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Chapter 12
Since When Did This Story Become A Stephen King Novel?!
Morgan braced himself as all of the ghosts swarmed him. He didn't know if they were going to suck out his soul or what, but he knew it wouldn't be pretty either way and he couldn't do anything about it. He didn't know how to do anything more than bite and punch. If he knew how to use water attacks maybe he could fight back, but he'd been too preoccupied with all the craziness in this world to really figure out his Croconaw powers.
Just as the ghosts were to close in on him though, Bird leapt from her perch and flew right in front of Morgan. She opened her beak and released a loud, piercing shriek that sent literal energy soundwaves in the form of musical notes. The ghosts were blown back into the walls, where they somehow crashed into the wood even though they were ghosts and should have been intangible. Maybe when they were in pain they were as solid is everybody else.
When the ghosts drifted back up, even more weirdness happened. The ghosts started attacking each other, shooting balls of shadowy energy or clawing the others across the face. Morgan could see that their eyes had become literal swirls that endlessly looped around like in a cartoon. The absurdity of the situation left Morgan dumbfounded and unable to do anything more than just stand there like an idiot and watch the ghosts beat each other up.
Then his common sense kicked in and it all made sense. The ghosts were confused. Bird had used Chatter and now all the ghosts were hurting everyone except Morgan. Granted, he thought confusion would look a little more dignified and not ripped straight out of the anime…
"Thanks, Bird," Morgan said as the Chatot landed on his shoulder. "Come on, we need to get out of here! We need to check up on everyone else!"
The Croconaw rushed past the dazed ghosts and out of the cabin. When he got on deck, he found that his surroundings had changed drastically since last night. For one, they weren't anywhere near Starwander Island anymore. Somehow the ship had been dragged out to sea and was now somewhere in the middle of the ocean. He would have blamed Magikarp for this, but she didn't seem to be anywhere in sight.
Next, the once somewhat cloudy sky was now covered in dark storm clouds and brought down torrential rain. Massive raindrops splattered all over Morgan and Bird. While the water just rolled off Morgan's scales and didn't bother him much, the downpour soaked the poor Chatot immediately. Within heartbeats, the rain had turned the once fluffy bird into a wet, sopping mess that looked like a drowned rat. She lifted her head up and closed her eyes, trembling miserably as she endured the harsh rain. Morgan put his claw over her head, trying to shield her as best he could.
"What is this?!" Morgan shouted to no one. "What is even happening?!"
As if to answer his question, a giant lightning bolt fell from the sky with a tremendous boom. The thunder rattled the ship and Morgan's eardrums. The bolt illuminated the world for just a heartbeat, but that was all Morgan needed to get his answer.
There was another ship right beside Morgan's. It was a ghastly ship the size of a Wailord and loomed over Morgan like a dreadful phantom. The ship was old and decrypted, looking several hundred years old. A ghoulish fog spilled out from beneath the hull and flowed all around the ship while an eerie green light glowed from the deck. The harness Morgan had untied from Magikarp was now fastened to the back of this new ship.
"Oh god, it's the Ghost Ship," Morgan said with a trembling voice. "Oh god, it's real!"
Just then, a Banette burst from underneath the floorboards and snatched Bird right off Morgan's shoulder. It then leapt off the ship and plummeted straight into the sea, taking the Chatot with it.
"BIIIIIIIIIIRD!" Morgan shrieked.
With no regard for his own safety, he ran off the ship and dove into the water after the Banette. He saw the ghost taking Bird deeper into the ocean, keeping a firm grip on her even as Bird flapped her wings wildly. Air bubbles leaked out of her beak as she screamed silently into the water.
If Morgan didn't hurry, she'd drown within fifty heart beats.
Spurred on by his love for this precious parrot, Morgan blasted through the water faster than a torpedo. The Banette didn't even notice Morgan when the Croconaw closed in and sank his hooked fangs around the ghost's head. Miraculously, his teeth didn't go straight through the ghost's form and trapped the specter between Morgan's jaws.
