Chapter 16: Never Forget
"Today started just as any other day, then went along just like any day, but then, it ended with something that I would never in my life even think could happen. Something that just made my blood boil as I heard all of your screams. I'm not sure how, but I had a wild Pokemon following me. And I would have been fine with a small one on my tail, but it was a Wild Lapras."
"Sometimes I wonder why Arceus tortures me like this."
The sun was about to set into the blue waters from the orange sky. The day was coming to an end, and the sailors knew it as the sound of moving crates and boxes was starting to wind down.
"Come on! Hurry up! The sun's almost down!" The annoyed captain said as he placed a huge crate next to an Armaldo.
"We're moving as fast as we can!" A small Wartortle cried out from the other side of the ship.
"We've been here since noon! And ever since then, I've been doing most of the work!" Gator yelled at his crew. Gator then let out a small groan as turned to the store owner, and gave him a paper. "Just sign here, and we'll continue to do this at morning."
"Take your time Gator. I know a thing or two about moving heavy objects myself." The green Kecleon said.
"Yeah, but when your whole business revolves around moving things around, it becomes a problem. Especially when all I have are Wingulls, Marshtomps, and Wartortles."
The Color Swap Pokemon had a worried look on his face. "Have you tried hiring more workers?"
"Yes," Gator groaned. "But all I get is noes, or maybes. And then when I ask my crew if they want to evolve, all I get from them is a 'not yet.'" Gator was about to start a small rant, but then a strange sound from the sea caught his ear.
A song.
"Cer-" The voice stopped for a moment and cleared its throat. "Curra-." Gator looked towards where the not so great song was coming from. His heart then stopped when he saw a blue head out of the water. And not just any head, a Lapras'.
Gator suddenly zoned out, being overflown with the cries of his family, being torn up in front of his eyes. The screams, horror, blood, death, and that herd of wild Lapras' were all coming back to him.
A hand waved in front of Gator's face. "Gator, you alright? Kecleon asked.
Gator blinked. "Uh, yes. It's- Well-" He gulped as he pointed towards the Lapras. "It's not every day you see a Lapras here."
The chameleon followed the Feraligatr's claw and saw the Pokemon too. "Yes, we don't see those around here too often. But, I have seen that one in particular a few times whenever the kids are learning songs by the beach."
"Near the kids!?" Gator gasped.
The owner gulped. "Is that a problem?"
Gator put his claw on his head to mute his kids cries for help. "No, it's...nothing. It just... reminded me of something that happened a while back."
The store owner immediately saw his problem. "Oh! Well, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to remind you of something like that."
Gator then turned towards the owner, and lost any sign of fear in him. "It's fine really, I'm just wondering..." Gator looked out towards the sea again. "Is the Pokemon wild?"
The owner nodded. "We believe so. My guess is that it came from northwest of here, where there's this one island that's inhabited by wild Pokemon. There are plenty of Water Types there, and a few Lapras' too."
Gator didn't take his eyes away from the Pokemon. "Does it come here often?"
"Yes, it seems to really like the music the kids make. In fact, I believe I saw a small Popplio come with it a few times, also a Wild Pokemon."
"And everymon is alright with this?"
"So far yes. You know how different towns have different thoughts about Wild Pokemon. If anything it seems more curious about us then wanting to dish out a violent attack. But I do know a few of the town's mons have brought it up, suggesting that the singing teacher should move away from the beach shore, but she seems to think that the Lapras only wants to hear her class's singing."
Gator let out a small laugh. "I'm sure it's doing more than that. It's a Wild Pokemon, they shouldn't be ignored like that."
"That's what I thought, but then, the Lapras just kept coming back week after week and nothing's changed. I do have a nagging feeling that something is going to come out from this. Just not sure what."
"Well, if that thing does attack the children. Don't say I didn't warn you." The sea captain said as he put his claw on his back trying to crack it from the stress of the heavy boxes that he had been carrying all day. He then looked towards the sun noticing how low it was.
The captain let out a groan. "I'm going to have a talk to my crew after all of this is over."
Kecleon looked worried. "You're not gonna go too hard on them are you?" He asked.
But Gator didn't bother answering nor even giving him a look back towards him as the Water-Type walked down the deck and towards the ship.
Gator them yelled out towards the whole crew. "Everyone get ready to dock off for the night! We're going to have a small little meeting about your slow pace!" A few of the sailors had worried faces on them as the store owner just shook his head.
"I guess that means no." The store owner said. He then picked up a small box from the crate and walked into his store to stock it for the next day.
"Once the sun went down, I released my anger towards my crew for their slow pace. I know you would probably say that they are trying their best and I shouldn't be so harsh on them. But they choose to be small and weak, therefore, they should see this coming or work harder to make up for their choice. But it seems that I got to them enough that they would consider it."
