Chapter 17

Awkward Introductions

Ruby and Tide were leaving school when they noticed the Ampharos from earlier walking out of town. Just as they were walking past the Kecleon Market, they saw a shine of light a few dozen feet away, near the trail that led out of town.

Ruby rushed towards it and saw that the light source was a small blue orb that appeared to be made of crystal and a bit larger than an apple. Ruby picked it up in her mouth before dropping it in Tide's satchel.

"I've never seen anything like this; let's ask the Kecleon brothers," Tide suggested.

Ruby walked up to the Kecleon market and placed the orb on the counter.

"Hey Fred, you ever seen one of these?" The Fennekin asked

"I'm Frank, and no, I don't believe I have…hey Fred!" The purple Kecleon called out.

The green Kecleon emerged from within the tent; the second he saw the orb, his eyes widened, and he asked, "where in the world did you children obtain one of these"

"We found it near the trail leading out of town; what is it?" Tide questioned

Fred picked up the orb and held it for a bit before turning it in hand and pressing a small button that was embedded in the orb.

Instantly the orb activated, and a hologram appeared around the orb; the projected screen said, "awaiting activation code."

"This is an expedition orb, used by exploration teams to find jobs, check their map and contact other teams, though this one seems to require a code to use," Fred explained before reaching into the hologram and pressing the button again, causing the hologram to shrink until it was small enough to hover above the orb. Another press of the button turned the orb off.

"Then…that yellow Pokemon must have been a member of an exploration team! Ruby realized. He left his orb behind."

Frank gave a confused look and said, "what yellow pokémon? Oh the Ampharos…he stopped here one more time to buy some food and said he was heading to another village past Poliwrath river"

"Poliwrath river. That's not too far" Tide said before grabbing the orb and running off with Ruby in hot pursuit.

Fred called out for them to wait but to no avail. "Wait, don't just…Ah youth, they never listen."

Alex had Saraxis's arms and legs shackled with a metal mask over her mouth as he left the guild. He walked her down to the beach and then into a nearby cave. Soon enough they came to a sandy pit with a small crystal podium. Saraxis checked her surroundings and stared at Alex as her eyes glowed purple.

"Don't bother; that won't work on me," Alex mentioned offhandedly as he felt the mental tug.

The Gothitelle gasped behind her mask; she couldn't understand how Alex was able to shrug off her mind control so effortlessly.

Alex placed his explorer badge on the podium. The crystal podium glowed, then spoke with "guildmaster rank recognized, retinal scan required."

A blue beam shot out and scanned Alex's eye; the Haxorus briefly flinched before a blue portal opened, and he dragged the outlaw through. As they exited the portal, Saraxis looked around in terror; she had heard that Galewind prison was completely inescapable. It was clear just from her surroundings that this was no rumor. The ocean around the island was rough and choppy, and the horizon was covered with dark clouds that blotted out the sky.

They were on a stone pathway leading to a massive iron gate, and along their path were six Pokemon resembling armored knights with blades from arms. The six Bisharps about faced as the duo passed by them. Ghost types and dark-type pokemon were automatically immune to mind control, and Galewind prison was staffed entirely by these two types of Pokemon. The prison was a massive stone fortress with a guard tower at all four corners. Otherwise, the building was a gigantic stone brick. There were only a few windows on the lower and top floors that were clearly not leading to cells.

Saraxis was sweating bullets as the warden arrived, flanked by two Pokemon that Alex tensed at the sight of. The warden's bodyguards were two primarily black Pokémon that somewhat resembled a cyclops. Their cylindrical heads were light gray with a single eye with a yellow iris and a red pupil. There was a yellow band near the top of their heads and a short, yellow antenna with a disc-shaped tip extending from on top. Six flat projections extended from the base of their neck and surrounded their heads, resembling an upturned collar. They had well-developed arms with two yellow bands near their wrists and large, gray hands. On the front of their torsos were two almond-shaped markings, and yellow bands encircling its body, zigzagging along the front and forming a long curve around the back resembling a mouth on their stomachs. They had small wispy tails in place of feet and simply floated.

Alex's hands clenched and he nearly took a fighting stance, causing the warden and his guards to pause in place. Alex closed his eyes and took a deep breath before relaxing and handing Saraxis off to the two Dusknoirs.

