Carmine story chapter 11

May found herself falling endlessly through the sky into a gray void below. Crying for help reaching out a hand to the sky, begging and pleading for someone to stop her fall. Then suddenly in her peripheral vision, she saw great walls of water reach up from behind her as their crushing weight bore down on her frail body. She suddenly gasped for air as she shot up out of bed drenched in her sweat. She quickly scanned her surroundings to find she was in a room she was oddly familiar with. It was adorned floor to ceiling with fineries and expensive looking furniture all with a bit of a South American flair. "Where am I?" May looked down at herself only to realize her clothes were gone. "Why am I naked?" 'Well' she thought to herself 'at least no one else is in here.' She gingerly pulled herself out of bed suddenly aware of how stiff she had been. She slowly made her way over to a full-sized mirror in the corner of the room. She inspected herself for injuries noting that there were none, but something seemed off about the mark on her chest. Has it changed color? She ran her hand over it and jumped a little when she realized it no longer felt like skin. Rather it had the texture and consistency of a drenched stone. When she went to touch it again however she noticed it still functioned as normal, she was still able to twist her torso without a noticeable change. "That can't be good…" she looked around the room again looking for a closet of some kind. In the top left corner of the room, she managed to find a team aqua outfit in one of the wardrobe doors. She slipped it on inspecting herself in the mirror.

"Not bad," she thought to herself 'cute even' but her midriff showed off more skin then she was used to revealing the part of her mark that danced below her ribs. 'Now where is my stuff?' After scouring the room for a while she had no such luck. "Well, suppose I better get a look around wherever it is I'm at." May knew she was here with Britt as a friend and potential ally but, she was still nervous about the whole "Joining a Gang" thing. She headed toward the door cautiously creaking it open and peering out into the hallway. "Hello?" May called out only to be answered by the hall's steel reverberations. "Coast is clear I guess…" she stepped out off of the soft plush carpet and on to the cold hard latte metal floor. Cautiously she made her way down the hallway until she hit a corner. As she was about to turn she suddenly heard a door creak around the other end of the hall. "Oh crap!" May quickly turned around and darted toward the bedroom she had just come out of only to smack right into someone! The two thunked to the floor.

"Ow ow ow…" May said rubbing her forehead as she looked up at whomever she ran into.

"Hey watch where you're goi- oh! Hey, you must be that People of the Water girl!" The woman in front of her suddenly realized. The woman had long black and blue hair which paired beautifully with her rich dark skin. She also seemed to be wearing what very much looked like some variation of the aqua uniform.

"What's up names Shelly? I'm Archies Right-hand Woman." She said, pulling herself and May up.

"Oh wow," May said looking up at her in astonishment.

"Huh?" Shelly looked at her puzzled.

" I mean ah, you're just much taller than I thought you were?!" May stuttered at her earlier remark.

"Oh yea, makes getting around this Sub a lot more difficult than you would think." Shelly smiled dusting herself off.

"Oh, so this is a submarine?" May said, taking a second look at her surroundings.

"Yup. Sure is this puppy is brand spanking new fresh from the slate port docks!" Shelly boasted.

"Are we underwater?"

"Yes ma'am. If you want I'll have someone show you down to the observation deck later."

"An observation deck! That's amazing!"

"Finest ship in all of Hoenn's Seas. But, anyways how do you feel? You and Brittany just about drowned."

"Oh right! How is Brittany?!" Shelly chuckles a bit at that.

"That knucklehead is fine, she's somewhere in the crew's quarters relaxing as we speak." May seemed visibly relieved.

"Thank goodness" May looked around nervously again.

"What's wrong?" Shelly asked.

"Um, my things, were you able to recover them?"

" oh yea, all those things are fine Archies got them up in his…" Shelly Gesturing with very overly emphasized air quotes. "Office"

"This Archie, I'm guessing he's the Boss?"

"Right on the money. I'm sure you have no end to your questions so I'll tell you what, why don't we get you up to see him and I'll have him explain it all. Come on, follow me."

