A/n: Bleh, I'm tired of wacking out a new excuse for why there's a late chapter. Just expect updates to be on Thursday, and if I miss it, look forward to it within 7 days (unless stated otherwise).
No new oc's this chapter. If I haven't introduced yours yet, be patient. I just need a break from introducing characters for one chapter XD (There's only a handful left anyways)
Chapter 9 PC
Arlin was following Yuki out of the cave, and had reluctantly ended up walking next to him. Yuki wasn't talking much, which made him feel a little awkward. He was no good at starting conversations… he knew if Yuki just said something to get the ball rolling he would be fine to continue it.
Well, he could try starting.
"So…" he looked to Yuki, trying to make eye contact. Damn, Yuki wasn't playing along, he was still looking forward, "What's it like to pirating?"
Yuki blinked as though a small gust of wind was blown in his face, then looked at Arlin. "What's it like to pirating?" he gave him a scrutinizing look. Did he mean 'to pirate' or 'go pirating'?
"Uh," crap. He messed up. This is why he can't start conversations! He get's tongue tied! Continueing a conversation he could do, but starting one?! "Never mind…" he looked away and hoped to see the light at the end of the tunnel on both accounts. He wanted to get out of this cave physically, and he wanted a proper conversation with Yuki. He just had to keep his chin up.
Yuki dug something out of his pockets of his black cargo's, and then held out a slip of paper. There must be something official on it since it was laminated.
"For new recruits…" he explained, holding it to Arlin for him to take.
"Oh, cool," he plucked it from his hand and looked at it.
Wait.
This was…
…No…
NO!
There were words on this paper!
"I'm not a big reader," Arlin chuckled nervously. It was only a few lines though…he could try to tough it out. "da da da… no gambling or battling… share everything stolen, no running away while in the middle of any battle…" he squinted at the next word. "Punsh…punch…able…" he pointed to the word and looked at Yuki for help, "What's this say?"
Yuki didn't have to look since he heard Arlin attempts on the word, "Punishable."
"Ah. 'Breaking any of these rules are punishable…BY DEATH?!" he looked back and forth to the paper and Yuki, "Is this serious?!"
He nodded.
"That's… Not right!"
Yuki shrugged.
"How do I get out? Can I run away now? Should I do it while your distracted?" Arlin began internally freaking out, only physically showing it by pulling at his brown hair. "I should go now, right?"
Yuki looked a little worried for him, but shrugged, "Talk to Pepper about it." He doubted Pepper would let Arlin off the hook so freely, but who knows?
Maybe if Yuki had properly refused her offer way back when, then maybe he wouldn't be here now. He could be off in culinary schooling, or working in a far off village with lots of room to run around in… Well, he could still achieve that if he told Pepper he was quitting.
Yeah! Next time he see's her, he'll quit! He'll stand up for himself and tell her that he's going to start his culinary career!
Or after they finish up in HQ.
Yeah, he'll tell her then.
Or when they get back to the ship.
Maybe.
Probably the next time the crew went to his home region, Hoenn.
Then it will be the time he finally quits.
Maybe.
LINEBREAK-0
They finally got outside to the city. The light was a warm welcome from the damp cave, though Yuki didn't mind the cold, or water for that fact. It was just a little too dark for his liking.
Arlin stayed by his side like glue, which was odd since the fearful man was complaining when Pepper got into his personal space. The younger of the two, Yuki, did his best to subtly put space between them, but Arlin was insistent on staying with Yuki.
The medicine shack was their first and only pit stop. Pepper had ordered a special herbal mix for pickup, and Yuki had to double check if she picked it up or not.
Once they had picked it up and left the building, Arlin tried starting a conversation again. "What's with the bottle?"
"Medicine." Yuki replied simply, carefully placing the two-inch bottle inside his pants pocket. He really wished Arlin would stop trying to start a conversation…
"What's the medicine do?"
Yuki shrugged.
More silence.
They walked up to the beach, and Yuki had forgot to find out what Arlin's pokémon were like. "Do you have anything to help you across the ocean?" he asked. "Flying or water type?"
He shook his head, "Not really. The only thing I really have is a pair of swimming shorts." He crossed his arms and began thinking deeper, "I have a pokémon that can levitate a little bit at a time."
