Chapter 12: Come and Go
Nori swore softly, staring out at the wide sea. Leviathan still hadn't appeared, and it had been nearly five hours since she last saw him. The wind gusted slightly, scattering sand grains and causing her hair to blow back. She selected a rock from the sand and hurled it, sending it arcing into the air. It hit the water with a dull plunk and a splash. The sea remained calm even as the ripples spread outward. She sighed and started walking back toward Mr. Briney's boat.
~*~*~
There was a ruckus on deck as some of Dom's, Fernando's and Nori's pokémon played. Dom's electrike, Fernando's poochyena and Bitey were engaged in a friendly free-for-all, tussling in a whirl of black and green. Dom's spoink, Metang and Esperanza were talking quietly, and Fernando's chikorita was engaged in a discussion with Neko. Agni was sitting alone on one of the gunwales, spitting tiny fireballs into the sea, where they extinguished themselves with a hiss of steam. She didn't look especially happy.
"Back again, Nori? Did you find your gyarados?" asked Dom.
Fernando looked at Nori, taking his attention away from the pokémon as she hopped from the dock to the ship.
She shook her head. "Not a trace of him."
"That's very odd…gyarados are reputed to be very loyal," said Fernando.
"Where could he have gone?" asked Dom.
Nori shrugged. "I really have no idea, but I'm getting worried that maybe he got too close to one of those tourist beaches…" Levi's unspoken fate hung in the air.
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'd be hearing about it if that was the case," said Fernando. "Gyarados sightings around here are events." He paused. "But what we could do is talk to the coast patrol. They could tell us if there were any gyarados sightings today."
Nori nodded. "Okay, sounds good. Can you show me where to go?"
"Yeah, easy. You wanna come, Dom?"
"Sure. Better 'n sitting around here."
They recalled their pokémon one by one, but Nori stopped when she came to Agni's pokéball.
"Hey, listen, you guys…I'll catch up. I need to talk to Agni," she said, quietly.
"Yeah, sure," said Dom.
"Esperanza mentioned something about your combusken being 'mean', just so you know."
"Right. I'd better see what's annoying her."
"Okay, we'll stop and wait somewhere for you if you take too long."
"Gotcha."
She watched the two male trainers depart before sidling over to Agni, casually leaning against the gunwale.
"You were really great in our match today," she said.
Agni snorted. "I was defeated. I don't call that good at all."
"You were defeated after fainting one of Brawly's pokémon and doing significant damage to the other. That's pretty good, especially considering that you didn't have much of a type advantage."
"Chi. You weren't so excited when I evolved."
Nori studied the surface of the water. "On the outside, no. I normally don't go for large displays of emotion. I don't know what came over me, back in the gym. I assure you, I was immensely pleased when you evolved. I'm sorry if I made you feel…less special." She hugged the fire bird cautiously, not wanting to get a beak or a fireball in the eye.
Agni sighed. "Whatever." As Nori let go, she turned and touched her pokéball, recalling herself.
"I must apologize," said Metang, appearing from the shadows. She'd neglected to return him to his pokéball. "She asked me how the remainder of the battle went and I told her in detail. I did not realize she would be bothered by your reaction to my evolution."
Nori smiled slightly. "It's okay, it's not your fault and I don't blame you. I explained myself to her, but she has to decide how to feel, now. I'm hoping that she'll get over it, so we can all be friends again."
"I see. This is very complicated."
"Very." She paused a moment. "Hey, do you want a nickname? I've been thinking about your final form and I think 'Behemoth' would suit you well. It was the name of a massive creature in Judaic mythology.
"It works," said Behemoth, simply.
"…Great," said Nori, recalling him.
~*~*~
Nori caught up to Fernando and Dom after a short run.
"Good timing," remarked Fernando as Nori panted, slightly. "The coast patrol offices are just up here."
The low building was surrounded by boats and docks supported by pontoons, judging by how much they wiggled when stepped on. The roof was covered in satellite dishes, radio antennae and other bizarre meteorological instruments; strange metal devices that swayed, turned or rattled in the wind. On the outside, it appeared to have been built in islander fashion: wooden walls and a roof thatched with palm leaves. This was likely an outer shell, an attempt to make the building more…'authentic' in some way. They walked along the wooden planking that ringed the building, eventually finding a door.