"Going to bed only was worse for me than normal. As thanks to the Wild Lapras being close by, no feather from that one legendary Pokemon could save me from dreaming about the day I lost you, Lancy, and Sammy as well. It all felt too real, and I've already went through that real nightmare once, so you can imagine how mad I was to see it happen all over again."
"But then, as I saw you get attacked by those Wild Pokemon, a deep fire burned through me. And I started to fight back, and in a rage, I shattered their shells and teared apart their Lapras' necks. Everything that they did to you that day, I did it right back. It made me feel hollow inside once I finally woke back up. I started to think how it could have been if that was real."
"But that was interrupted when the ship shook a little. As if something hit it."
Gator almost gasped at the sudden jerk of the ship. Sure, it was nothing for a Pokemon his size, but the ship could only shift like that if it ran into something.
Or somemon ran into it.
Gator didn't care that he may be paranoid. He didn't even hesitate to put on his blue coat on as he hurried out the door, and ran across the deck. He noticed Wave the Wartartle on the edge of the ship's side staring right down below the waters.
"What's going on?!" Gator yelled at the turtle. Wave then let out a small scream in fear as he saw his captain approaching him quickly.
Wave struggled to find the words. "C-captain! You may not believe this, b-but-" But Gator didn't stop moving and moved right past Wave and looked down into the waters, and saw something that he couldn't believe.
The Lapras that he saw the other day, was right outside his ship, moving crates, in front of his own eyes, along with a small Popplio with it.
"So, it was the song that caused you to appear next to the town." Sparks said out loud. "Why was that?"
"I heard the children singing one day and the more I heard it the more amazing the song sounded." Melody explained. "Lapras' like me and my Popplio friend already enjoyed singing. But the way Pokemon like you sing songs...It feels like you gave more meaning to them then we do for ours."
Sparks shifted himself to his side as Melody went on. "The words that were in the song. It was so hard to speak them out at first, but after a while I figured a few parts out. But I still didn't know what they meant. So, that's where my interest of Pokemon like you began."
"So, you just wanted to understand us?" Sparks asked.
Melody nodded. Sparks smiled as he finally knew one of his biggest questions. But then he looked down towards the water as he thought of something. "Melody, I have another small question." The Pichu asked.
The Lapras looked down at the small mouse sitting on the edge of the small shore inside the underground cave. "Why did you decide to help Gator's crew? You didn't know who they were, or understand them." Sparks asked.
Melody smiled as she thought towards back then. "I saw one of the smaller crewmates go outside the ship, and he was crying. I couldn't understand that much, but he seemed to be mad at the boxes. So, I wanted to see if I could help."
Sparks thought back to yesterday afternoon and all of the Water-Types. "You have a thing for helping other small Pokemon, don't you?"
Melody nodded once more." "I'm sure the crewmate freaked out when he saw you for the first time." Sparks joked, trying to lighten the mood.
The turtle had a small laugh. "My Popplio friend was with me, so she went up to the crewmate first. And then I appeared."
Sparks lifted himself off the ground and started to walk to the other side of the cave so that he could see Melody's mark. "Did you understand him?"
Melody closed her eyes and thought about it for a moment. "I know what he wanted now. But back then, I just thought he needed the boxes pushed away. And because I saw them moving those big boxes that sunset. I knew where he would want them." She then noticed that Sparks was behind her. "Um... what are you doing?" She asked.
"Looking at the bruise on the back of your head." The mouse answered. "So far it looks good enough for you to swim back if it can heal for a bit longer." Sparks then opened his small bag and spoke into the compass.
"Gator? You there?" Gator? Before Melody could ask why he was calling that cruel mon, he answered.
"Sparks? Finally! What was taking you so long to answer?! Where are you?!"
Sparks took in a sigh. "Melody and I just needed to take a small break once we got into the cave. I'm just about to head down the cave."
Alone?! Melody was about to answer, but Gator answered first. "Well, it's good to hear from you. Just be carful out there, and call me if something goes wrong."
"Will do." Sparks ended as he hung up and put the compass into his bag. He then grabbed the map Gator gave him and looked at it. It seemed that he was just supposed to go down the cave and the treasure would be there. Sparks had a small smile on his face as he saw that the end didn't seem too far away, he then put the map back into the bag.
He then looked at Melody to tell her that he was going to leave her for a moment, but from the confused look she had on her face, it seemed she already figured that one out. "You are going alone?" Melody asked in a scared tone.
