Pokémon Drowning

[kintsugi]

Hi again! Long story short, I was unsure how to resolve "do I re-review the new chapter one since it's somewhat different from the last one I read", so I ended up reading through to chapter seven instead. lol. I had some prose notes at the end for grammar and such, but they're a little truncated. In general I think the prose is a lot stronger this time around though! bit of an unorthodox format up ahead; it's been a while since I've done bulk-reviews.

plot
The broad strokes of this one are a lot of fun. I think you do a good job of escalating the tension and throwing Maressa into situations where she's still capable of doing things, but her exact skillsets still put her at a disadvantage. She feels competent at a realistic amount of things (battling in particular is a strong suit, diving, general analysis), but then she quickly gets put in areas where those skills can't help her directly and she has to figure out how she wants to work around that. I thought the tension built pretty smoothly in that regard, and in particular I like how you set up these challenges for her to face that feel realistically difficult for her without feeling cheap.

There are neat little hints for some other scary things--weird ruins with ancient text? Aqua seeking out revitalization serum, definitely not to revitalize a super old and ancient pokemon that definitely isn't Kyogre? These all seem super promising and bad things aren't going to happen to anyone, everyone is totally in the right here and we can just chat it out without bad things happening,,, yes, definitely.

And as a setup this is a fun way to explore both Aqua and Magma pretty well--have a character start with one, get captured by the other, and then vacillate between them. It's been a hot sec since I've touched actual canon RSE/ORAS so I appreciate the depth that you give them in this, and the glimpses we get into the extents to which they're willing to fulfill their goal. One thing I wish we understood better is why they're actually fighting in the first place--is it only the conflict over whether or not creating more land or more water that's really driving them? There seems to be some really deep-rooted prejudice in both groups for the other; Maressa's definitely convinced that Magma is full of bloodthirsty murderers (and even uses the phrase "the people who want to destroy Team Aqua"--it's like that's their only goal in her eyes), and Derek's all "I'm not going to bother explaining myself to an Aqua" and Tabitha is on board with the idea of torturing Maressa for information (even though they all seem to know by now that she actually has no clue what Aqua is doing and can barely answer what she was doing for them or why she thought it was cool). I'm deeply curious to see what spurns this level of dehumanization across both sides, and how it develops so quickly--Maressa seemed to join Aqua pretty quickly after being introduced to them, and by now she's basically convinced that they eat babies and shit. It's a topic that I find increasingly relevant irl so it's fun to see in fiction--how someone can get pushed to that level of extremism (and maybe what convinces them to start walking back).

world
I think this is the one area that I wish we got to see a bit more of--the tail end of the Magma bit, especially Tabitha's arguments to sway her, really seem to be picking at Maressa's perceived understanding of how Hoenn treats pokemon, the environment, etc. I think this one boiled down into a few subgroups of desired information here: how the Hoenn government functions, the tangible effects of climate change (if any), and how Hoenn treats pokemon in general. These are all problems that Maressa wrestles with, both in her time with Aqua and Magma, and she doesn't necessarily have to come away with all of the answers here, but I don't really have a concrete understanding of what she actually thinks is going on in these categories (whether she's correct or not).

Hoenn's government - a big portion of Tabitha's argument hinges on the idea that the Hoenn government is exaggerating climate change as a wedge issue in order to try to control and manipulate the public into voluntarily giving up their freedoms. And Maressa sort of nods and goes along with it, but I wanted a bit more of an explanation there on why she's so on-board. Does she think this is a unique issue to Hoenn, or is it that all of the governments are colluding? What freedoms would they actually be trying to convince people to give up? We don't really get to see much of Maressa's understanding of what the government was prior to this realization, how it impacted her life, if there's any substance to Tabitha's claims--the bulk of the early section is spent specifically avoiding talking to anyone from mainland Hoenn, so these questions don't really get set up in a way for Tabitha to answer them in a satisfying way. Coming from a country where prominent members of my government *don't* believe in climate change, and one in which a lot of the people who were paying to cover up the facts were those who were profiting from hiding the harms climate change from the general public--this does feel like Hoenn is in a very uniquely different situation than the one I've grown up in, and as such I wish we got a little more grounding.

(And maybe the point is that Tabitha is off the rails and this also isn't the correct way to approach things--RSE did seem to have a theme of warning against disrupting balance/taking too far to one extreme. But I'm kind of blanking on how he's managed to convince both Derek and Maressa that his actions are generally the correct ones--here he mostly just pulls out some papers and is like "but what if the government were evil" and Maressa is like "shit u rite")

Tangible effect of climate change/environmental harm - this ties in to the government questions above, but I really struggled to pin down what about Tabitha's argument was convincing to Maressa, as well as what drove her to ocean conservation in the first place. There were some comments she made earlier about nuclear power that really cemented this for me--I imagine Hoenn would have different ways of handling energy; the presence of pokemon could very well mean that clean nuclear power is both immediately achievable and completely safe under Hoenn's technology. Again, it felt like a real world argument that didn't quite scale to the pokemon world without further explanation. Hoenn has pokeballs, for example, so their grasp on technology does feel significantly different from our own--if they developed a technological way to violate conservation of mass, then it follows that a lot of their energy sources and problems would also be different, and I struggled to understand what about nuclear power in Hoenn would be controversial (especially in comparison to like, the risk of a pokemon battle accidentally leveling a city block). Would a world with bountiful electric- and fire-types even develop such a significant fossil fuel reliance as our world did? Would they face the same types of threats to their oceans as a result?

This is one that I think Maressa could explain a bit better, since this issue is squarely in her wheelhouse and what interests her! She joined Aqua to protect the oceans, but as she continued to dig herself deeper into this hole, I couldn't help but wonder what she's actually protecting the oceans from. What kinds of threats are big enough for you to no-contact your family for nine months and join a group that you know is committing acts of terror? These are things I wish we got to see confronted in the narrative; when Maressa brings them up they're largely in passing and don't feel very serious--is the point that she's overreacting, and the environmental issues aren't actually there? That neither Aqua nor Magma are interested in engaging with them in a serious way, and are instead using them as a front to solidify terror and control? The fic seems to be setting things up at least slightly towards the latter, which is an interesting angle to take things, but I still found myself wanting some explanation for what Maressa at least thinks is the problem here, and what aspects of the world she's fighting to change/improve.

And likewise, with Derek/Tabitha--the goal to expand the land in order to make more space for humans/pokemon makes sense if there's an established overpopulation issue/if there aren't currently enough land resources to sustain everyone. But from the glimpses that we've seen of the cities, those issues aren't really well-established, so it's hard to follow what exactly is motivating Magma to take such extreme stances in order to pursue this land goal.

Hoenn's treatment of pokemon - they seem pretty smart in this one, but there's also a few mentions of how there are publicized drugging scandals and in general they get treated as tools a lot. Is Maressa breaking the norm for naively trying to teach her pokemon calculus, or are pokemon intelligent enough to understand advanced mathematics? Derek mentions that his Claydol can identify medical equipment with enough accuracy that he's like, willing to trust Claydol when someone's life is on the line, so they definitely seem on the high-end of animal intelligence at the very least. And Maressa attributes (whether correct or not) complex emotions to Golduck such as guilt & taking blame--so at least to her they seem to have high emotional intelligence as well.

But we only see pokemon as they're treated in the context of Aqua/Magma, so presumably things are a lot harsher than might be on the mainland, but the fights here seem pretty brutal. There was one bit in particular in the Mt. Chimney fight where Shelly's walrein uses Sheer Cold on a mightyena and it sounds really brutal, or later Tabitha's mightyena emerges from the fight covered in blood--but Maressa doesn't really seem concerned in either case--is the frozen mightyena going to survive? whose blood is Tabitha's mightyena wearing?? So her concern for pal Golduck feels weird to me since she basically is treating him like a friend (suggesting that pokemon are friendly status) but she also goes around blitzing a ton of mook pokemon without regard for their bodily safety (suggesting that they're basically just cannon fodder). And Tabitha does the same, firing a hyper beam point blank at Golduck and then only later being surprised pikachu face that this could maybe cause Golduck harm and being sympathetic to Maressa's concern for almost losing a friend here--do they not realize what they're doing in the moment? Tabitha tries to cheer her up over Golduck by mentioning that once he accidentally had Mightyena fight an entire battle while sweating toxins, and it's framed as like "oops, mistakes happen"--but I'm struggling to understand if this is actually an accurate assessment of what it would feel like to put your friend through immense life-threatening pain and danger with side effects that leave him injured for at least three weeks (from poisoning!!), and if it's really okay to write that off. Maressa shooting down birds in an ocean battle as a strategy--is she concerned that some of them might drown in the chaos? Would she hesitate to command shooting a bunch of humans into the water as well for fear of collateral? I struggled to put my finger on how valued pokemon are in this setting, both for Hoenn in general and specifically as how Maressa sees it.

Some of the story suggests that Maressa is actually kinder than the average trainer--she lets Golduck out of his pokeball as a default, for example, and everyone is surprised at that (although she can't do the same for her other pokemon, because feesh). But then she'll do things that still throw me--there's one joke to Goldurk early on that was like "battling is all you're good for!" and then she brushes it off as a joke--but this does feel like a cruel remark to make in both 1) the context of a larger Hoenn where it seems like a lot of people hold this view unironically and 2) in a meta context where the bulk of Golduck's role in these early chapters has been the one Tabitha battle. Specifically with the second one, Maressa only thinks of Golduck twice once the aftermath of that battle is cleared up--once is when she mentions he doesn't like calculus, and the other is when Tabitha brings up the battle again--so it kind of does seem like she mostly thinks of him only in the context of battling and its aftermath, and the joke falls flat as a result.

He opened his eyes wide—he didn’t often hear Maressa say something so sappy. He held her hand and quacked. He didn’t blame her for his injuries—someone had to fight this battle, and he was happy to do it. He would do it for her.

Because this story is in close-third to Maressa, I thought this was really interesting--it read less of a head hop (where it's concretely Golduck's thoughts and reassurances) and more as what Maressa assumes he's saying. It's convenient for her that he's not blaming her (and it makes sense that that's what Maressa would want to believe), although I think it sort of dilutes the actual conflict/guilt that follows if he actually thinks this.

It doesn’t matter, he told himself. They wouldn’t have to agree with his decision; after all, they were still his closest friends. He knew they wouldn’t be too angry or label him a traitor for choosing to set Maressa free.

Derek does a similar leap here--and it sure is convenient for him that he's also correct, but I do think it undercuts this scene to set up "but what if they don't agree" followed by 1) deciding their agreement or not doesn't matter and 2) they won't be long-term mad at me anyway. But also, being afraid that pokemon can process concepts like guilt, blame, moral choices--this suggests really high emotional intelligence, to the point that Derek is basically using these guys as his own moral compass--hard to fit this in with a world that also consistently mentions drugging them and using them as tools.

Unsure--for me the big gaps here were the guilt/friendship that Maressa feels towards her own pokemon specifically (and some of the ones that are nice to her, like sweetheart Breloom friend), but then the general lack of concern for them when they're actually involved in firefights. Golduck getting horribly injured in the first battle also sets up that pokemon aren't particularly indestructible, so they are in a fair amount of danger here, and Maressa is pretty chill inflicting that damage on others as long as it stops them from badly injuring her pokemon first--like yeah, she isn't drugging Golduck, but she is drying him out on a volcano and getting him hyper beamed in the face, and she is shooting flying-types down while also knowing they'll probably drown if their wings get wet--so it's a bit hard to place if she's more or less harsh than the rest of Hoenn on this front, or if they're just operating on different scales.

world, pt 2
idk this old section got long and I did mention at the top that I have no idea how to format this

On a micro-level I really liked the attention to detail about ships, submarine, diving, marine life, etc. The underwater passages especially are the ones where Maressa seems to be having the most fun with her environment, so the prose really comes to life here. I also really liked the casual details and expertise she gives about diving, how she's prepared to keep breathing when a wave washes over her, swapping for her regulator, ditching her dive tank when the gasket breaks, etc--I haven't dived before so this is with a grain (or ocean) of salt, but these all felt realistic and immersive to me!

characters
Surprisingly for a fic that's about eco-terrorists blowing each other up, there's a lot of character work being juggled here. Maressa is a good viewpoint character for this, since being new to Aqua lets her sort of buy-in to these ideals without being too deeply invested that it's impossible for her to back out.

This will all be worth it in the end.

I thought this line was most intriguing as far as Maressa's development is concerned--a lot of her struggles so far are wrapped up in questions of cost, worth, loss, guilt, etc. Is Golduck being hurt worth it? Is her being hurt worth it? Is the world being hurt worth it? When she's with Aqua she's justifying a lot of illegal/immoral activity with arguments that what they're doing is going to have payoffs in the end, and it's what she uses to reassure herself to get through things, but now that she/her pokemon are on the line, it's beginning to look like she's losing faith. I think these questions are really interesting ones to ask, especially in a story that's largely about villains--what are you actually fighting for?

Maressa's answers are muddled to me, a little. I wanted to know what she saw in this "end" that made it all worth it, what she's willing to put so much on the line for. In a lot of senses I get the idea that she wasn't actually prepared to risk a lot, and when Tabitha confronts her with the fact that she might personally suffer she's quick to back down--further cemented when she decides to just yeet from Magma/Aqua altogether and the only thing that's really holding her back is that she can't get to her pokemon. By the end of this section it really seems like what she's had to do ultimately hasn't been worth it, so I guess my one remaining question was what she actually was hoping to achieve with Aqua, and how that illusion gradually faded for her.

Maressa's relationship with Aqua is pretty fraught, and unpicking that seems to be the main drive of this first arc so far? Originally she seems to understand that they're doing illegal shit, so I thought she was on board with it

That’s not bad—we’re all Team Aqua members, and you guys know this organization isn’t legal!”

“No, I… If this isn’t about the environment—if Team Aqua won’t actually try to save our oceans—then I can’t keep working for them. I can’t work for someone who thinks I’m disposable, who would throw my life away…” She opened her eyes. “I just want to live a normal life again. I had always known that Team Aqua was illegal—but I never thought of it as a life of crime. Not until now, at least.”

And the line between "leaving my old life for things that I know are illegal" and "life of crime" is definitely a thin one, but I really wanted to know what Maressa thought that line was, and how far away she stood from it. She mentions police tails at some point, which to me suggested some degree of understanding that her actions would be treated as criminal, but I really struggled to pin down to what extent she was aware of it if she was backtracking this hard by the end.

Maressa also changes her mind frequently in these chapters--makes sense; she's young, a bit naive, and very trusting, so that's all a huge recipe for constantly swinging her moral compass all over the place. One of the things that I think is most interesting about walking through characters changing their minds is actually getting them there--what might convince one person probably wouldn't convince everyone, for example. Maressa's pretty easy to convince and bully over though, and a lot of her conversations boil down to someone saying "just think about it" and then pieces click into place and she sort of does just believe them?

Spoiler: think about it

Think about it

Something clicked in Maressa’s brain—Mickey was right.

Puzzle pieces clicked into place as Maressa listened to Mickey. She smiled.

She trusted that there were good reasons for everything Team Aqua did; she just wished she could know what they all were.

None of this made sense!

And yet, it made perfect sense.

But in her heart, part of her believed him.

But he couldn’t do that. That would be a lie, and if she was living a lie the entire time she worked with Team Aqua then it was time for her to face the truth.

"Think about it.

None of it was true?

Well, that might not be the case—it could be true that humans directly caused main environmental decline. But... Perhaps it was possible that they did not cause decline.

She wanted to fight back, to refute what he said—but she agreed with a lot of what he said.

Maressa’s eyes dropped to her knees. What did she think?

And like at some point I'm imagining the conspiracy theory wall man just shouting "think about it" at her--because ultimately that last line is the question I really want the answer too--what does she think? Imo the tricky part about coaxing a character through a change of heart is that it isn't satisfying to just get them to throw their old idea in the garbage (although you have to do that as well). When they start using these conversations as points to do big dramatic gestures like jumping off of boats or launching a sharpedo directly towards enemy fire, I find myself asking what they're believing in that spurns them to this.

One of the interesting things I noticed in a lot of Maressa's thought processes above is that she's mostly just getting by on refuting her previous beliefs. She thinks that Aqua shouldn't be doing a thing; someone tells her not to think that, and she goes with it. She thinks that humans are messing up the oceans; Tabitha tells her it's a lie to facilitate government takeovers and she goes with it. It's this particular flavor of argument that's less about putting forward an idea and more about destroying something else--which makes it weird when Maressa starts throwing around ideas like "belief" and "sense" and "truth"--what is she actually believing in? What truths are actually being refuted, and what is she accepting as truth instead?

The bit where Tabitha shows her about all the climate change research paper fraud was particularly interesting because of how trusting she is about it and how willing she is to just dump her worldview in favor of a tiny sample size of evidence (something that even the most open-minded individuals really struggle to do lol). One line in particular that struck me was that she was pleased to see a paper published by her own university (which is totally fair; appeal to authority is a very common logical fallacy that we all fall for), but like, these are printed papers and she has no way of verifying any of them. She already thinks Tabitha is this scummy person and Magma is full of liars and cheats; what would stop him from (in her head) just typing up some random bullshit that backed his point and putting her university's name at the top of it? Why does she even think the papers are real? Like I have MS Word and photoshop; I could put together a convincing rejected research paper proving that Tabitha's poop is full of glitter, but I wonder how many times I'd have to show that to him for him to actually believe it.

And it's tricky, right--Aqua's a great example of a cult isolating its members and feeding them a lot of information and cutting them off from the outside world in order to radicalize its members, and this would make for a really good character study for it. And you don't necessarily have to convince your readers that humans aren't responsible for climate change or that every national government is involved in a big fraud to make people ride bikes--but you do need to present a logical through-line for how Maressa gets convinced there. So far I get the idea that she really struggles to form independent opinions and mostly relies on other people to tell her what to believe in:

Was that true? How could that be true? She had to get back to Team Aqua—she had to talk to Shelly. That may be the only way to discover the truth. Maybe everything Tabitha had told her was a giant lie. That would certainly fit with his reputation as a Team Magma member.

Like Maressa's own analysis is hardly a factor in this for her; it's either that Shelly will tell her a thing or Tabitha will tell her a thing, and one of them will be lying. It makes me wonder how much of this is actually a result of her own wants/choices, and how much is because someone else has told her something and she hasn't bothered questioning it.

“If you were still with Team Aqua and heard that another member—whom everyone thought had died—was captured and ready to be handed back over, what would Team Aqua do with that person? Put them back in the same position they had, as if their capture never happened?

“We wouldn’t waste you. I’ve seen the way you fight. I’ve seen the way you care for your Pokemon. You were doing reasonably well on Team Aqua, I’m sure. And Team Magma will be happy to have you.”

Like here, Maressa hears this argument and is like "shit u rite"--but these two things seem directly contradictory. "Aqua would never take you back if they heard that you spent some time with Magma," says the guy who is currently trying to poach an Aqua member to team Magma despite her previous/current time with Aqua. And it's not presented as Magma being more open-minded about where their recruits come from or Aqua being weirdly closeted in their loyalty (people tend to love POW stories and view them as heroes?)--Tabitha just says that Aqua wouldn't take her back, Maressa considers this and assimilates this as fact; Tabitha then later says that Magma would be happy to take her in no questions asked, Maressa considers this and assimilates this as fact.

Or! Less extreme example:

“Still new to this, huh? Turning off the cable cars will prevent civilians from getting caught up in our mess with Team Magma—it’ll also prevent anyone from interfering.

And Maressa nods along to this one as well--even though everyone is currently ascending the mountain in a helicopter, demonstrating that it's very possible to get to the top without the cable cars and "prevent anyone from interfering" immediately goes haywire for any group that has air support.

I guess the main takeaway for me here was--for someone who's so interested in questioning everything, think about it, find the facts--Maressa doesn't really do any of that, and a lot of her worldview is just formed by whoever is currently talking to her and telling her that her old ways were lie. Soft stances is definitely a thing, especially in young adults, and I can see why for the story it wouldn't be beneficial for her to be a die-hard eco-terrorist right off the bat, but it does leave me with a lot of questions about her agency and choices as a protagonist when I can't actually understand what she's fighting for.

Derek's a fun side character and gives a little bit of sanity to the whole Magma situation. The idea that student loans are just so shitty in this universe that people are joining illegal organizations and committing acts of terror including plugging an entire volcano--I am tickled but also deeply sad lol. Those interest rates must really be something. I like his conversation with Maressa and it does a great job of giving us a friendly face for Maressa to open up to a little, which is much-needed especially with the questions of motive/desires above.

He paused. He did not believe that creating more land would be bad for the planet—all scientific models pointing to that were just theoretic, after all—but he was not interested in arguing with a Team Aqua member about it.

He paused. She stared intently at him, her amber eyes blazing. He couldn’t think of much else to say—of course, he didn’t want to make ends meet by doing something unethical, but after all, he wasn’t doing anything wrong.

That being said, I'm not sure if I believe his motivations here either--is this another case of just not wanting to look too hard at something that makes you uncomfortable? Is being a medic to enable other people to do the wrong thing still ethical? Or is this just a question of him not wanting to admit it? His pokemon are sweet and breloom is such a good friend though--fun to read this after The Best Boy and see some of those characters swap into places with more prominence.

Tabitha is a fun character to pick up after TBB as well. Definitely did not get the vibe that he was going to be conspiracy walling up in this, and I'm curious what Maressa will see once she (presumably) washes back ashore on mainland Hoenn, and if Tabitha's actually correct about his theory that this is all a lie for the masses.

misc
tbh I don't even know with section headers at this point

Marius

Mickey

Maressa

Mark

please enjoy this moment of realization where I finally put together that everyone here should join team magma because their names line up with it lol. (I do get that the Mar- names are a good theme b/c ocean etymology, but I just see M and I make conclusions lol).

line edits, more or less, in the spoiler. I definitely pulled fewer quotes as I read further/got more into things:

Spoiler

“Golduck, can you imagine how Mt. Chimney will look once it’s made dormant? Maybe it’ll turn into a crater lake! Those are so beautiful—I’ve never seen one, though, but I heard they’re really neat, unique ecosystems!”

This seems super narrow-minded of her? Does she not think the volcano currently has a unique ecosystem that they're about to wreck here?

At her command, the rocky area filled with bright blue pinnipeds and dark red crustaceans.

This felt weird in plural--she's only sending out one walrein and one crawdaunt, right?

“Golduck, come here for a moment!”

“Mightyena, regroup.”

In general I liked the flow of this action sequence but it does feel in this one and in the submarine one that everyone who isn't Maressa/directly interacting with Maressa fades into the background. In the Mt. Chimney fight, Shelly sort of disappears once Maressa engages Tabitha outright, and I'm not sure where she and her team ended off going to--does she just sit around while Tabitha and Maressa give their teams pep talks? I get that Tabitha is sort of just toying with her at this point, but he's such a high-ranking member that I'm shocked that he got left for just Maressa to handle. The submarine fight had a similar feel, where it was hard to keep track of where Maressa's allies were and how the actual flow of battle was going--was she really fighting everyone off by herself? Were there side battles going on outside of her direct range of influence?

Blood rushed in Maressa’s veins—her heart pounded—sweat poured out of every pore in her body—her muscles tensed, ready to jump from the cliff and run into the fight herself. Part of her wanted to—oh, she wanted to!

She jumped off the ledge and raced toward her fallen companion—her heart pounded furiously—fear and terror overwhelmed her—her eyes stung with tears—

This is a bit rich coming from me but there are a lot of em dashes. Perhaps too many. I just put these particular sentences in multiquote as a reminder/bc I found them particularly noteowrthy, but the density of em dashes across all of the chapters seemed a bit high.

“He helped design it when he was at the shipyard,” Shelly said offhandedly.

This is interesting! Didn't realize this connection was there.

She was in a submarine! The kinds that ocean explorers went on—she was really doing this! The halls and ceilings were narrow and cramped, just like she had always imagined it would be! It smelled of saltwater and rotting fish, just like she had always dreamed! And it was cold and foreboding!

Hm... Maybe being on a submarine actually kinda sucks.

I thought this jump was a bit fast.

She glanced around the room, spying the Chinchou. Taking out a Pokeball, she stared at the fishy form through the translucent cap.

She would love to bring her Lanturn out—but Lanturn wouldn’t be able to breathe air for long

This might be a marine biology thing, but is there a reason that chinchou can breathe in the air but lanturn can't?

“You can have this cramped seat or that cramped seat or sit in that particularly cold spot on the floor.”

I liked this bit of laconic humor.

Her fingers relaxed as she let go of Seaking’s tail and began the descent by herself

I had trouble picturing this--is she grabbing directly onto the fin? Would that not mess with Seaking's ability to swim?

The blood in her veins turned to ice as she saw hundreds of Pokemon soaring in the air above them: Swellow and Golbat formed a cloud, joined by an occasional Xatu, Skarmory and Tropius.

"hundreds" kind of threw me for a loop here--that seems like an easy Magma victory as far as winning through sheer force lol. But also, what was stopping them from just diving the submarine?

She turned her head. The medic looked at her—there was no malice or smugness. His gaze was still critical. He almost looked reluctant.

In the previous paragraph he's pinned her against the wall (with her arm twisted behind her back, so her torso is probably on the wall here), so I'm struggling to see how they're looking eye-to-eye.

We wouldn’t bother to take care of you and heal you if we were just going to hurt you later on. We’ve already given you care—this stuff isn’t cheap, you know. Especially if you end up going in the decompression chamber.

This argument didn't particularly hold water for me--obviously if she dies of the bends then they can't interrogate her. Torture interrogation works best when the torturer can meter out how and when the pain is being applied, so honestly it makes perfect sense for them to make sure that she's alive, able to talk, and not at risk of immediately dropping dead before they start torturing her.

Plus like, does Magma frequently dive? What for? Why else would they have a decompression chamber?

“People need water, but not necessarily the sea. Our aim wouldn’t be to get rid of streams, lakes, rivers, or anything that provides freshwater to communities. It will make more land so that people and Pokemon have more room to go about with their lives.”

Tabitha hypothesized that Golduck wasn't in the sea battle because maybe Golduck doesn't do salt water, so is there a reverse species that only does salt water, and is he concerned about that habitat loss making life unsustainable for them?

But she didn’t feel him. She saw him tapping her shoulder, but she couldn’t feel any of it. She stared, wide-eyed, horror settling into her tired heart as she watched him tap what might as well have been a puppet that looked like her.

“Can’t feel that, can you?”

I thought this was really chilling and well-done, especially with how casual Tabitha is.

Come to think of it, you’re the reason I’m here now…”

Breloom seemed to take it as a compliment. He blushed and waved a hand as if to say, “aw, shucks.”

such a cutie!

“Control Kyogre and expand the sea,” he said bluntly.

Does he have Thoughts on this? Like, from his point of view stopping Aqua is a matter of survival at this point, since if left unchecked they'll just kill everyone with the uncontrollable primordial whale. That honestly seems like an easier starting point for convincing Maressa lol.

He eyes narrowed. "It affirms exactly what I've been telling you."

typo! I was not really in a copyediting brain today (in case the massive textwalls didn't tip you off) but I did find the one

Eventually, Derek had to tell him not to give anymore suggestions, as the most reasonable of the Fighting-type’s ideas involved gun powder, vegetable oil, and glitter.

this is so cute!

Maressa nodded and the duo descended into silence. Derek glanced at her; the cool, determined air she held a moment ago was gone. Her eyes were downcast and she slouched slightly. He wondered how she was when with her Pokemon. He imagined she wasn’t always this concerned or distressed. Perhaps, when this fight was over, they could still be friends, and he and she and their Pokemon could all get together.

this is such a naive assessment after everything that's gone down lmao

tl;dr
I did have a fun time reading this--apologies if tmi; my fic love language appears to be writing long questioning thoughts about fic worldbuilding and character establishment. I think the reimagining of the Aqua/Magma conflict is pretty fresh and well-executed here, and your cast is well-managed + they get into some really nice, tense scenes together. Morally ambiguous protagonists are also a lot of fun, and especially now it's still interesting to see different ways that you can walk a character down a crazy path and then get them to question the steps that got them there. Definitely some drowning up ahead, if only the metaphorical kind, and a fun read so far.

 

[Pen]

Hey, I'm back for chapter two! Looks like we're getting right into the action. I like that we don't waste any time, though I wished I had a bit more context for all of this. They're going there to get the meteorite in order to permanently stop Mt Chimney from errupting but also to stop Team Magma who plan to use the meteorite to errupt it now? That latter reason seems like a far bigger deal than Maressa's internal monologue makes it. Errupting an active volcano's going to have a lot of immediate consequences, for humans and pokemon! But I didn't really feel any sense of urgency about that. Maressa seems a lot more focused on how exciting it will be to get a chance to battle. But like, if battling's what's most important to her, she doesn't have to be with Team Aqua to do it. So her priorities felt a little out-of-whack to me, as did her reaction at the end, which seemed a lot more focused on "ugh dare that man lecture me about battling." I'm also a little uncertain about the extent of Maressa's openness to illegality. The way she portrayed Team Aqua's brand of illegality in the first chapter didn't make it sound like she's necessarily expecting to be doing the equivalent of hijacking trains. But she doesn't seem to blink an eye at 'shut down the cable cars.' I think I would have liked a bit more bite to the explanation Mark gives, like "if we can't stop Magma and they errupt the volcano, a ton of people could get hurt if we don't shut down the cable cars." It would be nice to have some context too on why it's Team Aqua who have to be the ones interceding here. Even a quick line about how the government is useless or the police wouldn't believe them would help with that.

Once again, the prose is a lot sharper, and em-dashes aside, the battles flowed well. I liked the way Maressa helped her teammate--that kind of tag-teaming makes a lot of sense for a battle like this, yet so often people resort to the one walrein vs one migheyana ridculousness. Shelly's powerhouse ludicolo was fun too. I feel like they normally get protrayed as silly, so I liked seeing one who was more badass. The magma commander's strategy in bringing it down made a lot of sense. I like that Maressa doesn't win, but her contribution helps the team, and Shelly recognizes her for it. I think I skimmed an older version of this chapter where evul Shelly dresses Maressa down for being too good at fighting or something, which read as super cartoonish, so I liked this more nuanced take of Shelly being less of a hardass once Maressa does something useful. I'm probably biased because I just like Shelly in canon (girl has the best hair ❤️ ), but Shelly is my fave so far.

I wasn't sure what to make of Maressa's guilt about battling. I didn't have enough context to know whether the injuries in this battle were atypical compared to refereeed battles, and that's what she's reacting to. More context there would have been nice--something that differentiates this from "normal" battling, because in the absense of that it feels odd with how much Maressa has talked about loving battling. I was a bit disturbed about Golduck's "I do this for you" response. It seems like you're trying to treat pokemon in this fic like they're people, so it feels odd to me that Golduck's motivation is so singular. Doesn't Golduck also have views on ocean expansion, protecting pokemon, and what-not? Does Golduck support Team Aqua only because Maressa does? The fact that we end on Maressa's indignation about losing to the Team Magma commander and how ugh, they'll totally beat him next time, made the extended sequence about her guilt ring a bit hollow. It doesn't really sound like she's interested in actually interrogating this issue.

Side-note on the Team Magma commander--I remembered you've made some statements in chat that this fic doesn't feature romance, but the way he was introduced with the extended staring and Maressa's fuming felt like very typical tropy beats in setting up a romance. If that's not the mood you're trying to evoke, it's worth being aware of.

Spoiler: line-by-lines

Maressa tightened the ties of her bandanna as she stared at her reflection. Closing her eyes, she straightened up, took a few deep breaths, and looked at herself once more. She tried to keep calm but her reflection only showed how anxious she was. She paced back and forth, sat down, stood back up, said a prayer—yet nothing would fend off the anxiety that kept attacking her.

Stationing herself before the mirror once more, she stared herself down.

“Once we land, I need the two of you to shut down the cable cars. Understand?”

“Yes, Commander Shelly!”

Maressa looked out the window of Team Aqua’s navy blue helicopter as the rocks and crags of Mt. Chimney passed rapidly beneath, the ground sloping upward to meet their descent. Her heart pounded furiously with excitement—this was it!

This opening confused me. We seem to jump right from Maressa staring into the mirror to her being on the helicopter. At first I thought the dialogue was flashback. I'd recommend just starting with "Once we land" etc. or "Maressa looked out the window . ."

Several other Team Aqua members stood inside, waiting with anticipation for the mission that lay before them.

This reads a bit clunky. Maybe, "Several other Team Aqua members waited inside, their eyes gleaming with anticipation."

“Still new to this, huh? Turning off the cable cars will prevent civilians from getting caught up in our mess with Team Magma—it’ll also prevent anyone from interfering. Our mission won’t take long, and the cable cars will be back up within a few hours.”

Maressa nodded. “Makes sense to me!”

I wanted a bit more here. Even the most oblivious person is bound to be aware that just randomly turning off cable cars is going to cause some issues. I'm surprised Maressa's not at all anxious about that aspect?

“Golduck, can you imagine how Mt. Chimney will look once it’s made dormant? Maybe it’ll turn into a crater lake! Those are so beautiful—I’ve never seen one, though, but I heard they’re really neat, unique ecosystems!”

Mark looked out the window next to Maressa. “That’s the goal! By stopping Mt. Chimney, we won’t only prevent catastrophic lava flows, but it can become a fresh new environment for all sorts of Pokemon, and not just Water-types.”

I liked her enthusiasm about crater lakes.

I didn't really get the connection between taking the meteor and stopping Mt Chimney, though. Since Maressa has a scientific background, it would have been nice to hear how this actually is supposed to work.

for a split second, Maressa saw disdain shine behind her red irises.

I found "red irises" jarring--it's kind of purple prosy for describing human eyes.

“Not in itself, no. But look around—this helicopter only has space for our team. We can’t all bring out Pokemon out—what if I wanted my Ludicolo? He would practically fill the center cabin.” Her red eyes glanced at Maressa. “In short, it’s not a problem—but in the future, I’d like you to think about the limit of space and ask for permission.”

Maressa said nothing; she watched in stony silence as Shelly turned around and called for the team to prepare to disembark. Maressa’s blood boiled—Shelly wanted her to ask permission just to have her Pokemon out? What kind of a crazy rule was that? Did she even think about what Golduck wanted?

Shelly has a point, though. Presumably Golduck is a member of Team Aqua and she has authority over his autonomy in the same way she has authority over Maressa's?

“Oh, Field Commander Tabitha, we’re just out here looking for some meteorites, and that nice man there is going to give his to us.”

Shelly’s voice was much less assertive when speaking to her enemies—it was still haughty, but Maressa noticed the playful, teasing quality it held. She frowned.

Aw, Shelly's having fun.

All heads jerked to a Team Magma grunt pointing at the scientist, who was making a getaway through the rocky crags and hills that jutted out on Mt. Chimney—and for someone his age, he was fast.

Does Maressa have any thoughts on the fact that they're chasing an old man around to rob him?

Maressa had no headset

Why not? That seems like a strange oversight.

The air around Ludicolo shimmered—rocks ripped up from the ground and he hurled them in the air. Several Golbat squeaked as the rocks bruised their frail bodies and pinned down their thin wings.

But several Golbat still glided through the air untouched.

“Stun spore!”

Clouds of yellow spores puffed from the center of Ludicolo’s lily pad—dust filled the air and flew along in the breeze—Maressa covered her mouth and nose with her shirt.

She wasn’t convinced using stun spore out in the open was a good idea—but Ludicolo was doing damage! Golbat dropped out of the sky and fell flat on the rocks, clearing the air.

“Hyper beam!”

Maressa jerked her head as a beam—a really bright beam—of orange energy shot from a Mightyena’s mouth. The beam pulverized rocks and hit Ludicolo square in his back. The Grass-type flew face-first into the rock—smoke curled from a circular singe in his husk.

Lowering her shirt, Maressa stared at the Mightyena in awe—that hyper beam was much more powerful than the other ones she had seen so far, and the Mightyena looked larger, more feral—his fur was matted, and every time he opened his mouth, the size of his fangs filled Maressa with primal fear.

Mightyena pounced from his perch next to the Magma Commander and ducked into a shadow—and vanished. He reemerged from another shadow at the far side of the field—on the other side of Ludicolo.

“Ludicolo, behind!”

Shelly was too late—Ludicolo turned just in time to receive a face-full of shadow ball. He was blasted onto his back, panting as he rolled over and stood up.

Maressa watched the two fight: Ludicolo shot any sort of attack that came to mind—bullet seeds, leech sides, bursts of water, different powders… But Mightyena ducked in and out of the shadows as if they were portals, always keeping out of Ludicolo’s reach. The canine snarled, ducked into a shadow—and reemerged laughing from another one.

Veins stuck out in Ludicolo’s bloodshot eyes—it attacked with renewed vigor—it stopped using powder attacks entirely and only did what directly dealt damage—it smacked with its fists down on rocks, crushing them until its knuckles bled and its arms were bruised, always missing Mightyena.

I know this is very strange coming from me, but you've got a looot of em dashes here. I began to find it hard to follow the battle because of how many there were. At points here it feels like sentences are being stitched together with em dashes, like a comma splice but with em dashes. I feel a bit like you're using em dashes as a relational crutch here to tie together complete sentences that really need to be tied together in other ways. Happy to provide more feedback on specific instances if you want.

For example:
"Clouds of yellow spores puffed from the center of Ludicolo’s lily pad—dust filled the air and flew along in the breeze—Maressa covered her mouth and nose with her shirt." --> Clouds of yellow spore puffed from the center of Ludicolo’s lily pad. Maressa covered her nose and mouth as the dust filled the air.

Or:
"Veins stuck out in Ludicolo’s bloodshot eyes—it attacked with renewed vigor—it stopped using powder attacks entirely and only did what directly dealt damage—it smacked with its fists down on rocks, crushing them until its knuckles bled and its arms were bruised, always missing Mightyena." --> Veins stuck out in Ludicolo’s bloodshot eyes. It attacked with renewed vigor, smacking its fists down on rocks, crushing them until its knuckles bled and its arms were bruised, always missing Mightyena."

Tendrils of dark energy swarmed around Mightyena’s jaws—he lunged and sank his fangs into Golduck’s arm.

“Screech!”

A high-pitched shriek emanated from Golduck’s bill—Mightyena jerked his head away from the auditory onslaught.

Again, not sure why em dashes are appropriate here. A period would be fine.

Blood rushed in Maressa’s veins—her heart pounded—sweat poured out of every pore in her body—her muscles tensed, ready to jump from the cliff and run into the fight herself. Part of her wanted to—oh, she wanted to!

Why not, "Blood rushed in Maressa’s veins. Her heart pounded. Sweat poured out of every pore in her body. Her muscles tensed, ready to jump from the cliff and run into the fight herself. Part of her wanted to—oh, she wanted to!"

The two Pokemon rejoined their trainers. Maressa’s heart panged when she saw how tired Golduck was: dust coated his blue skin, which had turned from slimy to sticky under the noonday sun. He blinked several times, his bill hanging open as he took rasping breaths.

“Oh, poor dude—here, have some water.”

Maybe it's just my association with the word "dude" but Maressa's dialogue felt very casual for the situation.

“Golduck.”

He cocked his head.

“I hate seeing you get hurt.”

He opened his eyes wide—he didn’t often hear Maressa say something so sappy. He held her hand and quacked. He didn’t blame her for his injuries—someone had to fight this battle, and he was happy to do it. He would do it for her.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yG8caPPY1Y


Well, that's a healthy attitude to hold.

White water crashed into the orange beam—the heat from hyper beam evaporated the water, filling the battlefield with mist. A high-pitched ring sang through the air as energy collided with water.

Maybe, "White crashed into orange. The heat from hyper beam evaporated the water, filling the battlefield with mist. A high-pitched ring sang through the air."

Golduck was on all fours—leaning forward, his feet staggered to brace himself. Loud hissing filled the air—the cloud of mist thickened—a high-pitched whistle grew ever louder—

Maybe, "Golduck was on all fours now. Leaning forward, he staggered to brace himself. Loud hissing filled the air. As the cloud of mist thickened, the high-pitched whistle grew ever louder."

She jumped off the ledge and raced toward her fallen companion—her heart pounded furiously—fear and terror overwhelmed her—her eyes stung with tears—

No, no, no, no, no—

Mightyena raced forward—he reached Golduck first, grabbed the blue head in his jaws and shook him.

“Get away from him!” Maressa screamed. She flew forward as quickly as she could—she had to—she needed to—she needed Golduck to be okay—that was all that mattered—

Maybe:
She jumped off the ledge and raced toward Golduck, her heart pounding furiously. Her eyes stung with tears. No, no, no, no, no—

But Mightyena reached Golduck first. He grabbed the blue head in his jaws and shook him.

“Get away!” Maressa screamed. Her legs pumped. She had to—she needed to—she needed Golduck to be okay. That was all that mattered—

The horned silhouette of a hoodie stood above her, the sun faming him like a halo.

Not sure whether your pokeworld has horns/halos as devil/angel symbolism, but if it does, fun place to draw it out.

She leapt to her feet—and wheeled around as she heard a growl.

Mightyena stood behind her—Maressa shrank back when she saw him bare his enormous fangs and snarl. His fur was matted with blood and caked with dust. He breathed haggardly, his tongue hanging out.

Em dash works for me in the first sentence, because it signifies interruption and reversal. Don't think an em dash works how it's used in the second sentence.

“Well done,” he told her, but his voice was no longer coy—there was a fury hiding behind the calmness of his voice.

Maybe, “Well done,” he told her, but this time there was fury hiding behind the calmness of his voice.

“I see you don’t have a headset. Your team just got the meteorite and cooled off Mt. Chimney.”

Again, why doesn't she? This seems like a plot hole that all the character insist on lampshading. Pretty easy to give her a headset at the start and have it get ruined in the chaos of battle. That would also be a little way to indicate things are getting out of control and up the stakes.

Go back to your team—but you should reconsider being with Team Aqua. They might be a team for Water-type Pokemon, but there’s nobody on that team who can coach you in battling the way we could.”

Between this and how Shelly treated him, seems like the feud is much less intense than it's been made out to be?

Maressa stared after him, finally feeling a trickle of relief amidst the sea of dread in her heart.

Kind of purple-prose-y here. Just on a logical level, you wouldn't notice a "trickle" "amidst" an "ocean."

Nearly every patient was hooked up to an IV tube, the multitude of which formed a plastic jungle.

"multitude of which" is a clunky phrase. I'd try being more concrete about the comparison. "Nearly every patient was hooked up to an IV. The overlapping tubes looked like the tangled vines of a jungle" or whatever.

Someone to talk to about Golduck’s injuries, about how guilty she felt for letting him get hurt—not just allowing it to happen, but for enabling it.

Not really sure what to make of this. Did Maressa and Golduck not understand that this battle could be dangerous? Does this mean she doesn't want to put Golduck in this situation in the future?

