Pokémon: Hoenn Travels.
-The Important Stuff:-
1) I am not at all affiliated with Game Freak nor Nintendo, or any other companies that write/produce Pokémon.
2) I do not own any part of Pokémon.
-A Waiver:-
1) This is not a direct steal from anything already Pokémon-related that exists, not the show or a game or a novel/book. It is my own creation, therefore I may bend the rules a little bit to fit my needs.
2) The names of Professors, Gym Leaders, and Cities were taken from Ruby Version.
Chapter Ten:
Out
"This is Slateport?" Doug asked, his tone incredulous.
I felt the same way about the city. I had thought, because it was on the coast and because it was breezy and warm, that the city would be low-key and clean. But it was industrial, the air was thick with gas and other pollutants, and the streets were densely populated. Fearful of losing our Pokémon in the swarms of rushing people, both Phantom and Luma had been returned to their pokéballs. I was fighting the urge to slip my hand into Doug's, unsure of what I would do if he and I got separated.
"How do we even find anything here?" I asked, having to shout over the sound of machines and hundreds of people.
He shook his head. "I have no idea."
The streets wound in and out of large buildings that towered over us. There were few street signs, and even less directional signs. The whole city was a skyscraper maze.
We were still standing near the coastline, if it could be called such. It was built high up off the water, the actual shore was tens of feet below us and covered entirely by planks of wood and sheets of metal creating the pathway we were standing on.
As we slowly made our way further into the city, it felt like we were swallowed up by congestion and pollution. Footsteps thundered in my ears, my own thoughts were drowned out by the multitude of people speaking, and it seemed there was machinery constantly running, loudly.
"I can't fucking think in this shit!" I heard Doug bark and I glanced up at him.
"PokéCenter?" I suggested, having to raise my voice to make sure he heard me.
"But where the hell is it?" I was thankful for his height. He was peering over the heads of the crowd surrounding us trying to get some bearing on where we were in the city. "Wait," he said, obviously spotting something that was helpful to use. "Come on." Without hesitation, he scooped up my hand in his and started bulldozing his way through the throngs of people.
He kept his stare straight ahead and his grasp on my hand tight. It was quite some distance before I could finally make out the large, red and white sign out ahead of us. When we finally got closer, he and I both noticed the line out the door. A woman, who based on her attire was an employee of the center, spotted us as we approached. She gave us a pleasant smiled and waved us over to her. She was holding a clipboard.
"What was the name on your reservation?" She asked.
"Reservations?" Doug echoed.
"We were under the impression that staying at a PokéCenter was free for trainers," I remarked, knowing that my incredulity was easily readable on my face.
"Yes, of course, but we have an influx of visitors lately, we just don't have the room for everyone," she explained, her tone apologetic. She waved to the line out the door. "Unless you have a reservation."
I eyed the line as Doug started to argue with her again. The first thing that stood out to me was that the line consisted of young trainers, ten to fifteen years old at the oldest. They were all chattering happily, they all had pokéballs in their hands or around their waists. Because there were so many, and they were all talking so quickly and so loudly, I could only make out little snippets of conversations. But from what I did gather, most of them were present for the same reason Doug and I were.
The poster we had snatched off the kid in Rustboro. All of these kids were here because of the promise from Team Magma for a great Pokémon adventure.
"Come on, Rowan." Doug's gruff voice cut through my thoughts and pulled me back to our reality. We had no place to stay in Slateport.
"Do we go to the next town?" I asked him as we headed away from the PokéCenter and further north into the city.
"Apparently there are plenty of hotels further west along Slateport's shore," Doug was explaining as he led the way. This far north in the city though, the foot traffic was significantly less.
"Outside of the city?" I questioned. "Doug, we don't know where this Team Magma event is taking place, what if we are too far removed?"
"You're more than welcome to camp out in the middle of Slateport, if you are really that concerned about it, Rowan," he grumbled. "I need a bed to sleep in."
When I snickered, mostly to myself, Doug ceased his movement to spin around and look at me. "You sound like an old man," I explained my laughter. I earned myself an eyeroll from the man as he spun back around and huffed away from me. I continued to giggle as I followed after him.