Sparks frowned. "I'm the only one who can really move on the ground. And your bruise is still pretty bad. I'm just gonna see if I can do this on my own-"
Melody was shocked. "B-but you're a small and weak Pokemon! You'll get hurt!" Sparks ignored the 'weak' part she said, he knew she didn't mean that in a cruel or offending way, it was just true.
"If your head gets any worse, then we may not be able to get back." Sparks pointed out. "Or you could..."
"I'm fine." Melody firmly said. "I will protect you, and I will stay safe." Sparks was about to say something to make her stay put, he wanted to say something to make her stay put, but nothing came out of his mouth. As he looked at the Lapras, he saw a face that was willing to protect him, even if it meant that she'd be putting herself in danger too. Sparks couldn't say no to her, and she knew it too.
Before he realized it, Melody moved back, then swam forward and jumped out of the water, and then landed right next to Sparks.
"Do we go down the cave?" She asked as she started to position herself to move across the ground.
Sparks nodded. "It shouldn't be that far. I mean, we literally went across the island in one day, so something like this should be nothing compared to that." Sparks looked down at her fins. "But, are you sure you want to drag yourself all the way there? I'm sure your fins are hurting you right now."
"No, they do not hurt." Melody said. However, Sparks looked down and saw some spots of blood from the cuts on the fins. But he knew pointing it out wouldn't change anything.
A few more seconds pasted as the two looked around the cave's smaller pathway. It mainly reminded Sparks of the cave they went into with all of those Water-Types. Looking around and seeing no other Pokemon to worry about.
He looked at Melody. "So, if nothing's going on right now. Could you continue with the story?" Sparks asked.
Melody looked at Sparks. And then thought longer than usual. Sparks noticed she seemed uncomfortable. "If it's too close to when you got... Well, I can just figure out the rest in my head. You don't have to tell me more if you're not okay with talking about-"
"No, I want to tell you about it." She said. "You deserve to know."
It was the end of the day, and the Feraligatr was still in complete shock after what had happened throughout that day. His crew recruited a Wild Pokemon to help them move more crates. And while it probably took a long time for the sailors to get the Lapras all ready to work with them, even he had to admit that the Lapras was a huge help for him.
How they got the Lapras to help didn't come without its problems. As while the Lapras seemed to know that the boxes needed to be moved. It was trying to get them into the Pokemon and getting it to move down the dock that was the hard part. Most of the crates were able to fit between spikes on the shell of the Ice-Type, but in order for the crates to remain on the shell and not in the water, somemon had to ride on the Lapras' shell, and that took some time to do. Not to mention guts as well.
Gator clearly didn't want to do that, in fact, he wasn't that involved in this whole project, as he wanted to carry the boxes himself and barely look at the Wild Pokemon. But once they did find somemon to ride the shell, things...went faster than what Gator wanted to admit.
But now, the sailors were already getting ready to set sail across the other side of the island. Gator raised an eyebrow towards some of the sailors that were saying 'thank you' to the Lapras, as if it could understand words like that. But the captain couldn't help but feel curious towards the Lapras, and from what one of the sailor said, it wanted to help them move the boxes.
Gator still didn't understand how somemon could see something like that, as it was still just a Wild Pokemon. It probably thought it was a game of sorts.
And just from seeing the Lapras, he could feel his blood boiling, and his family screaming. He would give Arceus anything to make it stop.
"So, what's next for you?" A voice asked.
Gator finally got out of his thoughts and turned towards who asked him a question, Kecleon.
Gator cleared his throat. "I...I'm not so sure. We have some more orders that we need to take care of, but..."
"You can't stop thinking about the Lapras can you?"
"How can I not?!" Gator said louder than normal, which caught the attention of some of the crew. Gator then coughed and lowered his voice. "You don't know what those Wild Lapras' did to me, whenever I look at it, I just can't help but feel...like yelling at it for what they did to my family."
The store owner looks at the Captain for a while, just trying to think of something to say. "Well, look at your crew." He started as he pointed towards the ship.
Gator followed his hand. "Look how happy, and relived they are now because of that Lapras. It may have taken a while for things to move forward. But I think the end result could be huge for you if you can do something about this."
Gator thinks about it, and looks downward towards the sunset. The store owner then walks right by him. "I don't know what they did to you, but that right there is a rare chance that you'll probably never have again. To do nothing about it may be a huge waste." The green Pokemon then walks away from the captain and towards his store, as Gator continues to stare away from the Lapras.
He finally starts walking towards his ship. As he walks down the ship, he gets closer to the Lapras, who seemed to be curious about the berry one of Gator's Wingull was eating. The turtle heard the captain's steps and turned her head towards the Captain, to which he turned his face away from it and walked faster down the dock.