“You did an excellent job,” Shelly told Maressa when they had returned to the helicopter. Maressa was still shaken from her encounter with the Team Magma Commander. “I understand your Golduck lost, but you really pulled through with helping me and Ludicolo. There’s a group going diving to research ruins soon—you can take your other Pokemon and help them out!”

Aw, look at Shelly bucking up the spirits of her troops with praise! I'm glad she's not evul drill instructer 24/7.

“This was my fault. I knew you were exhausted, and I had you use hydro pump.”

Golduck shook his head slightly—he didn’t hold her to any blame.

I guess she's beating herself up for nothing, then? I'm not sure what you're going for here exactly. I feel like the narrative is pretty clearly signalling that Maressa is being irrational in feeling guilty, but then why lampshade the fact that Golduck is getting hurt for Maressa so much?

Like, if Golduck has autonomy, then Golduck had the choice not to use hydro pump when Maressa commanded it. So does Golduck not actually have autonomy?

Would he really have taken me?

Did teams capture each other? She supposed it was possible—but she was still so new at this. And what would they do with each other? Get information? Trade them for… For what?

Burying her head in her hands, she groaned. There was still so much about Team Aqua that she didn’t know—so much that she wanted to know and learn, but she was still so green and things were already happening so fast.

There’s no one on Team Aqua who can coach you in battling the way we can.

Anger sparked in Maressa’s heart—the Team Magma Commander was not better at Pokemon battling than she was. The terrain allowed him to win—Golduck was at a disadvantage. If there had been water nearby, Maressa’s Pokemon would have totally wiped him out.

“Why does he think he would be able to teach us anything? I bet he’s never worked with a Water-type in his life!” she fumed. “And telling me that I ‘earned’ my freedom—he’s not our boss! Why does he think he can say that?”

She looked over at Golduck, blood still boiling in her veins. Why would a Team Magma member want her with them? Team Aqua strove for oceanic conservation and Water-type preservation—Team Magma wanted to destroy that! They didn’t care for or understand Water-types—did they? No, they had tried making an active volcano erupt. How was that supposed to be good for anyone? They weren’t just trying to make more land—they were trying to destroy what was already there!

As her stomach clenched with pangs of hunger, she stood up, giving Golduck one last glance.

“Don’t worry, boy,” she whispered softly. Golduck lay unmoving, eyes still closed.

“One day, we’ll make this right.”

It feels weird to me that her main reaction to the magma dude casually mentioning he considered kidnapping her while she was helpless is just "ugh look at me and how green I am, not knowing how things work." Wouldn't it be more, "oh my god, he mentioned kidnapping me, is that a thing? I need to ask Mark or Shelly if that's ever happened before. Do we do that?" What would her reaction be if Team Aqua kidnaps Magma people? Would she be okay with that? It seems odd that she jumps from "Team Magma implied that they kidnap Team Aqua people" to "do both teams do this??" Since she believes Magma is bad and Aqua good, wouldn't it be more natural to assume that this is a Team Magma only thing, and of course they kidnap people, Team Aqua would never?

It also feels here like the thing that upsets Maressa most out of the options of 1) team magma member almost kidnapped me 2) team magma almost errupted an active volcano and 3) team magma member implied he could teach her a thing or two about battling -- is the final one. And that strikes me as a little strange.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Hi, everyone. I'm here with another announcement. I apologize for how long it has taken me to update this fic; when I went on hiatus in November, it was so that I could rewrite the first few chapters, clean up and edit the later ones as I posted them. And while I've gotten the re-written chapters posted, I have done very little editing on the latest chapters. Some unforeseen things happened to me in real life back in January. I thought they were things I could handle, and that was why I announced in March that I would be regularly posting more chapters. As time wore on, though, I realized that things had happened to me that were beyond my ability to cope with. It killed my creative energy and I was unable to focus on anything apart from work and school. Since then, I have been seeking healing and I believe that my drive to work on this story will return and new chapters WILL come out. I'm trying to get my creative energy back; it's a slow process, but this is a story I've always intended to see to completion. I actually finished the rough draft of this back in November for National November Writing Month; it needs a lot of heavy editing and cleaning, but the product is there.

With that said, I can't give an estimate as to WHEN new chapters will come out. But I want everyone to know that I'm reading my work again, editing, and hopefully, Drowning will be back to regular updates :)

Thank you all so very much for reading this and for sticking along during this wild ride. It means so much to me! It is an amazing privilege to be part of this community and to have such incredible readers and reviewers. I'm beyond grateful for you all! <3

Spoiler: Pen reply

First chapter, take two! You've made big strides with this one in editing. I have a much stronger sense of Marissa's interactions with her teammates and pokemon, as well as her position in Team Aqua. I like the sense of comradery between the grunts and the attention paid to the different species of water type pokemon and their habitats. Shelly also makes an impression. She's strict, but she's also not wrong! Someone who goofs off because stuff is boring is not going to be a great soldier. Of course, can Team Aqua really expect good soldiers here? Maressa seems to come from a more academic background, even if she's physically prepared for rigorous expedition.

It might have been nice to get a bit more in the 'Team Aqua's not legal but not bad' section about how Maressa got involved. I don't mean the full story--I'm sure that comes later--but even something like a reference to the research world being insular, or some kind of disillusionment that justifies her committing to an illegal marine activist association. The way she says that Team Aqua "hired" her makes it sound like she just passed her resume around at a job fair.

Thanks so much for the review and feedback! Yes, the explanations for these do come in later chapters (I couldn't think of a way of putting them in the first without making TOO much of an info dump). I really appreciate your thoughts and the feedback on this, though!

The prologue-ish section made an interesting addition. I like the epigraph--very atmospheric. It's a very different tone than the story starts off on, so it will be interesting to see how those end up cohering.

Thank you! Bonus points to whoever knows where the epitaphs come from (don't cheat and look it up).

I wasn't quite sure what to take away from the prologue--the ocean is mighty and dangerous? There's no particular suggestion that this storm was Kyogre induced, so i'm not sure how it fits in with the overall story. Some worldbuilding flavor might have been nice here--who do sailors make their prayers to in Hoenn before they die in a storm? A few personalized details like that would have brought the scene alive more to me.

I appreciate you letting me know! I think adding something about their prayers would have been good. It is mostly to set up how dangerous the ocean is, even without Kyogre--it will tie in to the story overall, though the theme doesn't become more explicit until later.

Overall, the chapter does a nice job introducing us to Maressa and Team Aqua, as well as setting up that action is soon to follow. I don't have a super strong sense of Maressa yet--she's a bit headstrong, and likes spending time with her pokemon and battling. Most of the conflict set up is through dramatic irony, that as a reader I know Maressa's naive enthusiasm is unlikely to match the reality of what awaits her.

Whatever gives you that idea <_<

Great work with the edits! I'm way behind on my reviews right now, but once I'm caught up I'll circle back to see what goes down in chapter two.

Thanks again for stopping by! And no rush at all, haha. I think of receiving every review as a privilege and am grateful for anything <3

I've noticed it's very common for people to jump to more elevated and purplish prose in a prologue. It can actually be counter-intuitive though--less is often more. Redundancy dulls impact. For example, it's clear the seas are turbulent--a storm is raging. Ending on that actually detracts from the sense of turbulence, because it furthers us from the concrete action of the heavens tearing open (nice choice of verbs.)

Noooooo I have tried so hard to get rid of my purple prose tendencies ;_; And yet I still fall victim to their ways. Thanks for pointing it out!

The way this is worded is oddly static to me--as if they're just standing by the wheel, not doing anything. Are all three of them turning the wheel together? or holding it back from spinning?

Oh lolz they're supposed to all be fighting to keep it from spinning. Needs better wording.

I like the metaphor a lot! You do say the same thing a few times here, though.

Maybe: Black walls of water raged higher and higher. Staying afloat was like fighting a hydra: for each wave surmounted, two more rose in its place.

The last sentence of a segment signals to the reader the tone and feeling we should end on. This one gives me mixed messages. Are we mourning the destruction of the ship? Are we celebrating the peace of the ocean and of death? Are we condemning the hunger of the storm? I'm not sure what my take-away is.

That might be because I had a mix of feelings when I wrote it ^_^; I was thinking both of mourning loss of life, but the peace of death of the sailors, and the danger of the ocean.

This didn't quite work for me, since the story Maressa tells is literally legal--she didn't actually do anything wrong, right? Whereas Team Aqua is literally not legal. So comparing this story to Team Aqua feels odd. Maybe tweak it so Maressa was actually doing something a little illegal (though not, in her mind, harmful)--battling before she got her license, maybe?

Thanks for pointing it out! I'll keep it in mind when I clean these chapters up more :)

The last two lines feel kind of out of place? Shelly's talking about whether Maressa can handle this and prove herself, why is she suddenly talking about spies?

Because I'm trying to foreshadow but have much progress to make in that art ;_;

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but the first and second em dashes feel a bit excessive and unnecessary here.

:nyahorror:

I like that we don't waste any time, though I wished I had a bit more context for all of this. They're going there to get the meteorite in order to permanently stop Mt Chimney from errupting but also to stop Team Magma who plan to use the meteorite to errupt it now? That latter reason seems like a far bigger deal than Maressa's internal monologue makes it. Errupting an active volcano's going to have a lot of immediate consequences, for humans and pokemon! But I didn't really feel any sense of urgency about that. Maressa seems a lot more focused on how exciting it will be to get a chance to battle. But like, if battling's what's most important to her, she doesn't have to be with Team Aqua to do it. So her priorities felt a little out-of-whack to me, as did her reaction at the end, which seemed a lot more focused on "ugh dare that man lecture me about battling." I'm also a little uncertain about the extent of Maressa's openness to illegality. The way she portrayed Team Aqua's brand of illegality in the first chapter didn't make it sound like she's necessarily expecting to be doing the equivalent of hijacking trains. But she doesn't seem to blink an eye at 'shut down the cable cars.' I think I would have liked a bit more bite to the explanation Mark gives, like "if we can't stop Magma and they errupt the volcano, a ton of people could get hurt if we don't shut down the cable cars." It would be nice to have some context too on why it's Team Aqua who have to be the ones interceding here. Even a quick line about how the government is useless or the police wouldn't believe them would help with that.

I don't have much to saya bout this other than that it's noted and I thank you for it! Really appreciate this feedback.

I think I skimmed an older version of this chapter where evul Shelly dresses Maressa down for being too good at fighting or something, which read as super cartoonish, so I liked this more nuanced take of Shelly being less of a hardass once Maressa does something useful.

Nooo whyyyyyyyy would you look at that old draft ;_; Cartoonish-evil Shelly has grown up quite a bit! Glad you like her (and her hair) though!

Doesn't Golduck also have views on ocean expansion, protecting pokemon, and what-not? Does Golduck support Team Aqua only because Maressa does? The fact that we end on Maressa's indignation about losing to the Team Magma commander and how ugh, they'll totally beat him next time, made the extended sequence about her guilt ring a bit hollow. It doesn't really sound like she's interested in actually interrogating this issue.

Maressa's relationship with her Pokemon and their thoughts on all of this are explored more in the fic as things unfold--but I appreciate the part about guilt ringing hollow! I like to see where I need to improve with this version.

Side-note on the Team Magma commander--I remembered you've made some statements in chat that this fic doesn't feature romance, but the way he was introduced with the extended staring and Maressa's fuming felt like very typical tropy beats in setting up a romance. If that's not the mood you're trying to evoke, it's worth being aware of.

Ha, yes, I am aware. It was something that came from this story's inception, and I kept it in for... REASONS that may or may not be explored in about 30 chapters or so

This opening confused me. We seem to jump right from Maressa staring into the mirror to her being on the helicopter. At first I thought the dialogue was flashback. I'd recommend just starting with "Once we land" etc. or "Maressa looked out the window . ."

Oh, huh. After not touching this for over half a year, it confused me, too! Thanks for pointing that out.

I didn't really get the connection between taking the meteor and stopping Mt Chimney, though. Since Maressa has a scientific background, it would have been nice to hear how this actually is supposed to work.

Tbh it always struck me as a bunch of BS that the games/anime made up and went along with. How on earth does a meteor have the power to turn a volcano dormant??? idk

I found "red irises" jarring--it's kind of purple prosy for describing human eyes.

Ah, purple prose, my worst nemesis! We meet again!

Does Maressa have any thoughts on the fact that they're chasing an old man around to rob him?

Oh I had anime Cozmo in mind and he's not that old lol. You still have a point with the robbing, tho.

Ty for the notes on em dashes! And also ow my pride ;_;

Why not, "Blood rushed in Maressa’s veins. Her heart pounded. Sweat poured out of every pore in her body. Her muscles tensed, ready to jump from the cliff and run into the fight herself. Part of her wanted to—oh, she wanted to!"

Maybe it's just my association with the word "dude" but Maressa's dialogue felt very casual for the situation.

That's fair. I have a very not-casual use of the word "dude" in mind that happened in real life (I was talking to my friend while her fiance was diagnosed with cancer, and she had described him as "poor dude" at one point when I had visited him and told her later how hard of a time he was having breathing that day).

Not sure whether your pokeworld has horns/halos as devil/angel symbolism, but if it does, fun place to draw it out.

Ooooh I like that point!

Not really sure what to make of this. Did Maressa and Golduck not understand that this battle could be dangerous? Does this mean she doesn't want to put Golduck in this situation in the future?

I find there's often a disconnect between expectations about what to feel about something when going into it and how you come out feeling. And Maressa's guilt isn't necessarily truth--she puts blame on herself and believes she enables it, but Golduck DOES have his own autonomy and chose to go through with it. They both understood the battle would be dangerous, but that doesn't stop Maressa from feeling bad about it.

Aw, look at Shelly bucking up the spirits of her troops with praise! I'm glad she's not evul drill instructer 24/7.

She was, once upon a time ^_^;

I guess she's beating herself up for nothing, then? I'm not sure what you're going for here exactly. I feel like the narrative is pretty clearly signalling that Maressa is being irrational in feeling guilty, but then why lampshade the fact that Golduck is getting hurt for Maressa so much?

Like, if Golduck has autonomy, then Golduck had the choice not to use hydro pump when Maressa commanded it. So does Golduck not actually have autonomy?

A bit of the first; Golduck does have autonomy and chose to follow her commands and he doesn't blame her. He trusts her and knows she didn't intend for him to be so badly injured, that she believed he could do it. Maressa feels guilty for overestimating Golduck's abilities and for him getting wrecked, knowing intellectually that he still had the choice but still feeling bad about it, if that makes sense.

It feels weird to me that her main reaction to the magma dude casually mentioning he considered kidnapping her while she was helpless is just "ugh look at me and how green I am, not knowing how things work." Wouldn't it be more, "oh my god, he mentioned kidnapping me, is that a thing? I need to ask Mark or Shelly if that's ever happened before. Do we do that?" What would her reaction be if Team Aqua kidnaps Magma people? Would she be okay with that? It seems odd that she jumps from "Team Magma implied that they kidnap Team Aqua people" to "do both teams do this??" Since she believes Magma is bad and Aqua good, wouldn't it be more natural to assume that this is a Team Magma only thing, and of course they kidnap people, Team Aqua would never?

It also feels here like the thing that upsets Maressa most out of the options of 1) team magma member almost kidnapped me 2) team magma almost errupted an active volcano and 3) team magma member implied he could teach her a thing or two about battling -- is the final one. And that strikes me as a little strange.

Good points on all accounts!! I think this was something I had handled a bit better the first time, so I really appreciate hearing that the shift of my focus didn't land the way I wanted it to. Thank you!

Spoiler: kintsugi reply

Hi again! Long story short, I was unsure how to resolve "do I re-review the new chapter one since it's somewhat different from the last one I read", so I ended up reading through to chapter seven instead. lol. I had some prose notes at the end for grammar and such, but they're a little truncated. In general I think the prose is a lot stronger this time around though! bit of an unorthodox format up ahead; it's been a while since I've done bulk-reviews.

Hi, wow, and thank you!!! This was a lovely and large review that put a lot of new perspective into my stuff! My reply is long overdo, and I apologize for that. I won't reply to every paragraph, and instead just touch on the big points, if that's okay with you. I don't necessarily agree with everything, but I certainly appreciate your perspective on it! A lot of the points you brought up are resolved, or at least shown in greater scope, later on in the story--I realize that might not necessarily be a good thing lol. But a number of my readers have pointed out the growth in characters and story over time, and I want to keep that as a central theme.

Also don't do a quick google search on the ancient text or else it'll take all the fun away kthnx

One thing I wish we understood better is why they're actually fighting in the first place--is it only the conflict over whether or not creating more land or more water that's really driving them? There seems to be some really deep-rooted prejudice in both groups for the other; Maressa's definitely convinced that Magma is full of bloodthirsty murderers (and even uses the phrase "the people who want to destroy Team Aqua"--it's like that's their only goal in her eyes), and Derek's all "I'm not going to bother explaining myself to an Aqua" and Tabitha is on board with the idea of torturing Maressa for information (even though they all seem to know by now that she actually has no clue what Aqua is doing and can barely answer what she was doing for them or why she thought it was cool). I'm deeply curious to see what spurns this level of dehumanization across both sides, and how it develops so quickly--Maressa seemed to join Aqua pretty quickly after being introduced to them, and by now she's basically convinced that they eat babies and shit. It's a topic that I find increasingly relevant irl so it's fun to see in fiction--how someone can get pushed to that level of extremism (and maybe what convinces them to start walking back).

This is explored throughout the story and is on the characters' minds a lot (though even Maressa would be surprised if she found out that they "eat babies and shit" lolol). Is 7 chapters too much time without having a full explanation of that? I'm not trying to be rude, it's a genuine question lol

Hoenn's government - a big portion of Tabitha's argument hinges on the idea that the Hoenn government is exaggerating climate change as a wedge issue in order to try to control and manipulate the public into voluntarily giving up their freedoms. And Maressa sort of nods and goes along with it, but I wanted a bit more of an explanation there on why she's so on-board. Does she think this is a unique issue to Hoenn, or is it that all of the governments are colluding? What freedoms would they actually be trying to convince people to give up? We don't really get to see much of Maressa's understanding of what the government was prior to this realization, how it impacted her life, if there's any substance to Tabitha's claims--the bulk of the early section is spent specifically avoiding talking to anyone from mainland Hoenn, so these questions don't really get set up in a way for Tabitha to answer them in a satisfying way. Coming from a country where prominent members of my government *don't* believe in climate change, and one in which a lot of the people who were paying to cover up the facts were those who were profiting from hiding the harms climate change from the general public--this does feel like Hoenn is in a very uniquely different situation than the one I've grown up in, and as such I wish we got a little more grounding.

Heh, sounds like you and I very much have different real-life experiences! I want to point out that "environmental degradation" doesn't always point to climate change--it's something that comes up all the time in my work, and understanding more about different forms of environmental degradation that can't always be explained away with "it's climate change," is something that we explore a lot. And while Continental Divides (may it rest in peace) made climate change the driving force there, it's not supposed to be so in this case. Other forms of environmental degradation DO exist, a lot of which are shorter-term and can easily be explained by human action. Factors such as run-off from shore and seeps from a sewage plant heavily affect the coral reef I study. These are the sort of factors that Tabitha is pointing to.

Maressa going along with Tabitha's explanation isn't supposed to be a character strength--at this point, she's still very naive, rather surprised to find herself aboard a Team Magma ship and is susceptible to influence. She's very willing to believe that the Hoenn government is doing wrong, and is so more willing to listen to anything bad about them. I appreciate your comments, though! And I agree that having more grounding and background on this would be a big help. Thank you!

Tangible effect of climate change/environmental harm - this ties in to the government questions above, but I really struggled to pin down what about Tabitha's argument was convincing to Maressa, as well as what drove her to ocean conservation in the first place. There were some comments she made earlier about nuclear power that really cemented this for me--I imagine Hoenn would have different ways of handling energy; the presence of pokemon could very well mean that clean nuclear power is both immediately achievable and completely safe under Hoenn's technology. Again, it felt like a real world argument that didn't quite scale to the pokemon world without further explanation. Hoenn has pokeballs, for example, so their grasp on technology does feel significantly different from our own--if they developed a technological way to violate conservation of mass, then it follows that a lot of their energy sources and problems would also be different, and I struggled to understand what about nuclear power in Hoenn would be controversial (especially in comparison to like, the risk of a pokemon battle accidentally leveling a city block). Would a world with bountiful electric- and fire-types even develop such a significant fossil fuel reliance as our world did? Would they face the same types of threats to their oceans as a result?

I appreciate this! I had thought of how it relates to real-world arguments, more in a sense that having a controversial opinion doesn't necessarily mean it's a WRONG opinion or belief and that many things have deeper explanations than they first appear. I realize I did not actually provide a full explanation ^_^; I can go back and add in how nuclear subs and energy work!

Hoenn's treatment of pokemon - they seem pretty smart in this one, but there's also a few mentions of how there are publicized drugging scandals and in general they get treated as tools a lot. Is Maressa breaking the norm for naively trying to teach her pokemon calculus, or are pokemon intelligent enough to understand advanced mathematics? Derek mentions that his Claydol can identify medical equipment with enough accuracy that he's like, willing to trust Claydol when someone's life is on the line, so they definitely seem on the high-end of animal intelligence at the very least. And Maressa attributes (whether correct or not) complex emotions to Golduck such as guilt & taking blame--so at least to her they seem to have high emotional intelligence as well.

This is something I've been trying to work on, in that Pokemon are of human intelligence but different from people--hence they wonky translation convention that has become so ingrained into my writing I don't know if I could go back and change it. And still in human-Pokemon interactions, forgiveness and growth play a big part in them. So while Tabitha hurting his Mightyena is something that wounded them both, they could forgive and grow from it.

Some of the story suggests that Maressa is actually kinder than the average trainer--she lets Golduck out of his pokeball as a default, for example, and everyone is surprised at that (although she can't do the same for her other pokemon, because feesh). But then she'll do things that still throw me--there's one joke to Goldurk early on that was like "battling is all you're good for!" and then she brushes it off as a joke--but this does feel like a cruel remark to make in both 1) the context of a larger Hoenn where it seems like a lot of people hold this view unironically and 2) in a meta context where the bulk of Golduck's role in these early chapters has been the one Tabitha battle. Specifically with the second one, Maressa only thinks of Golduck twice once the aftermath of that battle is cleared up--once is when she mentions he doesn't like calculus, and the other is when Tabitha brings up the battle again--so it kind of does seem like she mostly thinks of him only in the context of battling and its aftermath, and the joke falls flat as a result.

Oooooh I really appreciate this! Idk if it's only in this revision, but people had pointed out that their friendship was a lot clearer in the first draft. I definitely agree! I'll fix that up.

Maressa's relationship with Aqua is pretty fraught, and unpicking that seems to be the main drive of this first arc so far? Originally she seems to understand that they're doing illegal shit, so I thought she was on board with it

Essentially, though whether or not something is illegal lines up with whether or not it's moral (and what IS considered moral) are what she's struggling with.

So far I get the idea that she really struggles to form independent opinions and mostly relies on other people to tell her what to believe in:

She does. And it's not a GOOD thing; this develops over the story and is something she needs to come to terms with/grow out of.

Derek's a fun side character and gives a little bit of sanity to the whole Magma situation. The idea that student loans are just so shitty in this universe that people are joining illegal organizations and committing acts of terror including plugging an entire volcano--I am tickled but also deeply sad lol. Those interest rates must really be something.

Write what you know ;_;

That being said, I'm not sure if I believe his motivations here either--is this another case of just not wanting to look too hard at something that makes you uncomfortable? Is being a medic to enable other people to do the wrong thing still ethical? Or is this just a question of him not wanting to admit it?

More the latter. He's very "meh" about it and doesn't want to examine it too closely, as long as he can avoid it.

Tabitha is a fun character to pick up after TBB as well.

Oh he is 100% a different person for Mightyena. Only that precious pupper deserves his love or his smiles.

please enjoy this moment of realization where I finally put together that everyone here should join team magma because their names line up with it lol. (I do get that the Mar- names are a good theme b/c ocean etymology, but I just see M and I make conclusions lol).

Ironic that I made Team Aqua names all start with M? lol

This seems super narrow-minded of her? Does she not think the volcano currently has a unique ecosystem that they're about to wreck here?

Imma tbh: I pulled from the game logic in Pokemon Sapphire here, where Archie is all, "we can create a crater lake and it'll be for the good of all!"

In general I liked the flow of this action sequence but it does feel in this one and in the submarine one that everyone who isn't Maressa/directly interacting with Maressa fades into the background. In the Mt. Chimney fight, Shelly sort of disappears once Maressa engages Tabitha outright, and I'm not sure where she and her team ended off going to--does she just sit around while Tabitha and Maressa give their teams pep talks? I get that Tabitha is sort of just toying with her at this point, but he's such a high-ranking member that I'm shocked that he got left for just Maressa to handle. The submarine fight had a similar feel, where it was hard to keep track of where Maressa's allies were and how the actual flow of battle was going--was she really fighting everyone off by herself? Were there side battles going on outside of her direct range of influence?

I appreciate this comment! I have always had a hard time with battles. I wrote close to Maressa's POV and I figured that, as she lost sight of her commander/others, the reader would as well. But apparently that's not a great strategy and I'm not quite sure what to do about it lol.

This might be a marine biology thing, but is there a reason that chinchou can breathe in the air but lanturn can't?

Nope, I based it entirely on "oh, they have arms and legs, therefore they breathe in air" *upside down smile face*

"hundreds" kind of threw me for a loop here--that seems like an easy Magma victory as far as winning through sheer force lol. But also, what was stopping them from just diving the submarine?

Beaks and claws being able to puncture through a metal hull designed to withstand attacks from marine Pokemon seemed a bit of a stretch to me lol

Plus like, does Magma frequently dive? What for? Why else would they have a decompression chamber?

Oooh these would be good observations for me to put in the story! :D

tl;dr
I did have a fun time reading this--apologies if tmi; my fic love language appears to be writing long questioning thoughts about fic worldbuilding and character establishment. I think the reimagining of the Aqua/Magma conflict is pretty fresh and well-executed here, and your cast is well-managed + they get into some really nice, tense scenes together. Morally ambiguous protagonists are also a lot of fun, and especially now it's still interesting to see different ways that you can walk a character down a crazy path and then get them to question the steps that got them there. Definitely some drowning up ahead, if only the metaphorical kind, and a fun read so far.

Thanks so much! I enjoyed reading your review (apologies again for lateness lolllll) and am very grateful for your input and help!

 

[kyeugh]

hey starlight! here for smeargle swap. i enjoyed the first chapter a lot and am kicking myself for not checking this fic out sooner. i hope to leave a proper review eventually!!

i wanted to experiment both with painting water AND a nighttime environment with this, and i’m unsure about the result, so i apologize for that. i’m learning. 😅 i hope i captured the vibe though!

Spoiler

 

[Pen]

Here for chapter three! First of all, the submarine love was so pure. And Shelly getting all worked up about 'it's a submarine goddamit' made me smile. I enjoyed Maressa's excitement and the wonder of being below the ocean for the first time, and I like how it's not just focused on the glamorous bits--she's so excited about the stinky smell and the narrow corridors too. The moment when she observed all the pokemon passing by outside was really lovely, and does a nice job making concrete what Maressa and Team Aqua mean when they take about protecting the ocean. It's definitely a transitionary chapter, but I think it's doing solid work providing us with Maressa's Aqua interview, the situation with her family, and more of a sense of how Aqua trains recruits. They have a nice easy-going, but we're going to throw you into the water and see if you swim vibe. It looks like fossil resurrection may be playing a bigger role in your plot than in the canon? Interested in seeing where that goes.

Spoiler: Line-by-line reactions

Maressa trudged down the wooden dock. Behind her, the forested hillsides stretched without end. She glanced back—a few miles north lay Route 118, and just west of that was Mauville City.

I was a little confused with where Maressa i here--dock makes me think she just got off a ship, but then it seems strange to say there are forested hillsides behind her, and not ocean.

There wasn’t anything particular about Mauville—she expected her dad was at work in the Mauville Construction Company while her mom kept up the sewing business at home. Perhaps Mom baked a pie that day, and after dinner she would brew Prince of Sevii tea for her and Dad to share while they talked about anything and everything on their minds…

I like the specific details here, especially the tea brand! I didn't entirely get "there wasn't anything particular about Mauville"--I'm not sure how particular is being used here. Do you mean that she doesn't expect anything particularly exciting to be happening, just her family's normal life?

“Yep, first time since you told me to not contact them.”

Team Aqua! Definitely not a cult.

In her mind’s eye, she saw herself—dressed professionally for an interview, about to graduate college—sitting across from Mark, also dressed in business clothing.

“Something has to be done!” Maressa was half-out of her chair, blood coursing through her veins. “The seas are dying and polluted—everyone who steps outside sees it! If the government won’t do anything—if everyday people won’t do anything—if nothing happens—we’ll lose so much more than we realize! There is so much about the oceans we still don’t know—and everything will be gone, poisoned or polluted before we have a chance to discover them! The Pokemon we know and love will also die out if we don’t do something!”

The flashback felt well-placed here and Maressa's speech has a lot of energy.

“More than anything! I’ll—I’ll—there’s nothing more important!”

He leaned forward, his eyes alight with excitement.

“There is a way—and we can invite you into it. But there are many promises you need to make, first.

Missing quotation at the end of the sentence. I think I wanted a bit more on how his reaction is changing--that this where she convinces him that she's serious enough to be given the offer.

“Nine months.”

That was how long she was “at sea,” or so she told her parents.

I think putting the nine months in italics rather than quotes would make this transition flow more clearly, since in quotes it seems like we're still in the previous conversation.

The blue-green horizon blurred and came back into focus as she blinked several times. It made sense—especially as a new recruit, she needed to focus on her time with Team Aqua. And, in a way, being told what she couldn’t do felt freeing—knowing that she could no longer contact her family or talk to them was, in a paradoxical way, a relief. There was no point in thinking about it, no time wasted daydreaming, no dreading what her parents might say if they knew she was doing something “radical.” She had freedom to do exactly as she wanted—exactly what needed to happen.

But she still missed them.

This complexity feels reals, especially the relief of not needing to justify her choices to them.

The sunlight scattered across the rippling ocean waters, showcasing a fantastic turquoise that turned dark navy at the reef break.

I like how terms like "reef break" are thrown in--that's not something I'd notice when I look at the ocean, so it makes Maressa's voice feel distinct.

At the end of the dock was what looked like a gargantuan blue cylinder with a small deck and guardrail on top. A skeletal white “A” that matched those on the team members’ bandannas was emblazoned on the side of the vessel.

Starting by describing it as a cylinder makes it feel like Maressa's not recognizing it as a vessel at first, which feels weird, especially when the narration proceeds to call it a submarine. Maybe, At the end of the dock was a strange vessel--it looked like a gargantuan blue cylinder with a small deck and guardrail on top. A skeletal white “A” that matched the one on Maressa's banadana was emblazoned on its side."

“Boat, if you’re not going to call it a submarine. It is not a ‘ship,’” Shelly said crossly. “This is named ‘Ictineo.’”

Shelly for best character. This is so precious.

“Did he help make this?”

“He helped design it when he was at the shipyard,” Shelly said offhandedly.

I think I'd like a little more internal reaction here to clue me into what Maressa knows about Archie. Has she met him? Knows him by reputation alone? If by reputation, is it one that makes it seem natural or odd to her that he'd have been involved in designing the boat?

“Steer. But essentially, yes—”

“I don’t know how to pilot a ship!”

“Boat! And that’s why you’ll learn. You’ve already been through our submarine courses; you should have been expecting this.”

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t think it would be this soon!”

“You already know the basics and you won’t be alone-you’ll be fine. Besides, didn’t you say you liked math?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Then you’ll catch on,” Shelly said with finality.

Such great on the job learning.

As she descended to the submarine’s innards, excitement and thrills washed along with the anxiety.

This parses oddly to me.

The halls and ceilings were narrow and cramped, just like she had always imagined it would be! It smelled of saltwater and rotting fish, just like she had always dreamed! And it was cold and foreboding!

Okay, this is so pure. I love Maressa's excitement. Rotting fish smell!! Just what we all dream of, right?

Her heart soared with excitement

her heart bursting to joy

Her heart panged

guilt settled into her heart.

Just wanted to point out that we have a lot of heart action in a short span of time. I'd consider ways you can diversify the body language.

“That’s so cool! I didn’t realize we had scientists in Rustboro!”

“Eh… We don’t.”

I think might make a little more sense as "I didn't realized we worked with the scientists in Rustboro" since the discovery has already been attributed to a different group of scientists.

“If we don’t have scientists in Rustboro… is this stealing?”

"If we're not working with them, does that mean- we're stealing from them?"

How new of an idea is this to her, after the Cosmo episode? Or did she not really internalize that as stealing.

“They call it ‘stealing,’ but in reality, it’s ‘liberating.’ Think about it—this ‘creation fluid’ is so precious, and there’s so little of it, do we really want government-paid scientists to be the ones handling it? They can’t keep track of anything! Science is just a job for them, not a passion. Shelly used to work with these people at Devon—she’s told me before about how irresponsible they are. They just don’t care about the ocean the way we do.”

Oh, so Devon is a government agency in this verse, not a private company? I was expecting the criticism to be that a private company is going to monopolize the use in whatever way is most profit maximal, rather than best for the environment. I'm not sure I totally follow the idea that science wouldn't be a passion for government-paid scientists--often government jobs pay less than other ones, so the people choosing to do them are more motivated by the specific topic, not less. Incompetence feels a little weaksauce as a justification for a radical group--couldn't Aqua improve things by all working there, if that's the main issue?

“Shelly used to work at Devon?”

“Yep, she was a lead researcher. Knows all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on, the experiments they conducted. That’s how we know a lot about the environmental state of Hoenn now. She didn’t like Devon or the people there, though. From what she’s told us about them, they’ll probably forget about the fluid and leave it in a freezer until all the primers have decomposed. If we want this stuff to be used right, then we have to make sure it’s done ourselves.”

Ooh, Shelly backstory.

Something clicked in Maressa’s brain—Mickey was right.

“Better that ‘creation fluid’ be put to good use instead of wasting away!”

I'm not sure I got what exactly clicked for Maressa here--she seems to just decide she agrees.

The smile was plastered to Maressa’s face as she followed Mickey through the halls.

"The" implies her smile has been referenced before, but it hasn't been, so it's a bit jarring. Maybe, "Maressa followed Mickey through the halls, a smile plastered on her face."

Shelly has high hopes for you.”

“Really? She certainly never acts like it,” Maressa said with a hint of bitterness.

“Eh, she’s just not very touchy-feely. She might not say it, but she thinks you’re capable.”

Maressa wanted to reply with a scathing comment as to just what she thought about Shelly’s lack of affirmation—but thought better of it. She wasn’t upset with Mickey; no point in directing her anger at him.

Is this a relic from an older draft? I seem to remember Shelly specifically complimenting Maressa last chapter and saying she has potential--and entrusting her to pilot a submarine seems like a pretty big show of trust.

Nuclear fuel is the fuel of the future: clean, reliable and safe. It has potential to go bad, and so most governments don’t want people touching it with a ten-meter pole. The only thing it requires to operate is a constant stream of fresh water. As long as that’s maintained, we’re fine—and so far, we’ve been doing great. Eventually, there’ll be widespread replacement of toxic, deadly fumes with clean nuclear fuel.”

So Team Aqua is Team Nuclear Energy, huh. I wonder what Magma thinks.

Maressa’s heart lifted—and then her whole body lifted as the submarine descended to the waters. She was light from the excitement.

I like the heart lifted-then whole body lifts thing. The third sentence was a bit confusing, though.

Taking out a Pokeball, she stared at the fishy form through the translucent cap.

She would love to bring her Lanturn out

Oh, are pokeballs almost like aquariums or transparent glass cages? She can see what the pokemon are doing inside and they can see out?

It reads a bit strange to have "fishy form" and not Lanturn when Maressa knows who she's looking at.

Maressa snapped back as Marius glared pointedly at her with icy eyes.

I think here "glared pointedly" or "icy eyes" would make your point, but both feels like a lot, especially since Marius doesn't even seem that upset in a moment.

The Chinchou playing and rolling on the floor of the navigation room had caught her attention; watching the two of them wrestle and roll about warmed her heart and made her miss Golduck slightly less—but only slightly.

Very cute mental image.

groups of Horsea and Seadra adding a draconic flare to the marine community—Maressa’s heart jumped at the sight of a crowned head with long fins trailing behind it like streamers announcing a regal presence. The Kingdra moved through the water easily, dwarfing its pre-evolutions that swarmed about it. As the sunlight caught its scales, they glistened and shone like hand-carved jasper.

Ah, so lovely!

(at least, what she imagined snow would be like

Oh, is Mauville super temperate?

She ate it; it was as cold as winter snow (at least, what she imagined snow would be like) and had no taste.

Hm... Maybe being on a submarine actually kinda sucks.

This switch into thinking submarine life sucks felt very sudden with that kingra paragraph only a few sentences above. Maybe something more like,

Would the food be like this every meal? Maressa thought with alarm.

her outlook growing slightly dimmer with each step—but walking by the portholes reminded her that it wasn’t all bad.

Just mostly bad.

Again, she's been having a great time this whole chapter except for one bad meal.

Loud splashing crashed around them—the boat broke the sea surface. There were sounds of thundering feet hitting the metal floor—a hiss as a hatch opened—the scuttle of clattering claws and the thud of human feet.

I really like the auditory scene setting here. Super effective.

With the sound of another loud hiss, all weight seemed to leave Maressa’s body as the submarine returned to the depths and propelled onwards, continuing its journey to Dewford island.

This doesn't quite give the ring of a chapter end, more like another paragraph will be coming.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Hello hello! I've read through Drowning a while ago, maybe a year ago now(?) but never left my thoughts on it. I know you've done some work on the fic since the last time I read it, and you've got a lot of feedback on the first chapter or so, so I'm going to combine the opening "arc" of chapters 1-4 into one comment.

First things first, I had a few things in mind from my first read-through of this part of the fic, and upon reading this time, I noticed a lot of things have changed (for the better!). I remember not being as interested in Maressa as a character, and found myself more interested in the characters around her. With this latest version, I can say I'm a lot more invested in her and found the way her character was introduced and expanded upon much more appealing. I seem to recall there being a lot of exposition/narration in the earlier version kind of explaining how cool and special she was (and how she got all kinds of preferential treatment even though she was new to the organization), which in all honesty got an eye-roll from me.

This time around, though, that "okay why is she so special?" feeling never surfaced. She felt much more integrated within Team Aqua, even with her struggles with Shelly being tough on her, and spending time with the other grunts on guard duty only to finally get the chance to dive into battles or exploration missions. The progression of Maressa's involvement in Team Aqua felt much more natural and flowed nicely from mission to mission. She demonstrated proficiency in battle, and was rewarded with a battle mission. She did dive training, so she got to participate in an exploration mission. Lots of teaching moments from the other members makes it feel like they're working to help Maressa find her place in Team Aqua, vs the earlier version of the fic where it felt like they'd just hand-picked her over anyone else and it felt very disingenuous. Here, she's given opportunities just like the rest of her fellow grunts, but it's based on merit, and she makes the most of them.

Speaking of the missions, I'm really liking how you're structuring Team Aqua and how they're justifying what they're doing. From an outside perspective, we as the reader know what kinds of things they're up to, but from the inside perspective, as Maressa is learning, there are other reasons (whether or not they're 100% truthful) and it's a cool perspective to learn about Team Aqua and their goals. I especially like the cable car reasoning to keep innocents out of the Magma/Aqua conflict. It's also great that we see glimpses of what Aqua is up to in the game plot (heading to the Oceanic Museum, going to explore Dewford's ruins on their own, getting involved with stealing tech from Devon), even if Maressa isn't directly involved in some of these activities. It makes Aqua feel like a big, organized, well, organization. They might still be a ragtag bunch of ocean-loving fanatics, but it gives them a lot more merit than the games ever did.

Perhaps one thing that I did feel wasn't as composed was Maressa's reaction to battling. First off let me say I am really enjoying your battle writing. There's a great sense of scale in terms of the number of pokemon involved in each clash between Magma and Aqua, but you also do a wonderful job of writing a dynamic battle when you zoom in and focus on Maressa and her opponent(s). The pokemon moves are well described and you utilize the environment in your battles so well (like Tabitha's Mightyena using shadows from the rocky outcroppings on Mt. Chimney, and the awareness of how water pokemon move and battle in different types of environment, like Golduck's exhaustion on land, and the strengths of water pokemon when battling flying types in the open ocean). The pokemon themselves are animated and lively and it's all very well done.

The thing that isn't as consistent though has to do with Maressa's reaction to the violence of battles. At the Mt. Chimney clash, she has little qualms with incapacitating her opponent's pokemon, even in kind of brutal fashion (the sheer cold choke hold KO comes to mind, as well as the sort of brutal nature of Shelly's Ludicolo falling to what I'm guessing is swagger's confusion). But when her Golduck is pushed to his limits and ends up injured in the final hyper beam attack, she's horrified. I get that seeing your friend --your partner-- hurt, it has much more emotional impact, but later in the Dewford ocean battle, she again shows remorse in dunking flying pokemon in the water and rescues some of them to the surface. Perhaps this incongruity is a bit of a holdover from previous versions, as her more remorseful nature is at the forefront later in these couple of chapters, but I'd be curious to see if any more of her attitude towards battling not in any sort of League regulated capacity, but actually fighting, is on display or elaborated on later in the fic.

That being said, that's more of a character-building thing and not necessarily a huge part of the plot of this story. Which, again I don't remember there being as much of a tie in with the ruins and the, frankly, quite gripping cold open at the very beginning of the fic. The mysterious language, the chilling poem, the vivid imagery of seaweed wrapping itself around ancient submerged ruins. The scene setting you've done here is great, and I love how alive the world feels, filled with beautiful landscapes (or seascapes for that matter) and pokemon in their natural habitats.

Lots of characters named with "M"s! Despite that, I had a much easier time keeping track of who was who this time around. I can't recall if you've reduced the overall number of characters in these opening chapters or not, or if reading once already has given me a bit of help. But I do remember really liking the cast surrounding Maressa, and this time liking them a lot more. I like that despite Team Aqua doing some less than savory things, the members aren't bad people. Even Tabitha, Magma's Commander, has a very human side, engaging in conversation with Maressa despite being her enemy. I was a little surprised Shelly kind of vanished from that scene in particular, given she was engaged with Tabitha's Mightyena just moments before Maressa jumped in, but the way it ended up a one-on-one with Tabitha felt right; she was cornered, alone and afraid, which kind of played in to her qualms about Shelly from before the mission.

I'll leave this review here on the end of Chapter 4's cliffhanger. Originally I was planning to jump right to Chapter 5 to leave my thoughts b/c I recall on my first readthrough, the fic really picked up once Maressa was separated from Team Aqua, but I'm glad I didn't! The revamp of Chapters 1-4 were absolutely worth the re-read, you've done a great job with them, buttoning things up, making it tighter and more focused and easier to get invested. Well done!

