A Boy Named Rocket

by LevelNineCPU

Thirty-two years before the battle at the Azalea Well, the storm at the Lake of Rage, and the final desperate broadcast at the Goldenrod Radio Tower, a mischievous boy and his zubat set out from Knot Island to take on the world. (Team Rocket origin story, major canon divergence, OCs accepted)

3. Chapter 3 - Ferry Fight

Disclaimer - I don't own pokemon.

…

Rex started going to his local battle club as soon as he turned 14 (and unofficially, a little bit before that too). It was a tiny little place, of course - just a minor gym the club members all rented out once a week whatever evening their coach, a ranger, had off.

And Kate had been there since day one. She was a few months older than him, a couple inches taller than him, and several battles better than him. That, along with their conflicting personalities, meant they spent a lot of time… butting heads.

But their club was too small to avoid each other completely, so in the end they settled tentatively on rivals. At least in Rex's mind, anyway - Kate likely just thought of him as a nuisance. He took more pride in that than he probably should have.

And there on the ferry, she stood above them, half bemused and half exasperated. "What was that?"

"That," Rex held a hand out to her. "Was the best damn jump you've ever seen."

"No, it was the stupidest jump I've ever seen. What were you thinking?!" She frowned, but obliged and easily pulled him to his feet. Damn she was strong, Rex noted with equal parts wonder and envy.

"Thinking how to clear that gap."

"You know what I mean! Do you have any idea how bad that could have been?"

He did, actually - it wouldn't have been his first time falling into the ocean from the docks. But he also knew that this wasn't a fight he could win, and he really didn't feel like getting verbally bulldozed this early in the day, so he held up his hands in surrender as Blair scampered up to his shoulder.

"Alright, fine, it was dumb. But I made it, and I'm here now. So unless you want me to jump back off, it's water under the bridge. Or, uh, under the pier, I guess."

She didn't seem to find the joke very funny, like usual, and just rolled her eyes before turning to look at his zubat. "Is your monster alright?"

"Alright? Blair's amazing. Or did you not see her glide me halfway to the deck?"

"Yeah, I noticed - that's why I was worried." Kate reached up to pet her, and she cooed into Kate's hand. Traitor, Rex thought with a huff. Blair paid him no mind, and happily rubbed against the petting. She looked up at Kate expectantly.

Rex sighed. "She wants to play with smoochum (*1)." Kate's smoochum and Blair never quite seemed to notice how much their trainers' annoyed each other, and were good friends outside of battle.

"Well, she just woke up a little while ago, so be gentle," Kate warned Blair, and tapped one of the two capsules on her belt. Isabel was released with a flash, and gave a happy cry at seeing Blair. The zubat looked expectantly at Rex.

"Alright, you can go. But stay in earshot!" Rex reminded her.

"Keep her out of trouble, Isabel." Kate smiled and rubbed under smoochum's chin. The two scampered off to play around the deck and cabin - Rex figured they were small enough to stay out of the way. Hopefully.

"Don't you think it's about time for Blair to have some monster friends that she doesn't battle against? Like, I don't know, a teammate maybe?" Kate suggested.

"At least I can give my full team time outside of her capsule. How long has smoochum been inside, huh?" Rex scoffed.

"Right, expecting a twenty-pound air type to fly you over the ocean because you were too slow to get to your boat is definitely trainer-monster quality time. I'm starting to see why Blair bonded with you, if you're always such a ding-bat."

"Ooh, pulling out the big girl insults, I see. Gonna call me a big stupid jerk next?"

"I might."

"Takes one to know one."

"Dunce."

"Narc."

"Twerp."

"Dipstick."

"Bonehead."

"Wanna find somewhere to sit?"

"Yeah."

…

On a small deck table facing the railing, Rex and Kate watched the ocean roll by beneath the ship in a comfortable silence. They had moved up to the second story of the ferry, and with the extra height could see more of Treasure Island on the horizon. Trained swimming monsters followed alongside the ferry in case of a man overboard or a wild monster attack, but they were clearly goofing off with each other more than working. Rex could relate.

The sun was beginning to beat down by now, and Kate had pulled a water canteen from her purse. Sitting across from her, he got a better look at the girl. They rarely interacted outside of the club, so it was a little odd to see Kate in casual clothes - she had her blue trainer jacket and shoes on, but also cuffed jean shorts and a soft pink tee.

