Pokémon The Devil and the Dead Sea [Hardenshipping]

[silverjirachi]

Hello everyone!! As I'm slowly getting the hang of being in a forum-style fandom place, I wanted to import my original fic here for practice! I plan also to then simultaneously upload updates for Icarus (the sequel) to both AO3 and here.

The Devil and the Dead Sea was originally posted to AO3 in November 2019. Link to that here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21482824/chapters/51198898

Comments and kudos are super appreciated, both here and there!
​

Summary:
When Maxie’s plans for reaching the Seafloor Cavern… sink…. he must enlist the help of his long-time enemy, Archie Aogiri. As Team Aqua and Team Magma form this begrudging alliance, they find themselves working together and - dare they say it - getting along. But when a forbidden romance is discovered between two of the ship’s passengers, Maxie must bring his team - and his own sanity - back under control, else risk losing everything he ever worked for. And he is determined to let neither hell nor high water stand in his way. Nonsense, romance, gossip, and sea shanties ensue.

TL; DR I put my ship on a ship, they kiss eventually and have a lot of feelings on a boat in the rain

Emotions and melancholy, but also oddly a lot of memes. like there’s one part where they rob a juice stand and there’s an awkward bathroom scene. if you want a good mix of serious writing and also not, this might be it

This is the first book in a 3 part series. A prequel and a sequel will eventually follow.

Enjoy!

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Chapter 1​

“Uh—Maxie? …Maxie?” stuttered a man as he fearfully opened the door. Tabitha knew that his boss would be waiting for him on the other side, and he also knew that his boss wouldn’t be particularly pleased with the news he had to deliver.

“What?” Maxie said, without bothering to look up at him. He was busy narrowing down the pool of candidates for their final mission. Tabitha entered the room, stepping quietly, and delicately. While Maxie’s terseness was always to be expected, it had been particularly bad of recent.

“There’s a—situation—I think you should know about…”

Maxie’s hands froze on the page. His eyes flitted up over his glasses, but there was no fire behind them yet. His voice was even and cold. “What do you mean ‘a situation?’”

“I, uhh… Well. You see… I.. erm…”

Tabitha stopped. The paper in his pocket burned hot like acid, and the words contained more evidence that would inevitably damn him. He choked at the possibility of bringing it to light. The pause was too long for Maxie, who now rose from his seat and marched toward Tabitha. “You what, you insufferable fool? You. What.”

While Maxie and Tabitha stood nearly the same height, with Tabitha surpassing him by only a few inches, Maxie’s sharpened wrath was tall enough to make those petty inches seem infinite. Tabitha shrank, turning his head to avoid the pierce of his leader’s gaze. “It’s uh—“

“Look at me when you are speaking!You will address me with your eyes when you are speaking or I will give your job to someone better qualified.”

“Well it’s kind of hard when you’re standing practically on top of me.”

Maxie paused. Oh. He was pretty close, wasn’t he? Personal space. Personal space.

Without wanting to lose the fire—for fear that Tabitha may grow complacent once again—Maxie retreated only a step. For a moment, he thought perhaps he had given Tabitha too much ire for letting the child intruder escape yesterday. Perhaps.

“What happened in Slateport?” Maxie asked. “That’s where you were, weren’t you?”

“I was on my way to Slateport—and—and—“

Maxie frowned, but allowed Tabitha room to speak. It was becoming increasingly difficult not to shoot the messenger, especially when the stuttering made it painfully obvious that the news was not only bad, but most likely pertained to the messenger himself.

Then again, he had already fired several rounds, hadn’t he?

Wrists trembling, Tabitha reached for his pocket and pulled out the newspaper. “I think you should see this, sir.”

Maxie reached for the paper with a surgeon’s hand, as if the safe transfer of this document would somehow determine what was inside. As Maxie skimmed it over, Tabitha felt the need to fill the silence with,

“I think someone working for Stern destroyed the submarine parts.”

“I can see that!” Maxie snapped. “Don’t you think I have even the simplest powers of deduction! Of course Stern dismantled the submarine!”

“But how can you tell—?”

Maxie raised the paper as though he was going to strike Tabitha with it, but once he saw the big man wither, he lowered the page. Don’t shoot the messenger. Don’t shoot the messenger. Even if the messenger had been particularly incompetent of late…

“I need to spell this out for you don’t I?” Maxie said. “Stern got the tip from the boy.”

“Hey! That wasn’t my—“

“That was entirely your fault and you are lucky I don’t discipline you further.”

Tabitha met Maxie’s gaze with indigence, but submission. It was no use trying to defend himself when Maxie wielded his words like swords. Seeing that Tabitha was adequately subdued, Maxie turned to carry the paper back to his desk. “I am aware of the fact that several of our members rushed to the basement to try to stop him. But the simple fact is that you were not there. Courtney salvaged what she could, but not enough to prevent him from disabling vital parts of the submarine. Now, we would have just stolen more parts from Slateport, but it appears we’re too late for that one too, now aren’t we?”

Tabitha was silent.

“Punctuality, Tabitha. I think it would bear you a great benefit to learn the definition.”

There was an even longer, heavier silence as Maxie pressed his fingertips together in deep thought. After a few moments of bearing this uncomfortable weight, Tabitha was almost relieved when Maxie began to speak again.

“The boy, Brendan, and the girl, May, are both working for the Pokémon League Champion, Steven. And that spoiled, meddlesome son of Devon’s president knows more about things that aren’t any of his business than any man ever should. You see, when Brendan uncovered our plans for the submarine, he no doubt informed Steven, who then alerted Stern—“

“Who ordered that all the parts be destroyed.”

“Precisely.”

“So what do we do now?”

“I will arrange for alternative means of transporting our team to the Seafloor Cavern. In the meantime, Tabitha, I want you to stay as far away from me as possible.”

Tabitha did not move. He was still winded from the onslaught of Maxie’s blade. However, Maxie persisted; this was effective immediately. “Out. Now.”

Without another beat, Tabitha nodded and scurried out of his leader’s office. Maxie sat there as he again studied the words on the page. Submarine dismantled. Damn it all to hell. After all these years, his dream was about to be foolishly unraveled by two nosy children being fed half-truths by Devon’s silver spoon. A silver spoon who wanted nothing more than to play detective because some vapid regional competitive organization decided he had the most powerful Pokémon in all the land. What an embarrassment.

The air was growing heavy around him, so Maxie rose to contemplate the painting on his back wall. It was a replica of the same mural in Granite Cave, which served as a daily reminder of his ultimate goal. He traced the figures of the two primordial beasts with his eyes. The shadow of Groudon thrashed against the quaking earth, its claws tearing fissures into stone. But in the wake of this devastation, Maxie knew that the magma would rise and cool, giving birth to new landscapes where life could prosper. Meanwhile, the old, dead rock would sink deeper into the molten ground and, ignited by that very flame, would combust itself and transform—almost alchemy-like—into more magma that would pool and rise so the cycle could begin anew. He had studied it—even, witnessed it—many times before.

But his eyes strayed from the graceful wrath of the red flame and found themselves rapt in the crashing waves. And, more prominently, on the blue silhouette that leapt and bounded in and out of pillars of water and fire, egging its competitor on. Kyogre. While Groudon slashed and tore, commanding massive volcanic eruptions and tectonic plates, his opponent merely danced around him, teasing him and chasing him and sending wind and rain that could never truly stop a pyroclast fueled so deep within the earth. Only slow it.

Maxie knew that he could bring Groudon to its rightful victory—to free it from the endless torment of its vexing blue counterpart—to vanquish this hideous conflict once and for all. A conflict had not ended, but only come to a stalemate. And yet, as he continued to stare, he found himself drawing more and more into the unabashed spirit of the unrelenting tide, and he was faced with the sickening realization that he knew what—or rather, who—his current situation obliged him to summon.

 

[silverjirachi]

Author's note: They are both so insufferable in this chapter

Chapter 2​

Archie stood with his arms folded. The rollicking creature in his eyes beamed with the smug bravado of a puppet-master stringing along a marionette. Oh, how he could make the little man dance—!

“You mean to tell me that you, the ‘great and powerful’ Maxie, are comin’ here askin’ for my help?!” he laughed. “Now that’s some character development!”

“Please,” Maxie begged, to the best of his limited ability. “I don’t come to you of my own accord, but rather of absolute necessity.”

Archie only laughed more. “But’ya did, didn’t you? Why didnt’cha send one of your cronies like’ya always do?”

“Do you think this is some kind of joke? That the state I am in right now is just a blithe little game? Let me tell you, while my team has been consistent and organized for years now, yours has been lacking any sort of clear motive since—”

“Whoa, settle down there, partner. I’m only pullin’ your leg.”

“This is no laughing matter, Archibald.”

Archie rolled his eyes. “First of all, sunshine, the name’s Archie. Plain old, regular Archie. Second of all,” Archie meandered closer to Maxie and put his arm around him, “oh Gluteus Maximus, I honestly don’t see any reason why I should help’ya out.”

“Get off of me.”

“Why?” Archie leaned in even closer. “Does this make you uncomfortable?”

“No. You have the pungent aroma of vodka and rotten fish to lull my nerves. Get. Off.” Maxie jabbed his elbow into Archie’s midsection, but it appeared to have no effect. Archie laughed and shook away from Maxie, sending Maxie—significantly more gaunt and lank—off his balance. Maxie held his composure and stared through the Archie’s whimsy with resolve.

Archie saw the determination in Maxie’s face but was unwilling to settle just yet. It was too much fun to pester him like so. “Look’it this through my eyes, chum. Here I am, mindin’ my own business, just tryin’ t’cause a little trouble n’stay outta jail, and here comes my long-time rival tellin’ me he’s actually not as far ahead as he’s been bluffin’, and I just might win this thing.” Archie bopped Maxie on the nose. “Better luck next time, buffie.”

“I said don’t touch me, you filthy—!” Maxie was cut off by another thunderous bellow. This was not going well. At all. Maxie readjusted his glasses frames and straightened his back. He cleared his throat uneasily. “You get handsy when you drink, you know that?”

Archie leaned on his desk and took another swig from the bottle, giving him a wink. “I always drink, honey.”

“That’s apparent.”

“Look, Max. I’m sorry. But of all the people I’ve swindled, cheated, and flat-out stolen from, I’ve seriously got no obligations t’you.”

“You’re making a foolish mistake.”

“Oh really? And why’s that, princess?”

“Don’t you realize that you depend on me as much as I depend on you?”

The words struck Archie, inebriated as he was. That was an interesting turn. “Whaddaya mean by that?”

“I mean our two teams, like land and sea, are symbiotic. One cannot exist without the complement of the other.”

“Is this some kinda fruity new-age horseshit you throwin’ out at me Max?”

Maxie paused for a second, perplexed, until he remembered the bottle in Archie’s hand. “No. Think about it, Archibald. That is, if thinking is even a task your vacant skull is capable of in such a state.”

“Hey. I can hold my liquor.”

And, with this, Archie slightly lost his footing and spilled a bit of his drink onto Maxie’s coat. Maxie snatched the bottle from him. “That’s it. You’ve had enough.”

Archie didn’t feel up to fighting that battle. “Okay, okay. So what about the sea n’the land sendin’ compliments t’each other?”

Maxie streamlined his nerves to work past Archie’s obtuse behavior. He couldn’t tell if Archie was exaggerating his drunkenness to be a pill or if he actually was that dreadful. “Consider everything my team has done for you of recent. If not for the development of our submarine that can withstand even the most extreme conditions, your grunts couldn’t have swiped the blueprints and built the exact same thing…” Maxie’s voiced trailed off as the extent of Team Aqua’s blatant plagiarism struck him. “Or consider all the information you know about Kyogre because of my research. I spent years studying these beasts. I exhausted over a decade of my life laying out the framework that your team hijacked.”

“Okay I’ll bite. But if this is a yin-n’-yang sorta deal, then what has been in this for you?”

Maxie grinned. “Publicity,” he said. “Your gang looks like a bunch of rotten thieves compared to mine. What did you do last week? Vandalize the museum? Who was there on the scene fighting the crooks? Capital M, my dear adversary.”

“You were tryin’ t’steal those keystones too!”

“Yes, but the press doesn’t know that,” Maxie said. They were in his ring now, and he was certain he could win this round. “Considering that you broke in through four windows on the top floor, injuring two young children and destroying the entire water cycle exhibit in the process, the evidence isn’t very flattering on you. What did Team Magma do, on the other hand? We walked in through the front door.”

Archie grunted and turned away. “Front door…”

“Please. Can we stay on topic?”

“Yeah okay. And what exactly am I s’pposed t’do for you?”

Maxie gave a sheepish grin; his victory had been quite short-lived. The words were painful and clumsy, but he tried his best to carry them with grace.