"Not now." He mumbled to himself as he continued. And he didn't see it, but the Ice-Type turned its head at Gator, wondering what was wrong with him. Gator finally made it to the ship and climbed up the ladder and to the deck. And he saw Wave writing down notes.
"Wave?" Gator asked which caught the Wartortle off guard.
"Y-yes captain?" He asked. Gator turned towards the Lapras-
Nope! It's still looking towards him. Gator turned his face to the smaller Water-Type.
"How many crates where we able to move today?" The Wartortle looked down and started flipping through his pages, as Gator slightly turns his head towards the Lapras, only for it to still be looking at him. What is that thing's deal?
"Even with our very slow start, once we got everything going, we were able to unload more than 2 tons of supplies."
"What?!" Gator said, louder than he wanted it to be. "Hand me your sheets."
Wave obeyed, as he held out the papers. Gator then looked at the numbers for a minute, he flipped over a few pages to see how that compared to other days. Gator continued staring and staring at the numbers until he finally turned towards the Lapras, who was still looking at him, only this time, Gator didn't turn his head away from it.
"Captain?" Wave asked. "What are you thinking?"
"That Lapras carried just as many crates in a matter of hours compared to a whole day for us! And once I realized that, I just couldn't stop hearing that Kecleon.
'...a rare chance that you'll probably never have again. To do nothing about it may be a huge waste.'
And while I did agree with that, I couldn't stand the fact of recruiting my worst nightmare. On one hand, the fact we did well is great, but it only makes this decision even harder to make. I was just laying there in my bed with only my thoughts, I didn't know what I should do."
"That was, until I thought about you. And the pain that you went through, and how this could be the one chance I'll ever have to have payback for what they did. Then, a thought turned into several more, then into fantasies about whipping that Lapras and having it do our work. I'm not going to kill it, as I do have may limits, but if I'm going to have it repay three deaths. I'm going to make sure I give that Lapras a huge beating."
"And what's one Lapras going to do against me? I have a whole crew on my side, besides, the Lapras seems so naïve and childlike that it could fall for anything. If the Lapras even realizes that it's being used, then I'll make sure to put it in its place."
"I got out of my bed, and looked out the window to see if it was still there, which it was. I then put on my jacket, got out of my room, and headed down stairs to berry supply."
Gator looked at all of the berries. Yes, it felt a bit weird that he was up late at night and it looked like he was getting a midnight snack, but he had bigger things to deal with now. He lit a small lantern candle and held it over the berries so he could get a better look on which berry was which.
Figy Berry? No, the Lapras is an Ice-Type, it probably won't even tell it was spicy.
A Wiki Berry? No, a dry food wouldn't make it confused either.
How about a Mago Berry? It's sweetness could do it. And maybe also the bitter Aguav Berry, and the sour Lapapa Berry could do the trick too.
How about them all?
Gator liked that thought. He then started to quickly make some foods with a lot of the berry crunched up and spread it all over the meal, he didn't know how much time he'd have before the Lapras would leave, so he had to make things quick.
After a few more minutes, Gator had finished with some not so appealing meals.
But that wasn't the point, getting the Lapras confused was. Besides, he's sure that the Lapras wouldn't know the diffence between good and bad food.
Gator, then smiled at his work and then walked up to the deck, and looked for the Lapras. He couldn't find it for a second, until he saw the two trying to sing, and they were very bad at it.
Gator thought about covering his ears, but then forgets about it and walks across the plank and down the ships board. And every single step, he's still in disbelief that he's actually doing something like this.
Gator walked into the dock, right where the Lapras was earlier that day when it kept staring at him, he just hoped that the Ice-Type still had an interest towards him. He looked out to see the Lapras struggle to sing clear words from her mouth and the Popplio doing an even worse job. Which made Gator roll his eyes and call both of the Wild Pokémon idiots to himself.
He then was about to call towards the Lapras, but then he second guesses himself. Is he really going to really do this? Capture the Lapras, take it away from everything, he can't go back from something like this. What if somemon noticed? Was it worth to risk it?
Gator looked towards the Lapras again, and let it truly sink in that he was never going to get another chance like this. He couldn't lose it.
"Hello!" He calls out towards the two wild Pokémon. The two Pokemon stopped singing and looked at him, but didn't make another move towards the captain. Right, they're Wild Pokemon, this was going to be a bit tricky.
"Come over here!" He called out as genuine as possible . "I've got something for you!"
They still didn't move much. Gator began moving both his arms up and down, shaking the food. He then moved his hands backwards, trying to tell the Pokémon to come towards him. After what felt like a solid minute of trying to get them to come to him, the Lapras finally does the response Gator wanted, and slowly swim towards him, with the Popplio following behind.