The ghost swatted at Morgan with its claws, but he could barely feel them scraping against his tough scales. Morgan snapped his fangs down harder on the ghost and death-rolled like a ravenous crocodile.
He immediately ripped off the Banette's head and sent the rest of the body flying through the water. Black wisps rose from the beheaded corpse and clouded up the water. Morgan spat out the ghost before rushing to the now headless body drifting lifelessly in the dark ocean. Bird had been freed from the Banetee's clutches, but she wasn't moving. She floated vapidly in the water, eyes frozen open in blank terror.
Morgan scooped up the Chatot in his claws and jetted back to the ship. He breached within heartbeats, flying so high into the air that he was able to land on the ship easily. He slammed Bird down on the planks and jammed the blunt part of his claws into her chest, initiating the closest thing he had to bird CPR.
"You are not dying on me!" Morgan cried as he repeatedly pushed down on her body. "Wake up, Bird!"
He pried open her beak and breathed a mouthful of air into her lungs. The Chatot suddenly began coughing up water and kicked her legs wildly. She rolled back onto her stomach as she kept gagging up seawater.
"Oh thank god," Morgan as he wrapped her in a tight embrace. "You're okay, oh thank you, thank you."
"Ghosts," she squeaked out, still coughing hoarsely.
"It's okay, it's gone," he said, running his claws down her soaked, feathery back. "You're safe. You're okay."
"RAAAYYAAAAH!"
She squeezed out of his grasp and screamed out more musical shockwaves. Morgan covered his ears as the deafening noise echoed all around him. He looked behind him to find more ghosts had surrounded him, a horde of Yamask. The Chatter had confused them thankfully, making it so that they flew into one another and kept attacking each other. Morgan stood up as he set Bird by his feet, who was having another coughing fit. The Croconaw growled loudly as he snapped his jaws with enough force to crush a car.
These ghosts had crossed the line. It was already bad enough they were messing with his ship and undoubtedly looting it, but then they had the audacity to try drowning his beloved Chatot.
Feral, savage instincts flooded Morgan's mind that told him to rip and tear through every single one of these phantoms, stopping at nothing until he had shred every single last one to pieces. Maybe he didn't know how to use his water abilities yet, but biting would work just fine. After all, Bite was a dark-type move, perfect against ghost-types like these.
But Morgan didn't have to do anything, because a pillar of water shot from behind the Croconaw and doused the ghosts, followed up by a blast that froze the waterlogged ghosts solid. The ghosts promptly dropped onto the ship, still encased in ice. Morgan looked back to find Skipper, Stormy, and Slashie standing there. Skipper looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack, Stormy looked like a ticking time bomb, and Slashie was just smiling all happily like they were at a theme park attraction instead of literally fighting for their lives.
"Good, you guys are okay too," Morgan said with a relieved sigh.
"I can't believe this, we're being attacked by the Ghost Ship!" Skipper wailed. "Stormy, I thought you said it wasn't real!"
"It's not supposed to be!" Stormy hissed. "Dad always said it was a stupid myth!"
"Well then what do you call that then?!" Skipper cried as he pointed to the ghastly ship looming close by. "What hauled us out into the middle of the ocean, huh?"
One of the Yamask suddenly broke free from its icy binds and flew straight toward Skipper. He screamed shrilly and blasted water at its face, but the ghost masterfully weaved around the attack. Just as the ghost was to slam into the Marshtomp, a scythe sliced the ghost in half, straight down the middle. Its severed body drifted into the planks beneath before dissolving into black wisps. Everyone turned to Slashie to find that both of her arms were now covered in a black, shadowy substance, making it look like her arms were made of ethereal flames.
"I told you, I wouldn't let any of these ghosties hurt my little pirates!" she said.
"What… why are your blades like that?" Skipper asked nervously, backing away from the unnatural scythes. "I've… I've never heard of Scyther that can make their scythes look that way…"
"Why, this is my Hidden Power!" she said cheerfully. "Everyone's Hidden Power is different, and this is what mine does! It's really good for cutting up Dreepy and ghosties that wanna bother me, isn't it?"
