Chapter 11: Through the Sea of Time
Thunder rumbled in on the flight deck of the Hikokyu II as it flew through an intense thunderstorm above Goldenrod City. Even though the chronometer read 14:00, the only thing visible through the windows was a wall of black clouds and the dull red running lights on the ship.
It was perfect save for one element: the pilot. Two Team Rocket grunts armed with submachine guns and decked out in body armor flanked the entrance.
Suddenly, the words "missile lock on detected" flashed on the computer screen.
The two grunts looked at each other. They knew they were in trouble but they had no idea how to pilot the Hikokyu II let alone operate its array of weapons and countermeasures.
Outside the airship, four AA-122 "Altaria" antigravity seeking missiles streaked upwards into the stormy sky. The Hikokyu II had absolutely no chance of outrunning them as the missiles' top speed was around Mach 3, while the airship topped out at around eighty miles per hour. Theoretically the only way the airship could avoid being targeted was flying at high altitudes; its flight ceiling was around 97,000 feet while the missiles' flight ceiling topped out at 90,000 feet. Unfortunately, there was no chance of that as the missile's rate of climb greatly exceeded the Hikokyu II's rate of climb.
The missiles had been fired from a Silph Co. AEGIS cruiser miles below them and patrolling the waters research around a Hoenn naval base. It had hailed the airship several times in an attempt to get it to turn back but since the ship's AI could not respond to a radio message, the AEGIS cruiser took it as a threat and attempted to bring it down.
As the missiles closed in, the ship's AI released a burst of infrared flares in an attempt to divert them. Unfortunately, the missiles locked onto the gravity fluctuations caused by the antigravity pods on the Hikokyu II and were completely unaffected by the flares. Four point defense 20 mm gatling guns on the ventral surface of the ship deployed and fired a hail of explosive 20 mm shells to try and detonate the missiles before they reached the ship.
One of the missiles exploded in a burst of fire as the shells struck it but the three other missiles struck their targets: the antigravity engine pods.
Lawrence III had been taking a bubble bath when the siren sounded. He leapt from the bathtub, knocking the candle into the bathtub and nearly hitting his head on the so-called "Ancient Mew" carving – a carving of a stylized Mew along with several mysterious glyphs made on a copper plate that had been treated to give it a dazzling rainbow patina (it was actually a reproduction; he knew better than to put a priceless treasure in the bathroom) and darted into the shower – which in stark contrast to the light grey bathtub and surrounding white tile, was made of gleaming white tile and stainless steel, giving it a resemblance to a cryogenic stasis pod one might find on a starship from a science fiction movie.
He turned on the water and pondered exactly why he was wasting time taking a shower when shit had hit the fan. He then reminded himself that it simply would not do to appear in front of his subordinates covered in rose petals and cheri berry scented suds.
After a one-minute rinse, he quickly dried off and tossed on a pair of pajamas and slippers.
He bolted from the room and boarded the elevator that would lead him to the habitation deck where the rec room and other amenities – including a full service restaurant – were located.
Back on the bridge of the ship, the siren blared as the AI tried to simultaneously repair the severely damaged engines and keep the airship moving. The two grunts wondered if Lawrence III was even aware of the serious emergency.
"Warning! Antigravity pods seven, three and five are severely damaged! Warning! Antigravity pods seven, three and five are severely damaged!" the ship's AI said in an androgynous monotone.
As the seconds passed, the AI's insistent warning was starting to grate on the nerves of a grunt. "Someone just shoot that fucking AI!" he snarled.
The other grunt yawned and patted the spare SMG magazine clipped to his belt. "Lawrence III will eventually shut it up," he said.
"If he takes too long, I'm shutting it up myself!"
"You're starting to annoy me as much as the AI," the second grunt said with a yawn.
Lawrence III disembarked the elevator and looked around the habitation deck. Not surprisingly, the myriad windows that ringed the habitation deck were covered in armored shutters and the area was deserted for the grunts had manned their battle stations. He then stepped inside the secure elevator – located next to the "ecosystem recycling facility", AKA the Greenhouse – that rapidly carried him 120 feet straight up to the primary flight deck. The elevator was pressurized to ensure Lawrence III's comfort – despite that, it felt like his stomach had fallen into his feet. As the elevator ascended, he wondered exactly had happened, was it a lightning strike? An enemy attack? A collision with another aircraft?