She turned her head to look him over, too. "What are you even doing going to Treasure Beach all geared up, anyway? Kindle Road or the mountain would be better for training, wouldn't it?"

"Well, sure, the beach sucks for training. But I'm going to the south end of the island, not the beach." Rex tapped his backpack. "Got a new map and everything."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Figures - you would go train down there. Have you even heard about the crazy stuff on the south end? The tides, the brush, the gyaradoses?"

"The what?"

"Oh my god, Rex."

Rex motioned to her outfit defensively. "Well, what about you, then? Isn't it kinda early for a beach day?"

"Hm?" She looked down at herself. "Oh, yeah. My mom and dad are taking the next ferry over - I just came early to watch the sunrise." Hearing that, a string of annoyance twanged in Rex's brain. Of course she could spend a day at a tourist trap beach with her parents. Of course she could have a whole family day without work calls, or little siblings, or shouting fights.

Well, not like he'd want that anyway, he supposed. But the option would have been nice.

"Really putting off that journey paperwork, huh?" He tilted his head, trying to get under her skin for some petty revenge. "You'll be stuck in Knot till you're seventeen, at this rate."

Kate's cheeks flushed a light pink. "I'm getting it done! Besides, you weren't done with your center nurse pre-testing either last week at club. We don't all like finishing our work all in one night."

"…"

"You did finish your studying, didn't you?"

"Finished is such a subjective - "

"Oh my god, Rex!"

"Blair was getting antsy!" he defended himself.

"No, you were getting antsy, because you can't sit down and do some work for once in your life instead of finding a shortcut!" she snapped at him and pounded her canteen onto their table. "Why, I ought to tell Coach you were playing hooky!"

"At least I'm doing something, instead of taking a beach day!"

Tensions rose alongside their voices, and both of them instinctively reached for their empty capsules.

They stared each other down, and Rex shrugged with clearly fake nonchalance. "Alright then, how about a bet?"

She was letting go of Isabel's capsule and shaking her head before he even finished talking. "No," she refused. "I know what you're doing, and I'm not letting you suck me into a fight."

"What's the matter?" he goaded her on. "Scared of losing that bad?"

"Big talk for a guy with a single fledgling monster."

Rex flashed a mouthful of sharp teeth. "Oh, how the mighty hath fallen. Rejecting a formal challenge is tantamount to forfeit, you know."

"This is as informal of a challenge as you can get!"

"Sure," he nodded. "But if a girl can't even accept a simple sparring request from her junior trainer, then he really has no need to formally challenge her at all, does he?"

Kate bit her tongue. It was the oldest taunt in the book, but she was falling for it like a low-kicked snorlax. No matter how stuffy and preppy she tried to be, Rex knew that if her temper flared up enough, there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"What are the terms."

Bingo - that was as good as an agreement. "If you win, I take the first ferry back to Knot City, and finish my homework - you can even sit and wait with me to make sure I get on it. If I win, then as far as you know, I was never here. Deal?"

Kate narrowed her eyes. "…I'm gonna send you and your zubat back off that railing."

"Hell yeah!" Rex pumped his fist and motioned his zubat over from her playtime with Isabel. "Alright, Blair, let's do this!"

"Single knockdown, no substitutions. The deck is the limit, including for flying," she declared the rules, walking to the other side of the starboard deck across from him and leaving her water at the table. "Battle time, Isabel!"

Knockdown battles had been a thing for as long as knockout battles had, mostly out of necessity. Trainers liked to battle, but couldn't always afford to lose one-third of their team for as long as it took the monster to rest up and recharge, especially out in the wild.

The solution: instead of a knockout, in which the battle went until one monster can no longer battle, they battled until one monster went down to the floor with a solid thunk. What counted as a "solid knockdown" was much too subjective to be used in most formal competitions, but it worked fine as a quick, low-commitment way to spar. Or to settle a bet.

As their monsters got into position and the trainers stood across from each other, Rex started to plan.

…

Kate knew she was a good trainer.

She wasn't a battling prodigy, or a master psychic, or a tactical genius. But she did the work. She finished her drills every day, she listened to Coach and the other older club trainers, she studied hard, and she was kind to her monsters. She could beat Rex in a straight battle, and the only times she had ever lost to him were when he pulled one of his tricks.

But now, they were on a boat in the middle of the ocean. A flat deck, a few tables, a railing. Clear rules and boundaries. No tricks to play, this time - this was an even playing field, meaning it was her playing field.

