Chapter 5: Into The Night.
The Pichu ran across the now darkened street, being only lighten up by a few lights on the road, some lights from a few homes, and the silver glowing moon.
Sparks had never gone outside when it was this late out. Now, stayed up this late he had, as a few books the mouse had read were a bit longer than he thought, which lead him to staying up a lot longer than he wanted to, but that didn't really count.
He continued down the road, but always went into the grass whenever he saw a small light from a house still on, he pretty much avoided all light in general.
Sure it made it feel like the more steps he was taking, the darker it got outside, but he didn't mind as much as you would think, as being a small Pichu who was going to free a Lapras from a ship, he'd rather have no one see him.
After what felt like forever, he finally started to see the reflection of the moon from the waters of the dock. The Electric-Type then ran up to the same table he had lunch at noon earlier that day, he then looked down toward the ship.
Sparks smiled, no one seemed to be awake, and the Lapras was still there just sitting right by the ship. Sparks then pulled out his paper and looked at the ship. Now all he needed to find out was which plan he should use.
Sparks kept looking back and forth between the ship and his plans, he knew that one crewmate would get up soon, if there wasn't one already one up, so he had to decide fast.
"Alright," He started. "There does seem to be anymon up right now, the Lapras still is tied up, so..." He pauses to check all of his things he had brought with him. "Plan 4 it is then."
He then put on his mask and his bag, which had a small knife, a map, some Poke, and food to last three days...hopefully.
"Here it goes." He says as he takes a deep breath.
*snap*
Sparks' ears go up, and suddenly the Pichu is horrified, realizing that somemon may be watching him, he quickly turns to see where the noise came from, but he finds no one.
Sparks spends about a minute or two just looking for the noise maker, expecting it to happen again, but nothing does. He then thinks back to the window.
"...must be the wind...again." Sparks says with a gulp.
He then takes a few breaths to stay calm, then heads toward the ship, quickly, but as quiet as he can too. He makes his way down the hill, the same one he went down when he first saw the Lapras, which made Sparks let out a, 'heh', as he came face to face with the dock.
"Please don't be squeaky." Sparks mumbles to himself as he puts his paw in front of him. And as his paw pushes down on the piece of wood on the dock the mouse only hears a faint sound of a squeak coming from the wood. Which makes Sparks let out a sigh. He then quietly, but quickly, makes his way down the dock by running on all four of his paws, and toward the ship.
Every step he was taking felt like he was carrying more and more mail, but he did his best to shake off the pressure he had as he ran right along the ship, heading right where the blue turtle was.
He looked over to the Ice-Type and had a good look at it. It was sleeping, but it also had a look of fear, as it couldn't help but have a slight frown over it's blue face.
Sparks started to worry as he didn't want this to happen, because that would mean he'd have to wake the Pokémon up, and he needed to do it as quietly as he could.
Fortunately, he also had a few different plans to wake the Lapras up. He decided to start tapping the Lapras. Sparks went up to the Transport Pokemon. He then leaned over and started to tap the Pokémon's front left fin.
...
It didn't work, as the Pokémon seemed to be in a deeper sleep than Sparks had wanted.
Sparks took in another deep breath, and he started to try to talk to the Lapras. "Psst...Psst...PSST!" He tried.
...
It didn't work.
And only a few seconds into his plan, Sparks didn't feel safe at all!
He then gulped, and took off his mask. He really didn't want to do this, but he needed the prisoner to wake up if he wanted to break it out!
Sparks then rubbed his paw together, creating small white flashes of electric, he continued doing this for a few seconds. And then, Sparks closed his eyes as he put his now electric paw forward.
"Please don't be too loud." He said as his paw touched the Lapras.
The second Sparks' paw shocks the Lapras' blue body, it's eyes flipped open. It started to put it's neck higher into the air and looked around for whatever woke it up.
"Psst." A small voice said below. The Lapras looked down, and saw the small yellow Pichu, who was holding an Oran Berry.
But as the Water Type looked at him, Sparks gulped. Realizing that the Lapras seemed much bigger at night. He hoped that the Lapras hadn't forgotten about him.