 

[windskull]

Hi Starlight. I’ve heard some good things about this fic, and thought it was about time I checked it out. I only read chapter 1 today, but I hope to read more before the blitz is over.

On the positive side of things, I like the way you’ve started the fic. The big tense setpiece of the storm helps set expectations for the kind of story the reader is in for, while the remainder of the chapter gives us a look at what I assume is our main character. I find it interesting that Team Aqua is given more depth than just “we want more sea.” That’s a good thing. It makes them feel less like wild fanatics that don’t think things through and more like well-intentioned extremists. I get the feeling there might be some trouble under the surface, though. I also get the feeling that at some point, Maressa’s loyalty will be put to the test.

There are a couple of critiques I want to point out. The first has to do with dialogue. There were parts in this chapter that had long stretches of dialogue between characters without any tags. It made it hard to follow who was speaking at times. It might be worth adding a tag or two in every few paragraphs to help keep things straight. Especially when there’s more than two people talking.

A couple of small critiques on the opening and then I’ll wrap up.

At last, as the ship fell into a through, as rains lashed at the bulwarks, as the faces of every sailor looked up in terror at the wall of water looming over them, highlighted by a burst of lightning, they gave in.

While I love the repetition, this felt like it needed to either have a few words cut or else be split in two.

There’s a couple of cases where colons are used like so:

The men at the wheel let go: the ship spun, capsizing, and a second later was completely submerged as the wave slammed down on it.

In this case, because both clauses are independent, I think it should be a semi colon.

Despite my critiques, I think this is a good start overall. It gives a good introduction to our main character, and sets up what I’m assuming is going to be the first act conflict, before the greater scope is revealed. I’m looking forward to reading more at some point. Until then.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Hi, all! I decided to kickstart things by posting a chapter. I'm hoping to do quite a bit of editing and start putting out more content (emphasis on *hope*, since I'm still going through quite a bit). As always, thanks to everyone who stops by, and ESPECIALLY thank you to all who leave reviews! I know I need to get around to replying to them, but I promise I read them and am super grateful for them! <3 Anyway, here's Chapter 19!


Chapter 19


The chatter of grunts grew louder as Tabitha and Mightyena walked into the lounge area. The Commander frowned slightly as he saw several of his team members playing cards, drinking, talking loudly, or else sprawled out on the various chairs and couches in the room. A TV in the back was on but Tabitha deliberately turned a blind eye and walked over to the kitchen. A few grunts who noticed him stiffened; he didn’t pay them any attention. Going to the pantry, he intended to grab a water filter and get out of there immediately. He paused as he noticed stains of various colors dotting the countertops. The microwave door hung open, the dim orange light inside showcasing an assortment of food splotches. Dishes were piled haphazardly in the sink—at least the drying rack was empty.

Tabitha frowned. This was why he chose to have a fridge and separate set of kitchenware in his own suite and only came in the earliest hours of dawn, when no one else was up and awake.

“You can’t even beat Jason? What’s wrong with y—oh, Tabitha, hey!”

Tabitha sighed. The high-pitched shrieky voice belonged to none other than—

“What are you up to?” Courtney asked. She sat atop one of the tables, watching some grunts play a game involving dice. She looked over her shoulder at Tabitha with a big smile on her face. One of her hands drifted over the table and rubbed a Houndoom’s head.

Tabitha walked over to her. “Looks like you’re feeling better.” He glanced at the Houndoom. “Why do you have Maxie’s Pokemon?”

“Because I just love to hang out with them—they’re the sweetest! Aren’t you, cutie? Who’s a good boy? Who’s the best boy?” The Houndoom closed his eyes contentedly and banged his foot on the floor as Courtney scratched behind his horns.

Mightyena whined. Tabitha looked down to see his companion gaze sadly up at him, his red and yellow eyes wide with fear and his ears flat against his head. Wasn’t he the best boy?

“You are the best, Mightyena,” Tabitha said as he ruffled his Pokemon’s fur.

“But Maxie thinks Houndoom is the best, and his opinion is the only one that matters,” Courtney chimed.

Mightyena whined again. Was that true? Did Maxie’s opinion really matter more?

Tabitha couldn’t think of how to tell the truth without hurting Mightyena’s feelings.

“I love you very much, Mightyena.” And that was that.

“What’re you doing here, Tabby Catty?” Courtney asked.

“Don’t call me that. I’m just grabbing a water filter. What are you doing down here?” He didn’t want to ask Courtney about her recent night terror in front of the grunts, but he didn’t think that even she would be acting herself again so soon. His eyes fell on the Dark-type next to her—and he understood.

“I’m hanging out! It’s so good to see what other people are up to, y’know? Get some relaxed human interaction where we don’t have to be all stiff and order people around.”

“Well… If you like it.”

Tabitha glanced up at the TV. A few of the Pokemon League members spoke to interviewers from various places—the Gym Leader Norman was on the streets in Petalburg City, Elite Four member Glacia stood outside a cave with the wind whipping her hair and the sea foaming behind her, and Roxanne spoke to a woman in (Tabitha’s stomach churned) the streets of Rustboro.

“We think it’s for the best that the Pokemon League halts its operations and devotes all of its efforts to stopping these evil teams,” the young girl said confidently.

Several grunts laughed.

“What a load of crap! They’ve never tried anything—they just have their Pokemon attack those that belong to children!”

The screen switched to the Elite Four member Phoebe. The fog-wreathed crown of Mt. Pyre was visible behind her. She stared intently at the camera as she said, “The Pokemon League serves you, people of Hoenn, and we won’t rest until justice has been brought.”

The grunts roared with laughter. Tabitha had seen enough—these news reports sometimes held sprinkles of useful information, but otherwise it was all propaganda for the Pokemon League. He glanced over at Courtney and started.

All the energy from before was gone. She was no longer petting Houndoom and her hands lay limply over the side of the table. Her smile evaporated into a small frown and her eyes were fixated on the young woman on the TV screen.

“Courtney? Are you okay?”

She lowered her eyes. “I don’t like ghosts,” she said quietly.

Perturbed, Tabitha decided to leave. As long as Maxie knew about Courtney’s ordeal, he could work things out with her.

“Later, Tabby Catty!” a man’s voice called.

Tabitha stopped in his tracks and turned around. All the grunts stared back at him. A few pursed their lips in attempts to stifle their laughter; others looked terrified.

“Who said that?”

All hands pointed to a man about Tabitha’s age named Damien. The color leeched from his face when he saw Tabitha glare at him.

“Come with me.”

Damien followed Tabitha outside. The sun shone on the jungle and the dull grey buildings of Lilycove just beyond. Tabitha looked evenly at Damien, who averted his eyes and looked around apprehensively.

“You have a Flygon, don’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Send him out. And empty your pockets.”

Damien handed Tabitha his wallet and keys. In a burst of white light, a bright green dragon stood before the two of them and stretched his wings, soaking up the afternoon sun with delight. The large eyes gazed curiously at his trainer from behind their red shields.

“Flygon, take these, please.” At Tabitha’s word, Flygon held on to his trainer’s keys and wallet. “See that ridge over there?” Tabitha pointed to a mountain covered in foliage a couple hundred feet in the distance. “Fly there and wait for your trainer.”

“Wh—hey!”

But Damien shouted at empty air. Flygon kicked hard off the ground and in a few seconds was nothing more than a shining green speck amongst a fleet of cumulus clouds in a sea of blue sky.

“My room is locked—I need my keys to get back in!” Damien looked at his commander in disbelief.

“Then you’d better be quick. We have a training session in 45 minutes. You won’t be excused if you’re late.”

+++++++++++++++++++

Breloom hopped around Derek excitedly as they walked through the halls to the clinic.

It was his day to choose dinner! And he didn’t just want to choose it—he wanted to make it! He had a salad recipe that was just the best—spring greens, oregano, arugula, toadstools—

“I can’t eat toadstools, Breloom, those will make me sick.”

Breloom stopped hopping about and stared at Derek—his jaw dropped.

Toadstools made him sick!? That was ridiculous! It was perfectly safe for him, Claydol and Golbat to eat them!

“I am affected by poison—the rest of you are either immune or resistant. And Golbat feeds on blood and Claydol doesn’t even have a mouth. Did you run this by anyone else first?”

Derek felt a bit bad as he saw Breloom’s shoulders slump and his head hang low.

Breloom just wanted to give them all something special.

“I know, buddy—I’ll help you think of something that everyone will enjoy, okay?”

Derek walked back to the clinic, Breloom skulking behind him—though Derek expected he would be back to bouncing off the walls again in about five minutes. Opening the door, he jumped when he saw Tabitha sitting on a stool, watching Golbat read a thermometer and using his feet to type down the results to a computer.

“What are you doing here?”

Tabitha looked up at him. “Taking a break from the grunts.” He switched his gaze back to Golbat, who was squeaking to a Cacnea sitting on a chair before him. “Do Cacnea temperatures read the same as a human’s?”

Derek glanced at the Cacnea. “Not always—it’s more important to check their desiccation level. Even though they’re resistant to drought, they still need water at some point and will injure more easily if they dry out.”

Tabitha looked over at a Seviper lying curled up on a bed. “Is that Connor’s? What’s wrong with him?”

“Just got into a fight with James’s Zangoose—got some nasty gashes that it’ll need time to recover from.” He glanced at his commander. “I take it things aren’t going very well, are they?”

Tabitha closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his hands. “Things are going well overall—Maxie is happy. But the grunts get into stupid antics that I’m tired of.”

Derek sat on a bed and looked curiously at Tabitha. “Like what?”

They were interrupted at that moment by a knocking at the door—which promptly opened without waiting for an answer. A very pretty woman with tan skin and a flat nose poked her head through the door. Her long black hair spilled over her shoulders and lowered hood as she smiled widely at Tabitha and Derek. Just behind her, Derek saw a Graveler trying to look through the doorway.

Tabitha didn’t move from where he was but glanced at her out of the side of his eye. His eyebrows were lowered. He didn’t return her smile.

“You wanted to see me, Tabitha?” she asked. Her almond-shaped eyes glanced at Derek. “Hey, Derek! How’s it going?”

“Not too bad. How are you, Ka’ohi?”

“I’m pretty good!” She looked back at Tabitha. “Squad B did the training regimen you asked us to!”

Tabitha looked away. “Then you’re free to go.”

“We’re going hiking in the jungle near Northern Falls this afternoon, and you’re welcome to come!” she said with a dazzling smile.

“No, thank you.”

Her smile faltered. She turned to Derek. “What about you? You can come with, if you’d like!”

“Thanks, Ka’ohi, but I need to need to take care of my patients this afternoon,” he said as he gestured to the Cacnea.

She nodded. “I gotcha. Well, it was nice to see you! I’ll catch you later.” Turning tail, she walked down the hall, her Graveler rolling after her.

Derek looked at Tabitha. “Why don’t you hang out with the grunts? Courtney does it all the time.”

Tabitha grimaced. “I’m not opposed to hanging out with them in general, but I also don’t want to cross too many boundaries—something Courtney could learn more about,” he said darkly.

Derek smiled. “Did she call you nicknames in front of the others, again?”

“Yep. And Damien tried to use it with me. So I sent had him chase his Flygon to the ridge just west of us.”

“The ridge—that must have taken hours!”

Tabitha nodded. “He showed up four hours later.” He sighed and shook his head. “As long as he learned his lesson…” He glanced at Breloom, who was skulking in a corner. His mushroom-domed head was bowed low and he wrapped his tail around him. “What’s up with him?”

“He wanted to make the rest of us salad for dinner, but I told him that he can’t use toadstools.”

Tabitha smiled as he looked over at Breloom—who kept his face pointed to the corner.

“That was sweet of you. Maybe you can think of something else to treat your teammates with.”

Breloom swiveled his head around—his eyes were scrunched up as though he was about to cry, but they shone with anger. He howled.

He had so many talents that he just wanted to share his teammates with and none of them appreciated anything he did! He was a fantastic cook, an extraordinary fighter, and came up with the best plans to—

“Breloom, we do appreciate you!” Derek cut him off. He didn’t know what Breloom was going to say but didn’t want to run the risk that his Pokemon might spill information that Tabitha shouldn’t hear. “I tell you all the time how helpful you are in the clinic and you’re an excellent fighter.”

Tabitha leaned back as he gazed at Breloom with a smile lingering on his face. “You just need to accept that you’re not good at everything.”

Derek inwardly sighed with relief—Tabitha wasn’t pressing Breloom for information.

“Anyway, Naomi came here and brought me some muffins earlier. Would you like one?”

Tabitha shook his head. “I don’t eat grains.”

“You don’t eat sugar either, do you?”

“Nope.”

“Red meat?”

“Sometimes.”

“What do you normally eat?”

Tabitha paused, his black eyes looking up at the ceiling as he thought.

“I eat rice and seafood.”

“Every day?”

He paused again. “Pretty much, yeah.”

“Any fruits or vegetables?”

“Yeah, I eat those, too. On second thought, I do keep red meat around for Mightyena. I imagine you’re someone who eats everything.”

“Yep. No dietary restrictions for me.”

Tabitha nodded. “Do you mind if I borrow Breloom for a bit?”

At the sound of his name, Breloom turned about, his face plastered with a large smile and his black eyes shining with hope.

Of course Tabitha could hang out with him! What were they going to do?

“Not much hanging out—I’m running the grunts through training simulations, and since Mightyena is on guard duty, it would be helpful to have another experienced Pokemon.”

Before Derek could get a word in, Breloom bounded across the room and tackled Tabitha to the ground with a big hug.

“You don’t—hey! Agh!”

The commander lay flat on his back as Breloom squeezed his chest, chirruping happily. Someone appreciated his talents! He was finally seen, known, and loved!

Peeling Breloom’s arms off him, Tabitha stood up, flipped his hood back in, and looked at Derek. “Is it all right with you?”

Derek hesitated—he didn’t know if Breloom would inadvertently tell Tabitha about Maressa, but he did want Breloom to be happy.

“Sure, but Breloom can be a handful—how about Golbat goes with?”

Derek looked over at Golbat, who peered at him indifferently over his folded wings. Golbat gave a single nod—he was okay with it.

“Good.” Tabitha smiled at Breloom. “You’ll definitely be a big help with training the others.” He looked back at Derek. “Thanks so much again—for being reliable all around, really.”

Derek nodded, not allowing his exterior to reflect what he felt inside. He watched Tabitha exit the clinic with Breloom bouncing behind him excitedly. Golbat remained perched on the bedside.

He squeaked. What was Derek sending him after Breloom for?

“Make sure he doesn’t say anything about Maressa.”

Golbat closed his eyes in affirmation, and without another squeak, glided through the open door. Derek turned to the Cacnea and picked up where Golbat had left off.

He was conflicted—but he didn’t feel guilty. He didn’t regret freeing Maressa, not now, not when he knew she was alive. That was unquestionably good. But he didn’t just want to throw away everything he had with Team Magma—it had done a lot of good for him, Golbat, Breloom and Claydol. He was able to get hands-on working experience, his Pokemon could engage in battles often or help him in the clinic, and they got to spend a lot more time together.

Derek’s stomach rumbled, and the scent of Naomi’s pumpkin muffins wafted to his nose. He had made friends in Team Magma—good friends. And in spite of his unusual job and its circumstances, his life felt normal, in a way. He had a solid job, steady friends, and was living a day-to-day life.

Could it last?

+++++++++++++++++++

Courtney’s hand trailed across the Houndoom’s head as he sat his red snout in her lap. Across the desk from her, Maxie watched her patiently.

“Thank you for letting me borrow your Houndoom, sir. I’ve felt much better.”

“Of course,” he muttered. “Have you seen anything else, apart from your childhood and that one vision?”

Courtney tensed at the mention of her childhood. “No.”

The two of them sat in silence punctuated only by Houndoom licking his lips. The sun shone down harshly through the windows, bright enough to eliminate the need for electric light. Courtney stewed with resentment, thinking bitterly about the hateful people that Pokemon made her remember.

“You still want your memories removed, don’t you?”

She looked up. Maxie gazed at her kindly. Swallowing back the lump in her throat, she said, “I do.”

“In these past four years, you haven’t thought any differently?”

Courtney averted her gaze. She knew Maxie’s eyes were on her, but she kept gazing at the Houndoom’s head lying on her lap.

“I—have. At some points,” she said slowly. “But it’s still painful. And it’s only gotten worse recently.”

Maxie was silent for a bit.

“What do you expect me to say?”

Courtney looked up at him. He didn’t look angry or condescending or impatient—he seemed genuinely curious.

“What do I expect you to say?”

“I want to hear your reasoning on this,” he said gently.

“I—I don’t know. That you won’t do it, I guess. That what I’ve been through makes me a stronger, more motivated person, just like it did for you.”

Maxie smiled softly. “Exactly.”

“But you’re important!” she blurted out. The Houndoom jumped at her sudden outburst as Courtney half-rose from her chair. Her heart pounded beneath her sternum.

“This team needs you—you’re everything to us!”

Maxie did not get up. He simply raised his eyes to look at Courtney. “Do you consider yourself unimportant?”

“I’m not as important as you! You made Team Magma! We rely on you—I don’t know where we’d be without you, I don’t know if I’d even still be alive!”

“And where do you think I would be without you and Tabitha?” he asked calmly.

Courtney stared at him, fury building up within her.

“How can you stay so calm?” she shouted. “How can you just keep asking me questions? Why don’t you do something?”

“Because I care about you, Courtney, and I won’t do anything to you if I believe it’s against your best interest.

“I’m not doubting you or what you’ve been through. I know your life has been very painful—more than that of most here. But we’re not trying to erase the past. We’re accepting our past and moving forward—we are making the future better. We’re giving ourselves a chance at a good life. I want to share that with someone who understands. If you no longer understand that, Courtney, will you have the same drive and passion that you do today? Will you remain fit to be an executive of Team Magma?”

Courtney looked into his glinting red eyes as she let his words soak into her. The fire inside her died down and her heartrate calmed. She sat back down and folded her hands in her lap.

“You’re right,” she murmured.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment. Courtney was grateful for Maxie—sometimes, she just needed someone to reason out everything she felt.

“Have you ever talked to Tabitha about his life?” Maxie asked after a moment.

She shook her head. “He won’t talk about it.”

Maxie nodded. “Even if he wasn’t so reserved, I wouldn’t be surprised.” Maxie sighed and laid his hands in his lap. “Tabitha lost his family at a young age. After that, he wandered the streets of Rustboro and had run-ins with gangs. He and his Mightyena literally fought for their lives. Gangs killed the only people he had left, and he retaliated by killing them—all when he was only seventeen.”

A chill shot up Courtney’s spine but she didn’t respond.

Maxie looked up at her. “Remind me—the incident with Tara was an accident, wasn’t it?”

She averted her eyes. “Yes.”

“And Tabitha has never brought up the idea of memory removal to me. And you know what happened in my life—how I was, shall we say, less than happy about my family being left in squalor after the ocean destroyed our shipping business.” For the first time, a note of bitterness accented his words. “And I believe that you, Tabitha, and all of Team Magma will be better off if we push forward, if we get through this together instead of forgetting what drives us to change this world.”

Courtney exhaled deeply. “You’re right—as always. I just want Jirachi to be gone soon so I can stop reliving all those horrible moments.”

“Keep Houndoom with you. He should protect you from Jirachi’s psychic powers, at least.”

“I think I saw that Phoebe is with the Elite Four now,” she suddenly added.

Maxie raised an eyebrow. “How long have you been wanting to say that?”

“Since I got here,” she said quickly. “But you take so much time to think about everything that I didn’t want to interrupt your thoughts!”

Maxie smirked. “You’re not wrong, I suppose. But yes, it seems your surrogate sister has joined them. She’s even younger than you are, isn’t she?”

“By four years.”

“Twenty-two, and already in leadership governing all who raise Pokemon for battling…” Maxie shook his head. “They’re going to regret putting such young people in positions of power like that.”

“What makes you say that? I was twenty-two when you made me a commander.”

“Being a commander and being a Pokemon League member are quite different—there are millions of people in the Hoenn region and only a few hundred in Team Magma, for starters. And she has to deal with governmental regulations and law nonsense—we’re free from all of that.

“I also hope that you won’t shirk your duties here to seek out personal revenge.”

“No—no, of course I wouldn’t do that!” she said hastily. “I just—I hadn’t realized how far she had gotten with those damned Shuppets that wouldn’t leave me alone growing up. Though I suppose they’re Banettes, now…” She curled her lip in disgust. Goosebumps rose along her arms as she remembered waking up in the night, seeing two floating pairs of large yellow eyes and feeling ice shoot through her veins as they fed on her emotions.

“You certainly had plenty for them to feed on,” he noted.

“That hasn’t changed.”

He smiled wryly. “You’ll get your revenge on them someday—I promise.”

 

[Sinderella]

I am so sorry I kept forgetting to do this but HERE IS YOUR ART, ENJOY!

 

[SparklingEspeon]

Hello! I was gonna return to this when there were a few more chapters to bite into, but BLEC brought me back sooner than I expected. And wow I did not realize that it’s been so long. I had a brain blast realizing how long ago I first picked this up :omglapras: Anyway, I’ll be covering chapters seventeen to nineteen, the extent of what’s been published after I last left off.

Restarting my foggy memory says that the last couple of chapters had a buncha stuff going on—unearthing Jirachi, secret deals with Team Aqua, attacks across the region, something I don’t remember happening to Maressa, who is worryingly absent from what happens after—but this batch of chapters seems to be mainly be character-driven side character stuff. Which is interesting on its own! Team Magma has always been the less secretive of the two teams, and yet I feel like we learned a lot about their inner workings and philosophy here. I think we might have gotten the Society™ spiel from Maxie before, but hearing him talk with Tabitha about it drives it in in a way that hearing his villain speech doesn’t exactly. We’d already been getting some scenes with Tabitha, re: that side chapter with him in the base, but we get a good amount more focus on him here, and I’m fine with this because Tabitha is a wonderful character.

~~quick aside I know you use his Gen III appearance but I still can’t stop imagining him as his ORAS design and his comments about his stay-thin diet kept throwing me so hard~~

I also! Liked seeing Courtney! I remember saying last review that every time we saw her, she was just jabbering away into the phone and written off as a complete teenager by Tabitha, etc. and she does kind of have that energy even in person tbh. She’s the type to live it up with the grunts in the common room and is lighthearted enough to tease Tabitha endlessly. But she’s not all zaniness and Axe Crazy, and it seems like there’s a good deal more she’s hiding than one would initially assume from just interacting with her. I liked how the information surrounding her was spoon-labeled—we see her in the background for most of the story, then we learn that she has a connection to the Orb. Then we cut away to Phoebe, who also has a connection to the orb, and the chapter after we’re in Maxie’s office, listening to Courtney drop the reveal that she’s Pheobe’s sister with a vendetta. Expertly done, and pretty hype!

Phoebe’s chapter itself was pretty rough. Well-written all around, but still. Rough. I think the worst part about it is that she realizes that her grandparents didn’t stop her not to guilt-trip her, but because they couldn’t bring themselves to harm their granddaughter. Which is like adding insult on top of injury for her. It seems like since whatever’s going on with Jirachi isn’t likely to pan out, Phoebe will be how the Orbs end up in the hands of the two teams, which is only going to make it harder on her. :(

Speaking of Jirachi, seems like they’re making their way around the Magma base very methodically and quietly. I guess there’s nothing to say that Jirachi has to stay in one place; even though Magma has Tate Jirachi seems to go where he wants for the most part. I do wonder where that’s going; it seems to be trying to convince magma members to desist from their plan that will only end in a bad place but doesn’t exactly have a great way with words. At least not with Courtney.

The Derreck segments are the ones I have the least to say on—though I’ll take the opportunity to say I really like how you write the pokemons’ thoughts in-narration. And in Derreck’s scenes his pokemon just steal the spotlight. Especially poor breloom, who just wants to be nice and make a salad for everyone but no-one recognizes his wonderful and awesome talents and effort :( I also really liked the segment between Mightyena and Houndoom fighting over who gets to be the Best Boy, which was adorable, lol

I do have some ideas on where this seems to be going from here on out; I’m guessing Magma will use Jirachi to get the Fire Orb while Aqua uses Phoebe to get the Water Orb. There’s probably going to be some kind of attack on Magma from the Aquas, since destabilizing them suits their needs well while also making sure they don’t betray Phoebe and Tate. Derreck is settling into his normal life routine a little too well, so I suspect he’s gonna be forced to grapple with the consequences of “no, you’re not living a normal life, you’re on a criminal team” pretty soon! But most importantly I’m interested to see what happened to Maressa. Like I said I don’t really remember what happened to her all that well, but it seems like you’re keeping her out of the picture deliberately. Which I can only assume means that she’s got some important scenes coming up very, very soon.

Overall, fun read! Can’t wait to see how the rest of this plays out. We’re getting pretty close to the immanent danger of Kyogre and Groudon rising, plus a head-on conflict between Aqua and Magma to see once and for all who will get to control the power of the titans. In a way, these chapters felt a lot like the calm before the storm…

~SparklingEspeon

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Responding to reviews 11 months late is better than never responding at all, right???

hey starlight! here for smeargle swap. i enjoyed the first chapter a lot and am kicking myself for not checking this fic out sooner. i hope to leave a proper review eventually!!

i wanted to experiment both with painting water AND a nighttime environment with this, and i’m unsure about the result, so i apologize for that. i’m learning. 😅 i hope i captured the vibe though!

Spoiler

View attachment 1629

WOW I love :D Thank you so much for this! You captured the nighttime vibe so perfectly. Can I link this on my first post?

Here for chapter three! First of all, the submarine love was so pure. And Shelly getting all worked up about 'it's a submarine goddamit' made me smile. I enjoyed Maressa's excitement and the wonder of being below the ocean for the first time, and I like how it's not just focused on the glamorous bits--she's so excited about the stinky smell and the narrow corridors too. The moment when she observed all the pokemon passing by outside was really lovely, and does a nice job making concrete what Maressa and Team Aqua mean when they take about protecting the ocean. It's definitely a transitionary chapter, but I think it's doing solid work providing us with Maressa's Aqua interview, the situation with her family, and more of a sense of how Aqua trains recruits. They have a nice easy-going, but we're going to throw you into the water and see if you swim vibe. It looks like fossil resurrection may be playing a bigger role in your plot than in the canon? Interested in seeing where that goes.

Thanks so much for the review, it means a lot! Apologies for the long time since you reviews and long time since I wrote the chapter. A lot of real life stuff has happened by then, and my viewpoints of a lot of things have changed, so I may not have much to say about your comments (perhaps just mostly agreeing haha) but I want you to know I really appreciate you leaving this!

I was a little confused with where Maressa i here--dock makes me think she just got off a ship, but then it seems strange to say there are forested hillsides behind her, and not ocean.

Docks can be anywhere! I know it might not be the first thing that comes to mind if you're unfamiliar, but they can definitely be right outside forests, as long as the water gets deep enough.

I like the specific details here, especially the tea brand! I didn't entirely get "there wasn't anything particular about Mauville"--I'm not sure how particular is being used here. Do you mean that she doesn't expect anything particularly exciting to be happening, just her family's normal life?

Ah, just that Mauville is a city without anything iconic tied to it; Mossdeep has the Space Museum, Verdanturf is known for clean air, but Mauville is just "city."

Team Aqua! Definitely not a cult.

No ma'am, only innocent do-gooders here!

The flashback felt well-placed here and Maressa's speech has a lot of energy.

Thank you! Flashbacks are something I've been working on, so that's helpful to hear.

Starting by describing it as a cylinder makes it feel like Maressa's not recognizing it as a vessel at first, which feels weird, especially when the narration proceeds to call it a submarine. Maybe, At the end of the dock was a strange vessel--it looked like a gargantuan blue cylinder with a small deck and guardrail on top. A skeletal white “A” that matched the one on Maressa's banadana was emblazoned on its side."

This is a really good point! Thank you!

Shelly for best character. This is so precious.

Girl cares about her nautical terms!

I think I'd like a little more internal reaction here to clue me into what Maressa knows about Archie. Has she met him? Knows him by reputation alone? If by reputation, is it one that makes it seem natural or odd to her that he'd have been involved in designing the boat?

Fair point, thank you! (Also, good catch in calling it a boat 👍 )

This parses oddly to me.

Yeah, reading back on it, I worded this really weirdly haha.

Okay, this is so pure. I love Maressa's excitement. Rotting fish smell!! Just what we all dream of, right?

Sometimes even the bad parts of the job are exciting if you've been wanting it long enough!

Just wanted to point out that we have a lot of heart action in a short span of time. I'd consider ways you can diversify the body language.

Good catches! Thanks!

"If we're not working with them, does that mean- we're stealing from them?"

How new of an idea is this to her, after the Cosmo episode? Or did she not really internalize that as stealing.

She didn't internalize the Cosmo incident as stealing, just "let's get this naturally-found meteorite." I could do a better job of showing that, though.

Oh, so Devon is a government agency in this verse, not a private company? I was expecting the criticism to be that a private company is going to monopolize the use in whatever way is most profit maximal, rather than best for the environment. I'm not sure I totally follow the idea that science wouldn't be a passion for government-paid scientists--often government jobs pay less than other ones, so the people choosing to do them are more motivated by the specific topic, not less. Incompetence feels a little weaksauce as a justification for a radical group--couldn't Aqua improve things by all working there, if that's the main issue?

Yeah, Devon is a government agency here. Looking back, I agree with what you're saying; I had written this without fully fleshing it out in my mind, and I can definitely see it shows here. If I can get myself to re-revise the earlier chapters, I'll look through this again. I WANTED and intended to have a more fully-fleshed out background and universe here, with the different agencies and I had plans to write Shelly's backstory, but real life stuff got in the way.

I'm not sure I got what exactly clicked for Maressa here--she seems to just decide she agrees.

Yeeaaah.... She's a little naive/a bit of a follower lol. Not sure how much I want to play around with that.

Is this a relic from an older draft? I seem to remember Shelly specifically complimenting Maressa last chapter and saying she has potential--and entrusting her to pilot a submarine seems like a pretty big show of trust.

Maybe not this exact dialogue, but the attitude certainly is. Good catch! I want to show that Maressa still doesn't like Shelly/she is still harsh, but that doesn't go with flat-out denying what she just did last chapter haha.

So Team Aqua is Team Nuclear Energy, huh. I wonder what Magma thinks.

They are Team Nuclear Energy #2 (but if you asked them, Team Aqua would be #2).

Oh, are pokeballs almost like aquariums or transparent glass cages? She can see what the pokemon are doing inside and they can see out?

Kinda! IIrc there was an episode or a manga chapter that showed a little Psyduck sitting inside it's Pokeball and staring up at the trainer, and that was the sorta vibe I had here.

Ah, so lovely!

I love Kingdra :D

Oh, is Mauville super temperate?

All of Hoenn is pretty tropical in my story.

This switch into thinking submarine life sucks felt very sudden with that kingra paragraph only a few sentences above. Maybe something more like,

Would the food be like this every meal? Maressa thought with alarm.


Again, she's been having a great time this whole chapter except for one bad meal.

Good point! She's a person of extremes, so I thought it was fitting for her to go from "I love this!" to "oh gosh this sucks."

Thanks again for the review! It's a treat to hearr from you!

Hello hello! I've read through Drowning a while ago, maybe a year ago now(?) but never left my thoughts on it. I know you've done some work on the fic since the last time I read it, and you've got a lot of feedback on the first chapter or so, so I'm going to combine the opening "arc" of chapters 1-4 into one comment.

First things first, I had a few things in mind from my first read-through of this part of the fic, and upon reading this time, I noticed a lot of things have changed (for the better!). I remember not being as interested in Maressa as a character, and found myself more interested in the characters around her. With this latest version, I can say I'm a lot more invested in her and found the way her character was introduced and expanded upon much more appealing. I seem to recall there being a lot of exposition/narration in the earlier version kind of explaining how cool and special she was (and how she got all kinds of preferential treatment even though she was new to the organization), which in all honesty got an eye-roll from me.

Great to see you! Thanks so much for letting me know that--it's helpful to hear how the way I've written characters has changed between versions. I'm glad I did a better job and that she's more realistic and less Mary Sue this time!

Speaking of the missions, I'm really liking how you're structuring Team Aqua and how they're justifying what they're doing. From an outside perspective, we as the reader know what kinds of things they're up to, but from the inside perspective, as Maressa is learning, there are other reasons (whether or not they're 100% truthful) and it's a cool perspective to learn about Team Aqua and their goals. I especially like the cable car reasoning to keep innocents out of the Magma/Aqua conflict. It's also great that we see glimpses of what Aqua is up to in the game plot (heading to the Oceanic Museum, going to explore Dewford's ruins on their own, getting involved with stealing tech from Devon), even if Maressa isn't directly involved in some of these activities. It makes Aqua feel like a big, organized, well, organization. They might still be a ragtag bunch of ocean-loving fanatics, but it gives them a lot more merit than the games ever did.

Thanks! I wanted to depict these teams as large, powerful, and dangerous--and tbh I've always thought of them that way, since they were able to summon legendary Pokemon and (in the English anime dub at least) had intentions to control the world.

The thing that isn't as consistent though has to do with Maressa's reaction to the violence of battles. At the Mt. Chimney clash, she has little qualms with incapacitating her opponent's pokemon, even in kind of brutal fashion (the sheer cold choke hold KO comes to mind, as well as the sort of brutal nature of Shelly's Ludicolo falling to what I'm guessing is swagger's confusion). But when her Golduck is pushed to his limits and ends up injured in the final hyper beam attack, she's horrified. I get that seeing your friend --your partner-- hurt, it has much more emotional impact, but later in the Dewford ocean battle, she again shows remorse in dunking flying pokemon in the water and rescues some of them to the surface. Perhaps this incongruity is a bit of a holdover from previous versions, as her more remorseful nature is at the forefront later in these couple of chapters, but I'd be curious to see if any more of her attitude towards battling not in any sort of League regulated capacity, but actually fighting, is on display or elaborated on later in the fic.

Thanks for pointing this out--this is one of the most consistent comments I've gotten, and I definitely agree with it. Doesn't help that my mindset about each part was Maressa thinking, "Yeah, win the battles!" and "They're knocked out, but it's not like they'll die," to "oh my gosh Golduck's gonna die!" to "oh no the flying Pokemon might die!" I definitely need to be more consistent about it and flesh it out more.

That being said, that's more of a character-building thing and not necessarily a huge part of the plot of this story. Which, again I don't remember there being as much of a tie in with the ruins and the, frankly, quite gripping cold open at the very beginning of the fic. The mysterious language, the chilling poem, the vivid imagery of seaweed wrapping itself around ancient submerged ruins. The scene setting you've done here is great, and I love how alive the world feels, filled with beautiful landscapes (or seascapes for that matter) and pokemon in their natural habitats.

Lots of characters named with "M"s! Despite that, I had a much easier time keeping track of who was who this time around. I can't recall if you've reduced the overall number of characters in these opening chapters or not, or if reading once already has given me a bit of help. But I do remember really liking the cast surrounding Maressa, and this time liking them a lot more. I like that despite Team Aqua doing some less than savory things, the members aren't bad people. Even Tabitha, Magma's Commander, has a very human side, engaging in conversation with Maressa despite being her enemy. I was a little surprised Shelly kind of vanished from that scene in particular, given she was engaged with Tabitha's Mightyena just moments before Maressa jumped in, but the way it ended up a one-on-one with Tabitha felt right; she was cornered, alone and afraid, which kind of played in to her qualms about Shelly from before the mission.

I'll leave this review here on the end of Chapter 4's cliffhanger. Originally I was planning to jump right to Chapter 5 to leave my thoughts b/c I recall on my first readthrough, the fic really picked up once Maressa was separated from Team Aqua, but I'm glad I didn't! The revamp of Chapters 1-4 were absolutely worth the re-read, you've done a great job with them, buttoning things up, making it tighter and more focused and easier to get invested. Well done!

Thank you so much! This means a lot coming from you. I've gotta read more of your stuff (Hoenn love)!

Hi Starlight. I’ve heard some good things about this fic, and thought it was about time I checked it out. I only read chapter 1 today, but I hope to read more before the blitz is over.

Hey, thanks so much for checking it out! I super appreciate your review!

On the positive side of things, I like the way you’ve started the fic. The big tense setpiece of the storm helps set expectations for the kind of story the reader is in for, while the remainder of the chapter gives us a look at what I assume is our main character. I find it interesting that Team Aqua is given more depth than just “we want more sea.” That’s a good thing. It makes them feel less like wild fanatics that don’t think things through and more like well-intentioned extremists. I get the feeling there might be some trouble under the surface, though. I also get the feeling that at some point, Maressa’s loyalty will be put to the test.

Thanks for saying this! And yes, you are correct on all accounts :nyehehe:

There are a couple of critiques I want to point out. The first has to do with dialogue. There were parts in this chapter that had long stretches of dialogue between characters without any tags. It made it hard to follow who was speaking at times. It might be worth adding a tag or two in every few paragraphs to help keep things straight. Especially when there’s more than two people talking.

Ah, I was told I used to put in way too many dialogues, so looks like I'm overcompensating for that here. Thanks!

While I love the repetition, this felt like it needed to either have a few words cut or else be split in two.

There’s a couple of cases where colons are used like so:

In this case, because both clauses are independent, I think it should be a semi colon.

Noted, thank you!

Despite my critiques, I think this is a good start overall. It gives a good introduction to our main character, and sets up what I’m assuming is going to be the first act conflict, before the greater scope is revealed. I’m looking forward to reading more at some point. Until then.

Thanks Wind! Hoping to get back to PWCH soon!

View attachment 2419
I am so sorry I kept forgetting to do this but HERE IS YOUR ART, ENJOY!

THEY ARE SO PERECT THANK YOU! Tbh even with the chibi art style you did a PERFECT job capturing Maressa in this and I am in love Can I link this on the first post?

Restarting my foggy memory says that the last couple of chapters had a buncha stuff going on—unearthing Jirachi, secret deals with Team Aqua, attacks across the region, something I don’t remember happening to Maressa, who is worryingly absent from what happens after—but this batch of chapters seems to be mainly be character-driven side character stuff. Which is interesting on its own! Team Magma has always been the less secretive of the two teams, and yet I feel like we learned a lot about their inner workings and philosophy here. I think we might have gotten the Society™ spiel from Maxie before, but hearing him talk with Tabitha about it drives it in in a way that hearing his villain speech doesn’t exactly. We’d already been getting some scenes with Tabitha, re: that side chapter with him in the base, but we get a good amount more focus on him here, and I’m fine with this because Tabitha is a wonderful character.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Espy! And happy you like seeing Tabitha, too!

~~quick aside I know you use his Gen III appearance but I still can’t stop imagining him as his ORAS design and his comments about his stay-thin diet kept throwing me so hard~~

Tbh I didn't throw in anything about his diet until his ORAS appearance--that's why I have it in my head that he cares so much about keeping fit or else he'll easily lose it, heh.

I also! Liked seeing Courtney! I remember saying last review that every time we saw her, she was just jabbering away into the phone and written off as a complete teenager by Tabitha, etc. and she does kind of have that energy even in person tbh. She’s the type to live it up with the grunts in the common room and is lighthearted enough to tease Tabitha endlessly. But she’s not all zaniness and Axe Crazy, and it seems like there’s a good deal more she’s hiding than one would initially assume from just interacting with her. I liked how the information surrounding her was spoon-labeled—we see her in the background for most of the story, then we learn that she has a connection to the Orb. Then we cut away to Phoebe, who also has a connection to the orb, and the chapter after we’re in Maxie’s office, listening to Courtney drop the reveal that she’s Pheobe’s sister with a vendetta. Expertly done, and pretty hype!

Thank you! The Courtney-Phoebe conflict is far from over and became a lot bigger than what I first expected when I started writing Drowning.

The Derreck segments are the ones I have the least to say on—though I’ll take the opportunity to say I really like how you write the pokemons’ thoughts in-narration. And in Derreck’s scenes his pokemon just steal the spotlight. Especially poor breloom, who just wants to be nice and make a salad for everyone but no-one recognizes his wonderful and awesome talents and effort :( I also really liked the segment between Mightyena and Houndoom fighting over who gets to be the Best Boy, which was adorable, lol

Breloom just needs some love :( And yes haha they both care about not much else apart from being The Favorite, which I found silly enough yet powerful enough to create a little short story of its own!

I do have some ideas on where this seems to be going from here on out; I’m guessing Magma will use Jirachi to get the Fire Orb while Aqua uses Phoebe to get the Water Orb. There’s probably going to be some kind of attack on Magma from the Aquas, since destabilizing them suits their needs well while also making sure they don’t betray Phoebe and Tate. Derreck is settling into his normal life routine a little too well, so I suspect he’s gonna be forced to grapple with the consequences of “no, you’re not living a normal life, you’re on a criminal team” pretty soon! But most importantly I’m interested to see what happened to Maressa. Like I said I don’t really remember what happened to her all that well, but it seems like you’re keeping her out of the picture deliberately. Which I can only assume means that she’s got some important scenes coming up very, very soon.

Overall, fun read! Can’t wait to see how the rest of this plays out. We’re getting pretty close to the immanent danger of Kyogre and Groudon rising, plus a head-on conflict between Aqua and Magma to see once and for all who will get to control the power of the titans. In a way, these chapters felt a lot like the calm before the storm…

~SparklingEspeon

Thanks so much again for your review, Espy! They are so precious :D The "calm before the storm" is definitely true--neither Maressa nor Derek are going to remain very comfortable for very long. Happy to have you around and congrats on being modded!

 

[Namohysip]

This'll be a review for the first chapter! Happy Catnip! I'd like to open by saying that overall this was a nice way to open into something that's from a nonstandard perspective. It helped situate me very nicely and despite being a "villain" team, it does give the vibe of why they believe they're good guys, even if meta wise they're likely misguided.

"Thirsty storm" is a little odd because it suggests it is devoid of water. Usually you use thirsty to describe sands. Some of the poetic language might miss its mark due to some of those logical snags. The opening scene was interesting, though, especially when you consider the title. An effective aside.

Alright, so we've got one of the least villainous villain teams as the main perspective for this story! This will be interesting. It's been a while since I've been able to take a look at a story from this perspective.

There are some superficial basics put in there like hating Team Magma and oversimplifying their goal while not quite covering their own similar opposite goal. Appreciated that. But I also liked how it was definitely from an environmental angle, and their Pokemon matched the theme. Down to their core they are Ocean.

What impressed me with this chapter in particular was the thoughtfulness outlined by the characters of Team Aqua, with their knowledge of what helps their Pokemon feel comfortable and what is healthy or not. Their ability to understand and respect their Pokemon also helped, and established some basic world lore about this setting gracefully. Most importantly, it gives them "protagonist" vibes that is usually harder to do for villain teams.

I think the conflict, within the chapter itself at least, if it could be called that, was a little weak. This was definitely more of a setup chapter and I'd expect to see more of the actual action in the next chapter, which seems to be noticeably longer.