The first hotel, a sprawling, gorgeously open building along the coastline just west of Slateport City proper, had more than enough vacancies. Doug and I were able to get separate rooms, across the hall from each other. He was more than willing to give me the room facing the ocean, so I sat with the sliding glass doors opened and a salty, warm breeze filled my room. Luma was sprawled out in the sunshine on the patio of the hotel room. I could hear her content purrs from my seat at the desk inside.
I sat at the computer that came along with the room, trying to find any information I could online about Team Magma and their upcoming gathering. My internet searches had so far turned up nothing. As I decided on another avenue, a knock sounded at my door.
I hurried to the hotel door and pulled it open. Doug ducked his way through the doorway as I jogged back to the computer.
"What are you doing?" He asked. I heard the door close.
"Trying to figure out where we need to be this evening," I answered, rapidly typing away. My new thought process had turned up promising results.
"Where are you looking?" I could feel him standing over my shoulder.
I grinned back at him. "Social media."
"And?"
"Jackpot," I assured him. "Everyone is posting about it, just gotta sift through all the posts."
"Thank goodness kids love sharing personal information that no one else gives a shit about," Doug muttered. The bed frame squeaked as he dropped onto the foot of the bed.
"Arguably, right now, we care."
"You care."
I threw a playful glare over my shoulder at him. He missed it. As I returned my attention to the computer and continued to scroll, I saw a useful post. "Oh!" I said, aiming to click on it.
"Oh?" Doug echoed.
Before I could pursue the information any further, the power in the hotel flickered. It came back on immediately, but it was long enough for the internet to drop and the computer to go black. I swore under my breath.
"What the hell was that?"
"I am going to guess it was the power flickering, Doug," I remarked. The computer was slowly booting back up.
"Well, did you find anything before it went out?"
"I did," I agreed. "Someone said that they were meeting at the Slateport shipyard around eight."
Doug pulled his wrist up to his face, staring at his watch. "We got a few hours to kill."
I pointed out the opened doors of my room and towards the shoreline. "Beach?"
His face darkened. "How many times do I have to tell you no?"
Hours later, as the sun began to set, throwing long beams of light across the towering buildings of Slateport City, Doug and I made our way toward the shipyard. Thanks to our inquiries to the hotel staff, we knew that it was located not far from the docks where we had entered Slateport. We assumed, given the nature of the gathering, that we would find the shipyard dark and secured, with Team Magma personnel guarding the entrances to prevent unwanted people from getting in.
However, as we approached, we found a large group of trainers. They were milling about, coming and going out of the large, industrial building that was on the property. Conversations were loud and the building was light up brightly.
"It looks like a party," Doug hissed.
"Yeah, it does," I agreed. "Definitely not the sort of hush, hush gathering I was expecting."
"It's a bunch of dumb kids, what did you expect?"
"A gathering masterminded by a criminal gang? I was expecting something controlled, quiet, and reserved," I muttered, eyeing the crowd.
"Well, let's go see if anyone will talk to us," Doug shrugged, heading toward the open gate of the fence that surrounded the shipyard.
We milled through the crowd, getting glares and cold shoulders from each of the group of kids we passed by. It was obvious that we were not going to be accepted and that we did not belong with the intended audience of this get-together. As we neared trainers, their voices would lower and they would begin to whisper about us.
"I don't think we are going to get any information from these kids," I sighed. My disappointment was growing with each passing moment.
"Let's go inside, maybe there are brochures, or Team Magma members inside we can talk to," Doug suggested with a shrug.
"If kids aren't going to talk to us Doug, Team Magma is going to either battle us, physically fight us, or drag us out of here."
"I think we can take them." With his confident comment, he bee-lined for the opened door of the massive building. Entering behind him, I found that the structure was built over an inlet of water, the far, left wall had a massive door that slid upward. I imagined opening it led it out into the open water south of Slateport. There were docks in the center of the floor, and I had to imagine that ships and boats alike had been constructed in the space. The entire area was well-lit, there were many trainers filling the available space inside as well.
Doug and I slowly made our way around the space. We got a few hellos, but otherwise we couldn't get anyone to engage in a conversation with us. We also could not find a single person who appeared over the age of thirteen, and definitely no one who appeared to be a part of a criminal gang.