"It's okay, it's just me. Remember?" Sparks said in his best calm tone, trying to hide his fear as he held the berry higher towards the Lapras. But the Lapras only stared at Sparks, only moving by blinking its eyes.
Sparks didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. But then, the turtle's face started to calm down, probably realizing that it knew Sparks, it then looked at the berry.
"I thought you could use it." Sparks said as he looked at the marks on the Lapras' fins. The Lapras blinked after Sparks had said that, it then carefully moved its head to show the back of its mask.
Right, it's mask.
"Don't worry. I can get that off for you." Sparks said as he placed the berry onto the ground. He then walked up toward the Lapras, but it started to get nervous.
"Don't worry, you can trust me. I'm your friend." Sparks assured as he started to jump onto the turtle. The Lapras started to calm back down, and nodded.
Sparks then got onto its shell and saw the same whip marks on her fins that the Lapras had shown him earlier that day, or maybe yesterday?
Sparks didn't know how late it was, it had to at least be-
*Clang!* Sparks then started to fall face first onto the turtle's gray shell. Which made the Lapras yelp a bit. Sparks had fallen onto his face, and he needed to get up.
"I-I'm okay." He cleared up. He then got up and saw what he had tripped over, chains.
"Chains?" Sparks said in a worried tone. Ya, sure he knew that he may have to get rid of chains, but he didn't want that to happen! Chains were loud and, worst of all, couldn't be cut without being even louder.
But he could have sworn that there weren't any chains yesterday, or whatever day it was! At least back when he was talking to the Lapras back then. Gator must've put them on so that it wouldn't break free during the night!
Sparks lowered his ears. Gator. Sparks still wasn't used to seeing him as a bad Pokémon, but after looking at the Lapras, he could tell something was off...with somemon.
"Focus!" Sparks told himself. The Lapras then started to feel the Pichu climb up its shell, and up it's neck. Sparks came face to face with its-no.
Her mask. He had read about Lapras' just a few hours ago when he had wanted to know what they could do. And while he was reading, he had seen the differences between a female and a male, and after climbing on the Lapras, he could tell that the Lapras was female.
"So, you're a girl." Sparks said as he grabbed his small knife.
The Lapras slowly nodded, which made Sparks grab onto her mask with his one paw and kept the other paw, which had the knife, away from her body, maybe he should not have said that.
He waited for the Lapras to stop moving in order to continue. "Now, I'm going to cut off your mask with my knife, so please hold still, okay? And also, don't nod until I'm off your neck."
The Lapras didn't move, which surprised Sparks. "How much does she understand?" Sparks wondered as he started cutting the mask's straps.
*Snap!* He finished cutting the first strap with little trouble, and continued with the second (or the last) strap.
Sparks couldn't help but sweat after every passing second. The last thing he wanted was for somemon to show up. Sure, he didn't think anymon was up, but he didn't know how long that would last.
*Snap!* The second strap was off and the mask started to come loose. Sparks let out a small smile as he hopped off the Lapras. "Okay, I'm just going to get that-"
However, once he hopped off. The Lapras grabbed the mask with her mouth and shook her head so that the straps would come off the back of her head. Sparks just watched as the Lapras cautiously placed the mask onto the ground.
He couldn't help but have stars in his eyes. It was just so cool to see a Wild Pokémon in front of his own eyes! It almost made him forget about the crewmates.
The Lapras then looked at Sparks. "Berry..." She said.
Sparks' ears went up. Right! The berry!
He walked over toward the Oran Berry and held it up to the Lapras. She then lowered her head to Sparks, and opened her mouth.
Sparks took a moment to realize how big her mouth was, no wonder she was able to cover the whole crew with ice!
"Your mouth is huge." Sparks commented to the Ice-Type as he placed the berry into her mouth. She closed her mouth and started to chew, and Sparks looked to her side where he saw her fins start to heal from her whip marks.
"Thank you." She said. Sparks looked back at the Lapras' face, and saw her smile, which made the Electric-Type feel warm inside. He had completed the first step. But also made him want to ask her a question.
"How well can you talk?" Sparks asked. Sparks was surprised to see her start to think.
"Not...much cost." She said.