"There we go." Gator told himself, as the two Pokémon continued to swim towards him. The two Pokémon then went up to the dock with the Lapras looking at the captains eyes. Gator pushed aside his hatred towards the Pokemon for just a little bit more longer.
The three Pokémon then stared at each other in silence without a word for what felt like another minute until Gator finally knew what to say and cleared his throat.
"I..." He still struggled to speak. "I would just like to tell you...thank you for helping us out today. I don't know how you did it, but the crew seems to be very glad about your work you did for us."
The two Pokémon continued to stare at the captain. Gator rolled his eyes. What else was he expecting to happen.
The small Popplio noticed that Gator was holding something behind his back, it swam a little to its side and saw the food Gator made, it made a small bark once it made the discovery. The Lapras noticed the barking and then looked behind the Feraligatr and saw the food in Gator's claw. The Lapras, made a small calm noise towards Gator, as if she was asking a question about the food.
"Oh this? This is a small little gift I made for your help today." He then stopped talking and actually thought about what was happening. Did he really answer that as if they were talking to each other? He shook his head and ignored the thought. Just in time to see the small Popplio hop onto the deck and attempt to sniff out the food. Fortunately, Gator noticed this, and moved his claw away from the Popplio.
"Hey, no!" He told the Popplio. The wild Pokémon quickly backed away, and Gator had a good look at its blue eyes. They was constantly shaking, as if it was scared. "I think I actually got to that thing." Gator wondered. He then moved the plate towards the Lapras. "Eat this." Gator said slowly. The Lapras tilted its head towards him. Which only made the captain more annoyed. "Just eat the dang plate already!" He screamed inside his head, that way he could get this all over with.
The Lapras, after a few long seconds, then lowered its head towards the food and opened its mouth. Which gave the captain a perfect look of its huge mouth, and one more horrifying memory of seeing his son's body in a Lapras' mouth. In a small panic, but not too much, Gator quickly dumped the whole plate of food into its mouth. Which was just about the same size. Gator, then turned around for a bit as he tried to keep himself calm after remembering a horrifying memory. He took in a few deep breaths as the Lapras, unaware of what was in the meal, continued to chew on its food. Gator was taking in deep breaths as he could hear the Lapras continue to chew its food.
It kept on chewing, but after a while it started to slow down, he heard the Pokemon chew one last time, before it swallowed the food. Gator turned around just in time to see the Pokemon look at him, as if it was about to thank him. But it seemed to struggle to look at him eye to eye, as its eyes began twitching, and its body started to shake. A few groans and whines started to come out of the Ice-Type, which caught the attention of the Popplio, who, then waddled itself up towards the Lapras, and started to bark at it.
But the barking only seemed to make the Pokemon panic even more. Which just made Gator smile. The Lapras, let out a small cry, then a louder one, suddenly, she started to shake her head back and forth as her fins started moving around and slamming against the dock, cracking some of its poles.
It was working, Gator couldn't believe it. But then, the Lapras turned towards Gator, with a cyan light beginning to admit from its mouth. Gator then realized that he was in danger of its attack. The Lapras fired a wide Ice Beam across the water and almost the entire dock where Gator was just standing. The Water-Type jumped off the dock and into the water with a splash to avoid the beam, most of his body made through it, but his left foot was completely frozen by the beam.
Gator took a moment to look at his frozen foot. Suddenly, even more memories of the event started going through his mind. The fighting he did, the attacks he was hit by, the lives that were lost, the screams that he couldn't help. It was all coming back to him. But instead of fear coming out from the Feraligatr, he was getting a huge adrenaline rush, a wicked smile went across his face. "It's payback time." Gator thought to himself.
He then heard crashing from behind him, and turned around right as the Lapras run over him. Gator's body slammed against the ocean floor and started to drag across the sand, but Gator continued to brace himself and prepared his next move as more blood going through his body. He had been waiting a long time for this. He just needed to wait for the perfect moment.
Finally, the Lapras' weight seemed to lighten and he made his move. He quickly wrapped his arms against one of the Lapras' flippers, using his sharp claws to grab it, and made sure that his claws dug deep into its skin. Gator then shifted his weight so he could stand on the floor of the shallow water, he then, with all his hatred, threw the Lapras down into the water. Most of its body went under the water, but its head banged against the sandy floor.
Gator then jumped off the seafloor, and used Dragon Claw at the Larpas' face and neck. Once Gator landed, he saw the Lapras struggling to get upright, as Gator noticed that he was able to leave a few marks on it's face and the look on it's eye. It made him wonder if it was the confusion or its wild instincts that was fueling that look.
