when two trainers' eyes meet, you gotta battle!"
Looker slid a fake grin onto his face. He could feel the bulge of his croagunk's pokéball hidden in one of the pockets on his vest, but he shook his head. "Sorry, friend, I'm afraid not. Just a traveler, taking in the sights."
"Aww…" The sailor turned away, walking back into the ship.
Looker glanced around the deck, spotting people sunbathing, taking pictures, and playing with smaller pokémon like meowth. None of them looked very suspicious, he mused, and he wondered if there would be any Team Rocket presence aboard the S.S. Anne at all.
Sidney stepped out from his cabin, stretching in the hallway. After a short nap, it was nighttime and Vermillion was long in the distance. There weren't any specific activities going on at this time of night, but Sidney had decided that staying in his room the whole trip would just be pointless and boring.
He made his way onto the main deck and stared out at the large expanse of dark water. The stars were shining brilliantly and he had never seen the moon so beautiful and full. He considered letting his pokémon out to enjoy the fresh air, but stopped when he heard a loud horn in the distance. He turned around, looking past the opposite end of the deck, and saw a large ship, easily as big as the one he was on now. It was still pretty far away, but it was pointed right at them.
Just as he was beginning to feel nervous, he saw a few quick flashes of white light which he recognized as pokémon being released from their pokéballs.
"Uh oh…." He grabbed one of his own and pressed the front-facing button, causing a haunter to appear with a flash of light. The dark, almost shapeless fog floated in the air as two red eyes opened and locked on its trainer.
Sidney pointed towards the ship in the distance. "Ghoul, go see what's going on and report back."
Ghoul stared at where its trainer pointed in silence for a moment before becoming completely invisible and jumping into the ocean, speeding towards the oncoming ship. After a few moments, it floated back in front of its trainer and reappeared.
"Bad humans," Sidney's pokémon's whispering voice echoed in his head, "coming this way."
He nodded and crossed his arms, beginning to make out shapes in the water, heading towards the S.S. Anne at a breakneck speed. "Let's get ready, Ghoul."
A bout of laughter, barely audible over the breeze, came from the floating black aura.
Sidney stared at the approaching shapes. As they came closer, he could see that there were four people riding on relicanths with one ahead of them riding a feraligatr. They wore matching uniforms, mostly black clothes with some sort of white symbol on their shirts resembling an eye. The one at the front, presumably the leader, also sported an eyepatch and a bushy brown beard.
"Who do these guys think they are, pirates or something?" Sidney exclaimed.
They reached the S.S. Anne in moments and the leader patted his feraligatr on its side. "Alright, buddy, let's do this. Just like always." His voice was gruff and harsh. The terrifyingly toothy blue creature grabbed its trainer and grunted, throwing him tremendously high, giving him enough lift to land squarely on the deck.
"A perfect landing, like we practiced," the wannabe pirate chuckled to himself and gestured to his teammates. One by one, the feraligatr used its tremendous strength to toss all four of them up, most landing not so perfectly like their leader.
Sidney watched the display cautiously and waited until they leaned over the edge of the ship and recalled their pokémon. After his feraligatr and the relicanths were secured in their portable homes, the leader finally spotted him.
"Oh, what have we here? Don't you know it's, like, three in the morning? What on earth are ya doin', up and walkin' around?"
Ghoul's misty form bristled as it sensed its trainer's agitation. "Why don't you tell me what you're doing here, seeing as how this all looks pretty suspicious."
"Mm, I gots a better idea." The leader plucked a pokéball off his belt and tossed it forward, releasing a vicious-looking scyther with a flash of light. "How 'bout we just take this li'l ferry over and you get back?"
Sidney was about to reply, but the goons behind the bearded leader pulled out their own pokéballs and released a golbat each.
"What, are you guys a boy band or something? Completely personality-deprived drones?"
The leader pointed back. "Slash 'im up, scyther."
The bug pokémon rushed forward ridiculously fast, before being stopped in its tracks by the black miasma that was Sidney's haunter. The haunter raked its hands across its enemy's thorax, its back clawed fingers passing through it. The scyther coughed in response and took a step back, clutching at its chest and heaving.
The leader rolled his eyes and muttered, "Oh, brother. I really don't have time for this." Without another word he raised the scyther's pokéball and returned it. He flicked a second and third pokéball, causing another golbat and an electrode to appear.
Sidney's eyes widened as realization dawned on him. Quicker than he would have expected, all five of them were picked up by their respective golbats and lifted into the air.
"Oh, shi-" Suddenly, everything was white.
Looker was sleeping peacefully, his "gentleman" disguise safely tucked away in his suitcase, when an extremely loud explosion rocked the entire ship and caused him to bolt out of bed.
"What in the world-" an alarm blaring over the intercom system further disoriented him.
"Please do not be alarmed," the female voice came out of the speaker in between the jarring tone. "Please stay in your room until you receive further instruction from the captain."
Ignoring the warning, Looker doned his trusty trench coat, made sure his croagunk's pokéball was within the pocket, and threw the door to his room open.
The first thing that hit him when he stepped into the hall was the thick wall of smoke billowing from somewhere to his left. He coughed once and put his sleeve over his nose and mouth, turning to the right and running away from the smoke.
He ascended up a few flights of stairs, heading straight to the outer deck, seeing the carnage firsthand. At least thirty percent of the deck was replaced by a crater, exposing the floor and ocean beneath. He grimaced as he saw the water the ship was taking on, causing the boat to slowly begin tipping forward. Across the deck was the kid he had seen mistaken for his partner earlier, with a strange dark cloud and glowing red eyes floating protectively above his unconscious body.
Before Looker could focus more on the trainer, five set of boots plodded heavily on the deck in front of him as their golbats released them.
"Sorry to have woken ya, pal," the bearded one replied with a smug grin, "but I'm afraid your vacation's been cut short. Step aside."
Looker didn't budge. "What are you doing? Why attack the S.S. Anne?" He studied their uniforms, which were completely black save from a single white eye emblazoned on the chest. Definitely not Team Rocket, but neither were they anything else he had ever seen before.
The bearded one guffawed and gestured with his hand, causing one of the golbats to fly down and slam into him.
Looker flew across the deck and landed hard near the far edge, close to where Sidney laid. The disconcertingly disembodied red eyes glared at him warily and he grimaced in pain from the slam.
"Assholes," he murmured, reaching to grab for his croagunk's pokéball. He wasn't sure exactly how well it would fare against these guys, Looker had always been more of a watchman that an actual enforcer of the law.
Before he could make a decision, though, they quickly ran through to the lower decks of the ship, leaving Looker alone with the unconscious trainer, some angry floating red eyes, and five swarming golbats.
"Jesus…." He reached his hand towards the younger trainer, about to try and shake him awake, but the eyes flashed angrily and a low hiss emanated from the black fog. "Look, I assume you're a ghost-type of some kind. I'm not gonna hurt him. I just wanna make sure he's alright."
The fog hissed again, and an unexpected, sudden blast of wind coming from the five golbats caused the two trainers and haunter to fly off the boat, into the murky waves.