"Cost?" Sparks thought. Why would she say...wait a minute. Sparks looked up toward the Café. And then it started to make sense. She must have gotten that from the Café up there. Sparks started to wonder where else she learned words from.
Sparks started to chuckle to himself in amazement, which made the Lapras look closer at the Pichu. Right, the breakout. FOCUS!
"Sorry, I just have never seen a Lapras like you. I'll start to get you out now." He said.
Sparks then walked down toward her shell to look at the chains. His ears went down. "Alright, how am I gonna do this?" He asked himself.
It was too bad he didn't know Iron Tail, otherwise he'd be able to cut the chain just as easy as the rope. But even that wouldn't be the best idea, as the chain would probably fall to the ground with a loud 'Clang!' sound, waking up at least one Pokémon up.
Sparks got onto the turtle's shell again, as he tried to observe the chain to see if there was any other way to get it off. Sparks started to panic as he continued looking over the shell trying to find something.
But only after a few seconds of looking more, he saw something: A lock with a keyhole.
Sparks let out a sigh knowing that there was another way to get the chains off. That lock means that there was a key somewhere, and if he could just grab the key, he could get the chain off with little sound!
But...he would need to find the key first. Sparks' ears went down...again. Finding that key would take time! And Sparks didn't even know how much he had left!
He started to get stressed out when he began to get tired again, but worst of all, his mind came back.
"You shouldn't even be here." It said, "Get out while you still can...You are going to lose everything you ever wanted."
Sparks looked down, was he really able to do this? He was still just a small Pichu, after all.
He turned to the Lapras. He didn't want to leave it, but the chances of him finding that key were so-
Sparks' ears sprang up. The Lapras! Of course! The Pichu ran right toward the Lapras, which made her look at Sparks.
Sparks cleared his throat. "Your chain needs a key, do you know where one is?" Sparks asked in his clearest tone.
The Lapras blinked a few times, but then she began to think, finally she replied. "Key...at Captain's room." She slowly said.
Sparks' eyes got smaller, did she just say 'Captain's room?' As in Gator's room!? Sparks gulped, and tried his best to hide his fear.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
The Lapras nodded. "They put chain on me, and then Wingull say 'put it in the Captain's room'."
Sparks, while at least knew where the key could be, couldn't help but get even more scared now. He would need to go into Gator's room, aka the Pokémon who leads this ship, aka a powerful Feraligatr, aka the one Pokémon Sparks wanted to avoid at all costs!
Sparks started to shake when he heard somemon. "Please?" He looked up and saw the Lapras' face filled with sadness, fear, and desperation. Sparks was the only light the Lapras had seen since it had been captured. And she didn't want to lose him. He could imagine that this was the closest she was to being free.
Sparks looked at her, he couldn't look away, she was calling for help, and he needed to do it.
"We help those..." Sparks reminded himself. Sparks then pushed away all of his fears, and looked hard at the Lapras' face. "Don't move, I'll go grab the key." He said as he put his mask back on.
Sparks then turned and hurried toward the ladder that Gator climbed when he was sneaking up on the Lapras, but as he was almost on the ladder, he heard her one more time.
"Thank you." She said to Sparks.
Sparks would normally reply back, but under the circumstances he was in, Sparks just looked back at her with a smile.
Sparks then started to climb up the ladder, and sure it was a little hard to do because of his size, but by going up the ladder slowly and quietly, he got up to the top of it and saw the deck of the ship.
Sparks took a moment to scale the ship to see if there was anymon around. And just as he thought, there was a Marshtomp snoring to Sparks' left, and even a Wingull sleeping up at the top of the sails.
The Pichu made sure his mask was on, and on tight. He didn't know how well other Pokémon would be able to recognize him with his mask on, but he didn't want to find out.
Sparks pulled himself up and into the ship quietly, and went to hide himself behind the pole under the sail. Sparks' heart was pounding, there were sailors sleeping all around him, one small misstep could put him, and the Lapras, in huge trouble. So big that Sparks probably couldn't even imagine how bad it would be.