As any sign of defeat was thrown away once the Ice-Type had a deadly look in it's eye and shined its cyan light in its mouth again. But Gator was even more prepared for it this time. The Lapras had a small delay firing the beam, but then it finally fired.
Gator jumped completely out of the water to avoid it. And before the Lapras could do anything, the captain swung himself around, and kicked the Lapras' head with his frozen foot. Gator didn't feel like it was too powerful, but it managed to send the turtle's head back into the water with a loud splash Gator took the moment to catch him breath.
He then turned around and looked towards where the Lapras had fired, and saw a good part of the ship covered with ice.
A light went on in the ship, then another. Gator turned around and even noticed a light from the Kecleon store. Everyone was waking up. Gator realized that he probably shouldn't be on the winning side if he wants to get away with this, it would seem a bit strange for that to happen.
The Lapras then raised its head out of the water with another cyan light from its mouth. Gator than sighed to himself as he knew what to do. It would be very uncharacteristic of him, but it was a small price to pay for what he truly wanted. Gator saw the light get brighter, but he didn't move, instead, he held his hands up to his side and waited for the Lapras to fire.
In just a few seconds, Gator felt a huge blanket of coldness cover his body, as the captain let out a scream of fear. He opened his eyes to see nothing but ice surrounding him. His vision started to get even more blurry, until he went unconscious.
Gator felt as if he was in a dream. Floating flying, but so restricted at the same time. Noises began to fill his head. If he wasn't thinking about that nightmare enough, he sure was remembering it much more clearly now. He wanted to cover his ears as the screams got louder and louder. He wanted to yell to the noise to stop. But he was the one that was stopped. He couldn't do anything as he went deeper and deeper into the Raboot hole.
*Crack* His body shook for a moment, then again, and again.
At first, it felt like something was biting into his prison, but after another crack or two, Gator smiled at the thought of what was going on, and before he knew it, he felt his cage been broken.
Gator fell into the ground as he landed on the seashore of a beach. He then put his arm to his side, and slowly got up, but was interrupted by Wave.
"Sir, are you OK?! The Ice Beam woke us all up! And before we knew it, or could see what was going on, we saw you frozen solid by the Lapras!" The small turtle exclaimed as Gator stretched his arms out.
Seeming to be unphased by what the sailor said. The captain's mind was still getting itself back in order, but he was aware that this plan of his actually might have worked.
"Where's...the Lapras?" Gator asked as he started to catch his breath.
Wave then pointed towards the ship and Gator followed his hand, and he saw the Lapras being tied up by a bunch of ropes to remain still. While it was still putting up a fight, Gator could tell that it was a losing battle for the Wild Pokemon.
"What happened?" Wave asked the captain.
Gator looked at Wave and cleared his throat. "I was walking towards the Pokémon to thank it for what it did today and I took this one chance to apologize for my behavior towards it. I was actually going to tell it about the incident just so I could get it off my chest." Gator turned away from the two Pokemon to hide a persistent smile from forming.
"But it just...snapped and attacked me. I don't know what got into that thing."
"W-well, it a good thing it didn't happen with those children's singing classes." Kecleon said as he appeared. "What do you plan on doing with that wild mon?"
Gator turned away from the two so that he could let out a small smile, thinking that everything was going to plan. "Well, that thing damaged the ship and tried to kill me." He started as he saw a sailor put a Sleep Seed into the Lapras' mouth. "I think we may just have to keep it until it can pay that debt off." He turned around and saw Wave look towards the ground.
The turtle then took in a breath and looked up at the captain's eyes. "If that's what you think we should do...then, alright then." Wave said slowly.
"It seems a little too much, don't you think?" The green Pokemon asked.
"It'll not only make sure that thing doesn't come back and harm the children here, but it could really help us out too. Just until we pay the debt off." Gator reasoned, which seemed to make Wave feel a little better. But the Kecleon thought about it a little more than what Gator would have liked.
The store owner looked at the Lapras. "Just don't kill that thing, alright?" He requested.
He fell for it. "I would never. I'll make sure to treat it well, unless if it decides to attack us again." A loud cry was then heard from where the dock once was. As the Lapras started to use its last of its strength.
Gator then ran up towards the Pokemon. He reached it just when its head fell down into the water. And what was once and face filled with anger and death, now was a face of tiredness, sadness, and fear. It almost made Gator question what he was doing. But he stood strong as he saw the Lapras struggle to keep its eyes open.
He put his claw against its head. "This is what you get when you mess with my family." He whispered to it. It probably wasn't able to understand him, but they had one more look of fear in its eyes before they finally closed it. Gator took the moment to look at what he had done. This is what he had wanted.
He had done it. He had won.