Oh right, Hidden Power, that move Unown used before it became a TM. In the main games, its power and type were always different depending on what Pokémon learned the move. In the Mystery Dungeon games, it was one of the weakest, most useless moves one could ever learn. It was what made Unown so laughable when they should have been creepy, eldritch creatures.
Apparently in this world, Hidden Power was a lot more respectable. Morgan would need to find that TM when he could get back to land. If Hidden Power could give a Scyther ghost blades, maybe his would let him breathe fire or something equally cool and ridiculous as that.
Of course, first he needed to deal with a certain ship causing him problems right now. Especially because all the other Yamask had thawed out and were coming after the crew.
"Leave this to me, dearies!" Slashie said, flashing him a wide grin.
She opened her wings and sped forward, drawing her ghostly scythes. She flew straight into the group and relentlessly massacred the intruders. Morgan could hear the Scyther giggling as she cut down every single one of those ghosts, spilling their wispy blood with every strike.
"Okay, so clearly we're dealing with the Ghost Ship, no way around that," Morgan then said to his remaining crewmates. "Stormy, what do the legends say about how to deal with this thing?"
"You don't," Stormy said. "Once the Ghost Ship gets you, you're doomed. Of course, you're not supposed to encounter it while you're docked… only Pokémon that see the ship are idiots that went way into the ocean during a storm or at night. How exactly did we get dragged all the way out here? Magikarp didn't do this, did she?"
"No, I think the Ghost Ship took us here," Morgan said with a grimace. "I took the harness off Magikarp when we were mainland and was going to put it back on in the morning. And I just saw the end of the harness attached to that freaky ship…"
Stormy shot him a murderous glare. Morgan thumped his tail loudly behind him and hissed.
"Come on, don't blame me for this!" he cried. "You told me the ship wasn't real, so how was I supposed to know this would happen?!"
Just then, a Dusknoir emerged from the captain's quarters carrying the crew's gem bag. Behind him were a few Dusclops carrying the rest of the crew's loot, including their very map.
"Hey! Give us our stuff back!" Morgan shrieked.
He charged forward and jumped up before sinking his fangs into the Dusknoir's arm. It groaned as it dropped the loot. It grabbed Morgan with its free hand and tried pulling him free, but Morgan's hooked teeth held fast. Nothing could escape the Croconaw's grip except his death.
"Release me, cretin!" the Dusknoir bellowed.
Morgan dug in deeper as he dragged the Dusknoir down until Morgan's feet touched the ship again. He threw his head back and forth, thrashing around the ghost.
A fist coursing with electricity slammed into Morgan's temple. Hundreds of volts ran through his body, frying him from the inside out. He let out a muffled screech as burning pain filled his entire being. Even still, Morgan refused to let go. He couldn't anyway. The electricity was making all of his muscles spasm and forcing him to bite down even harder on the Dusknoir.
The Dusclops surrounding them fired off multiple shadow balls, all of them exploding in Morgan's face. Stars filled his vision as each attack hit him, slowly wearing him down.
A barrage of mud smacked into the ghosts, hitting each of them in the eyes and blinding them. All of them staggered and desperately rubbed at the mud, only for Stormy to rush in, the tips of her flippers glowing with white power. She sliced into each of their bodies with these flippers, a metal sound ringing into the air as the ghosts dropped their loot. Skipper rushed in and grabbed each and every item, shielding them from the rain the best he could. With their hands empty, Stormy then finished each of them off with a pressurized spray of bubbles that blew each and every ghost off the ship and into the sea.
Of course, since Morgan was still attached to the Dusknoir when he was hurled from the ship, he too went plummeting into the ocean.
As the ghosts sank into the dark waters, the electricity running through Morgan's muscles finally ceased and he gained control of his body. He unhooked himself from the Dusknoir, tearing out a bit of ghostly flesh as he did so.
He could see dozens of glowing red eyes in the murky water, casting an eerie, hazy light that sent shivers down his spine. He had definitely not seen those lights when he was down here before. They all seemed to watch him, eying him with unsettling curiosity.