He tried to take his mind off the sailors by looking at the wide wooden deck, the huge white sail that looked to be even taller and wider than most homes at Thunderwave Town, and the view of the water with the moon's glowing reflection on it, but it didn't just seem to be enough to calm him down!
"I just need to focus on finding that key." He told himself. Sparks started to look around the ship, checking for any awake crewmates. He didn't see anymon else who he didn't already see, and the only ones he already saw were asleep...hopefully.
He then started searching for Gator's room, looking at the corners of the ship, he saw a few doors, but he decided to think where he'd put the Captain's room, as that could help him rule out some spots.
Sparks started to look to where the Lapras was, and continued to search that side of the ship.
It was then when something caught his eye, he saw a door under the ship's helm (that is, the steering wheel of the ship). He started to wonder if that was where the Captain's room was. It made sense, he couldn't imagine the room to be anywhere below the deck, and if Sparks was a captain, he'd put his room closest to the helm.
After a few more seconds thinking about it, he decided that would be his first room to check. Sparks took one more look around the ship, took a big breath, and then darted to the door as fast (and as quietly) as he could.
But he almost even ran into the wall while running, but managed to stop right before he slammed into the wall. He then turned his head toward the door and saw the it's yellow knob. Sparks took a breath as he reached out to the door. He really hoped that this was Gator's room and not somemon else's.
He then turned the knob with his small paw, and peeked his circular head slowly out from the door so that he could see the room he had just entered. He turned his head up to see what was ahead of him: A snoring captain.
Sparks found himself in a mix between glad and horrified. Sure, he had just found Gator's room, but that was also the reason he was horrified. Just looking at those huge blue claws made Sparks' heart stop, as he was sure that he could fit in just one of them.
Sparks took a big gulp and slowly pushed the door more. *ECK.* Sparks' eyes got smaller. He then looked at the Captain, still asleep. Sparks looked at the top of the door.
"Out of all the doors." Sparks mumbled to himself. He then opened the door even more cautiously, and then squeezed himself between the door and the wall, and then he placed a small piece of wood to make sure the door wouldn't move any more than Sparks wanted it to.
The small Pichu then carefully began his way toward the huge Feraligatr. Sparks peeked next to his bed to see if the key was there. All he saw was a small table, and a coat rack where he saw Gator's navy blue coat hanging on it. Now that he thought about it, Sparks had never seen Gator without his coat on, maybe the key was in there!
Sparks then tip-toed up to the coat, and dug through its first pocket. He went through it for a second, but found nothing. Sparks then reached through the other pocket, although this time, he found something.
Sparks smiled as he pulled it up, only to see that it wasn't the key, but a locket of some sort. It looked to have a little gold or maybe bronze? It was too dark to tell, but as Sparks observed the piece more he could tell that there was a drawing inside, he looked at it, and saw-
Wait! Sparks stopped himself, maybe he shouldn't look at the picture, that would be very rude of him to see something that was probably very personal to Gator.
...Then again, he was sneaking into his ship and breaking out a wild Pokémon.
Sparks shook his head, and placed the locket back onto the pocket, and turned around to see Gator face to face. Sparks was about to scream, but he then caught himself when he noticed both of Gator's eyes were closed...and sleeping.
The baby Pokémon then slowly walked around the Crocodilian Pokémon's bed, without looking away from the Water Type's face just to be sure, and then made it to the other side where-
Bingo! Sparks' eyes lit up when he saw a drawer with three draws. That had to be where the key was! Sparks walked a little faster than normal toward the drawer, and he started to go through it right as he approached it.
"Some coats, hats..." Sparks mumbled to himself as his paws went through the draw. He then started moving his paws around the bottom of the draw to see if there was anything hidden under the things. You know, just in case somemon would come in here and-
Sparks felt sick when he started to think about that last part. This was the right thing to do! He knew it! Sparks decided to forget about that thought until-
*Clang.* Wait. Could that be!? Sparks moved the coat over his paw and saw a key! Maybe the key he needed! Sparks couldn't put it into words (and that may be because he shouldn't even say them) knowing that his plan would almost be over!
Sparks then grabbed the key and put it on his mouth so that he could still crawl with all of his four paws. He then did his best to put everything back to the way it was, went back around the bed, and then to the door, where the piece of wood was still there, holding the door open.