“Well. I was thinking that… since your team appears to be the authority on seafaring… and my team is in dire need of transport… across the sea… and, as we are en route to the same destination… I supposed that—you might—”

Archie started to laugh as he made the connection. He saw Maxie in his desperation, realized what he was about to say, and wanted to do everything in his power to milk the act dry. “That I might what, darling?”

“That you—”

“Say it.”

“That our teams could temporarily form an alliance in which you escort us by ship to the Seafloor Cavern.”

Archie met Maxie’s gaze with a bewildered contentment. He could hardly believe Maxie had grown so desperate as to admit it: that he wasn’t always capable of everything alone. While Archie smirked, oddly proud of his rival for recognizing such a fault in himself, his gaze shifted when he felt the air of the moment. That this was, in all actuality, one of the most sincere looks they had ever exchanged. Maxie noted this shift as well, and straightened his posture and tightened his lips before things could get too personal.

“It would be a temporary arrangement, of course. As soon as we set foot in the cavern we would resume our status as the most bitter of enemies.”

“Of course,” Archie said.

“Please. Will you do this small favor for a—” Maxie winced, “—friend? I’ve devoted my entire life to this research. I don’t deserve this to happen to me now.”

Archie raised an eyebrow. Maxie was gonna need to say something a little sweeter to him than that. “Try again.”

Maxie sighed. “And… what fun would there be without someone to chase after?”

There it was. Archie lit up and slapped Maxie on the back, laughing heartily as he said, “Now you’re talkin’!”

Maxie grabbed at the sting in his shoulder. How was Archie so strong—? “So you’ll help us?” he asked.

“Aw, sure, what the hell?” Archie beamed. “And you’re right. What fun would there be in just walkin’ in and takin’ what’s so rightfully mine? Amiright sis?” He nudged Maxie again.

“Charming.”

“Now you gotta shake on it,” Archie extended his hand to him.

“Excuse me?”

“A treaty’ya want, a treaty you’ll get, but’ya gotta shake my hand first, rosie.”

“Please stop doing that.”

“Doin’ what?”

“Giving me pet names. It’s vile and quite frankly demeaning.”

Archie rolled his shoulders back playfully, hand still extended to Maxie. “This is my ship, ya’gotta play by my rules, bucko.”

“I do not have to tolerate degrading behavior.”

“Who said it’s degrading? Me n’my crew toss each other names like that all the time.”

Maxie looked him once over until his eyes landed on Archie’s palm. If this was the only route that would lead him to Groudon, it looked like he was going to have to take it. He slowly extended his arm, and, without taking his careful gaze away from him, shook the hand of the man he was so bitterly resolved to hate. Archie grabbed his free hand over Maxie’s and shook harder.

“Welcome t’the crew, my boy! We set sail tomorrow mornin’!”

Maxie pulled away from Archie, wiping his hand on his coat as he turned to walk out the door. “Don’t think this changes anything about us.”

Archie grinned. “Of course not, sweetheart.”

 

[silverjirachi]

Chapter 3​

Maxie stood on the deck of the ship, presiding over the apprehensive crowd of red and blue that had gathered on the pier.

“This is going to be a disaster.”

Archie walked up to him. “Nervous? Seasick? We haven’t even hoisted anchor.”

“Archie, is this really a good idea? Your team and my team on the same ship together? I thought for certain we’d be riding separately—”

“If there’s one thing Team Aqua’s got a lot of, it’s respect for their leaders. If I say hold fire, they’ll hold their fire. Now your kind, I’m not too sure about,” he laughed. “But as long as I say the word, you’re an honorary captain of Team Aqua.”

“I’m not sure that I’m okay with that.”

Just then, the noise below them swelled as two pairs of Aqua and Magma grunts began shouting at one another.

“Dirty Pirates!”

“City lilies!”

“Yar har!! Shiver me timbers! Swimming is a lot of fun!”

There was a brief silence. And then,

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean you little red piece of shit?! Carvanha! GO!”

“Mightyena!”

And with that, the seas parted and a Pokémon battle erupted on the pier. Team Aqua and Team Magma rallied around their respective mercenaries and goaded them on with cheers of, “Walk the plank!” “Teach these dirty hobos a lesson!” and “I’ll swab your poopdeck!” On the fringes of the arena, several punches flew as Team Aqua cast aside their pokéballs in favor of the long-awaited hand-to-hand combat.

Archie’s voice boomed from the deck. “HOLD IT!!”

All at once, the squabble came to a pause; even the members of Team Magma were quelled by his powerful bellow. Archie waited for the noise to settle and then said,

“Any one’a ya who DOESN’T wanna make this trip can leave. But keep in mind that you walk off that pier and you walk the plank. All bets’re off. Consider yourself booted from Team Aqua.” Team Aqua’s eyes stayed firmly planted on their leader. They nodded. A handful of Magmas started to walk away.

“HALT!!” Maxie roared. The staggering handful ceased almost immediately. The rest of Team Magma already understood the message. “Any one of you miserable degenerates who dares to abandon this mission will be sentenced to a life of intellectual torment and menial labor under Groudon’s new sun. I’d like you to recall that when you signed up for this little excursion of ours that you also temporarily signed away many of your legal and personal rights. For those of you a little rusty on your legal analysis and who did not bother to read the fine print, it means that, essentially, for the next five days, I own you.”

The dead silence died once more. The eyes of Team Aqua grew bleak and large as they looked to Team Magma in sympathy. One of them mouthed,

“I’m so sorry.”

Maxie went on. “As of this moment, all of you answer to the both of us. Whether you consider us a member of your respective parties or not is irrelevant. For the entirety of this voyage, we are your superiors and we will glean equal respect from the both of you. Do I make myself clear?”

There were a few ‘yes, sir’s from Team Magma, who had been trained always to respond when Maxie ordered. Team Aqua held their tongues and strained to be polite. Archie stepped back in.

“Team Aqua, take a good look at yourselves. Now take a look at the redcoats in front a’ya. Take it all in. Laugh at those scrawny lil’ bitches. Spit at ‘em. Give ‘em the finger if you’re feelin’ it, I don’t fuckin’ care.” There were a few takers, but most of Team Aqua stared on expectantly. Team Magma sneered. Once Archie had seen his crew had their fun, he continued, “I hope y’all enjoyed that ‘cause that’s the last time it’ll happen all week. You n’the redjacket are now one and the same. I don’t care what that slimy sonuvabitch did to you in the past. Enterin’ this ship means signin’ a treaty.”

“Our rivalries will resume once we hit land. But until that moment, all differences are cast aside.”

“Now pick your favorite redjacket, shake his hand, n’offer t’help carry his shit to his cabin. Report back t’me so we can get set t’sail. Team Magma’s our honorary guest. Let’s make ‘em feel welcome.”

And with that, the bridge dropped, and just as Archie had ordered, the members of Team Aqua began to escort Team Magma aboard. Maxie looked down at the spotless obedience of Archie’s team in awe. It was certainly not what he expected coming from a gang of bandits. Perhaps Archie knew a thing or two about leadership after all. “That was remarkable. Their loyalty is impeccable—they truly respect you.”

“A little booze goes a long way, my darling,” he bopped him on the shoulder. Oh. Maybe not, then. “Here. Lemme show’ya to your cabin.”

Archie walked Maxie across the deck, where they stopped at the door labeled “Captain’s Quarters.” Maxie frowned, but Archie did not hesitate the open the door and show him inside. Behind the door was a living area with a dingy old couch, a neglected bookcase, and a table buried under empty bottles, a haphazard stack of books, mismatched cards, and spare poker chips.

“Is this—?”

“Nicest room in the whole stinkin’ vessel. This is where I live.”

Maxie looked disdainfully at the garbage littered about his feet. “You live here?”

“Well really more like sleep, drink, play poker, and pass out here. I live out on the open sea. Bedroom’s through the next door.”

Maxie delicately maneuvered his way around the mess, struggling with the doorknob before finally prying it open. The furnishings were even more sparse—just a desk with a lamp, a window, and a bunk bed. Maxie was at least relieved to see it was far less cluttered than the living room.

“So… top or bottom?”

“What?” Maxie spun around.

Archie laughed. “Top or bottom bunk, genius. Don’t get your gay little panties coiled. Which one d’you prefer?”

“Whichever one you haven’t slept on.”

Archie grinned. “I sleep on the couch.”

Maxie let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. Bottom.”

“You got it,” Archie said as he hurled Maxie’s bags onto the bunk. Maxie cringed when he saw the thoughtlessness with which Archie handled his belongings, but reached for them and started unpacking.He pulled out a set of red sheets and began to strip the bed of its old ones.

“Wait, what’re you doing?”

“I brought my own sheets.”

“…What?”

“You’ve never washed these before, have you?” It was more of a statement than a question.

“You’re s’pposed t’wash those?”

“Case in point.” Maxie threw the fresh sheets over his bed. He took the old ones and showed them to Archie. “There are maggots eating these.”

Archie cocked his head to the side, taking the fabric from Maxie’s hands. He leaned his face in closer, sticking his thumb through the hole. “Would’ja lookit that…”

“Dispose of them,” Maxie ordered as he tossed them aside.

“Hey! You don’t tell me how to run my ship.”

Maxie turned around and threw him a devilish grin. He already had him beat. “Our ship.” Archie frowned. Maxie craned his neck and lifted his heels to deliver his reply directly in his rival’s face. “‘You and the redjacket are now one and the same.’”

Archie groaned, picking up the sheets and leaning on the doorway. “You’re a real class-A asshole, you know that?”

“Much obliged,” Maxie said.

There was a prolonged silence as Maxie rummaged through his bags and Archie looked onto him, still fiddling with the ragged sheets. Maxie could feel Archie staring, and, after a moment or two of exasperated fumbling, he turned back around and said, “Don’t you have a ship to command or something?”

“What? Oh—yeah.” Archie said. “So, uh… if’ya need anything… just holler.”

Maxie gave him an ironic salute as he said, deadpan, “Aye aye, Captain.”

Archie looked amused but didn’t let on too much. “Oh, you’re adorable.”

“Unequivocally amiable, I know.”

Archie lingered there, but Maxie continued arranging and rearranging things as if he could kick the man out of the room with only the sound of his baggage. After a moment, Archie took the hint. “Right. So. Like I said. Y’know where to find me.”

Maxie pretended to be too engrossed in his unpacking to hear. Once Maxie heard the door close, he slackened his posture and attended to his things at a much less furious pace. He pulled some papers out to set on the desk and stopped at the window to take in his new surroundings. In truth, he had never been on a ship before, and especially not one of this size. The occasional short ride on a ferry was to be expected almost anywhere Hoenn… but even then, he had typically managed to avoid such exploits by opting to fly on his Pokémon as soon as he could. And this was so much different than that.

Maxie had always thought Archie had just been using the whole pirate thing as sort of a gimmick. But here, for the first time, he saw Archie in his true element: he was, in all actuality, a full-blown pirate. He had of course always known this to be true, but now, for some reason, it struck him.

Out the window he could see a couple stray Aquas buzzing about the pier, carrying the last pieces of cargo aboard. From Team Aqua’s hidden port on the southeastern side of Dewford Island, the trip would last about five days. That was, of course, if Team Aqua didn’t get distracted looting in Pacifidlog or Sootopolis, as they were often known to do. It would have been much more efficient to travel underwater from the Magma headquarters in Lilycove, but without the submarine, it looked as if he would have to make do with a bunch of dawdling pirates on a glorified sailboat. He went back to his bags and pulled out more books, arranging them neatly on the old shelf. Much better. What was a shelf without an abundance of books to read?

 

[silverjirachi]

Chapter 4​

The cabin door opened. Maxie was sitting on the edge of the couch, trying to distract himself from the filth by reading. Although, he still looked too afraid to sit comfortably. They had been sailing for several hours now, and the sun had started to set, compelling Maxie to exploit every possible light source in the room. Archie looked around, confused. It appeared that Maxie had even picked up some of the clutter.

“Max? Time t’come out and say hello t’everyone, buddy.”

Using the book as all but a physical barrier, Maxie replied, “There is no need for human interaction when I have literature.”

“Don’t be such an asshole you’ve been cooped up here all day,” Archie said. Maxie sighed. “If this really is our ship, then that makes you a new captain. And real captains get t’know their crew”

Maxie remained indifferent. “It would appear as if you and I have very different ideas about leadership, wouldn’t it?”

“What is that anyway?”

“A book. Perhaps you’ve never seen one before?”

“No I knew that, you shithead. I meant what’re you reading.”

Maxie flashed the cover to him. “The Natural Theory of Pokémon Evolution. I’m revisiting it to brush up on my knowledge before I awaken Groudon.”

“You mean you’ve been working all day?”

“‘Work’ is too severe a term. I consider it more to be… studying.”