He sped back to the surface in a hurry, too scared to stay beneath the waves any longer.
Morgan shot out of the water and landed back on the ship. He could see Slashie had rejoined the group and no more ghosts seemed to be attacking them. He hurried over to them, trying not to slip on the soaked planks. The rain was coming down harder now, the heavy droplets actually starting to make a water-type like Morgan uncomfortable. He raised an arm over his head as he joined the crew again.
"We need a plan," Morgan said. "Anyone got any ideas?"
"We kill all the ghosties that keep trying to come on this ship!" Slashie said a little too eagerly.
"No, we're gonna tire ourselves out before we wipe them all out," Morgan groaned. "Plus we don't even know how many ghosts there are."
"Plus we need to get out of this storm," Stormy added. "A lightning bolt might hit the ship and if that happens, we don't need any ghost ship attacking us to be doomed."
"Or a big old wave comes and knocks the whole ship over…" Skipper said nervously.
"Sounds like our best bet is to just get out of here then," Morgan then said. "I mean, sure the Ghost Ship might chase us, but I'm sure we could out run them and get to safety…"
"Yeah, except for one problem," Stormy said as she shot Morgan a glare. "Where exactly is Magikarp? We can't exactly escape if there's no Gyarados pulling the ship."
Morgan grimaced. He didn't actually know where she was. He hadn't checked on her when he went to sleep; he had just presumed she had been sleeping herself underneath the ship. He hadn't seen her while underwater both times during this whole Ghost Ship issue, but the waters had been pretty dark and he wasn't actually looking for her…
Had the Ghost Ship denizens gutted her before they dragged the ship out to sea, thereby destroying any and all hope of escape? It probably wasn't that difficult to do considering Magikarp still thought she was an actual Magikarp…
"Oh no Morgan, your 'Magikarp' is perfectly fine. She wasn't anywhere near your ship when we found you."
Morgan froze. That insidious, haunting voice came somewhere from behind him. He didn't want to look back, terrified of whatever might be there, but knew he had no other option. With a gulp, he slowly turned around to find there was a new ghost onboard, standing on the bowsprit. Standing there, looking down upon the alarmed crew, was a Sableye. He smiled at them, the corners of his mouth stretching past his gemstone eyes.
"What did you just say?" Morgan gasped.
"Your Gyarados, she's fine," the Sableye said again. "I didn't hurt her, as you are so clearly worried about. I don't know where she is of course, but she's unharmed."
"H-How did you know I was thinking about that?" Morgan asked. "Are you… are you a mind-reader?"
"Close," the Sableye snickered. "I'm what you would call… a prose reader."
A bolt of lightning flashed behind the Sableye, making the Croconaw jump. The Sableye sniggered again as he walked down the line of the bowsprit and toward the crew.
"Captain Morgan, so nice to meet you, finally," the Sableye said a smug, fake politeness. "Or rather, it's Captain Jawbone now, isn't it? Sorry, I'm just so used to reading your name as Morgan."
"What are you talking about?!" Morgan cried, growling now. "How do you know that name?!"
"I told you, I'm a prose reader," the Sableye said, clearly drinking up Morgan's befuddled reaction.
"But what does that mean?!" Morgan practically screamed.
The Sableye snickered again, but didn't answer the question. He leapt off the bowsprit and landed onto the deck, but stayed at the front of the ship, granting the crew some distance from this unsettling Sableye.
"I must admit, your crew is giving my crew a much more difficult time than they're all used to," the Sableye went on. "We're so used to ships handing over all their goods the heartbeat they realize they're being invaded by the Ghost Ship. I don't know if it's because your crew is incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Either way, it's proving to be annoying to me, therefore I'll offer a deal to you, from captain to captain: give me all of your loot, right now, and I will leave your crew unharmed. I'll even provide you with a ferry Pokémon to take you to the nearest island. Say no, and well… I'm afraid you don't want to know what I'll do."
"So that's it? We give you everything we own just like that?" Morgan asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Are you kidding me?"