Until then, though, I'll say that the chapter's strongest point is its subtle outlining of the world and the organization's goals from the eyes of the main perspective, while the intrigue of the first scene helps tie things over due to lack of real conflict at the start. An overall very good opening chapter!

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Spoiler: Namo reply

This'll be a review for the first chapter! Happy Catnip! I'd like to open by saying that overall this was a nice way to open into something that's from a nonstandard perspective. It helped situate me very nicely and despite being a "villain" team, it does give the vibe of why they believe they're good guys, even if meta wise they're likely misguided.

Happy Blitz (or post-Blitz at this point lol) and happy Catnip! Thanks for the review! I know this is WAY different from your tastes haha so I especially appreciate the time you take to read and leave me your thoughts.

"Thirsty storm" is a little odd because it suggests it is devoid of water. Usually you use thirsty to describe sands. Some of the poetic language might miss its mark due to some of those logical snags. The opening scene was interesting, though, especially when you consider the title. An effective aside.

Learning how to make my prose sound more connected and, well, make more sense is something I definitely need to grow in. I appreciate it!

Alright, so we've got one of the least villainous villain teams as the main perspective for this story! This will be interesting. It's been a while since I've been able to take a look at a story from this perspective.

There are some superficial basics put in there like hating Team Magma and oversimplifying their goal while not quite covering their own similar opposite goal. Appreciated that. But I also liked how it was definitely from an environmental angle, and their Pokemon matched the theme. Down to their core they are Ocean.

What impressed me with this chapter in particular was the thoughtfulness outlined by the characters of Team Aqua, with their knowledge of what helps their Pokemon feel comfortable and what is healthy or not. Their ability to understand and respect their Pokemon also helped, and established some basic world lore about this setting gracefully. Most importantly, it gives them "protagonist" vibes that is usually harder to do for villain teams.

I think the conflict, within the chapter itself at least, if it could be called that, was a little weak. This was definitely more of a setup chapter and I'd expect to see more of the actual action in the next chapter, which seems to be noticeably longer.

Until then, though, I'll say that the chapter's strongest point is its subtle outlining of the world and the organization's goals from the eyes of the main perspective, while the intrigue of the first scene helps tie things over due to lack of real conflict at the start. An overall very good opening chapter!

Thanks so much! Yeah, there definitely isn't much evident conflict aside from the fact it's a canon villain team, so readers will know that something is up. I appreciate your thoughts and pointing this stuff out! :)

All RIGHT! It's been *checks post* 11 months since I last posted a chapter. I actually have several chapters that are ready to be posted--I can only blame myself for procrastinating and not wanting to post anything until it's all perfect. But! That'll never happen, so I figured now is as good of a time as any to get posting again.

As always, I appreciate ALL critique, including one-liners and thoughts about the overall story, scenes and characters. I hope you enjoy!




Chapter 20



The door creaked as Derek swung it open. At the sound, Mightyena lifted his head and growled—but the sight of Derek and the scent of food calmed him down. The beast wagged his tail happily, with his ears flat against his head and tongue lolling, before nosing Derek’s pockets.

“I don’t have anything for you,” he snapped.

Derek placed the plate on Tate’s lap. The boy sat with his back propped against the wall; once the food was on his lap, he looked at it, his eyes a little hazy as he wordlessly picked up a piece of bread and slowly chewed it. Bags hung beneath his dark eyes, and he stared straight ahead. The boy hadn’t bathed in the three days since Team Magma had captured him—and Derek could smell it. Unease churned in Derek’s stomach, and he bent down to be at eye-level with the child.

“Are you doing all right?” he asked gently. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

Tate was about to take another bite of bread, then lowered it shakily as his eyes roved around in worry.

“I—I can feel him sometimes… He’s so angry. He’s always so angry. But mostly he’s sad—sad and r-really scared…” He started to quiver slightly. “But usually there’s—there’s nothing. I—I can’t feel anything, I don’t—don’t know where anyone is. My parents, my sister, m—my Pokemon…” He looked at the Mightyena standing near him. “I see this, but—but I can’t feel it. It—it’s like there’s nothing there.” His eyes turned to Derek. “And I f—feel you, but only now. When the door closes, you’re g—gone…”

Pity welled up in Derek. He looked at Mightyena, who still wagged his tail happily. The Dark-type wasn’t even doing anything, yet his mere presence was taxing Tate of his mental energy.

Derek looked back at the boy, his heart twisting with guilt.

“Is there anything I can get you?”

The boy sat still for a minute, staring forward before his lips started to quiver and tears welled up in his eyes. “My f—family… My P—Pokemon…”

Derek grimaced as he looked helplessly at the child. Reluctantly, he stood up, gazing at the boy staring wordlessly on the floor. He was at a loss of what to do. He wanted to stay with the boy and comfort him, or at least leave one of his Pokemon so Tate could have some friendly company, but he had already spent too much time in there. If he left a Pokemon and Maxie or Tabitha was the next person to come in, he would be in deep trouble.

With a heavy heart, he left, closing the door behind him as he weaved his way around the crates and ascended the stairs, his mind going a mile a minute. He couldn’t do nothing; he had to get the child out of there.

But he couldn’t. If he got the boy out, then Jirachi would be free as well, and Derek was sure that Team Magma would be Jirachi’s first target. They would be done for, and Team Aqua would be free to do as they pleased.

And all for what?

Derek reached the medical room. Shutting the door behind him, he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall behind him.

Team Aqua intended to flood the world; he knew that. Team Magma was hoping to dry up oceans and make the earth a more habitable place for people and Pokemon—these were basic facts that Derek had known since the day he joined Team Magma. His desire to make the world a better place for others is what led him to join them. Team Magma’s vision was enough to take hold of Derek’s mind, weary from years of medical school and clinical work, watching patient after patient die at the hands of the doctors he shadowed as they failed to save their lives.

The faces of those patients—covered with bandages from severe beatings, their throats swollen with cancerous tumors, their cheeks blotchy from bruises and broken blood vessels, their eyes peering hazily as the life drained out of them—never left Derek’s mind, and kept frequenting his nightmares. Every day, he dreaded getting out of bed, he hated putting on his scrubs, and his heart welled up with anxiety as he followed different doctors to hopelessly visit the patients who had no hope of living.

He had been walking been walking through the narrow streets of Lilcyove City—it was his first rotation for clinicals after finishing the academic part of medical school. His family had visited the Hoenn region for vacation as a child, and when he was placed their for rotations, he was thrilled at the opportunity to revisit the places he had met Claydol and Breloom.

But it was another brutal day at the hospital—he had only been there for six weeks, and it felt like there were people passing away almost every day. His prior rotation, in Cianwood, had been worse—he saw people succumb to all sorts of injuries before the life faded from them, and he had to accompany the doctors and nurses to break the news to hysterical family members.

In Lilycove, he was at the pediatric oncology unit—and so far, it was hardly any better. Every time he saw small children, no hair and no eyebrows, lying motionlessly in bed with respirators and feeding tubes hooked up to them, his stomach twisted into knots. There was a small boy—only eight years old—who had officially been diagnosed with Hodgekin’s Lymphoma. It should have been manaegeable, the cancer should have been treatable—but every day, his condition was worsening, and Derek’s supervisor had discussed the fact that they would have to tell the boy’s parents that his chances of surviving were growing slimmer.

The tall buildings of Lilycove only allowed narrow slivers of sunlight to penetrate the alley. Golbat sat on Derek’s shoulder, his calm, silent presence bringing Derek comfort. People bustled by as they ran errands—several Pokemon, including some Marshtomp, Surskit, and Shroomish skittered by, while others such a Jigglypuff and a few Swablu bounced in the air above. Derek’s eyes roved around aimlessly, looking at the variety of posters plastered to the alley walls.

So, you wanna be a master of Pokemon? The Hoenn League is now accepting all challengers!

Now hiring! Electricians for Mauville’s new power plant.

Think your Pokemon is the coolest? Compete now Lilycove’s Pokemon Contest Hall!

Make a change, save a life! Keep our planet healthy Greenscape.

The final poster showed a teenager sitting on a green field, laughing, while a Vulpix, a Pikachu, and a Snubbull cuddled on his lap. Derek stopped in his tracks, his eyes fixated on the first phrase.

Make a change, save a life!

His stomach churned with nausea and pain. That was the whole point, wasn’t it? He wanted to be a doctor because he wanted to save lives—he wanted to make a change in this world. But the only changes he had made so far were saying goodbye to those leaving it.

“You interested in Greenscape?”

Derek looked over his shoulder to see a woman with long, dark hair standing behind him. A Growlithe tugged at her leash as she pulled in every direction, constantly barking. The woman smiled softly, and her dark eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Is it a job?” Derek asked slowly.

“Kinda, yeah! It pays your bills and keeps you employed—but it’s also so much more. I think of it as more of a lifestyle! We’re all about the well-being of people and Pokemon, and so little Sandy here—” she tugged at her Growlithe’s leash— “is part of it as much as I am!”

“I—uh… I’m actually in med school right now, see?”

The woman’s eyes widened with awe. “Wow! So you’re gonna be a medical doctor? Taking care of the sick and saving peoples’ lives, and all that?”

Derek’s stomach twisted again—at the mention of “saving lives,” his heart raced uncontrollably. Desperate, he tried to get off the topic.

“What is Greenscape? What do you do?”

“Well, Sandy and I are involved in the Pokemon Protection Program! We go around inner cities like this and find lost and abandoned Pokemon, nurture them back to health, and try to make them fit for a life in the wild again. If they can’t go back to the wild, we find homes for them! And since you seem to get along great with your Golbat there, I bet you’d be a natural at it!” She flashed Golbat a smile. “What’s his name?”

“Ah, I just call him ‘Golbat.’”

“No name? Well, that’s fine too! Anyway, if you want to check us out, we’re having an interest meeting on Thursday at 8 PM!”

“Oh, well, I’m—I’m really busy…”

It was only partly true; while he did work 12-hour shifts, Thursdays were his day off. He normally dedicated them to playing with his Pokemon to try and abate the pain of the workweek.

“That’s lame! Well, if you change your mind, here’s our card!” She handed him a small business card showcasing a green meadow canopied by a rainbow. A phone number and office location were on it.

“These interest meetings are no commitment, just to see how you feel about it. I hope you come by! What’s your name?”

“Oh—I’m Derek.”

“Nice to meet you! I’m Leilani. I think Sandy wants to go, now.”

Sandy, for once, had stopped barking—only to take the leash in her jaws and tug against it, futilely trying to pull her trainer down the alleyway.

“Nice to meet you, Leilani and Sandy!”

“Thanks! I’ll see you and Golbat at 8 on Thursday!” she called as she followed Sandy down the alley.

Derek shook his head, returning to the present—at the time, he had no idea that Greenscape was a publicity front for Team Magma. He was surprised at how interested they were in his experience in working in medicine, and offered to give him a full time position that paid very well—much better than his rotations did.

They forbade him from telling anyone that he was working with them, but the order was unnecessary. He could never bring himself to tell an of his family members, friends, or old classmates that he dropped out of his rotations to treat injured Pokemon instead. For the first several weeks, it was hard to believe that he had actually made the decision—but there such a deep relief in it. He no longer woke up in the mornings with his heart flooding with dread, he no longer tossed and turned at night, anxiety and nerousness preventing him from sleeping. Instead, when he walked out the door, he was excited. Sure, he admitted—treating Pokemon wounds and nursing injured Pokemon back to health didn’t sound as glamorous as revitalizing patients with terminal illnesses. But everything he had gone through in medical school all seemed to be a lie. By caring for Pokemon, he was actually saving lives.

Not only did he enjoy working with Greenscape, but his Pokmeon did, too. They no longer waited at home for him to finish at work—but they could work with him! He taught Claydol how to use all sorts of medical and surgical tools while Golbat would keep track of records and Breloom provided morale and emotional comfort to the Pokemon in their care.

When his supervisors at Greenscape introduced him to their overarching goals—the first time Derek heard the name ‘Team Magma’—and offered him a position to work with them, he was all too ready to accept. His Pokemon were largely indifferent—ultimately, they wanted what Derek wanted—but happily followed his decision to become an official Team Magma member and to swear a secret loyalty to them.

After working with Greenscape and learning of their goals to better Pokemon livelihood and enact environmental justice, he was confident that Team Magma would provide a better future for everyone.

Or so he had been told. And while he could justify their feud with Team Aqua, he could see no good reason for torturing their team members. The thought of Maressa being interrogated still made his blood boil. And even though it was to keep Jirachi under control, Derek could not stomach the reality that a child was locked in a dark room for days at a time with little to eat or drink.

And these weren’t the only instances—though Maressa and Tate were the only ones Derek had personally interacted with, Tabitha had told him that other Team Aqua members and a scientist had been captured before.

What happened to them?

He sighed. He had originally hoped that, once the seas were dried up and Team Magma’s goal was accomplished, he could go back to residency, and begin life as a doctor. But with each passing day, he grew to understand Maressa’s point of view more.

Was it really worth being a member of Team Magma? He hoped freeing Maressa would have been the last of it; that he would never have to betray Team Magma again and could return comfortably to his life as a team medic. But he realized that he couldn’t—he couldn’t even promise himself that this would be the last time he would betray them. No, if Team Magma kidnapped anymore civilians or innocents, he would do everything in his power to stop them.

He had to set Tate free.

He just had to figure out how to accomplish it. If Jirachi was to destroy Team Magma, then so be it. Taking out his Pokeballs, he smiled as Golbat, Breloom and Claydol stood before him.

“I need your help to figure out a plan to release Tate,” he told them.

Golbat skeptically raised an eyebrow. Releasing another prisoner? Whose side was Derek on?

“Whose side are you on?” Derek snapped. “I know this is betrayal. But I need to figure out a way to get Tate out of a tiny little room guarded by a Mightyena without anyone finding out or knowing that we were responsible.”

Breloom scratched his head, screwing up his face in concentration. Claydol closed about half of his eyes and rumbled deeply. Golbat cast his eyes down and said no more.

“Oh, come on,” Derek said. “We have to think of something. We got Maressa out of here—”

His voice caught in his throat as he remembered hearing the report that Maressa had fallen overboard.

Shaking his head, he continued.

“I have no idea what the guard looks like at night, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they added more people or Pokemon, so I’d rather not poke around and try it then.” He thought out loud, hoping to make some sense of the situation and see a way out. “Which means it would be best to try it during the day. And I need to do it when Tabitha is busy—he’s always busy, but I’d need him far away—fat chance of that happening. And I need to not be discovered—the problem is that few people know about Tate being here, and they know that I regularly see him, so I’d be at the top of their suspect list.” He glanced up at his Pokemon and saw them all staring blankly at them.

“So? Got any ideas?”

Claydol rumbled. Derek had himself stuck in a corner.

Breloom chirruped. He could knock out Tabitha and whoever was guarding Tate, and Derek’s path would be clear!

“Breloom, they’ll know it was you and that would defeat the purpose!”

Golbat let out a few squeaks. There were hundreds of Golbat on the team—if he went, it wasn’t likely that anyone would know he belonged to Derek. He could scout out the situation and night and let Derek know if he saw anything important.

Derek paused. It was actually a decent idea.

“You’ll risk getting caught?”

Golbat rolled his eyes. He wasn’t going to “get caught;” Golbat were always hanging around. He would be nothing out of the ordinary. But even with the minimal risk, he was willing to do whatever Derek needed.

Smiling, Derek said, “As condescending as ever. Thanks, Golbat.”

++++++++++++++++++

Late morning of the following day, Derek held a tray of food as he opened the door to reveal the dark, unlit staircase. Golbat flew down from his perch on the ceiling, quietly communicating everything that happened the previous night.

Golbat spent the night hanging from the ceiling in the room leading to where Tate was contained. Everything was as Derek described it—the room was filled with crates, with no one and nothing else.

A few hours in, the door leading outside opened. Two people and a few Houndoom walked in, down the stairs and into Tate’s room. They didn’t come out.

Golbat stayed the entire night, silently watching and waiting, but nothing further happened. Derek nodded.

“Thanks. Take some rest,” he said gently, and returned Golbat to his Pokeball. Placing the Pokeball in his pocket, he descended the stairs, heart pounding nervously as he pushed the door open.

No one was inside.

The tray clattered to the floor as Derek sprinted out and back up the stairs. How? Why? Did someone else take Tate and escape? He was the one who was supposed to do that—since when did anyone else free prisoners?

He stopped outside Tabitha’s office and was about to open the door but paused. If Tate was being freed, should he bring it to Tabitha’s attention? He dismissed the thought—they took him several hours ago. They must have been noticed by now.

Derek opened the door to see Tabitha sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair and staring off, his eyes glazed over. The commander blinked several times when Derek thrust the door open but showed no other sign of being startled. Tabitha’s eyes narrowed as Derek entered, panting.

“I’ve specifically told you to knock before,” he said coldly.

Ignoring his commander’s comment, Derek panted, “The kid—gone—”

Tabitha merely nodded. “Don’t worry about it. Sorry, I was supposed to tell you earlier that you don’t need to feed him anymore, but I got distracted.”

Derek straightened up, and after gasping for a moment, asked, “What? Why?”

Shaking his head, Tabitha answered, “Maxie wanted the kid moved so he’s in the same base as him now.”

“Why wouldn’t Maxie just come here?”

“He thinks the area is too dangerous. To be fair, we are right by the waterway just east of Mauville—it’s crowded, and any waterway that’s used by people so much is likely to contain civilian Team Aqua members.”

“Oh.” Derek turned to leave. “Sorry about that.”

“You’re fine. Sorry I forgot to tell you earlier and caused the panic.”

Derek’s mind buzzed as he slowly walked back to the medical room. Now everything was all the more difficult. He wished he had asked Tabitha where, exactly, Maxie was. Team Magma had nearly a dozen bases around Hoenn—not many large ones, but it had several small outposts and look-out areas. But asking Tabitha such a question would have made him more obvious.

As he stepped back inside the medical room, he released his Pokemon from their Pokeballs. Golbat grumbled angrily and glared at him—he had just fallen asleep and wasn’t happy about being woken up. After a quick apology, Derek gave his Pokemon the rundown and asked if they had ideas.

Claydol immediately spoke up—he could teleport himself and Golbat to the different bases and look for Maxie until they found him.

“It’s too dangerous,” Derek said. “Golbat may be able to blend in, but you are obvious.”

Claydol protested—he wasn’t actually out of the ordinary. Other Team Magma members had Claydol, and some had Baltoy as well. Especially if Claydol went to the bases near the desert—where his kind was found in the wild—he wouldn’t be noticeable at all.

After considering his Pokemon’s words for a moment, Derek grimaced. “I don’t know, it still seems too risky.”

Exasperated, Breloom spoke. He was tired of all this talking; Claydol and Golbat would be fine if they went to other Team Magma bases. As far as everyone knew, Derek was still a Team Magma member! And members’ Pokemon were walking around bases all the time. If someone did recognize them as Derek’s Pokemon, what was the worst that would happen?

Breloom’s eyes shone as he looked up at Derek eagerly; Golbat and Claydol both glared in annoyance. Still unsettled, Derek asked, “Are you sure you’re willing to do this?”

Golbat and Claydol looked at each other—at least, Derek assumed so, as Claydol’s eyes were looking in all directions. They both nodded, Golbat stretched out a wing, and as soon as it made contact with the Ground-type, the two vanished.

Derek’s heart skipped a beat as the two disappeared, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Heaving a sigh, he turned to Breloom and saw that the Grass-type looked upset.

“What’s up with you?”

The Pokemon swished his tail slowly. He felt left out—Golbat was able to keep watch, and now he was exploring bases with Claydol to find out where Tate was kept. It was as if he, Breloom, had no purpose in all this.

Derek laughed. “You know that’s not true. You were the one who told me all about seeing Tate and Jirachi! You’ve been so helpful in medicine and caring for patients with me, and you’ve been great in battles. From what I heard, you beat Maressa’s Seaking—come to think of it, you’re one of the main reasons she came here, and what got all of this started…”

He trailed off, thinking of the golden-haired woman lying on the bed right next to the door, and of the conversations they had. His mind shifted to hearing that she had fallen in the water when trying to escape—his blood turned to ice and guilt clenched his heart. He stood there for a moment, letting his feelings of helplessness overcome him—and within a few moments, they passed. Closing his eyes, he pushed the thoughts away. He knew he couldn’t fix the past, but it was difficult to not dwell on it.

Opening his eyes, he saw Breloom looking up at him curiously. Smiling, Derek reached down and patted the mushroom-domed head.

“You’ve done a lot,” he affirmed. “Besides, it’s nice to have you here for company while we wait for those two.”

Derek sat down on a bed, and Breloom hopped up and snuggled up next to him. Stroking Breloom, Derek tried to keep away the antsiness. After perhaps 30 minutes, the two Pokemon reappeared in the room, Claydol looking annoyed and Golbat looking smug.

Golbat let out a few quick squeaks. Maxie was in the underground base in Mt. Chimney—apparently the team was working on some sort of excavation project. Some Poochyena told them that the storage unit on the lowest level was off-units for all team members unless told otherwise; it was most likely that Tate was down there. Golbat checked and saw two team members standing guard at the entrance to the storage unit and a few video cameras in the hallway leading to it.

The Poison-type went on: he could use haze to fog up the video camera and guard room. Then he and Claydol could take out the guards, get into Tate’s room, and set the boy free.

Derek stared in astonishment. “You found all that out? Those Poochyena—they just told you? And those team members didn’t stop you? And this plan—are you sure?”

Clenching his eyes in frustration, Golbat squeaked angrily. Pokemon on the team were always gossiping and spreading news, and they roamed the bases all the time. It wasn’t anything worth raising suspicion about. How many times would they have to tell him?

Derek nodded. “You’re right, sorry about that.” It wasn’t that he forgot the Pokemon were free-willed, he just didn’t think about it. Maybe none of the other team members thought about it either, and so no one suspected any Pokemon of treason.

The thought struck Derek for a moment; for a team that claimed to be so Pokemon-oriented, the members often forgot about them.

He snapped up as Claydol rumbled. They wouldn’t really need Derek.

The medic shook his head. “You did forget one thing: I bet that some Dark-types are guarding Tate; probably those Houndoom from this morning. And besides, I’m the one who decided this. I won’t have you guys do it all for me. I’ll go with, just give me a moment to change. Breloom, I’m going to need your help in a second.”

Derek went to his bedroom and pulled a Team Magma uniform out of his closet. As a medic, he normally just wore scrubs or a lab coat, but he was issued an official uniform when he first joined the team. Along with the grey pants and red hoodie, the uniform came with a pair of large red glasses that covered the upper half of his face and provided night vision—he wasn’t sure they would help in smog, though. After Derek put on the uniform and stowed the glasses in his pants pocket, he walked out to his Pokemon.

“Breloom, I need you to use Spore so I can collect a lot of it in my gloves.”

Jumping up with a delighted cry, Breloom concentrated and shook his tail lightly so a cloud of green spores emanated from it. Derek took hold of the end of Breloom’s tail, rubbing the spores into the thick grey fabric. Once Breloom ceased, Derek stood up, rubbing his hands together.

“I’m ready. Just remind me to not rub my face.”

Derek said goodbye to a very put-out Breloom, placed a hand on Claydol and vanished.

A split second later, he reappeared in a familiar hallway made of carved-out rock. He was stationed at this base for a few short weeks when Team Magma was first settling there, fighting off several travelers and trainers. Many of his teammates’ Pokemon were injured from the fighting, and so he was needed to care for the wounded until they dug farther in and could hide more easily.

Derek followed his Pokemon down the earthen hallway, sweat breaking out on his face almost immediately. His heart thumped madly in his chest, and he was constantly on the verge of calling it quits and heading back. He also wasn’t accustomed to wearing the standard uniform and how much thicker and warmer it was than his scrubs. The air within the base was stifling; even though Team Magma’s base only just penetrated the surface, the volcano heat made the tunnels several degrees warmer than outside. As Derek turned many corners, he saw pools of bubbling lava at the bottom of pits and crevices.

They met nobody in the halls, fortunately—with Derek’s paranoia, he bet he had a guilty look on his face and doubted he would be able to calmly answer any questions.

As they reached a descending staircase, Golbat bade them to stop. He turned his scarlet eyes on his companions and squeaked. Once he fogged up the cameras, they would hardly have any time to get everything done before guards noticed and detained them, so they would have to move quickly. Claydol groaned in affirmation, and Derek swallowed uneasily and nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Derek tried to calm his racing heart. Every cell in his body screamed to turn around, to give up and to go back—

So he forced himself to keep still while he watched Golbat belch out a stream of thick, black smoke, flapping his wings to direct it down the stairs. Claydol flew down the stairwell, and, putting on his glasses, Derek followed. His heart beat furiously and adrenaline coursed through his veins. He could see nothing, and so kept on hand on the wall to guide him as he jogged down the stairs and through the smoke.

CRASH!

Some people in front of him were shouting—the wall beside him vanished. He heard banging and crashing—he kept moving forward, bumping into crates and what felt like large machinery. Something large pressed against his back—he realized it was Claydol, guiding him forward. Stretching out his arms, he let Claydol push him until he hit a wall. Claydol’s weight vanished, and Derek moved along the wall until he felt a doorframe. He found the door handle and jiggled it—it was locked.

Frustrated, Derek jiggled the handle harder and kicked the door. The crashing and banging behind him had ceased, but the smog was as dense as ever. He heard a faint squeaking and a groan and had just enough sense to duck as Claydol hurtled over him and into the door, breaking it off its hinges.

Derek ran inside, and Golbat glided in after him. He was just able to make out two Houndoom, their blood-red eyes filled with rage, before the room filled with thick black smoke. Something large rammed into Derek and knocked him into the ground—stabbing pain seared through his shoulders as he felt something sink a pair of massive jaws into the thick fabric of his hoodie and jerk its head side-to-side.

“AH!”

Fear and panic flooded Derek’s senses as he registered the weight of Houndoom pressing into his chest and the and trying to rip up his shoulder. Derek immediately gripped the Houndoom’s snout, trying to pry its jaws open while pressing his gloves against the beast’s nose. In a moment, the jerking ceased, and Derek felt its jaws relax and the fullness of its weight slump on top of him.

Pushing the Houndoom off, Derek stood up. The smog was beginning to clear—Golbat squeaked loudly and angrily while deep, earthen rumbles reverberated from Claydol. There was a loud thump! and as the air cleared, Derek saw Claydol pinning an unconscious Houndoom into the ground—which, in turn, pinned down Golbat, whose wings were flapping frantically.

“Claydol, get off! You’re crushing Golbat!”

Claydol rose into the air without a word. Derek rolled the unconscious Houndoom over and saw Golbat with his fangs stuck in the Houndoom’s hide. Derek recalled Golbat into his Pokeball and turned to see Tate huddled in a corner on the floor, his white face echoing the shock and fear Derek felt in his heart.

“We gotta go,” Derek said as he heard shouts and footfalls behind him. Taking hold of the boy’s arm, he put another hand on Claydol and the trio left the base.

Derek stumbled slightly as he blinked in the sunlight that filtered through tree branches. Looking up, he saw that they stood in the middle of an evergreen forest. Shrubs dotted the landscape and the soil had a sandy quality to it. The air smelled of a mix of evergreen trees, comingling with the sweet scent of sap. The songs of bird-Pokemon filtered through the air as avians of different shapes and colors glided above. Derek took a deep breath, inhaling the dry, earthy taste of pine. How long had it been since he tasted fresh air?

Turning back to his companions, he asked them both, “Are you all right?”

Claydol rumbled—he had a nasty bite mark on his arm, but otherwise was mostly all right. Tate didn’t reply. His eyes darted about him, his head turning on a swivel, still in silent shock.

Placing a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder, Derek bent down.

“Hey, are you okay?”

The boy finally turned his large dark eyes on Derek, and as he did so, the medic felt a peculiar, unfamiliar presence in his mind. Derek smiled as he realized that Tate was able to use his psychic powers again.

“Seems like you’re adjusting back to normal, huh?” Turning to Claydol, he seriously asked, “Where are we? You and I really need to get back—all of the bases will be in uproar, and I can’t be found dressed like this out in the open.”

Claydol groaned: they were in a forest just northwest of Mauville City. It was close to the desert on Route 111 were Claydol primarily lived as a Baltoy. He had ventured out into this forest occasionally.

“Huh, interesting. Anyway, Tate, can you find your way back to the city? You just need to head southeast, so in that”— he pointed with his finger—“general direction. I can’t go with you, you need to go on your own. Think you’ll be okay?”

The boy blinked several times and nodded.

“Okay, good. And you can’t let anyone know that a Team Magma member helped you. Understand?”

“Okay.”

“Can you repeat it for me?”

“I won’t tell anyone that Team Magma let me go.”

“And how did you escape?”

“Umm…”

The boy stared blankly in the distance. Derek sighed—he needed to leave, but he needed Tate to cover up for him.

“Jirachi teleported you out, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And no one from Team Magma helped you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Can you tell me that?”

“Jirachi got me out of there.”

“And?!”

“And you didn’t help me.”

“Good, now put them together.”

“Jirachi got me out of there, and nobody else helped me.”

Derek grimaced. It wasn’t good; it was sure to raise suspicion. But he would be in a world of trouble if he didn’t return to Team Magma immediately.

“Take care of yourself—I’m sure whoever sees you will recognize you and get you home. Good luck,” he told Tate, and putting his hand on Claydol, saw the boy’s frightened, confused face disappear to be replaced by Breloom’s surprised, overjoyed one.

The Grass-type pounced on Derek, hugging him so hard he thought his ribs might break.

“Let go, let go!” he said, but still smiled at his Pokemon as he wrenched his arms off him. “How were things here?”

Breloom chirruped—nothing had happened as far as he could tell. How was their mission?

Sitting down on the bed, Derek turned his mind back to the events that just occurred, and his heart began pounding hard again. He breathed deeply as he closed his eyes and nodded.

“I think it all went okay. Golbat might be a bit hurt and Claydol has a nasty bite mark, but otherwise, I think we’re fine.”

He sat there for a moment while Breloom launched into how worried he had been—but he still had total confidence in their abilities! It’s not that he didn’t think the others were incapable without him—but he was so worried!

Half-listening, Derek closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. As he sat there, the shock of what just happened hit him.

He had betrayed Team Magma again.

He released Tate, which released Jirachi—a feeling of overwhelming terror took hold of him, and his heart started beating furiously in a panic once more. He hugged himself, his shoulder hurting.

Looking down, he saw several trails of blood soaking his Team Magma hoodie, turning the fabric into a deep red. In the excitement of releasing Tate from base, he had been too overwhelmed to notice the bite marks that Houndoom had left. As the excitement passed, he felt the pain from them for the first time.

Removing his hood and tank top, he examined the wounds and, with his Pokemon’s help, had them bandaged. They weren’t too serious—but they hurt.

Once his bandages were set in place and the flow of blood stopped, he re-dressed into his scrubs, his mind turning over what had just happened and what was about to happen.

He felt bad for leaving Tate, but escorting the boy to a city wouldn’t have done much help—and it would put his Pokemon in danger. No, especially after seeing Maressa and her situation, he didn’t want his Pokemon in any peril, and he didn’t want to be separated from them. The boy was going to be fine.

Derek desperately pushed away the thought of being found out—considering those consequences was gut-wrenching.

And then there was the fact that Team Magma no longer had any control over Jirachi—Derek was willing to bet that the small creature would come after them with a vengeance. He had never seen or experienced the Pokemon’s power and wasn’t too keen on doing so.

But there was nothing to do about it now, he told himself as he inspected Claydol’s wound.

Tomorrow would come, and he would have to face whatever it brought.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Hafa Adai! Here's chapter 21.

From now on until I'm caught up with what I've edited, I'll be posting chapters weekly. So every Friday, you can expect to see a new chapter of Drowning up. Hopefully my editing goes by quickly and I'll be posting every week until it's done. Enjoy!


Chapter 21


CRACK!

Several streaks of lightning burst through dark grey cumulonimbus clouds that stretched miles high. Maressa glanced up at them uneasily as the Pelipper she rode on beat his powerful wings, the dark rainforest racing below them.

Her heart pounded furiously. As always, her stomach churned with nausea from being up high. She took her gaze off the forest below her and turned it to the clouds.

It had only been a few days since Jirachi had attacked that route—their ruined base was nothing more than a dark crater that stretched deep into the ground. Tearing her eyes from the thunderous heavens, she saw Matt astride another Pelipper, his gaze set forward, seemingly inattentive to his surroundings.

Maressa gasped sharply and dug her fingers into Pelipper’s skin as a gust of wind battered them. Pelipper squawked and flapped his enormous wings hectically, desperate to remain airborne. Maressa’s heart jumped to her throat and her blood raced through her veins as she clung to the Pokemon. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Matt’s Pelipper also struggling to stay aloft.

“Come on!” Maressa encouraged Pelipper. Just ahead of them, the waterfall cascaded its white water into the river below. “We don’t have far!”

The chill from the gusts sent shivers down her spine and goosebumps racing up her arms. She clung to Pelipper as tightly as she could, though the strength of the wind threatened to throw her off any second.

“Pelipper, don’t give up!”

As Pelipper jerked around, Maressa slipped sideways—she was only just clinging to him. Pelipper shrieked as she pulled at his feathers and skin. He beat his wings furiously, jolting around even more erratically—and then the wind stopped.

After a moment of haphazardly flapping about, Pelipper righted himself and Maressa was able to pull herself all the way back on. Though it was smooth progress from then on for Pelipper, Maressa’s grip was as tight as ever—she gasped, her heart racing, trying to comprehend why the wind had picked up and died down so rapidly.

As Maressa thought on it, the two Pelippers alighted on the rocky ledge of the hidden hole in the wall. Maressa and Matt took Pokeballs out of their belt and—after thanking the Pokemon—recalled them. Arms still trembling from the excitement, Maressa pushed aside the overhanging ferns and gazed with a sinking heart at the tumultuous environment. The wind was coming and going in erratic bursts; streaks of lightning flew down from the sky, charring plant life and leaving sizzling holes in the ground; the waterfall roared abnormally loudly; and the river ran more strongly than ever, shaving off the edges of the banks that crumbled into white water.

What was happening?

“Matt!” Maressa half-shouted to be heard over the waterfall. “I really don’t feel good about this. Should we be here?”

“The Orbs aren’t coming to Team Aqua on their own,” he snapped.

“They’re not even going to come! Nobody would come out in weather like this!”

“People who are desperate to save their siblings and Pokemon will!”

Maressa glanced at the Pokeballs on her belt and conceded. She released Golduck from his Pokeball as Matt released his Azumarill, and the four of them stood and waited. Maressa and Golduck each put an arm around each other—Maressa looking for comfort, Golduck trying to be protective. Before too long, the Elite Four member and Gym Leader showed up, both looking shaken.

“What’s happening outside?” Liza asked, shivering next to her Lunatone.

“Hell if I know,” Matt answered as he took out a Pokeball. “Do you have the Orbs this time?”

As her Dusclops set her down, Phoebe said nothing but lifted up a cloth sack. A chill shot down Maressa’s spine as she beheld Phoebe’s dark brown eyes glaring at Matt with loathing.

Matt was completely unimpressed. “Are those fakes again? You know what will happen if they—"

“Yes, I know!” Phoebe snapped. “They’re real.”

She held the Orbs through the cloth and jostled it so she could show them without touching them directly. They sat in her hands like ordinary objects, shining dully in what dim light filtered through from outside. Once she laid eyes on them, Maressa sensed a shift in the atmosphere—something felt off. She glanced down at Golduck—he noticed it, too, and stared at the Orbs uncertainly.

The lights shining on the Orbs reflected the greed and hunger in Matt’s eyes.

“Give me those, and you get your Banette back.”

“No. We agreed that you give us Tate in exchange for these Orbs. Where is he?”

Matt frowned. “I can’t promise to return him yet, but if you don’t give me those Orbs, then you’re not seeing him again.”

The two stared evenly at each other. Phoebe glared at Matt with hatred; his eyes shone with hunger and determination. Chills shot up Maressa’s arms as she watched the duo glower over the dimly-glimmering Orbs. Her grip on Golduck tightened as her heart clenched and her stomach flipped.

Phoebe closed her eyes and turned.

“Let’s go, Liza. We’re wasting our time.”

“What?” Matt shouted. “But we made a deal—"

“No Tate, no deal,” Phoebe said swiftly. “As long as he’s with Team Magma, you don’t get the Orbs.”

“He’s not with Team Magma anymore. Our spies told us that he recently disappeared. No one knows where or how, but Team Magma is freaking out over it.”

The three girls stared at the Aqua commander. Phoebe’s mouth hung open slightly, but her eyes were narrowed as if she didn’t fully believe Matt’s words. Liza’s face lit up in a huge grin. Maressa reeled in shock—had Tate actually escaped? Or was Matt just lying?

“He’s free?” Liza asked, bouncing in place with joy. “Phoebe, Tate is free! Let’s go look for him!”

“Not until you give us the Orbs and my Crawdaunt. We upheld our end of the deal, now you uphold yours. Or you can say goodbye to your Banette.”

Phoebe glared at Matt. “No, you didn’t. You said you would bring Tate to us. Maybe he is free—or maybe you’re lying—but you didn’t free him and you didn’t bring him to us.”

Lightning flashed outside, highlighting the lines drawn on Matt’s face as his lips pulled back in an ugly snarl and his nostrils flared. Maressa shivered; she felt Golduck tense up.

Matt held up Banette’s Pokeball. “Do you remember—"

The sky split open—lightning flashed so brightly that, even from their spot in the cave, it temporarily blinded everyone. The crack of thunder deafened their ears as the cave around them crumbled away. Maressa screamed and clung to Golduck as the ground beneath her gave way, leaving her tumbling through an avalanche of rock and dirt.

Maressa clung to Golduck with an iron grip as mounds of debris covered her. She screamed, but her voice was lost in the tumble of rocks. After what felt like forever—though it was only a few seconds—they stopped falling. The duo lay under the rubble—Maressa could see nothing, hear nothing. Her nostrils were filled with the scent of plants and dirt, and the weight of debris pressing down on her with suffocating force. She gasped for a few seconds, her heart pounding furiously, before a burst of purple light exploded in her vision.

Golduck’s psybeam attack flew through the layers of debris and into the sky, cleaving a neat hole. He and Maressa scrambled out of there as quickly as they could, both breathing heavily. Pieces of shale and rock tore at their skin, leaving jagged red rips on Maressa’s arms and torso. As she climbed, her arms and legs trembled so violently that it was difficult to keep going. She kept grabbing onto loose pieces of debris and tumbling back down to where she started. But in a few minutes, she reached the top of the rubble pile, swearing as her hair caught on something—grasping it, she yanked and stared in dismay at the tangled blonde knot that came out and was stuck on a root.

Maressa glanced at Golduck: he had a number of scratches and bruises but was not badly hurt. They hadn’t been far above the ground and ended up sliding down the debris more than falling. Legs trembling, Maressa looked around her; cliff faces all around them were crumbling away into the roaring river—the very bank she on which she stood was being swept away into the current.

“What is going on?” she wondered aloud.

Maressa noticed movement out the corner of her eye—she looked around and saw Phoebe standing atop the rubble, completely unharmed. Her Dusclops stood next to her, along with Liza and Lunatone. All of them were completely untouched—Maressa presumed it was probably from Dusclops’ intangibility and Lunatone’s psychic powers.

Liza began to climb on top of Lunatone when the two were blasted by a jet of water. Looking over, Maressa saw Azumarill standing on top of the rubble—Matt’s exposed head and shoulders right next to her. The Aqua commander pulled himself all the way out and ordered, “Azumarill, Bubblebeam!”

“Dusclops, Shadow Punch!”

“Golduck, get Dusclops!”

The trainers shouted their commands in succession. Azumarill opened her mouth and unleashed a torrent of bubbles at Liza’s Lunatone—but it lasted only a few seconds before one of Dusclops’ fists became visible and collided with the Water-type. Golduck ran forward on all fours and stopped right beneath the Ghost-type to unleash a jet of water in its eye. Meanwhile, Matt charged towards the Elite Four member.

“NO!”

Phoebe screamed as he wrenched her arm back, punched her in the face and grabbed the sack of cloth out of her hand.

A split second later, the sack was wrenched out of Matt’s hand—he shot into the air, his face stricken with panic. Maressa gasped as she felt—but couldn’t see—a block of ice enclose her torso and lift her into the air. Her heart beat furiously as a red eye appeared before her, glowing with bloodthirst. Freezing lances of pain shot through her body as Dusclops tightened its grip on her.

Maressa let out a strangled, panicked cry. “Golduck!”

Her friend hit the Dusclops with a psybeam, and Maressa fell to the ground. She glanced at the two Pokemon squaring off and looked over to see Lunatone pinning Azumarill to the ground while Azumarill pummeled it with her tail, glinting a metallic sheen. Liza shouted orders to her Lunatone, and Phoebe sat on the ground, blood running down her nose, looking dazed. Maressa gasped as cold water touched her feet—the bank was falling at an alarming rate, and the river level was rising.

Maressa’s eyes fell on the sack cloth—Matt immediately picked it up, and as he glanced inside it, his face lit up. Maressa hesitated for a second, terrified at the thought that came to her mind—

So she abandoned all logic and race to Matt, striking his nose with the palm of her hand. He yelped; she grabbed his wrist, twisting it around almost far enough to break it, and wrenched the sack out of his hand before sending a kick to his stomach.

Matt landed on the ground and looked up at Maressa, confused—and hurt? But in less than a moment, his confusion turned into rage. Maressa’s heart sank and flooded with dread.

“Golduck!”

She gasped sharply as she felt a hand clamp around her upper arm and throw her to the ground. Matt glared down at her, his icy blue eyes angry and crazed.

“AH!”

She shrieked as Matt grabbed a fistful of her hair and lifted her off the ground. Her scalp screamed in pain as Matt shook her—she felt several of her hairs pull out by their roots. Maressa desperately grabbed his hand—his other fist collided with the side of her head as he let go of her hair. She fell to the ground, colors bursting before her eyes, her head throbbing with horrible pain. As her vision cleared, Matt snatched the sack from her hand. Just as his fist closed around the cloth, he cried. He stumbled forward as noxious liquid splashed onto his back, burning through his coat and creating curls of smoke. Matt turned around, his jaw dropping open in shock as he saw Gloom standing behind him.

“Gloom, Gloom!” the Pokemon called, waving its arms towards the river. His message was clear: get out of there!

The purple Pokemon ran and jumped into Matt, tackling him to the ground as he released a myriad of multi-colored spores and the sack fell out of Matt’s hand. Taking care not to breathe in Gloom’s fumes, Maressa grabbed the sack and was about to call Golduck but hesitated. She couldn’t leave Gloom there!

She was still thinking when she the ground beneath her gave way. A scream of shock escaped her lips before she plunged into the icy water. Panic engulfed her as the waves crashed over her head, cutting off her air supply and pushing her into the chilly, watery abyss—but in just a second, her head broke the surface. Blinking and coughing, she watched the people and Pokemon fighting on the bank grow smaller.