Isabel battled zubat back and forth across the deck. Powder snow clashed with gust, and doubleslap with wing attack. Blair could fly, but Isabel had a strong base and was sturdier than she looked.

"Use sing, Isabel!"

"Don't give her the chance! Get in there while she's starting up, use astonish!"

Rex had trained one speedy little bat, Kate would give him that. As Isabel inhaled, the zubat swooped down to attack in a frenzy of teeth, claws, and wings from every which way. Astonish was weak, but that meant it could be used over and over, and with Blair's speed, Isabel might not be able to doubleslap her away if she landed a flinch.

Time for her trump card, then.

"Nix the sing - powder snow swirl!" Instead of shooting a puff of snow and wind directly at Blair like usual, Isabel began to pirouette in place, blowing out a flurry of powder snow and whirling it around her body in a protective shield. The snow buffeted Blair back, and she fell from the air down to the deck. If she hadn't landed on her feet, the battle would have been over then and there.

"Attagirl, Isabel!" Kate praised her, and tried not to preen too much when she heard Rex swear under his breath. He was frantically thinking up a weak spot, she was sure. Too bad for him, there weren't any. After weeks of practice, Isabel perfected the swirl into a shield fully surrounding her body - that meant zero blind spots for Blair to attack from. It didn't do much damage, but it would only get stronger once they could replace powder snow with icy wind, and maybe even get a fairy wind mixed in too.

No time to think about the future right now, though. "Keep up the pressure with draining kiss!" Isabel's lips glowed a soft pink, and she charged towards the zubat.

"Not a chance - mean look!" Rex ordered quickly.

Blair's eyes flashed a terrifying red, and her smoochum froze in place. That was new, Kate noticed. While Isabel struggled against her sudden terror, Blair took to the air again.

"Wing attack, Blair!" Rex shouted. This time, she connected, and even knocked Isabel off the ground towards their abandoned table from before the battle. Her smoochum landed on her feet, though, and now mean look's spell was broken.

"Keep it up, wing attack again!"

"Powder snow swirl, Isabel!" Blair tried to flit behind her before her attack, but behind was no safer than in front, and the freezing twister struck her again. Isabel managed an extra couple of spins this time, and the swirl was even stronger - plastic deck chairs were whipped up off the ground, and Blair was sent sprawling into their table, knocking it over and bringing everything on it clattering down to the deck. Again, not a true knockdown, but getting closer each time.

"Retreat, Blair!" Rex commanded. Kate let Isabel catch her breath instead of giving chase - her smoochum couldn't navigate the new obstacles strewn across their arena as well as a flying monster could. Besides, she was content to let Rex sweat for a bit. His only distance attack, gust, wasn't enough to knock Isabel over and could be countered by a powder snow, and he couldn't attack up close without running straight into the snow twister.

Using mean look was a cute trick - he probably hoped to catch them off guard and finish it with a single wing attack. But he played his hand too early. He hadn't tired out Isabel enough beforehand to manage a one-shot-win, and now she would be ready for it if he tried again.

Rex bit his lip. "Keep her away with gust!" The zubat screeched and landed on her feet, before furiously batting her wings towards the table. A miniature windstorm kicked up - there wasn't much finesse to it, but it had force, as small whirlwinds and sharp air blades blew towards Isabel and Kate with a deafening whoosh.

"Take cover behind the table!" Kate shouted over the noise to her smoochum, who obeyed with a small hum. No reason to waste energy countering with powder snow unless she needed to. Besides, time was on her side, not Rex's.

She had to wonder what he was bothering keeping her back for, though. Isabel wasn't taking any damage - all he was doing was burning Blair's energy for a few seconds' worth of distance between the two monsters. Just delaying the inevitable? Or did he have a scheme?

Best not to find out, she decided. Give Rex and inch and he'd take a mile, and she needed to keep this match under her control. Blair was out of range for sing or powder snow, so Isabel had to advance. Fine by her.

"Get in there, Isabel!" Kate commanded, and her smoochum leapt out from behind the table.

"Go for it, Blair! Astonish, and give it all you've got!" Rex ordered.

"Again?" Kate scoffed. "You're either seasick or desperate. Powder snow swirl!" With a singing cry, her smoochum pirouetted on one foot once more and raised up a tornado of ice around her, buffeting Blair back and sending her skidding across the ground, flailing her wings to stay on her feet.