The Luxio read through that last page again, just so he could understand everything. Even if it started to make him feel a bit sick about Gator. Gator really did all of that to her, and from what it looked like, almost without a second thought.
Sparks was right, and so was...Melody. Agh, he was going to need to make a long apology to them.
Speaking of long, how long has he been reading this?!
Bolt looked around himself. Right, he was inside, but it still couldn't have been more than 10 minutes, right? Well, it better had been that. Bolt shook his head.
Alright, so it was clear that he had just wasted his time by reading a little too much of the book, but it did answer some questions he had about Gator so maybe it wasn't wasted.
And of course, Bolt was wrong.
Bolt kept the book and held it with his mouth. Now what was he going to do with this? He knew that he needed the book, but where would he put it? Bolt looked towards the door as he realized how quiet it was the the Captain's room. He should probably go back towards Karah, and try to figure it out there.
His tongue touched the book. Actually, he should find some sort of bag to keep this in first. The Electric-Type looked around himself to find something that could work. When he saw a couple of bags hanging on the wall like the ones Gator had given to him yesterday. He quickly made his way towards the bags, they looked like the book could fit in there. But they seemed to have something else in them.
Bolt dropped the book and grabbed one of the bags. He opened the bag and put his paw into it. And once he felt a familiar cold, hard, metallike touch, he instantly reconized it as Poke. Which made Bolt take out his paw and think to himself about the bag. Why was Poke in those bags? Could they be the amount of Poke Gator got from the orders? Maybe the amount of pay to the crew? Did he keep track of these? Could he even risk something like that happening? Bolt could only get sick at the thought of Gator acussing him of stealing from him.
He looked at the bag again. As long as he didn't take anything, that would be good enough. Maybe. Hopefully. Please.
Bolt reached into the bag again and carefully took out what felt like over 100 Poke. And slipped the book into the bag. He put the bag over his neck so that it could hang under his chin. He then turned towards the door.
Carefully, Bolt walked up and put his paw on the door and slowly opened it. He looked around his surroundings and sees no mon. He then eyes the far edge of the ship and quietly tiptoed to the far side that was facing away from the currents. Bolt peeked over the railing and looked around for Karah, but he started to worry when he stuggled to find her.
Bolt looked down at a his paws. Bolt took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Surely, the sailors wouldn't think twice about a little electric going into the water. Right?
Bolt was being filled with regret as sparks covered his left front leg. He looked down towards the water. "Please don't make me do this again." Bolt thought to himself, as he shoot a spark into the water. The yellow light quickly flew down the ship and into the water, making a small splash and noise once it hit the water.
Bolt's heart started beating hard against his chest after every passing second of complete silence. But it started to calm down when he sees a shadow under the water, and he gets more relived when he sees a small pink noes pop out of the water.
Karah looks up towards the ship and sees Bolt, who just waves his paws to her. "What was with the-"
But Bolt started to wave his paws rapidly up and down, he didn't want any talking between them. Fortunately, Kara seemed to understand as she gave a small nod. The lion noticed some small spots along the side of the ship where he could grab into to climb down to the Popplio. He looked down at the water, only to get reminded of the one rockwall he fell down right before he found Sparks.
Bolt started to feel sick. But he shook his head, "It's just water, it won't hurt." He told himself as he put the bag into his mouthturned himself over the edge of the ship. But only after he climbed down a few feet he started to regret it. And it was that wrong thought he had that caused his left lower paw to slip.
Bolt's eyes went wide as he started to struggle to even hang on any longer. He tried to move the lower paw back to its spot, but his top paws weren't gripping enough for anymore time. His top paws slipped off, and the lion was left with an all too familiar moment. He closed his eyes and held the book up high as he fell and braced himself for the water.
But then something more soft hit his back, and caused his chest to push out. Bolt opened his eyes and looked behind him to see what was against his back. And he saw what he could only make out to be a huge light blue bubble.
"It worked!" Kara exclaimed. Bolt looked at the Popplio's amazed face and was about ask what she did, only for the bubble to burst and the lion to fall a few feet into the water with a small splash. Kara looked down and whined to herself about the bubble. Only for Bolt to imedeitly pop out of the water, holding the book high in the air.
"Is aaa ag wat?" Bolt asked as he treadded the water.
"What? Could you drop the bag?" Kara wondered.
Bolt shook his head and continued to tread. "Aold is!" Bolt told Kara.
"Hold this?"
Bolt nodded again. Kara then swam up to Bolt and the electric placed the book onto her head. "Do you want to talk under the water?"
"No." Bolt said filled with dread.
"Why, what's in the bag?" The seal asked.
Bolt finally stop moving. "It's a book, and it has proof of Gator capturing Melody."
