117Jorn: Once more into the breach my friends. The war against Poke-China is about to begin!
Ron the True Fan: (Runs past on fire screaming while Natu continues to give chase with a flamethrower)
117Jorn: …Yeah, Natu is angry because as we are writing this, the whole Games Workshop bullshit is going down, and we were all fans of Text-to-Speech so… yeah…
Ron the True Fan: WHY TAKE IT OUT ON ME?!
117Jorn: Well he needs to take his rage out somewhere - he can't just teleport over to GW and do it there… or to Activision Blizzard for that matter…
20 miles from the Ferrum coast, 1216 hours, Day 121 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey
"From the mist, a shape, a ship is taking form,
The silence of the seas about to break into a storm!"
"Why are you playing that? This is a tugboat - not a warship!"
"Let me have this!" Kyoji shouted back to Maren as he blared the song out onto the speakers while sitting behind the 88mm cannon. "This is the closest to a battleship I've ever been on in the seas! The Musashi doesn't count 'cause she's an airship, so the song doesn't fit her!"
"We've been out here for nearly two weeks! You're driving me NUTS with this shit!" the captain retorted, clearly annoyed at the constant musical barrage.
"To be fair, we're all a little tired of hearing the sounds of the sea." Sabrina added. "A bit of music wouldn't hurt."
The greenette banged her head into the dashboard, groaning.
Hitomi just looked at her with mild amusement. Normal people being driven nuts was entertaining sometimes. "My first time in the field and I keep getting bombarded with comedy." she mused. "Is it always like this with you?"
Sabrina watched her Natu clone hop over, jumping onto her head. "My father typically has misadventures like this all the time." she said. "Though that's likely to change, given his shift in priorities from 'Pokemon Master training' to 'end the threat of that idiot nutcase Cyrus'."
"Fine, hang on…" Kyoji used his Smartphone to swap the songs, as the next song began to play.
"AND THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED!"
"We're not even-" Maren began to shout, before Kyoji's Gible zoomed by with its two little jet-wings.
"Gib!" 'You can't, but I can!'
"THAT MAKES NO SENSE!" she declared. "STOP NOT MAKING SENSE!"
The two psychics sighed, Sabrina rubbing her forehead. "We haven't had much chance to test those suits." the Kantoan psychic said. "Or at least I haven't. Mind giving me a hand?"
Hitomi shrugged. "May as well." she said. "We have a day until we get to the coastline. We might need our suits to take out any of their defenses."
"Sounds good," Sabrina nodded, smirking as she glanced at Kyoji for a moment, "I need to get used to wearing it after all…" She shot another mental image into his head, causing him to let out a yelp of fear.
It made no sense for him to be scared. …Alright, a great deal of sense: she was a powerful psychic that could quite literally flay him alive. But they were dating: there was no reason to be that afraid. And he was a healthy man with healthy urges. Wasn't wrong to admire a lady if they had permission. And most of the time they did.
Tsunderes screwed that over. At least she didn't get the 'tsun' part from Misty. Small miracles.
They ventured below deck, the yellow Gible continuing to fly around. "Gible!" 'Do I need to get you tissues? Your girlfriend's getting into the suit!' the land shark said as he orbited his trainer and friend.
"I… I'll be fine…" Kyoji sighed, "I… can handle this… I just need to… mentally prepare myself is all… "
"Gib." 'I'll get e'm just in case,' Gible Smiled as he swooped away.
Maren poked her head out of the wheelhouse. "We're not going any closer until nightfall!" she called. "Less chances of getting shot at before we get close enough!"
And more chances of Kyoji's blood shooting out of his nose. Isn't that dandy?
Gible returned, a tissue box in his maw. "Gib!" 'here you go!' said the land shark.
"Natu." 'May you die in the way all men desire: in absolute bliss.' said his troll of a parrot.
He didn't think 'bliss' was in his future, though.
A tiny little drone flitted about in the air, a pink energy blade forming from an emitter that was rather…oddly shaped.
"Why is it a spoon?" Kyoji asked stupidly, so he thought at least. "Is this because of a stereotype or something?"
"Ever heard of the Twisted Spoon?" Sabrina asked. "It's used to boost psychic attack powers in Pokemon. Apparently, they tried everything else. Spoons were the most effective channeling shape."
"…how is a Spoon easier to channel through than… anything else?" Kyoji asked, "I mean… don't get the wrong idea, but… a spoon doesn't feel all that threatening… unless you use it to scoop someone's eyes out of course, but still… I mean… do Sporks work?"