“You’ve been outta school for how many years and you’re sittin’ in here studying.”

“I know it may come as a surprise to someone as unsophisticated as you, but some of us actually do glean a significant amount of pleasure from intellectual pursuits.”

“Please,” Archie said. “Just come out onto the deck n’say hello.”

“I don’t want to.”

In one swoop, Archie huffed across the room and lifted Maxie off the couch by his collar. Maxie’s glasses went tumbling. “I don’t care,” he said. Maxie squirmed in a failed attempt to readjust his frames. He forced a laugh.

“When can I meet them?”

“That’s the spirit!” Archie threw him down. Maxie swooned back toward the couch, just as quickly picking himself up and straightening his glasses. “There’s a party kickin’ off down below. C’mon, I’ll show’ya where.”

“Wait. You didn’t say anything about a celebration.”

Archie grinned. “Don’t know about any ‘celebration’ but… there’s a party.” And with that, he grabbed Maxie and pulled him away, out into the cool twilight of the deck.

“I can’t believe I’m letting you drag me to a party.”

“Well, really, y’didn’t have much of a choice. I would’a just picked’ya up and carried’ya if you didn’t agree to go along,” he laughed. “You don’t weigh that much.” Maxie groaned.

“I hate you.”

“Not until Thursday,” Archie winked. “For now the least we can be is neutral acquaintances.”

“Oh frabjous day…”

“What?”

Maxie shook his head. “Literature.”

Archie and Maxie headed down to the lower level, with Maxie growing more apprehensive the further they descended. He cringed when they climbed down not one, but two godforsaken ladders, and wound up in what was clearly meant to be a storage hold. While the room was certainly large enough to accommodate their guests—albeit with a shorter ceiling than Maxie was comfortable with—it felt cramped and musty between the bodies gathered and the barrels and crates hastily pushed to the side. In addition to a handful of folding tables and chairs, some crates remained upright, covered in badly-worn tablecloths. Dying lanterns and buckets with wax-dripped candles were trying to pass themselves off as centerpieces.

A small gaggle of Aqua grunts danced around three large wooden columns in the room. They performed as a ragtag band—two fiddles, a drum, a flute, and a tambourine—all in all, not unimpressive. But the fact that they were leaping all over the place made them much less a band and much more an acrobatics troupe. The rest of Team Aqua followed suit—singing, dancing, and stomping their feet—while Team Magma hung in the back, awaiting clearer instruction. As he ducked his head to dodge the chaos, Maxie gave a quick nod to Courtney and Tabitha, who had correctly positioned themselves as far away from Team Aqua as possible.

“Well, Max, make yourself at home,” Archie said, pulling out a chair practically in the center of the mess. “I know you don’t like dancing so we saved’ya a seat.”

“I think I’ll be fine over here thank you,” Maxie turned and directed himself toward an empty seat in the far corner. He wanted to avoid being punctured by a stray bow. By the time he reached the table, Archie had already distracted himself at the makeshift bar.

Maxie sat down and noticed a crate near him that was full of rocks. There appeared to be a few more nearby. At last. Something on this accursed sea vessel he could enjoy. Without moving too far from his seat, he peered around to inspect their contents. Nothing too consequential, of course. From what he could make out—and deducted from common sense and probability—likely just some gabbro, basalt, limestone. But why were they down here? He supposed to weigh the ship down… or something. They certainly weren’t using them for any academic purposes.

Having lightly indulged in his compulsive desire to identify any rock near him, he felt around his jacket for the spare novella he kept on him in case of emergencies. This was definitely an emergency. By the dim light of the lantern , he opened his book and shut himself out from the pressing commotion of the room around him. He was content like this for only a brief while, until one undeterred female from Team Aqua sauntered up and seated herself directly across from him.

Shelly sat there with her chin resting in her palm, eyeing him up and down coolly. She could see his agitation growing the longer she sat there in silence, so she sat there in all the more silence and continued to stare. Maxie was determined to ignore her as long as possible. Finally, she blew her hair out of her face and said,

“So, this is him, huh? The great and powerful Maxie. In the flesh. You know, those ads in the paper make you seem a lot taller.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. You advertise Team Magma in the Hoenn Gazette. Not to mention all those articles written about how you swooped in once again to fight off those dirty blue pirates from Team Aqua. You pay the editors to write that shit or what?”

“What I elect to do with my finances and how I choose to market my organization are frankly none of your business,” Maxie said. “And, just in case you were misinformed, the Gazette only reports the facts.”

Shelly scooted herself in farther. “You think you’re better than us or something? Sitting here alone with your stupid little book?”

“First of all, this ‘stupid little book’ is a novella. Probably a term you’ve never encountered before,” Maxie said. “And second, I have no need to think I’m better than you. I am.”

Shelly raised her eyebrows, disarmed by the true extent of Maxie’s arrogance. “Wow, Archie wasn’t kidding. You really are the biggest asshole on the face of the planet.”

“Such a shame he could only articulate such a trite observation.”

Shelly frowned at the rebuttal, frustrated that her prodding seemed to have no effect. Her gaze could not sear through the man’s defenses fast enough. After a few more moments of silent gunfire, she saw that her typical weapons were obsolete and everything was now fair game.

“Heard you two were an item back in the day.”

Maxie slammed the book down on the table. “What kind of ludicrous—!”

Shelly’s lips twisted into an evil grin. She had punctured him. “And suddenly Big Mr. Vocabulary Man can’t finish his sentences,” she said. “You and Archie. Archie and you. Two star-crossed lovahs.”

Wrath came burbling from Maxie’s gut into his throat, but he sealed his tongue to the roof of his mouth to avoid saying something imprudent. The fury burned through his eyes while Shelly continued her assault. “You two do have a history, though, don’t you? I mean, you’ve known each other for quite a long time.”

“Archie and I had known about each other in school, and had what could almost be considered a friendly acquaintanceship in college until—”

“Until Archie dropped out. I know,” Shelly said. She rose, running her hand across the edge of the table as she stepped in closer to him. “But I mean, you certainly don’t leave much to the imagination, do you? Sharing a room together?”

Maxie jumped up. “Archie’s accommodations for me are strictly on a level of—”

Shelly laughed. “You don’t have to be so defensive. I was only kidding.” She gave him a lighthearted shove. Maxie followed her warily with his eyes. “Look, I just came to make myself very clear. And that is while Archie will let you think that you have power here, there is one thing that will always control you, and that is talk.” Maxie’s fire went silent. Shelly moved in even closer, circling him. “You have to be in control of every little tiny detail passed around about you, don’t you? Your ego’s too big for that. But the thing is… I don’t have to obey you on this voyage. I just have to follow orders.”

And with that, she winked, pivoted, and floated back into the crowd.

Maxie stood there, disgruntled and confused by the woman. He looked back to the book face down on the table, snatched it up, and hastily returned it to his inner pocket. Archie approached with a drink in hand.

“I saw Shelly came by t’say hello!”

“So that’s what that was.”

“Ain’t she somethin’?” Archie said, looking out to her. Maxie glanced at him with something that almost felt like concern, but it quickly dissipated.

“She certainly is an enigma.”

Archie beamed, “I know! One of the brightest girls on the ship, she is. One of my admins, in fact. Splits the role of Quarter-Master with Matt. I can always depend on her.”

“I don’t think you understand what enig—”

“Here, I brought’cha somethin’,” Archie set the drink down on the table. Maxie reached for it suspiciously.

“What is this?” Maxie asked as he inspected its contents.

Archie laughed. “Who knows? Just try it!”

Maxie frowned. He knew Archie wouldn’t leave him alone until he complied. Taking a deep breath, he winced and raised the glass to his lips. The unspecified liquid seared through his mouth and throat. He lurched forward and spat it out. It was absolutely vile. And cheap. Archie only laughed more.

“That is foul,” Maxie said.

Archie snatched the cup away from him and took a swig. “Tastes like… rum and… and—” Perplexed, he took another gulp. “Something!! Whooee that is strong!”

“It’s repulsive.”

Archie cackled, “Oh yeah, I guess your refined tastes aren’t acclimated to this kind of brew, are they, sweetheart?” Maxie’s eyes raised their daggers at him, but knew it wasn’t worth the fight. “What kind’a booze you drink, honey?”

“Fine wine. Champagne. Chianti perhaps. Or a nice pinot noir.”

“Peena-what?!”

“You’re ignorant.”

“I think we got some pineapple juice layin’ around here somewhere.”

“I’m fine, thank you.”

“Okiedoke. C’mon, Max. Come say hi t’your shipmates,” Archie started to tug on him.

“Actually, Archibald, I intended to speak with you on that matter,” Maxie said.

Archie turned. “Okay, shoot.”

“I do not condone of our two teams associating in this… intimate… a climate. It could deter their willingness to resume our rivalries once we reach the cavern.”

Archie patted him on the back. “You’re thinkin’ too far ahead, lass.” He took another drink. “Besides, wasn’t it you who said we should cast aside our differences?”

“That doesn’t mean that they should—”

“Relax, mate. Enjoy yourself. This is a party, after all.”

Maxie rolled his eyes and Archie wandered back into the crowd. Maxie almost felt embarrassed for him as he watched his rival singing and dancing amongst his inferiors. Carefully, as if coming in too close a proximity to the rest of the party would contaminate him, Maxie slunk across the room to Courtney and Tabitha. They sat at a dingy little barrel-table, scowling at the mystery drink with the same repulsed expression he had.

The two rose when they saw him. “Good evening, sir,” they said with a quick salute. This was technically a team function… wasn’t it? Maxie skipped the niceties and got straight to the point.

“Patrol the area. Keep an eye on our team members. If any of them looks as if they are getting a little too acquainted with our opponents, go between them. I’m going back upstairs.”

“Yes, sir.”

And with that, Maxie turned and made his exit. Courtney looked over to Tabitha, alarmed. Tabitha only sobered his gaze out to the crowd and nodded, sternly.

 

[silverjirachi]

Chapter 5​

A bell-like tone rang throughout the ship just before sunrise. All members of Team Magma reached for their phones grudgingly. A single message appeared on the screen: Urgent meeting on the deck in 10 minutes. Roll call will be taken. –M

Without wanting to wake their blue neighbors in the adjacent cabins, the Magma grunts pulled on their hoods and wandered groggily out into the crisp morning air. Courtney and Tabitha stood on either side of the deck, taking names as they arrived. Once Tabitha gave the signal, Maxie appeared on a higher level of the ship, looking out over all of them. He began to speak.

“Now, I am aware that things were a bit out of the ordinary yesterday,” he said. “Team Aqua has extended their hospitality to us, and for that, we should be grateful. I am also aware that Archie and I instructed you to treat one another with solidarity. I have no qualms about you taking trifling liberties to interact with members of the opposing team. However,” he punctuated the word with severity. “As you engage in such frivolous merriment, as in the meantime we have no active contentions, keep in mind who you will answer to at the end of the week. Do not grow fond of the Aqua who helped you unpack your things or taught you to gamble last night; for before the week is out you may have to stand taut as you watch he and his Pokémon perish in flame.” Grave silence. Maxie pivoted. “We are on the brink of a dreadful war, a war of ages, a war between the sacred land and the very sea we sail on, and—”

The door below him swung open. A dazed Archie came stumbling out, rubbing his eyes. He stood in the doorway, squinting, holding his hand up as a visor to block out the light. The sun was hardly even out and it was already too damn bright for him. Once he had adjusted well enough for the red assembly to come into view, he turned around and called back up to Maxie.

“Max, that you? What in the hell’re you doing up so early?!” A few snickers came through from the crowd.

“This meeting is strictly confidential and I am going to have to order that you—”

“Meeting? At six-thirty in the morning? Maxie my boy, my hangover isn’t even up yet!”

Several more laughs. His team was watching them like it was a performance. “Silence,” he said. He turned back to Archie, “Then go. Team Magma can—”

“Team? There aren’t any teams right now. We’re a crew,” Archie swung himself up onto the ladder and met Maxie where he stood. He addressed Team Magma. “And since I am just as much your captain as him, I say… meeting dismissed, you lily-livered landfolk. Don’t you dare come back out here till ten.”

There were a few cheers, and then the exhausted—and slightly dehydrated—Team Magma made their way back to their bunks. Tabitha and Courtney were powerless in keeping the sleepy red-hoods from their beds.

Maxie glared at Archie. “Go back to bed, you dolt. You can’t usurp power from my team like that.”

“Ah-ah, ladybug. Our team.”

“I. Hate. You.”

“Maybe if you stopped your bitchin’ and just trusted me you’d actually enjoy yourself on this lil’ voyage.”

Maxie scoffed. “Enjoy? You think I need to enjoy myself on this endeavor? This venture is of necessity only and I do not want it to interfere with the goals that I—” he stopped. Archie raised his eyebrow. “—My team has worked so diligently to obtain.”

