Pokémon: 3 Deaths: 0
{Monua 15th, 3:28PM}
{Slateport docks}
"I can't tell you how honored I am to be in your presence."
"Who's there?" Kalle demanded, grabbing one of his pokéballs. "Show yourself!"
Archie stiffened, rubbing his chin nervously. It wasn't the first time, but it still felt weird being clean-shaven. But Juan doesn't have a beard, only his stupid little moustache thing… He had put a lot of work into looking like his brother before they headed for the harbor, more than when he first tested his idea a month ago, and Marc and Kalle had spent a long time with stage makeup and wigs to look like entirely different people (why Kalle carried so much, Archie didn't ask, but Kalle looked like a woman ten years younger, while Marc seemed to have gained twenty years and an entirely different eye colour and jaw shape). They were all extremely jittery about being out in public once more, but the few dock workers who'd noticed them hadn't looked twice at them, aside from a few who'd said "hello" to "Juan".
"There," Marc said, pointing. The docks were dimly lit in the light of pre-dawn, but Archie was just able to make out a man with blue hair and a long grey coat leaning against a packing crate. "Who are you?"
"Call me Saturn," the man said. "I know who you are. Nice disguises, by the way. They'd have fooled me if I hadn't been tracking you all the way from where you ditched the submarine."
"Are you with the police?" Marc asked.
"Of course not," Saturn tsked. "I represent an energy conglomeration that hopes to make the entire world a better place. We hope to do so by utilizing the powers of the gods."
"I shall keep an eye out for your obituary," Marc said dryly.
"Won't you join us?" Saturn said, smiling at them and holding out his hand. "We will pay you well, and we can protect you from the world police. You will never have to face trial for your sad mistakes. We know you meant it for the best. We can help you control the powers of the Orbs…"
"Hell. No." Archie said flatly. He shuddered as he remembered the feeling of the Orb sinking into his chest, the power that had flowed through his veins and then… Darkness and drowning in hate, he remembered. Like after Dad died, but… endless. "You don't want the Orbs," he said. "You might think you do, but you really, really don't."
"We can control them," Saturn promised.
"You can't," Kalle growled. "I've seen what happens to people who think they can control the Orbs. No way."
Saturn scowled. "Don't be foolish," he snapped. "This is for the sake of the world!"
"That's what we said," Archie replied, pushing past him.
"I could call for the police," Saturn threatened. Kalle slammed him back against the crate with a snarl, a knife appearing in his hand. Given that he was dressed as a woman wearing a short, tight dress with no coat, where he'd gotten it from was anybody's guess.
"Or maybe you'll never speak again," Kalle giggled, pressing the knife against Saturn's throat and looking very much like himself again.
"No!" Archie gasped, pulling Kalle aside and punching Saturn in the forehead. The man's head clanged off of the crate and he collapsed, unconscious.
"And just what do you propose we do with him?" Marc asked flatly.
"Maybe you're comfortable with flat-out killing him, but I'm not," Archie snapped, looking around. The docks were still pretty much empty, but there was still a chance that somebody had heard the noise. He pulled Shanks' pokéball out of his pocket.
"You two grab this guy and help me dump him in the water," he ordered, releasing Shanks off the side of the docks. "Shanks, drag this guy as far out to sea as you can get in ten minutes and leave him floating face-up." Saturn groaned feebly. "He'll probably wake up soon anyway. Come straight back without him, got it?"
"Aye aye, kiddo," Shanks said as Marc and Kalle hauled Saturn into the water. He grabbed Saturn's coat in his teeth and shot off.
"When he wakes, he will inform the police of our disguises," Marc pointed out.
"If he does, he'll have to get back to land first," Archie said. "But I'm not entirely sure that guy wants to be seen talking to the police. Even if he does, by that time, we'll be far away." He pointed across the water, where a ship was sailing towards the harbor.
"The one to Sinnoh's gonna be the one leaving first, right?" Kalle asked, straightening his dress again. "Do you want help getting your team on? Y'know, as a last effort to do something for you. Pretty sure it's one of those dumb cruisers that take three days to get to your destination and don't let you take your Pokémon with you."
Archie shook his head. "Wrong on both statements. That one's probably coming in from Johto and gonna take ages to get all the current passengers off, prepare the rooms, double-check the entire ship, and get all the new passengers on, so I won't be leaving anywhere for another while- still leaving before that other asshole gets back, though. I think the one headed for Unova is the one that's already docked over there. If anything, I'd probably have to get Coby to help you smuggle your teams onto the ship."
Kalle shrugged. "Don't worry about us, we'll deal with it. Just get onto your ship, lock yourself up in your cabin or whatever, stay safe until you get there, stuff like that."