After several seconds, the door opened and he stepped out. The two guards saluted him but they tried not to snicker at his Dialga slippers and the red pajamas with Cyndaquil pictures printed all over.
He then sat in the pilot's chair and silenced the alarm. "Bosch, give me the briefing!" he ordered.
"Ship was painted with radar designator and four missiles were. Infrared flare countermeasures ineffective. Ventral point defense cannons succeeded in destroying one. Antigravity pods seven, three and five are severely damaged," Bosch replied in its electronic, androgynous voice. Bosch could have easily been programmed with a sultry female voice or a hyper-masculine male voice and the attendant personalities but Lawrence III found the idea of a gendered ship AI with personality too bizarre for his taste. So the ship's AI, Bosch, remained genderless, devoid of personality and with a voice that was neither male nor female.
"Damn it, we're fucked if they decide to launch other missiles," he muttered. Even though the Hikokyu II was still perfectly capable of flying with one or even two pods missing, it could not handle the loss of three or more pods. Luckily, Cyrus had outfitted his ship with self-repairing antigravity pods. As long as they did not become completely detached from the ship, a small teleportation system would teleport in nanites from the home base. The nanites would then slowly begin to repair the damage – no matter how severe it was.
"Bosch, give me altitude, rate of descent and forward airspeed!" Lawrence III barked.
"Altitude is 49,526 feet and dropping at approximately 49 feet per second. Forward airspeed is 15 knots," Bosch replied.
"Bosch, display power map."
A glowing holographic map flickered to life in front of Lawrence III. Several green lines led from the reactor – signified by a glowing blue sphere – in the middle of the ship. Several other boxes showed the power consumption of various shipboard facilities.
"All right, what is non-essential?" he muttered.
His eyes fell on the box that read "rec room".
Meanwhile, Mars was inside Cynthia's bedroom. She was sitting on a chair set perpendicular to the bed. She took a sip of oran berry juice out of the glass that was sitting on the end table on her right. Strewn around the bed were Cynthia's clothes. The light in the room was dim, adding to the romantic ambience.
On the foot of the bed was a totally nude Cynthia. She had a devious grin on her face and she appeared to be wearing a strap-on. She also appeared to be carrying a riding crop.
Mars practically salivated as she watched the Sinnoh Elite Four champion gently caress her Garchomp, who was currently face down and had all of her limbs tied to the bedpost with what appeared to be red chains.
"Cynthia, please, don't do this!" Garchomp pleaded, tears rolling down her face. Surprisingly, she spoke English but with a sultry Spanish accent.
"Do it! Do it! Do it!" Mars chanted – not that Cynthia and Garchomp could hear her. She salivated even more as she heard Garchomp's sexy voice.
Cynthia gave Garchomp a hard swat on her hindquarters with the riding crop. "You will call me master!" she barked.
Garchomp sobbed softly as the hard blow landed. "Y…Yes, master," she said. She held her breath in expectation of more blows.
Cynthia held Garchomp's head to her breast and stroked her neck. "That's a good girl," she cooed.
Garchomp closed her eyes as Cynthia rose up and prepared to penetrate her.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" Mars screamed, almost as if she were having an orgasm.
Suddenly, the entire scene flickered several times and Cynthia and Garchomp became unrecognizable blurs of color.
"Hey! Who ruined my VR-DVD of Champ-Chomp IV!" Mars shouted as the bedroom began dissolving into blurs.
Suddenly, the entire scene vanished, leaving only empty blackness. Soon the emergency lights clicked on, bathing the entire area in a dull white light and revealing it to be a hangar-like stainless steel room. A stainless steel chair and end table were the only pieces of furnishing in the room.
Mars swore and got up from the stainless steel chair. The two pieces of furniture stayed locked in place thanks to the power outage. She stomped over to the door and opened it. Standing in front of the door were Saturn, Charon and Jupiter. The stale white light of the emergency LED lighting gave them a rather ugly pallor.