Nori was rather disappointed when they entered the 'offices'. The foyer was a small, grubby room with what appeared to be a couple of shower curtains hung from the ceiling at the end opposite them. There was a small, rickety desk with paper stacked on it and a chair behind it in front of the screen. The concrete walls and floor were stained and cracked. There was a mechanical hum coming from somewhere, probably behind the curtains.
"Are you sure this is the place?" asked Dom.
"Well, not so much anymore," said Fernando. "I've never had to ask for help, just heard about what they can do."
The dark green shower curtains twitched and a young man, probably in his early twenties, appeared, sipping a can of some soft drink. He did a slight double-take as he noticed the three.
"Uh…hey. Can I help you?" he asked.
"Er, yeah…these are the…offices of the coast patrol, right?" asked Fernando.
"Yup. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, well, it's kind of…decrepit."
The man sighed. "Yeah, I know…the government doesn't give us much funding, see, so we have to spend it all on the boats and the computers." He smirked slightly. "We don't get paid much either."
"Right, um, my gyarados went missing today—"
"A runaway," said the man. It was meant to be a question but the inflection was lost in the face of his dismissive tone.
"What? No! He's well-trained but I was worried that maybe he went too close to a tourist beach and you guys had to capture or…kill him."
"Hmm, I don't remember seeing anything on the event log…let me check." He disappeared for a moment behind the screen, then returned with a long sheet of paper that dragged behind him. "Sorry, nothing about a gyarados here. You can look for yourself if you like, though."
"No, it's okay," said Nori, rather dejectedly. "We'll keep looking."
"Good luck," said the man, not sounding like he meant it.
~*~*~
"So what're you gonna do, Nori?" asked Dom as they walked slowly along the beach toward Mr. Briney's boat.
"Probably just leave. It doesn't matter, Levi was a wild pokémon, when all's said and done. I don't think a life of trainer battles was meant for him."
Fernando glanced at the ocean, blue and clear out into the distance. Abruptly, he stopped walking, staring at something.
"Huh?"
"What is it, Fer?"
"Can you see that weird dark shape there? Looks like it's coming closer to shore."
"Hey, yeah, that's odd," said Dom.
"Uh, guys? I think we'd better step back…"
The ensuing explosion of water and silt was accompanied by a deep bass roar that sounded bizarrely harmonized. Nori looked up to see a pair of gyarados, one dark blue and the other blood red, towering over her. Her heart leapt despite the fear that she was about to be turned into a red streak on the sand. The dark blue gyarados could only be Levi; the odds of another gyarados having that same unusual coloration here where they were uncommon were too high. Levi looked at her at shut his enormous maw, purring softly. She smiled, her hope confirmed. The red one lowered its head, allowing someone to jump off.
It was an older man, stomach hanging slightly over his blue swimming trunks. He walked awkwardly, his flippers churning the sand on the beach. He removed a scuba mask and breathing device from his face as he drew closer to the trainer trio.
"Good day," he said cheerfully. "I take it one of you is the trainer of this fine male gyarados?"
"Yeah, that would be me," said Nori, wringing water from her hair. The other two dripped silently.
"Oh, lovely, lovely. I was out for a swim with my darling Tiamat, this shining gyarados here, when we—that is, Tiamat and your gyarados—spotted each other. They were immediately smitten."
Her happiness at seeing Levi drained away. "I see."
"I was hoping that, perhaps, you would trade with me, so that the pair shall never be apart." There was something incredibly floral about all of his sentences.
"Oh, of course," she said. Too brightly. "If that's what Leviathan wants?" she looked up at her pokémon, trying to smile, look happy, look happy…
Leviathan seemed to frown, as much as he could given limited facial expression. His intrinsically dangerous, catlike eyes showed concern, perhaps…guilt? He glanced at Tiamat. The female gyarados crooned, softly. Pleading?
He looked back to Nori and rumbled a "yes."
Nori tried to smile. "I can't keep you against your will…"
The older man smiled, oblivious to Nori's façade. "Excellent! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Humphrey Albertson. I am a retired lawyer, and my summer home is on this island."