“Can’t you have any fun at all?”

“I do plenty of things for recreation like reading and—”

Archie put his arm around him. “Max, if you’d stop makin’ excuses for your sorry self for one goddamn minute I’d like to tell’ya a thing or two.” Maxie leaned away from him, but was unable to escape. “Look around here, whaddaya see?”

“I see a grubby boat and a pirate with a hangover.”

“Why dont’cha look a little harder? Farther out there,” he directed his gaze to the horizon.

“That’s the sun.”

“And below it?”

“The sea.”

“That’s right, laddie. I live for the sea. Every day we travel somewhere new. We wake up in the mornin’, swab the decks, and hoist anchor. Slave away to Big Lady Blue all live-long day. And, in the evenin’, we hunker down and feast together. Not just as a crew, but as family. And if all my years of sailin’ have taught me anything, it’s that it’s about the journey, not the destination,” Archie looked out to the open sea, oddly proud of himself for the speech he had managed to deliver so early in the morning.

“It’s about all those other families you pillage and raid from too, isn’t it?”

Archie frowned. “D’ya have’ta ruin everything like that?”

“I would plainly refer to it as telling the truth, but yes, I do, in fact, have to ruin everything ‘like that.’”

“No wonder your team doesn’t like you.”

“Now that’s just preposterous, my team—” Maxie stopped as recent events surfaced in his mind. “…Okay. My actions of late have been less than cordial. But my team understands. They know the next few days are critical to our success and I’m just trying to take control—”

“If’ya treated ‘em like people and not robots you just might get a little more control.”

“I treat them plenty fairly. I—”

Archie put his hands on Maxie’s shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes. “Max. I’m gonna ask’ya a question. How many times have you seen me crack the whip?”

“What is that supposed to mean? You never—you’re so—”

“Precisely, my boy.”

Archie’s words almost struck him. But the moment Maxie caught himself being even remotely introspective over something Archie had said—hung-over, at that—he shook the feeling away. “Where are your showers?”

“What?”

“Your showers. You know, the place where cultivated members of society rid themselves of yesterday’s filth. I should like to freshen up before I begin the day.”

Archie doubled over laughing. Maxie stood there, unamused. “You think we have—baths—on a ship?!”

“Showers actually but I will take that as a no.”

“You really don’t know anything about sailin’, do you?”

“Yes. I grew up in Fallarbor.”

“I know you did. I lived in Dewford. We both went to school in Rustboro. They ain’t that far from the sea.”

“I don’t know if you’ve been to Fallarbor recently but there are jagged cliffs that make ship access impossible. The nearest port was in Petalburg. Not everyone in Hoenn grew up at sea, Archie.”

“Somethin’ I’m hopin’ to change,” Archie grinned. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m goin’ back t’bed. This headache is killin’me.”

“If you stopped drinking rocket fuel in the evenings, perhaps your mornings would be simpler,” Maxie said. Archie slammed the door shut. And with that, the stiff Magma leader was left alone on the deck with the flowing expanse of the sea.

Maxie wandered to the railing and looked down at the endless blue chasm below. He could see how gentle rise and fall of the waves may be appealing to some, but he also knew that this charm was only a veil for the dark, unrelenting, and sheerly unknowable forces that lay beneath. Maxie shuddered at the thought that something could be lurking in there—taunting him and laughing at him from a depth he could not see—and so he stepped back from the ledge.

Archie’s dream was understandable—almost, dare he say it, endearing—but more in the way that a young child’s belief in the Tooth Clefairy is endearing, rather than as something that was feasible and to be admired. Especially not when it stood directly opposed to knowledge, stability, and human development.

The door to Archie’s cabin opened a few hours later. Archie’s eyes still pained him to open. “…Maxie?”

“It’s nine-thirty, wake up you useless lout. I thought you might like to be up before your crew.”

Archie rolled over. “Whatever was in those drinks last night might’a just done me in for the day.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re just dehydrated.”

“What?” he slowly sat up, holding his head.

“You do know why you get hangovers, don’t you?”

“Because I had too good a time last night?”

“No,” Maxie’s already-inflexible patience flexed even further. “I mean, certainly you know what alcohol does to your body?”

“Makes you drunk?”

“It dehydrates you. That’s in essence what a hangover is. You need to drink water.” Maxie handed him a bottle of water. “Drink this. It will make you feel much better in an hour or two. I brought you this too,” he showed him the pill in his other hand. “Ibuprofen. It’ll take the edge off the pain.”

Archie accepted the water and the pill from Maxie’s hands. Then, he stopped for a moment, examining them. “You ain’t tryin’ t’poison me or nothin’, are’ya?”

Maxie almost smiled, but kept a serious tone. “I have no need to eliminate you when you pose no real threat to my goals.” A little brighter, he added, “Besides, you are the only one between us capable of commanding a sea vessel. I haven’t the slightest idea how.”

Archie shrugged. “Fair enough,” he said and swallowed the pill. Then he said, indicating the water bottle, “Hey, whered’ya get this anyway?”

“I found a couple of them in the kitchen. You’re sinfully low on supplies—that aren’t dried beef or alcohol, that is.”

“And what were you doing snoopin’ around my ship?”

“Our ship,” Maxie sneered. “And I wanted to fix myself breakfast.”

Archie laughed. “I always leave that t’the cooks. It may seem strange to you fast-paced city folk but this crew always eats our meals together.”

“What do you have to cook with—?”

Archie disregarded Maxie’s question and rose from the couch. “After our mornin’ duties we’ll settle down for a bite n’set course for Slateport.”

“And why do we need to stop there?”

Archie grinned. “I have a few things I still need t’pick up. And you,” he flicked Maxie’s glasses, “can do your little grocery shopping, sweetheart.”

Maxie grimaced, removed the frames from his face, and inspected them. “Perhaps I can find a decent place to shower…”

“That’s the spirit! C’mon now! Time t’wake the crew.”

Archie opened the door and Maxie followed. A couple Team Aqua members were already straggling about, awaiting orders. Archie handed a bell to the nearest grunt, who started down the corridor, ringing it and knocking on his crewmate’s doors. While Team Aqua emerged one by one, Team Magma came flowing out as a unit. They assembled in the center, sorted into confused rows that were just trying to stay out of the way.

Archie lifted himself onto a nearby barrel so he could address the masses. “Time for the mornin’ duties! Team Aqua, you know what to do—take a Magma and put ‘em t’work. The sooner these chores are done the sooner we can eat!”

At once, the seas parted as Team Aqua took up their new apprentices. Team Magma gave it their best, but many of them looked awkward and gangly carrying buckets, tying knots, and poorly attempting to help hoist the anchor. Courtney and Tabitha weaved through the crowd.

“Scanning…”

“He has to be around here somewhere. Scan harder.”

“Recalculating…”

“I can’t believe I let him slip out from under my very nose.”

“It’s disgraceful…”

“I will bury him by my own hand.”

“Reprehensible…”

“If I could only—”

“Good morning, Tabitha.”

In his bout of anger, Tabitha had not even realized that he had walked past Maxie without any sort of acknowledgment. He straightened up, spun around and saluted his commander, praying that Maxie had not overheard their conversation.

“Good—Good morning, sir.”

“And where might you be off to in such livid haste?”

“Oh—um—nowhere—” Maxie gave him a doubtful frown, then looked to Courtney, who would deliver the truth.

“There is…dissonance…on the ship. And we are…searching for the culprit. We will punish those…the culprit, I mean. Tabitha and I will resolve this….”

Maxie grinned. “Glad to see it is being handled, then. Carry on.”

Tabitha nodded and scurried off with Courtney, who was still craning her neck and rising up on her toes in attempt to see over the crowd. Maxie tried to look as if he was supervising things, but had no remote idea what “supervising things” would even mean in this context. He quickly felt too incompetent standing on a ship on his own, conceded, and sought out Archie, who tried to show him a few things that he would instantly forget. Just then, a mountainous Aqua, even wider and taller than Archie, approached them. Maxie stepped back in contempt of the rugged-looking man.

“Bro—food’s almost ready. You should call in the crew.”

“Of course!” Archie said and then turned to Maxie. “Max, I’d like’ya t’meet Matt, another one of my admins. Mattie, this is Maxie.”

Matt extended his hand and Maxie hesitantly took it. But the large man shook so hard that Maxie’s knuckles popped. Maxie retracted his hand, shaking it out quickly, but Archie only laughed at him. Matt, seemingly unaware of Maxie’s throbbing knuckles, said,

“Glad t’get to finally meet’ya when you aren’t tryin’ta kill me.”

“Well, based on your size, that could easily be the other way around…”

“Any bro of Archie’s is a bro of mine.”

“We aren’t ‘bros,’” Maxie almost gagged at the loose term. “We’re still rivals—we are just in the midst of a temporary ceasefire negotiation.”

Without warning, Matt picked Maxie up off the ground and hugged him. “I like you. You’re funny, bro.”

Maxie struggled to speak as his entire body was slowly constricted. “Put—me down. I can’t…”

Matt lingered there only for a moment longer until he loosened his grip and set the man down gently, as if placing a doll back on a shelf. “Oh, sorry,” he said, after realizing that Maxie had been straining for air. He looked to Archie again, “I’ve cooked up somethin’ extra nice for our new friends today.”

Archie gave him a pat on the back. “Right-o, Matt. Now hop to it, don’t wanna leave these hungry scamps waiting long.” He climbed higher onto the deck and yelled, “Atten-tion!”

Team Aqua froze and turned to look at him. Team Magma followed suit, if only past their confusion.

“Now is everything in order?” Archie asked.

“Aye,” Shelly called out, checking the last few things off the list in her hand. “I just ran the checks. We’re all set to sail.”

“That’s what I like’ta hear! In record time, too! Now go on, food’s waitin’!”

 

[silverjirachi]

Chapter 6​

The walls of the dining hall swelled, voices reverberating off every edge. The cozy chamber was not meant to accommodate so many hungry faces at once. In order to make way for their guests, some members of Team Aqua took their plates upstairs and picnicked on the deck. A handful of the more adventurous Magmas elected to eat outside as well. However, most were not too keen to challenge their comfort zones.

Tabitha, who had been late to the rush in search of the offender, now found himself alone and uncomfortably close to Matt, who had been serving food with the other cooks. Matt handed him a plate and Tabitha winced, sniffing it.

“Seafood?”

“Fish omelet.”

“Of course.” Tabitha picked up a sliver of something so browned it was unidentifiable. “And what is—this?”

“Fish bacon.”

“Is there anything on this plate that isn’t made of fish?”

“Well, there’s rye bread.”

Tabitha rolled his eyes and shoved past him, muttering to himself, “Filthy brute.” Matt overheard him, but decided he had been called worse, and a pillowy red man from Team Magma wasn’t worth the effort. Some people were cranky before breakfast. Shelly, however, stopped Tabitha dead in his tracks.

“Hey. You better be thankful for that meal he cooked. Matt and the others had to get up really early to make that shit for you. I think you owe him an apology.”

“I, Tabitha, admin of Team Magma, do not owe anything to the likes of—”

“And I, Shelly, admin of Team Aqua, don’t give a damn. Say you’re fucking sorry.”

At this point, Matt intervened. “Shelly it’s really no big deal.”

Shelly pulled back, grudgingly, but kept a hateful eye on Tabitha. Tabitha, in all his pride, felt uncomfortable, but was too stubborn to bow to her. “Okay,” Shelly said. “But, believe it or not, we have rules here, pal. And one of the first ones is respect. Archie put me and Matt in charge of keeping law and order on this ship for a reason, and it would benefit you not to find out why.”

Tabitha was about to speak, but Courtney witnessed the entire encounter from afar and stepped in to retrieve Tabitha before he finally received his long-overdue ass kicking. With a delicate hand on Tabitha’s shoulder, she looked to Matt and Shelly and said,

“Thank you very… much for the food…. Team Magma is quite grateful. Tabitha is just a little… grumpy in the mornings.”

Matt laughed. Shelly accepted Courtney’s roundabout apology, although she would have preferred to hear it from the swine himself. Matt offered to sit and dine with them, but Courtney politely declined and pulled Tabitha away.

Across the hall, a small group of red and blue was eating in a familiar pleasantry that was quite unconventional for the two teams.

“Is this really all fish?” the Magma girl asked her blue counterparts.

“Well, there’s rye bread,” the male Aqua said dryly. The blue girl sitting next to him said,

“Yeah, Matt and the cooks fish them up every morning. Though usually, the meals aren’t nearly this lavish. A lot of times it’s just stale toast.”

“Sometimes we have cheese if we steal it,” the blue man added. “Although, that doesn’t last long. We can’t keep anything you have to refrigerate.”