"Um actually…" May squeaked out.

"Huh, what is it?" Shelly said, turning.

"So like i was naked in there… what was that about?" Shelly did a bit of a double-take at that.

"Well, Ah… Our expert on the PoW's wanted to get a better look at that mark you have on your chest... Me and Britt insisted we wait until you were awake but we got overruled. Archie and Granny insisted time was short." May's face became slightly pale, noticing this Shelly quickly reacted. " BUT, Me and Britt were in the room the whole time nothing weird happened I swear."

"okay…Don't ever do anything like that again," May said not looking at her.

"Sure, Sure… I'm pretty sure I remember Granny saying something about your mark matching up with the symbols etched on some Legendary Pokemon…"

"A Legendary?" In May's brief time adventuring through Hoenn she had yet to hear any legends mentioned in the region.

"Yea, Kyorge the creator of the seas specifically… and if it's true it's all the more reason we need to speak to Archie right away. It's actually the whole reason I came down here." Shelly insisted.

"Do you think I can see Britt first?"

"Ah… later, I'm not exactly sure where she is and this is a rather large ship."

"I want to see her. I want to know she's okay." May said more sternly. Shelly simply sighed in mild annoyance.

"Fine. She should be somewhere in the lounge on the upper decks… Come on…" begrudgingly Shelly escorted May through the ship's decks passing the occasional Aqua member on the way up until they came to a wooden door with the words ``GRUNTS ONLY" poorly scrawled across it. From outside the door there seemed to be quiet the ruckus in there. Shelly seemed slightly more annoyed with every second that passed. She turned to May " keep it brief… I don't want to have to deal with these guys much longer then I have to." May simply gave her a curt nod. She cracked the door open and two men slammed into the wall knocking a frame down from its fixture. As May entered the room the only word she could think of to encapsulate what she saw before she was "Chaos". Men tackling each other, throwing beer bottles, karaoke going on in one of the corners and she could have been mistaken but she was sure she caught the faint whiff of fire. She quickly made her way toward the center of the room looking left and right trying to spot her friend.

"Hey, Newbie! What the hell is ya doing just standing around for? Get over here, grab a seat!" One of the Grunts to May's right was calling her over.

"Sorry, I can't. I'm trying to look for someone!" May shouted back trying to be heard over the noise and music.

"Nonsense! Come sit that ass of yours down!" May didn't know that she appreciated that but considering she was unable to find Brittany there was every chance this guy might be able to point her in the right direction. So begrudgingly she sat down at ton one of the several chairs surrounding the beaten and battered wooden table. Outside of the man who had called her over two other female grunts where also present but, they seemed more preoccupied with whatever was going on on their smartphones. The man across from her wore more or less the same outfit as the rest with one exception he wore thick black square shades that just barely stuck out far enough not to get buried under his long brunette hair.

"You stick out like a sore thumb here you know that?" said in a rye tone.

"Yea Sorry? I think? I did just get here so all of this is well…" May glanced over toward the karaoke stand where two women were draped over each other intoxicated. "New to me…"

"Yea I figured as much, Newbie. Name's Greg, Greg Abbey. I'm an official Agent of Aqua. incase you don't know I'm a pretty big deal around here." Greg flaunted arrogantly. The two women glanced up from their phones for not but a brief moment to side-eye the man.

"Cool… Say do you know a woman named Brittany? She's a friend of mine an-"

"HA," Greg interjected loudly.

"Ha?" May said confused and annoyed.

"You expect me to believe you know Admin Brittany, don't make me laugh." May looked away and back at him again.

"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?"

"COME ON YOU JOINED TEAM AQUA AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO ADMIN BRITTANY IS." the woman next to him put down her phone in frustration.

"Greg for fuck sake, shut up." she blurted in annoyance, as Greg's face fell.

"Yea, Greg fuck you." said the other grunt at the table.