"I'm Noirsha Hunter, a trainer from Sootopolis. I'm making the rounds and collecting badges, currently."
"Oh, how exciting! I have a passion for water pokémon, myself. Since I took the water element from your team, let me replace it with another that will serve you well." He smiled widely and handed her a net ball with as much ceremony as can be achieved in a bathing suit.
"What's inside?" she asked, studying the greenish-blue capture device.
"A feebas."
"Seriously?" Nori stared a moment at Humphrey, some of her resentment lifting away. "This is…wonderful. I've always wanted a milotic." She removed Levi's dive ball from her belt and passed it to Mr. Albertson.
"Ah, thank you! I will be sure to send you an egg," he promised.
"A shiny one preferred, of course."
~*~*~
She waved farewell to Leviathan as he sunk beneath the waves, along with his lady friend and her trainer. She watched the sea even after they disappeared.
People come and go…as do pokémon, I guess…
"A feebas?" said Dom jealously, halting her inner thought. "Why do you get given all the good pokémon, anyway?"
"Just lucky, I guess," said Nori, thinking to herself how laughable that statement actually was.
~*~*~
Slateport City was exactly as it was when she'd first been there—though that wasn't exactly a feat, it had only been a week since she arrived on the ferry from Mossdeep. Same bazaar, same buildings, same east-side docks. However…there was something about the city that annoyed her, she thought, as she walked toward the shipbuilding district. Something out of place. Whispers of warning like the flutter of a butterfly's wing, soft and then gone, borne away by the wind from the sea. Maybe she just didn't like large cities like this…
She noticed a large sign near one plant, large and opening out onto the sea. It had 'Stern Shipbuilding Co.' emblazoned on it in large blue letters. She wandered in through a huge, open door, emerging in a huge factory. The sound and scent of metal and wood being shaped and processed assailed her senses. Hurriedly, she ducked into what looked like a side office.
A middle-aged man with thinning brown hair dressed in casual attire looked up, startled, from the charts on a worktable.
"Er…who are you?"
"Um, I've got a package for Captain Stern…is he here?"
"Who's it from?"
"Devon Corporation…"
"Oh! The disks! Let's see, he's not here at the moment actually, he's over at the Oceanic Museum. You can give them to him there."
"Ah, okay…thanks."
~*~*~
The interior and exterior of the Oceanic Museum contrasted like black and white. While the outside was a drab white brick, the inside was filled with exhibits and murals, ringing and ringed by massive aquariums. The low light gave it all an ethereal, cave-like quality. There was little noise in spite of the many visitors; the building seemed to have a reverential quality to it.
Nori stopped for a moment to gaze at the inner tank. Apparently the outer aquarium held mostly pokémon and this one in the center held only ordinary animals. She watched a small shark swim by, blue-gray and sleek and so unlike the boxy sharpedo that shared certain traits with it.
Presently, she grew bored and decided to find Captain Stern. She spotted a set of stairs and climbed them. They led to more exhibits, mostly of ships and submarines, small, enclosed aquariums and the fenced-off but open tops of the larger ones from downstairs. This floor was oddly empty save for one man in a lab coat, whom she approached.
"Excuse me," she said, the man turning his attention to her, "but do you know where Captain Stern is?"
"Sure. I'm him. What can I do for you?" he said, placing his hands in the pockets of his coat. Stern was bespectacled and brown-haired, but looked younger than she'd expected.
"I've got some disks for you from Devon Corporation." Nori rummaged in her backpack. "Here you are," she said, handing him the small box.
"Oh, thank you! I've been waiting for these a long time. I understand there was some trouble with"—there was the disconcerting byu of many electrical systems all shutting down at once, bathing the room in darkness—"…Team Aqua."
"Blackout?" said Nori, looking around.
"No, the aquarium lights are still on…"
There was the sound of running, booted feet in the stillness, followed by the lights sullenly flickering back on.
"Huh. Speak of the devil," said Nori.
The two Team Aqua grunts leered at her threateningly, but gave up when she glared daggers back at them.
"Yo! Cap'n Stern, hand over the goods," said one, arms folded over his chest.