"Finish it - doubleslap!" Kate declared. Isabel gave a triumphant trill, and charged forward -

Before her feet slipped out from under her, and she slammed down flat on her face. Kate's jaw dropped, and Rex's face split into a cheshire grin.

"Gotcha."

"I-Isabel!" Kate rushed over. Her monster was fine, of course - she never even took a hard hit. But more than just checking on her smoochum, she wanted to know what Rex did. How in the world did he manage to make an ice type trip on flat wood?

But on her way, she nearly tripped too. Underfoot, coating part of the deck, was a long, thin sheet of ice.

"We did it, Blair! You were amazing!" Rex laughed, squeezing his zubat tight. Isabel gave a disappointed hum, and Kate bent down to pick her up.

"Thanks, Isabel. Don't worry, it wasn't your fault. It was…" Her voice trailed off as her eyes flicked back to the table they had knocked over. Her empty canteen rolled into her foot with the tilt of the boat, its contents spilled out across the deck - and now, frozen.

She picked up both her smoochum and canteen, and understanding dawned on her.

"Earlier, when we knocked over the table. Blair spilled my water onto the deck."

"And you froze it yourself with that powder snow shield!" Rex confirmed as Blair nipped at his fingers happily.

Of course. Isabel's powder snow swirl surrounded her entire body - they had made sure of that in training, so that quick monsters like Blair (specifically Blair, in fact) wouldn't have any openings. And that meant it swirled around her feet, too.

"But that was one small spill! How did you know she would slip on that?!"

He tapped his foot against the deck. "You gave me a lot of shit for jumping onto the boat late, but it helped me here. You had longer to get used to the rocking of the ocean, and barely even noticed it by the time the battle started - but I was still getting my sea legs, so I couldn't forget about it, and I knew the water would spread across the deck wider and wider with time. Using gust so much was to keep you away until the spill was big enough, and to help spread it faster. After that, we just had to attack you in the right place, and force you to use the swirl to defend yourself right over the newly-spread water."

Distantly, Kate recognized the familiar sinking feeling of loss. Weeks of practice went into developing her trump card, and he played it right back at her. All because of a water canteen.

Rex shrugged derisively - he was enjoying this way too much. "And that's why you should always finish your drinks. Dehydration is killer, you know."

"You need some better one-liners!" Kate snapped. "Besides, zubat wasn't the one to knock Isabel over!"

"We agreed that if a monster takes a hard knockdown, it's out. Besides, Blair knocked the water over in the first place - smoochum wouldn't have slipped if it wasn't for Blair," he pointed out.

Kate set her jaw. Tricked or not, her monster had been knocked down. She had nothing to prove, and even the best trainers got blindsided now and then. She rationally knew that she should let it go.

But her blood boiled, and her pride demanded payback. She refused to leave this battle the fool.

Kate reached for the second capsule on her belt. "You wanna play rules-lawyer, fine. You never said we could only use one monster."

"You're damn right I didn't!" Rex's grin widened. "Bring it on - we'll take that one down too!"

But before she could even flick the button, the deck lurched, and both humans flailed their arms in surprise, trying to grab onto something as the ferry pulled into the pier. They felt the familiar thud of water monsters bumping into the hull to guide it, and Blair instinctively flitted up to Rex's shoulder. The spell of battle was broken (*2), and both trainers came back to their senses.

Just in time, too. As people began filing to the exit ramps, crewmates started moving about. Two teens in full and half gear respectively, a ruined deck, ice everywhere - there would be no talking their way out of this.

Kate blinked. "Oh my god. Oh my god, I can't believe we just did that. I'm gonna get in so much trouble - "

"Aww, don't worry so much!" Rex rolled his eyes. "Nothing's gonna - "

"Hey! You kids!" A deep, gruff voice called out from the doorway leaving the cabin. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I take it back," he conceded immediately. "Time to go."

"Go where?!" Kate whipped her head around to look at him. Rex was already one leg over the railing, on the second story of the boat above the docks.

"Come on!"

Her eyes widened. "Oh, you cannot be serious - "

"Hey!" the man shouted again.

Rex raised an eyebrow. "If you wanna stay here, that's fine by me. But if you don't feel like missing your beach day…" He motioned out to the island.

She was frozen to the ground for a moment, before the stomping of crewmates coming their way jolted her back into movement.

"A-alright!"

Rex smiled, and waved for her to follow. "C'mon, then!" He slung his bag off his shoulder to hold it in front, slipped over the side of the railing, and began to slide down the waxed hull to the pier's edge.