"We wish you the best of luck on your journey," Marc said. Archie gave a small nod, and the Magma leader looked down at the floor awkwardly. "For what it's worth- I'm sorry for everything you went through. You're a grown adult now, of course, but...as one who was previously meant to become your legal guardian, I should have never allowed for any of this to occur."
Archie didn't respond.
Marc and Kalle politely bowed to bid him adieu and walked past him, heading for the cruiser that would take the two of them to Unova. Archie turned and watched as the gap between them gradually widened.
"Hey!"
The two Magmas paused in their tracks, offering Archie attentive looks.
He'd called out to them, but what was he going to say? Good luck? Have a good life? After all that had happened, it felt wrong to say something like that out loud. Very, excruciatingly wrong. He wasn't exactly wishing them good luck and would honestly prefer that they get torn and eaten by a school of Basculin once they got there, but… it felt wrong to say that out loud, too. At this point, they were all metaphorically in the same boat, just trying to go somewhere that wasn't Hoenn and make amends in a way that wasn't just sitting around behind bars. As much as he hated to admit it, as much as he hated them for everything that went down in the past ten years, it was a feeling he knew and understood and couldn't blame them for.
He opened his mouth a couple times, hesitant on what exactly should come out of his mouth as the other two patiently waited. Eventually he just closed it again and decided not to say anything.
Despite that, Marc smiled and Kalle smirked before pressing forward again.
{Monua 15th, 8:34PM}
{Slateport docks}
{S.S. Conway}
Archie thought it pretty convenient that the ship was leaving in the evening, when the sun had set well into the horizon. It wasn't entirely dark yet, and the sky and sea still full of vibrantly warm colors. But it was late enough that, should any of the crew members happen to spot Coby long before he could finish smuggling all of the Aqua leader's Pokéballs through the porthole, it would be a lot easier to brush off Coby's presence.
And spot him they did. Sort of.
Coby just barely had the time to carry in the Pokéball of his faithful old Sharpedo that a crew member came knocking on the door of his cabin. Archie momentarily froze, staring as the crew member called for him, praying they would just go away. When it didn't seem like they would, Archie quickly hissed for his companion to leave, shoving Shanks' Pokéball in his coat pocket, and the Crobat instantly darted back out of the porthole.
Archie went and opened the door with a sigh. "Ah, please pardon me for the wait," he said with his best Juan impression, forcing an embarrassed smile. It was fairly easy, just having to bring his voice up by a pitch and speaking in his strongest Kanto accent. Despite having lived in Hoenn for well over twenty years, Juan didn't seem to have ever dropped his native accent. That, or Juan was just purposely using it in public because it was one of the things he was known for and he thought people would collapse from the shock of hearing him with a normal Hoenn accent. "I only wished for air, but then a wild Crobat came in uninvited and I just now succeeded in chasing it out."
"Oh! I'm sorry for the disturbance, Mr Irving," the crew member apologized. "I'd suggest closing the porthole to prevent it from happening again." Archie kept a straight face as he nodded in agreement and turned back to go and close the cabin's small window. Guess Shanks is as much support as I'll be getting... he thought dejectedly. "Do you need extra air conditioning?"
"Not to worry, I will be fine," he reported, glancing over. "Is there anything you needed from me?"
"Oh, right-" The first thing the crew member did was rattle off the breakfast, lunch, and dinner schedules, as well as the time at which they'd dock in Olivine. She also re-explained what his cabin had and where everything was or how they worked. He patiently listened and took note of all the formality explanations. When she was finished, he thanked her and quietly waited, expecting her to say something else.
"You're a gym leader, so you're already aware of the situation, but we're also required to ask that should you see any potential sign of Archibald Irving, Marc Hyland, or Kalle Hyland, or any other suspicious person, that you immediately inform the crew."
"I would like to believe that my home city being destroyed is more than enough to be aware of the situation even if weren't a gym leader," he said. He'd thought back to how conversationally Juan had taken a jab at his criminal record, but unfortunately he wasn't that good of an actor and his own jab at his actions came out a little more bitter than he'd planned.
"Since you're a gym leader, the crew would like to make an additional request," the lady continued. "If you see any of the wanted criminals or anyone performing suspicious activities, we trust you to be able to handle them yourself when the time comes. With your permission, we'd also like to inform the rest of the passengers that they can report their findings to you, as well."
"You're welcome to tell them such," Archie nodded. "Whether I can do anything will depend on how well-prepared the criminals are."
"Well...this is a cruise that doesn't allow battle-ready Pokémon, if that's what you mean."
