Chapter 12: Slateport

The party was grateful the next morning as they found their awkward foot loving friend Mr. Briney on the beach peeling potatoes as if he being a retired old man had nothing to do but be the personal seafaring chauffer for the gang. "Slateport is where that package is bound for, well then hop on you crazy bunch." The crew were thankful that they were able to easily explain the plan without further delving into how the old man knew pokemon speech.

The voyage was quick and without hiccup as Briney was driving like a bat out of hell…Probably because Nagamasa while wandering around the boat found a compartment that had 10 big shrink-wrapped packages of white powder. "I didn't know Mr. Briney was also into baking with sugar." Masamune explained as he saw what Naga had found.

"Yeah let's just pretend we didn't see this." the zigzagoon said as he concealed the packages. The party soon landed on the sandy beaches of Slateport but were surprised that Briney was docking on the sands of the beach this time and not the actual docks or a true port as one would expect. They simply ignored it though and took in the scenery of the new area that bewildered them all.

"Holy cow guys we are in a new area we can fish again and see if we can make a new friend." Masamune remembered as they began walking along the beach.

"Okay someone restrain Moto while I fish." Mistuhide grabbed the rod and immediately started casting. Masamune as a precaution bit down and gripped his bird friend's wing. Motonari did not appreciate this but knew he could not be trusted. "Got one!" Mitsu tugged on the line and then was joined by Nagamasa who pulled the pokemon ashore. It was a tentacool. All in the party were excited as no one in the group was skilled with poisons and they saw this as a huge boon going forward. Nagamasa used the pokedex to quickly examine the squid and determine who would be best to weaken the pokemon to capture.

"Kicho I think you should take this." He called out. "Just remember to weaken him down so we can easily make the seal. Kicho signaled that she understood and threw a hard pound on the squid. Which seemed to relatively hurt the squid but not enough for the team to feel good about casting expensive pokeballs. Which for some reason were coded to become worthless after 1 throw but the earth wasn't just littered with pokeball shells….so whats up with that? Anyway Kicho went in for another shot.

"AHHHH!" It was a critical hit. The tentacool keeled over and died.

"Are you kidding me right now." Nagamasa was furious as once again the team had failed a capture encounter by killing the target pokemon. Kicho looked back in disbelief with a guilty shame filled grin on her face as she was upset by the result. She had hit the squid a second time simply to reach the weakened level the others requested but in the process killed the squid with a critical hit.

"I am really sorry guys."

"You hit him in the private parts!" Mitsu replied

"That's just mean Kicho." Katsuie retorted.

"What private parts, I mean how am I to know where the privates on a squid are?" Kicho huffed as she looked back at the others.

"Well at least I am not the only one to blow a recruitment encounter." Moto said in relief. Masamune then bonked his bird friend on the head. The two then proceeded to scuffle about on the beach drawing attention to the gaggle.

"Look I'm sorry." Kicho cried

"Honestly it our bad, that pokemon wasn't that strong and we thought weakening it would be best, but we overplayed our hand. Next time we have a situation like that we should just seek to catch the pokemon straight up rather than risking killing it." Naga calmed down though they were all upset that another chance to bolster numbers had been blown.

The scuffle of the Wingull and the Poochyena caught the attention of several trainers as the news and bounty of Brenden the Bastard had only grown with the television and radio waves. Sure there were small reports of positivity toward the boy but that was still being drowned out by the bounty and evil lauding upon him. "Its Brenden the Bastard!" They called out many trainers simply enjoying the beach and relaxing sprang into action. Several sailors and a couple tubers threw their best at the team. Yet, their effort was found wanting as Kenshin smashed up the normal types thrown at them and Motonari found by way of the sailors a slew of fighting types and lesser wingulls sent to face him. Of which the bird proved his dominance.

"Why do these guys still keep coming at us?" The crew spoke as they guarded Katsuie from the attackers.

"Who cares just remember to run their pockets." Katsuie remarked, being that he was relegated to non-combat status he really no longer cared or had much fear for himself as he believed his friends to be stalwart fighters.

"Already done!" Kicho said as she and Masamune came back with a pile of wallets and money. Mitsuhide no longer even fought them on their psychotic behavior. As the fighting stopped and the embarrassment of blowing the route 109 encounter the team noticed a shack still on the beach line.

"We should check it out." Katsuie replied and walked off with pace toward the building. The others were not excited about this as they did not know what lay in the building. Also they were shocked the slow slakoth was faster then they were on the sand.

The inside looked like a rundown dive bar mixed with a tiki shack. People were guzzling down drinks and still had and aggressive look about themselves. Glares and stares were offered as the Slakoth entered dressed like a boy far too young to be inside a den of sin.

"Get lost or we'll beat you up." The patrons yelled. Katsuie however was bumped forward into the building by his friends running into him as he blocked the doorway. The slakoth stumbled forward and knocked over a waitress who then spilled and broke several glasses. The noise and continued presence of the party enraged the patrons to take action who did not appreciate pokemon being shown out of their balls in the bar.

"Oh now you've done it you little greasy pile of human liquid." One drunkard said as they sent their pokemon at them. All looked in confusion as they were unsure what that particular disparaging comment meant. But nonetheless now the crew found themselves fighting three drunk trainers in the bar. One trainer had two marril which were quickly smashed by Kenshin with his fists. Then another sent out a couple wingull which Masamune knowing how easy it is to bite the birds grabbed their winged and spun them around until they passed out. Motonari then saw a machop heading right for his favorite mount's neck.