“Golduck! Gloom!” she called as loud as she could.

Gloom didn’t even acknowledge her; he kept shooting acid from the flower on his head at Matt.

Golduck turned his eyes from Dusclops to his trainer and immediately slipped into the water and sprinted downstream toward Maressa. Once he reached Maressa, she sent Sharpedo out of his Pokeball and the duo grabbed on to him.

“Sharpedo, go underwater and as fast as you can with the current—just remember to let me breathe every minute!”

Sharpedo did so, and the three of them plunged beneath the river’s surface. Maressa kept the sack held between her hand and Sharpedo’s fin. She shut her eyes tightly and held on as well as she could while her Pokemon shot through the water like a bullet. Sharpedo’s serrated scales exacerbated the open wounds of the exposed skin on her stomach, but she had to deal with it—she just wanted to get as far away from the others, especially Matt, as fast as possible.

Whether she clung to Sharpedo for hours or minutes, she couldn’t tell. In her perspective, everything moved so quickly—every second, she concentrated on holding on to her Pokemon, taking a quick gulp of air every time he broke the surface, and not letting pain of water rushing through her open wounds overwhelm her. Her head throbbed madly and holding her breath only accented the pain. Her lungs strained, struggling with the lack of air.

Yet, throughout all this, there was a heaviness in her heart—though they were escaping, Gloom was left behind.

At last, Sharpedo dove deep beneath the water and lunged out and over the bank, which lay far above the river. He, Golduck and Maressa crashed into the undergrowth. Layers of vines snapped as the weight of the trio tore an open hole through the greenery. After smashing through branches, vines, and bushes, the three of them lay on the sodden dirt, the canopy of tropical trees completely covering the sky overhead.

Maressa and Golduck let go of Sharpedo, and though Maressa desperately wanted to lie down, she got to her feet and trotted further into the jungle, with Sharpedo following by sorts of jumping-lunges behind her. The heavy rain poured down from the rumbling sky, smacking the leaves loudly. Adrenaline coursed through each of them as they made their way deeper into the jungle, too excited and too scared to look back.

When Maressa felt they were decently far from the river, she crouched beneath an overhanging thicket of cycad leaves. The massive trees of the rainforest formed a dense roof far above their heads, somewhat shielding them from the downpour. The plants on the jungle floor were large, making it easy for Maressa and Golduck to hide within them—even Sharpedo was shielded from any prying eyes.

Maressa breathed heavily as she crouched, leaning against the Dark-type. The rain pattered softly on her head and back; the cuts from Sharpedo’s scales burned and itched; her head continued to throb. She sniffed—it was cold, she was soaked, and the rain prevented her from drying out. But still, she held on to Sharpedo, knowing that his Dark type would prevent them from being detected by any psychic powers.

Moments passed, and the only change Maressa noticed was Golduck stiffening at one point. She relied on his abilities, far more sensitive than her own, to judge when it was safe to move.

After what felt like half an hour, Golduck stood up, letting them know that enough time had passed since Liza and Phoebe had gone through. It should be safe to move about. Maressa hadn’t even realized the two trainers had passed by.

Standing up, she gazed, bleary-eyed, at her companions. Several thoughts ran through he mind, but one was more prominent than the rest:

“Gloom…”

Golduck and Sharpedo both cast their eyes down. Sharpedo growled softly—there was nothing they could do.

“I have to at least check,” Maressa said, though with how tired she was, she dreaded the prospect of it. “You guys guard the Orbs; I need to see if Gloom is okay.”

Golduck jumped in front of her, quacking hurriedly—she was in no condition to go see Gloom. She would have to trek well over a mile upstream in the rain through dense jungle. And what if she met Matt along the way? No—he would check. He would be much quicker and safer.

Maressa listened, and for once, decided not to argue.

“I’ll wait for you here.” She looked up at the canopy overhead. “But I can’t wait outside. I’ll freeze.”

Golduck nodded, bade her to wait, and dashed off. In a moment, she heard him quacking, calling her over.

“You okay with going back in your Pokeball for now?” she asked Sharpedo.

He tiredly growled his affirmation, and Maressa withdrew him and followed Golduck’s quacks to see him standing before the roots of a large tree. He held some grass aside, showing the entrance to a den—probably once dug by some Linoone, and now unused.

Maressa crawled inside—it wasn’t very spacious, and she couldn’t do more than sit up. But it was dry, and there were dead leaves scattered about the bottom, making a relatively soft bedding.

Maressa glanced up at Golduck as he crouched by the den’s entrance. His vermilion eyes sparkled with hope. Did Maressa approve of his findings?

“I’ll wait for you here. Please check on Gloom—and please be safe.”

Golduck nodded and disappeared. Through the grasses covering the den entrance, Maressa could dimly see faint light filter through, showcasing dust motes floating in the air and spotlighting a few leaves on the bottom of the burrow. Otherwise, she was in total darkness.

Maressa set the bag of Orbs down next to her, removed her gloves to let her hands air out, lay down, and breathed deeply. She was exhausted, cold, hungry, and there was too much running through her mind—Golduck, Gloom, Liza, Phoebe, Matt, the bizarre weather… They did fight exactly where Jirachi appeared a few days prior, when it made the sky act up. Maressa was sure that had something to do with everything falling apart outside.

But as for everything happening and what was to come… She didn’t know. She knew she could speculate for days on end, but her head throbbed, she was exhausted, and speculation would get her nowhere. Her main concerns were for Golduck and Gloom, and she needed—somehow—to wait patiently until she heard back from them.

++++++++++++++

Inhaling deeply, Maressa opened her eyes. She blinked a couple times in the darkness, noticing a faint glimmer of light from the corner of her eye. She had fallen asleep—for how long? Sitting up, she groaned—she was stiff, and her stomach rumbled in hunger. The wounds on her stomach and side had scabbed over; as she curved her spine, a few of them stretched and re-opened.

Gazing blearily at the den opening, Maressa crawled over to it. She had never totally dried out, and was now covered in dirt and dead leaves, too. Pushing aside the grasses at the entrance to the den, she saw Golduck lying just outside, sleeping peacefully in the rain.

Reluctant to leave the den, Maressa softly called, “Golduck!”

He awoke with a start and cheered up when he saw her. Walking over, he sat down at the entrance to the den, gazing at Maressa.

“Thank goodness you’re okay,” she sighed. “And did you find Gloom?”

Golduck’s face fell. He nodded.

“And?”

Golduck was too late. Matt had already dealt with Gloom.

“What—what do you mean?” Maressa asked, but she felt the truth sink into her breaking heart. Golduck refused to say any more.

Slumping back into the den, Maressa let the grass fall back into place as her body shook with sobs. Golduck slipped into the den and wrapped his arms around his companion. Maressa leaned her head on his, and returned his hug, letting his presence comfort and warm her.

Tears poured from Maressa’s eyes as she choked out a few sobs—all she could feel was disbelief and pain. It shouldn’t have been a surprise—but how could it be true? As she shut her eyes, she saw herself sitting, holding Gloom on her lap, singing to him softly the way she always sang to Seaking.

Sorrow flooded her heart, and she held onto Golduck more tightly.

After a few moments, Golduck pulled back and looked up at her. Maressa gazed at him with bloodshot eyes, listening to his quacks.

They had to get going; the rainforest wouldn’t be safe for long. Phoebe and Liza would send police to scour the area, searching for them and the Orbs.

Choking, Maressa nodded in agreement.

Satisfied, Golduck said he would get her some food and non-Team Aqua clothing. Maressa nodded again and he was gone. She dimly wondered where he would get the clothes but didn’t feel like asking.

In the silence, guilt grew in Maressa’s heart. She knew it was her fault—she brought Gloom to the mainland from Mossdeep. She put off releasing him because she was distracted by attention from Matt and by missing Seaking so much—it was pure selfishness that put off releasing him. Not to find a replacement for Seaking, but to avoid dwelling on his loss.

Now she could only dwell on losing them both.

Had Maressa escaped Team Aqua sooner, Gloom would be all right. But she hadn’t. She didn’t listen to Golduck, and stubbornly stayed because she didn’t want to say goodbye to her friends, because she didn’t want to face the reality of trying to find a job in the real world, because she didn’t know what life she would return to without Team Aqua. In spite of keeping her Pokemon in danger, she remained with Team Aqua out of fear and indecision.

And what would they do now? They were free, away from Team Aqua. Matt knew of her betrayal, but how long would it be for him to find his way back to the team? The Pokeballs of both Pelipper tumbled into the river and were lost. What would become of them? And would others believe him?

Maressa’s eyes fell on the Orbs. And what to do about those? She had no idea where they came from, and she couldn’t think of anywhere they would be safe. Perhaps they could return them to the police. The Elite Four could guard them. If the Orbs weren’t safe with them, who were they safe with?

An inkling of fear trickled into Maressa’s heart. Both teams had spies working in the civilian world and in the police force to keep police off Team Aqua’s and Team Magma’s scent. What if the officers she turned them into happened to belong to one of the teams? And did the regular police force even know about the Orbs?

And was any of this reasonable, or was Maressa just paranoid?

She sighed and grimaced, clenching her eyes shut, hating herself for having to deal with all of this. She should have just handed the Orbs back to Phoebe and Liza—but the two of them proved they weren’t trustworthy with them. Would the rest of the Elite Four and Gym Leaders be any better?

Opening her eyes, Maressa looked down at the two objects, still shining dully in the half-light of the den. Being in their presence felt… unnatural. It was as if they didn’t belong. Maressa didn’t know how to explain it, but she felt like something was just wrong about the Orbs, like they were meant for a different world, or as if they should never have existed at all.

As she stared at them, something within her stirred. Was she repulsed by them? Or were they calling her name? Maressa held her hand out, hovering it just over the Orbs. In spite of the distinct wrongness of the Orbs, something about them was attractive.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Maressa reached out and placed her hand on the Red Orb. As soon as her bare skin touched it, every muscle in her body seized—and she suddenly couldn’t feel her body at all. She became weightless and all of her other senses—vision, hearing, scent, and taste—washed away.

The warm earth pressed in all around. There was heat from a nearby magma river. The scent of sulfur filled the nostrils. Every muscle in the great form was weighed down with sleep. Massive amounts of unused energy lay within. It only had to be woken up.

Open.

Two eyelids lifted. It raised its head, breaking bedrock easily, causing earth-trembling rumbles—but still bogged down with so much tiredness…

Maressa tore herself out of the vision, letting go of the Orb. She lay on the ground, panting as she stared at the object, which glittered even in the dull light. And deep within her, she felt a sort of pull for her to go west—to Mt. Chimney.

That’s where it was. She could hardly believe the amount of power within that—that whatever it was.

That’s what Team Magma wants to control.

There was no way. She had managed to make that creature lift its head—and it seemed so easy, so natural—but it took a lot of willpower to get out of the creature’s mind. And it was so powerful—could something that powerful really stay under control for long?

And that wasn’t even going in to how difficult it was let go. Sure, she might have had a modicum of control over it, but she could easily see herself getting stuck in its mind completely losing herself.

And she knew it was within Mt. Chimney. The pull within her was fading like water trickling out of cupped hands, but if she still held the Orb, she probably would head over there to try and wake up or unite with the beast—somehow. Was that why Team Magma had tried to erupt Mt. Chimney before? Did they know that’s where the beast was?

Maressa’s eyes roved to the Blue Orb, glimmering next to its companion. An awful thought came to her mind—something that she wanted to do, but at the same time, knew it was a bad idea. Team Aqua didn’t know where Kyogre was. What if she were to find out, and make sure no one ever disturbed it?

If she thought too much about it, she might dissuade herself from doing it. So Maressa reached out and touched the Blue Orb with the end of her forefinger.

Darkness.

The gigantic body rested on hard rocks. Cold water all around. Barely moving, there was hardly a current. Crushing pressure from the weight of water above.

Maressa ripped herself away, breathing heavily. She didn’t want to try making Kyogre do anything—it held at least as much power and energy as the creature of the Red Orb. Gasping, she closed her eyes and lay her head on the ground, feeling a pull that stretched to the deepest depths of the ocean. She had only been around a few parts of the sea near Hoenn and didn’t know it well at all. Yet, in her mind’s eye, she could pinpoint the exact location where the creature lay.

Hugging herself, she shivered. It was so deep and cold and dark—far beyond the possible reaches of any human, maybe even any Pokemon. A nauseating feeling rose from the pit in her stomach as she recalled the weight of water pressing down on her—her tank pulling her down, her lungs ready to burst, her vision going black…

Shaking her head, she slapped her face a few times, trying to snap herself out of it. She had no desire to go ocean exploring again—save for finding Seaking—least of all to the hadal zone.

Throwing the sack back over the Orbs, Maressa wrapped her arms around herself and lay on the ground, mulling over her thoughts, trying to suppress the overwhelming sorrow that kept creeping back to her. Looking for Seaking was probably the next big move for her, Golduck, Sharpedo, and Lanturn. Before then, she’d have to find proper clothing, get some food, and learn to re-adjust to normal life. If Team Aqua had been paying her as they promised, she should have plenty of money in her bank account…

Going out to the ocean to look for Seaking would be dangerous for several reasons. Her main concern was that Team Aqua might somehow find them again—and what then? What would they do to her and her Pokemon?

All at once, the reality of what happened to Gloom washed over Maressa again, and she dissolved into tears and sobbing. How could he actually be gone? She remembered the warmth of his body as she held him in her lap and softly sang to him—now her arms only hugged against her shaking sides. And it happened because he tried to protect her… What would her Pokemon do if she were captured by Team Aqua or Team Magma again? And what would happen to them?

No—nothing could happen to them. She would make sure of that. If something were to happen to them and she had to live without—

She didn’t let herself finish the thought.

As she lay on the ground, covered in dirt and bits of dried leaves, she made a decision. She prayed that she would never have to actually act out on it, but if circumstances called for it—if she and her Pokemon were all under the threat of capture again—she knew what she would do.

In a few short moments, Golduck returned, carrying a small sack on his back. After crawling through the hole into the den, he took the sack off and set out some root vegetables and a set of clean clothes. He looked at Maressa, proud of himself for such good findings, eager to see what she thought of them.

But when he saw her bloodshot eyes and tear-stained cheeks, his face fell. He plodded over silently and wrapped his arms around her, once more letting her cry softly into him.

Sniffling, Maressa raised at her head and gazed blearily at her companion.

“Thanks, Golduck,” she whispered. Looking at the pile of clothes he had set out, she softly asked, “Did you steal those?”

The cheerfulness left Golduck as his shoulders slumped forward and he rolled his eyes. Maressa really didn’t have a choice—she needed some sort of civilian clothing. If she wanted it to be “fair,” they could think of it as long-term borrowing. Or they could give her Team Aqua uniform as a trade.

“I don’t think anyone will want to wear this. And besides, Golduck, this is giving up my criminal life—stealing a pair of clothes shouldn’t be the first thing I do!”

Golduck sneered. They were running out of time. If she didn’t want to wear the clothes, then she could try to sneak around wearing Team Aqua clothing and see how long she’d last. Why did humans even wear clothes in the first place? He had never worn clothes once in his entire life, and it never bothered him!

“I’m not going naked,” she snapped.

Looking back at the clothes, she conceded his point. After shooing Golduck out of the den, she got dressed into the dry-fit shirt and rain pants that he got for her—they were men’s sizes and hung loosely from her trim body. But they were better than nothing. She also crammed down one of the root vegetables—it was extremely tough and dry, but she was desperate and hungry enough to stomach it. She stuffed the rest into the sack that Golduck brought, grabbed the bag with the Orbs, and crawled out of the den into the rain.

Glancing back at the den, she felt slightly guilty about leaving her Team Aqua uniform there. Though she didn’t consider herself a member of Team Aqua anymore, she still cared about the environment, and leaving clothes behind was littering.

An unexpected wave of sorrow hit her as she looked at her old uniform—torn, ragged, covered with mud—lying behind in an abandoned den. Her eyes fell on the skeletal “A” of her bandana, and she unthinkingly touched her forehead. After wearing her headwear almost constantly, it was strange to leave it behind. Part of her wanted to pick it back up, to hold on to it, to keep it with her as a reminder of who she was, of what she had done—

But that was behind her now. She had made her decision, and she had to go through with it. Tearing her gaze away from her Team Aqua uniform, Maressa looked up at the canopy of trees as Golduck grabbed her hand. Pushing through the fear, guilt and sorrow that infused her, the two of them headed south.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Hi all! As promised, here's the next chapter!



Chapter 22



Tabitha rewound the video. The black-and-white zig-zags flickered before his eyes—he stopped the video, set it to half-speed, and played it. An empty hallway with an open door filled the camera frame. Slowly, a deluge of black smoke covered the camera’s view before the screen flickered and shut off. He grit his teeth.

How?

Tabitha had been conducting a training session with the grunts, teaching them how to escape choke holds, when a guard came running in with the news that Tate had disappeared. The blood in Tabitha’s veins turned to ice, and he immediately ended the training session to meet with the guards who were watching the child.

Two humans and two Houndoom sat before him in his office. The men’s faces were blanched with terror. Even the Houndoom looked nervous as they scratched their ears, looked around, and gave a few impatient whines.

Surveying the four of them with his cool gaze—and trying to hide the anxiety coursing through him—Tabitha spoke.

“Explain what happened.”

“Well,” one of the grunts—was his name Chad? Tabitha thought it was Chad—scratched his scruffy blonde hair. “We were guarding the door. Then the room started filling with smoke. And then I passed out.”

“Me too,” said Jim, the other guard.

Tabitha stared.

“And?”

“That’s it.”

“That’s it?! You saw smoke, and then you passed out?”

“Yep.”

“Did you hear anything? Did anything hit you to make you pass out—did you wake up with bite marks in your necks, or…?”

Jim shook his head. “I didn’t hear anything. I saw a bunch of smoke, so I immediately thought there might be a fire somewhere and hit the emergency alarm and I called to Chad to tell him I did. And the next thing I knew, I woke up on the floor.”

“Same here,” said Chad.

Tabitha sighed and turned to face the Houndooms sitting next to Chad and Jim.

“Did either of you see anything?”

One Houndoom explained that he saw smoke come in through the cracks in the door before the door was thrown off its hinges. A Golbat flew in and bit him in the back. When he was trying to get the Golbat off, the room filled with smoke and something large and heavy flew into him and knocked him out.

The other Houndoom said he saw a person dressed like a Team Magma member. He jumped on him and bit him in the shoulder—but then he suddenly fell asleep, too.

“You saw a person? What did they look like?”

The Houndoom scratched his face with his hind leg as he explained. The person wore large glasses, so he didn’t see much. But he had a face, shaped like a human’s. He also had a little nose—probably very bad at smelling. There were two ears—also shaped like a human’s, and probably not good at hearing.

“Yes, I understand that it was a human,” Tabitha said impatiently. “But were there any other details you noticed? Any defining features? Skin tone? Freckles? Scars?”

The Houndoom looked so confused. He whined—how could he notice any of that? All humans looked the same!

Tabitha closed his eyes and nodded. Pokemon didn’t think the way that people did. If he asked a Team Magma member to describe a certain Houndoom, they’d probably only be able to give generic features.

“Thank you,” Tabitha said to the four of them. “You may all go.”

They rose and departed. As they left, Mightyena sauntered in through the open door to Tabitha’s office, kicking it closed. He walked over to his trainer, who ruffled his black fur.

“I don’t know, Mightyena. Tate’s gone, which means we’ve lost Jirachi. And if we’ve lost Jirachi…” He shook his head, his stomach twisting. “I really don’t know what’s going to happen.”

His heart clenched with anxiety—he was so sick with fear that his entire chest felt like it was closing in on itself. Jirachi was sure to come and attack them. And if that happened…

He shook his head again. He couldn’t dwell in terror; he had to make a plan. There was a traitor on Team Magma, and the only thing they knew about him was that he had a Golbat. Nearly everyone had a Golbat! But there had to be a way to find out more…

Tabitha mulled it over in his head. After today, Jirachi had three days left before it disappeared for another millennium. They would only have to hold out for three days—but would they make it that long? Jirachi knew where they were; it could come and destroy them all in an instant.

Tabitha looked down to Mightyena. The canine’s ears were perked up, his shoulders slightly hunched.

“What’s up with you?” he asked.

Mightyena growled. That girl was hanging around the corner again.

“Girl? What girl?”

Mightyena explained—there was a Team Magma member with a Whismur who hung around in the same hallway as Tabitha’s office. Whenever the Whismur heard someone coming, she would tell her trainer, and the Magma member would pull out a map of the base and study it. But Mightyena sometimes sat in the shadows and watched her. When no one else was around, the girl mainly stared down the hallway at Tabitha’s door, occasionally taking down notes.

Tabitha sat, mulling over what Mightyena said. It was definitely a Team Magma member who had released Tate…

… Or a spy.

Standing up, Tabitha said to Mightyena, “Watch my back, okay?”

Mightyena growled the affirmative. Stepping outside his office, Tabitha walked down the hallway and saw the Team Magma member just as Mightyena described: hand resting on top of a pouch on her hip, looking confusedly at a map on the wall, her Whismur leaning against her legs.

“What are you doing?” Tabitha asked her.

The girl jumped at the sound of his voice. “Commander Tabitha! I’m—I’m sorry—I don’t know where I’m supposed to be. I’m—I’m new here, and just started—"

She stared at him with soft brown eyes, looking genuinely confused and worried. She pushed her shocking pink hair frantically out of her face as she stumbled over her own words.

“What squadron are you in?”

“I’m—I’m in B12.”

B12 was the newest round of recruits; they had joined only a week ago.

“You’re supposed to be in the lower bunker. Do you know where it is?”

“No.”

“Here.” He pointed to a small room on the map. “Come with me. I’ll escort you.”

“I—oh… Th-thank you, sir…”

The girl bowed her head in gratitude as she and Whismur followed Tabitha to a stairwell. The stairs opened to a large room where new recruits were holding practice battles under Courtney’s watchful eye. The three of them stopped at the top of the stairway.

“Just go down these stairs and you’ll find the rest of the squadron.”

“Yes, sir.”

She bowed her head again, and right before Tabitha turned around, he noticed her hands were clenched, as if holding something small. He smiled to himself as he walked away.

A melodic lullaby emanated from behind him—his muscles suddenly felt heavy, his eyelids drooping. But he was ready; before the music completely overtook him, he whistled.

At his trainer’s command, Mightyena leapt forth from the shadows in the hallway. His mouth was wide open, baring two rows of enormous teeth. He tackled the girl to the ground, then clamped his jaws around the Whismur, who had just started to sing. The Whismur shrieked, causing a horrible uproar that echoed throughout the halls.

Tabitha—all sleepiness gone once the singing stopped—covered his hands with his ears, wincing. Mightyena shook his head, jerking the Whismur around, and slammed the little Pokemon repeatedly into the wall until she went still and the hall was quiet.

The sound of pounding feet echoed up the stairwell. The girl with pink hair took out a Pokeball and recalled Whismur and looked up at Tabitha, her brown eyes shining with hatred, and face breaking out in sweat. He saw earplugs in her ears, evidently having put them in before her Whismur started singing.

Courtney, with a multitude of new recruits and their Pokemon behind her, appeared at the top of the stairway.

“What was that about? Everyone in the bunker heard that screeching!”

Tabitha asked the girl with pink hair, “Care to tell us why you’ve got earplugs in, and why your Whismur tried to sing me to sleep?”

The girl stood speechless, her eyes darting between the two Magma commanders. She suddenly ran at Tabitha, taking a knife out of the pouch on her hip, trying to slash him with it.

Tabitha took a few steps back, easily evading the knife. He reached out and grabbed her wrist, holding it still so she could no longer slash him. She struggled, but he grabbed her other hand, and forced her to turn and get on her knees. She looked up at Courtney, who strode over to her with a smile on her face.

“A knife fight, huh? I haven’t had one of these in a long time!” Courtney excitedly took a long knife out of a sheath that hung on her hip. A flew glittering slivers of pale blue gemstone shone brightly on the blade. “If you want to let her go, Tabitha, I can play with her. This should be fun!”

“Be my guest,” Tabitha said. But unfortunately for Courtney, the girl had no interest in a fair knife fight. As soon as he let go of her, she leapt to her feet and turned on him, desperately trying to cut him open. As Tabitha backed away and dodged her strokes, she ducked around him and bolted down the hallway.

After easily catching up to her and detaining her a second time—the poor girl really wasn’t strong enough to fight him—Tabitha said, “Looks like she doesn’t want to fight you, Courtney. But Mightyena caught her hanging outside my office; I think she might have something to do with—" his eyes darted to the new Team Magma members standing behind Courtney, gazing curiously at Tabitha “—with recent problems we’ve had.”

“Well, that’s upsetting! But if you want to leave her with me, my Ninetales and I can get her talking.” Courtney walked over to the girl, using the blade of her knife to lift her chin up. Courtney bent over slightly, smiling at the girl, her red eyes narrow with cruel enjoyment. “You’re awfully quiet. It’ll just be easier if you start talking now, you know.”

The girl said nothing but glared at Courtney with murderous intent.

“Ooh, now she looks like she wants to fight! But yeah, I’ll get her talking, Tabitha. I’ll make a demonstration out of it too, something the newer recruits can learn from. All of you, back down in the lower level! I’m going to show you what happens to spies and traitors. You two, get over here and bring this girl down with you.”

Two large men stepped forward at Courtney’s command and each took one of the girl’s arms, half-dragging her down into the lower levels. After the grunts disappeared, Courtney looked up at Tabitha.

“What’re you up to now, Tabs?”

“Don’t call me that. And I don’t know—I’m supposed to figure out who released the kid, but it looks like that might be answered already. Get back to me once you’ve gotten everything out of her, and I’ll plan from there.”

Courtney nodded. “Okay! Do you wanna come down and help me? Or at least watch?”

“No, thanks.”

Courtney shook her head. “Your loss. I’ll see you soon!” And she happily trotted down the stairs.

Tabitha gazed after her, slightly unsettled. It was, at the same time, affirming and off-putting to see what a drastic change she had undergone overnight. Without Jirachi, she was back to her normal, cheerful self.

He bent down, ruffling Mightyena’s fur and ears while his Pokemon licked his face.

“You’re such a good boy! Thanks for telling me about that girl—I should have noticed sooner. I could never do this job without you.”

In spite of the praise he gave Mightyena, his stomach twisted with guilt—how long had that girl been watching him? Why had he gone so long without noticing that on his own?

The two headed back to Tabitha’s office, the gears in his head turning. Was there a network of spies? Probably; they hardly operated alone, from what Tabitha knew. He would ask the Pokemon if they had seen anything unusual or suspicious—they were much more observant than humans were. Otherwise, the best thing to do was to wait and see what the girl would tell them. Whatever she knew, Courtney would soon find out.

+++++++++++++++

Maressa glanced up at the buildings around her. It was so weird being back in her hometown—it almost felt like returning to another reality. From the outside, things all looked the same: the sun shone as brightly as ever, the buildings were just as tall and grey as they had been (though there was a bit more graffiti than before), and people were still milling about, minding their own business. It was surreal, yet familiar. Strange, yet home.

She glanced down at Golduck. He didn’t seem too keen on being back here—he was never a big fan of the city, and usually hung out in the wilderness nearby. But today, he insisted on staying with Maressa.

The river they traveled along led through the rainforest and emptied south into the sea, just east of Mauville. Maressa left the Orbs there with Lanturn and Sharpedo guarding them—mainly Lanturn, as Sharpedo kept chasing every Pokemon that swam by. Lanturn didn’t want to see Maressa go, but Golduck promised to keep the two of them safe.

It was early morning when Maressa reached Mauville; she figured she must have slept in the Linoone den for most of the night. She and Golduck walked from the river through some grassland before reaching the outskirts of the city. It wasn’t a terribly long walk, perhaps thirty to forty-five minutes. Maressa tried to distract herself by talking to Golduck about random things, but soon dissolved into tears and sobbing as the guilt of Gloom’s death washed over her. Every time her head throbbed from Matt’s punch, waves of terror overwhelmed her. Golduck reached up and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, offering his presence as comfort, and listened to Maressa mourn for the majority of their walk.

Once they arrived at Mauville, Maressa’s eyes were red, her throat sore, she was starving, exhausted, and smelled strongly of the wilderness. After speaking with the police and bank—telling them that she was exploring the jungle on route 120 and lost everything—she had a replacement ID and debit card with her, and ate lunch on a bench on the sidewalk outside a clothing store.

Creamy tzatziki sauce blended with rich, roasted hummus to make the most delectable gyro Maressa had ever tasted. After spending months making her own meals or eating whatever the crew had cooked up for expeditions, tasting food made by a chef felt like indulging in a fine delicacy. The meat was cooked to perfection; the meat was tender; the vegetables were delightfully crisp. She savored every bite as Golduck chowed away at a basket of fries, evidently happy with his own meal.

It had been a much smoother process than expected. Maressa was worried about the police finding some connection with her and Team Aqua—and Golduck stood on guard next to her in case they needed a quick getaway—but there was no such record to be found. The police didn’t find it suspicious that she had nothing; according to them, trainers frequently ran into disasters and stumbled into town, completely empty-handed. They ran her Pokeballs through a scanner; she was the only one registered with them.

Maressa was pleased to see her bank account. Team Aqua had been paying her steadily, and a few months with no expenses allowed the numbers to rack up. Her paychecks had come from “Ocean Incorporated”—one of the publicity fronts Team Aqua had to keep their real name and motivations hidden.

Maressa paused. She looked up at a building next to her. An advertisement for bio-degradable water bottles (“Keep the oceans clean! Do your part!”) made by “Blue Seas” hung from a window.

“Blue Seas” was another of Team Aqua’s public names—Sarah said it was how she found them. Maressa remembered visiting their office in Mossdeep, talking to Mark and making her way back to Team Aqua

Her stomach flipped. Once she noticed the advertisements, it seemed like they were everywhere. Bar shampoo made without plastic bottles, clothes made from re-purposed plastic, toothbrushes made from wood… All of these products came from companies with names like “EnviroFit” and “Greenscapes.” They were all real companies, giving people real products, producing real revenue—but at least Blue Seas was associated with Team Aqua. How many more of these companies were associated with them? Were any associated with Team Magma?

The profits these companies made must be where her paycheck came from. Did the people managing these companies know they were working with Team Aqua and Team Magma—did they know what they were really up to? Were they members of the teams? Perhaps the connections that Team Aqua and Magma had with these companies kept them in decent public standing, and had kept them mostly safe from authorities all these years…

Realizing just how heavily involved Team Aqua and Team Magma were with Hoenn culture made Maressa’s heart plummet. Her gyro—the tastiest food in the world, in her opinion—didn’t seem so appetizing anymore. Team Aqua and Team Magma could be all around her—and one wouldn’t even notice.

“Do you really think so?”

Maressa jumped up. She looked down to see a young boy, his shaggy black hair hanging around his face, staring up at her. His blue changshan was unkempt, and he looked like he needed a bath. Covered in dirt and smudge marks, he stared at Maressa with large, blue eyes, and Maressa felt an odd presence against her mind.

“I wouldn’t have thought Teams Aqua and Magma were everywhere. Although I guess it makes sense. Their members have to live somehow. And they do so much without ever getting caught.”

Maressa could only stare at the boy. Golduck sat on the other side of the bench, looking back-and-forth between the two humans—why was this child suddenly talking about the teams? Was he suspicious?

The boy looked up at Maressa, and she gasped when she heard a voice echo in her head.

You’re one of them, aren’t you?

What was that? Was it him?

Yeah, it’s me. I can hear your thoughts. If you don’t want to say something out loud, it’s okay. Just say it in your head. I can hear it.

Maressa stared at the child, her heart pounding with fear and confusion. How could he possibly know her thoughts?

I’m a psychic. I can hear everyone’s thoughts—all the time.

Maressa gulped. She glanced at Golduck, who was still gazing at the child with confusion. She didn’t like holding a private conversation that he couldn’t hear, but she also didn’t want to talk about her past affiliation with Team Aqua in public.

In her head, she said, No, I’m not one of Team Aqua. Or Team Magma.

The boy nodded. Okay. You were just thinking of them a lot, and you seem to know a lot more than most people. But they aren’t all bad. One of the Team Magma members took care of me, and he was really nice to me. He even gave me orange juice!

She started. “You were caught by them?” she asked aloud. She wasn’t a big fan of telepathic talking.

Yeah. I don’t know why. Maybe because I could talk to Jirachi… His blue eyes suddenly fell, and he looked downcast. I don’t know where he is, though. I don’t know where anyone is.

Maressa’s heart raced. “You—you said you could speak to Jirachi?” She looked closer at his face and, with a jolt, realized that she recognized him—everyone in Hoenn would recognize him. He was one of the Mossdeep Gym Leaders, the one who had gone missing.

“You escaped!”

Tate nodded.

“How?”

The boy was silent, but Maressa’s mind was racing. Flashes of her own imprisonment and escape from Team Magma ran through her mind. She remembered Archie mentioning something about Jirachi—

Her flow of thought stopped as the boy stared at her, his blue eyes wide with shock.

You ARE a Team Aqua member!

Maressa silently cursed—

You shouldn’t swear.

She had a hard time keeping control of her thoughts. No one had ever been inside her head before.

Sorry. I guess it is a bit rude… I just haven’t been able to do this in a long time. My parents and sister can shield themselves from me, so I don’t need to control myself most of the time. And your thoughts were so interesting.

Maressa shook her head. “It’s okay. No, I’m not with them anymore. I was, but I just got away.” She looked critically at the kid. “So, you can hear my thoughts, and see my memories?”

If you’re thinking about it, yeah. Tate smiled. The guy who took care of you also took care of me!

Maressa gasped. “Derek?” she asked with a smile.

I guess so. I don’t know his name.

Smiling, Maressa asked, Did he set you free, too?

Tate looked away, and his presence faded from Maressa’s mind. “I’m not supposed to tell…” he mumbled.

“It’s okay. Derek’s a good guy—setting both of us free…” She shook her head. “What a guy.

“So,” she asked Tate, “you woke up Jirachi, got caught by Team Magma, and then Derek set you free?” Maressa paused; Team Aqua had heard yesterday that Team Magma lost Tate. “Just how long have you been walking around in the open, kid?”

Tate looked around them fearfully, as if worried someone might eavesdrop on their conversation. Maressa felt his mental presence again as he said, Yeah, he set me free. But I probably shouldn’t talk about it out loud. I just need to find someone who can take me to my family. And I got away yesterday.

“Yesterday?! Have you ever heard of Pokemon Centers, kid? Or asking someone for help?” How could nobody notice a ten-year-old kid walking through the streets on his own? But then Maressa remembered that ten-year-olds training Pokemon was a common thing; there were often children in dirty, weather-torn clothes milling about cities.

You have to be a trainer to stay at a Pokemon Center, and I’m a gym leader.

“I am sure that they would let you stay in a bed overnight if you just asked.”

But I don’t have any ID with me.

“You’re practically a celebrity! They would know who you are! Has nobody recognized your or approached you since you’ve been wandering in the city for two days?”

I don’t want people to see me in case they try to capture me again. So I’ve been staying close to the wilderness. I slept in a tree with some Slakoth last night!

Maressa shook her head. “You’re very… adaptable, I’ll give you that. Just go in to a police station and they’ll recognize you and take you to your family.”

She paused as she remembered the teams’ infiltration into the police.

“On second thought, maybe you shouldn’t do that. But there is a gym in Mauville. Can’t you go to the Gym Leader and ask him?”

The boy thought about it, and Maressa could feel the flow of his thoughts running through his mind—and running against hers. She shivered. Nothing felt private with open thought processes like these.

“You’re right. Do you know where I can find it?”

“It’s not hard to find. Come with me, I’ll take you. Let’s go, Golduck.”

Golduck hopped off the bench and walked with the duo, staring at them in confusion. Tate hadn’t brought him into their thought process—and he had only heard half of the conversation.

So what are you going to do now that you’re not with Team Aqua?

Maressa told Tate—out loud, partially so Golduck could hear—about losing Seaking, and how she wanted to find him.

Out in the ocean?

“Yeah, I know the ocean is big, but,” she shrugged, “he’s family. I know he’s out there somewhere, and I can’t just leave him. We all miss him—and he misses us.” And almost from out of nowhere, Gloom appeared in her mind, returning the emptiness and sorrow.

What happened to him?

“What?”

You thought of that Gloom and then you felt really, really sad. Did something bad happen to him?

Maressa paused, struggling to hold back tears as the memories of Gloom saving her from Matt and Golduck telling her about Gloom played through her mind again.

Is he gone? Tate asked, staring up at Maressa sadly.

She nodded, trying to not dwell on the sorrow and guilt.

I’m sorry. But don’t feel so bad about it. I think he wanted to save you and protect you. It wasn’t your fault. He’s a hero!

The boy’s words did nothing to assuage Maressa’s pain; it only made her want to get off the subject. “Thanks, Tate.”

So, Tate went on, what will you do after you find Seaking?

“After?”

Her heart plummeted. She didn’t know—she had never thought that far ahead. The Orbs flashed through her mind—she still didn’t know what to do about those.

“I’m just doing this one step at a time.”

What were those?

“What?”

Tate looked into Maressa’s eyes, and she saw the Red and Blue Orbs show up again. It was so weird—it was her own mental image, but she didn’t bring it up.

“Did you just show me my own memory?”

Tate nodded.

“Do you know what those are?”

He shook his head.

The Red and Blue Orbs, she said internally.

He shook his head again. I’ve never heard of them.

Maressa’s heart sank. “I know what they are, I just don’t know what to do with them.”

Why?

“Because they’re dangerous.”

You can always give them to me, and the Pokemon League can keep them safe.

“The Pokemon League lost them in the first place,” she grumbled.

Really? How?

“Your twin isn’t the best at bargaining.”

Tate’s face lit up. You met Liza?

“Yep. And Phoebe.”

I don’t know Phoebe, not really. I’ve just seen her at meetings. But you met Liza! How? How does she know about the Orbs? And why did she give them to you?

Maressa gazed coolly at Tate. “You ask a lot of questions.”

So do you.

“You’re a wordy little kid, aren’t you?”

That’s what my mom says, too.

Maressa cracked a smile. “I take it that you don’t know anything that’s happened since you were caught.”

He shook his head.

Well… I’m trying to keep these objects away from Teams Aqua and Magma, but I don’t know what to do with them. Phoebe and your sister tried giving them to Team Aqua, so I’m not sure how safe they are with the Pokemon League.

Why would they do that? Tate asked.

“Team Aqua promised to save you.”

And did you guys try?

“I don’t know. Doesn’t really matter, since Derek clearly took care of that himself.”

Hmm… Do you know where the Orbs come from? Maybe you can just put them back.

She shook her head. “I don’t have a clue. And apparently they weren’t safe in their original spot.”

Maybe you can just hold on to them and don’t tell anyone.

“Kinda worried about running into one of the Teams again…” she said, looking distrustfully at the advertising around them.

You can find a tree with a hole in it and put them in there. Liza and I kept a lot of our toys that way.

“That… doesn’t sound very safe.”

Nobody ever took our toys.

“These are a bit different from toys.”

I guess.

The three of them stopped beneath a large archway with stone letters spelling out MAUVILLE GYM.

“Well,” Maressa said, “I can drop you off here. Anyone inside should recognize you.”

Tate started, his blue eyes shining with disbelief. “You’re not coming with me?”

Maressa shook her head. “The more I stay away from anything to do with the Pokemon League, or authorities, the better. I just want to find Seaking and start my life over again.” She sighed. “Or… I don’t know.”

Why wouldn’t you be able to do that?

Maressa gazed at the boy, and internally responded, Because I have the Orbs and I know about Team Aqua, I should do something to stop them. I recognize their members, and can help in their downfall.

But you don’t want to?

I’m… “I’m tired of dealing with them, Tate! And I’m scared, I don’t want to go through anything like that again! You know what I’m talking about, you faced it too! I—" She paused, grimacing and trying to hold back tears. “I just want to get my Pokemon together and live a normal life again, but knowing that those people are still around…” She shook her head. “I just don’t know.”

Well… you don’t have to do that stuff.

“But I should.”

Why?

“Because it’s right.”

I guess that’s up to you. I don’t wanna fight anymore. I just wanna go home to my family and Pokemon and Jirachi. But because Liza and I have strong psychic powers, our parents wanted us to be gym leaders. And gym leaders are supposed to fight...

His eyes fell. He shrugged. But I dunno. I wanna stay safe. And if you wanna stay safe, I think that’s okay.

Maressa said nothing. Her amber eyes met the boy’s blue ones as she let Tate’s thoughts sink in to her.

Tate looked through the archway.

“Well, I should go. I’m really hungry, and I miss my family and Pokemon.”

“Oh… do you want any of this?” she asked and held out her gyro, reluctant to give away the rest, but knowing he needed it as much as she did.

Tate’s face lit up. “I’ll have a bite.” And he took three.

Maressa laughed as he handed her the remains. “Take care of yourself, kid.”

“Bye, Ms. Maressa!” He held out his hands for a hug.

When he called her ‘Ms. Maressa,’ her heart melted, and she bent down and hugged him.

“Bye, Tate. Take care.”

“Thanks for the food!” he said. They let go, and Maressa stood up and watched Tate walk into the gym. Her heart twisted as she saw him disappear through the tinted glass doors. She wanted to go inside, to make sure he got to talk to Wattson and get to his family—but the less involved he was with a former Team Aqua member, the better.

She looked down and saw Golduck staring up at her, looking completely lost and utterly confused.

What was that all about?

++++++++++++++++

Maressa set her bag filled with a wetsuit, clothes and food on the ground. Before she and Golduck left Mauville, there was one more stop she wanted to make. Golduck agreed to accompany her. Helounged on a nearby bench as Maressa stared down the road to where the business buildings gradually thinned out and turned into townhouses.

How many times had she walked down this road as she grew up? Every day she went to school, she ran or skipped down this old, cracked sidewalk, wearing an oversized blue Eevee backpack. She was the coolest kid in school for having that backpack. And every day, she walked back home, usually accompanied by Psyduck. He slept in too late in the day to greet her when she woke up, but was always happy to walk home with her after school.

It was surreal to stand and stare down that road. The green sign still read RHAEADR LANE in faded letters. She remembered driving out with her father when she was eighteen years old, their car filled with furniture and all of her personal things as she prepared to move out of the house to attend college. And as she and her father drove, her mother and sixteen-year-old sister stood on the sidewalk, excited yet sad, waving goodbye. At the time, she was filled with so much excitement to get out of her parents’ house and live in the real world on her own. And now, five years later…

Maressa sighed. At that moment, she just wanted to go into her parents’ house and explain everything to them, to ask them what to do, how to fix it—they always knew how to fix problems. She just wanted to stay somewhere she knew was safe, with people she knew would never betray her—and it suddenly hurt so much to remember them. Most of the time, she was fine. But now that she thought of them and realized that she didn’t know when or if she could see them again, it was suddenly so painful.