"What the hell did you do!" she snapped.
"We are not responsible for the loss of power," Saturn replied.
"You're always hogging the holodeck to watch your stupid Champ-Chomp series! You probably tripped a circuit breaker or something!" Jupiter shouted.
"Hey! At least, I have good taste!" Mars countered.
"Yeah, bestial, lesbian Garchomp sex. Reeaaal tasteful."
Mars opened her mouth to say something when Saturn spoke up. "Commanders, you are all better than that," he said. "We head to the main flight deck and speak with Captain Lawrence."
The four Galactic commanders headed to the elevator, which was still active.
Lawrence III looked at the power map. It showed that the rec room and the ventral energy cannon were completely offline. The shield generator, sensor suite and shipboard lighting were set to the lowest level. He briefly considered disabling the life support systems – after all, the ship carried enough oxygen masks for its crew and then some. He quickly dismissed that thought as foolish; the ship routinely flew at altitudes where the air was so cold and thin that few pokémon – save for a few hardy Flying-types – are seen.
"Bosch, give me the flight speed, altitude, rate of descent and status of damaged engine pods," he said.
"Flight speed is 15 knots. Altitude is 46,586 feet and dropping at 49 feet per second. Antigravity pods seven, three and five are being repaired at maximum speed. Estimated time until repairs are finished: 37 hours," Bosch replied.
"Bosch, which pod is least severely damaged? Give me an estimate of repair time for that pod."
"Pod three. Estimate repair time is eight hours."
Lawrence III ran some calculations on the computer. He groaned as the calculations came up; the Hikokyu II would have long crashed into the ground before the pod was repaired. He looked at the altimeter; it read 45,851 feet. He examined the power map; the only non-vital piece of equipment was the energy cages that held the Legendaries.
He sighed; he would have to disable them to keep the ship afloat and moving. He pressed a button on the control panel and radioed the Galactic commanders.
"Commanders, I am unlocking the energy cages. Head to the storage bay and move the Legendaries to the shielded holding cell. Over."
The commanders were just outside the entrance to the main flight deck. Two submachine gun toting guards flanked the entrance.
Suddenly, the radios on the belts of the Galactic commanders went off.
Saturn picked up his radio and received Lawrence III's order. "Copy that we are en route," he said. He the clipped the radio back onto his belt and led the group down the same elevator back into the habitation deck.
He passed by a Rocket grunt sitting on a couch and trying to read in the dim light. His Ekans was coiled up next to him.
The elevator that led to the holding bay arrived. The four commanders stepped inside and the elevator quickly shot into the depths of the ship.
When they arrived at the holding bay, they were awestruck at the size – despite having seen it multiple times before. The bay looked like it could accommodate another decent sized airship.
The Legendaries were floating unconscious inside spherical cages surrounded by arcs of blue electricity.
Several grunts armed with stun grenades, which were miniaturized and somewhat weaker versions of the stun bombs that the Hikokyu II was armed with stood at the ready. Several other grunts had pokémon like Machamp and Machoke ready or were wearing powered exoskeletons.
Each of the grunts wore a bodysuit and helmet that mitigated the effect of the stun grenades. The stun grenades would still produce a sensation akin to being doused in flaming gasoline but they would not cause any long term injury – compared to an unprotected human, who would likely suffer permanent numbness, tingling or burning pain in the extremities not to mention possible cardiac problems.
The pokémon were unprotected since a stun grenade blast cannot cause them long term injury.
Charon went up to the console. He radioed the main flight deck. "Captain Lawrence, this is Charon we are in position. Over," he said into the integrated microphone.
"Copy that. Energy cages unlocked. Captain Lawrence out."
Charon turned to the group. "All right, energy cages unlocked. Get ready," he said. He pressed a button; the electrical arcs surrounding Latias ceased and the pokémon dragged her into the aforementioned holding cell in the rear of the holding bay. Heavy steel bars retracted into the floor as Latias was placed into the cell. As soon as the pokémon returned, the bars slid back into place.