The mind controller was led away as Alex sized up the warden. The warden of Galewind Prison was a Pokemon that resembled a sentient chandelier. It had a striped, round head, and round, reddish-pink eyes that lacked pupils. There was a ring of small, black spikes on top of its head with an orange flame pouring from its head. From a black spike below its head, its black arms curled upward and had four branches tipped in orange fire.

"Welcome Alex, I am warden Ketch" the Chandalure greeted in a calm and friendly voice.

Alex shook his head and said "yea, sorry I was…somewhere else…nice to meet you"

"If I may…would you like a tour?" Ketch offered.

Alex nodded and followed the Chandalure around the prison for about 20 minutes, cellblock after cellblock of Pokemon who were either starring in anger at the rare visitors or cowering in fear upon seeing the light Ketch casted with his flames.

Soon enough Ketch led Alex to his office, where a large black marble desk sat in the center of the room with few guest chairs. However, there was no chair behind the desk and no furnishings besides the crystal globe that served as a way to take calls and display a map.

Ketch floated behind his desk while Alex remained standing. There was a palpable silence before Alex spoke in a genuine voice.

"You are doing an excellent job Ketch, it's a pleasure to finally meet you" Alex admitted.

Ketch's eyes squinted, showing dark edges around them as he said "You…seem very accepting of me"

"Why shouldn't I?" Alex questioned

"Ghost types aren't exactly well looked upon…let alone my kind" Ketch admitted.

Alex shook his head and replied "no one can control what they are born as. You are defined by the choices you make and how you act, nothing more"

"Very well said…if only more people shared that viewpoint…there is a request I need to make of you" Ketch began.

"Go ahead and ask" Alex replied nonchalantly.

"I need more staff, the 30 Bisharps patrol the exterior and maintain the guard towers, but aside from our cooking staff and my two Dusknoirs…that's it" Ketch admitted.

Alex gave a concerned look and said "that's it for 200 of the most dangerous criminals in the world? Why haven't you made this request before?"

Ketch gave a sigh, which caused a small amount of smoke to pop out of his flames, and admitted "I have, but no one ever visits and the guidlmasters are too busy to take my calls. I try to call the law enforcement headquarters on the water continent, but they never return my calls if it's not about a prisoner"

Alex nodded and said, "I will make sure that changes, is there any specific pokemon you would like to employ?"

"Perferbly, some litwick. I can train them to siphon energy off prisoners without injuring them. It would only take one or two of them to maintain an entire cell block with proper training" Ketch explained.

Alex nodded and began to leave, as the only way off the island was the dedicated portal gate. The constant harsh weather made teleportation in any form unusable.

Ketch spoke one more time before the Haxorus opened the door and said "thank you Alex…but I want to know one more thing"

Alex stopped and answered in a neutral voice with "what?"

"If you don't have anything against ghost types like me…why did you freeze at seeing those Dusknoirs?" Ketch asked.

Alex turned his face back to the warden, his eyes cold and emotionless as he said two simple words before leaving, "painful memories"

Ruby and Tide arrived at the bridge across the massive river. Poliwrath river was known for its depth and strong current. Just as they arrived, two large Pokemon jumped them. The two thugs were blue, bipedal Pokémon with round bodies and muscular arms. They had bulbous eyes that protruded from the top of their heads and their belly was covered by a white and black swirl.

"You kids should've stayed home!" one of the Poliwrath said before the other reached for Tide's satchel.

However, a massive bolt of lightning struck the duo. The electricity was not natural, as it was arching around the duo and hitting only the Poliwrath. The water types fell to their knees in pain. They spotted the source of the thunder attack and immediately dove into the river.

Ruby and Tide turned to see the Ampharos walking towards them with a concerned look and asked "now that they're gone, what on earth are you two children doing this far from home?"

Author's Note-Gasp! it's not been two months since I last uploaded.

1. It's good to have writing time again, no promises on timeframes, but I'm finally back to a normal schedule.

2. Much like the Keckleon Bros from last time, I gave Frank and Fred similar names solely to make jokes about it

3. Ketch the friendly Chandalure is named after one of my favorite comic book heroes, albeit his second incarnation that I'm not as fond of.

Next time-Ruby and Tide have an interesting meeting with Tesla while Blake and Alex have an important chat