Yuki looked out to the ocean and saw islands not too far apart from each other. "Could your pokémon levitate from island to island?" he asked.
Arlin sighed heavily. Honestly, he might be able to, but he would prefer to not take that risk. "I don't know if want to …" he replied regretfully. He feels bad about even mentioning the levitating thing. His onix would get ko'd pretty quick if he dropped into the ocean.
"…" Yuki got back to the drawing board. They could fish for a short while to catch something for him, but honestly it would take too long to go through the hassle of capturing it, teaching it an HM, then sending one of their own party pokémon back to the pc box.
What else…
And this is how Yuki found himself piggybacking on Arlin as he held onto Starmie while it carried them through the waters.
"This is really weird." Arlin found himself muttering as he fastened himself to the star shaped pokémon.
'You're telling me,' Yuki thought with disdain as he held on for dear life to Arlin with his arms and legs.
Starmie showed no sign of being tired out by carrying two men, but Yuki still insisted on stopping island-to-island. It gave him a break from the uncomfortably close man-on-man contact, and it gave Arlin a break from being inelegantly strangled.
When they were at their second stop, aka the second island, they began hearing shouting in the near distance. Yuki locked onto the noise and recognized Peppers voice in the midst of sound.
"C'mon," he said to Starmie as he began running towards the noise. The pokémon dutifully followed behind and made sure it jumped in the water before its trainer. Yuki hopped on, but he was fretfully taken by surprised when Arlin jumped on top of him, reversing their previous position.
"Oof!" Yuki felt the wind get knocked out of him when Arlin clutched Starmie from behind.
"The noise isn't too far away," Arlin told him, and did his best to keep the weight off him.
"Y-yeah," Yuki said to help reassure himself. Ugh, the joys of being short…
When they got to the island, Yuki was quick to push the slightly older teen off of him in favour of rushing forward. There was a large hill in the middle of the island and boulders blocking off his path everywhere. He was able to bend and twist his way through, not very worried about how Arlin was handling things.
"Pepper!" he shouted when she finally came into his vision.
He quickly assessed the situation she was in. She was battling with Politoed against a sylveon, the two chasing and evading each other blow after blow. The other trainer was almost on the other side of the island, commanding his fairy pokémon with hushed and calm commands.
He'd recognized that poofy bowl cut anywhere.
Ryan.
Pepper aggressively shouted to her pokémon, "Politoed, evade for as long as possible then use Hyper Voice!" After watching to make sure that the green toad was alright by itself, Pepper turned to the newcomers. "Hey, guys. What took you so long?" she asked.
Yuki had walked up to Pepper's side and pulled out the tiny bottle and showed it to her, "I picked this up."
"Ah, so that's what I forgot. That's been bugging me for a little while now," she chuckled as she swiped it off his palm and pocketed it. She looked behind him and continued her smile, "How about you, Stone?"
Arlin looked around then pointed to himself questioningly, "Uh, you mean me?" No one ever called him by his last name before, it threw him off.
"Yes, you!" she sighed impatiently. She peeked back onto the battlefield before looking back, "What have you done since I last saw you?"
"Er…I…" he looked towards Yuki for help, but he only shrugged with an apologetic smile. "I…read the rules… The laminated ones?" he said hesitantly.
"Great!" she clapped once, "Have them memorized by tomorrow." She turned back to look at Politoed. "By the by, what class are you?"
Arlin laughed bashfully, "I turned Class 5 this year, but only one-"
Pepper ignored him in favour of cupping her hands to her hands and shouting to her opponent, "TAP OUT!" then she made a show of tapping Arlin on the shoulder repeatedly so Ryan could see from where he was standing.
Both Politoed and Sylveon paused on the field, then looked back to their respective trainer for further instruction. The opposing trainer cupped his owns and shouted back to Pepper, "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" he whined, stomping his foot on the ground as though he were about to throw a fit.
"WATCH ME, RYAN!" she mocked his name. She returned Politoed to its capsule and placed it in her satchel, and then forcefully pushed Arlin forward, "Your turn, kiddo."
"Wait, uh… I actually wanted to talk to you about something…" he turned around, facing away from his opponent to face the pirate.
