In which (Alpha Sapphire-inspired) Archie learns what he's up against.
Mr. Briney was waiting for them, and didn't ask any questions about why they were asking to be dropped off at Slateport immediately. He must have known that the Devon Goods were important pieces of equipment.
"Just a minute, you two. We have to wait for Peeko."
"I think she'd know you aren't abandoning her," Brendan complained, getting an annoyed glance from May.
"It's his boat," she said, crossing her legs to use as a table for her notebook. She was about halfway through the pages now, she'd probably need a new idea journal soon. "He can wait for his Wingull for as long as he wants."
Brendan leaned back against the wall of the boat, trying to control his impatience. When Peeko landed inside the boat three minutes later, he made a face at her.
Mr. Briney didn't even turn around, but he knew what was going on, anyway. "Leave my Peeko alone, Brendan," he warned, "or you'll be swimming to Slateport."
Brendan's tongue retreated back into his mouth so quickly it made a sound. May tried to pretend she wasn't an eye witness, but he saw the smile she tried to hide with her hair.
Neither of them had planned a beach party, they agreed on that much.
Slateport City didn't have a dock, exactly, and what they did have was not for public use yet. So, instead, the old man dropped them off at a beach just outside of Slateport City and gave May his number, just because he was going back home and wasn't sure if they would need him for anything else.
"I know the boy's the one who saved my Peeko," he said, "but to be blunt with you, lass...I don't trust him."
May looked over at Brendan, who was facing away from them and clearly attempting to guess what the Goods were for. "Not many people do," she agreed. "But he's my journey partner, so I have no choice."
"Did we even get directions to Captain Stern?" Brendan asked, and took May's silence and Mr. Briney's departure as an answer. "Then we'll start battling every sailor on this beach. One of them has to know where the captain is, right?"
"You really think they'd even know him?"
"It couldn't be too hard. It's a bunch of people who really like boats in the same area, they have to have at least met, right?"
There wasn't anything May could really do, except follow him along as he tried to battle sailors into giving up the whereabouts of the man in question, and take on a few herself.
It was quickly discovered that Aron didn't like the beach, either. When she threw a tantrum and started kicking up sand, they figured it was time to get a move on, and hope that the actual Slateport City was good enough.
But, as they approached the museum dedicated to water (which, frankly, Brendan thought Hoenn had far too much of) they saw something that made them both groan in defeat.
There was a long line of people waiting to get in, and every last one of them was dressed like a pirate.
"Do you think that Captain Stern's in there?" May suggested weakly, and Brendan shrugged.
"Probably," he said, as if he wasn't bothered by the sight of land pirates anymore. "But we'll check the shipyard, first. I saw a sign on our way over."
The line started moving forward, but Brendan and May were already moving backward.
After one quick trip to the shipyard and a short conversation with Captain Stern's suspiciously-named friend Dock, they were sent along to the museum, just as they'd expected. The pirate line was gone, but they found far too many scattered around the inside of the museum. The top floor, on the other hand, was completely emptied of people, except for a single man.
"Are you Captain Stern?" Brendan asked, and at the man's confirmation, he held out the box containing the Goods. "The Devon president told us to give these to you."
"Why didn't he mail them?" Stern asked.
"That's what I said," Brendan said, dropping the box onto the table next to them. "But President Scrooge thought that sending twelve-year-old kids to deliver a very important package would be the better idea, because it was cheaper."
"I personally think he just wanted us out of his town," May added. "Chaos tends to follow Brendan everywhere, I've noticed."
"Wait, chaos follows me?" Brendan seemed offended at the suggestion, which caught May off guard. "None of this weird pirate garbage happened until I met you, the daughter of a man who ran from a Zigzagoon!"
"Yeah, well, you're a shoplifter." May stuck out her tongue, as though she'd won the argument.
"One bottle of soda, and I didn't get out the door with it! Leave it alone!"
"All right, fork over the Goods!"
They'd been hoping that they would be able to escape before the pirates caught up with them, but they weren't entirely surprised.
"Our boss wants those parts," one of the two pirates said. "Just hand them over, and nobody gets hurt."
"Wait a minute," said the other pirate, seeming to vaguely recognize Brendan and May. "Don't these kids fit the description Benjamin gave us?"
"Who?" The first pirate thought, then seemed to remember. "Oh, right. They're the ones that kicked his butt to the curb, aren't they?"
"On different occasions," Brendan added helpfully.
The pirates weren't amused. "So we'll take 'em on," the first one decided. "They took down a new recruit, but how good is their double-battle training?"
To be honest, Brendan and May had never had a double battle together. But, as they say, there's a first time for everything.
And the first time for this couldn't have come at a better moment.
"We can still win this!" the first pirate insisted, searching himself for another ball. "I've got one on me somewhere..."
"It's no use," the second pirate said, hanging his head in shame. "They won, fair and square. Man, the boss won't be happy when he hears about this..."
"Hears about what, exactly?"
The pirates both gulped. Captain Stern hid behind the kids. The kids themselves were more intrigued than scared.
The man entering the room seemed less like a pirate and more like a merman that had climbed out of the water to grow legs. A merman who had taken a scruffy pirate look instead of the long-haired and shirtless mermen that May had grown accustomed to seeing, but 'pirate' was still only the second thought to cross their minds.
The pirate merman watched as the Team Aqua grunts talked over each other, each pointing at a different child in their attempts to shift the blame. For his part, the man who could only be Team Aqua's boss just stood there and tried to process what they were saying.
Then, after the talking had quieted, the boss gestured to Brendan and May in disbelief. "Them?" The grunts nodded. "These are children."
"They're evil children," one pirate tried to insist. "They can't be normal, they protected the Devon Goods three times!"
"I'm shivering in me timbers," the boss said, dripping sarcasm like a faucet, as the pair of grunts fell into silence once again. "They can't be older than fourteen, if they're lucky. I'm going to speak to Matt and Shelly about our screening process."
"But we'll keep our jobs, right?"
"That is up for debate." The boss looked over at Brendan and May again, and said something that only he and the grunts could hear. Then, slowly, he approached the children, as if trying to demonstrate that he wasn't a threat.
"The Devon Goods belong here," he said, as if that would convince them that his team wasn't bunch of thieves. "We of Team Aqua love the sea, and we're doing what we can to protect it. Some days we make horrible decisions, but it's all for the good of the world."
"Horrible decisions?" Brendan asked, uncertain.
The boss brushed it off. "It's best not to question them. You're too young to understand." He turned around, back to the grunts. "Let's leave them here, you two are obviously not strong enough to deal with kids."
"And what if the kids work for Team Magma?" one grunt asked, and the boss laughed.
"Those toddlers beat you, didn't they? Maxie could only dream of having people like that working for him. They're outside observers of our feud, mark my words."
And they were gone, leaving the two wondering what Team Aqua's plan to protect the sea was, and how stupid they really were in order to think it was going to work.