Next was Dialga, who took several Machoke and exoskeleton clad grunts to move.
The grunts and their pokémon got to work moving the Legendaries.
Lawrence III was sipping some cola while he waited for the grunts to finish moving the Legendaries. Several minutes passed and still no word from the Galactic conmanders. Suddenly, a shrill tone sounded in the flight deck.
"Bosch! Report!" he barked.
"Impending crash with the ground. Projected impact speed: 29.05 knots. Altitude: 10,542 feet," Bosch replied.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Lawrence quickly regained his cool. "Bosch, sound general evacuation alarm if altitude drops below 10,100 feet. Status report on power."
"Energy cage array almost offline."
Lawrence's heart pounded. He knew that if he crashed this time, he would probably not be as lucky as the crash at Shamouti Island.
A few minutes later, all the Legendaries were placed in the holding cell. As soon as the bars slid into place one last time, a blue field radiated from the bars.
Charon doubled checked the console just before he entered the elevator. "Captain Lawerence, this is Charon. Legendaries moved. Charon out," he said into his radio.
"Understood. Well done," Lawrence III said via radio. "Captain Lawrence out."
Charon nodded and clipped the radio back onto his belt. He hoped the power would be fully restored so he could get back to playing video games in his spare time.
Lawrence III noticed that the energy cages were offline. He quickly checked the altimeter: 10,235 feet. He had literally seconds to spare before the general evacuation alarm sounded.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he shunted the power to the remaining engines and the altimeter began to climb. He glanced at the power map. The shielded holding cell consumed a fair amount of power but nowhere as much as the energy cages.
Meanwhile, in the holding bay, the Legendaries began to regain consciousness. The holding cell was, surprisingly big enough to hold all of them.
"Ugh, where am I?" Rayquaza asked.
"It seems like we are in some sort of holding cell," Uxie said, "looking" around with his psychic powers.
"Well, I'm tired of this shitty place! I want to get out!" Shaymin shouted. She tried to squeeze between the bars only to get a nasty electric shock causing her to shout a variety of profanities.
"You know, I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt that every Legendary was having sex and wanted me to join in," Entei said with a shudder.
"Strange, I dreamt that Giratina covered me in a vinaigrette dressing and tried to eat me as a salad," Shaymin said. She glared at Giratina. "What the fuck's wrong with you?"
Giratina shrugged. "Hey, I dreamt that Arceus left me for a cheap prostitute from Orre," he replied with a shrug.
"I dreamt that I raped my sister," Latios said. He looked visibly ill at the memory.
All the eyes turned to Darkrai, who glared at them. "If you think I'm responsible for this, I have this to say to you: you are fucking stupid!" he snarled.
Dialga looked at the bars of the cell. He looked at the ground as a single silver tear dripped from his eyes.
Mespirt and Cresselia went up to him and gently embraced him.
"I know you miss Palkia, but I'm sure he'll be okay," Cresselia said.
"IT'S NOT JUST THAT…I…I ALSO MISS…"Dialga trailed off, unsure if he should reveal the cuddling and other affectionate activity that took place between him and Lugia. Speaking of which, his most recent memory with Lugia was the time Lugia gave him an unexpected peck on the cheek. He blushed as he recalled that memory. He blushed even deeper as he realized that Mespirit probably picked up on his embarrassment.
Arceus was the next to awaken. She glanced around the holding cell. "Is everyone okay?" she asked.
Everyone answered in the affirmative.
Suddenly, they heard a loud "TAKE THIS! ROAR OF TIME!" They turned their heads and found Dialga charging up a swirling sphere of dark blue energy in front of his mouth. The fin on his back expanded as it started gathering in energy.
"Dialga! Stop! You'll-"
Uxie's words went unheard as Dialga shot a massive indigo beam at the wall. The beam ricocheted off the shielded wall, narrowly missing Ho-oh's head and Azelf and heading straight for Arceus.
Arceus tried to dodge it but she tripped over a passed out Jirachi and was struck full force by the beam.
Arceus was unable to say anything as she was swallowed by the beam.