Both psychics just stared. "Sporks." Hitomi repeated. "What in the name of Arceus is a spork?"
"The bastard child of a spoon and fork." Sabrina answered, before turning to her boyfriend. "And yes, it does, but the jagged edges of the spork interfere with the flow of energy."
Kyoji was just confused now. "How does-"
"I don't know why it does, it just does!" Sabrina cut off. "Ask Arceus: it's the one that came up with the system for these things."
"I would show more respect." came the voice of the nutcase shrine maiden as she walked into the area. "Arceus created all things, after all. And she can easily unmake it."
"I am showing respect, I just can't explain something that's instinctual." Sabrina snapped back. "Just trust me, Kyoji: spoons work best."
"…well, I guess it's good for bludgeoning I guess…" Kyoji sighed as he sat on the gun, glancing up at Natu. "…Seriously though, of all things, why spoons?"
"Natu." 'Look, there are some things even Arceus doesn't tell us.' The Green Bird said as he sat on his head. "Natu." 'That is oddly one of those very things.'
"Maybe Arceus likes mysteries?" he suggested. "I mean, let's be honest, she's the Creator. She could easily crush Cyrus like a bug and cure the Shadow Pokemon thing with a figurative wave of a hand. Guess godhood can be boring if you know and do everything."
"Gible." 'Explains the Chosen One thing.' the land shark said. Made sense. Even the Creator might've wanted the unknown. According to myth, Arceus didn't know everything out of preference.
"Natu." 'Now, kindly stare at the pretty ladies.' said the bird, using psychic power to make Kyoji look at the very scantily clad ladies in front of him instead of focusing on the spoon-blades.
If Hitomi killed him, at least he could blame Natu.
"Are you trying to get me killed?!" Kyoji hissed as he forced his head away, and closed his eyes. "I have enough problems keeping Sabrina from seeing my thoughts, you want me to worry about Hitomi now too?!"
On the other side of the boat where the two aforementioned women were, Hitomi blushed a bit as she manipulated her own Psionic equipment on her armor. "…your boyfriend isn't exactly skilled at keeping his thoughts… quiet, is he?"
"Well, he's not exactly trained to fend off against Psychics," Sabrina giggled a bit, "Plus, this is more fun - I can tease him endlessly… like this," She winked for a moment - as Hitomi briefly got an image of her and Sabrina in unique poses, which was soon followed by a yelp of fear from Kyoji as he covered his head as Natu floated above until he chilled out.
"…you're evil," Hitomi giggled, as Sabrina smirked. "How long do you think it'll take him to figure out you're the one sending the images?"
"Eh, depends." She shrugged, "It's all about planning it out, and sending them at the right time where he can think its his own little perverted mind thinking these things… he really is doing his best to be all respectful, but… we all know how boys think, right?"
Hitomi huffed in amusement. "Perverted, but they can keep it in check. Your… father… is the ultimate example of this." she said. "All men are perverts to some degree. I believe a saying in Orre is 'there is no innocence, only varying degrees of guilt'. I suppose that also applies to men."
Sabrina smirked. "No such thing as chivalrous, only varying degrees of perversion?" she tried. "Doesn't roll off the tongue. Then again, all women are just as perverted as men to the same degree. Why do you think I'm doing the whole skimpy outfits in his head thing? I get off on it as much as he wants to."
"Very evil," Hitomi chuckled. "Still… seems like a nice guy… you're lucky to have found someone like him."
"Hm… what about you?"
"What about me?"
"Come on," Sabrina smirked, gesturing to her own body, "You gotta have boys or girls falling for you with those hips… or both if you like it like that…"
Hitomi sighed. "I don't get out much. And most of the researchers are either like Kyoji, terrified I'll spoon their eyes out, or just asexual." she said. "I don't have much time for romance. Though… you're not wrong. I… do jump the fence."
Bisexual? Well, that she could work with. That was something long buried in Ash's mind that she inherited. Making people happy. And seeing as Sabrina's sexuality was as flexible as to the point where it couldn't be comprehended… this could be fun.
And she knew Kyoji wouldn't have any issues as she smiled - sending another psychic message of her and Hitomi in a rather erotic position, causing him to yelp as he banged his head against the sights of the gun. "You okay Kyoji?"
"F-Fine!" He called out, "Just… k-keeping the lookout!"
"He's going to get himself hurt one day." Hitomi said.
"I never do it where he can be hurt in a crisis." Sabrina retorted. "Speaking of, we're getting close to Ferrum's coast, aren't we?"