"It can wait," she casually turned him back around to face forward. "Just battle him while my pokémon get back on their feet, I'll have them ready soon," she patted him on the back, then went back to stand by Yuki.
"I…umm….uh… GAH okay!" he finally gave into the pressure and flicked his wrist. He kept his pokémon in his sleeve, so it was easy access. He knew without a doubt which pokémon to use, and as long as the opponent didn't switch out, he can win this in a few moves. "Go, ONIX!"
Out came a ginormous rock pokémon, shadowing well above any other average onix. Arlin prided himself in the powerful rock type, and hoped this would show that he wasn't the huge scaredy skitty he made himself out to be in the cave.
Onix instantly zeroed in on its opponent, then roared at the smaller pokémon.
The sylveon looked up with some apprehension.
'Ryan' (as he heard Pepper call him) stroke his chin and pursed his lips to the side. "A serpent, huh?" he closed his eyes and tilted his head, giving the impression that he was in deep thought. "Nah, too easy." He then put his head back into the battle, "Moon Blast."
"Onix, Gryo Ball!" Arlin shouted.
Sylveon ran back to put distance between them, since if Onix were to simply lay down she would be squashed. When Sylveon was a decent distance away, she began storing energy in her jaw, and she was that the onix was prepared to blast her. Sylveon wanted this finished quickly, so she shot out her borrowed energy from the moon before Onix.
Onix saw the blast quickly coming towards him, and shot out his own blast of energy before the little Moon Blast could hit, and he overpowered the blast with type advantage. Gyro Ball swallowed up the opposing move as it headed towards the fairy type pokémon.
Sylveon was hit, but wasn't down. The impact blew her a few feet away from her previous standing, but she could still move.
"Awesome!" Arlin shouted to himself and Onix. Arlin couldn't use as many moves as he'd like to, using Sandstorm could use up all the sand on the island and sink them, and a badly placed Dig could have Onix at the bottom of the ocean. "Iron Tail!"
Sylveon had barely gotten back on her feet when Onix had lifted his tail and readied himself to slam it. Sylveon looked from side to side from a place to run to. Either way would work, but she had to wait for her trainer's command to make sure.
"Sylveon, Protect!" Ryan called with hesitation. What was he unsure of?
She used Protect, and barely in time. The force of the Iron Tail had pushed her into the ground a little, but she got away without a scratch. "Wish, then use Trump Card." Her trainer called.
As Onix was recoiling from the move, Sylveon began to use Wish. The move was tricky, she had to meditate for a minute for it to work properly.
Arlin called out again, "Onix, Iron Tail! Once more time should do it!"
Onix charged itself as Sylveon used Wish. He agreed with his trainer, once more hit and the battle should be over.
Arlin was ecstatic. This might be the battle where Onix finally evolves! He had to hope, right? The thought of him evolving one day soon always got him pumped up.
Onix charged it's tail to slam on Sylveon. Its eyes were closed like it was meditating, so he was able to get the element of surprise. Once the bottom half of his body was shining, he whipped it to hit Sylveon head on.
Sylveon was thrown across the island, skidding across the land while she barely held onto the last of her HP. She struggled to get up properly this time, limping on one leg as she did. She just had to hold out for a little longer until Wish became effective, then she'll be ready to defeat Onix.
Alone on the sidelines of the battle, Pepper was watching with a keen eye. She was glad Ryan didn't bring out his other piss pretty pokémon, otherwise Arlin would be at a very unfair disadvantage. The boy was doing alright considering that she assumed he was a wuss when she first saw him.
She was curious about the onix though. If this onix was past level 50 then why didn't he evolve it? She looked what moves it learns while leveling up in dexter, and the only thing she could figure is that Arlin wanted it to learn Stone Edge, but…
"Onix, use Stone Edge!"
It looks like he already learned it through a TM. Maybe Onix didn't want to evolve?
Huh.
Oh well, it wasn't any skin off her nose. She'll have plenty of time to figure it out later.
Onix's Stone Edge had missed, and Sylveon had been healed through Wish. The smaller of the two was preparing Trump Card.
