Docks (Day)
"So, is this the place?" Dominic asked, looking around the pier.
"This is where she told us to go." Asui said, looking at her phone's map. They had dropped by Selkie's agency building, but the hero wasn't there to greet them. They asked an employee where to find him, and she simply advised them to search on the docks. "I think the boat we're looking for is over there." she told her classmate, pointing to a fishing boat called the Oki Mariner.
The duo walked down to the boat, and once they were close enough, they saw someone on board. "Hey! We're the UA students here for the internship!" Dominic called out, waving his arm. The person on the ship seemed to react to his voice, and turned to face him and Asui. It was a young woman in a sailor uniform with mechanical fins over her ears.
"Oh, it's you!" she said, jumping off the boat to greet the teenagers. "I'm Sirius, Captain Selkie's right-hand shipmate out on the open ocean! You must be Xiao-Long and Asui, right?"
"That's right, ribbit." Asui said, nodding.
"Where's the captain? I was under the impression that he'd be meeting us personally." Dominic asked.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Sirius said, rubbing the back of her head. "It's not personal, he just had something to do."
Just like that, something emerged from the water, flinging the Element everywhere. Dominic's eye flashed red for a split second, and quickly jumped backward before he was struck. After discreetly using his power to evaporate the water on the dock, he rejoined his classmate. As it turned out, the thing that came out of the water was none other than Captain Selkie himself. Dominic only knew him by reputation, so he was caught off-guard when he took in the hero's seal-like appearance. "Fair warning. My Quirk makes it dangerous for me to get wet." the blonde said, his eye glowing.
"Sorry about that." the bulky man said, bashful. "It's a pleasure to meet you both."
"Likewise." Asui said. "So, what do you want us to do?"
"First, I'd like to see these 'Pokemon' that Xiao-Long has." Selkie said, turning to the blonde.
"Fine. I had a feeling you'd ask that." Dominic said, getting a Poke Ball from his pocket and tossing it. A large green Pokemon with pink tentacles emerged, unnerving Sirius and Asui. The boy went on to recite its Pokedex entry.
"Cradily, the Barnacle Pokemon. Type: Rock/Grass. Cradily roams around the ocean floor in search for food. This Pokemon freely extends its tree trunk-like neck and captures unwary prey in its eight tentacles. Normally, it lived on shallow sea shoals. When the tide went out, this Pokemon came up on land to search for prey."
The Fossil Pokemon extended its neck to get a closer look at Selkie. It then went back to Dominic, who patted its head. "Don't worry. Cradily is harmless to humans." the blonde lied. "We met eachother quite a long time ago. It's quite friendly." As Dominic said this, Cradily let out a noise akin to a giggle. This only served to creep Sirius and Asui out further.
Oki Marinier (Day)
After two days, Dominic, Asui, and several of the former's Pokemon became like honorary crew members. Granted, it was mostly busy work like cleaning the boat or doing laundry. Sometimes, Dominic was asked to use Pokemon like Lapras or Gyarados to help scrape barnacles off the underside of the ship. But every second of it was an integral part of training for the boy. As a being of the Fire Element, water dampens his powers if he's even near it. On a boat, he was constantly being challenged in this way.
"Boy, am I tired." Dominic said, sweating like a pig. Because of this, many of the crew members gave him a wide berth, as the boy's sweat was highly toxic due to containing lethal amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfur.
"You're telling me." Asui agreed, sitting on a set of stairs that connected the deck to the higher levels of the ship.
"Froppy! Mountain King! How are things on your end?" Sirius asked, walking toward the greenette and tossing a towel to Dominic.
"We just finished cleaning." the frog girl answered.
"Great! Time to cool off." the hero said, bringing out two soft drinks. "Is it boring? Doing nothing but cleaning and training?"
"A bit. But I understand the value of hard work." Dominic said, drying off with the towel. "If I didn't, I wouldn't even be here."
"That's right, Xiao-Long." Sirius said, tossing a soda can to the boy. "It was the same when I did my internship here. I was so sure of what a hero was when I was younger, but when I got here, I had a bit of a shock. I was basically a cabin girl. I even had to wash the captain's underwear!"
"How dreadful." Dominic said, understanding how dirty laundry could ruin a person's will to live.
"But even through all of that, I finally managed to understand what being a hero meant." Sirius said, a smile on her face.
"What's that?" Asui asked, curious.
"That's something you'll have to figure out for yourself." the bluenette said cryptically.