Archie - Pokémon: 4 Deaths: 0
Blue - Pokémon: 4 Deaths: 0
{Monua 19th, 4:23PM}
{Oreburgh}
{Pokémon Center}
"Prince?" Archie called out into the greenhouse, Mark in his arms and Star trotting beside him as Blue followed. There were berry plants everywhere, and he suspected that the vast majority of food growing on them was being used to make medicine and the like. "Prince, where are you? I wanted to let you know that Star is up again!"
"One moment, please!" he heard the Piplup shout back.
After a half a minute, the Aqua Leader saw the young noble waddle toward them as fast as he could from behind one of the rows of plants.
"Would you happen to carry a plate or a bowl with you?" Prince asked, looking up at Archie.
Archie blinked. "Uhh, I have the one we bought back in Jubilife?"
"That shall certainly suffice, " Prince said with a nod, holding out a wing. "Your bowl, please."
Archie did as requested, opening his backpack and pulling out the small food bowl that was meant to be for Star. He set it down, not sure what to expect, until Prince thanked him and leaned forward, pecking at the bowl...and cheri berries appeared, one by one.
"Whoa," Archie breathed, surprised by the amount of berries that were in the bowl by the time Prince was finished piling them up. Star stared in awe.
"...Did he just spit a ton of spotlessly clean berries into the bowl?" Blue asked, confused.
"We suspected that you would be hungry once you were awake," Prince explained, stepping away from the bowl, "so we took the responsibility of collecting some food for you."
"Wait, you got all these for me?" Star asked incredulously. She sat down and blinked at the berries for a moment, almost trying to let that sink in, before smiling at Prince and looking genuinely touched. "You're a darling. Thank you, Prince."
Prince huffed and glanced away, looking slightly flustered. "We were merely attempting to show off our abilities in acquiring provisions," Prince said.
"Or the ability to barf ripe berries into a bowl," Blue suggested under his breath.
"Have you ever heard of the expression 'having a second stomach'?" Archie asked as he turned to look at Blue, while Star gratefully started to chow down on the berries Prince brought back. "Comes from the Piplup line. When they used to live up near Snowpoint, the weather conditions didn't allow for as much food as they have in Pastoria now. If you've ever heard of Delibird, they're kinda like a cousin species, except that instead of carrying a sack next to them, Piplup and their evolutions have sacks inside their bodies that they can use for food storage. So they could travel long distances to go hunt for food, and when they came back after several days, the food was still fresh on top of being enough to feed an entire family. Now that they're in the deeper swamps of Pastoria they don't have to worry about food anymore, so the sacks are only really used when they know they're gonna travel far and won't be able to hunt for more for while."
"...I feel like I just listened through another one of my gramps' lessons," Blue said at the end.
"Hey, I'm not that old!" Archie objected.
"What, you mean you're not secretly seventy-eight and just drowning in really good make-up?" Blue mock-gasped. Archie rolled his eyes.
"I know it's not practical knowledge, but c'mon, at least agree that it's interesting," Archie grumbled.
"It's interesting, it's just that if I wanted to know about that I could just look it up in the PokéDex."
"Wait, you have a PokéDex?" Archie asked incredulously. "Hang on, is that what that thing was when you looked up the balloon-shaped Pokémon?"
Blue simply dug his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small, metal booklet with a red cover. Archie instinctively reached out to grab it, but Blue pulled his hand back and held the device defensively over his own shoulder.
Archie blinked. "R-Right, I should've asked first. Sorry."
"You sound like you know a bit about them," Blue noted.
"I got to mess around with one a couple times during my studies," Archie admitted, self-consciously avoiding the blond wig on his head and scratching the back of his neck. "They're, um, sort of rare. And usually in possession of a scientist with a high degree. The one you have is an older model, but still, how did you even get one of those? You don't look like the kind of guy who'd stick his nose in a lab report."
"And you don't look like the kind of guy who could read through a picture book," Blue quipped, turning and pocketing his PokéDex. "Anyway, got it from my gramps like five years ago when I first left home."
"So is he a scientist?" Archie asked.
"Depends. Have you ever heard of..." Blue turned toward Archie again, eyes wide and almost a perfect reenactment of the dramatic Patrat. "...Samuel Oak?!"
Archie had been ready to groan at Blue's act, but that caused him to splutter. "You what?!" he wheezed. Blue burst into laughter. "Dude, no, seriously- you're not kidding?"