Pepper yawned as she shifted her stance. One eye had to be kept on Yuki at all times, and the other on the battle. If Ryan happened to realize she was looking at somewhere that wasn't the battle, he would get paranoid.
Well, more paranoid than he was now. The man was hiding it well, but she could see past it. To the regular eye he was just looking over his shoulder to watch a wingull fly by, or he was just shifting his stance, but Pepper saw right through it. If she didn't know any better she would think that he knew Yuki was coming for him, but he was like this before the two boys arrived on the scene.
She couldn't say why, but at least her cabin boy is still out of sight.
The battle continued, and Onix was beginning to see the downsides of being so large. He couldn't keep an eye on Sylveon at all times, sometimes the small thing would be climbing right up his back and use Fairy Wind for a critical hit. The moves weren't very effective, and Sylveon kept healing herself against the effective steel type moves.
It looked like a stalemate to Pepper. It was only a matter of time until Sylveon ran out of PP or Oni was finally worn down enough, despite the help of potions.
The pirate captain looked towards Ryan again, not caring if he got suspicious in that moment.
He was very antsy. He has been since she first ran into him an hour or so ago. She didn't have the slightest idea why, but he wouldn't stop looking over his shoulder, sticking his hands in and out of his pockets, and his eyes were all over the field.
Yuki was lurking near by his person, but every time he tried to go in for the swoop, Ryan would whip his head back around to see nothing.
She needed him to stay still for one god damn minute.
Onix had landed a Gyro Ball, but Sylveon had used Protect in time. Ryan giggled again and cupped his hands to shout, "You're doing great, but I'm still winning!"
Arlin exhaled a breath and readied himself to reply until Pepper stepped in with her hands beside each side of her head, palms directed forward, "WE SURRENDER!" she shouted extra loudly to make sure he heard.
"Sylveon, use-wait, what?" he looked flabbergasted, "You surrender?" Ryan asked skeptically.
Pepper shrugged with nonchalance, "You really do have us cornered. I know when to give up. You win."
To say Ryan was suspicious would be an understatement. He was shocked into silence. What? He looked around for Pepper's pokémon, but didn't sense them anywhere in sight. What the heck? If it was this easy to bring Pepper to her knees, then Sal would've had her defeated on their first battle.
Something was off.
His eyes trailed to the boy in the red jacket, the one he was battling just now. He looked just as confused as he did.
Wait, didn't Pepper had another crony with her?!
Ryan then hectically searched the immediate area. Masayuki, if he recalled correctly. The boy with the long braid…
Oh snap.
Ryan turned around and saw what could only be Masayuki running away from him and towards the waters where a starmie was waiting for him.
Ryan only spent two seconds patting himself down before realizing the orb was gone. He was pickpocketed.
He ran towards the small teen, not caring for the other two anymore. He can't believe he was so careless. He stops fidgeting for ten seconds and he's pickpocketed. Humans can't be trusted.
Getting the orb back was the only thing on his mind now.
The water wasn't very close, so he was lucky that he had some time to catch up. Yes, the boy was fast, but Ryan was no slugma either.
When Yuki was within grabbing distance, he was tackled to the ground from behind. Ugh, no way that was Pepper on top of him, too much damn weight. His arms were pinned to his back, his face in the sand. Hmm, he wondered if there was an item buried under here. Not that he would go looking for it now, it was just an interesting thought.
"Good job, Arlin." Pepper had congratulated someone, probably the person sitting on his back.
Ryan turned his head in time to watch Pepper grab a pokéball from his belt and summoned Sylveon back.
"Ghh…Let me go you bullies!" Ryan struggled underneath Arlin's heavily muscled form. "I have to take soup to my sick grandma! She's going to die if I don't get there soon! I'm blaming you if my grandmother dies!" he whined accusingly. He looked to see where the theif of his orb was, and he saw him standing idly by the waters, as though he didn't trust Ryan within 50 metres of himself.
"Just shut up." Pepper seethed as she stood back up and went to stand next to his head.
"I love my grandma very much, so you better let me go," He said flatly.
She sighed angrily as she dug his head into the ground with her boot. "You're really making me hate you."
"What are you going to do with him?" Arlin asked.