Everyone stared in horror as Arceus seemed to shrink. "Dialga! You idiot!" Mewtwo shouted.
All of a sudden, the indigo beam exploded in a white flash revealing…baby Arceus!
Every Legendary stared in astonishment as the baby Alpha Pokémon stood before them. Every set of eyes bored into Dialga.
"LOOK, I'M SORRY ABOUT THIS!" Dialga said.
"Sorry? Sorry! You turned me into a baby!" Arceus yelled.
The other Legendaries tried hard not to laugh at Arceus's childish outburst and her new high pitched voice.
"Dialga, is this reversible?" Ho-Oh asked. She smiled as she saw the baby Arceus throwing a tantrum.
Dialga nodded. "GIVE IT ABOUT SIX HOURS," he said.
All of a sudden, Arceus began to cry – loudly.
"Is she hungry?" Heatran asked.
Mesprit went up to Arceus and gently touched her. She closed her eyes as she read Arceus's emotional state. "She's tired," Mesprit replied.
Latias picked up the baby Arceus and gently rocked her to sleep, while humming Oracion. In moments, Arceus was asleep in her arms. "She's so cute. Can we keep her like this?" Latias asked.
All of the Legendaries glared at her.
"I was kidding." Latias then gently placed the sleeping Arceus in the corner of the cell.
"You know, she actually does like kind of cute like that," Ho-Oh said, gently stroking the baby Arceus with a wing.
"Yay! Now Arceus and I can play together!" Jirachi exclaimed, flitting around the cramped cell. Apparently, Arceus tripping over him had woken him up.
"This is going to be so awkward later," Giratina said with a sigh.
The other Legendaries said nothing as they waited for Arceus to return to normal. The only thing audible was the steady snoring of the sleeping baby Arceus and the low hum of the Hikokyu II's antigravity pods
Palkia, Lugia and James were sitting in the ferry terminal at Surf Point waiting for the ship to come in. The late afternoon sun beat down on the crowds of people preparing to board. Bland Muzak wafted though the air.
Palkia was reading Champion and enjoying a bottle of lemon soda he had purchased from a vending machine.
Lugia was eating a pretzel and listening to his music player.
James was reading the comics section of the newspaper.
Suddenly, a chime signaling the arrival of the ship sounded. Several passengers dashed to the gate at its sound.
"Palkia, Lugia, we're ready to go," James said, putting his newspaper in his pocket.
Lugia took off his headphones and dangled them around his neck. He then stuck the music player inside his messenger bag. Palkia put the bottle of lemon soda back into his messenger bag.
The three then waited in line to board the ship. After having their tickets punched and boarding the ship, they headed to the lounge, which bore a rather tasteful oceanic design with wallpaper designed to evoke ocean waves.
"So now what?" Lugia asked, putting his feet on the table, donning his headphones turning his portable music player back on.
"I guess we wait," Palkia replied. "It's a journey of about an hour or so. Speaking of which, anyone want some food?"
Lugia paused his music player. "How about some fried Pidgey strips?" he said.
"Fine by me," James said. He then let out Ferrum, Quartzon and Wukong.
Palkia then got up and went to the food stand next to the gift shop.
As Palkia stood in line, he looked at the tacky kitsch that the gift shop sold. He briefly pondered getting a bandana labeled "Surf Point Ferry Lines" but thought that it would be too tacky for any purpose. His eyes passed over a pack of gracidea joints. He rolled his eyes; Shaymin must have struck a deal with this ferry line to sell her products.
Behind him were a young man with indigo hair and a young woman with magenta hair. Both of them were dressed as tourists, complete with shirts decorated with loud floral patterns.
"That him?" the woman whispered.
"Dat's him all right. One of da Legends!" their Meowth said.
"Excellent, Cyrus will reward us handsomely."
Palkia failed to hear them as he was called up to the next empty space.
The mysterious couple was called up next. They kept looking at him.
Palkia paid them no heed as he walked away with his tub of fried Pidgey strips and several containers of ketchup, mustard and BBQ sauce. Several of the tourists stared at him as they had never seen a pokémon speak English let alone order something.