"Oh man, gets me every time," Blue snickered as he slowly calmed down. "I'm still not used to him being practically worshipped in the science field. I mean, growing up, he just sounded like that guy who knew everything about everything. I'd have never imagined he was famous."
"...Well, now you know," Archie muttered, not sure what else to say. Anything that could've been said about the news of Samuel Oak still being alive nearly four years ago was probably something that Blue had already heard.
"What's a scientist?" Mark asked. "...Nevermind, maybe my question was dumb..."
"Scientists are generally humans who try to understand things we don't know about a bit better, like Pokémon," Archie offered. "I don't mean by talking, that's still kind of a new thing to everyone- but humans still don't always quite understand how evolution works, or how water-types can make a Water Gun, or how fire-types don't just explode or combust from the sheer heat they're supposed to be made of. There are also people who try to figure out how volcanoes work, or which way the ocean currents go, or send out stuff in space to try to find life on a planet that isn't ours."
"Do Pokémon have scientists too?" Mark wondered. Archie stared. "S-Sorry, don't mind me, dumb question..." Mark stammered, trailing off to a mumble.
"No, that's actually a good question. I have no idea," Archie admitted. "I've never really met a Pokémon scientist that studies stuff. I mean, I've met that one Metagross at the labs in Slateport that helps them study water-types, but..."
"Our kind do not have a role that we would call 'scientist'," the Piplup put in, "but our family does have a servant who specializes in human relations. She understands the behaviors and thought processes of humans and their societal and political structures, and has vast knowledge of the tools used by humans and can identify them easily."
"Sounds more like a diplomat to me, but I guess it's close enough?" Archie said, feeling uncertain.
"Alright, so where are we headed next?" Star interrupted, bouncing back to the Aqua Leader after having visibly finished eating her food. "I feel ready to tackle just about anything you're willing to throw at me!"
"If you're that eager to leave, we can go right now and still get through the cave before setting up camp again where we slept last night," Blue suggested.
"I still haven't had the chance to let Prince recover from the battle with Roark," Archie said, shaking his head. "I was so distracted by Star that I didn't think of it..."
"We could not know what was happening. Aiding Star was more important at the time," Prince said firmly.
"Still, I don't really plan on having you fight through the cave when you're already worn out," Archie sighed. "I think it's better to just have everyone rest for tonight. We can head out for Jubilife again tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow it is, then," Blue decided.
{Monua 20th, 9:37PM}
{Oreburgh}
{Pokémon Center}
Getting back to Jubilife had been quicker than leaving for Oreburgh, since going downhill was always easier than trying to climb up. Archie was starting to question the actual existence of a team in Blue's possession, because they'd been travelling together for a few days already and he still had yet to see any sign of Blue pulling out a Pokéball that actually had anything in it. For all he knew, the one Blue had been holding back at the lake was empty and Blue had made his offer because he had nothing to defend himself, much less to fight Galactic. But Blue still had Shanks, and if Archie wanted to attempt anything against Blue, he'd need his current team to be a little stronger than now. Mark couldn't do much as a Magikarp, and Prince and Star were still small enough that Blue could probably just kick them out of the way if he tried.
To their credit, though, all three were growing very nicely. Prince had two golden bumps slowly poking out of the top of his head, and Star had some dark tufts of fur growing near her cheeks. Mark's whiskers were getting longer and his overall body was twice the size from when he'd initially joined the group. But, nicely as they were growing, Archie still made a face as they reached the city and he returned Mark.
"I think I'll visit the pool before going to bed," Archie commented. "I've been carrying him around in open air for too long, his scales are starting to get dry."
"Is that dangerous?" Blue asked curiously.
"Magikarp are prone to all kinds of health issues, so keeping their scales moist is important," Archie replied, adjusting the blond wig on his head. "Once they've evolved into Gyarados, they can worry about that stuff less, since they're a lot tougher. Normally Magikarp all have a sort of slime substance on their scales to ward off infections and the like, but I've been carrying him for a while now, so a majority of it is gone. Magikarp can renew that substance naturally with some time in water, but with how dry his scales are now I should probably ask the nurse if she has some stuff that I can apply by hand-"
"A-HA!" someone shouted near them, causing Archie to jump. Both Archie and Blue turned to the source of the sudden exclamation and watched as a man in a long, brown trenchcoat walked toward them. It was a little difficult to tell in the dark despite the city lights, but he looked to be somewhere in his early to mid-forties maybe. "You! You are that boy, correct?"