"Bring him back to HQ, that's for sure," Pepper rubbed her eyes and wiped away some tired tears. The day was barely over and she was exhausted. "Why, you got a better plan, Stone?"
"N-no! You do what you will! I don't usually do this kind of thing, but I wont judge you for it. I don't know what he did, so I can't really say…"
Pepper kneeled down on the sand to relax herself a bit, she thinks she deserves it, "You know those bullies you'll see that will take a kid's treasure and dangle it just above their reach?" she explained.
"I guess so."
"That's what he did to me." She sighed mournfully with a fake, dry sob, "He took what was mine and teased me with it."
"I found it!" Ryan complained from his place on the ground.
"Still," her dominate façade came back in an instant, "I called dibs and you took it and dangled it in front of me. What did you expect?" she sighed as though she were getting tired of this conversation.
Arlin kept a tight hold on Ryan, but was careful not to hold on too tightly in case Ryan really was in the right here. "To respect my property and be thankful I let you look at it."
"Yeah, you're a funny guy." She scoffed a short laugh. "Whatever, it's already been decided what's going to happen to you, Ryan."
"But…aw…you got me…" he went lax and wasn't squirming around anymore.
As soon as he did, Pepper saw Arlin's grip on him loosen ever-so-slightly.
Ryan snatched the opportunity and flipped his body, knocking Arlin into the sand and elbowing him in the temple as he did. When he got to his feet, Ryan roundhoused a kicked to Pepper in the face to make sure she stayed down. When Pepper shouted in pain and clutched her nose instead of jumping back up, Ryan began booking it in the opposite direction of Yuki.
The stealthy and fit boy dashed towards him the moment he flipped Arlin onto his back, but it seems Ryan had the advantage of distance. Yuki didn't spare a glance to either of his knocked down comrades in favour of keeping Ryan in his sights.
"Pidgeot!" the man called out, and the large bird pokémon came out right away. Ryan fluidly jumped onto the bird and flew off. Yuki grabbed the closest rock on the ground and chucked it towards the bird, but to no avail...
"…" Yuki could only gape as Ryan flew further and further away.
Yuki had returned to see that both of them were alive and well in the same spot Ryan had knocked them to.
"Fucking SMARTS!" Pepper groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand and cradled it with the other.
Arlin had taken off his red sweater to press against the side of his head, grunting painfully, "You're telling me."
The braided boy felt a little bad about being the only uninjured one, but also relieved at the same time. The perks of being fit.
He went over to Pepper to see if she was alright. He remembered hearing a sickening crack when Ryan kicked her, and considering the way she was holding her nose, he made an educated guess that it broke.
"Was broken," she reaffirmed when he asked. She inhaled a large breath of air before tilting her head back to try and stop the bleeding. The blood was probably choking her, which would explain the inhale. Yuki waited patiently for her to tilt her head back down to see if there was some way he could help when she hacked a bloody loogy onto the ground.
"Uh, I'll go check on…wait, are you cry-"
"I'm just tired," she hissed before he could finish, and went back to tilting her head back.
"Ah, right…" and off he went to check on Arlin.
Arlin's wound was bad, but it wasn't lethal, it wouldn't even need stitches. It was a shame none of them had any type of medical supplies with them, but Pepper assured him that they'll be fine without. Once Pepper's nose had stopped bleeding and the blood was washed out of Arlin's hair, they prepared themselves to continue forward.
"And off we go to the next city…" Pepper said more or less enthusiastically. "But before I forget, give me the orb." She held her palm out to Yuki.
Yuki dug into his pockets and plunked the thing onto her hand.
"Is that the Blue Orb used to summon Kyrogre?" Arlin asked with extreme interest. He's heard about such things back home in Dewford from the neighbours, but he had no idea what it looked like, only what its purpose was.
"Close, but no. it sure does look like it, doesn't it?" she held it up to inspect it closer. "From far away I couldn't be so sure, but now…" she tossed it in the air and swiped it back as it came back down, "..now I'm positive. This is the one and only Connection Orb."
A/n: The rules in the beginning that Yuki gives to Arlin are based off of Assassins Creed IV (Aside from the pokémon twist). They seemed like pretty stand-up rules and they're fair, so why not?