Close enough to be concerned, at least. Time to hunker down and prepare to infiltrate.
And continue to tease the poor boy. Ash got off lucky compared to Kyoji.
Anabel wasn't keen on committing mental suicide prying into his head.
15 kilometers from People's Republic of Ferrum - 2149 hours local time
Well, the mines were easy enough to navigate with a water-type guiding them, but the destroyer was another story.
"Well, that can't be good..." Maren muttered as she looked through her binoculars at the approaching Destroyer.
"Normal patrol vessel," Kyoji mused, looking through his own pair. "They are approaching… "
"What do we do?" Nisha asked, standing beside them as she squinted her eyes to try and see the ship.
"For now, we're gonna keep going like a normal fishing boat," Maren nodded, "Nice and casual…"
"Should we start pretending we're drunk and singing Louie, Louie?" Kyoji said, much to the confusion of everyone there. "Right, no one's watched that one."
'Maybe later.' Sabrina said mentally.
Maren eyed the ship in the distance before the radio snapped to life. "Unidentified vessel, you trespass in Ferrum waters." came the voice of a Ferrum commissar, more then likely, out of the speaker. "Explain your intrusion or die."
Maren grabbed the mic, keying it. "This is the fishing trawler Bounty out of Brest." she lied. "Long term fishing trip for Magikarp! You know how it is, they just don't stay in one place-"
"Bounty, you will maintain position." he ordered. "An inspection party will be forthcoming."
Maren panicked. "Fuck!" she cursed before keying the mic again. "Uh negative, sir, if we stop, we're going to lose the net and it's gonna be hell getting it up again, especially with all those karp!" she then looked to the deck. "I hope you got some ideas, people!"
Kyoji looked over towards Sabrina "So you think you can pretzel that thing when it gets closer?"
"Yes, but not quickly," She shrugged, "They'd at least be able to get out a salvo or two."
"Gi!" Both looked down as Kyoji's yellow Gible smiled, warbling between them. They looked at Gible, then back to each other… and Kyoji smirked. 'I have an idea.' He thought.
On the destroyer, the commissar, a scared, annoyed man, looked to the captain. "What is taking so long?!" he demanded. "That boat should have been boarded by now!"
"Commissar, with respect, loading a launch takes time." the captain said, attempting to reason with the fanatic. "The lift has been having difficulties for days, as my engineer has explained-"
"No excuses!" the cap-wearing zealot snapped. "Your crew interferes with the pace of the revolution, Captain and dissidents will not be tolerated!" Then the lights went out. "What is that?!"
The XO sighed. "Electrical fault, commissar. You DO demand the lights be kept as bright as possible...when the wiring's substandard at best…"
"Fine! We will deal with the emergency lighting then!" The Commissar cried out, "Get that boat out there! Just drop it if you must! If there are rebels on that boat, we cannot allow them to get away!" Then the emergency lighting went out. "WHAT IS THIS?!"
"The emergency lights are down." the captain said matter-of-factly, taking some enjoyment out of the Commissar's impending brain explosion. They were universally hated by everyone for being party idiots. And this one was about to suffer an anurysm because the ship was failing due to being on constant patrol with no chance of maintenance.
Almost made one want to defect.
"THIS IS SABOTAGE! SALEN AGENTS ARE ON THIS SHIP!" he screamed.
The XO gave his captain a look. "Surely he jests." he said dryly.
Gible pointed at another spot. "Gi!" 'There!' he cried.
"Got it, Gible," Sabrina nodded, standing on the deck with her hands out as she twitched her fingers again - unplugging and bending a few more electrical cables from the inside of the ship, disabling system after system. Fun fact about Ranseian Gibles: They can sense electrical waves down to a T, from electrical storms… to power cable lines.
And now Gible was effectively giving her a step-by-step procedure of completely disarming the Ferum Destroyer piece by piece. First, the lights, then the emergency lights, now the electric motors.
Whoops, there goes the main gun. And the radio. She didn't even touch that junction.
"That thing's either poorly built, poorly maintained or both." the psychic said dryly as Kyoji, Mei and Neesha unpacked the 88mm gun, the male among them cackling as it was locked in place.
He was allowed a moment to enjoy the really big gun he was going to shoot.
"I feel rather conflicted over sinking that ship." Neesha said. "I mean, some of those guys are just doing a job."
"Suffer not the unbeliever that thinks their works are greater than the Gods." Mei snapped.
"Natu." 'Now you know why I ran away.' Natu said, Kyoji loading the shell with some difficulty, due to its' size and weight.