"Oh god, oh god…" Kate swallowed, but unzipped her jacket and jumped the railing with him. "Isabel, powder snow!"

Her shoes screeched horribly against the ferry's side, and she probably ruined her jean shorts, but her protective coat was long enough to cover most points of contact, and it did its job against the friction. From the crook of Kate's arm, Isabel blew a bluff of snow onto the ground, before her trainer recalled her. At the bottom of her slide, Kate pushed off, rolled on the fluffy snowdrift, and hit the ground running.

On the docks, Rex motioned at her to come with him - he must have had Blair slow his fall. She ran after him as the crew's shouts faded out behind her.

…

Treasure Beach wasn't half as busy as the port back at Knot City, thankfully - the two made a clean, unobstructed getaway onto the boardwalk before stopping to rest.

"That," she panted and zipped her coat back up, "was awful."

Rex shrugged, breathing heavily to catch his breath. "Just make sure you take a different ferry on your way back, I guess."

She whirled on him. "Don't be so cavalier about this! That was your fault, you know!"

"You agreed to the terms just the same as I did!" he insisted. "If you wanna finish the battle right here and now, we can. But if not, you forfeit, and I win the deal."

As much as Kate hated to admit it, he wasn't technically wrong - she did agree to the battle, even if it was against her better judgement. She huffed.

"I wasn't going to tell anyone anyway."

Rex blinked. "You… weren't?"

"Of course not!" She frowned. "Even if I wanted to, you could have said I battled on the boat."

"Oh. Well, uh, good. I… I wasn't gonna tell anyone that either." He kicked at the ground lightly.

"…Good." She nodded, satisfied. They stood there for a moment, leaning against a still-closed storefront to rest. "…That was a pretty good trap. With my water canteen."

Rex's lips quirked upwards. "Thanks. I literally couldn't have done it without you."

"Oh, shut up!" she groaned and shoved him lightly as he snickered. "I'm going to get this snow off of me. You should get Blair to a center before you go off into the brush to train."

"I will," he nodded. More serious, but still with a small smile. "See you at club?"

"You'd better. Next time is payback!" she called after him as he jogged off, laughing.

Kate shook her head as she turned to walk in the opposite direction. Honestly, that boy.

…

A/N:

I had trouble with the start of this one (let me know if something seemed off, or if there's something I can do better!), but I gotta admit I'm proud of the water trick Rex pulled. That sort of Jojo-style tactical turnaround is going to be fairly common in battles, especially Rex's, so I hope you all enjoy it.

In case it wasn't clear, though, Rex would get his ass kicked in a straight full-team battle against her. He's clever, not strong.

I'm considering whether or not chapters 1 and 2 should be combined. Let me know if you have any input!

Important note: the author does not condone or advise Rex's attitudes and behavior. He's not meant to be a cool rebel or a lone wolf or any sort of good role model, he's meant to be a little prick.

Also, would you look at that, a new character profile!

Name: Kate

Age: 15

Occupation: Student, trainer

Appearance: Medium-short blonde hair, brown eyes, tall, athletic, mostly wears modest or sporty clothes

Personality: Straight-laced

Motivation: ?

Skills: Sewing / tailoring

Flaws: Hot-tempered

Other: Self-conscious about her height

Trainer style: Straightforward and well-balanced

Monster 1: Isabel the smoochum

Notes: Wears a skirt made by Kate (*3)

Monster 2: Unknown

Notes: Unknown

Don't forget, OC form is in Chapter 1 and my bio. Thanks for reading!

*1 - using a monster's name is considered very familiar and informal. It's usually polite to refer to them by species' name unless you're given express permission or you're very close with the owner.

*2 - a very important skill for any good battler to learn is how to enter a battling state of mind. In battle, a trainer's brain has to be working on several levels at once - constant basic commands, enemy analysis, long overarching offense planning, detail gathering, etc (and all that to say nothing of the psychic stuff). Going around daily life like this would be mentally exhausting, but it's nearly impossible to effectively battle without a proper mindset, and often you have to swap between battle and normal mindsets at a pretty rapid speed depending on the situations. Some trainers can find the switching back and forth a bit jarring, especially early on, but you either get used to it or you're not cut out to be a battler.

*3 - accessorizing monsters is quite common, especially for girls and more "girly" monsters. Rex scoffs at it for the sake of his masculine pride, but secretly wishes he had the guts to put a bow on Blair.