I was going with the assumption that the individual that I had seen give the boy in Rustboro the flyer was a member of Team Magma. With that information, I was hoping to see someone, anyone, in the same uniform within the shipyard, but after circling the interior of the building twice, I spotted nothing, no one.
Doug and I found a secluded spot not far from the door of the building. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants and glared around the room. "Well?" He muttered. "What do you think?"
"This is a bust," I hissed. "This is just a bunch of trainers."
"But that is strange too, right?" Doug glanced down at me.
"Because supposedly this region has no new trainers? Yes, it's strange."
"They all have Pokémon," he said, his eyes still flitting around the room. "And it's multiple, five or six on each trainer. So, why aren't they doing the gym challenge and the Elite Four?"
"We have to separate a kid out, get him to talk to us," I said.
This comment earned me a pensive look from Doug. "You think separating a kid out from their friends is going to get them to talk to us? I thought you were a teacher. Don't you work with little shits all day?"
"Not kids this old, I get them before they're little shits," I told him, shaking my head. "Also, my kids are the one's that are getting themselves set up to leave on the adventure in their teens, not when they're prepubescent."
"Yeah, so you deal with kids smarter than most of these idiots," Doug sighed, gesturing around the room.
As I began to respond, the lights in the room flickered. The entire space went dark, I felt Doug's hand suddenly encircle my arm, but just as quickly the power came back on. His hand slid off my arm as he looked around the room. Everyone had fallen silent. Everyone in the space had obviously thought the same thing. The power flickering meant something had changed.
But nothing had.
"What the hell is that?" Doug hissed. The chattering from the nearby kids started up again, more excitedly now.
"Let's go outside," I said. "If it happens again, I don't want to be stuck inside."
"Good idea."
We left the cramped space, standing out several yards from the building and the crowds. The children that we had been nearby slowly distanced themselves from us. Doug and I stared, watching their movements.
"Any ideas?" I asked him after several minutes of silence.
"Actually, yeah."
When I glanced up at him, he was grinning in my direction. I felt my eyebrow arch, conveying my curiosity. "Going to share?"
"Remember what we did in Viridian Forest?"
My brow furrowed as I tried to recall back that far. I could remember right before entering the Viridian Forest, Doug had almost kissed me, I felt my cheeks redden. I cleared my throat and dropped my chin so Doug couldn't see my face. Phantom had interjected himself, Doug and I had had a dumb argument following it, a dumb argument about things only a seventeen year-old girl would have worried about. And then we had been attacked by Team Rocket.
"You mean the debacle with the Rockets?" I asked, lifting my eyes to his face.
"Well, how we got our Pokémon back from them."
"We had your Arcanine knock two Rockets unconscious, we stole their clothing, stripped in the woods with our backs to each other, and prayed to Mew that their uniforms actually fit us," I recalled.
"They fit perfectly," Doug commented.
"Your pants were a little high."
"Okay, the dude had short legs."
"No, you have freakishly long legs," I retorted. "What's your point?"
"Up until we made it known that we weren't Rockets, we blended in perfectly," he said.
"Okay, I will agree."
Doug waved out ahead of us at the group of kids. "They're waiting for Team Magma members. Maybe we play dress up again?"
"How do we get uniforms?"
"These are kids, Rowan. And clearly Team Magma likes to meet at night," Doug said. "We just need black clothing with a red bandana or a tie or something. Just enough to suggest it."
I tapped my finger against my lips. "It's not a terrible idea. We could at least get someone to talk to us then, right?"
"That's my thought."
"We should try it."
The words let my mouth, a loud pop sounded, and the entire shipyard went black. I couldn't help it when I physically jumped. Involuntarily, I reached out and set a hand on Doug's arm. I could feel his muscles tightened. The loss of power had clearly gotten a physical reaction from him too.
Seconds turned into minutes and the power didn't come back on. "Do you think Magma cut the power?" My voice came out as a whisper.
Doug didn't answer for a moment, and when too many moments passed, I looked up to him. He was staring behind us. I looked in the direction too, finding the entire city of Slateport dark too.
"I don't think Magma did this," he muttered.
I could feel a tremble in my body as I let my breath out. "Then who did?" I whispered.