Palkia returned to where Lugia and James and his pokémon were sitting. Lugia was still listening to his music player while James was chatting with his pokémon
"Food's here," Palkia said, setting the tub of Pidgey strips onto the table.
Almost immediately, Ferrum leapt onto the table and started devouring the strips.
"Hey save some for us!" Wukong shouted.
"Shove it!" Ferrum said between bites.
Wukong seethed. He grabbed a handful of the strips and shoved them into his mouth. "The way you eat, I'm surprised you don't look like a flying oil drum," he muttered.
James reached into the bucket and dipped them into the container of mustard and started eating.
Palkia had his strips with BBQ sauce. Lugia and Quartzon preferred theirs with ketchup.
"For a snack bar on a ferry, this isn't half bad," James said, wiping his hands on a napkin.
In only minutes, the tub of Pidgey strips was gone. Quartzon and Lugia were busy licking the ketchup containers clean. Palkia picked up the trash and threw it out. James got up to go to the bathroom.
While Palkia and James gone; Quartzon, Wukong, Ferrum and Lugia chatted amongst themselves.
"So exactly where are we heading?" Ferrum asked. He was busy preening his iron feathers.
"Some place called Altomare," Wukong replied, sipping the lemonade that Palkia had purchased and left unattended.
"Why are we heading there?"
Wukong shrugged. "Dunno but I think we're going to be seeing the famed Soul Dew of Altomare," he replied.
Quartzon was busy sticking her head out the window and enjoying the salty scent of the sea.
Lugia was busy listening to his music.
A few minutes later, James returned. "Anybody seen Palkia?" he asked.
Everyone shrugged.
Wukong simply got up and headed off to look for him.
Meanwhile, Palkia was in the arcade of the ferry. He was playing a game of Pac-Man.
Not surprisingly, he attracted a small crowd – including the mysterious man and woman from before. The crowd came not only because he was a non-human but because he was quickly encroaching on the high score.
Suddenly, Wukong pushed through the crowd, much to the distress of said crowd. "Palkia, I've been looking for you," he said.
Palkia ignored him. Just as he set a new high score on the machine, Wukong finally got fed up with him, grabbed hold of his tail and literally dragged him away from the machine.
The crowd surged to the machine. Palkia had beaten the previous high score by a single point.
As soon as they were away from the arcade, Palkia yanked his tail back from Wukong. "What was that for?" he demanded.
"Did you realize you are in danger?" Wukong replied.
"What!"
Wukong frowned. "The blue-haired man and red-haired woman. They're trouble," he said, narrowing his eyes.
Palkia facepalmed, he never knew Wukong was so paranoid. Nevertheless he followed Wukong back to the lounge where Lugia, James and the others were located.
"So Palkia have you been buying gracidea joints?" Lugia asked, nibbling on a candy gracidea joint from a pack that he purchased from the snack bar. He offered the candy joints to everyone. Ferrum and Palkia declined while Wukong took one and mistaking it for a real joint, tried lighting it with a short burst of fire. He swore as he ended up with a handful of molten sugar. James ate the candy joint in only two bites while Quartzon sucked on it.
Just then, a man and his Combusken ran by the group.
"Hey, there's something really weird going on at the bow of the ship! Everyone's there!" he said. Not bothering to wait for a response, he left and headed for the bow of the ship.
"I'm gonna go check it out. Want to come?" Palkia asked.
Lugia shrugged and put his headphones away. "Why not? It'll give us something to do," he replied.
"Sure, I've got nothing better to do," James added.
"Maybe a fight's broken out!" Ferrum said excitedly.
"Ferrum! Don't join in the fight! Last time you did that, I got ejected from Lilycove Seaside Park!"
Ferrum shrugged.
"Come on or we'll miss it!" Palkia said.
He then darted down the halls with the others following.
At the bow of the ship, the two tourists dressed in the loud clothing were standing at the head of a large crowd. The red haired woman held a knife to the throat of the ship's first mate, a thin but rather muscular black haired man. The first mate also had his arms bound with cable ties taken from a closet.