"Or else," said he other, cracking his knuckles.
"Goods? What goods? Ahahahaha," said Stern nervously, putting the little box behind his back.
"The ones you got be'ind ya," said the first grunt.
"Hand 'em over!"
"If you want those disks, you gotta' get past me, first," said Nori, stepping in front of Stern.
"Oh ho! Cocky, ain't she?"
"It ain't a quality I likes t' see in a girl. Too bad, I think. Don't cry when you lose, hun'. Go Carvanha!"
"Go Zubat!"
Two on two, eh? "Go Bitey and Behemoth!"
"Use your Leech Life on that poochyena!"
"Use Water Gun on the blue floaty thing!"
"Dodge and Poison Fang on the carvanha, and Confusion on that zubat!"
Bitey evaded the zubat's attack and clamped its jaws on the orange and blue piranha pokémon, partly submerged in one of the tanks. It hissed in pain and shot a stream of water at Behemoth, who seemed to shrug it off for the most part. Behemoth raised an arm and a green glow formed around the zubat. He telekinetically smashed it onto the floor, where it crumpled, unconscious.
"You bitch!" said the Aqua grunt, outraged. He recalled his fallen Zubat and lunged at Nori.
"What terrible behavior," remarked Behemoth, psychically tossing him across the room into the big aquarium.
Meanwhile, Bitey had let go of his opponent—only to discover he wasn't very good at swimming. He treaded water in a frantic doggie-paddle, and barely saw it coming when the carvanha headbutted him. Stunned, he slipped beneath the surface of the water.
"Bitey! Behemoth, see if you can get him out!" yelled Nori, her stomach gripped by fear. How did you give rescue breathing to a pokémon, again…?
Behemoth began to glide over, but stopped as light erupted from the tank. The grunt's carvanha swam around, trying to see what had happened—then was suddenly seized by a pair of gray-furred jaws. It was shaken roughly and then tossed at its trainer, striking the grunt in the chest. He managed to catch the fainted pokémon and return it.
The dark pokémon paddled easily to the side of the tank and got out, then shook himself vigorously, spraying water everywhere. He walked over to Nori, who hugged his neck despite the dampness.
"Wonderful job, Bitey," she said, scratching behind the mightyena's ears. "You too, Behemoth. Your psychic abilities are excellent."
"Mister Bailey, Mister Schell. What, pray tell, is taking so long?" a new voice echoed from the stairwell. It was a cultured baritone, ringing and very aristocratic, but every syllable awash in malice. A figure appeared. He was very tall but of average build, his hair covered by a blue bandanna but probably black, if the hair along his jaw line was any indication. He wore a dark blue-gray suit and pants with the Team Aqua symbol just below his chest, his pace lordly and commanding. His jacket was open slightly, revealing a necklace of steel chain links. The two grunts were standing at attention long before he reached them, one ignoring the growing pool of water around him.
"You have not yet answered my question, gentlemen."
"It was this trainer here, sir."
"She beat us in a pokémon battle."
"Indeed?" his gaze moved to Nori, focusing on her and forgetting about the grunts, like a hunting cat. Behemoth and Bitey moved in front of her, protectively, as he drew nearer, Bitey snarling and Behemoth deadly silent.
He smiled at the two pokémon as if they were being extremely cute in some way. "Tell me, girl…why is it you felt compelled to fight for this man, whom you met only a few minutes ago?"
"Some sort of Good Samaritan instinct, I imagine. 'S not right to take things that don't belong to you," she added, with a bit of a smirk.
"Quite. I, Archibald, the Maelstrom, cannot expect a child to understand my lofty aims, after all…but indeed, I will be taking those disks. Now." The last word was sharp, commanding.
She flinched involuntarily. "No."
Archie took an ultra ball out of his pocket. "Perhaps you failed to hear me, properl—"
There were screams from the lower level, and then the sounds of booted feet ascending the stairs. Ten Team Magma grunts assembled in front of the stairs, led by a female admin, virtually indiscernible from the rest of the group save for the single white stripe on each pant leg.
Archibald sighed. "It has always been so." He glanced at Nori. "I imagine we will meet again, young trainer."