Kara's eyes went wider than they had ever been. "Really? Everything that happened to her is in here?"
"Ya, he seemed to be talking to somemon in there. He kept talking about some sort of event that happened to his family that was caused by a bunch of Lapras.' Apparently he seems to blame Melody for everything."
"That sounds horible. But I don't know why he would blame Melody."
"Ya, it seems pretty messed up. But we need that so that everymon back at my home can believe us."
Kara gave off a confused look. "Can't we just tell them?"
Bolt let out a small chuckle. "That's not how that works." Bolt decided to cut things short so that he didn't need to talk about law. (As she probably wouldn't understand most of that stuff) "You need proof that something happened in order for somemon to be punished for their crimes."
"Crimes?"
"The bad things somemon does to others."
"Oh. So what do you want to do with this?"
"We'll keep it, and keep it dry." Bolt said right away.
Kara started to think. "Would it help if I put it in my bubble?"
Bolt took a deep breath towards that plan. "Sounds good...but it popped when I was in one."
"That's because you're fat and fell on it." She replied.
Bolt cringed. She probably didn't know about how hurtful that word was to him. "Okay, first, you should never call somemon fat. Second, are you sure the book will stay dry?"
Kara seemed to feel bad now. "Oh! O-okay. But yes, I have kept many things in my bubbles. I can even hide it underwater if you want."
"And you sure the book will stay dry?"
"Yes."
"And the bubble won't pop."
"...Yes."
"For how long?"
"...Well, there was this one time when I came back to one of my special rock and it was on the ocean floor. I do not know when it popped though."
Bolt looked around himself for a moment. "Maybe Wally would know what to do."
"Oh, that is a great idea. I will-"
"The book." Bolt interrupted.
Kara looked above her head. "Oh, right. Do you want it back?"
"No, I'll look for Wally. You just stay here." He said as he went underwater.
"Okay." Kara said as the lion disappeared into the water. Kara then swam to the side of the ship, and put her body against it so she could remain unseen.
She looked around herself, and seeing that no one was around. She decided to hum to herself. But then she remembered one thing that slipped over her mind.
"Wait, I never asked Bolt where Melody and Sparks were."
"And once I woke up, the next thing I knew. Was being in Gator's ship, and moving along with him to the next island." The turtle finished.
The Pichu just looked down at a small pebble on the cave floor. He then took in a worried breath. "How...how did they treat you?" He asked.
The Turtle stopped dragging her body for a moment, and answered. "They didn't treat me that bad at first, especially the other sailors. Some of them were very kind to me. But that was before I started trying to escape." She then started dragging again. "It was fine at first, I had good meals, water, and a doable work. But then, day after day, I started to get homesick. And I really wanted to go back home."
Her words began to come out slower and heavier. "I tried to leave once but when I did, I damaged the ship and Gator whipped me once I was stopped. Days started to have more work and less good food if I tried to leave. I became weak from the lack of sleep and the heavy work I had. I had to wait for days for the good food to come back and my work to lower down. I wanted to leave so much eariler, but I knew I needed to be strong if I wanted to breakout from that monster!"
Her voice started to get louder. And the cave was starting to make cracking sounds. "I tried again. But I failed! I was punished for longer after that. And I started to get wild, and try to talk to anymon that could help me. But I couldn't speak well! I got mad. And when I had the strength to try again. I did! And I would have gotten out! But Bolt stopped me! And I thought I was going to have to go through a longer punishment! I thought Gator would whip me harder then ever! I thought-"
"Melody stop!" Sparks yelled. The Ice-Type then stopped just in time for a descent sized stalactite to fall right in front of her face. She let out a gasp in surprise by how she would have gotten hit by that, and it could have made her head even worse.
She could have been knocked out. Sparks would have been alone. Helpless. All because she was caught in the moment. She then looked down she was crying out big tears, her mouth felt cold and filled with energy, and she was yelling. Melody was horrified, with a mix of her past, and what could have happened. She then lower her head even lower and started to cry out more tears.
"No mon should ever go through what I did. It's horrible. If it weren't for you, I don't think I would have been able to escape or even be alive."
Sparks then walked up infront of her face. "I was so scared for my life. I didn't know what they'd do to me after the third time. I can't tell you enough how thankful I am that you saved me."
Sparks, now having his own tears, walked over and hugged the turtle's head.
Melody was shocked by this nothing like this had ever happened around her. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"It's called a hug." Sparks said, trying to talk through his sadness. "Pokemon like me do it to make others feel better. And...you really need one!"
He finished as he held on tighter. Melody breaths came slower, and she started to calm down.
She had never seen a 'hug' before, but after having just one.
She really liked it.