"POW!" Moto intercepted the blow and then fired a strong wing attack back at the machop flooring the monster into submission.

"ENOUGH!" The owner of the bar was furious both at the patrons and the boy and the gang. "LOOK YOU ALL HAVE DONE ENOUGH DAMAGE!" He screamed while huffing and seeing the damage of his already rundown establishment looking even more beaten than prior. "Here are some sodas, just get out of my bar you animals!" The owner threw a six pack of soda at the party and all agreed it was time to leave. They quickly exited without turning their backs on the people and downed pokemon in the decimated and torn up building.

"I think we went a little too hard there guys." Motonari remarked.

"Black air force energy." Mistuhide replied as he instantly had his black aviators on. The others all had their shades on two as they nodded in agreement.

"So anytime that we act like complete assholes we're just going to say that and put on the shades and then it will all be cool and we can go on saying we're the protagonists?" Moto asked of the group as they walked toward the city with all the beach explored.

"DUH!" Masamune exclaimed to his winged friend. All nodded.

"This is our life bub." Nagamasa concurred as they kept their stride. They quickly went to the pokemon center and healed up as well as gathered some supplies from a local store in order to also help them orientate themselves to the surroundings.

"Look they have pokemon beauty pagents!" Masamune looked excited as he saw the place.

"Yeah we arent't gonna waste any time with that." Nagamasa explained to which Mitsu noddd in quick agreement.

"Why not I'm cute!" retorted the dog. The others just ignored him because they didn't have the heart to tell him. Motonari just patted his good friend on the friend and whispered a couple kind words to distract the dog. The party then went looking for the captain that package was going toward. They entered a shipbuilding hub and Katsuie handed the package over only to be told that captain was elsewhere and that they should go looking for him. This pissed off the gang as they felt as though once again they were being seen as nothing more than important people's errand boys.

"YESSA MASTA!" Mistuhide joked as they all left the building. "I GOES AND FINDS THA CAPTIN FUR YA!" He said with a jingle step signaling to the group that he as well was not thrilled with continuing favors being asked of them. Nagamasa then reminded the Grovyle of the end goal and how each person they helped would further change the narrative of Brenden. Mitsu apologized as they continued to look around.

"Dude is that a bunch of those Team Magma punks!" Masamune saw them in the distance. The comment got the blood red of the original 5. Kenshin looked surprised at the rage and shaking force of his friends as he had not yet encountered these villains who were responsible for the death of the party's master.

"LET'S GET THEM!" Mitsu called out as he and the others pulled out the shades and fully knew if there was ever a time to unleash the extreme prejudice it was now.

"Hey you must be the kid with my package a voice called out." It was Captain Stern as he introduced himself. Katsuie then quickly handed over the package as a group of Magma grunts took notice as apparently they were there for the same reason, to see the Captain. The grunts threw out several pokemon of which Masamune feeling emboldened by seeing the crew responsible for murdering their leader, took on the whole squad. The dog sunk his teeth in deep and rended flesh ending the fighting of his enemies and sending them away in fright.

"STOP!" a figure with red slick back hair emerged as with glasses and a cold demeanor. "So this is Brenden the murderer." He said looking over the slakoth. "I don't know how you got here but I have wanted to speak with you about joining my organization but was told that would be impossible. He quickly glared back at one of his grunts. "Regardless, I would love to see you in our red uniform, care to join."

"Leave this boy alone!" Stern called out.

"Silence you moron! Know your place before our power." The red leader called out. Katsuie of course remained silent and all in the group were restraining Masamune from going and eating the enemy trainers. It was taking all of their efforts to restrain him. Katsuie still remained silent hoping the leader would not notice who he really was. "FINE! We shall retreat for now but we will be watching for you, Brenden!" The team sprinted off like they were trying to avoid the police. Masamune was furious with the team for restraining him and as the gang started thinking they wondered why they did restrain him.

"Sorry bro." Nagamasa told his friend. Masa was not yet ready to forgive as he wanted to avenge his fallen master.

"You did great Brenden." Captain Stern spoke as if Katsuie actually did anything in that skirmish. The rest of the gang understood but were annoyed at the lack of awareness the captain showed in his praise. He quickly took his package from the Slakoth and ran off back toward his lab.

"You could thank us too jackass!" Moto called out knowing the man wouldn't hear or even understand him."

"Whatever guys let's just go find the gym leader or explore around and see if maybe we can recruit someone without killing them this time." Mitsu said as he gave a joking glare at Moto and Kicho. All the others calmed down from the event and remembered that they did help some people out, got to punish some team Magma grunts, and now were in a town with another Gym to conquer.

…

"You told me he was going to die from the poison." Maxie slapped around the grunt back at the Magma base.

"He should have! It was a direct hit."

"Well I today saw a boy looking a little hairy but definitely alive! So you lied."

"No I didn't lie Maxie, I promise!" Maxie then signaled that he had enough of the man's stories and signaled for him to be taken outside and disciplined. The leader was furious but intrigued that the boy was still around but wanted to capture him so as to ensure that the rest of the Hoenn region stayed focused on the boy and not on the Magma team's goal of destruction.