"You always have the alternative…" the Sableye said, his grin widening.
"Yeah, your weird little vague threat," Morgan scoffed. "What, are you going to sic more of your crew on me? I don't know if you've realized, but we've done a pretty good job of killing off your ghost buddies. You throw more at us and we'll get rid of them, no problem."
He of course didn't mention the fact that dealing with even more ghosts would exhaust the crew before long. This ghost captain didn't need to know that and know how much leverage he had in this conversation.
"Go ahead and tell yourself that," the Sableye said, tilting his head at an unsettling angle. "Go ahead and tell me you won't surrender your cargo to me. See what happens."
"Jawbone, what do we do…?" Skipper asked in a hushed voice. "I don't think he's bluffing about whatever he's got in store for us…"
"We can't just give him all our loot," Morgan whispered back. "We've worked too hard for it! Besides, maybe he actually is bluffing? I mean what he's he going to do, summon Kyogre out of the ocean and sink our ship?"
"He might…" Skipper said feebly. "I wouldn't put it past him…"
Morgan groaned. He expected some kind of advice from Stormy, but for once she seemed speechless. It probably had to do with this supposedly not real ship actually being completely real. Morgan looked over to Slashie to find she was standing at the ready, scythes still imbued with the ghostly Hidden Power. Bird was hiding underneath Stormy's flipper, seeking whatever shelter she could from the downpour.
The Croconaw looked back to the Sableye to find he was still standing at the front of the ship, smirking and waiting for Morgan's response. The more Morgan looked at him, the more he lost his intimidating aura and had it replaced with an intense atmosphere of smugness.
"What are you going to do if I don't give you my stuff?" Morgan finally asked.
"Why don't you say that's your response to my deal and you can find out?" the Sableye taunted.
Morgan snarled. God, this Sableye was getting on his nerves. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought the ghostly captain wanted Morgan to reject agreement.
"Oh, you just figured that out, did you?" the Sableye sneered. "Took you long enough. You really are an idiot, Morgan."
"SHUT UP!" Morgan snapped, chomping his fangs harshly. "You want me to reject your proposal that bad? Fine! I'm not handing over my stuff to you! Do your worst, you little jewelry box gremlin!"
The Sableye snickered. He leapt back onto the bowsprit and walked to the very end of it. Then, he turned back around and flashed them a wicked grin before snapping his claws.
Something smacked the side of the ship. Something heavy and so tremendous that it actually swayed the ship for just a few heartbeats.
"That was a wave right now, right?" Morgan asked nervously. "That was just a big wave from this storm, right?"
Something crashed into the other side of the ship, swaying it the other way. Then there was another crash. And another. And another. And another. A deep groaning sound came from beneath the ship.
Morgan and the crew hurried to the ship's side and looked down into the dark waters. Skipper and Bird started screaming. Stormy's pupils pinned as she stumbled back, nearly tripping over her own feet. Slashie's ever-present smile was wiped clean off her face and replaced with a look of sheer terror.
There, floating in the water right beside the ship, were a dozen of Jellicent. Morgan had always thought they were stupid looking Pokémon with their weirdly cute-looking faces. Yet seeing so many of them in the midst of a ferocious storm with their eyes glowing insidious crimson made the Croconaw realize these were perhaps the most terrifying Pokémon in the ocean. They were slamming their tentacles into the ship, rocking it and punching holes into the wood. Planks and debris went flying into the ocean with every strike.
Morgan ran to the other side of the ship that even more Jellicent were also surrounding the vessel. Even worse, these Jellicent were reaching their tentacles up toward the desk of the ship, toward him. He backpedaled just as the tentacles reached the deck and grabbed hold of whatever they could. Then they began to pull, slowly tipping the ship over.
"I'm sure you know this because of your vast knowledge of Pokémon, but Jellicent don't just sink ships, Morgan," the Sableye said, still standing on the bowsprit. "Oh no, they feast on the souls of the crew as well and let me tell you, souls aren't devoured immediately. It takes many, many sunrises to completely consume a soul. And in the entire time these Jellicent savor your soul, you'll be in unfathomable agony. Think of your soul slowly being sucked out of you through a straw, all while you're still alive and can do nothing but wriggle in agony within the grasp of the Jellicent."