"Well, if you want to smite the heretics, now's your chance." he said, locking the breach. "It's aimed below their waterline and they can't close the watertigh-"
Mei simply pressed the firing trigger, sending 40 pounds of high-explosive ordinance into the tin can warship, scowling at it as water began pouring in.
"Pissy." the SM said.
"Welp, that's our queue to get the hell out!" Maren shouted, as she shoved the accelerator forward as the boat began to steam on ahead away from the sinking destroyer.
"Shouldn't we…?" Neesha began to ask, but Hitomi answered before she could.
"They have life rafts, they'll be fine," She assured, "If not, this is war after all, and we're on our own mission."
"Besides, we might be doing them a favor." Sabrina said before a cap fluttered down and landed on her head.
Kyoji looked at it and chuckled. "Nice hat." he said. "Just get rid of that badge and replace it with something else and it's good."
"I'll think about it." the greenette said as Neesha released her Dewgong.
20 minutes later -
"I am really jealous." Neesha said as Sabrina just floated onto the dock.
"It's harder than you might think," She shrugged as she landed as the boat came into port.
"Well, shouldn't we be worried about someone seeing you?" Neesha asked, glancing around.
"Who?" Hitomi shrugged as she too floated on over. "Look around you, this port's empty. And so is the whole city if intel is right."
"No one can afford to come here." Kyoji said. "Depressing as it is, not a lot of people can up and abandon their traditional way of life to 'be productive for the sake of the revolution'."
Mei scoffed. "These idiots believe in an ideology that favors some idealized worker's state over harmony with Arceus' kin." the priestess all but spat. "It is unrealistic and a dream of fools."
Hitomi gave her a dry look. "This coming from someone that believed the Unborn Son of Arceus would reincarnate as a human." she said.
"...you DO realize I was hanging out with the Chosen one not even a month ago, right?" Kyoji asked, raising his eyebrow at her for a moment.
"Until I meet him, I reserve judgement." the other psychic said.
Couldn't blame her for thinking they were all nuts.
"You'll change your tune as soon as you meet him." Sabrina said before they heard yelling. "Not so deserted."
"Just the local cops." Kyoji said before looking at an alleyway. "This way, the sooner we find our contact the better."
More yelling got their attention. "More cops." Sabrina said. "We're going to need to hide."
Kyoji looked at a bunch of old cardboard boxes. "I got an idea," he said.
One of the police officers turned into the alley, seeing nothing but refuse, old wet boxes and wood splinters.
And no intruders. The Wen-Shen was sent to the bottom not an hour prior: it was a perfect distraction to get foreigners into the city and this was the only way in that was relatively discreet.
"There is no one here," he said. "That fool must have done something to sink the ship." Opinions of the commissariat were… understandably low among them. After all, they got in the way of doing their jobs for the sake of political ideology.
They examined the alley as best they could, then turned to leave. And after a few minutes, the boxes started moving.
"That shouldn't've worked." Hitomi said.
"But it did." Kyoji said with a grin. "No one notices the box. The box is your friend."
"I should have killed them." Mei groused as she was forced to follow Kyoji, who then cut her off.
"This is supposed to be a Stealth mission, Mei," he stated. "Bodies have a habit of leaving a trail! We are gonna be no help to the Chosen One and the Homeland if we get overrun by a bunch of grunts, making us waste our strength and ammo!"
"Stealth isn't something the Priestesses are good at." Hitomi pointed out. "They prefer getting to the point as quickly and bloodily as possible. Only reason she came along is the potential to see this Ash guy."
Mei glared at her companion's box.
"Ok, quiet." Kyoji said, getting their attention. "Someone's coming."
The group all hunched down, as they pulled out whatever weapons they had. They heard footsteps coming down the alley, before a single figure began walking in their direction. He stopped for a moment, before he made a very particular whistle. Kyoji rose a finger to the others, before he repeated a similar whistle back at him.
"...took you long enough," The man sighed, taking another step as Kyoji stepped from the shadows.
"Rough waters," He nodded, "Agent Akamura."
"I'm Travis. Welcome to Ferrum." the local said introducing himself. "Not the best welcome you'll get, but at least it's honest. Come on." he gestured down the alley. "I'll take you to the hideout."
Kyoji nodded...then got back in the box. "...We won't need those…" their guide said.
"First rule of the ninja: stay hidden!" Kyoji retorted as the guide just shook his head and began guiding the...box train...to the hideout.
