At last! New chap! Well, thischapter wasn't really fun to write and not really interesting, but oh well. oh, and Pokémon: Survival will be out sometime this month! Thanks for the comment Ezekel.
Chapter 21: Recruits
Jill walked through the empty dark halls of the ship as it rocked around floating in the ocean, with only her Skarmory and her new companion, Smeargle, following behind.
Just ahead, there was a door leading to stairs going up. Jill turned to face her two Pokémon and tried to think.
"Alright," said Jill as she turned to look at Skarmory and Smeargle, "we got to find a way out of here, that's for sure. Who knows how many Rockets are already out there. But we also need to know which path is safest."
Jill explained to the two Pokémon how she had gotten to her position. She told them about how Team Rocket took her Furret, Tumia, away from her and about her Sneasel going with Charley for some help.
"And now we're all separated," she finished. "As much as I'd like to find everyone, we have no idea where we even are. I don't even know if Charley is still inside the ship or somewhere above deck. So, I'm gonna need both of you to help pick a vote on what to do. Do you guys feel better if we stay and look for Charley and Sneasel, or do you guys prefer to go call for help? It would be useful if we had many people searching, but after seeing those Rockets, I don't know what to do anymore."
The two Pokémon looked at each other like trying to decide on what to do. It took some time, but finally they answered back to Jill.
Well, technically they just said their names which made Jill more confused and feel stupid for even asking the two, but just like before, Smeargle did something that yet again surprised both Jill and her Skarmory.
Smeargle broke a piece of the railing off and started to brush his tail against it. In just seconds, the pole ignited in flames on one end. Smeargle swung the pole in circles making an orange glow as he pushed it from one hand to the other making it look like he was putting on a fire show. Then, he aimed it at the wall and slashed away.
Burn marks appeared all over the places Smeargle passed the red marked end until finally it ended in only two words on the wall: get help.
Jill was stunned for a moment, but shook it off. She then faced Skarmory.
"Is this what you agreed to?" she asked the Pokémon.
Skarmory got confused wondering what his trainer wanted him to say, but the male Skarmory just did a silent unnoticed sigh and nodded hoping that was the answer his trainer wanted.
"Okay, majority rules," said Jill. She looked up the narrow stairs only to see darkness. "Let's go."
It didn't take long for the three to finally reach the top of the stairs, but it was completely dark. Nothing was visible at all. The only guidance was the railing leading up.
When they reached the top, Jill opened the door and looked around. It was another hallway, but more familiar. She motioned for Smeargle and Skarmory to follow her and they walked down more dark halls. It was dead silent.
Jill made her way into a bigger hall where most of the people in the ship used to be hanging out, but now it was empty.
Where did everyone go? thought Jill.
They were in the main part of the ship, where everyone should've been until they arrived at the Battle Frontier, yet not a soul was around.
Jill noticed the restroom that Charley was concerned with when some employees of the ship were taking two trainers away and two Pokémon.
Curious, Jill started to walk to the restroom door. She pushed the door open and looked into darkness.
"Think you can provide a little light, Smeargle?" asked Jill.
Smeargle walked right in front of her and got his tail. He started whipping it around until light started to form, then the whole room filled, and it wasn't a pretty happy sight.
The restroom looked like it was the inside of an RV that was just flipped over several times. There were poles in the middle surrounding a whole with a yellow sign saying 'caution, do not cross' in all capitalized letters. The urinals were smashed to the ground and there were no walls to protect anyone from seeing the toilets.
"Wow," said Jill, "what happened here?"
Jill looked at the faucets and saw that one of them was completely totaled with the others perfect. The mirrors all had cracks across them.
That's when Jill noticed something on the other end of the restroom. Carefully, Jill walked passed the whole in the ground and made her way to what she found on the floor. It was a pair of clothing, for about someone in their teenage years. Then, she noticed a resemblance. She remembered a boy wearing the exact same clothes before she entered the ship, back at the Pokémon Center.
She moved her finger through the clothes, and then came across a belt. A belt carrying three Pokéballs.
"Hey Smeargle," Jill called.
Smeargle who was preoccupied by looking at the destruction of the room turned to face Jill.
"Smeargle, can you get these Pokémon out of their Pokéballs?" asked Jill.
Without any sign of saying yes or no, Smeargle jumped passed the damage and made it to where Jill was. He took the balls from Jill and did the same technique he used on the Pokéball that was holding Skarmory earlier. There was a click and the Pokéball released its contents. A Marshtomp came out and looked around, wondering where it was.
"It's okay," said Jill, "I'm here to help you. Do you have a trainer?"
Jill realized how stupid it sounded when she asked if it had a trainer. Of course it had a trainer, if not it wouldn't have been in a Pokéball.
Never the less, the Marshtomp nodded with eyes showing that it didn't trust Jill.
A flash came with another Pokémon coming out of one of the Pokéballs Smeargle opened. It was a Zubat. The Zubat flew up to one of the broken toilets and started screeching to try and get Jill away from that place.
Marshtomp stopped Zubat by saying something in its own language. Zubat stopped and Marshtomp turned its attention back to Jill.
Finally, Smeargle opened the last Pokéball and out came a Kirlia.