The Aqua girl saw the concern on the three Magmas’ faces, and she explained, “Our real hideout’s a lot nicer. But when we’re out at sea, we have to make do with what we can. This is an old-fashioned ship.”

One of the male Magmas raised his eyebrows, “No kidding.”

“But that’s nothing compared to what you guys’ve got,” the blue girl said. “How do you do it? Putting up with Maxie all day?”

The three Magmas shifted uncomfortably, silently consulting with one another until one of them explained,

“A lot of us don’t see him that often. He’s not exactly what you’d call a social butterfly.”

The red girl nodded. “Tabitha and Courtney are the ones we usually answer to. They’re not pleasant all the time, but much more tolerable. Courtney’s really sweet on her own. But throw Tabitha in the mix and it’s a nightmare. She’s too shy to contradict him, so the whole checks-and-balances thing doesn’t really work out.”

The other Magma male added, “The only time we see Maxie is when we have team meetings, he’s giving a speech, or we go out for missions. And even on missions he doesn’t directly address most of us. Courtney, Tabitha, and other higher-ups relay commands to different squadrons. In training, Tabitha basically teaches you to fear him like a god. If he condescends to speak to you, it’s usually not a good thing.”

“So most of you have never even spoken to him?”

“That’s right.”

The two blues looked to each other, dumbfounded. Archie was constantly throwing parties and having group outings to get to know the crew. He knew everyone on the ship by name, and even knew the names of some of their friends and relatives. How could anyone follow a leader so coldly impersonal?

“So… how do any of you actually deal with staying there?”

The red girl spoke up. “Well, you have to remember Team Magma has a minimum GPA. You can’t apply until your second semester of college, you have to be attending college, and at the screening you have to submit transcripts of classes you’re taking. It’s almost like applying for school all over again. But since most of us loaded ourselves up with honors and Advanced Placement courses in high school, we’re used to being pushed pretty hard.”

“But what keeps you there?”

One of the Magmas laughed. “Oh, that one’s easy: he pays us.”

The two Aquas’ jaws dropped. “I mean, even we get a share of what we rob, but he pays you?!”

The other red male nodded. “Not only that, but since majority of us are full-time students and work for him part-time, if we have to miss a class because of a mission, he gives us a bonus and handles it with the professor. Those of us majoring in any kind of science—which is nearly all of us—actually get course credit or internship credit for being here. The man’s rich as hell. He has big connections to nearly every university you can think of.”

“Isn’t he like a super scientist with like five degrees or something?”

“I believe he got his undergrad in Geology, with a focus on Volcanology, and another degree in Pokémon Evolution.”

“I know for sure his PhD is in Evolution Theory.”

The other two nodded. “Yeah, he talks about that one a lot.”

“He’s actually done some really important science shit, that’s why he’s so loaded.”

“I heard he and Archie used to be on a team together.”

“That is a possibility,” the red girl replied. “Maxie conceived the idea for Team Magma while he was in some kind of fraternity during undergrad.”

“ASPEN. Alliance for the Study of Pokémon Evolution.”

“How do you all know so much about Maxie if you don’t even talk to him?”

“We have to take a team-oriented proficiency test every year.”

“Ninety questions straight from his thesis and dissertation.”

“Don’t forget the bonus questions from his autobiography.”

“What an ass.”

“You got that right.”

“Y’know, I heard he’s gay.”

The girl Aqua shrunk back the instant the words had left her mouth. The three Magmas looked to each other with grave concern. She quickly covered up with,

“I mean—wow that sounded bad. Uhm. I was just wondering if you guys knew. Since you said he had an autobiography and everything. We hear it in Team Aqua all the time.”

“We do, actually,” the male Aqua piped up, trying to alleviate the sudden anxiety.

Team Magma started to laugh. The most rational, the female, said, “Well, no wonder gossip like that would spread in Team Aqua. I mean, we have our fair share of rumors about Archie.”

“But is it true?”

They only laughed harder. The first Magma spoke up, “Are you kidding me?! That man has ‘celibate’ stamped across his forehead.”

“I’m pretty sure his only sexual orientation is rage,” the other added.

“No time for affection. He knows only anger.”

“He’s a fucking robot.”

The two young men snickered to one another. The female Magma remained straight-faced as she explained,

“Even if he does have some kind of sexual orientation—which a lot of us highly doubt—he certainly maintains that he has much more important things to worry about. He would never let on that he had any sort of personal life, and he especially wouldn’t tell us about it.”

“There’s no way he’s gay. He’s not even nice enough to be straight.”

“He kills puppies for fun. He can’t feel love.”

“Which is why I’m so concerned about what’s gonna happen if he finds out about—”

The first Magma grabbed the blue girl’s hand. The words dropped silent from the corners of her mouth. “Don’t worry,” he said. “He’s not going to.” The other three glanced around to make sure no one was watching while the couple giggled at their handsome little secret. The other Magma tapped his friend on the shoulder as he saw an important Aqua approaching.

As if she had seen her chance, Shelly wandered over to the table and sat down. The two Aqua grunts nodded to her, with the girl quickly straightening up to pretend everything was normal.

“Well, hey there everyone,” she said, with perhaps just a bit too much cordiality. “What’re you all up to?”

“Talkin’ shit.”

The three Magmas shrunk for a moment, but Shelly raised her eyebrows. “Aha,” she said. “A little talk never hurt anybody. What’s the buzz?”

“We were actually talking about…” the red hood lowered his voice, embarrassed. “Maxie...”

Shelly leaned in, very quickly even more intrigued. The girl Magma, becoming anxious, said,

“But he would get so mad if he found out, please don’t—”

“Oh, don’t worry darling. Your secret’s safe with me,” Shelly said. “You all should feel like one of the family here.”

“So, Shelly, do you know about Maxie?” the blue girl asked.

“What about him, dear?”

“Is he g—”

“Were he and Archie on a team together?!” the Magma girl blurted out. The others looked at her, frustrated, but the single glance she threw them reminded them of the severe consequences waiting if Maxie discovered what had been said behind his back.

Shelly hesitated for a moment, then smiled, relishing in her opportunity to stir this simmering pot. “I believe they were pretty close those first two years before Archie dropped out of college. In fact, I think they were even in some kind of fraternity together.”

“Yeah, that’s what we were saying,” the Magma girl agreed, at ease for successfully redirecting the conversation away from a dicey collision.

“I think they tried to start something up, but I’m not too sure what became of it,” Shelly said. “They went their separate ways. Archie dropped out. Kinda strange how things work out like that, y’know?” She rose and gave them a wink. “I wonder what could have possibly happened to make the two of them enemies?” She laughed. “Any number of things, I suppose. They had very different plans for the world, after all.” And with this, she turned to exit, but stopped to tell the blue, “Oh, and once you’re finished eating, report to the deck as soon as possible. We’re setting course for Slateport.”

Team Aqua took notice of their leaders beginning to climb up to the deck and finished their meals. The members of Team Magma rose with them, but were unsure of the proper cleanup procedures. Instead, they stood idly around, scooting chairs in and out and dusting little crumbs off the tables in a feeble attempt to look productive. They’d… probably adjust eventually.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I've read this before and I really like it! I was disappointed when you made a video acting like you thought it was bad, because it's not bad at all!

 

[silverjirachi]

I've read this before and I really like it! I was disappointed when you made a video acting like you thought it was bad, because it's not bad at all!

Oh, thank you! It's so funny because digging up the fic and reading it for my youtube channel was what actually inspired me to get back to finishing it. Looking back it's not bad, you're right. I was really hard on myself. I was in a place in my life where I was doing a lot of "haha look how EMBARASSING I was at 17" things. but i look back really fondly on my decision to first start writing the fic when i was a teen and especially now that i've finished it (and am writing more......)

My writing has grown a lot since then too. So that's another thing I'm like, I look back on these first chapters now and there's so much I'd do differently. But in a way, I kind of wanted to preserve the spirit because it WAS like i was resurrecting a dead fic and I was like well... we kinda GOTTA keep the beginning the same then. And even then, just because there's things I'd do differently doesn't make the original draft bad either!

and maybe some day i will return to my channel who knows 😵‍💫 i want to

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Yeah! Maybe you could do a video about changing your attitude towards it. Also wait you were seventeen when you wrote this? Oh god when I was seventeen I was writing very bad FF6 "script format" (having no idea what that actually meant) stuff.

 

[silverjirachi]

Yeah! Maybe you could do a video about changing your attitude towards it. Also wait you were seventeen when you wrote this? Oh god when I was seventeen I was writing very bad FF6 "script format" (having no idea what that actually meant) stuff.

Yeah I was like 17 or 18 when I wrote the first few chapters up until the end of the first Interlude. I edited them a bit after obviously, but yeah. I've been writing since I was very young. Now I kind of love teenagers writing things badly tho. Like. YES that's the SPIRIT that's how things HAPPEN!! yaassssss bad script format fic yessssss

And that's a good idea for the video thing!! It'd be nice to do a retrospective/what I learned how I feel now. Maybe i will... someday......,,

 

[silverjirachi]

Chapter 7​

It only took a few hours to land in Slateport. The crew knew that this would be their last opportunity to stock up on supplies before they hit the rough currents that awaited them toward Pacifidlog. Beachgoers looked on in apprehension as the infamous ship docked on the pier; Team Aqua had never been shy about where they parked their vessel. Archie was one of the first people to appear, electing to dive straight into the water rather than to walk off like a regular person. The mad rush of blue that followed was to be expected, but onlookers drew back as members of Team Magma started to emerge as well.

Maxie was one of the last people to exit, surrounded by a posse of higher-ranking Magma officials. Expressionless, yet aggressively locked on their target, they escorted their leader off the pier and onto the beach. Maxie held his head high, meeting the beachful of puzzled stares with fierce assuredness. Now, more than ever, it was imperative to look as if all was going according to plan.

Together with his machinelike coterie, Maxie crossed the sand and made his way into the city, where he intended to seek out the Pokémon Center and shower. Immediately.

The door to the Pokémon Center slid open and everyone rose, jolted. Trainers held tight to their Pokémon, even though they knew Team Magma was far from the criminal mob Team Aqua was known for being. To just see them appearing so suddenly—and forcefully—in a port city, of all things, took them by surprise. The nurse stood behind the desk, looking fearfully onto the red wall.

“May I help you?” she asked. Everything was silent. The room appeared to be hanging in time, suspended in that harrowing instant before a bomb is dropped. All eyes were glued to the small red sea as they parted and the notorious Magma leader came into view. Very few trainers had actually seen him in person, and only from a distance. He was something like a political figure; only to be talked and debated about, and occasionally supported during an election year. Ads on posters and television were much more common.

“Team Magma requires the totality of your services for approximately the next twelve hours. We request that the premises be evacuated and the center be closed at once so that Team Magma can have complete, undisturbed access to all of its facilities.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t—”

Maxie took one deliberate step forward. He had mastered the art of getting his point across without words. The nurse shrank back. Maxie gave a slight grin, being careful not to let on just how much he reveled in this fleeting moment of power. “Of course, we would not leave you all without a means of care. We will provide you with any kind of medicine you might need, and make arrangements with the Mauville Pokémon Center to redirect evening traffic.”

“This center is supposed to—”

Maxie stepped forward once more. The room hushed. “I would like to remind you of our authority in that if you do not comply, we have made a pact with Team Aqua and have the means necessary to take this building by force.”

Team Aqua—? A few of the trainers looked around to each other. For as long as they had known, Team Magma had been actively fighting against the general chaos Team Aqua ensued. Now they were… using it?

“All we require is that you peacefully surrender the Pokémon Center for twelve hours. It is absolutely vital to the next phase of our mission. We will return it to you as soon as our time is up.”

After a few more moments of mystified silence, Tabitha added in, “We’ll give you all Max Revives and Full Restores.”

Maxie nodded and the group opened up a few black boxes, emblazoned with the red Magma “M.” Max Revives, Full Restores—anything a trainer could possibly need. All patrons of the Pokémon Center almost immediately lined up to receive their goods. The nurse came out from around the counter and approached Maxie, warily.

“What is this all about—?”

“I am afraid that the details are at this time classified. Just know that we have come to you—as always—with peaceful intentions.”

“You don’t have any kind of permit for this—?”

“Deepest apologies. I couldn’t seem to procure one on such short notice. I’m positive that the city won’t mind—especially not after they witness the fruits of our labor.”

The nurse stared at him for another moment, then made her way to exit after murmuring, “I’m alerting the authorities about this.”

Maxie was confident it would be of no use. The worst they would get was a slap on the wrist. Or, perhaps, more laughably, a fine.

“We greatly appreciate your compliance and generous contributions to science,” he called out after her.