"That is certainly correct, which is why I boarded without my team," Archie replied, "but given the record of Archie and the Hylands, I'm not convinced they would care much for that and instead attempt to smuggle their own teams on. Confident as I am in my hand-to-hand combat skills, I doubt it would have much effect against any of their Pokémon companions should they have them."
The lady wrinkled her nose. "Fair enough. Thank you very much Mr Irving, and again I apologize for the disturbance," she finished with a polite bow before leaving.
Archie closed the door again, turning so he could go flop over the bed and muffle a groan in the sheets.
He didn't want to risk opening the porthole again. Even if he did risk it, Coby was probably thinking the same thing and the Crobat was now watching over his and the Mightyena's Pokéballs, pondering on what to do. Archie couldn't think of a way to communicate it, so he just had to hope that his two remaining companions would eventually go to Juan's.
Even if they were the Pokémon of a criminal, even if they would probably end up having to go through all sorts of questioning- and possibly a few punishments- rather entrust Coby and Magellan to one of his brothers than to the wild.
{Monua 16th, 1:16PM}
{Olivine docks}
{S.S. Conway}
"What do you mean, I'm not allowed to bring my Pokémon with me?!"
Archie glanced over the rail, looking down to where a young man with messy hair was looking relatively appalled about not being able to carry his team on-board. The crew guy likely started calmly explaining that it was just part of regulations, but the young man had started heatedly arguing back. It wasn't exactly something Archie cared about enough to eavesdrop, but it was still kind of difficult to overhear, and by the end of it Archie had found out that the guy was essentially a gym leader in Kanto and had something urgent to do in Sinnoh and was very, extremely reluctant to try and compromise between either waiting for a next ship with his Pokémon or leaving them behind to board this one. The young man had eventually stormed off, fuming.
The ship had been going all night and most of the day before finally docking in Olivine. Archie had come out for a little stroll to catch some fresh air, but now that the new passengers were starting to pile onto the cruiser he decided it was time to leave the deck and return to his cabin. He'd probably come out again when it was darker and there wouldn't be so many people wandering. Some corner of his mind wondered if the Kanto gym leader would resign himself to waiting for the next ship or if he'd board without his Pokémon after all.
Bowing with a polite smile to all the staff members he came across and the occasional stranger that gave him a passing greeting, Archie returned to his room and closed the door behind him with a sigh. He needed to make sure that when he was out and in presence of other people he didn't let his act slip, at least until he got to Sinnoh. Then he could finally ditch the ugly carnival outfit that Juan loved to wear. He knew that by then news would have spread about Juan still being very much in Hoenn and that the Juan who'd boarded on the cruiser was a fake, and that he'd need a new identity. It was probably time to start thinking of a new persona.
He absently stared at himself in the nearest mirror, using a hand to cover the parts of his hair that he'd temporarily dyed white. Would it be better to dye his hair entirely? He scowled as he partially considered going for some kind of orange or red, purely because he hated the color. Maybe a dark purple? Blue of any sort would be too obvious. The white he had now was awful, and light colors were probably a terrible idea to begin with because the roots of his hair would become that much easier to see. Hair color wasn't the only thing he needed to change, though…
He blinked, suddenly a little more aware of how he looked in the mirror. Until now he'd just given his reflection passing glances, making sure that he still looked like Juan, that his outfit was sitting right and his hair was gelled back like it should be and the white hadn't washed out while he wasn't paying attention. Now he was looking at someone that wasn't Juan, but that wasn't quite him either. With his hand covering the white, he didn't have the odd colors that Juan liked, but he didn't have the unkempt mess that 'Archie' would either. He didn't have his beard, and he wasn't wearing his bandana. He didn't have the small, faint scar under his left eye that Juan normally would've. Not quite being one or the other was kind of...unnerving.
"Ah-HA!" he started, pointing dramatically at his reflection. "I've seen the criminal Archie Irving! As staff requested, I must inform myself!" He dropped his voice to a grave tone. "Sir, I have seen a terrible criminal. But fear not, I will be close to him at all times!" he promised with a salute.
He stood there for a moment before finally chuckling, sticking his hands in his pockets and going to drop on the bed.
...He really couldn't wait to ditch these clothes.
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I think I'm gonna start posting random questions at the end of each chapter just because I can.
Did you know that you can use mathematics to calculate pi by throwing frozen hotdogs around your kitchen? It's a proven thing. I've been telling literally everyone and anyone just because it's hilarious.
Also the first half of the first scene (up to Saturn getting dumped in the water) is Mangaluva's writing. The separation bit was just something I added afterwards because it felt like something that needed to be done and I thought it would fit better with her scene than if I split it into a whole new one.
ARCHIE
Shanks the Sharpedo, Coby the Crobat, Magellan ("Mage") the Mightyena