A psychic type! thought Jill. She knew she had a better chance at understanding them now since the Kirlia could help translate for her.
"Do any of you—I mean, what's your trainer's name?" Jill was about to ask the same question about whether they had a trainer or not, but she stopped herself and asked a more useful question. Her question was more pointed towards Kirlia.
Kirlia seemed to meditate and then answered Jill telepathically.
"We have a trainer," she said. "His name is Alex. Where is he?"
Jill sighed. "Unfortunately I don't know anybody by that name. But that's not important right now, if you noticed we aren't really in a place you would call ordinary." It was true that she didn't, but she had a pretty good idea of who Alex was by seeing the clothes on the floor which the Pokémon hadn't noticed.
The Pokémon looked around where they were. Indeed, they saw that no one human would enjoy where they were.
"C'mon," said Jill, "let's get out of here. Maybe you can find your trainer above deck."
Jill walked out of the restroom which left the Pokémon no choice but to follow. As Jill opened the door, it broke of its hinges for not being supported well enough. Jill walked over the door and looked around to see where she should go now. The answer was quite obvious: go above deck.
Jill decided to go through the front. That was most likely where the captain and everyone else would be if there was still anyone on the ship.
She walked passed all of the empty stores and restaurants until she reached the end where the hall with the suites were. That's when she came across the room. The room that was Charley's, and the door was wide open.
Jill hesitated in going in. she sighed, and the walked into the darkness of the room.
"Where are we going?" asked Kirlia telepathically.
"Just a little detour," said Jill. "I'm going to check something out."
Jill looked around the now darkened room. Except for a few things spilled on the floor, everything else was exactly the same. Then, Jill heard something.
It wasn't just her, the Pokémon all turned in the sound of the movement too.
"Skarmory," said Jill, "come with me."
The steel type knew better than to argue with its owner. It stood one step ahead of Jill walking towards the sound.
Rattle.
The sound went again. It was coming from one of the drawers. Jill and Skarmory stood in front of the drawer and were preparing themselves for whatever was inside.
"When I open it, I want you ready for whatever it is Skarmory," said Jill.
Skarmory nodded.
Quickly, Jill opened the drawer and jumped back with Skarmory ready to attack. Skarmory then restrained itself and stopped. Jill took this as a 'it was nothing' look and got near the drawer.
Inside was a Pokéball, shaking around making sounds.
"Huh?" said Jill. She picked out the Pokéball and pressed the release button. Nothing happened.
"Could you do me a favor?" asked Jill looking at Smeargle.
Smeargle rolled its eyes and took the ball away from Jill. Smeargle did the same thing to try and open the Pokéball. Then, out came a Pikachu in the light of the Pokéball.
It started to shake away the rest in it and stretch like as if it wasn't released in days. Then it looked at its surroundings.
"Pika?" said the Pikachu.
Smeargle started explaining to the Pikachu about their current situation and the Pikachu acted like it couldn't believe what Smeargle was saying.
"I'd really hate to interrupt this but—" Jill said, but was cut off.
"So would I," said a voice from the doorway.
Everyone turned their attention to the doorway and saw a man standing in the way. It was hard to tell what he was wearing, but Jill knew she couldn't trust the man because of the red 'R' that showed in his uniform.
"But, I have orders," continued the man. He took out a gun from his waist and aimed it at Jill. Just as he was about to shoot, he fell to the floor and behind him stood another man holding a fire extinguisher he used to hit the man.
The other man dropped the fire extinguisher and walked in. Jill suddenly realized who the man was.
"Darry?" she asked.
The man came closer. "Jill," he said revealing he was Darry. Darry made a face after looking at one of the Pokémon, but Jill couldn't tell which one. He turned his attention back to Jill and continued. "Where's Charley?"
"I-I don't know," said Jill.
Darry looked like he was calculating something in his mind.
"No," said Darry. "The curse is with him. It doesn't want h—well, it does—never mind! Jill, we got to save Charley, he's in danger."
"What?" asked Jill. She suddenly realized that she had left her Sneasel with him to help. "That can't be, he's with Sneasel…"
Darry seemed to again start calculating.
"No… we got to help him, now."
Jill turned to face the Pokémon. "Well, Skarmory and Smeargle, come with me to find Charley, the rest of you, this is an emergency, can you handle going up alone?"
The Pokémon started to talk to each other. During this time, Jill started to talk to Smeargle.
"I know you're not my Pokémon," she said. Smeargle turned to listen to her. "So I've got a choice for you: do you want to come?"
The Smeargle started to talk to Jill in its own language which made it very difficult for her to understand, but in the end Smeargle nodded.
Kirlia turned to Jill's direction and spoke telepathically. "Our final decision is we'll help you out. You helped us, and if our trainer truly abandoned us, we'll have nowhere to go. We'll stick with you for the meantime."
Jill turned to face Darry. "They decided to come with us." She said.
Darry looked at the doorway and then faced Jill again. "Okay, the more the merrier. Come on, let's go, Charley's in danger!"
Darry ran out into the hall with Jill and the rest of the new team to go and save Charley from something Jill didn't even know about. The only guide to Charley now was the real Darry himself.