"You need to find Brittany?" The first woman asked.

"Ah, yea I need to talk to her before I go up to meet the boss."

"Ight, no problem. Come on, I think she's over in the private room." the kind grunt and May stood up and left the table heading toward the top left corner of the room. As they approached a door the Grunt knocked fervently before receiving a knockback. "Ight, head on in your good to go." with a final lazy thumbs up the grunt was off. May then softly twisted the knob and pulled the door open quietly to reveal a very different environment.

' Why the hell do they have a speakeasy on the other side of that?' May thought to herself as she entered the dimly lit bar. And there she was just a few stools down the line speaking with the largest man May had ever seen. 'Where is his shirt?' May thought before approaching them.

"So anyways I was like BAM, bashed da geezers head in like a bag of potata chips with his beer bot- HEY May you're up! WOW, thank god and all. Seriously tho good to see ya still breathin. I began to worry those ranger guys glassed ya." Britt said as she became aware of May's presence. May ran up and hugged her squeezing her as tight as her arms would allow.

"Yeah okay, I get it I missed ya but please don't pop all my bones thank you." Britt Gasped out.

"Ah, so this is the little scamp I've heard all about." the huge man said spinning slightly toward them.

"Oh, yea, May the big guy Here is Matt he's the bosses younga broda."

"Nice to meet you I'm May Birch"

"AHHH That's right! The Professor's daughter! I Owe you an apology." May tilted her head a little at that.

"Huh, What for?"

"Hehehe… I'm the one who sent those Grunts after you and your Dad's research notes."

"Oh… ah it's okay I think? They weren't all that tough."

"HAHAHA. They weren't? welp, I guess that's what I get for sending Greg and his buddies over."

"You know I thought I saw him before…"

"Yeah sorry about him, he's a real piece of work," Britt interjected. "Scuse me for a sec eh?" Britt got up out of her seat and marched over to the door opening it and sticking her head through the crack.

"HEY GREG!" The room went silent.

"YES ADMIN!?" a muffled Greg responded

"FUCK YOU EH!" and the whole room cheered and laughed, well except for Greg. Britt then satisfied with her oh so important work made her way back to her seat. "Hehe… yea fuck that guy, right Matt?"

"Mh-hm If it weren't for his father giving us some back door supplies from Silph co. we would have kicked his ass out awhile ago!" Matt grumbled out

"May why don't yous have a seat and have a drink or two. To celebrate yous bein awake an all." Britt suggested.

"Well, I'd love to but I'm supposed to go meet with Archie an-"

"Wait what? May what are you doin here the boss was callin for ya!?''

"Well i-"

"Honey, the first rule of gruntin, always answer the boss straight away!" Britt said getting up and pushing May toward the exit.

"Wait! Britt, could you come with me?" May asked just before being pressed out the door.

"Ah... Sure I guess…"

"I'd appreciate it! I just got intimidated when I talk to well…"

"Yeah okay I'm comin, I'm comin…" Britt said begrudgingly looking back at her drink still full on the counter.

A short while later after some moving around from point to point on the ship, Shelly, Britt, and May all found themselves in the Main Control room of the submarine. The room May and Co. found themselves in were very lightly furnished for a few knick-knacks about here and there. In the center of the room sat a large metal chair that was bolted to the floor. As they got closer to the center of the room the chair spun around to face them revealing none other than Archie himself.

"Aye, Good to finally meet yar Miss Birch…"

"ah, likewise sir!"

"Arrgh please the name's Archie…"

"YES, ARCHIE!" May said a sweat beaded down her forehead.

"Reel it back" Britt whispered, jabbing her side.

"Aye, Well Miss Birch ye be havin any idea as to why we be needin ya?" Archie Inquired. May shifted nervously unconsciously running her hand over the small amount of her mark that peered from her top.

"Ah, well, I assume it has something to do with the mark of the sea…"

"Correct, Miss Birch. Tell me how much do ye know about da people of da water…"