"...Oh," Blue said, blinking as he apparently recognised the man. "And you're-"
"Yes, I knew it!" the man said with a triumphant grin. "How could I forget the face of someone who helped defeat Team Rocket? Ah, but it eludes me, your name- no no, do not say! I must remember on my own. Was it...Green?"
"Close enough. My name's Blue," Blue corrected for him, while the man snapped his fingers in disappointment. "I'm surprised you managed to make such a close guess though."
"Blue, have you met this guy before?" Archie asked, a little uncertainly. He took an additional nervous step back when the man gave a curious look that was very definitely directed at the Aqua Leader's hair.
"Obviously I wouldn't be acting like it if I didn't," Blue replied. "He's a police officer that I met in Johto a couple years ago."
"Agent Looker of the International Police, at your service!" the man introduced himself with an enthusiastic salute. "To be where I am called to, and to forever fight criminality in the name of justice!"
"Wait, Interpol? You moved up to world stage? Is that why you're here in Sinnoh?" Blue asked, audibly surprised. Archie shifted slightly, trying to keep a neutral face.
"Very much so, yes," Looker replied, still grinning. "Another group, here. Possibly we may see a...what was it?" he wondered, apparently struggling to find the right word. "-a reenactment of the happenings in Johto and Hoenn."
Blue's face darkened. "You mean Galactic, don't you?"
Looker blinked at him, surprised, before his face turned serious as well. "Indeed. I have seen Rocket in Johto, and I have seen the news of Hoenn. I do not plan on letting Galactic have what they want. Their goals shall be stopped by me before they can escalate to the point the others have reached."
"I thought you fought criminality no matter where you were needed?" Blue said, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.
"Been receiving many reports about other criminals, I have," Looker huffed. "I care of them if I see them, but my priority is with Galactic. Other criminals matter less to me."
"What about that Team Aqua leader that fled Hoenn recently?" Blue asked. Archie stiffened.
"If the reports are accurate, then I alone have no chance," Looker replied, shaking his head. "I suppose if that time comes where he is found, I have faith in you to help capture him. For Galactic as well. Your power, it is a valuable asset we may need."
Blue nodded. "If you're here for Galactic, does that mean there are some here in Jubilife?"
"I have not seen any yet, but I am indeed on the lookout," Looker confirmed. "My senses, they are telling me that something is to happen here- but when, I do not know. So I look, and I wait, yes?"
"Sounds like a plan, I guess," Blue agreed. At the same moment, something beeped in one of Looker's pockets. The officer immediately plunged his hand into his pocket, nodding at the two of them, and jogged off to respond to the call privately.
"You did that on purpose," Archie growled once Looker was far enough. "There's no way you didn't."
"Of course I did that on purpose, what did you expect?" Blue said with a shrug, raising an eyebrow. "It was worth seeing the face you made."
"Do you have any idea how much trouble it would've been if he'd figured out right there and then that I was a criminal on the run? He was staring at my hair. He knew this was a wig, I'm sure."
"Well, even knowing that, he didn't do anything, did he?" Star offered, from down beside Archie. "He did say that this Galactic group was more important to him..."
"And he also said that he was waiting here for something to happen," Blue added seriously. The gym leader glanced up at the sky. "It's pretty late, though, so we'll have to crash at the Pokémon Center for tonight. I'll be keeping an eye out. Tomorrow we'll hang around the city and see if we can get our hands on a couple Galactics ourselves. Prince, Star, I'm counting on you to wake this big Dunsparce up if I come knocking, okay?" Blue said to the two Pokémon at Archie's side, ignoring the Aqua Leader's protest at being called a Dunsparce.
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A lot of the random information Archie is spouting out obviously isn't canon to any kind of game or anime verse, just facts I stole from real life counterparts. Delibird being a pseudo-cousin species was just a randomly convenient connection to help explain the thing about the 'sacks', but penguins have special enzymes in their stomachs that allow them to 'freeze' food for extended periods of time, since it can occasionally take a long time before the penguin gets back to its nest. Regurgitation is how they feed their young, and is fairly common in birds I think. As for Magikarp, koi fish have a sort of grime on their scales that's supposed to repel bacteria and the like to prevent them from getting sick (which is why pet stores often have signs asking people to -not- pet the koi, even if they're being social and inviting you to touch them).
On an entirely unrelated note, Dimensional Destruction is finally starting next week! Who's excited?! 8DDD
ARCHIE
Shanks the Sharpedo, Prince the Piplup, Star the Shinx, Mark the Magikarp
BLUE
Sam the Blastoise, Pete the Pidgeot, Adam the Alakazam, Gary the Arcanine