Sparks stood up on his two paws, but didn't let go of the key yet, because he knew he'd be running again soon. The Electric-Type then poked his head out the door to see if there was anymon there.
He looked back and forth from side to side, and it might have been because of Sparks' joy from finding the key, but he started to squeeze through the door a little faster than last time. Which led to him panicking when he saw a small yellow light coming from the other side of the ship.
Sparks' heart stopped as he saw the light, and he then got behind the closest thing he could get behind, which was a wooden barrel. He got behind it in just a moment, but that didn't stop Sparks from worrying about everything!
Did the Pokemon see him? Was there anymon else up? Did they see the Lapras?! Sparks' thoughts were so loud, that he almost didn't hear the Pokemon talking. He peeked over to the side of the barrel and saw the same Marshtomp from yesterday.
"Hey Wave, wake up." He said to a sleeping Wartortle.
The turtle took some time to get up.
"Gary? What's going on? It's not even dawn yet." Wave yawned as he spoke to his crewmate.
Gary sighs. "Ya, ya, I know, it's just...I had a bad dream." Gary says in a embarrassed tone.
"And you want me to like, get you some warm milk?" Wave says in a confused way.
"N-no! It's not like that! It's just that it's close enough to dawn, and I'm already awake, so I thought we could start getting the ship ready for today." The bipedal Pokemon explains.
"Just five more minutes." Wave groans as he turns away from Gary.
That was all Sparks needed to hear. "Okay! Two Pokemon are getting up! I don't have a lot of time now! I need to get to the Lapras! Give her the key! And get out of here! NOW!"
Sparks tried to come up with a new plan last second, he was sure he could get to the Lapras, but the amount of time it would take for the chains to come off!
The crewmates would easily hear that! And then they'll go after him, and he didn't know how he could get them off his tail! He didn't want any of this to happen!
"No! Deep breath." Sparks thought to himself. Sparks realized that he would be heard by the sailors no matter what he did! Which would mean he'd have to figure out a few things during his escape!
Sparks turned to his left and saw where the Lapras could be, he was going to jump onto the Lapras and start freeing her ASAP!
Sure it might be painful landing on her shell and he may even miss her and fall into the water, but this was the quickest way! Sparks looked toward the crewmates once more, it didn't look like they were looking toward his way.
Sparks took a deep breath.
This is it, it's happening now.
Sparks then used Quick Attack, and before he knew it, he jumped off the ship and just landed into the shell of the Lapras with a little 'thump' sound to go with it.
Sparks had landed on all of his four paws, but the momentum from falling down had caused Sparks to slide a bit more than he would have wanted to, and he started to slip off the turtle's gray shell.
Sparks only had a moment to jump off the shell, which he did, but then he landed on the wooden deck on his chest. Fortunately, whether it was because Pokemon have tough bodies for fighting, or it just wasn't that bad, Sparks didn't really get that hurt at all...kind of.
"Huh? What was that?" Sparks heard from his ear when he put his head up, it was probably Gary.
Sparks gulped. "What?" Wave groaned.
"I heard something." Gary said in a panicked tone.
The Turtle still wasn't in the mood. "It was probably just a Wild Pokemon. No big deal."
"But we should go-"
"Just five more minutes..."
"But...you said that already!"
Sparks had to admit, that was one of his worst plans he had ever had, but it somehow worked. Sure, it could have gone better, but he'll take what he can get.
"Okay?" A familiar female voice asked. Sparks turned his head toward the Lapras.
He tried to smile at her, but with the amount of time he had, and with his body being a little banged up, he needed to hurry.
"Um...ya, just got to hurry." He said as he started running to the chains. The Pichu ran up to the shell and jumped into it.
"Augh!" Sparks cried in pain. He then looked down and saw a huge painful mark on his chest. Yep, he'll need a berry for that. But then Sparks saw another horrible thing, the key started sliding off the shell, and towards the water.
Sparks tried to grab it, but he couldn't get there in time, Sparks was then frozen in fear when he saw the key go into the air, and make that one sound.
*Plunk*