The journey was...slow. At least they had one way to pass the time: psionic discussions.
'So, anything about the local Pokemon League we need to know, or does that not exist?' Sabrina 'pathed to Kyoji.
'Well, Ferrum technically never had a league,' Kyoji explained, 'They have Pokken Tournaments.'
'Pokken?' Sabrina tilted her head in confusion.
'Basically they're one v one Pokemon battles,' He continued, 'The trainer does their best to train a single Pokemon - who then fights an opponents, only unlike in predominant Pokemon leagues, during a battle a Trainer isn't allowed to give their Pokemon instructions. They fight on their own volition - kinda like more traditional martial arts tournaments between humans.'
'Ash does that more and more often nowadays.' Sabrina said.
'Ash's been doing this for what, ten years? He trusts them unconditionally.' Kyoji asked. 'And there's a bigger difference: sometimes the trainers join in.'
Sabrina chuckled. 'Bruno would get a kick out of that.' she 'said.
'Big difference is, here in Ferrum, the state-regulated crap has no soul.' Kyoji explained further. 'The games are always rigged in ways to promote 'Ferrum unity', and those who challenge that status quo risk having their credit scores tanked. You want REAL Pokken, you go to Salen.'
'Remind me to give it a look when we get there,' Sabrina nodded, 'Always ready to see new things.'
"Up here," Travis spoke up, breaking the conversation as they stopped outside a skyscraper. "We can hide out here until tomorrow."
"...isn't this a little obvious?" Neesha asked.
"There are too many buildings in the city for the party to search each and every one, and every single room." He said, "We'll be safe here… well, relatively at least."
"A lot of the cops just do looking into doors and backing off. Not exactly the best work, but it's enough to satisfy the commissariat." he said as he guided the box train into the building. As soon as they got into the empty parking garage, Kyoji shoved the box off him, followed by the rest. "These guys never had realistic expectations." the Ranseian said.
Neesha peeked out, confused. "Cars are a rarity anywhere nowadays." she said. "Why bother making a garage if no one has any?"
Travis looked back at them. "Because the party thinks everyone can afford one 'for the glory of the revolution' or some stupid shit like that." he said, making circles in the air with his hands as if to mock the phrase. "I tune out party crap like that after the first two words."
"I think everyone with a functioning brain does," Kyoji chuckled a bit, "Well, at least we made it into the city at least… ya'll can start resting up, I can take first watch."
Sabrina shed the box, revealing the EXCEEDINGLY skimpy outfit she was wearing, Kyoji trying VERY hard not to think about it… then the images popped into his head.
Hitomi looked at the Kantoan psychic. "You enjoy this far too much." she said.
The greenette smirked. "Let's just say Misty has… fetishes and leave it at that." she said as she strutted off.
"You can't keep this up much longer: he WILL find out." the Ranseian psychic admonished.
"Just a little bit longer." Sabrina said as Kyoji sat down, banging his head against a column.
Ron the True Fan: (Emerges from ice water) I am in extreme pain, parrot…
Takeshi Yamato: Too bad we don't have a bacta tank for you.
Ron the True Fan: I never understood why they have it out for me. Just like my reader base. You have ANY IDEA how many messages I've received about this for the past six months? Enough to piss me off. We DO have other fics we want to work on. I had to get Jorn and Take on here just enough to finish this chapter. It's technically Jorn's fic. It's just on my profile. HE has to put in more then a token effort to write this. I COULD do all the work. But it wouldn't feel right.
117Jorn: If you want to send messages about SOT: RT, send them to me - not to Ron, please. He has enough issues as is. I'm currently working on a RWBY Fic, a Star Wars fic, and on top of all of that I am a DM for a D&D 5e game, and a SW 5e Game on Saturdays and that requires a LOT of time and effort to plan and get my party together.
Ron the True Fan: HOPEFULLY that gets you all to STOP BOTHERING ME. The arcs will continue WHEN WE'RE ALL ON DECK. Which, I hope, is soon… to keep all the pleading bastards off my back. Yes, I know I made a good universe. I had help! And the help isn't always available!
Takeshi Yamato: True enough. I'm more a side-writer these days, with my focus more on tabletops and video games. I don't DM/GM like Jorn, but I play a lot, I theorize a lot, and I come up with lots of character ideas. And for video games, I've got STO, GBO2, the upcoming GBO: Code Fairy…
Ron the True Fan: Therefore, the old axiom holds. STFU and WAIT. I have OFFICIALLY lost patience. This was supposed to be longer. Think on that.
Ja Ne!