The last few trainers made their way out and the doors to the Pokémon Center were sealed tightly shut, guarded by two of Maxie’s henchmen. Maxie instructed Tabitha to notify Team Magma that if any of them needed to use the Pokémon Center, they had until midnight to do so. The team then started to assemble the warp panels so that they could get in and out without incident. Maxie climbed to the top floor to begin freshening up.

In only a few short minutes, buzz of the two teams’ simultaneous arrival was all over the city. News vans surrounded the Pokémon Center, but not one could see inside. The police were at a loss—some kind of barrier sealed the building, and none of their efforts appeared to be working. Team Magma’s technology vastly outpaced that of their own. And, unfortunately, all of it was meticulously patented, so no one could catch up without paying them off. Townspeople and visiting trainers alike swarmed like flies, peeking over and under one another to try to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

On the other end of the city, Archie’s head surfaced from beneath the waves. He had decided to seek out Maxie and toss him an idea. He started in toward Slateport—blissfully unaware of Team Magma’s recent exploits—when three reporters came rushing up to him.

“Archie! Commander of Team Aqua! What is your plan now that Team Magma has taken the Pokémon Center?”

“What are your two teams doing here together?”

“Does their seizure of the Pokémon Center have anything to do with Primal Reversion?”

“What exactly is Primal Reversion?”

“Are you in on this scheme too?”

“What could your team possibly gain from working with the enemy?!”

More and more people were ditching the relatively inactive scene at the Pokémon Center in favor of flocking to the infamous leader who had finally made his appearance. Archie stared blankly into their cameras, then glanced down, wondering which microphone to speak into. He threw his hands up in defeat.

“I ain’t got the slightest idea what you rascals are talkin’ about,” he finally said. “What is this, now?”

“Team Magma’s taken the Pokémon Center!”

Archie gave a baffled look to the young reporter. “They’ve what now?”

“Team Magma—”

Archie pushed the man aside. “I heard’ya the first time, scamp. I just gotta see it for myself.” And with that, he shoved his way through the mob and sauntered up to the Pokémon Center, cameras and microphones in tow. Once he arrived, a few bystanders recognized him and began yelling.

“It’s him! That pirate!”

Archie laughed, “That pirate. Yeah, that’s right, ya’landlubbers. I’m that filthy sea rat yall’ve been hearin’ so much about.”

“Freeze! Put your hands in the air!”

Archie complied, but raised an eyebrow at the three officers and their Pokémon.

“You’re under arrest!”

“Oh am I now?” Archie said, hands up. “Dont’cha have a bigger problem at the moment?” The officers looked back at the barricaded health center. Archie continued, “I’m not doin’ya any harm just bein’ here.”

“But you’ve caused countless amounts of damage to this city, pal. We’re putting a stop to your crime spree before—”

“Well, okay, but I’m the only one who can get into that Pokémon Center.”

They stopped. Archie looked to the three of them earnestly.

“You can take me in some other time. But only I can get in there.”

The three officers consulted with each other, but realized they didn’t have much of a choice. Considering the mysterious, impenetrable barrier on the door—and what they could only make out to be warp panels on the floor—Team Magma’s operations within the building could be a potentially larger threat than any of the usual antics Team Aqua got up to. They escorted Archie to the door, where he pressed his hands to the glass and peered in. Tabitha met his gaze and sneered. Archie tapped on the door.

“Let me in, Tabby Cat,” he said. “I gotta speak to Maxie.”

“Do not address me, the great Tabitha, in such a—”

“Tabby Cat. Open the door.”

“I said—”

“Tabby.”

“You shall not—”

“Oh for Christ’s sake Tabitha let him in.”

Archie and Tabitha stopped at Courtney’s words. It was the most either of them had heard her say at once, and it was the loudest Archie had ever heard her speak, even from behind the door. Almost out of pure shock alone, Tabitha obeyed and unsealed the door. But as he began to open it, he saw the police creeping up and shut it again. Archie looked to him confused, but Tabitha nodded to the restless crowd behind him. Archie turned around to address them,

“He’s only gonna let me in if y’all stay out.”

“But this is a matter of public—”

“That’s the deal.”

They hung back, grudgingly, but watched Archie as he entered the building. As soon as Archie was in, Tabitha resealed the door and addressed him.

“What do you think you are—”

“I came to speak to Maxie.”

“Our Maxie wants nothing to do with the likes of—”

“Hey. I thought we were in a truce right now.”

Tabitha grinned. “We aren’t on the ship.”

Archie rolled his eyes. “Come on, Tabs. Where is he?”

The smugness on Tabitha’s face made it clear to Courtney he would do nothing but refuse to cooperate, so she spoke up herself. “He’s… busy… at the moment. But I’m sure if you give him some… time, he’ll be right back.”

Archie looked to another one of the more feeble-looking Magmas for a more direct answer. “Where is he.”

The newly-promoted captain quivered being so close to the man for the first time. “Upstairs,” he blurted out. Courtney and Tabitha glared at him. Archie abandoned the poor teen and made his way up the stairs.

He stood there on the second floor, wondering where Maxie might have gone off to. Then, faintly, he could hear the sound of running water down the hall. Of course. By the time he reached the restrooms, the water had stopped and he could hear movement on the other side of the door. He opened it.

Maxie stood facing the mirror in a towel, combing back his hair. Archie hesitated for a moment, suddenly overwhelmed by the awkwardness of the situation. He struggled for some way to make his presence known without being too sudden or overbearing. All he could think of was,

“Nice sweater tan.”

Maxie jumped back at the sound of his voice. The comb went tumbling to the floor and he spun around, barely catching himself on the edge of the sink.

“What are you doing here?!”

Archie grinned sheepishly. “Whoa, take it easy, Max. I just came in here’ta talk t’ya real quick.”

Maxie scrambled to collect himself. “Why do you have to talk now? Who even let you in here?!”

“Tabitha let me in. Another one of your redcoats told me you were upstairs.”

Maxie paused for a moment, incredibly self-conscious standing lank and pale in front of his muscular opponent. He rubbed his shoulder uneasily, as if he was trying to cover his body somehow. “So, what do you want anyway?”

“Right… uh…” Archie had almost forgotten what he had come in here to say. He hadn’t realized how strange this all would be when he had resolved to open the door. He tried to laugh it off the best he could. “Since you were sayin’ we were so low on supplies… and drinkin’ lots of water is good for dehydration n’all that…”

Maxie stopped listening and tried to busy himself by checking his appearance. This was ridiculous. And horrifying. He needed to get out of here as quickly as possible. Archie continued speaking as Maxie gathered his things and began to tuck them neatly away.

“I was just gonna organize a little bit of a heist tonight and I wanted t’know if you were in.”

Maxie paused, setting his shower caddy down on the counter. “A what?”

Archie walked toward him, somewhat uncomfortably. Maxie stepped back, wary of his approach. “Y’know, a robbery. We’re gonna take stuff.” He laughed. “Real first-rate pirate business.”

Maxie rolled his eyes. “Brutes.”

Archie shrugged. “I figured you n’your dry sense of humor wouldn’t be up to all the fun we’d be having.” He turned to walk away. Maxie called out to him from behind,

“Is that a challenge?”

Archie turned back around and smiled, “It might be.”

“I can have fun, Archibald. I’m not as heinously banal as you think I am. I am certainly capable of handling a little mischief-making.”

Archie raised an eyebrow. “The name’s Archie, fritter flakes,” he said. “And we’ll see what your sweater tan has t’say about it.”

“I do not have—” Maxie looked down at his forearms, noticing for the first time that they were indeed whiter than his pale hands, if only marginally. “Okay, it’s hardly noticeable and barely worth your—”

Archie grinned. “Hey, lookit me. I got a weird v-neck thing goin’ on thanks t’this getup.” He pulled his collar back which revealed the rest of his chest was several shades lighter, although still inherently dark. Maxie looked the other way.

“Please leave me to finish getting ready.”

“Wait wait wait, I gotta ask’ya one more thing.”

Maxie looked at him.

“Did you really just hold up an entire Pokémon Center just so you could take a shower?”

Maxie frowned. “That was the general idea… except I have it reserved for all members of our respective teams to utilize for the next twelve hours.”

“The police are outside.”

“But they can’t get in, now can they?”

Archie hung there for a moment—contentedly lost for words—until Maxie turned and reached for his clothes on the outside of the shower stall.

“Archibald, I am in a towel,” he said. “I have no desire to converse with you like this any further.” And with that, he closed the curtain and began dressing.

“You look different without your glasses,” Archie said.

“Everyone does,” Maxie answered curtly, pulling his sweater over his head.

 

[silverjirachi]

Chapter 8​

As evening began to fall, activity waned at the Pokémon Center, even though it seemed as if the whole city was still camped outside. On the ship, Archie called the two teams together so he could lay out the plan. Maxie stood with his arms crossed, visibly peeved, but going along to prove a point.

“We are going to rob the juice stand,” Archie declared. “For all’a ya lava lickers who probl’y ain’t stolen shit before, consider this your true pirate initiation.” He laughed. Maxie pressed his fingertips to his brow.

“That’s the ‘heist?’ Rob the juice stand? That dilapidated little shack right over there?”

“Ease up a little there, Max. Which one of us shut down a whole damn Pokémon Center so he could take a shower?”

There were more than a few giggles. Maxie frowned. Archie continued,

“This is an expedition for fun, but also of necessity. We’re gonna celebrate crossin’ the current with a grand feast in Pacifidlog. We’ll need lots’a supplies for the journey, and certainly lots of juice for all the hangovers the next morning,” he laughed, giving Maxie a wink. “Those are caused by dehydration, you know.”

“You are insufferable.”

Archie laughed and opened his arms as if to put Maxie on display. “Magma Leader Maxie, everybody.”

More laughter. Maxie grimaced. If things kept up at this pace, this could be its own three-act circus by the time they landed.

“So here’s the plan. Once we’re all in position, Maxie’s gonna give the signal to evacuate the Pokémon Center. Tabitha n’Courtney will clear up the building, escape, and unlock the door. While the police are distracted with all’a that, we’ll storm the beach and surround the stand. We’ll see where that takes us from there,” Archie said. Maxie rolled his eyes. Archie hadn’t even thought it the whole way through.

At dusk, Archie positioned the ship so that it would be easier to make a quick getaway. The motley squadron of red and blue approached the stand from all sides, wary of the handful of people who still lingered on the beach. Archie gave a nod,

“Now’s as good as ever.”

Maxie reached to the earpiece on his glasses and held down on the call button. “Tabitha,” he said. Tabitha’s voice appeared on the other line.

“Tabitha here, sir.”

“I’m afraid our stay at the Pokémon Center must come to a premature end. We’ve made other arrangements for the evening.”

“…What?”

“You heard what I said. Close the building. Evacuate any team members remaining. Unlock the doors, and return to the ship. Promptly.”

“Yes sir.”

Things went quiet for a moment, but Maxie could faintly pick up the sounds of movement as Tabitha yelled to the other grunts in the building. After a minute or two, Tabitha ran the final checks and returned to his pager. “The premises are evacuated. Doors will be opening in three… two… one.” The line cut out as Courtney and Tabitha warped back onto the ship. “We’re clear.”

“Over.”

“Over.”

Maxie looked to Archie. “It’s open.”

Archie let out a lively howl. “Alright team, you heard ‘im! Now’s our time t’strike!” And with that, both Team Aqua and Team Magma charged at the building, Pokémon at their sides. Maxie hung back, wary of such a flashy operation being carried out over a penniless juice stand. Archie, however, would have none of his rival’s sourpuss attitude and grabbed Maxie’s arm, dragging him across the sand.

“We’re just going to barge in through the front door?”

Archie winked, “Just you n’me, madam.”

A few sunburnt faces turned around when Archie plowed through the door and paraded into the center of the room. Maxie stood at the door frame, taking stock of the situation. A few trainers, a few couples, one mother and her two children with their swimming tubes. One terrified store owner. Everyone in Slateport knew Archie, whether from the news or personal experience, but the man behind the counter had clearly never been this close. Archie addressed them with fanfare.

“Now don’t all’a y’all get too excited all at once. We don’t wanna hurt nobody. We just wanna take some stuff and leave.”

“Just you?” one trainer called out. “This is a battle zone! Breloom, go!”

Archie laughed, but refused to send out a Pokémon. Maxie, however, took the petty threat a little more seriously.

“Camerupt.”

The sturdy, wall-like Pokémon erupted from its Pokéball and Maxie did not hesitate to Mega-Evolve it. The brash young trainer shrunk back, his Breloom quivering. “Oh…” he said. “I, uh, didn’t see you there, Maxie…” and he returned the Breloom to its Pokéball.

“Foolish child,” Maxie said, keeping his Camerupt out for dramatic effect. He re-analyzed room, his smile asking if there were any more willing contenders. Even the boldest trainers sank back toward the walls.