"Listen up! I want everyone here to surrender their pokémon or the captain gets it!" the woman snarled.
"Please, do as they say," the first mate pleaded.
"Who are you!" the ship's engineer demanded.
The woman chuckled. "Prepare for trouble!" she said.
"Make it double!" the man added.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all peoples within our nations!"
"To de-" the woman saw a man about to toss a poké ball. "Ah, ah, ah. It's rude to interrupt," she said, wagging her finger. She then cleared her throat. "To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
Meanwhile as the man and woman proceeded through with their motto, the captain of the ship, a rugged grey haired man, finally smashed down the door to the pilothouse with a fire ax. They had locked him there and destroyed the radio set. He carefully crept to the edge of the balcony and saw his first mate being held a knifepoint.
He gasped as he saw the man and woman toss off their clothes, revealing Team Rocket uniforms.
He quickly bolted back to the pilothouse and grabbed a flare gun. He knew that he only had one shot and a miss could leave him with a dead first mate.
The captain returned to the balcony, drew a bead on the woman and fired.
The burning projectile streaked towards her head.
"Team Rocket, blast off at the-" the woman began.
"Jessie look out!" the man shouted.
Jessie turned her head and saw the flare streaking towards her. She quickly dove out of the way, dropping her knife in the process and sending it skittering along the deck. A quick thinking bystander kicked the knife away.
"Gah, it's a battle you want? A battle you'll get!" Jessie snarled.
Meowth extended his claws.
"Are you sure you want to fight against all of us?" Palkia asked, shoving his way through the crowd and "drawing" his glowing pink Spacial Rend "sword". Lugia, James, Quartzon, Wukong and Ferrum followed. James brandished his E-tool while Wukong sheathed his fists in roiling orange flames. Ferrum hardened his wings.
Jessie chuckled. "Ah, Palkia, I was looking for you," she said.
Palkia was taken aback. "How do you know my name!" he demanded.
"Everyone knows who you are. Same goes to you, Lugia."
"Wukong, you were right. They are trouble," Lugia whispered.
"So'se you wanna give up without a fight or do we'se got to use force?" Meowth asked.
"Suck it," Ferrum snarled.
James pulled out a stun grenade and prepared to pull the pin when a huge leather-clad man tackled him, sending the grenade rolling – without the pin. Lugia quickly used his psychic powers to pick up the grenade and toss as far as possible. An intense flash of blue light lit up the distance as it detonated.
"Now about that battle," Palkia said. He then turned to the gathered ferry passengers, many of whom had deployed their pokémon. Those who had no pokémon wielded things like glass bottles, pocketknives, fire extinguishers and fire axes they had snatched from their mounting brackets.
Jessie, James and Meowth paled. They were horribly outnumbered, even with their pokémon. They raised their hands in surrender – at least Jessie and Meowth did, James was currently pinned by the massive man.
Several of the posse led the three thieves to the lounge, where they bound and gagged them.
Lugia sat in one of the deck chairs and leaned back. He soon fell asleep.
Palkia looked at him and facepalmed. He knew what was going to happen later on but he did not want to embarrass Lugia by pulling out a diaper from his bag, waking him up and telling him to put it before he fell asleep. The other option, diapering Lugia while he was asleep would have caused Palkia infinite embarrassment and Lugia would have killed him for humiliating him so.
Ferrum perched on the railing of the ship. He relished the sea breeze flowing through his steely wings. "You know, that man used one of the best Take Down attacks I have ever seen," he said.
"Don't be ridiculous, humans can't use pokémon attacks," Wukong scoffed.
"They can't? What about the trainer we fought a few days ago who specialized in Psychic types? He pulled off a perfectly serviceable Confusion attack. And James himself once pulled off a pretty damn good Tackle – or was it a Take Down?"
James was sitting on the deck chair and soaking in the sun and the briny wind.
Palkia sat in the deck chair and looked out on the horizon. In the distance was the City of Canals: Altomare. He sighed; Latias and Latios told him about the beauty of their home city but he knew that sightseeing was probably the last thing they were going to do.