The Sableye laughed a terrible laugh, one that boomed across the ocean. Morgan grimaced as the ship continued its tilt, now angled just enough that Morgan started slipping toward the ocean. He hurried to the rising side of the ship and grasped the wood tight. He didn't see any of his crewmates anywhere, so he hoped that they had fled into the captain's cabin.
"Yes, let's certainly hope that they're safe and sound inside your cabin. Not like it'll save them for long, though."
Morgan looked up to find the Sableye was now standing right above him, jeering down at him from the upturned part of the ship. The ship had been turned over enough that the Sableye could use it as a platform, though it didn't explain how he had gotten there so quickly.
"Pity you took my bait and asked for my worst," the Sableye sneered. "Of course, we both knew this was going to happen. It's perfectly in line with your character. Besides, my Jellicent have been complaining they haven't had many chances to sink ships and devour the crew's souls lately."
Morgan growled. He wanted to say that he wasn't going to die and that he'd get out of this somehow, but he didn't have the confidence to say it. Truthfully, he really did think he was going to die here. There was no way out of this situation since he couldn't possibly beat up dozens of giant jellyfish. Not even Slashie could do that.
"That's right, there isn't," the ghost captain said. "If you wanted any hope of living through this, you'd need-"
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!"
Just then, the ship leveled itself back to normal. The Sableye abruptly plummeted into the water from the sudden shift in gravity. Morgan released his hold on the ship's side and got back to his feet. He looked into the water to find that all of the Jellicent had suddenly vanished. It was the same for the other side of the ship. It was as though all of them had disappeared into thin air. As Morgan scratched his head at this strange new development, his crewmates came spilling out of the captain's cabin.
"Jawbone, what's going on?" Stormy demanded. "Why aren't the Jellicent pulling the ship into the ocean?"
"I don't know…" Morgan said quietly. "All the Jellicent are gone…"
"You don't think this is a weird ploy from that Sableye, do you?" Skipper asked cautiously.
"No, I just saw him sink into the ocean, he's gone," Morgan assured. "It's almost like-"
"RRAAAAAAAOOOOOHHHHH!"
A Jellicent's severed body went flying over the ship. The crew rushed to side of the ship to find a certain Gyarados sinking her fangs into another Jellicent, thrashing her head violently before tossing it aside. Several Jellicent wrapped their tentacles around her serpentine body and started dragging her underwater, but she swiftly retaliated with a massive Hyper Beam, immediately obliterating all of the Jellicent clinging to her. She roared into the sky, her cry as loud as thunder.
"It's Magikarp!" Skipper cried. "She found us!"
"And it looks like she's gone full Gyarados again, somehow," Stormy said tensely. "Which means our ship might be next when she runs out of Jellicent…"
"Maybe they'll tire her out before she gets to us?" Morgan asked.
Of course, he didn't really buy that either. Nothing could stop Gyarados once their rampage started. He wondered if maybe the storm had triggered her violent personality again. Storms like this were awfully destructive themselves, so maybe it awakened those instincts of hers.
All the crew could do was watch Magikarp tear through the Jellicent and pray she'd snap out of it soon. She was their only way back to land after all, not to mention it would be quite awful to escape a ship wreck, only to wind up in another one.
Despite everything, Morgan actually found it pretty entertaining and cathartic to watch Magikarp kill those ghost jellies. After they had nearly sank his ship, it was sweet justice to have his killer dragon fish make a blood bath out of them. It was especially liberating when she finished off every single last Jellicent and went straight for the Ghost Ship itself.
All it took was an overcharged Hyper Beam to incinerate the ship into borderline nothing. When the charred remains of the ghastly ship sank deep into the ocean, never to see the light of day again, Magikarp raised her head up high and released a victorious roar that stirred up violent winds that threatened to blow the crew off the deck.