Archie beamed, delighted that Maxie had finally decided to play along. “That’s right, we got the whole building surrounded.” He approached the man at the counter. “We’d like one order of everything’ya got. On the house.”

“You can’t—”

“But we can,” Archie gave a loud whistle. Red and blue poured in through the roof and the windows. They flooded the counter and rummaged through the supplies, picking up and carrying entire crates right out the front door. A few trainers tried to stop them, but the swarm was overwhelming. Archie hoisted himself over the counter and snatched a crate of his own, dashing gleefully away while the rest of the team made their exit. In that time, the Camerupt had disappeared and Maxie approached the counter where the man could only stand, petrified. Maxie reached into his pocket and pulled out a checkbook.

“I apologize for my… ‘friend’… I really do. But our two teams find ourselves in a bit of a pinch at the moment, and temporary cooperation is the only solution. Now, I am prepared to reimburse you, in full, for the entirety of the damages. What exactly did they amount to?”

“What—?”

“What was the monetary value of your entire inventory?”

“Oh—uh…” frazzled, the man could barely think, much less take stock of what was left. “Uh—300,000 pkd.”

Maxie began scribbling on the check. “I’ll double it—no, triple it—to express Team Magma’s sincerest apologies for your inconvenience.” He neatly tore the paper out and handed it to him. “That will be all. Good day.” And, with that, he turned and strode out of the room, wide eyes following him until the door swung closed. The poor man stood there in a daze, 900,000 pokédollars in hand.

Team Aqua hoisted anchor and set sail as soon as everyone was safely on board; police sirens were blaring in the distance. People had started running onto the beach in some deluded attempt to catch them. Maxie stood near the rail, looking out in concern over the growing crowd. Archie approached him.

“And you are certain they will not pursue us?”

“Not with those currents up ahead,” Archie gestured toward the bow of the ship. “It takes the cooperation of every person and Pokémon aboard. But we’re one’a the only vessels in Hoenn capable of swimmin’ upstream.”

“We’re going to hit the roughest part of the journey overnight?”

Archie shrugged. “We just needed a quick escape. We’ll sail just till we’re outta sight, then hunker down for the evening. Not as much planned for t’day as last night, but I was thinking of havin’ a little get-together so our admins could get t’know one another better,” he nudged Maxie at the mention of the party, but Maxie remained unamused.

“Delightful little concept, but I do believe I will have to decline,” he said, starting back to their room. “I have had quite my share of fun today and would like to return to my studies.” Then Maxie proceeded to cross the deck and seal himself in the cabin for the next few hours. Archie stood there in defeat as he watched the door close behind him.

Tabitha, as usual, was walking angry circles around the ship, Courtney fluttering along at his side. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before,” he said as he fiddled with his phone.

“This is highly… unauthorized.”

“It won’t be if we catch him.”

“Maxie has commanded that operations such as these must be—”

“I don’t care what Maxie says,” Tabitha snapped. “It’s what Maxie thinks. This is mutiny. If we don’t get this under control, I will be the one to take the blame.”

“I’m sure he will severely punish—”

“Me. It always falls back to me. The guilty party will be booted from the team and terrorized, for sure, but I—” he stopped as a red dot appeared on the screen. “Aha.”

“Geolocation tracking is—”

Tabitha grabbed Courtney by the shoulder and spun her to face him. “Maxie chipped the phones for a reason, Courtney. I don’t care if we need his permission or not. And, frankly, he doesn’t give a damn either, as long as we catch who needs to be caught.”

Courtney twisted his arm away. “You will not treat me like that.” She snatched the phone from his hands and jammed her heel down on his toe. Even through his boot, Tabitha let out a yelp. “And you will not disrespect our leader. I’m… performing an override.” While Tabitha recoiled in pain, she stormed off with the phone. The incapacitated Tabitha hobbled after her.

“So now you’re on their side too?”

Courtney froze.

“You supportthis, don’t you?! Which one of us is disrespecting our leader now?”

She hesitated, then slowly turned back to face him. “Maxie ordered that until we… set foot on land, all differences are cast aside. His… intentions were that for the sake of this voyage… we treat each other as one. All he requires is that our team remain mindful… If this rebellion continues after Primal Reversion, then we are… authorized to intervene.”

“Maxie gave us clear instructions to separate those members who were getting too friendly. This mutiny far transcends mere conviviality—it is downright treason! It has been going on for too long now—it poses a dangerous threat to Maxie’s ultimate vision.”

“And your…insolence… poses a dangerous threat to Maxie’s current vision.”

“That can be debated.”

“Has he outright… said otherwise…?”

“Give me the phone, Courtney.”

“I will not stand for you… overstepping our leader like this. Deleting…” She extended her arm to drop the phone in the sea, but stopped when she saw Archie approaching. “Greetings, sir,” she said, full of innocence. She slipped the phone into her pocket.

“Hello there, Courtney! And Tabitha…” Archie’s voiced trailed off for a moment, caught off-guard by the visible ire radiating off the stocky man’s face. He addressed Courtney to refocus. “I was just droppin’ by t’ask how you two would feel about havin’ a game night in my cabin?”

Courtney beamed. “We would love to! …Wouldn’t we, Tabitha?”

Archie jumped at Courtney’s enthusiasm, letting out a bellowing laugh that drowned out Tabitha’s cry of dread. “Glad to hear it! I’ll call up Shelly n’Matt!”

The four admins gathered in relative harmony in the living room of Archie’s cabin. Maxie, noticeably irritated, sat on the end of the couch. He stuck his nose further into his book to snub their entry. Shelly and Tabitha were tight-lipped—antagonistic of one another—while Courtney and Matt found their companions’ cold reticence an obstacle to true diplomacy. Archie uncomfortably tried to foster conversation by addressing Maxie.

“Hey there, Max, I brought in the crew!”

“Charming.”

“We were thinkin’ of playin’ a few card games.”

“Don’t mind me, I’m just reading.”

Archie was off-put by Maxie’s negativity, but carried on. “Well, okay, if that’s how you’re gonna be. We’ll just be here so… feel free to join in ifya’d like.”

“Quite generous of you to offer.”

Archie turned to Courtney and Tabitha. “So nerds, what games’ya familiar with?”

“What?”

“Euchre, blackjack, poker—what’s your sport?”

“Sports?!”

Matt and Shelly chuckled. Archie rolled his eyes. “Okay, let’s start smaller. Either of you play Go Fish?”

Courtney nodded excitedly. Tabitha looked to the ceiling in agony.

“Old Maid?”

More nodding.

“Crazy Eights?”

Nods.

“Uno?”

“If we play Uno one more fucking time I swear to Christ Archie I will—” the four of them turned to Shelly. She laughed, embarrassed. “That game is a cheap piece of trash.”

Archie leaned over to Tabitha, “It’s because I always win.”

“I want to play Go Fish!” Courtney squealed.

Tabitha groaned. “But that is so childish—”

“Go. Fish.”

And so they gathered around the coffee table and spent the next hour playing Go Fish for the sweet red-hooded girl’s sake. Archie seated himself between Maxie and Tabitha. Maxie leaned as far away from him as possible while still remaining on the couch. When Courtney had sufficiently destroyed them all several times over, she was content to step aside so Archie could teach them poker. Maxie continued aggressively reading, making sure his lack of interest was a central focus in the room.

Team Magma remained fairly inept at the game regardless of how many rounds they played. Shelly and Matt had their small victories, but Archie dominated the table with his big talk and boisterous luck. Hours passed. Slowly, Maxie’s posture began to slacken and droop. While Archie was too caught up in himself to notice, the four admins observed Maxie’s body gradually sinking inward. They spent every subsequent turn passing anxious glances at each other until his eyes finally closed.

Courtney wordlessly consulted with Tabitha. Tabitha tried to peer around Archie, but was unsuccessful. Oblivious, Archie dealt out the cards for the next round. All movement in the room came to a dead halt when they realized what was about to happen. Just according to their fears, Maxie stirred in his sleep and rested his head on Archie’s shoulder. Archie froze. Remaining as still as possible, he glanced around the room, desperately reaching for a lifeline.

“Don’t… wake… him,” Courtney mouthed. Archie nodded.

Shelly and Matt were snickering to one another, but all lightheartedness faded when the weight of the impending disaster pressed itself upon them. The room hovered in an apprehensive stillness, all eyes locked on the sleeping monster while time grew threadbare. Archie did his best to wriggle his way out, but even as he shifted with a marauder’s dexterity, the tiniest movement was enough to rattle Maxie awake.

For an instant, the world was still as he processed the disturbance. Then, the fire welled in his pupils, pressurizing in his veins. He jumped up. The whole room turned back to brace for the impact. Maxie hung on the arm of the couch, pressing his glasses back to his face

“That did not happen!!”

Archie forced a laugh. “Sleepy there?”

Maxie selectively unheard Archie’s remark. “No one speaks a word of this,” he said. “Not one syllable. It did not occur.” Tense silence. His posture alone was not enough to mask his trembling nerves, so he hid himself behind a murderous glare. “If I do discover any word of this has left this room, I will personally see to it that you are forced to breathe in open flame.” He turned, picked up his book, and huffed his way into the other room. The door locked tightly behind him.

“What got into him?” Shelly asked.

“He’s been…. staying up later and later. Doing… research on Groudon,” Courtney replied. “He must be… exhausted.”

“No kidding.”

“Perhaps you all should go, and I can try t’see if I can cool him off,” Archie said.

“Perhaps that is a good idea,” Courtney agreed. She made her way toward the door with Tabitha. “Thank you…. very much. Archie…”

Archie nodded. “My pleasure.” Tabitha and Courtney exited with Matt close behind. Shelly lingered at the doorway.

“He’s not coming out of there, you know,” she said.

Archie sighed. “I know.”

She shrugged, brushing off the weight in the air. “Your loss,” she said, and floated out the door.

Archie stared out at the empty space where Shelly had been, where the door still hung slightly ajar. Her words echoed in his mind as his fingers hung over the doorknob, but he closed the door and returned to the couch. He tore the bandana from his head and ruffled his hair as he tried to plan a way to deal with Maxie. There was no reckoning with him when he was like this. Archie laid back and decided to give Maxie awhile to calm down; the poor man was just a little spooked. It’d blow over quick.

When Archie judged that sufficient time had passed, he readied himself to approach the door. He knocked lightly.

“Maxie?” he said. “Can I come in? I’m tired.”

There was a long pause. Archie was just beginning to think it was hopeless when he heard the latch open. Maxie’s face appeared at the door.

“I thought you slept on the couch.”

“Not tonight.”

Maxie stopped there for a moment, staring up at his exposed brow. Archie returned his gaze. Looking Archie truthfully in the eyes for the first time since he suggested their teams were interdependent, Maxie opened the door and returned to his spot on the bunk. Archie graciously accepted entry into the room.

 

[silverjirachi]

Chapter 9 | Interlude, I​

There was a lilting silence between the two of them, interjected only with the crisp whooshing sound of the pages turning in Maxie’s book. The whole vessel was sound asleep; resting up for the rough currents that lay only a couple miles before them. Archie rolled over in his bed for about the nineteenth time. It seemed like it had been hours, decades… and still the reading light shined from the bunk below him. Finally, Archie turned his head over the side of the bunk and looked down at Maxie.

“Hey, whatcha readin’?”

“Just… more studying.”

Archie leaned over closer, as if he was trying to catch a glimpse of the cover. “That don’t sound very interesting.”

“To you, maybe not. You never were one to take the initiative to do your own work.”

“Hey. What’s that s’pposed’ta mean, huh?”

“You know very well what that means.”

“If you’re talkin’ about how Team Aqua used your research to make the—”

“Even before that.”

A pause. “Oh…” Archie shifted uncomfortably. Maxie cleared his throat, as if it would somehow expel the memory from his mind. He flipped the page.

“You haven’t talked about that in a while,” Archie said, quietly.

“I like to forget to.”

---

A pair of red boots stalked through the corridor. One of these is not like the other…

---

“Wait, is that—?”

“My old notes, yes. I believe that keeping in touch with the foundations of my research is critical to the success of my mission. Even if they are—even if they do—bring up—unfortunate—” he stopped himself. The words were too clunky. Archie shrunk into his blanket.

“You know,” he said. “What you said the other day about all that land and sea stuff… I know I was drunk. But I really thought about that.”

Maxie was quiet. Archie took the opening to add, “I mean, if it makes’ya feel any better, I wouldn’t have anything I have now if it wasn’t for you.”

Maxie set the book on his lap as a sudden influx of thoughts tried to drown him. The man. The ship. The sea. His crew, his family. His dreams. His way to achieve them. The light he had seen ignite in his eyes when—

“I’m sorry that I can’t say the same for you.”

Archie was silent.

---

138…139… why, why, why. Why had he let the number escape him?