But she had made her decision. She joined an organization that seemed all right at first, and as time went by, Maressa became more and more aware of how criminal they really were. Even so, she stuck with them and kept working for them—just because something was criminal didn’t mean it was wrong, and if something was lawful, that didn’t mean it was right. Right? At least, that was what she always believed. But after watching and helping Team Aqua destroy homes, assault people and steal artifacts, there was no denying that Team Aqua did not have everyone’s best interests at heart.

What would her parents say if she were to walk in and explain to them that she had actively taken part in Team Aqua’s projects? That she helped with theft and destruction of public property? And Maressa honestly didn’t know what they would say. Would they really let their own criminal daughter stay with them in their house?

And she didn’t know what the best thing to do was. She wanted to go home to her parents and tell them—tell someone—the truth. Betty was in Kanto for school, or else Maressa would have no doubts about going home. But a part of her was scared that her parents would not let her leave the house again. They were never the coddling type, but if this proved to them that she wasn’t responsible enough to take actions for herself, they might insist on keeping her home. Or—and Maressa felt this to be the most realistic possibility—they might turn her in to the police. And that could end either with her in jail or captured by one of the teams again.

Maressa tried putting herself in their shoes, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know what parenting was like, and she didn’t ever think about what she would have to do if she had a law-breaking child—her parents had probably never thought of it, either.

Maressa closed her eyes and grimaced as tears rose. Facing Team Aqua or Team Magma again was the worst thing that could happen to her now, and she couldn’t risk the possibility. The only thing that even felt okay—that was good, meaningful, and undoubtedly her responsibility—was to find Seaking.

She was grateful no one else was around, so she wasn’t embarrassed when hot tears started spilling from her eyes. Seaking’s disappearance and Gloom’s passing both came to the forefront of her mind, and, more than before, she felt so raw and heavy inside. Her chest tightened with pain. She was worse than useless. One of her Pokemon disappeared, and another had died—both her fault. What would happen to anyone else she got involved with?

And she knew that Team Aqua would hunt her down for the Orbs and for her betrayal. They were everywhere. So long as she remained in the same place, they would find her, one way or another—and whoever she was with. Even if she wasn’t scared of her parents turning her in, she would endanger them by staying with them, or even just by dropping by.

One step at a time, she told herself. Once we find Seaking, we’ll figure out what the next step is.

Turning around, she walked away from her home.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Here's chapter 23! I should have enough chapters to keep this pace going for a while. Enjoy!



Chapter 23



“What’s up, Tabs?”

Tabitha raised his head as Courtney and her Ninetales walked in.

“Would it kill you to knock?”

“Oh, come on, it’s not like there’s anything secret here.”

“It’s my private office.”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyways, I found out everything that Aqua girl had to say. There was another spy within the squadron that she gave away, and there’s one more within this base. Two are at the one in northern Hoenn, but that’s all she knew about that.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

The corners of her mouth were raised in a small smile—a smile that told Tabitha that Courtney’s interrogation had been thorough.

Courtney gave Tabitha the spies’ names and descriptions. He turned on his headset and sent orders to Mac, a sub-commander ranked just below him, and relayed everything he heard from Courtney.

“Detain them, and get them to tell you everything they know.” After hearing affirmation from Mac, Tabitha switched his headset off and looked up at Courtney. “And did she say anything about releasing Tate?”

Courtney’s eyebrows furrowed. She thoughtfully tapped her chin.

“No, she didn’t. She didn’t know anything about that. She said Team Aqua knew we had Tate and Jirachi, and had even found out that Tate had been released. But if Team Aqua had anything to do with it, she didn’t know what it was.”

Tabitha’s stomach twisted.

The spy didn’t know?

He stood up. “There must be more of them—maybe not even related to Team Aqua…” he trailed off, his heart racing. Just how many people had infiltrated Team Magma? Was their team’s security really this bad?

Courtney waved a hand. “What do you think I’ve been doing all day? After I got her talking in front of the rest of the troops, I grabbed a few of the high-ranking ones and we’ve been interrogating and investigating every person inside this base. The exits have been sealed and there are cameras around every corner. If the person who let Tate loose is still here, we’ll know before long.”

Tabitha said nothing; her words didn’t make him feel any better. Courtney was very persuasive and thorough when it came to interrogation, but the fact that their team had already slipped up this much…

“Also, the girl said some other things you might want to know.”

He snapped to attention. Courtney was smiling slightly, and her red eyes shone with excitement.

“Like what?”

“Like the location of one of their bases, and that they currently have a group studying the area west of Pacifidlog. They noticed that teams of archaeologists kept heading that way, including—” Courtney’s eyes lit up with an eager glint “—Steven Stone.”

“Steven Stone? Why would he go out in the middle of nowhere at a time like this?”

“I don’t know, but if there’s something that will make him abandon his precious people when they’re hunting us down more than ever, then it must be something serious. People reckon there are a lot of underwater ruins that have never been explored because the water currents are too powerful for any vessels to get through—at least until now. With the new technology coming out of the Slateport shipyards, people are expecting scientific breakthroughs!”

“You said west of Pacifidlog?” Tabitha glanced at the map of Hoenn pinned to a wall. “That’s not too far from our base…” If the Pokemon Champion was leaving at a time like this to look at some ruins around there, then he was sure it was worth looking into. “I’ll talk to Maxie and see what he wants me to do. I’ll probably head out with a squadron and try to follow them.”

“Good luck—and try not to get caught.”

++++++++++++++++

Steven closed his eyes, his chin resting atop his interlaced fingers. The small room at the Pokemon League Headquarters was silent. It was empty, save for a desk and a few chairs. Windows stood in for walls, allowing one to see clear blue waters cascade down craggy cliffsides, through a lush jungle and empty out into the sparkling sea below. Sunlight shone magnificently on the mist rising from the waterfalls, creating a rainbow.

Steven didn’t even glance at the scenery. His fingers were white from clenching, and his head pounded from the blood rushing through his veins. He kept his eyes closed, trying to keep his anger under control. He knew what he would say—he just had to keep his temper in check. He had a plan to fix their blunder, but he dreaded implementing it…

The door opened.

Steven opened his slate-grey eyes, surveying Liza and Phoebe as they stepped inside. A bandage stretched across Phoebe’s nose where it had broken, but the two looked fine otherwise—physically. Both of them were downcast, their eyes on the carpet, their shoulders slumped in defeat, and Phoebe especially looked deeply ashamed of herself.

The two stood in front of Steven’s desk. He remained sitting.

“Tell me if this is correct,” he said, staring at the two of them evenly. “You two made a deal with Team Aqua. You lost the Red and Blue Orbs. And now they have them.”

“We did it because—" Liza started.

“Respond with a yes or a no. I don’t want to hear any ‘because,’ or ‘but.’ Is what I said true, or is it not?”

Phoebe averted her eyes.

“Yes,” she replied in small voice.

Steven inhaled deeply and closed his eyes again.

“Tell me exactly what happened. Don’t give me any reasons as to why, just tell me what you saw.”

Phoebe explained as much as she could.

“… And then one of them—the man, their commander—ran over to me and punched me.” Her brows furrowed. “I suppose he must have taken the Orbs… My vision went fuzzy for a bit, and I can’t really remember clearly. It took me a few minutes to realize again what was happening, and by then, everyone else was gone, so we started searching for them.”

“The guy didn’t take the Orbs,” Liza cut in. “Well, he did after he punched you. But then the other Aqua member punched him, and the two of them fought. And then there was this Gloom that was standing in the forest. It watched us the whole time, but once the Team Aqua members fought each other, it ran out and sprayed the guy with acid. So the girl Aqua member grabbed the Orbs and then she fell into the river and her Pokemon followed her.”

Steven held up a hand to bid Liza to stop. “The Team Aqua members attacked each other? And one took the Orbs away from her commander and left him?”

Liza nodded.

Steven’s eyebrows furrowed. “Hmm… Odd.”

He paused for a moment, staring blankly, the gears in his head turning. Why would one Team Aqua member attack the other and then leave? Was it a mutiny?

He pursed his lips. He’d have to think on it later. Either way, the Orbs were gone.

“And what happened after the Aqua member with the Orbs fell into the river?”

“Well, her Golduck jumped in the river, and swam to her, and then they both disappeared. I don’t know what happened to them. But the Aqua commander grabbed the Gloom and—" Liza paused, and Steven saw something haunting her behind those troubled eyes “—he started hurting it. I was worried about Phoebe, so I stayed with her. Her Dusclops grabbed her and took her away because the ground was falling apart and everything was falling into the water. I got on Lunatone and we went with Dusclops and Phoebe.”

“What happened to the Aqua commander?”

“He sent out a Crawdaunt and they went into the shadows.”

Steven nodded. With a Dark-type like Crawdaunt, they could go to shadows and dark spots and hide there, undetectable to psychic powers like Liza’s. Steven wasn’t quite sure what it was—Sidney knew much better than he did—but the Pokemon seemed to exist in a different realm when they did so.

“And once Phoebe said she felt better, we searched the river for the other Aqua member, but we couldn’t find her anywhere. Lunatone and I couldn’t even feel her with our Psychic powers.”

Steven sighed. If Liza couldn’t even detect the Aqua member, then she really did disappear—unless she had a Dark-type with her, which was plausible. But it would be too late at this point. The river eventually led to Mauville, one of the larger cities in Hoenn. A woman with a Golduck would blend in easily.

But they would still have to try, even though the police had been practically useless lately. They consistently failed to get any leads on the whereabouts of either Team Magma or Team Aqua, and even when they did, they quickly lost it. Empty bases and abandoned hideouts were all they could find. There had to be a better way…

Snapping himself out of his train of thought, Steven looked up to see Liza and Phoebe staring at him, both looking apprehensive.

“Thank you for telling me everything. You two have been relieved of your positions. Nurse Joy should have finished caring for your Pokemon, and the two of you can return home to your families.”

Their faces fell. Liza looked heartbroken, and tears trickled down her cheeks as her bottom lip quivered. She said nothing, but started sniffling.

Phoebe stared in shock.

“Relieved?” she echoed. “N—no. How could you—?”

“How could I? How could you, Phoebe?” Steven stood up. His voice rose to a shout as he glared at Phoebe, fire burning behind his eyes. “You betrayed your grandparents, stole some of the most ancient artifacts in the world, knowing full well what they’re capable of, made a deal with a criminal organization that you know is dangerous and didn’t tell anyone. If Team Aqua has those Orbs, then we’re finished! Because of you, we’re all going to either drown or burn to death—not just us, but everyone in Hoenn and eventually on the earth! You should be arrested for what you’ve done, at the very least!”

He took a few steps away from them, staring out the windows, breathing heavily.

“I was wrong to let you become part of the Pokemon League. You’re strong, and smart, but too young. You still don’t understand how the world works.”

Steven’s eyes were locked on the picturesque scene before him, but he couldn’t take any of the beauty in. Shouting had let out some of the anger, making him feel less tense. Behind him, neither Phoebe nor Liza said a word. The only sound was that of Liza’s soft sobbing.

After a minute—still not looking at them—Steven said, “Liza, you may go. I need to speak to Phoebe for a moment.”

Liza turned and exited the door behind them, leaving the two Elite Four members together.

Steven turned around and faced Phoebe, who kept her eyes averted.

“I need to ask you about something else.”

No response.

“How much do you know about the golems?”

Phoebe blinked a few times, puzzled. She looked up at Steven. He gazed at her, awaiting a response.

“The golems?”

“Yes, Regice, Regirock and Registeel. They’re characters in Hoenn folklore, and there are a few places around the region that claim to hold monuments to them. You’re from one of the oldest families in Hoenn. Do you know anything about them?”

Phoebe hesitated. “Well, y—yes, I do. But they aren’t normal Pokemon—they’re much more powerful than anything else we know of.”

“But they do exist?”

“Oh, yes, I know they do. But, Steven, why do they matter right now?”

“Because,” Steven said as he walked over to the desk. He reached down and pulled up something wrapped with a purple cloth. It was obviously heavy; he used his entire upper body to lift it and grunted as he set it on the desk. He removed the cloth to reveal a thick stone tablet covered with braille. Phoebe gasped.

“If the Orbs are gone, and Groudon and Kyogre are going to wake up, we need to have some way to protect ourselves.”

+++++++++++++++++

Maressa exhaled deeply as she lay down. It was getting late into the afternoon, and she was tired. She, Lanturn, Sharpedo and Golduck left Mauville the same day they arrived there; Maressa refused to stop and sleep anywhere until they were well away from the city. She and Golduck met up with Lanturn and Sharpedo at the river near Mauville, then the four of them swam through shallow waterways lined with mangroves. The area was beautiful, but the bug bites were a nightmare. Maressa knew that, were she to wait until nightfall, the area would glow with bioluminescence, turning the mangrove marsh into an arena of estuarine constellations.

But there was no time to wait. She and the Pokemon quickly glided through the mangroves until they gave way to the sea. Maressa didn’t really have any idea of where to start looking once they set out; her only desire was to stay close to land.

She appreciated how easy it was to explore the ocean—at least, it was much easier than she had thought it would be. The heavily-forested shoreline of Hoenn had a number of hostels, primarily for trainers who kept getting lost at sea and needed to return to the mainland. While the trainers needed to show a trainer ID to get free accommodation, Maressa had to pay. Still, it was much better than she could have hoped for.

Once the four of them had reached the first little hostel on the shoreline, the black blanket of night already coated the sky. As they of them swam through the water, Maressa gazed up at the heavens. The moon was brighter than she had ever seen it; it was surrounded by a halo of white, and the sky formed a starry black dome over the earth. Stars and swirls of the galaxy shone visibly, only dimmed by the light of the moon. Maressa rested her cheek on Lanturn’s back and gaze up at the night. How could she have lived in Hoenn for most of her life and never seen this?

And, just above the horizon, the Millennium Comet left a brilliant, fiery streak across the inky sky.

Once they were at the hostel, Maressa withdrew money from an ATM inside, bought plenty of food for her and her Pokemon—which disappeared in a matter of seconds—and crashed in the room she rented for the night.

Even with the excitement and exhaustion from the day, it was difficult to fall asleep. Her heart kept pounding fiercely, laden with anxiety and fear, and she spent several hours tossing and turning before she succumbed to sleep.

Waking up as the first rays of dawn penetrated the morning sky, she decided to withdraw more money for breakfast—she had already spent much more money on food than she had intended to.

She was about to punch the numbers on an ATM when she stopped, her finger hovering over the keyboard. The screen showed a history of her monetary transactions—mainly of the payments she received from Team Aqua and of the times she had withdrawn cash since then. If she could see a history of her transactions, including where she had withdrawn money from, could they see it, too?

Her stomach churned. The white screen showed the exact location and time at which she withdrew cash the previous night. She envisioned someone dressed in a Team Aqua uniform staring at the exact same thing from a computer in a Team Aqua base, knowing exactly where to find her. When she was a grunt, Team Aqua practically owned her—of course they could see this.

She broke out in a cold sweat and suddenly became starkly aware of everyone around her. If someone looked at her for longer than a second, her skin crawled, and her heart pounded with suspicion. Were any of these people Team Aqua spies? Were they looking for her? Would they knock her out in her sleep and force her to go back with them?

Maressa punched in the numbers and withdrew the cash. She needed it; she would just make sure to not come back to the hostel and to stay far away from it. She didn’t know how far away others were, but she didn’t care at the moment. She and her Pokemon needed to get away. Maressa got some food to hold the four of them up throughout the day, and swiftly headed out.

Hours later, Lanturn dropped her off on a small, flat rock in open water while Golduck and Sharpedo tried to find out about Seaking’s whereabouts. Maressa, in her pale grey wetsuit, laid back on the rock. She had forgotten how tiring it was—swimming was strenuous, not to mention dealing with the chill of the salty ocean and the brutal rays of the sun. It wasn’t even noon, and she was beat…

At first, the sight of seawater made Maressa’s stomach churn and heart race. If she paused and peered straight down into the depths of the water—so dark she couldn’t see past her hips—and became aware of how far away the bottom was, she broke out in a cold sweat. But she clung to her Pokemon the entire time, usually either Lanturn or Sharpedo. As her Pokemon were much more adept at ocean exploration than she was, she would usually wait on some sandbar or rock outcrop with one of them while two others went and looked for Seaking.

The more they explored, the more Maressa realized that the sea was anything but empty. Looking out from the rocky outcrops of Lilycove just a few weeks previous, she dreaded the prospect of venturing into the vast, blue expanse. But it was full of a lot more people than she had realized—almost everywhere she went, she saw young trainers clumsily holding on to their Pokemon that they had just taught how to Surf from an HM, trying to find islands with gyms or the Pokemon League itself. There were plenty of trainers swimming on their own, just floating in the water, letting the current move them where it willed.

Wild Pokemon were everywhere, although it was mostly just Tentacool and Wingull. Maressa noted, with bitterness, that her wetsuit wasn’t totally effective at protecting her from Tentacool stings. After her first excursion into the ocean, she pulled down her wetsuit and sourly looked at the numerous red welts dotting her body. She recalled getting stung by them as a child with no wetsuit to protect her—painful enough that she always ran from the water screaming.

And overall, the sea was shallow enough that little islands and outcroppings of rock appeared everywhere Maressa went. She was currently at the deepest part they explored so far—far too deep for any of her Pokemon but Lanturn to reach the bottom—but on the horizon, the shoreline was still in sight.

She looked over and saw Lanturn floating at the water’s surface, turning happily in little circles. Maressa’s eyes roved over to her the bags filled with her things, and she thought of the Orbs. Her mood turned dark, and she grumbled as she buried her face in the crook of her elbow.

What was she to do?

Follow your heart. Do what’s right, she was always told. But what was right? What separated something right from wrong? She didn’t know who could be trusted with the Orbs—she certainly didn’t believe in herself—and at the moment, her heart told her to find Seaking and to keep her Pokemon together. That was the more urgent matter, wasn’t it?

Or am I just avoiding responsibility?

That’s what Golduck had been telling her for weeks, wasn’t it? Was it only now—after she had attacked her own teammate, gotten a Pokemon killed, and was stuck with mystic artifacts—that she was able to see things from his point of view?

Maressa turned over, onto her back, and stared up at the pale blue sky dotted with clouds and multitudes of circling Wingull and felt smaller than she ever had before. She turned her head and saw Lanturn floating idly nearby. Did Pokemon have the same sort of doubts about doing the right thing all the time?

Turning her pale amber eyes back to the Orbs, Maressa grimaced. More than anything, she just wanted to cast the two of them off into the sea and never worry about it again. Let it be someone else’s responsibility. It would be so much easier to turn a blind eye to them and never think of them again.

Maressa recoiled at the thought and covered her face with her hands. She couldn’t do that; she was the one who took the Orbs and betrayed Team Aqua. She should at least try to keep them safe and do what she could to stop her old team. Besides, whether she had the Orbs or not, Team Aqua would try to find her—she just had to think of a way to keep the Orbs safe from them.

Maressa lowered her hands and faced the sky again. Why couldn’t she just throw away responsibility without a problem? What force made her decide to do what was “right?” And how did her conscience know what was “right” and “wrong” in the first place?

“Quack!”

She snapped out of her reverie and looked up as Golduck swam over and climbed onto the rock next to her. He looked worried.

“What’s up, Golduck?”

He quacked—there were several submarines in the area. Most of them were not very deep, but they were all heading west. Glancing up, Maressa saw Sharpedo’s black dorsal fin stick out of the water as he swam up to them.

Golduck pointed to the small speck sticking out of the waves far away and told Maressa that it was another Sharpedo, and that it was watching them.

Maressa paused, not sure of what to make of all this information.

“Ships? Why so many? … And a Sharpedo? But I’ve never seen wild Sharpedo act like that—they usually move together in pods.”

Why was there a solitary one sitting still?

Golduck quacked. The Sharpedo wasn’t wild; it was trained by humans.

Fear gripped Maressa’s heart.

“It is? Are you sure?”

Golduck nodded. The Sharpedo was some sort of lookout.

Maressa stared straight ahead.

Someone’s Sharpedo as a lookout… Several ships…

Her stomach twisted with anxiety. Grabbing the sack with the Orbs, Maressa held them out to Lanturn.

“Lanturn, I want you to take these and get as far away from here as you can. Go as deep as you want—but dim your light.”

Lanturn grabbed the sack in her mouth, looking at Maressa uncertainly. Why did she have to leave with the Orbs? Why couldn’t Maressa come with?

“The Sharpedo is probably watching me. If there are Team Aqua members nearby, we need to make sure that they don’t get the Orbs, no matter what. Relax,” she said with a soft smile. “I still have Golduck and Sharpedo with me! They’ll keep me safe.” So saying, she reached down and patted Lanturn’s head before the Electric-type swam away.

“Golduck, you wanna go see what that Sharpedo is about?” Maressa asked. Golduck nodded and swam away.

“Sharpedo, stick nearby me.” Sharpedo growled in affirmation before disappearing beneath the waves.

Maressa sat and watched the waves gently crash, forming foamy white tops on the grey-blue sea. Blood rushed through her veins; she wasn’t worried about battling another Sharpedo. She had managed to wrestle her own Sharpedo and convince him to join her team—her concern was the Team Aqua members she was sure were connected to him. When she saw the speck disappear, she stood up, her body tensing.

A Sharpedo—similar to hers, but much smaller—leapt out of the water right towards Maressa, his mouth open wide to display hundreds of serrated teeth. Maressa dropped to the ground as it sailed over her and landed on the rock about ten feet away. The Sharpedo growled and tried to hop over to Maressa, snapping its jaws at an alarming rate.

But Maressa had tamed a Sharpedo before, and so she ran over and threw her weight on it, her wetsuit protecting her from the worst of the Pokemon’s rough skin. She pressed down as hard as she could with her body weight, trying to pin it down and keep it out of water for as long as possible. It couldn’t breathe long out of the water—it would asphyxiate quickly. From the top of its dorsal fin to the bottom of its pectoral fin, it was perhaps five feet tall. Maressa panted, sweat beading on the top of her forehead as the Dark-type struggled beneath her.

“You wanna tell me why you were spying on me?” she asked. She knew she wouldn’t be able to understand it, since she could only understand her own Pokemon—as it was with most trainers. But maybe her Pokemon could understand it and relay information to her—

As the thought crossed her mind, the Sharpedo shot a stream of water from its mouth, rocketing itself and Maressa into the ocean. Panic shot into Maressa’s heart as she hit the water, but in less than a second, her own Sharpedo darted forward, his mouth enclosing around the smaller one. Lungs fit to burst, Maressa frantically swam to the surface and watched her Sharpedo zip around, shaking and crunching on the smaller Sharpedo in his jaws.

Maressa swam back to the rock just as Golduck clambered out.

After he helped Maressa out of the water, Golduck relayed what had happened. He had tried to talk to the Sharpedo, but as soon as he approached, it bolted towards her. It was much faster than himself, so it took him a while to catch up to it—though Maressa’s Sharpedo had already taken care of things.

Golduck glanced up at the sky, and his vermilion eyes widened, horrified.

“What?” Maressa asked.

But she had the answer to her own question as soon as she looked up and saw the same group of Wingull circling overhead as before. She felt guilty for not giving it a second thought when she first saw them.

She gulped.

“Those aren’t wild, are they?” she asked in a small voice.

Golduck quacked softly. No, he didn’t think they were.

“Sharpedo!” Maressa called.

Her Pokemon stopped vigorously shaking his head and looked questioningly at her, the smaller Sharpedo gasping from within his jaws.

“Knock him out real quick, we gotta go!”

But Sharpedo just stared blankly back. A second later, Maressa heard thunderous splashing behind her and wheeled around to see a dark blue submarine emerge from the ocean depths.

Maressa’s throat tightened; her insides knotted themselves. Her heart raced uncontrollably. All she wanted to do was run, run far away, and never come back—but her body wouldn’t move. She couldn’t feel anything, couldn’t think anything. She could only stand there and watch the submarine station itself right in front of her. There was nothing left to do.

Golduck moved in front of her, staring defiantly at the ship, determined to defend his trainer to the end.

The hatch of the submarine opened, and the first person to come out had wild red hair tied back by a blue bandana.

“Maressa!”

Shelly jumped out of the hatch and ran across the top of the submarine, leaping impressively from the edge of the vessel to the flat rock Maressa and Golduck stood on.

Maressa put her hand on Golduck’s shoulder and whispered, “Don’t do anything.”

Shelly ran to Maressa and—Maressa couldn’t believe it. Shelly was smiling.

She stopped right before Maressa and Golduck, looking relieved and ecstatic.

“You’re okay!”

Maressa stared.

Shelly laughed and opened her arms. “What? Didn’t think you’d see us again so soon?”

“Well—no,” Maressa admitted. Her heart still raced, and she constantly fought the urge to run and hide. Beside her, Golduck and Sharpedo stared blankly at Shelly.

Shelly laughed. “We didn’t really intend to find you out here, either. I mean, after Matt—" Shelly cut herself off and closed her eyes. The smile vanished from her face and she pursed her lips, clenching her fists. After a second, she shook her head, opened her eyes and said, “Well, before anything else, let me hear your side of the story about what happened.”

“My side?”

“Yes. Of course, Matt was able to find us more easily and return to us, and as you were left alone with two Pokemon League members chasing you, I’d expect you to lay low for a bit. But anyway, come inside, then you can tell me all about it.”

“And what was this about?” Maressa asked, pointing to the small Sharpedo dangling from the jaws of her own.

“Oh,” Shelly said nonchalantly. She took out a Pokeball and withdrew her Sharpedo. “We’ve been keeping an eye out for any nearby civilians who might spot us. We have recorders attached to our lookout Pokemon so they can tell us if anyone’s around. Some Wingull thought they recognized you, and when you spoke into Sharpedo’s recorder, I knew it was your voice. But Sharpedo didn’t recognize you, so he tried to scare you away.”

“Tried to take my head off, more like,” Maressa grumbled. But Shelly didn’t seem to hear.

“Didn’t you have a third Pokemon?” the Aqua commander asked, looking at Golduck and Sharpedo.

“Yeah, Lanturn is diving at the moment.”

“Do you know where? We can send a Pokemon to go retrieve her while we’re in the sub.”

“I got it,” Maressa said, and before Shelly could say anything else, she went to Sharpedo and bent down. Looking directly in his large, red eyes, she said slowly, “Sharpedo, I want you to dive down and find Lanturn. Tell her to come back to this submarine with no one and nothing else. You got that? Make sure that it’s just her.”

Sharpedo stared back blankly. Maressa clenched her hands in frustration—Sharpedo wasn’t getting her message.

Golduck came over and quacked softly, telling Sharpedo that Lanturn was to leave the Orbs behind. Sharpedo growled in affirmative and dove into the sea.

Maressa stood up slowly, her hands shaking slightly and heart pounding with nervousness as she faced Shelly. Fortunately, her commander didn’t seem to understand what Golduck had said.

“All right, we can’t dawdle around all day. Your Pokemon will find us pretty easily; this submarine isn’t exactly subtle.” With that, Shelly turned and got back onto the boat, waiting for Maressa to join her.

Maressa and Golduck exchanged a look. What could they do?

There was nothing to do but to go with it—and pray that things would somehow work out.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Hi everyone! Apologies for my delay--life got super hectic. Last week especially, since I defended my master's thesis, so I had to sum up all of the work I'd been doing for the past three years. And this past week I just turned in my manuscript. Hopefully things are slowing down a bit and I can get back to a weekly pace!

Here's chapter 24, and I hope you enjoy!



Chapter 24

Steven gazed across the table at Tate. The day before, word came to him that Tate had been found, and in the most unlikely of places: the Mauville City Gym. The poor kid had been taken to the hospital, and once he was released, was immediately brought home to Mossdeep City, where his family awaited him. Once he heard that Tate was back, Steven went to Mossdeep and asked Tate’s family if he could visit and apologize to the boy for his ordeal—and ask him questions, if he was in a suitable state.

Though Mossdeep was also his hometown, Steven had to forego meeting his own family. The crisp sea air and taste of salt on his tongue instantly made him feel at home, as did feeling the humidity that seeped from the murky waters of the mangrove marshes. His heart sank a little seeing the old cliffside caves he used to play in throughout his childhood—he had spent countless hours in there with Metagross (only a Beldum at the time) studying every single strange rock he laid eyes on and playing make-believe: rescuing princesses, exploring unknown territories, and saving nations from bad guys who wanted to destroy them.

He shook his head, trying to shake away the memories. And though Steven would have loved to visit his parents and younger brother, he knew that meeting with Tate was more urgent.

Later that afternoon, Steven was in the kid’s house, sitting cross-legged on a cushion, listening as Tate spoke. A Kirlia, belonging to the boy’s mother, sat with them. The red horns on his head glowed as he kept the boy in a calm, soothed state. Perhaps it was because of the Pokemon’s power keeping the boy’s emotions under control, but Tate spoke in an almost methodical way. Steven made a mental note to personally find a therapist for him.

As Tate spoke of his time in Team Magma—of the people he saw while he was there, and of someone who helped him out—the glazed-over look on his face suddenly vanished. His bright blue eyes lit up, and he looked scared.

“Jirachi!”

Steven sat up straight. “What is it?”

“He—he’s so angry, I can tell. I felt him, but he was so faint. But he’s so strong, and he’s so mad! He—”

Tate boy stopped speaking, his eyes darting around the room frantically. He jumped to his feet. “I think he’s going to do something horrible! I need to get him to stop!

“Jirachi! Stop it!” he shouted.

He stood still for a second, panting. “I can’t reach him! He won’t listen to me—I don’t think he can feel me! Guys, I need you to help!” He took three Pokeballs out of his pocket and sent out a Solrock, a Xatu and a Slowking. “I need you guys to help get Jirachi to listen to me, or I think he’ll kill someone!”

The three Pokemon looked slightly confused, but all closed their eyes without hesitation. All Steven could see was the four of them standing still. But after a few seconds, beads of sweat rolled down Tate’s forehead, and he breathed heavily. His face turned bright red, and veins stuck out on his neck and forehead. None of his Pokemon could sweat, but each of them kept his eyes tightly squeezed shut.

All of their eyes opened at once. Tate looked horror-stricken and gasped.

“No! No, he can’t do that! Jirachi, Jirachi STOP!” he shouted.

Steven heard footsteps, and Tate’s mom appeared in the doorway, looking at her son with concern. “Tate! What’s happening?” she asked fearfully.

“Jirachi, don’t hurt anyone else! Just come home, please!”

At Tate’s last word, Steven felt a ripple of energy through the air, as though he stepped into an electric field. Tate’s mental presence—merely brushing his mind before—pressed strongly on his own. Steven gasped, clutching his head in pain at the feeling of lances being drilled into his skull.

And then it vanished. The presence was still there, but it was one of overwhelming joy. Steven blinked against the brilliant light that suddenly filled the room: a bright gold-and-silver ball of light hung in the air before Tate. As Steven watched, the light dimmed, revealing a small creature with wish-tags dangling from its stellar form.

Tate’s blue eyes shone as tears filled them. He laughed and embraced the little imp. Steven couldn’t help but smile—Tate’s joy infected his own mind, lifted his spirits, and made him laugh with excitement. There was a sense of wholeness, as though a part of his soul that had been missing his whole life was suddenly found. He felt ways that he didn’t know were possible, using parts of his heart that he didn’t know existed. He felt alive.

In addition to Tate’s infectious joy, Steven was struck dumb with disbelief. He could hardly believe it—it was Jirachi. A creature that everyone thought was only myth—but it was here, right in front of him! A Pokemon that had been around since perhaps the creation of earth itself… What was the proper way to react? And Steven couldn’t help but wonder what sort of rocks and caves Jirachi hid away in those thousands of years…

After a moment, Steven saw their joy but no longer felt it. Jirachi and Tate closed off their psychic connections from others as they embraced, dancing about and chattering happily. A million ideas ran through Steven’s head at once. Choosing his words carefully, he spoke.

“It’s good to see you’re all right, Jirachi. But why didn’t you come to Tate sooner? Why did you wait so long?”

The two stopped their cavorting and looked at Steven. As Jirachi stared at him with large brown eyes, Steven felt an alien presence touch his mind, and an immense power hiding beneath it. A soft, childlike voice spoke.

I slept, the voice echoed in his head. Team Magma had me attack Team Aqua for days. It made me really tired. I had to sleep a lot. And I wasn’t always allowed to check on Tate. Sometimes, they sent me right out once I woke up. But the last time I checked on Tate, he was gone. So now I’m here!

“You were going to Team Aqua’s bases?”

Steven’s mind ran a mile a minute. If Jirachi was at Team Aqua’s bases, then it might know where the Orbs were. He felt like this was a bad time to bring it up, but Jirachi was to disappear that very night. It was his last chance.

“Do you know anything about the Red and Blue Orbs? About where Team Aqua might be holding them?”

Steven held his breath. If they could get the Orbs, then he wouldn’t need the legendary golems at all, or the drawbacks that they came with.

The Pokemon looked dolefully at Steven and shook its golden head.

I can’t do anything about those. The Team Magma leader wanted them, too, but they belong to Pokemon different from me. They’re not normal objects. I don’t have power over them.

Steven’s heart sank.

“You don’t? But… You don’t even know where they are? You didn’t see if Team Aqua had them? I’m almost sure that they do.”

Jirachi frowned. I didn’t see them. But if they had them, wouldn’t they have already woken up Kyogre?

This ultimately didn’t do much to lift Steven’s spirits. He wouldn’t consider Hoenn safe unless he knew for sure where the Orbs were.

Tate held Jirachi in his arms and said, “Come on, Jirachi, let’s go play!”

“Tate, wait! I still need to talk—“

But Tate wouldn’t have any of it. Without Kirlia keeping his emotions in check, tears fell from his eyes and he started sobbing.

“No!” he cried. “Today is Jirachi’s last day, and this is the first time I can talk to him! He’s going to leave soon, and I haven’t had any time with him at all! Just leave us alone!” Without any further warning, the two of them vanished in a flash of light.

Steven and Kirlia stood there, staring in shock at the place the duo had disappeared. Steven gritted his teeth—both out of frustration and fear. Jirachi was the one Pokemon who could bring them the Orbs, but Tate refused to listen to reason. If either Team had the Orbs, then using the legendary golems would be Hoenn’s only hope at staying safe—and Steven knew what that meant for him…

His entire plan was going to be messed up because of a child! Did Tate honestly care more about playing with a Pokemon than about saving the world?

Walking over to the open door, Steven took a Pokeball off his belt and unleashed his Metagross. The Steel-type opened his great mouth, taking a good minute or so to yawn before gazing blearily at his owner with blood-red eyes. Why did Steven bring him to this place? And why at this time of the day? No one was up and about.

“It’s not early, Metagross, you just sleep in too late. And I need you to locate Tate and Jirachi.”

Metagross’s steel-slab eyelids closed as he used his psychic energy to feel all living beings nearby. They opened again a second later. He growled.

The boy and the Pokemon were on a nearby hill, playing under a tree.

“Let’s go talk to them.”

Metagross stuck out an iron leg in front of Steven. Perhaps it would be better if Metagross talked to them; he had heard them shouting from within his Pokeball, and they didn’t seem too keen on listening to Steven.

Steven pursed his lips. “Fine. I trust you.” As Metagross floated off, Steven called out, “Be gentle, but be firm! Don’t do anything that will make them run away—”

Metagross cut him off with a deep rumble, affirming that he could handle it.

Crossing his arms, Steven stared after his Pokemon as it disappeared over the green grass. Metagross probably did stand a better chance than Steven did of talking to Jirachi, but Steven had a hard time entrusting jobs like this to anyone else.

Steven looked over his shoulder to see Tate’s mom and Kirlia staring at him, looking uncertain. He sighed. He really didn’t look forward to explaining this.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Forty-five minutes later—after which Steven awkwardly explained the Pokemon League’s situation with Teams Aqua and Magma to Tate’s mother and talked about hiring a therapist for him—Steven looked up at a tapping sound. Metagross hovered just outside the house, looking through a window at his trainer. The Steel-type was far too big to get through the doorway, and was poking the glass panes with an iron claw.

Steven excused himself and went outside.

“How did everything go? Did you talk to them?”

Metagross nodded and rumbled. He first spent thirty minutes playing tag with Tate and his Pokemon, and then Jirachi agreed to talk to him—they said that they would talk to Steven, too, for a little bit.

Metagross led his trainer over some hills to where the boy and the legendary Pokemon played. As Steven approached Jirachi, his heart pounded in his chest. Could Jirachi really make any wish come true? What could Steven wish for? For Teams Aqua and Magma to be destroyed? For their leaders to be imprisoned? For the safety of everyone in Hoenn? For him to never need to awaken the golems?

As Steven and Metagross approached, Jirachi looked up and gazed gently into Steven’s eyes.

I see your thoughts, Steven. I see your heart. And I know what you are afraid of. And I can’t promise what the future will be like. There are some things that are too late to wish for. It took me six days to destroy several Team Aqua bases. I can’t destroy both teams in only a few hours. I don’t even know if I can get their leaders and bring them to you. And I can’t do anything after I’m asleep. Then you’re on your own.

Jirachi’s words hit Steven like a hammer blow.

Anything Jirachi did now could be undone later on. If all of the Teams’ commanders and leaders imprisoned, they could always get out. There may always be members of Team Magma and Team Aqua lying hidden, waiting to free anyone imprisoned…

“But…” he said weakly, “can’t something be done? Can’t you get the Orbs manually? I’m almost sure that Team Aqua has them.”

Jirachi looked at him curiously. I don’t have time to look for a Team Aqua base. Team Magma told me where some were. I had to find the rest on my own, and it could take days just to find one.

Steven paused; he looked off into the distance where the sea sparkled in the midday sun, thinking hard.

He would speak of it with other members of the Pokemon League and see what they thought. As he pondered Jirachi’s words, a feeling of helplessness overwhelmed him, and terror stirred deep within his heart.

He was at a loss of what to do. Bowing his head, he thanked Jirachi, and apologized again for failing to keep him safe.

Not your fault, Jirachi’s voice echoed in his head as he walked away. Tate and Liza were the only Pokemon League members in Mossdeep, anyway.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Night blanketed the sky over Mossdeep; people gathered outside everywhere to gaze at the comet on its last day. Steven, Drake, Glacia, and Sidney made their way over to the white rock that people had gathered around just seven days ago. Now, the crowd was so thick Steven could hardly make his way through it—he almost never had trouble getting through crowds. Cameras, reporters, and TV crews thronged about the white rock and the little boy with the luminescent Pokemon floating next to him.

After talking to Jirachi that afternoon, Steven held a video conference with other members of the Pokemon League, all of whom wanted to come to Mossdeep once they heard Jirachi was back and would disappear that night. The majority of them were too far away to make it in time, and only those in Evergrande City were close enough to get there before nightfall. The conference took hours—Phoebe, Tate and Liza were absent, but eleven people was still too many. Everyone had different ideas of what to wish for, none of which Steven was confident would work, and no conclusion was reached.

By the time the conference ended, the rest of the Elite Four decided they would come to Mossdeep and see if there was anything that could be done.

The four of them looked at the duo before the white rock. The boy and Jirachi ignored everyone around them—they had eyes only for each other. Tears ran down Tate’s cheeks as he sobbed.

“I don’t understand why you have to go,” he said thickly. “We hardly had any time together! Can’t you just stay here with me?”

Jirachi looked sadly at his friend, saying things that only the boy could hear. After a few seconds, Tate burst into more tears and hugged the golden imp.

Steven didn’t want to break up the tender moment, but knew he had no choice. His sympathy was severely limited by the urgency of their greater situation. Jirachi was the only Pokemon who could do anything about Team Magma or Team Aqua, and he was about disappear for the next millennium. Steven had to try.

Tate looked up as the Pokemon Champion approached, but all he could do was keep hugging Jirachi and cry.

“Steven, please make Jirachi stay,” he sobbed.

“Tate, if I could do so, then I would. But I can’t—Jirachi is outside of anyone’s control. But Tate, please listen to me. Jirachi is about to leave, but Team Magma and Team Aqua are still out there and they might awaken dangerous Pokemon and cause a lot of destruction soon.”

Sidney spoke up. “Jirachi saw a lot of Team Magma members before, right? Can you find them again and bring them right here?”

The imp closed his eyes for a second, his tags fluttering, then opened them again. I can’t sense them. They must have Dark Pokemon with them. Their presence blocks my psychic power—as you know, he finished with a bitter glare at Sidney.

Glacia said, “What about the Team Aqua members? You saw some of them, right? Can you do anything about them?”

Jirachi shook his head; he couldn’t sense any of them at the moment, either.

Drake scowled, looking hard at Jirachi. “Isn’t there something that can be done, though? Another legendary Pokemon besides Groudon and Kyogre—or another object in addition to the Orbs? I feel like there is… I vaguely remember something, but the names and details escape me…”

“Please,” Steven begged. “Can’t you send anyone to help us? Or tell us what to do?”

Jirachi closed his eyes for a moment, the tags on his head levitating. Steven felt a wave of energy pulse through him, and when Jirachi opened his eyes, there was a burst of white light—and a completely unfamiliar man standing next to them.

The man had brown hair that curled slightly, and his dark eyes darted around in bewilderment. His white lab coat was stained red from his shoulder, which was torn up and bleeding freely.

The Elite Four members had no time to ask questions before a searing pain shot through each of their skulls. Steven saw all of his memories laid bare: growing up on Mossdeep, playing with his little brother, digging in the dirt and studying the rocks outside his home, reading geology and mythology books in his spare time, and learning of a green dragon who could calm raging seas and dim the light of a blazing sun.

That was it.

Steven gasped as the psychic hold let go of his mind. His insides churned, and he felt a wave of nausea sweep over him. Breathing deeply, Steven took several gulps of air to avoid getting sick. His thoughts organized themselves again, but the image of a vivid green dragon remained at the forefront of his mind. He learned about that dragon growing up—it was one of the central characters in Hoenn myths and fairy tales. But that was all it was: a myth.

Just a myth.

How could he actually believe that anymore? With Jirachi floating in front of him and what Phoebe told him about the golems, he knew that all myths were true—at least to an extent.

Jirachi gazed at Steven.

I think this guy can help. He helped me. And I looked through your memories. You already know what to do. I just made you remember. The Pokemon looked at Tate and smiled. The flap of skin on his stomach opened wide, showing a shocking red eye that gazed around at the people surrounding them. The imp’s body glowed brilliantly, silver mixing with gold, the brightness increasing in intensity until it was a radiant ball of white light, the features of his face barely discernible. Jirachi rose in the air, a star set against the black canvas of night.

But now, I really must go.

Tate kept his arms outstretched, sobbing hard, begging Jirachi to not leave, but to stay. Why couldn’t he just stay? He and Tate hardly got to play together, but he made Tate happier and more alive than ever before. And Tate promised that he could give Jirachi a comfortable home with good food and place to sleep, if only Jirachi would just stay!