And then a bolt of lightning struck her directly on the head, unceremoniously wiping her out and sending her falling into the ocean. She didn't resurface, even after the winds settled down and calm came over the sea.
"Did we just watch Magikarp die?" Skipper asked.
"Well I mean that lightning is double super effective against Gyarados…" Morgan said awkwardly.
"She better not be dead!" Stormy squawked. "We still need someone to pull the ship!"
"I'll go check on her," Morgan said, raising his claw before climbing over the ship's railing. "I'll be back in just a heartbeat."
Morgan dived into the ocean for the third time that night and swam downward. Thankfully he didn't see any more of those creepy red eyes, meaning Magikarp really had killed all those Jellicent. He'd have to treat her a hundred Wimpod when they got back to land, if she was still alive.
It didn't take long to find the Gyarados not too far down, eyes closed shut as she drifted through the currents. Miraculously, her gills were still opening and closing. Really, besides this ugly burn mark on her head crest, she looked perfectly fine and in the middle of a nap.
Though it was incredibly stupid to do, Morgan swam up to her face and clawed at her eyes.
"Hey, wake up!" he called.
She wiggled her whiskers and slowly opened her eyes. Thankfully for Morgan, the fury of a savage Gyarados didn't look back at him through those eyes. Only that dull, but kind-hearted and gentle gaze belonging to his ferry fish stared back at Morgan. Magikarp blinked a few times before bowing her head, letting Morgan to grab onto her neck.
She took him back to the surface, far faster than Morgan ever could, and emerged next to the ship. Morgan leapt off the Gyarados and landed on deck, joining his crew once again. Magikarp shook her head and shook her facial fins.
"Oh, there you guys are," Magikarp said. "I was looking for you! I decided to go out for a little swim like you suggested, Jawbone, but when I got back, your ship wasn't there anymore! I was so worried you got someone else to replace me and left me all alone!"
"Nah, we would never get rid of you," Morgan said with a chuckle. "Trust me, no one could ever replace you. We just… we got caught in a rip current. Yeah, we got pulled away from shore on accident. But uhhhh… how did you find us exactly?"
"Dumb luck," the Gyarados answered. "I started thinking maybe you all forgot about me and kept swimming around the ocean, looking for your ship. But then a lightning bolt hit me and I blacked out… I guess the same rip currents that dragged you out to sea brought me to you!"
So that was what happened. Magikarp had not been struck by just one, but two lightning bolts, both of them working perfectly to the crew's benefit. The bolt's power must have been so great that it could override the brain malfunction Magikarp suffered from and make her a ferocious monster again, and do the exact opposite as well. Morgan wondered if he could somehow find a way to take advantage of that. He'd need to find an electric-type first, though…
"I'm glad you found us again, Magikarp," Morgan then said. "Now how about we tie you back up and we head back to land?"
"Sounds fine to me," the Gyarados said, smiling happily as she waved her long tail behind her. "I've had enough excitement for the night…"
Morgan was about to ask Skipper for some help when the group suddenly heard slow clapping in the distance, as though someone were offering a mock applause. Everyone turned to the front of the deck where the noise was coming from and immediately froze in place.
It was the Sableye captain again, unharmed and grinning like a madman.
"I must say, I wasn't expecting you to not only obliterate my crew, but also my Jellicent," the Sableye snickered as he stopped clapping. "In my hundred years I've been roaming these seas, never once has anyone accomplished this, not to mention sinking my very ship into Kyogre's Trench."
"Oh come on, I thought we got rid of you!" Morgan spat with a threatening hiss. "Why are you still alive?!"
"I'm a ghost, I don't need to breathe," the Sableye said. "It wasn't that difficult to climb aboard your ship while you were celebrating your victory."
"Alright, well congrats, you're the last one of your whole crew standing," Morgan said with a glower. "What are you going to do now? You gonna try murdering us when it's clearly six on one?"
The Sableye laughed as he shook his head. His gemstone eyes glimmered eerily as that unsettling, endlessly smug smile crept onto his face.
"No, I think I'd like to join your crew."