"Go perform inappropriate acts on a growlithe," snarled Nori.
Archie winked at her, throwing down a smoke bomb at the same moment the Magma admin called out a command to attack.
Nori hastily recalled her pokémon. "Is there another way out?" She coughed, violently. "We've gotta get out of here!"
"Yeah, this way," said Stern, running into the smoke. Nori followed him.
They went down a hidden set of stairs and emerged on the outside of the building, where the air was refreshingly clear.
"Thanks a lot for helping me back there. I wasn't carrying any pokémon with me today," he said, ruefully. "I don't think I'll ever go without them, now."
"Eh, no problem…what was on those disks, anyway?"
"Design schematics for a new underwater vehicle. I'm not really sure why Team Aqua would want them, though."
"Maybe they're looking for something underwater? But then, couldn't they take just any old submarine?"
"Yeah, you'd think…this one is special because it can go very deep beneath the ocean, though."
"Hmm…I wonder," mused Nori. "It's probably a good idea to get somewhere safe, in case the Teams come looking for you, now that you've got the designs."
"That's a good idea. Well, thank you for helping me, I hope we'll meet again."
"Sure…"
~*~*~
"It was simple, Kagaki, and you simply allowed them to escape! You even had Archie within your grasp! You could have destroyed the primary resistive force to our plans! You let yourself be outwitted by Aqua scum. Get out of my sight."
Mal turned, cloak swishing, as the female admin fled the room. She glared at Maximus, who seemed unaffected by this revolting display of incompetence. She marched closer to his desk.
"You don't care, do you?" she hissed.
"I am very…disappointed that Archibald is not yet dead," he said, his tone idle and dismissive. In truth, he was nearly as angry as his daughter.
Maximus swirled the red wine in his glass. "It was a successful mission. Team Aqua was prevented from obtaining the plans for the submersible—"
"Mostly by some idiot unknown trainer," Mal snapped.
"—and now that Stern has them, we can wait until he builds the vehicle, and then steal it. More cost-effective."
"Obviously, but—"
"Archibald has never been one to retry something that has not worked."
"…Whatever," said Mal, whirling and storming out of the room.
Maximus set the wine glass down, reached into a pocket. He extracted a key from an inner pocket of his coat and unlocked one of his desk drawers. He took out a rolled-up sheet of paper and spread it on his desk.
Oh yes, he thought to himself as he perused the geological survey, particularly one area circled in red ink. Let Archibald waste his time on mindless schemes…let Lillith doubt and wonder…soon would come…fulfillment.
~*~*~
Heh, I went shopping for pants today and I stopped at Toys R Us because the video games section exerts a gravitational force on me. ^_^;; Anywho, I was looking at the Nintendo player's guide for R/S and they had a gamefreak drawing of MAXIE!! (And Archie too, but we don't care :P) *swoons* Yes, so…um, I want that book. I have to make sure my details are right!! And plus it's got maps, which are verreh' nice, being as the sea routes are SO FRICKIN' HUGE in this game.
Anyway, I got fourteen reviews for the last chapter! (I luff you guys *sniffle* T.T) That makes me feel special. ^_^ Anyway, tell me what you thought of the chapter everyone! Review! :D
Anyway, time for reviewer questions/comments!
StellarWind: METAGROSS OF DOOM!! Bahahaha~ XD
MuRm: Long-winded you say…hmm, I'd appreciate the opinions of more people on that. If I do have a problem with making my conversations too long, it may have something to do with me being naturally verbose. Meep. ^_^;; And you didn't like how I portrayed the Meta' family? How so? =/
Mal: Meep. Well, what I did was I used the Print Screen key and then pasted the image into PSP, where I edited it so I just had blocks of the pictures I wanted. If I only wanted a single picture, then I used View Source to find the addresses of the images, and then just viewed the one I wanted. Serebii's nasty right-click disabling doesn't work when you're viewing the image by itself. :D Oh, and Homura it is then! Mwahahah~
Nozomi&Hotaru: Hehe, Nori's mom's name is Marissa Hunter. But people keep thinking Nori has a resemblance to Naedalya…how strange… :}
Duke/Dew: Hehe, I did mean cooled, but cold works as well. :D