Eyes sparkling, Jirachi gazed kindly at the boy. A smile remained etched onto Jirachi’s face as his yellow tails wrapped around his body and he disappeared in a luminescent shroud. The creature dipped into the white rock, vanishing beneath its surface as though it were liquid. Then the white glow faded, and he was gone.

Tate’s scream was agonizing. He pressed his body against the rock, sobbing hard.

“I can’t feel him anymore! I can’t! But he has to be here—he has to be!” His sister was hugging him, tears streaming from her eyes too, though she was much more composed.

“Tate, it’s okay!” Liza said, her face lined with tears of her own. “Just let go now—let’s go home! Let’s go back with Mama and Baba and all of our Pokemon. We’re still here, and we all still care about you!”

But Steven was only half-listening—he could only think of the shining, slender dragon. He remembered now. As a child, he looked at picture books on Hoenn mythology, and the “Weather Trio” was featured most prominently among the legends. One represented land, one represented water—both were incredibly powerful, gods among beasts, but neither of them held any power over the creature of the sky.

Rayquaza.

It was just as important as Groudon and Kyogre, but in some ways, overlooked. The Red and Blue Orbs existed to control the behemoth and leviathan, but there was nothing to possess the Ziz. All his picture books said that it rested in the highest room of the tallest tower in Hoenn, and one only had to go up to awaken it.

Steven could hardly believe it. There was a way. If Groudon and Kyogre woke up, then he could summon Rayquaza and return everything to normal!

He looked around; Sidney, Glacia and Drake all looked rather dazed. Drake’s eyes met Steven’s, and the Champion knew they were thinking the same thing.

“Tate? Is that you?”

Steven’s train of thought was cut off as he looked at the bloodied man that Jirachi had transported there. Until the man had spoken, Steven had forgotten all about him.

Tate looked up and cried, “Derek! Jirachi is gone!”

“Tate, do you know this man?” Steven asked.

“Yeah, he saved me from Team Magma. But Derek, you’re covered in blood! What happened to you?”

Steven eyed him distrustfully. “Who exactly are you?”

“I’m Derek—I was on Team Magma, but I just betrayed them and they’ll be looking everywhere for me. But please, I need your help. My friend is in danger—they’ll kill her if we don’t do something soon. I can tell you anything you need to know, I know all about Team Magma’s bases, I know where the Red and Blue Orbs are—“

“You know where the Orbs are?”

“Sort of, but we have to act now—“

Steven cut him off.

“Come with me, and tell me everything.”

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Hi everyone! Apologies this is a few days late. Here is chapter 25. This is one part of the story that I as the most excited to write and have been working on it for a long time. I hope you enjoy it!

I'll hopefully have chapter 26 up later this week, but considering I'm getting hit by a big storm, I might be out of power and/or wifi for a few days or weeks. I'll hope for the best.



Chapter 25



Maressa and Golduck followed Shelly into the submarine through narrow metal halls. Team Aqua members passed by her, shooting curious glances. Maressa avoided making eye contact; she wouldn’t be able to handle seeing familiar faces and the flood of emotion that was sure to come with it. Shelly led her and Golduck into a small room with two large computer monitor and a few chairs.

“Take a seat,” she said.

Maressa sat down gingerly while Golduck stood at her side. Though Golduck looked relaxed, his eyes were intensely locked on Shelly.

“Now, how about you tell me you side of the story.”

“My side?” Maressa asked faintly.

“Yes, about what happened the other day when you were with Matt and the Pokemon League members.”

Maressa didn’t know what to say. Her mouth was totally dry. Her mind didn’t seem to work. She spoke slowly, her thoughts forming as they came out of her mouth.

“Matt and I… We fought Phoebe and Liza. The area was all strange—it was stormy, but with no rain. There was a lot of lightning, and pieces of the riverbank were falling into the river.”

Her mind began to work as she spoke; her thoughts formed more clearly as she played out the scene in her mind’s eye.

“We all met in the little cave just next to the waterfall, and Phoebe had the Orbs, and the cave just suddenly—it fell apart. We were right next to the entrance, and it’s not that high up, so we were okay. But everything just collapsed around us and we were buried under it all. My Golduck got the two of us out, and Liza and Phoebe looked like they were about to get away. Then Matt and his Crawdaunt got out of the rubble and started fighting Lunatone and Dusclops.

“So, Matt and I fought them, and…” She looked up, her golden gaze meeting Shelly’s red eyes. Her heart pounded furiously in her chest; her mouth was dry; she clenched her hands to stop them from shaking, trying to prepare herself for what she was about to say.

“They were too strong. We couldn’t beat them. There was one point where her Dusclops picked me up and threw me around—the riverbank was falling into the river, and I ended up falling in, too. Golduck came after me, and the current was too strong to swim against—we were swept away, and… yeah,” she finished lamely.

Shelly nodded.

“And so you got to Mauville and then went into the sea because…?”

Maressa’s heart knotted.

“I wanted to search for Seaking.”

Shelly sighed and nodded.

“Well, that is a much more believable story than what Matt said. He told us that you took the Orbs and tried to fight him to steal them away, and that a wild Gloom started attacking him.” She looked kindly at Maressa. “I know what he thinks about you Maressa, and that he’d be happy to throw you under the bus if it means saving his own skin.”

She stood up, pacing around the room.

“And I’ve been telling Archie for ages that he shouldn’t give Matt so much responsibility. Oh, I understand why Archie wants Matt around—for what Matt does, he’s very good at it. But so irresponsible! He’s been abusing his power since day one, and has tried pulling strings to just to promote those he favors and get back at anyone he doesn’t like. And it’s only gotten worse, and so many women on Team Aqua have come to me complaining about him—and I’ve told Archie, but he keeps giving Matt second chances! Oh, but I’ve got him this time, I’ve got him!” Maressa heard a note of badly-suppressed glee in Shelly’s last sentence.

Shelly stopped pacing and looked at Maressa.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you’re not in any trouble for this. As for looking for your Seaking…” Sighing, she said, “Maressa, you need to face facts. He’s been gone for weeks. If he was trying to find Team Aqua, he probably would have found one of our bases or ships by now.”

Her gaze softened as Maressa’s eyes filled with tears.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t know first-hand how it feels to lose a Pokemon, but I know it’s hard for you.” Reaching out, she wrapped her arms around Maressa.

Part of Maressa wanted to recoil at how unnatural Shelly’s hug felt. She had never been this close to the commander, and never had a desire to be. Her hug wasn’t warm and cozy; it was awkward and oddly spacious, as if Shelly wasn’t used to hugging and was learning it for the first time.

Shelly probably didn’t like it much, either, because in just a few seconds, she pulled back. But she still smiled gently when she looked at Maressa.

“But it’ll be okay—you’re back with us now! We’re going on a pretty fun expedition; I think you’ll enjoy it!”

Tears fell down Maressa’s cheeks as she nodded dumbly.

Grimacing, Shelly took out a handkerchief and handed it to Maressa, who wiped her face hastily. Shelly smiled as she explained, “We’re going to explore and study some ruins just west of here—old caves that have been around for thousands of years, or even longer! But, if you don’t want to,” she said as Maressa made no response, “you can just wait here. We shouldn’t be terribly long—this is just a quick initial check to see if there’s anything worthwhile, and we’ll send more people in later if we need it.”

Maressa said nothing, but Golduck quacked.

He was confused. If it was “just a quick check,” why were there so many ships?

Maressa relayed his words to Shelly. Her face expressionless, she slowly said, “There aren’t. It’s just this one sub—that’s it.”

But Golduck and Sharpedo had seen several submarines in the area—they were farther north and east than this one, but they were close by.

As Maressa told this to Shelly, the commander’s eyes opened wide. She looked at Golduck.

“Northeast of us? What did they look like?”

Golduck shrugged. He thought they looked just like this one—that’s why he thought they were all with Team Aqua.

Without a word, Shelly ran out of the room. As soon as the door closed behind the Aqua commander, Maressa let out several choked sobs and sank to her knees. Tears poured from her eyes as her chest heaved.

It was too much. It couldn’t be.

She was back. She was back. After she escaped them and had even a glimmer of hope of all her Pokemon reuniting again—all gone. Her lie wouldn’t hold up for long—her betrayal would be found out soon.

Golduck wrapped his arms around her. Maressa looked at him.

He was unlike she had ever seen him: his vermillion eyes were baggy, and the crest of his head seemed to sag. Totally defeated, full of disappointment—and guilt.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Golduck,” Maressa said as she returned his hug. “I really hoped that we were done with them for good, and now we’re just back to where we were!”

He let out a deep quack. It wasn’t her fault. He should have been able to keep her away from Team Aqua, to keep her—and the others—all safe. But he didn’t. Team Aqua still came, and he did nothing…

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Maressa held his face in her hands and—with difficulty—smiled at him. “This isn’t anyone’s fault. It just happened. They would have found me sooner or later, anyway. But don’t feel so bad—there’s nothing any of us could have done against all of them, trust me. We’ll figure something out. We always have.”

Keeping their arms around each other, they found comfort in the other’s presence. How long they were in that room, Maressa didn’t know. It was long enough for her sobs to stop, for her breathing to calm, and for her tears to dry. Perhaps it was half an hour, but she lost track of time, and slowly felt herself drift off…

When Shelly opened the door, Maressa snapped out of her daze.

“Come on. I need the both of you,” Shelly commanded.

Maressa and Golduck got up and followed Shelly, who jogged swiftly down the hallway.

“What’s going on?” Maressa asked warily.

“Team Magma. They’re in those ships following us—at least, I’m pretty sure it’s them. They’ve got something that prevents our radar from picking them up. We tried sending Pokemon after them, but they came back and told us they couldn’t do anything.” She glanced back at Maressa. “The longer you work with us, the more you’ll realize that this is an arms race in technology. But anyway, long story short, I decided it would be best to try and take them out. I don’t want them following us, and I don’t want to go off-course. We’re in the ocean; they can’t beat us. They’ll only have Flying-types with them, and we should deal with them fairly easily. Still, I called for back-up just in case.”

“You really think we’ll win? Even with how outnumbered we are?”

“I’m not too worried about it.”

“How did they find us in the first place?”

Shelly hesitated.

“I have a theory. We haven’t heard from some of our spies for a few days, and for Team Magma to have caught up to us so soon, I think the spies might have been caught. But we’ll see.”

The three of them made their way up a metal ladder and exited the top hatch of the submarine. Maressa winced at the bright sunlight as she walked on the slick metal. Several Team Aqua members were there, releasing Pokemon in flashes of white light. Gorebyss, Huntail, and Wailmer dove deep beneath the waves. Tentacruel and Seadra hovered just beneath the sea’s surface. Carvanha, Wiscash and Seaking churned up the water, creating white water.

As Maressa watched the Seaking splash about, she thought of her own Seaking, and her heart ached as much as ever. And with the guilt and sadness of her Seaking’s disappearance, the shame and sorrow of all other recent events washed over her again. And she didn’t even have Lanturn and Sharpedo with her this time.

What if they weren’t able to find her, either?

Her heart turned cold. Her throat constricted and she choked as she tried to hold back sobs. Tears came to her eyes again. Dimly, she heard Shelly’s voice.

“… Have the Tentacruel grab anyone who might fall in the water. If it’s Team Aqua, then throw them back aboard. Guard the Pelippers while they’re Stockpiling, because if anything hits them, it’ll blow up in their face. Maressa, your Golduck will primarily stay with us. Assuming your Lanturn and Sharpedo come back you’ll—oh…”

Maressa glanced up at her name. Shelly gazed at her with concern, her expression full of pity. Maressa hastily wiped her eyes as Shelly placed an arm around her shoulders and led her away from the Aqua members where they could talk more privately.

“Oh, Maressa, I’m sorry about this. I know you’re still upset over Seaking, and your Lanturn and Sharpedo are still gone. And I know you weren’t expecting to fight as soon as you got back. It’s a lot of pressure. But I’m asking you to do this because I know you can!”

Shelly placed her hands on Maressa’s shoulders and smiled gently at her.

“I know you’re still a great battler, and we’re not in real danger. If worst comes to worst, then we can always retreat into the sea. And I’m sure that your Lanturn and Sharpedo will come back soon.” She wiped fresh tears falling from Maressa’s face. “Going through this will make you stronger. And things will get better.”

Maressa laughed as she rubbed her nose.

“I never thought you’d be so nice to me.”

Shelly averted her eyes.

“Archie told me I needed to work on encouragement,” she said quietly. “But anyway, I know things will all work out—oh, look.”

Maressa heard the splashing water before she saw it. Snapping her head around, she saw walls of cascading white water as a large vessel penetrated the ocean surface. First, one submarine came out of the water, similar to the Aqua ones, but dark grey instead of deep blue. Several others followed it, forming a semi-circle around their prey. The hatch of the first one opened, and a Magma member stepped out, the white stripes on his pants indicating his rank.

Shelly walked to the edge of the submarine, standing at the fore of her team.

“You know, Tabitha,” she called, “I really don’t appreciate being followed. Seeing as we’re in the ocean and you have no advantage, I’ll let you off with a warning and you can do what you do best: retreat.”

Another Magma member emerged, hauling up a woman with bright pink hair wearing a Team Magma uniform. Maressa couldn’t see much from her distance, but she appeared unconscious—her body hung limply from the Magma member’s grasp, unmoving. Shelly clenched her fists at the sight of her.

“You don’t even want to say hi to her?” Tabitha called, indicating the unconscious woman. “She so generously told us all about you.”

“Let’s take them out quickly,” Shelly said to her team as more Team Magma members emerged from the submarines, sending out Pokemon of their own. The sky filled with Swellow and Golbat, along with the occasional Beautifly, Xatu, and Tropius. Maressa even spotted a Flygon, the sun shining through its translucent emerald wings. Commanders of both teams shouted at the same time.

“ATTACK!”

The result was chaos.

Maressa could hardly tell was going on. Each team seemed to have some sort of plan worked out—at least, the Pokemon all acted as units, whether dive-bombing, spraying a multitude of water jets, creating miniature twisters, or filling the air with beams of ice. Whirlpools clashed with gusts of air—within minutes, the sun was blocked, and torrents of rain lashed down on the combatants.

Maressa’s heart pounded furiously in her chest as she watched Pokemon clash and heard the screeches of their trainers. She looked down as someone tugged at her elbow. Golduck stood there, gesturing to the water. This chaos was their opportunity! They should try to leave!

Maressa nodded. Looking uncertainly at the roaring waters, she tried to figure if she could dive in and escape unscathed, unnoticed…

“Come on, Golduck!”

So saying, she ran through the group of Team Aqua members and stopped at the edge of the submarine—or rather, she tried to, but it was so slick with water and rocking in the waves that she slipped at the edge and fell in.

Panic engulfed her with the waves—she was immersed, couldn’t breathe, and was knocked around mercilessly beneath the relentless waters. Salt water filled her mouth and nostrils, stinging them painfully; her lungs burned, feeling ready to burst. She flailed her arms and legs, trying to right herself, trying to find a way up.

But there was no way up…

Seconds later—though it felt like ages—a large mass rose from beneath her and pushed her to the ocean’s surface. Choking, she spewed water out and took several deep breaths as the ocean rocked vigorously. She lay on her stomach, and saw Sharpedo beneath her, with Lanturn smiling next to them.

“Sh—Sharpedo,” she gasped. “Lan—turn… you guys made it? You saw it was me, even from down there?”

Lanturn chirped happily. They could always tell it was Maressa!

Maressa wanted to ask about the Orbs, but it was no idle place for chit-chat. Sharpedo struggled just to keep upright so Maressa could breathe, and Lanturn kept getting knocked about. Golduck swam over to join them, and like Lanturn, he kept getting sucked beneath the waters. With the return of her friends, Maressa’s fear evaporated as her heart beat with confidence. In spite of the danger they were in, joy ran through her veins. Now she felt ready to carry on!

“MARESSA!” Maressa looked up to see Shelly at the edge of the submarine, shouting just to be heard over the roar. “GET OUT AS QUICK AS YOU CAN!”

Even if she wanted to, she wasn’t sure if she could. Golduck told Lanturn and Sharpedo that they were trying to escape, but the three of them could hardly stay together. Maressa saw now why all the Pokemon acted as units: it was the only way they could move. It was easier to go with the flow than against it.

If it works for them, maybe it’ll work for us too, she figured.

“Golduck, Sharpedo, Lanturn! Pick a group of Pokemon and stick with them! If you see an opportunity to get out, take it!”

As Maressa clung to Sharpedo’s back, he joined several Carvanha and Seaking who were darting about at the water’s surface. Seeing a submarine with no one standing on it, Maressa got an idea.

“Sharpedo, see that submarine? Launch me at it!”

As he jumped out of the water, Maressa slid off his back and fell heavily on the surface of the submarine.

“Oof!”

She immediately slipped on her side—she knew she bruised her hip—but the rush of adrenaline blocked out pain. She got up and surveyed the battle. It seemed Team Aqua was doing well. As far as Maressa could tell, there were ample Pokemon in the water, creating as much ruckus as usual. She saw several Pelipper perched on a submarine, removed from the chaos, their bills have open as a bright, white light steadily grew from within.

Maressa looked down as she saw Lanturn up to her.

“Hey, Lanturn,” Maressa said, gesturing to the Pelipper, “you wanna hit them with a quick Hydro Pump, or something? Stop their attack before they launch it.”

Lanturn jumped with surprise. Did they still want to fight? Shouldn’t they just go?

“I think we can do something to hold them up for at least a bit. Keep them from tailing us too closely, y’know?”

Lanturn looked doubtful, but swam off nonetheless. As Maressa watched her go, Sharpedo came over, and Golduck followed shortly after. Both were breathing hard, but grateful they managed to escape the chaos. Sharpedo mentioned—with pride—that he bit someone’s wing and nearly took them into the water!

“Let’s get going once Lanturn gets back. And what happened to the Orbs?”

Sharpedo growled. Lanturn wedged them into a rock crevice somewhere nearby, deep in the ocean. Where was she?

BOOM!

Maressa was about to respond when an explosion shook the area. Maressa felt a wave of energy resonate through the air—the submarines rocked as the waves picked up in large swells. Thick clouds of smoke billowed from the bills of unconscious Pelipper atop Team Aqua’s submarine. Maressa’s face lit with a smile, and she laughed with relief.

But her laughter quickly died. In spite the success, something felt off. She didn’t know what, but there was almost a sort of presence—like someone watching her.

Turning her head, her stomach knotted with fear as she saw Tabitha standing on the boat next to her, staring straight at her. How long had he been doing that? Did he see what she did?

No time to find out.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” she called to her Pokemon as she ran across the sub, intending to jump into the calmer waters on the other side. But she had barely taken two steps before something knocked into her back and slammed her to the roof of the boat, compressing the air out of her as it settled. Twisting her neck to look up, she saw the Flygon from earlier crouching on her back. One of its wings had a jagged edge, as though something tried to take a bite out of it. Behind their red shields, its eyes were narrowed with fury.

Beyond, Maressa saw Tabitha rais his outstretched arms. A Xatu swooped down, grabbed them, and started flying him towards her. Panic, fear, and disbelief swept over Maressa. She had been found by Team Aqua, had a chance to escape, and was about to be caught by Team Magma again. If Tabitha got her, then that was it—there wasn’t hope for getting out. She couldn’t be caught by them again—she couldn’t, she couldn’t!

Maressa struggled against Flygon, but it was hopeless—he sat on her like a dead weight, rendering her completely helpless. Her heart raced with adrenaline and terror—there was only one thing to do.

If she was the only one in danger, being captured by Team Magma would still have been a horrifying prospect. But the well-being of her Pokemon was at stake—of her best friends, who, even though they argued and had their differences, had always supported her when she needed it. They stuck up for her when no one else did.

The least she could do was to keep them safe.

As Tabitha was about to touch down on her submarine, Maressa took three Pokeballs out of her pocket, and tapped them so that a blue light emanated from each button. The weight from her back—someone grabbed her upper arms and hauled to her feet. She didn’t turn to look—she tossed the empty halves of the Pokeballs on the ground and stomped on them as hard as she could. The shells sparked and cracked as she smashed them into pieces. With each stomp, pain ripped through her heart—it was like destroying parts of herself. But she kept at it until there was nothing but shattered bits of red-and-white metal.

Tabitha dragged her away from the Pokeballs and turned her to face him. He stared at her in utter confusion.

“What—?”

He was cut off by a loud, strangled quacking. Maressa looked down to see her three Pokemon staring at her. Each of their faces was torn with shock and betrayal—they knew what she had just done.

Maressa had no time to explain. Golduck grabbed Sharpedo’s fin and the two of them launched into the air, landing on the submarine. Golduck immediately pounced towards Tabitha, but was knocked back by Flygon whipping its tail. Golduck held on to the tail, glaring at the Dragon-type with a malice that chilled Maressa’s blood. He unleashed the strongest Hydro Pump that Maressa had ever seen, sending the Dragon-type flying. Before he could make another move, the Xatu dug its claws into Golduck’s shoulders and carried him over the battle in the water. Golduck shot a jet of water into Xatu’s face, and the Psychic-type dropped him back into the roaring waves.

“Golduck!” Maressa shouted.

But he disappeared from view, and all the noise in the world faded away…

At first, Maressa thought Tabitha was breathing unnaturally loudly in her ear, but she realized that the sounds of his breathing were the only sounds at all. The Flying-types all settled on submarines or on Pokemon in the water, and everyone stopped moving. The sea was unnaturally calm, its surface like pale grey glass. The sky was just the same—a shade of grey so pale it was nearly white, and the air and water were both silent and still. The bright sun was gone, and wispy clouds drifted through the air.

Maressa felt a familiar presence in her mind—entirely inhuman, yet immeasurably powerful. And she saw him: hanging in the air above the water, glowing bright gold and silver. He faced her, but his eyes looked past her—eyes filled with hate.

“Oh no,” Tabitha whispered. He was shaking.

Where’s Tate? A childlike voice echoed in Maressa’s mind.

“I—I don’t kn—know,” Tabitha stuttered.

You took him away.

Jirachi floated towards the two humans, and Maressa felt his power like an electric field, a power that also flooded into her mind, exposing all her thoughts and emotions. The nearer he floated, the stronger the field became, and Maressa’s grip over her emotions and thoughts became looser and looser.

I fought Team Aqua. I slept. I came back. And Tate was gone.

Jirachi was close now, and an invisible force pried Tabitha’s fingers off Maressa’s upper arms. Maressa’s heart skipped a beat as she saw all of the submarines—except for the one she was on and Team Aqua’s—floating in the air.

You took my friend. I’ll take yours.

All the floating submarines crumpled like balls of paper and fell back to the ocean, sinking beneath the glassy water with hardly a ripple.

Tabitha gasped sharply. He was floating in the air now, Jirachi hovering feet from his face. The energy force was stronger than ever—Tabitha’s clothes whipped wildly about, and Maressa’s hair billowed madly. Tears ran down her face—she had no control over her emotions, and all the stress from the past several weeks came out in sobs. Tabitha was white—speechless with shock and fear.

Jirachi suddenly broke his gaze from Tabitha. The Pokemon let out a soft gasp, all the anger and ill-intent gone. He once more appeared as a sad, scared little kid.

I’m coming.

And he vanished. The sky and water became blue again, and the sun shone once more. The ocean regained its natural rocking motion. But the submarines stayed beneath the waters.

Once Jirachi disappeared, Maressa collapsed to her hands and knees and Tabitha fell back to the submarine. He lay on the cold metal, breathing hard and fast—almost as if he was sobbing. He spoke into his headset.

“Lawrence? Lawrence? … Lawrence, come in…” Tabitha’s face scrunched up as he fought to keep himself under control. “Gregor, you still coming? I need you right now… I think I’m all that’s left.”

Maressa couldn’t move. As before, waves of nausea swept over her. Her sobbing stopped and she breathed deeply, fighting to keep the contents of her stomach down. It was as if Jirachi opened her mind and made a mess of it; her thoughts were disorganized and scattered, and she experienced a million emotions at once. And the horrible sight of those submarines crumpling kept replaying over and over in her mind…

She had no time to re-organize herself before someone pulled her to her feet. Searing pain shot through her shoulders, and her feet left the submarine. Her world was spinning—the submarine and ocean beneath her were disappearing—there was no up, no down, only lances through her shoulders, the chill of the air whipping her skin, and the full weight of her body being pulled along…

Purple light shot across her vision. She looked past her feet to find the source of light, but the movement made her nausea worse than ever and she emptied the contents of her stomach. As her vision cleared, she had a birds-eye view of the ocean: it spread out beneath her in all directions, dotted by countless Pokemon and two submarines. She saw Golduck swimming through the water as fast as he could, Sharpedo and Lanturn trailing slightly behind.

The three of them shot bursts of water, coordinating so that their attacks combined and slammed into the Altaria that was carrying Maressa by her shoulders. The Dragon-type let out a horrible yelp, and Maressa’s shoulders screamed in pain as she slipped out of Altaria’s claws. She was in the air for less than a second before the Flygon from before swooped in and caught her in its arms. It climbed up into the sky, going so high that falling into the water would be fatal. But she wasn’t high enough to be out of earshot.

She heard a scream. It was the most horrible sound she had ever heard. It snapped her out of her disorganized mindset and broke her heart.

It was her name—not in any human tongue, but in the sounds her Pokemon made. Maressa saw Lanturn, Sharpedo—and Golduck. Lanturn and Sharpedo swam frantically in circles, desperately wanting to do something. Golduck stood atop the submarine, staring at Maressa with the most torn-up look she had ever seen.

He screamed again.

She couldn’t leave them! She couldn’t go! Why did she release them? They could have saved her!

Tears fell hot and fast from Maressa’s eyes.

“I couldn’t let them hurt you! Take the Orbs—find the Pokemon League!”

Flygon flew east, leaving her Pokemon behind.

Golduck cried out again. They didn’t care about the Orbs, they cared about her!

He dove into the water and swam after her and Flygon, making all sorts of promises: he would protect all of them, he wouldn’t give her a hard time anymore, he would never blame her again for anything, he would become stronger—strong enough for all of them, just as long as she would please stay, because he couldn’t lose her again!

But he did. As he and the other two become nothing more than distant specks in the water, as tears froze onto Maressa’s cheeks from the chilly air, as her body went numb from cold, and as the red Team Magma helicopter came into view and Flygon flew in through the open hatch, Maressa realized that she lost her Pokemon.

Once it flew in, the Flygon dumped her onto the metal floor of the helicopter. Moments later, a Tropius flew in, and Tabitha slid off its back. People in red hoodies rushed over.

The Team Magma members ignored Maressa as she lay on the floor, probably because Tabitha wasn’t in a much better state. He leaned against the wall of the helicopter, shaking and breathing hard. His eyes were closed, and he looked as if he was trying not to vomit.

“Commander Tabitha… what happened?” a young woman asked.

“Where is everyone?” asked a man.

Tabitha held up a hand to stop the questions. Swallowing, he replied, “Jirachi came back… He left again, I don’t know why. I tried contacting Lawrence’s ship, but there was no response. The rest are destroyed.”

Silence.

“We tried to get here earlier,” said the man from before, “as soon as you called us in. But the sky became all weird… And we couldn’t get any further—we tried to, but something—some sort of force—kept pushing us back.”

Tabitha shook his head. “Not your fault… Nothing could be done.” He looked at Maressa lying on the floor. “Cormac, take her into the back. Sheila, give her a quick pat-down—I don’t think she has anything on her, but just in case. No one else contact her.”

The two Magma members did as ordered, and Cormac had to hold Maressa up like a child while a female Team Magma member patted her down. Maressa still felt nauseous—partly from the severe pain—her shoulders bled freely, and her legs wouldn’t work properly. Once the two Magma members finished and exited, Maressa sat propped up against the wall, sobbing.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Hi all! Apologies this is a week late; a storm took out power and water on most of my island for the last week. We're still recovering, but here's chapter 26!



Chapter 26



The helicopter flew onwards, the wind beating loudly on its metal walls. Pure darkness surrounded Maressa. Blood caked her shoulders where Altaria’s claws dug into her. Tears streamed from her pale amber eyes as she sniffled.

Maressa roughly fell on her side as the helicopter landed with a jerk. She heard people running around, shouting, and noises from unidentifiable Pokemon.

The outside noise quickly faded. Only her sobs punctuated the silence.

Maressa hugged herself. Her heart ached—it ached. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the submarines—nothing more than crumbled hunks of metal—sinking into the sea and Golduck staring at her in shock. His screams echoed in her head over and over.

I’ll become strong enough for you!

The door opened. She looked up. Tabitha stared down at her.

“Get up.”

She stood up and followed him out of the helicopter and into a hangar. The Magma commander led her through metal hallways. It was difficult to move—she was barefoot, and her wetsuit clung uncomfortably to her salty skin. Her hair was knotted and stuck to her neck and face every time she turned her head. After a moment, Tabitha stopped, looked around, and opened a side door. Maressa followed him inside.

He closed the door and turned the light on. It was cramped—they were in a small storage closet. He looked down at her, and Maressa raised her head to meet his eyes. For the first time, Maressa noticed how tired he looked. Lines dragged from the corners of his black eyes. His face was unusually pale, his eyes were bloodshot. But his gaze was confused and curious.

“What happened? Team Aqua was right there. Why did you release your Pokemon?”

Maressa stared back at him. She couldn’t speak.

Tabitha sighed and glanced around, looking apprehensive—even slightly scared.

“Look, just tell us everything you know right away—it’ll be much easier. Please, Maressa,” he said, staring intently at her.

Maressa stayed silent. Tabitha shook his head and led her out of the storage closet and down the hallway. He unlocked a door, told Maressa to go in, and left, locking the door behind her.

It was pitch-black inside. Maressa slowly sank to the floor. Her heart was heavy and throbbing. She wrapped her arms around her legs and tried to put her head on her knees, but her dry wetsuit severely inhibited her movements—the most she could do was lean forward slightly.

Her heart jumped—someone unlocked the door. Her head snapped up as the light flicked on.

“Derek!” she exclaimed as he closed the door.

The medic crouched down next to her, looking exactly as she remembered him—tousled dark hair, chestnut eyes, white scrubs, and a beaming smile.

“Maressa—you’re alive!” He gazed at her warmly, eagerly, drinking in what he thought was lost long ago. “How—how did you live? And how did you get back here?”

Maressa opened her mouth to speak, but only let out gasping sobs as emotion overwhelmed her. Tears flowed from her eyes once more. She inhaled deeply and rapidly started speaking.

“Derek—Derek I released my Pokemon—they’re gone, all gone—they’ll know I took the Orbs, that I betrayed my team—I can’t face them Derek, I can’t, I can’t—"

Derek shushed her, repeating her name and gazing directly into her amber eyes.

“Maressa—Maressa, Maressa look at me—look at me—Maressa, you’ll be fine, you’ll be fine.”

She sniffled, staring silently at him. The smile never faded from his face. His gaze was so gentle, so soft.

“They’re not going to find out anything,” he said determinedly. “I got you out of here once, didn’t I? I can do it again. Just wait for me.” He reached out and, grasping her hand, lightly squeezed her fingers. “I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”

He looked at her. And in his tender gaze, at the gentle squeeze of his hand, Maressa felt a small measure of warmth blossom in her heart.

Their gaze lasted for but a moment, as Derek abruptly stood up and left, locking the door behind him. He left the light on, and the room felt less lonely than before.

She gazed down at her hands: pruned from the salt water, scratched and roughed up from the Sharpedo’s skin.

What was Derek going to do? And how could he be so hopeful? Even if Maressa got out, how was she supposed to get anywhere or do anything without her Pokemon?

At the thought of her Pokemon, tears came to her eyes and she started sobbing again. But there weren’t many more tears or sobs left in her—a moment later, she stopped and sighed deeply.

Derek had some sort of plan. He promised to get her out, and he did succeed the first time, though not in the way he intended. She just had to wait for him. If she was interrogated by any members of Team Magma, she would refuse to speak. And once she was out, she would find her Pokemon—she would.

… Somehow…

She jolted as the door opened again. She smiled excitedly up at Derek as he walked in—but it wasn’t Derek.

It was Tabitha. Two people followed him in. Her face fell once she registered who it was, but he still noticed her smile. He furrowed his eyebrows but said nothing. Nervous, Maressa looked at the people who had followed him.

Both were clearly Team Magma members, though not dressed like anyone Maressa had seen. One was a woman with short, dark hair and a dark grey skirt that reached almost to her ankles. Her crimson eyes sparkled as she caught Maressa’s attention, and her face broke into a smile.

Dread flooded Maressa’s heart—she didn’t like that smile at all.

The other Team Magma member was a man wearing a red and grey coat over his dark grey pants. His scarlet hair framed a pallid face with deep-set eyes. His cold gaze swept calculatingly over Maressa.

“This is the Team Aqua member?” he asked Tabitha with a high-pitched, nasally voice.

“Yes, sir.”

“She’s not wearing their uniform.”

Tabitha said nothing but kept his eyes lowered.

“Are you a member of Team Aqua?” the man suddenly asked Maressa, his piercing gaze set on her.

Maressa was caught off-guard and stared blankly at him, unable to say anything.

“That sounds like a ‘yes,’ to me!” the woman chimed in.

The red-haired man nodded.

“I think so, Courtney.” His piercing gaze never left Maressa. “Tell us what you know about them.”

“Or we’ll make you!”

So saying, the woman took out a Pokeball and unleashed a Ninetales in a flash of white light. The cream-colored Pokemon shook her brilliant fur, ruffling all nine of her tails. Her scarlet, pupil-less eyes stared at Maressa as she walked towards her.

Chills shot down Maressa’s spine—she got to her feet and tried to back away from the creature, ending up in the middle of the room while the Fire-type walked in circles around her.

“Last chance.”

But Maressa wouldn’t speak—she didn’t know if she could. She was so stunned and scared that words failed her. And as she stared into the Ninetales’ eyes, the room around her darkened. Orbs of blue flame hovered around them—the temperature dropped several degrees. Maressa’s airway tightened, her heart raced as sweat beaded on her forehead. Ninetales’ scarlet eyes glowed in the darkness. The blue flames danced in a circle around Maressa, growing ever closer, temperature dropping all the more, the room becoming so cold that it sent lances of burning pain through her. She fell to her knees—the flames were almost upon her—

The entire scene vanished in an instant as the door flew off its hinges—the Team Magma woman had stood just in front of it and let out a glass-shattering shriek as it slammed into her. A Breloom leapt through the air, smacking Ninetales in the face with its clubbed tail. Green spores erupted from its tail on contact, and the Fire-type fell to the ground at once, unconscious.

Before Breloom could do anything else, a Mightyena and a Houndoom appeared in a flash of white light. The Houndoom snarled and shot jets of flame from its snout while the Mightyena chased Breloom around the room.

Someone grabbed Maressa’s upper arm and pulled her up—

Derek.

He started for the doorway, but the Mightyena leapt in front of him, baring its large white fangs. Maressa jerked her head around as she heard a horrible high-pitched cry—Houndoom finally caught Breloom, and the Grass-type was being roasted in a column of flame.

The red-haired man shouted, “Derek, what are you doing?”

He and Tabitha stared at Derek in anger and shock.

Derek placed himself between them and Maressa, letting go of her upper arm.

“I can’t let you do this, Maxie. I’m not going to stay around and let you hurt innocent people—"

“Innocent? She’s a member of Team Aqua!”

“She hasn’t done anything!”

“Team Aqua wants to flood the world, Derek. Anyone who works with them is dangerous!”

“But what about everyone else you’ve captured? What about those scientists, what about that child?”

“Everyone we capture is dangerous in some capacity—"

“Did you really expect any of us to sit around while we tortured a little kid?”

“It was you.”

Maxie and Derek looked Tabitha. His eyes were wide with shock.

“You released Tate and Jirachi.”

Derek breathed hard, staring straight at Tabitha.

“Yes. I wasn’t going to let—"

“Do you know what you’ve done? Do you know what happened to our team—”

“You released the Wishmaker, and now you’re freeing a Team Aqua member?” Maxie put in.

“Maressa’s not on Team Aqua anymore, she told me she left them—"

“Derek!”

He glanced back at Maressa, and the fury in his face turned to fear as he realized he said too much.

But Maxie didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were closed, and he was breathing hard.

“Derek, if you take back everything you just said—if you deny all of it—if you unhand the Team Aqua member, I will forget everything and you will be forgiven.”

“Maxie!” Tabitha exclaimed. He stared at his boss in utter shock. But Maxie put up a hand and Tabitha said no more.

Maxie opened his eyes. He glared at Derek.

“Well?”

Derek swallowed. He was shaking slightly.

“No.”

At Maxie’s command, the Mightyena leapt on top of Derek, knocking him and Maressa to the ground. Tabitha ran to Maressa and grabbed her arms and pulled her back while Mightyena ripped into Derek’s shoulder.

Derek let out an ear-splitting cry; Maressa screamed and fought to get out of Tabitha’s grip.

Loud noises came from the hallway: banging, shouting, and various Pokemon noises. Maressa barely noticed a blue blur zip across her vision, leaving a trail of dark smoke. Tabitha threw her to the ground, still hanging on to her. Black smoke filled the room, leaving a clean layer of air only about a foot high off the ground. Maressa felt a powerful ripple of energy—Mightyena let out a high-pitched howl, followed by a loud BANG! as something heavy hit a wall. Jets of flame surged through the smoke as the Houndoom tried to hit the unseen attackers.

Maressa looked up. Derek lay on the ground, breathing hard, his hand gripping his mangled shoulder. Grimacing, his face taught in agony, he raised his dark brown eyes to meet hers—then he was gone.

Maressa stared.

He was gone.

There was no trace of him, save for a few smears of blood. As the air cleared, there was no trace of the Golbat or whatever caused the psychic energy.

He left.

Maressa was hoisted to her feet and dragged through the room and out into the hallway. She numbly followed Tabitha wherever he was leading her—through various hallways, up some steps... Eventually they stopped before a door and stepped inside. He unlocked another door, pushed her in, and left.

The darkness pressed in and around Maressa. The sounds of pounding feet and shouts could dimly be heard from the hallway.

The image of Derek staring at her, lying on the ground, his shoulder covered in blood, was imprinted on her mind. All she could see in the blackness was Derek’s face.

How could Derek be gone? Why did he leave her? How did he leave her? Did he actually leave, or was this all some surreal dream?

Maressa’s heart beat furiously within her. Her mind couldn’t stop replaying everything she had just seen. All she could do was stand in the darkness, the only sound the pounding of her anxious heart.

She didn’t know how much time passed. But her head jerked up as the door opened and she flinched as the light flicked on.

Tabitha slammed the door behind him and stormed into the room. He tore his gloves off, threw them in his desk, and glared at Maressa.

“What happened?”

Maressa stared back at him.

“What happened?” he repeated forcefully. “Why did one of our team medics just knock an admin unconscious, tear through our base, admit that he had been working against us, and try to set an enemy free?” As he spoke, his voice rose to a shout. His black eyes bore into Maressa, and he was breathing heavily.

“Tell me everything you know. Everything about Team Aqua, about Derek, about whatever just happened.”

Maressa automatically shook her head.

Tabitha turned and left. Maressa flinched as he slammed the door behind him.

She waited.

A few moments later, Tabitha returned, dragging a woman behind him. Her blonde hair stuck to her sweaty face and her Team Aqua uniform was torn up. Tabitha took a Pokeball out of his pocket and released his Mightyena, who growled at the woman. She lifted her head; her blue eyes widened with fear once she saw the Pokemon. Then her eyes darted to Maressa.

“Sarah!”

Maressa bolted up and tried to rush to Sarah’s side—but Tabitha grabbed her and held her back.

“Let go of me!” she snapped.

But Tabitha didn’t look at her. He gazed coolly at Sarah, who eyed Mightyena warily.

“Tell me everything what you know, or Mightyena will attack her.”

Maressa’s heart plummeted with fear. Sarah glanced at her, looking terrified.

“Maressa, what—AAHH!” she broke into an ear-splitting scream as Mightyena leaped on her, knocking her on the ground and ripping into her shoulder. There was a bang as Sarah hit the floor, and Mightyena snarled as he dug into her flesh, filling the air with the iron scent of blood.

“No! Please!”

Maressa struggled uselessly in Tabitha’s grip. She looked back at him. His dark eyes gazed at her.

“Stop this, stop it—please, I’ll tell you what I know, I’ll tell you everything, I promise, just stop hurting Sarah!”

“Mightyena!” Tabitha called out, though his eyes were still locked on Maressa. Mightyena let go of Sarah and raised his head, his ears perked with curiosity. He licked Sarah’s blood from his muzzle. Sarah lay on the ground, sobbing audibly. “Take her outside.”

Tabitha released Maressa and opened the door. Mightyena grabbed Sarah by the neck of her shirt and dragged her through the open doorway.

“Ow!”

Sarah wailed as her open wounds dragged on the metal floor, leaving long smears of blood. Maressa jumped to help her—to lift her up, to do something—but Tabitha closed the door.

“What’s going to happen to her?” Maressa asked frantically.

“I promise you, Mightyena is not going to hurt her.” Tabitha crossed his arms and leaned against the door, staring at Maressa. “But unless you make good on your promise, that will change.

“Now,” he said, “tell me everything.”

Maressa closed her eyes, took a shuddering breath, and told Tabitha what she knew. As she spoke, tears started falling from her eyes. She told Tabitha about the friendship she had built with Derek—of how they bonded over being recent college graduates, of the friendships they had with their Pokemon, of Maressa’s horror at learning that Team Aqua wanted to awaken Kyogre, and of Derek choosing to set her free. She told Tabitha about ending up at Mossdeep, meeting the other Team Aqua members and Gloom, heading to Lilycove, meeting Archie and getting re-stationed near Fortree. She told him about fighting with Matt—at which point Tabitha’s eyebrows furrowed and he looked concerned—and how the two of them made an agreement with Liza and Phoebe to recover Tate and get the Orbs. She described the four of them fighting—altering the story so she never got the Orbs—about Gloom dying and her escape, her mission to find Seaking again, and unintentionally winding back up with Team Aqua. When she finished, she saw Tabitha still gazing intently at her.

“You’re hiding something.”

Maressa’s blood ran cold. She didn’t know how to defend herself.

“Why did you mention something about the Orbs when you released your Pokemon?”

Maressa said nothing—she blinked several times.

“Tell me what you’re hiding, or I’ll have Mightyena drag Sarah back in here. Did you take the Orbs?”

Maressa closed her eyes. She nodded.

“How?”

Maressa explained. When she finished, Tabitha stared at her, his eyes wide.

“So… now your Pokemon have the Orbs.”

She nodded again.

Tabitha gazed at her in wonder, his mouth hanging open slightly. He then leaned against the door, turning his gaze upward. He said nothing. Maressa cast her eyes down, unable to feel. She set her Pokemon free, but now betrayed them—they would be hunted down and captured, one way or another…

“Maressa.”

Tabitha spoke her name softly. She looked back up at him. He didn’t look angry at all, just surprised, as if he was still processing what he had heard.

“You haven’t told anyone else, have you?”

“Derek.”

“But no one on Team Aqua?”

“No.”

He nodded.

“I might still be able to help you.”

Straightening up, he said, “If your Pokemon are in the ocean with the Orbs, then our only hope of finding them is if we enlist Team Aqua’s help. And they would probably want you back—to make an example of how they treat a traitor, and as payback for the damage you’ve done.”

Maressa’s stomach churned. If she went back to Team Aqua… Matt already hated her. If she was to be treated as a prisoner, she knew what Matt would do to her. Her heart clenched with terror

“Or,” Tabitha cut off her line of thought, “I can take you to Maxie now and you can tell him everything you just told me, with the promise that, moving forward, you will assist Team Magma in any way possible.”

Maressa looked away from him.

“So… I either join you, or go back to Team Aqua as their prisoner?”

“And,” he added, and Maressa’s eyes flicked up to meet his, “Derek isn’t here to help you this time.”

Maressa wrapped her arms around herself as chills crept through her body.

To be sent back to Team Aqua or to join Team Magma…

“Maressa, join us. With your help, we’ll be able to find your Pokemon and you can be with them again. You won’t have to interact with the rest of Team Magma—I’ll watch over you and protect you. We would have you help us find the Orbs and fight with us—but that would be it. We won’t ask anything else from you.”

Maressa closed her eyes. She could join Team Magma—

And I’ll see my Pokemon again.

She envisioned seeing Golduck, Lanturn and Sharpedo. Seaking was still not with them. But she could at least see the other three—and they would find Seaking eventually. And none of them would mind working for Team Magma, right? After all, they never held any devotion to Team Aqua. She could be with them, and Team Magma would have the Orbs, and awaken Groudon, and turn the entire earth into a desert…

Maressa blinked, snapping herself out of her thoughts. She released her Pokemon so they wouldn’t be subject to whatever punishment she might face. She gave them the Orbs so that the teams wouldn’t get them. And, as long as her Pokemon were free, there was some hope of keeping the Orbs out of Team Aqua’s and Team Magma’s reach.

She stood silently. She didn’t want to respond, and she couldn’t feel anything. It all felt unreal—even that moment, standing and talking with Tabitha, felt like something out of a dream, as though it wasn’t happening. With an enormous amount of effort, her voice shook slightly as she spoke.

“I can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

Maressa swallowed, dropped her arms to her sides and opened her eyes. Tabitha looked surprised—and scared.

“I can’t join you. It’s against everything—I betrayed Team Aqua, but I can’t betray my Pokemon.”

His gaze softened considerably. Maressa had never seen him look that way before.

“You’d do anything for your Pokemon,” he murmured.

She nodded.

“Let me ask you a question, Maressa. What do you have waiting for you? What will you do if I release you?”

He gave her no chance to speak.

“You released your Pokemon and completely destroyed their Pokeballs, so they can’t be tracked down. They’re out in the ocean, and it’ll be nearly impossible for them to find you. Or are you thinking about your family? One that you’ve likely not seen or contacted since you started working with Team Aqua? How would they react to the news that you’ve joined a criminal organization and that you’ve caused massive damage to public property and endangered countless lives? Do you really think they would want to see you and help you after that? And I’d be surprised if you had friends who would take you in—if you’re like most of the grunts, then you haven’t kept in touch with anyone outside the teams. And how many people on Team Aqua do you know well enough that you consider them friends? And the one person who has been trying to help you abandoned you tonight.”

His words reverberated in Maressa’s ears as she tried to contemplate their meaning. Of course, she had never told her parents she joined Team Aqua. Once she had decided to join, she had announced that she had gotten a job, told them that she’d be out on a submarine in the ocean for a few months and would be out of contact. She wasn’t really lying, but she didn’t tell most of the truth.

And any friends that she had made while on Team Aqua weren’t that close; they might have a similar interest or two outside of helping the ocean, but there certainly wasn’t anyone she could confide her thoughts or heart in. Not even Cloe or Sarah—who had paid the price of her betrayal and secrecy. No, the only ones who really knew her anymore were her Pokemon.

The Pokemon.

She tried to push thoughts of them away. But she couldn’t. Tabitha’s words echoed in her head, and images of Golduck, Seaking, Lanturn and Sharpedo kept on flashing before her in her mind.

They’re gone.

She closed her eyes. There didn’t seem to be any tears left to cry. A coldness gripped her heart. They couldn’t really be gone. They couldn’t.

But they are.

She kept trying to hang on to the belief that they were still close by, that she would find them again. She would, of course she would. She would go to the ends of the world to find them, they knew that. And she was sure they would do the same for her.

But how? The ocean is so big.

She tottered slightly, feeling almost too tired to stand. When she found out Seaking was gone, she had hope of finding him again—when she was with Pokemon who could survive in the ocean. Now, it was just her, trying to find four Pokemon all on her own. And she was stuck in a Team Magma base as their prisoner, and Derek was no longer around to help her escape.

Her heart felt empty. She couldn’t stop images of her Pokemon appearing before her mind’s eye. She couldn’t stop going through memories of growing up with Psyduck and living with her parents and sister. She couldn’t do anything. And she was alone.

An arm wrapped around her and pulled her into a hug. Her face pressed into the shoulder of Tabitha’s red hoodie. He wrapped his other arm around her and leaned his face against her tangled hair.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Maressa stood there. There was no comfort in Tabitha’s embrace.

“Maressa, join me. I promise, I’ll protect you.”

She pulled back from Tabitha’s hug and looked up at him.

“I can’t.”

“You can’t, or you won’t? Stay with us. It’s the only protection I can offer you.”

Maressa looked into Tabitha’s dark eyes, but she didn’t really see him. She thought of Golduck—always trying to rescue her, always trying to become stronger. He frantically swam after her as Flygon carried her away; he protected her from Matt every time Matt struck her; he went along with her plan to slowly sabotage Team Aqua from the inside; he tried to protect her from Jirachi when it went tearing through their bases; he fought against Team Magma, the Slateport police—even when he was a Psyduck, he protected her from wild Loudred and Whismur in the Rusturf Tunnel, though there were hundreds of them and only one of him. And when he wasn’t strong enough to fight them all, he evolved—he evolved for Maressa, so she could stay safe. And if he could do all that for her, she could at least try to defend him once.

“I can’t.”

Tabitha’s gaze hardened.

“That’s your final answer?”

“Yes.”

He gazed at her, regretfully and—longingly? Maressa didn’t know. After a few seconds, Tabitha withdrew from their hug and left, closing the door behind him.

Maressa stood there, staring numbly at the door. She felt so heavy inside. She turned away from the door, and, for the first time, took in the rest of the room.

A bed stood against the wall across the doorway. To the left was a small desk. There was a single picture on the desk of a small, smiling boy with purple hair holding a Poochyena on his lap. To the left of the desk was a shelf with four black stone tablets. To the right of the bed was a closet, one of the doors hanging open loosely. And after the closet was a closed door. Maressa walked to the shelf, observing the tablets. A name was inscribed onto each one; they all held the same surname.

Maressa’s head jerked up as Tabitha walked back in the room. His eyes were downcast and he looked perturbed. He noticed Maressa looking at the tablets—and he looked hesitant. His eyes met hers and, for a moment, he just looked at her.

At last, he spoke.

“I just talked to Maxie. You’ll be sent back to Team Aqua tomorrow morning.”

This seemed odd to Maressa, but she said nothing.

Tabitha pursed his lips, his eyes darting around the room. At last, he asked, “Do you want to take a shower? You might not get another chance, and what with being outside in the water at all…” He trailed off awkwardly.

Maressa dropped her eyes to the ground. She nodded.

“I’ll get your water running and I’ll try to find you some clothes. I might not be able to find anything other than Team Magma uniforms.”

Maressa half-shrugged, her shoulders wincing in pain from the gashes caused by Altaria. Tabitha went through the other door, which Maressa realized led to a bathroom, and she heard water turn on. He then walked past her and left.

When Maressa first stepped into the shower, her shoulder wounds screamed with pain. Her skin burned—the water was scalding hot. She made herself stand under the water for a few minutes, enduring the searing pain in her shoulders. Eventually, the pain dulled into a throbbing. Maressa merely stood, no motivation to do anything. Without Tabitha to distract her, she couldn’t think.

And she was going back to Team Aqua. They knew of her betrayal. She didn’t have any Pokemon to help this time.

Everything was heavy inside. She turned off the water and grabbed a towel to dry herself. When she opened the bathroom door, Tabitha was nowhere to be seen, but he left a grey tank top and skirt by the doorway for her. Maressa pulled them on, her shoulders smarting as the fabric rubbed against them. She looked up as she heard the door open. Tabitha walked in, carrying a few bottles.

He gestured to a chair.

“I have something for your shoulders, if you want. Take a seat.”

Maressa sat down. She was facing away from Tabitha, but heard him mixing different liquids from bottles.

“Okay,” he said, “this is going to sting, so be ready.”

She pulled aside the strap of her tank top so he could apply the medicine. As soon as the cool liquid touched her shoulder, it sparked with pain and she flinched. She clenched her fists. With the spark of pain, she was able to formulate thoughts and words again.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked, still facing away from him.

He paused.

“You released your Pokemon.”

“And?”

“And I don’t want to hand you over,” he added quietly.

Maressa sighed.

“Why are you with Team Magma?”

Tabitha hesitated, and Maressa launched into a rant.

“Because you say how you ‘don’t want to hand me over,’ but are fine with terrorizing innocent people. And you got angry at Derek for releasing Jirachi, but you captured Jirachi in the first place and now you’re about to awaken another powerful Pokemon!”

Maressa jumped out of the chair and stood facing Tabitha, fuming.

“And you believe that once you hand me over, Team Aqua is going to be all friendly with you guys and just help you find the Orbs and give you one of them? Not likely! I worked with them, Tabitha, I know what they’re about and they have as much interest in working with Team Magma as they do in working with the police.”

Tabitha gazed at her patiently while she went on. When Maressa paused for breath, he answered, “There’s a lot you don’t know about our teams.”

“Maybe not about your team, but—"

“No,” he cut her off firmly. “Our teams. You’ve only been on Team Aqua for a few months. I’ve been with Team Magma since it was first created six years ago.

“Take a seat. I’ll explain everything to you.”

“I’ll stand.”

“The reason why Teams Aqua and Magma exist is to return the state of the world to how it was before humans changed things. To do that, we need Kyogre or Groudon. That’s why we didn’t use Jirachi to expand the land—Maxie wants something that he can have permanent control over. Jirachi is awake for only seven days. Team Aqua wouldn’t have used Jirachi either—and Archie didn’t think it existed.

“That’s not the only reason,” he said when Maressa was about to speak. “Those are just the basics about Teams Magma and Aqua, what you and some of the team know about. The rest of it,” he said with slight hesitation, “is known only to me, the other admins, and our leaders. And that’s because once either Kyogre or Groudon are summoned—or both—Teams Magma and Aqua will disband and no longer exist.”

Maressa stared blankly at him, trying to process what he just said.

“Once either of our teams get the Orbs, that’s it. We win. There’ll be no use for the Teams any longer. The leader who controls the Orbs will decide everything—what the world will look like, how it will work, even who lives and who dies—and whoever has served them has a higher chance of living.”

“But the world will be wrecked if either of those Pokemon wake up,” Maressa cut in. “Millions of people—if not billions—will die in the initial phase, and how many more will die afterwards from things like starvation?”

“That was part of the plan from the beginning. We never intended many people to live.”

Maressa stared uncomprehendingly. Tabitha calmly gazed back at her.

“Why?”

“They both want the earth restored,” he said simply. “They want it free from the influence that human life has had on it. They want to reduce the human population to its minimal size and let Pokemon populations grow and natural processes to take place without the disruptions humans cause.”

“Then why don’t they work together?”

“They did. Originally, they both had the idea to get the Orbs, control both Groudon and Kyogre, and set the world straight from there.”

“So why don’t—”

“They realized that they were too similar. They were both too smart, and that presented a threat to the other. What would happen if Archie decided to take both Orbs for himself? Maxie would hardly be able to defend himself if that happened.

“Not only that, but they found out that Groudon and Kyogre cannot both be awake at the same time without causing massive chaos. This was why humans made the Orbs in the first place—to put them to sleep and make sure they stay that way. And as it’s too dangerous for both Pokemon to awaken, we’ll just have one.

“Once Maxie and Archie realized it was only safe enough to awaken one Pokemon, they no longer trusted each other. Maxie had always wanted control over Groudon, as he knew that would be the Pokemon to restore the earth. Archie thought the same of Kyogre. They knew that they couldn’t let each other control either Pokemon, and so they went their separate ways with the aim of taking both Orbs and using one to control a Pokemon and keeping the other Orb hidden away. They propagated ideas of saving the earth, gathered bands of followers, and formed the teams that you know today,” he finished simply.

Maressa stared at Tabitha, feeling sick to her stomach.

“That still doesn’t explain why you think Team Aqua will help you.”

“They will. Archie and Maxie know each other; your Pokemon are wandering in the ocean, and you’re in our custody, so we’re at a stalemate. And there are other factors involved—neither Team knows where Kyogre or Groudon are, so we’re both racing to get that information.”

Maressa’s heart jumped and she averted her eyes guiltily.

Tabitha noticed.

“What is it?”

“I… I touched the Orbs, and when I did, I could feel the Pokemon and—Tabitha, just don’t do this! Don’t follow through with this! Groudon and Kyogre are too powerful to control. When I touched the Orbs, it was only for a few seconds, but it felt like I could barely remember who I was!”

Tabitha’s eyes widened.

“Maxie is strong—" he started to say, but Maressa cut across him.

“Do you actually think this is all a good idea? Tabitha, just looked at what happened with Jirachi!”

Tabitha cast his eyes down; he nodded.

“Kidnapping Jirachi was a bad idea,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have done it—I wish I hadn’t…”

“And after seeing that, you still think you want to kill other people?”

He looked up at her. There was no anger in his eyes, or shock—Maressa couldn’t make out any emotion in him.

“Right or wrong, Maressa, Maxie is my leader. I have pledged to serve him, and I will do what he says.”

Maressa’s heart sank and her face fell. She could think of no more to say.

As she stood there, the weariness of the day caught up to her. Her numbness turned to anxiety. Her body was sore and tired. Her shoulders ached and burned. But she knew she would be too anxious to sleep.

“Make me a promise.”

Maressa looked up, noticing again how exhausted Tabitha looked. Bags hung under his eyes; his hair was a disheveled mess; his face was starting to show lines Maressa had never noticed before.

“Promise me that, no matter what, you’ll try to live. Don’t give up,” he added pleadingly, shaking his head. “Live. Please.”

Maressa looked down. She thought of Team Aqua—of Matt…

She heard Tabitha sigh.

“I… have stuff to do.” He gestured to his bed. “You can stay there. Try to sleep.”

Maressa shook her head.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Would you like some medicine to help?”

She gave a brief thought to it and nodded. Tabitha went into the bathroom and returned with two little white pills in his hand.

“That should help. I’m… I’m going to get back to work. Let me know if I can get you anything. Otherwise, I’ll come get you in the morning.”

“Tabitha,” she said as he opened the door. “Will you make sure Sarah is okay?”

He nodded. “I’ll take care of her.”

Without another word, he left, closing the door behind him.

Maressa took the pills with water and lay down on the bed, staring at the door Tabitha left through. And, before sleep took hold of her, a ripple of hatred passed through her.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The sun beat down mercilessly. Maressa wiped sweat from her forehead. Though she wasn’t wearing their hoodie, the grey material of Team Magma’s tank tops and skirts trapped heat and was stifling. Why they would choose to design their uniforms that way…

But her mind was barely on her uniform or the weather. Her heart raced with nervousness and her stomach felt nauseous with fear. She stood in the midst of several Team Magma members, right behind Tabitha. Maxie stood at the forefront of their group, just a few feet ahead of them. Across from him stood Archie with several members from Team Aqua—including Matt and Shelly.

“So, Maxie,” Archie called, “have you got your payment?”

“I see you, Maressa!” Matt called.

Maressa gasped when she heard his voice and lowered her head. She did not want to see Matt as long as she could avoid it.

“I see you hiding behind those Team Magma members! Even wearing their uniform, you traitor! You dirty—"

He continued to hurl insults at her. Maressa’s insides clenched; she felt like she would retch. Then she felt someone take her hand—though he was standing in front of her and facing away from her, Tabitha had reached back and held her hand in his own. He gently squeezed her fingers.

Maxie cut off Matt and called out, “We have an agreement, then? A few Team Aqua members and an exchange of Pokemon for the Orbs?”

Archie—who had been smiling bemusedly just a moment before—frowned as he looked at Maxie.

“Agreed.”

“Tabitha, bring Maressa to them,” Maxie told him.

Maressa closed her eyes and pursed her lips. She had no dignity, no shame—she didn’t want this. Her heart pounded furiously within her chest and her stomach was doing backflips. She wanted to collapse, to pass out—anything to avoid being awake for whatever was to come.

Tabitha put his arm around her shoulders and led her forward. Maressa kept her eyes closed as they walked across the grassy ground. When they stopped, Maressa opened her eyes to see Matt glaring down at her, looking disgusted. As her eyes met his, her heart leapt and the blood drained from her face. She gasped as a jolt of terror ran through her body. He grabbed her upper arm and pulled her away from Tabitha—for a moment, it seemed as though Tabitha would not let go. But then his grip slackened and he let Matt push Maressa behind him, into the throng of Team Aqua members. Someone—Maressa didn’t recognize her—immediately tied her hands behind her back.

Maressa looked over to where Matt and Tabitha stood. The Magma commander hadn’t moved.

“What are you waiting for?” Matt growled.

The two commanders glared at each other; Matt towering over Tabitha, and Tabitha starting defiantly back. The look in his Tabitha’s eye chilled Maressa’s bones. She wondered if he was going to hit Matt. But after a moment, he turned around and walked back to his own team, not even sparing Maressa a glance.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Hi everyone! I am slowly recovering from the typhoon (I have power, but water is temporary and only lasts a few hours before it sputters and dies). In the meanwhile, here is chapter 27! I hope you enjoy.



Chapter 27



Waves calmly lapped the small stone outcrop. The sky grew dim as night approached. The evening sun washed the water red, an eerie testament to what Jirachi left beneath the waves.

Sitting on the outcrop, Golduck looked silently at the water. Sharpedo and Lanturn hung just by him. Lanturn held the sack with the Orbs in her mouth.

The three of them sat in stony silence. For a few hours, they were all too shocked and tired to say anything until, at last, Lanturn perked up.

What were they going to do?

Sharpedo growled. There was nothing they could do—Maressa was gone. Their Pokeballs were destroyed. And they had no way to find her.

Lanturn refused to believe it. There had to be something they could do! Maressa had been captured once, but she came back to them safe and sound. Surely they could find her and return her to safety again.

Sharpedo interjected. That was different; all of the Pokemon were still with Team Aqua, and Maressa was a valued member of their team. Now, they didn’t know where Team Aqua was, and Maressa was a traitor.

No! Lanturn couldn’t just give up. They were family. Maressa had found all of them, taken them in, and raised them together—not just as a team, but as so much more. She conquered Sharpedo when he was the leader of his pod and took him in to train him personally. She saved Seaking from an abusive trainer. She had been with Golduck for almost his entire life—since he was a little Psyduck. And she gave Lanturn a home when Lanturn’s natural environment had been destroyed by trawling nets and her fellow Lanturn and Chinchou were nowhere to be seen. They couldn’t give up on her after all she had done for them!

Lanturn looked up at Golduck. All this time, he had said nothing. He just sat there, staring at the water blankly. Lanturn nuzzled his ankle. What did he think of all this? He would help Lanturn find Maressa and save her, wouldn’t he?

Golduck remained silent for a while. He swished his tail, feeling the thick layer of mucus covering his skin to prevent desiccation from salt water. At last, he quacked a response.

He needed fresh water; he couldn’t stay in the ocean for very long. Lanturn and Sharpedo needed salt water. If they were to survive, Golduck would have to leave them.

Lanturn stared at him in shock, slowly shaking her head. He couldn’t leave—they had to stay together!

Golduck snapped at Lanturn—it wasn’t that he wanted to leave, he had to! And even if they did stay together, what would it accomplish? Maressa was taken away by a Flygon and carried off in a helicopter. She could be anywhere. The three of them could hardly cover any distance. How were they to keep up with a helicopter? Or even a submarine?

Golduck shook his head. Maressa was gone. As he admitted it, his throat tightened and his limbs grew heavy.

Maressa was gone.

The three of them stayed there for a time, saying nothing. At last, Sharpedo softly growled.

He was going to look for Seaking.

Golduck nodded. Without another growl, Sharpedo ducked beneath the waves and swam away.

Lanturn looked at Golduck. What would he do?

Golduck thought briefly before responding. He would follow the same estuary they came down—the one that lead to Mauville City. He would swim up it… and figure things out from there.

Lanturn nodded. She sat in the water, not wanting to leave Golduck alone, but already missing Sharpedo.

Golduck quacked. What would Lanturn do?

She would go with Sharpedo to look for Seaking. Like the two of them, she needed saltwater. And at least the three of them could stay together.

Golduck nodded. He would take the Orbs with him.

Lanturn started. Was he sure? Wouldn’t the Orbs be safer with them, or at least buried at the bottom of the ocean?

Golduck shook his head. Maressa told them to bring the Orbs to the Pokemon League. He didn’t know how or when he would find the League, but he, at least, stood a chance. If the other three were to run into anyone, it would probably be Team Aqua.

Lanturn sighed. She didn’t want to leave Golduck. After being together for years, it felt so wrong.

Golduck plopped into the water and wrapped his arms around Lanturn. Her heart warmed, but the warmth gave way to pain. Would she see Golduck again?

Rescinding his hug, Golduck looked her in the eyes and nodded. They would definitely see each other again. No matter what, he would find her, Sharpedo, and Seaking, and their family would be reunited again. But first, he had to find Maressa.

Lanturn agreed. Giving Golduck one last nuzzle, she dipped beneath the waves and chased after Sharpedo, her fishy form disappearing with the last of the fading sunlight.

As the sky turned black and pinpricks of starlight shown through the clouds, Golduck grabbed the bag of the Orbs in his bill and headed north.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The cold, metal floor vanished beneath Derek and he lay on coarse, gritty ground—sand blew in the air, buffeting his face and sticking to his bloody shoulder. Using his good arm, he pushed himself to his feet. His shoulder screamed with pain as copious amounts of sand blew into it and made it sting. Golbat flapped in the air, trying to not get carried away by its currents while Claydol floated, seemingly oblivious to the sandstorm.

Derek whipped his head around, squinting his eyes against the sandy onslaught. She had to be here—somewhere around here—

But all he could see were the endless, moving dunes of sand.

He turned to Claydol, the adrenaline still coursing through his veins.

“Where’s Maressa?” he shouted, partly out of excitement and partly to be heard over the wind.

Claydol’s only response was to send tender feelings of comfort over their mental link.

Derek’s blood boiled—he blocked Claydol out of his mind as he shouted again, “Where is she? WHERE IS SHE?”

His chest heaved—and he coughed on the sand as it blew in his mouth. If Maressa was still stuck at the Team Magma base…

“Claydol, send me back right now!”

He refused.

“You send me back now! Claydol, if we leave Maressa there, she’s done for!”

Claydol remained adamant.

Derek ran over to Claydol and grabbed his earthen body.

“Claydol, if you don’t send me back there now—Maressa is stuck with Team Magma, and you know what they’ll do to her! SEND ME BACK!”

Claydol used his psychic powers to pry Derek’s hands off him and pin them to his side. The Ground-type let out an angry, earthen rumble that reverberated through Derek’s bones and shook the sands he stood on. He would not send Derek back there. Tabitha had been holding on to Maressa when she left; if he had tried to take Maressa with them, he would have taken Tabitha as well. And none of them were a match for Tabitha and his Pokemon.

Derek tried to argue, but Claydol rumbled over him. By this point, Tabitha would either have put his Mightyena with Maressa—making it impossible for Claydol to teleport her away—or he would have put Maressa into a room that Claydol hadn’t been inside before. The base was sure to be swarming with Team Magma members and Dark-types. How were they supposed to fight through them? Breloom was out. That left only Claydol and Golbat to fight through who-knows-how-many Pokemon.

Derek was angry—but as sand blew into his face and shoulder, he processed what Claydol told him. He knew his Pokemon was right, but he felt guilty—so, so guilty. He thought of what Maressa might be going through now—surely Maxie or Tabitha were making her pay for Derek’s actions…

“Claydol, we at least have to try. Do you know what Maxie or Tabitha might be doing to her?”

Claydol groaned. Did Derek know what was happening to Maressa? She was stuck with Tabitha, and although he was harsh, he was just. He knew where Derek was at fault and where Maressa was at fault. He wouldn’t punish her for what Derek did.

The best thing they could do now, Claydol reasoned, was to find someone who could help Maressa. Not the police—the infiltration ran far too deep for them to be trusted. But if Derek could find reliable people to whom he could give away Team Magma’s information, then they could go in and rescue Maressa.

Derek shook his head.

“It’ll be too late by then! If we don’t go back for Maressa now—" he stopped suddenly and looked pleadingly at Claydol, his eyes screwed up against the onslaught of sandy wind. The Ground-type gazed back unblinkingly.

Golbat swooped down and landed atop Claydol, trying to use his wings to shield himself from the sandstorm.

Claydol was right, he said. If they went back now, they would only get themselves captured. And that wouldn’t help Maressa.

Derek clenched his eyes shut—his blood was still racing through his veins, sand scratching at his face. He couldn’t keep arguing with them, but he couldn’t do nothing.

He looked around. This must have been the same desert he had captured Claydol in when he was still a Baltoy. The base they had just escaped from was near Lilycove—halfway across the Hoenn region. There was no way he could get there on foot in time to save Maressa.

“Claydol,” he called out, spitting sand out of his mouth and wiping grit from his eyes, “at least get me out of this sandstorm!”

The sand around Derek vanished, and he was suddenly standing on solid rock. He looked around—and felt a twinge of annoyance when he realized Claydol had merely transported him to a nearby rock outcrop that overlooked the desert. Though the sandstorm didn’t reach him, he could see it fill the air in the distance, looking like some great, amber haze. Above him, stars twinkled in the twilight, their luminescence overshadowed by the great Millennium Comet, which left a white shimmering streak across the inky darkness.

He sat down and sighed, shaking sand out of his hair. As the adrenaline faded, the pain in his shoulder caught up to him—it stung horribly from all the sand and loose threads of fabric that were stuck in it. He grimaced; he’d have to clean it out before it scabbed over. He tried wiping his hands clean as best as he could before picking out bits of dirt while he mulled over the situation.

Claydol was probably right; the best he could do was to give away information about Team Magma. He was free. Unlike Maressa, his Pokemon were with him—his team had no leverage to use against him. Betraying Team Magma and overrunning their bases would be simple. It was just a matter of finding a Pokemon League member. And he knew where the Orbs were—or, at least, he knew Maressa’s Pokemon had them. Whether or not anyone could find them in the ocean was another matter.

He stopped picking at his shoulder and gazed at the Millennium Comet. He didn’t regret letting Tate go; the kid was innocent and didn’t deserve to be kept captive. Although it caused a lot of problems for the people close to him—Tabitha nearly had a heart attack when he heard Tate and Jirachi had escaped.

He felt a twinge of sorrow. Looking back, he remembered the late nights he spent sitting in Tabitha’s office, talking about the state of their teams, their Pokemon, and life in general. Tabitha used to come visit him in the infirmary and ask to learn how to do different procedures—what kinds of medicine were to be used for what, how to put in an IV, how to intubate someone… The two of them used to stand alone in empty sparring rooms, chatting while Mightyena chased Golbat around and tried to hit him with Shadow Balls.

“Do you see yourself with a life outside of Team Magma?” Derek asked him one day as he watched Golbat fly loops around Mightyena’s attacks.

“I do,” Tabitha said as Mightyena shot rapid balls of energy, quickly growing frustrated at his ability to catch his opponent.

“What do you want?”

Tabitha took his time to answer. He watched Mightyena give up on direct attacks and resort to taunting Golbat: the canine stuck his tung out, laughed hysterically, and pranced back and forth. The bat shrieked in anger—he divebombed, heading straight for his opponent.

Just before the two made a head-on collision, Mightyena side-stepped and deftly caught Golbat between his jaws, shaking him. Golbat shrieked frantically, though Mightyena’s teeth didn’t puncture him.

Tabitha looked at Derek.

“I want a family.”

“Really, Tabitha? You want a wife and children?”

Tabitha nodded. “I always have, long before I joined Team Magma. And the desire hasn’t left me. I want to raise my kids alongside Pokemon, teach them how to respect them, and that they’re our friends.”

“I never knew you had any interest in relationships, let alone having kids.”

“Of course not—I can’t show it here. I can never get involved with any woman I work with.” He sighed. “That’s one thing I look forward to when this ends: being able to settle and start a family.” He glanced at Derek. “Do you see yourself with a family?”

Derek thought for a moment. He watched Mightyena let go of Golbat and begin prancing back and forth, yipping and whining. Whatever Mightyena said seemed to infuriate Golbat—he attacked the canine with every attack in his arsenal: air cutter, smog, poison fang—but his attacks were sloppy, with no aim and no control. Mightyena deftly dodged all of the, continuing to hurl insults at his opponent.

“I don’t know,” he admitted at last. “I’ve thought about it a bit, but… my mind has been so focused on med school, residency, and becoming a doctor that I didn’t really think of it as reality, you know? I’ve dated girls, but I never saw myself marrying any of them.”

Golbat stopped attacking, too tired to be able to continue the fight. He panted and gently glided down to the ground. Mightyena trotted over to him, all the malice from their practice fight gone, the canine happily licked Golbat. Golbat winced in annoyance—but he let Mightyena continue to shower him with affection. Derek smiled and glanced at Tabitha—he was smiling, too.

Derek shook his head, bringing himself back to the present. Those days were over. And he knew that, no matter how things turned out, they wouldn’t be that way again. It reminded him of moving away from home for college and transferring to a different place to begin med school. Both times, he had formed solid sets of friends. And both times, those groups dissolved as people moved on. Derek tried to keep in touch with them, but not everyone was responsive, and none of his friendships were ever the same. And when he joined Team Magma, he had to cut off outside contact completely.

But that was life. That was then, and this was now. And now, Derek was sitting with a bloody, useless shoulder while Maressa was paying the price for her betrayal—and potentially his. Derek’s heart hung heavily in his chest, and guilt permeated him. He clenched his fingers into a bloody fist and shut his eyes. He had left Maressa to deal with his problems—he had to fix it—he had to do something.

He stood up, staring at the brilliant comet. The adrenaline returned, shutting out the pain. How could they leave Maressa?

“What do I do?” he shouted.

The echo of his voice quickly vanished in the hum of the sandstorm. He shook his fists—he didn’t even have room to pace. He had to save Maressa now but Claydol wouldn’t even transport him back to where she was. What could he do?

The familiar feeling of weightlessness suddenly overtook him—he was being teleported again. But where was Claydol taking him? Back to Team Magma? Would he finally save Maressa?

The desert vanished, and a crowd of people met his eyes—but not Team Magma members. They were people of all ages, and they were dressed in civilian clothing. He was still outside, but there were so many cameras flashing that they filled the night air with light. Derek immediately felt a presence—a powerful presence, more powerful than any he had ever felt before—filling the air. He looked around—he saw a man about his own age wearing a black suit and red tie staring at him in shock. Next to him stood a young boy dressed in blue—

Tate.

And floating in the air right next to Tate, shimmering with a brilliant gold aura, was Jirachi.

He jumped as the eyelid on Jirachi’s stomach lifted to show a brilliant red eye. As Derek watched, the glow around the Pokemon became ever brighter, the colors blending into a pure white. Tate started sobbing hysterically.

“Jirachi, don’t go!” he shouted. “Please stay! I didn’t get much time with you, and I really want to stay with you! You can live at my house—we’ll give you food and a bed, and we’ll give you everything you need! Jirachi—Jirachi—!”

His voice broke as his sobs became so heavy that he couldn’t speak. All the while, the Pokemon gazed kindly at him, its yellow tails wrapping around its small body. As Jirachi’s body became too bright to make out any of his features, it dipped into a white rock—which flowed like liquid at the Pokemon’s touch—and was gone.

The immense psychic field that filled the air suddenly vanished. The fullness of Derek’s weight suddenly returned, and the atmosphere felt emptier than before.

Tate let out a horrible scream. He ran to the rock and started hugging it and banging his fists on it. Someone dressed in the same outfit as him—whom Derek assumed was Tate’s sister, Liza—ran over to him and tried to pull him away from the rock.

“Tate, it’s okay! He’s gone—you can’t make him come back. Come home with me! I’m still here—so is Solrock, and Lunatone, and Mom and Dad! It’ll be okay. We still love you and we’ll still take care of you!”

The man wearing a black suit didn’t say anything—his grey eyes were wide open and he stared forward, as though lost in a trance.

Seeing Tate sob moved Derek.

“Tate, is that you?” he called.

The boy looked up at him. His eyes were red and puffy; his cheeks were shiny with tears.

“Derek!” he cried. “Jirachi is gone!”

“Tate, do you know this man?”

Derek turned his head to see the grey-eyed man staring at him warily, his brows furrowed.

Tate sniffled and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

“Yeah, he saved me from Team Magma. But Derek, you’re covered in blood! What happened to you?”

Derek didn’t get a chance to respond before the other man asked, “Who exactly are you?”

All at once, the words tumbled out of his mouth.

“I’m Derek—I was on Team Magma, but I just betrayed them and they’ll be looking everywhere for me. But please, I need your help. My friend is in danger—they’ll kill her if we don’t do something soon. I can tell you anything you need to know. I know all about Team Magma’s bases, I know where the Red and Blue Orbs are—"

“You know where the Orbs are?” the man cut him off, his eyes wide in surprise.

“Sort of, but we have to act now—"

The man cut him off.

“Come with me, and tell me everything.”

The crowd automatically parted to make way for him. Derek didn’t hesitate—he had nothing to lose. If this man was with the Pokemon League, he might be the only one who could help Maressa.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

He stared up at the two-story townhouse towering above him. In the bright sunlit day, people strolled down the cracked sidewalk, hardly sparing him a glance. A young couple with their small child walked by. A woman with a stroller containing a Togepi went past him. The sounds of laughter and children shouting sounded through the air. And for whatever reason, his heart had never ached as much as it did now.

Even as he stood there, he saw an eleven-year-old Maressa opening the front door and stepping into the sunlight. By that time, she had traded in her blue Eevee backpack for a yellow Pikachu one. Her blonde hair already reached her waste. Her socks were scrunched up around her ankles, and she was missing several teeth. When she looked at Golduck, her amber eyes lit up, and she would walk down the sidewalk with him, telling him all about how Betty told their parents that Maressa didn’t do her homework, so she got angry at her sister and threw oatmeal into her hair. Maressa wouldn’t be allowed to play with Golduck after school. Her parents were making her wash the windows.

Golduck shook his head to snap himself out of the memory. The door in front of him remained closed. The green paint on the front door was much more faded than it used to be. The curtains on the downstairs windows were new. Golduck craned his neck back, trying to see the window to Maressa’s bedroom.

Maressa didn’t want to keep Golduck in his Pokeball very much, but her parents didn’t want him inside the house. So Maressa quickly found a way where he could climb up to her window and into her bedroom.

The corners of the townhouse jutted out; a gutter ran alongside them. Holding the bag of Orbs in his bill, Golduck grabbed the gutter with his webbed hands and shimmied up it, using the wall of the townhouse for support. It was a good thing he evolved not long after Maressa’s family moved to Hoenn—there was no way he was able to do this as a Psyduck.

When he got up to the second story, he sidled along the ledge and to Maressa’s bedroom window. She broke the latch on the window so it couldn’t be locked—she didn’t want one of her family members to shut Golduck out if she needed him to get into her room while she wasn’t there. She often sent him back to grab homework she had forgotten to take to class.

When he got the window open, he stepped inside.

It was similar to how he remembered it. Boxes filled with Maressa’s personal things were stacked in front of a wall. The desk was bare. The walls still held a family photo and a photo of Maressa when she was a baby—she looked nothing like she did as an adult. She was bald and her eyes were blue. Dressed in a frilly white dress with a flowery headband, she glared at the camera in a very Maressa-like manner.

Golduck shoved the bag of the Orbs under Maressa’s bed. He remembered watching her sit at that desk into the late hours of the night, studying or writing essays. She would throw dress after dress on to the bed, trying to figure out what to wear for her senior prom. She habitually turned the room into a gym and would spend hour after hour exercising—her pullup bar was still lying in the corner of her closet.

A layer of grey dust had settled over the desk and the dresser. A few small bugs could be seen crawling on the bookshelf. The paint on the walls—once a bright blue—was faded. The room had a distinct feel of being unused.

Golduck suddenly felt exhausted—and lonely. He had never felt so lonely. He was home, but he had never felt so empty.

Getting up onto Maressa’s bed, with its heart-scribble comforter, he curled up and closed his eyes. He remembered what it felt like to have Maressa’s weight beneath him, rising and falling with her gentle breathing.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dawn’s rays crept through the window and fell onto Golduck’s face. He clenched his eyes shut and ducked his face beneath his tail. He didn’t want to get up. What would he do? He didn’t want to talk to Maressa’s parents.

As the sunlight grew brighter and gradually lit the room, Golduck lay in Maressa’s bed, unmoving.

Eventually—when the sun was well past its zenith—the doorbell rang. He covered his head with his webbed hands. Why did it have to be so noisy? Why couldn’t the house just be quiet, and just let him be with his memories of Maressa?

Whoever rang the doorbell was clearly staying over. He heard rambled bits of speech from an unfamiliar voice—and the speech included Maressa’s name over and over again.

Maressa.

At the sound of her name, Golduck jumped out of bed, opened the door and hurtled through the hall and down the stairs into her parents’ sitting room. Maressa’s mother, Rhiannon, screamed with shock.

Her dad, Dylan, stood up from where he was sitting.

“Honey, isn’t this Maressa’s Golduck?”

Maressa inherited her mother’s height but her father’s hair. Rhiannon was tall with dark hair and was very thin. Dylan was slightly taller but with blonde hair and a more muscular build. Behind them on their couch—the same one since Maressa left for college—sat a man wearing a black suit and red tie. Although he had silver hair, he didn’t look very old—his face didn’t have any lines on it. And next to him sat another man with his left arm in a sling. He looked vaguely familiar.

On seeing Golduck, the man with the injured arm stood up, smiling.

“Golduck! Do you remember me? We met before. I’m Derek—I was that Team Magma medic who helped Maressa escape.” He gestured to the silver-haired man. “This is Steven Stone, the Pokemon League Champion.”

Golduck’s heart skipped a beat. A second later, he started quacking angrily—what was Derek doing there? What had happened to Maressa?

But the four humans just stared at him uncertainly.

Golduck growled with frustration—they weren’t like Maressa. They couldn’t understand him. He launched himself across the room and threw himself onto Derek. The human gave an oof as the Pokemon tackled him back onto the couch and remained on his lap. The man’s shoulder was bound in a sling. He wasn’t wearing the Team Magma uniform or hospital clothes. What was going on? Where was Maressa? He was part of Team Magma, he should know!

“Calm down, calm down!” Derek said loudly. “Steven and I are here to tell Maressa’s family what’s been happening. She’s still with Team Magma; my betrayal was found out and Claydol teleported me out of there, but she got left behind.”

Golduck let out a strangled yell and grabbed Derek by the shoulders and shook him furiously. He got away? And Maressa was left there? What did he mean—how did he not take her with them? Why did he leave her?!

Derek yelped in pain the moment Golduck grabbed him, but Golduck didn’t care. He wanted to throttle Derek. Derek had Maressa, he could have saved her, but instead he just left without her!

Golduck hardly noticed Steven release a Pokemon from its Pokeball until all of Golduck’s muscles suddenly locked up. An invisible force took control of his body and pried his webbed hands off of Derek’s shoulders. Golduck was rotated and came face-to-face with a Metagross. Angry that he had been forced to stop, Golduck tried to lash back with psychic attacks, but the Metagross’s psychic powers were much more powerful than Golduck’s and the Water-type failed to do any damage.

“Golduck, we will get Maressa back,” Steven stated. “She’s with Team Magma, and Derek has been informing us of their whereabouts. We are working on taking down their bases. Now, as I understand it, she left the Red and Blue Orbs with her Pokemon.” Steven stared at Golduck, and though the man was overall calm, Golduck noticed an eager glint in his grey eyes.

“Do you know where they are?”

Metagross released Golduck from its psychic hold, and the Water-Type plopped to the ground. Golduck looked up at them. He didn’t want to give away the Orbs, not to people who had left Maressa behind. But Maressa did tell him to take the Orbs to the Pokemon League, and a League member was right here.

Golduck looked directly into Metagross’s eyes—each eye was almost as big as Golduck’s head. The Steel-type stared back at him evenly. Golduck quacked: Steven and Derek had to make him a promise. He would give them the Orbs if they promised to set Maressa free as soon as possible.

Metagross translated for him. Steven replied, “Golduck, I promise you, we are doing everything in our power right now to get rid of Teams Aqua and Magma. We’ll find Maressa and keep her safe.”

Golduck stared at Steven for a second. He didn’t want to trust this man. How could he? He abandoned Maressa!

But he had to obey her—she gave him a direct order to give the Orbs to the Pokemon League. Maressa’s dad started to say something, and Golduck didn’t want to listen. As soon as the man spoke, Golduck bounded up the stairs to Maressa’s room, dove under the unused bed and onto the dusty floor, retrieved the bag of the Orbs, and brought them downstairs. Reluctantly, he handed the bag to Steven. The man peered inside.

Golduck quacked sharply—he shouldn’t touch them!

Metagross relayed Golduck’s warnings.

“Don’t worry, I know better than that,” Steven murmured. Holding the bag so he could expose the Orbs without touching them, he eyed their glassy surfaces. Golduck felt a shift in the atmosphere—some sort of power emanated from them.

Derek and Maressa’s parents gazed at the Orbs in wonder and confusion. Steven merely stared at them, but Golduck saw an excited gleam behind his eyes.

After a moment, Steven withdrew the Orbs into the depths of the bag. The four humans stood and exchanged a few words, but Golduck wasn’t listening. He was uneasy—should he have given the Orbs to them?

“Golduck.” The Pokemon snapped out of his reverie and stared up at the silver-haired human. “We’re heading out. Will you join us?”

The Water-type nodded. They were going to save Maressa, and he would make sure that they rescued her as soon as possible. He would rip apart any Team Magma Pokemon that stood in his way, he would take down Tabitha and that conceited Mightyena…

He glanced up at Maressa’s parents and quacked. He would rescue their daughter and bring her home safely. He promised.

He didn’t look back to see whether or not Maressa’s parents understood him. He followed Steven and Derek, his blood boiling in anticipation of the battles to come.