---

“Some party last night, huh?”

Maxie chose to ignore him, but Archie was now even more desperate to overcome the silence.

“Just like high school, amirite?”

“Don’t pretend you knew me in high school.”

“I—”

“Do not.”

Archie pressed forward, certain he could win the next round. “College, then.”

Maxie’s eyes lost focus on the words in front of him. He turned his head up to address Archie, although from this angle he couldn’t really see him. “I suppose. Maybe. But those early years are long behind us now. I’m sorry for your sake you couldn’t outgrow them.”

“Maxie, can’ya lighten up even just a little?”

“You’re bothering me when I’m trying to study.”

“Maxie we’re not in college anymore.”

---

146. 146. The number seemed familiar. Was this the traitor? But where was the room…?

---

“I always kinda looked up to you, y’know?”

“Funny thing. The way you and your lot tormented me you’d never be able to tell.”

“Not in high school…”

“Then not at all.”

“No,” Archie sat up in bed and jumped down from the bunk. “That changed. I looked up to you. You know that. I grew past all that immature shit. I realized—”

“You realized what? That you could use my knowledge to—”

“No,” Archie grabbed him by the hand. They both stared at each other, Archie just as startled as Maxie. “I’m sorry.”

Maxie, although he almost welled to tears at Archie’s sincerity, snatched his hand back and picked up the book. “It’s done. Why are we talking about what happened so many years ago…?”

Archie knelt down closer. “Because I never told you I was sorry. I wanted to clear my chest. I’m sorry.” Archie couldn’t tell if Maxie’s gaping expression was one of judgment or acceptance, so he added, “There, I said it now. I was an ass to you—more than an ass—but I’m sorry. And I needed to say that t’you in person.”

“It doesn’t change it now. It’s done. It’s over.”

---

Tabitha pressed his ear to the door. Snoring. Next.

---

“I know it doesn’t change anything. I just wanted you t’know that I did care about all that. Later on…”

---

The rooms were neatly arranged with Magmas in even-numbered cabins and Aquas in odd. He needed only to try the even numbers. Yawning. Next.

---

“Well alright then.”

Another long pause. Archie moved to the window and looked out onto the big, dark sea. “Man, I love it out there,” he said.

“That’s apparent,” Maxie said and flipped another page. Archie wasn’t sure if he was actually reading them.

“So what is it you love so much about the land?”

Maxie paused, academically perplexed by the simplicity of the question. Did he really “love” anything about it at all? Certainly he loved the ancient mysteries buried deep below the surface; rock that lives and dies and rebirths itself while carried on giant tectonic plates. Sinking into magma, heating, melting, rising, cooling, being transformed. There was perhaps something poetic about it, but Maxie didn’t think he could quite pin down what.

And still, even in his fascination with the land, he understood the vital importance of the sea. Without water, there could be no subduction, critical in forming some of the largest volcanic—

“I love science, Archie.”

“What?”

“I love science. I love technology. The land itself is powerful in its own right, but if you knew the first thing about geology you would understand the complex and interconnected relationship between the land and the sea that is critical for our very survival.”

“So you’re saying—?”

“I do not, as you put it, want to dry up all the land and turn the world into a massive volcano. That wouldn’t be ecologically feasible. That would be a disaster, actually,” he said. “I want to bolster human progress. Volcanoes do many good things for life as we know it, as does sustainable agriculture. Meanwhile, humanity is in near constant war over the struggle for resources. In merely expanding a few of the continents, we give room for new things to grow.”

“But where will you go when this is all over?” Archie asked. “Because I know if I won—” he looked out to the vast expanse of the moonlit sea. “I’d be out there.”

Maxie almost smiled. “You’re already always out there,” he said. Catching himself, he once again buried his face in his book.

“I think I’d be more complete. Knowin’ I gave somethin’ t’somebody.”

“What?”

“When I look out to the ocean, I see everything. I see my ancestors, their ancestors… n’I remember what it felt like sailin’ as a boy. And it makes me wanna do somethin’. The bigger the sea, the bigger the chance somebody else’ll get t’feel that way too. And if a lotta people feel that way, then… well, maybe the future’ll be a brighter place to be.”

Maxie set the book down and stared at him. Never once had it occurred to Maxie that Archie’s motivations might have been for something more than an endless pool party. Surely, Archie wanted to use the expansive seas as his own personal playground; that much was evident. But at the same time, that he had in mind a greater vision—something like changing the world, almost. But how could it ever be that way?

“That’s quite a noble vision, Archie,” Maxie admitted. “But the world simply does not—”

“There’s always a ‘but’ for you, isn’t there?”

---

Tabitha arrived in front of cabin 146. That’s when he realized the door was just barely ajar—he stepped inside.

---

“What do you mean?”

“There’s always a catch. You can’t just let somebody be right. You always gotta insert your own better opinion.”

“But you aren’t right! The world does not work like that. The world changes with science. Vaccines, transportation, clean energy. Sure, this talk of feelings may be nice, but every good thing you can think of stems from some kind of scientific achievement. If I can expand the continent by even the tiniest fraction of what I have predicted Groudon is capable of, the potential for human advancement almost—.”

“And there’re some things that can’t be measured with science,” Archie said. “What we have here, my boy, I think, is a question of the head and the heart. Of the land and the sea,” he looked to Maxie with a smile. “So, where would you be, Mr. Sunshine, if the blistering sun dried up the raging sea?

---

Far away, hidden deep within the ship, two figures rustled in the darkness. “I’ll have to leave you early in the morning…”

---

Maxie turned another page. “Going back to what I did before, I suppose. Lending my hand to this generation of research… expanding the influence of Team Magma… gathering data on these great volcanoes—geological formations—”

“But do they mean something to you?”

“Of course they mean something to me!” Maxie said. “Why do you think I devoted the entirety of my undergraduate research to the study of the earth, only to move on to get a doctorate in Evolution Theory. Mt. Chimney is one of the most powerful sources of energy in the known world, and it has to do with its link to these ancient Pokémon. Why else would Hoenn be so geographically diverse? Mountains, deserts, oceans, trenches—Pokémon shaped our land! And the land shapes their evolution. Their influence—”

“I wasn’t askin’ya for a history lesson, buddy. I was tryin’ to ask’ya a personal question.”

Maxie stopped, at first hesitant to divulge anything too private. But he figured that since the room was secluded enough, and Archie had already admitted something about himself… perhaps he owed Archie a confession as well. “I’ve been fascinated with ancient Pokémon ever since I was a child, certainly you were aware.”

Archie shrugged. “You always were yappin’ on about Groudon…”

“Correct. Now, taking my accomplishments regarding Groudon and Primal Reversion and Infinity Energy out of the equation, I have done next to nothing with my thirty-two years of living. Don’t you see, Archie? This cause is so vital to me because if I fail, I will have nothing left of myself to show.”

“That’s not true,” Archie said. “What about Courtney and Tabitha? They’re in it with’ya, too. And as much as I know it seems like your whole team hates you, they do look up t’you. N’they really care about one another. If they didn’t, you wouldn’t have a team. And, if anything else,” Archie walked back toward him, “when all this is said and done, you’ve got me.”

“Oh shit,” the man said suddenly. The olive-skinned girl looked to him in concern. “What,” she asked. “I don’t have my phone,” he said. “I have to go back.” “Just stay here. I’m sure it’s fine.”

“Only one of us is gonna win this thing in a few days, Max,” Archie said. “N’after that, we’re both stuck lookin’ back at the mess we’ve made. I’ve always liked’ta think we were kinda fond of this little rivalry between us… that we kind of loved—”

“Hating each other,” Maxie nodded, thinking on it.

“Hating each other… yeah,” Archie glanced down, almost embarrassed. “The whole us-against-them thing… it really brought my team together, y’know? And these kids… some of ‘em really need somebody. Some don’t have any place else to go. Bein’ able t’work against Team Magma… it gave them a purpose. It made ‘em a family they didn’t have somewhere else. It really is symbal—symbeeo—god damnit what is it?”

“Symbiotic.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, unfortunately, Archie, symbiosis is not always equally paid out. Team Magma hasn’t reaped nearly the tangible benefit that Team Aqua has had from following us—”

“For fuck’s sake, Maxie, stop doing that!”

Maxie set the book down, shaken by his outburst. “What—?”

“Stop givin’ me these big ol’ eyes like you actually get what I’m talkin’ about and then openin’ your mouth t’hide behind some big sciencey facts! I don’t give a rat’s ass about facts! Sometimes, Maxie, there’s truth in things that’cha can’t fuckin’ measure! Listen to your heart for once, god damnit!”

Maxie stared at him for a while, and Archie began to think it was useless. But, for a brief moment, Maxie considered all the times he and his team had grown together. When Courtney and Tabitha had stayed behind in his office talking and laughing after work was finished for the day. When his whole team flooded his office with cards for his birthday—this, he had actually found to be a great waste of company paper—and somewhat of a saccharine embarrassment—but a sweet gesture nonetheless.

“I suppose you’re right,” he said at last. “But given the circumstances, I dofind it—difficult—to open up about things sometimes. Especially to you.”

Archie sank. “I said I was sorry about that…”

“‘I’m sorry’ won’t quite mend it. You can’t put a plug in a geyser and call it dormant.”

---

“Can’t they track you on those things? If we get caught we’re dead.” “If there’s a team meeting in the morning and I don’t show up, we’re dead too. Besides,” he said, walking toward the ladder, “they’re not supposed to.”

---

“So,” Archie said, once again desperate to lighten the mood. “You didn’t really answer my question. How did’ja fall in love with the dry land?”

Maxie thoughtfully stripped away all the scientific jargon came to mind. He now realized Archie was challenging him to venture to his core, to take stock of his inner motivations and his past. A place he wasn’t too sure he wanted to go. “I think in much the same way you fell in love with the sea.”

“I was practically born in it.”

“Precisely,” Maxie said. “I was born and raised in the shadow of Mt. Chimney. My favorite place to read was a tree covered in volcanic ash; my mother would spend hours cleaning the soot out of my clothes… I collected soot and stones that I watched a man melt into glass… I traveled through Meteor Falls to get to school. And every day on that journey I was met with something new. I saw that the Earth was very much alive. One day an elderly Draconid woman living near the falls saw me crying as I came home from school. She told me a story to calm me down. Every day after that, she would teach me something new about the ancient Pokémon. One time, after the abuse from our peers was particularly harsh and I was very late coming home, I found out she had been sitting in the cave waiting for me. That’s when she gave me this,” Maxie reached into his collar and pulled out a string tied around his neck. Hanging from it was a dull, reddish, teardrop-shaped stone. Archie moved in closer to examine it.

“This rock, she told me, according to legend, was actually a scale that fell from Groudon before Rayquaza sealed him into the sea. She entrusted it to me because she knew I came from Fallarbor, where the scale was said to have landed.”

“It’s just on a piece of string,” Archie said.

“Yes,” Maxie said. “It used to have a better chain. But…well, it—” Now it was getting to the awkward part.

“I broke it. I remember.”

Maxie went silent. Archie continued, “It was so stupid. I had no idea.”

“No, you really didn’t.”

“I was the reason you were crying that day, wasn’t I?”

“You weren’t the only one.”

Archie lowered his head, brushing the scale with his thumb. Maxie held on nervously, tilting his chin up and leading his eyes away from the hand that held the stone. He prayed the hand could not feel the way his heart began to race—although, he was unsure of exactly why. He tried to tell himself it was because this was, after all, the same hand that broken the necklace in the first place. To think that he was here now, holding it again…

“I’ll get you a new chain.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know,” he said. “I want to.”

---

The hooded gentleman hurried back to his cabin as to not keep his lady waiting. He arrived to find the door cracked, as he had left it. But standing across from him was the bulky shadow of the man who had pursued him, waving the phone in his hand triumphantly.



“Looking for this?”



“Tabitha—!! I—“



The Magma admin smiled with a malicious grin. “Oh, you’re dead. You’re so, so dead,” he laughed. “Wait till Maxie gets ahold of you.”



“Tabitha, I can explain, I—”



“Oh. No need to tell me.” He flipped through the screen and arrived at the image of the young woman in blue. “I already know.”

---

Maxie pulled the scale back toward him, away from Archie’s hand. Maybe the lack of sleep was finally getting to him. Thoughts and feelings were particularly susceptible to being distorted in the night.

Thoughts and feelings were so susceptible to distortion, in fact, that in the perfect storm of dreadful circumstances, rational thought could be broken down into formless shadow. Feelings could bubble into unknowable nonsense. Everyday matters that were so inconsequential in the daylight could twist themselves into beings so large, so muddled, and so convoluted that they were insurmountable, indistinguishable from one another. These formless beings held within them things that could not be articulated with words, nor even spoken at all. And a formless, shapeless, unknowable beast proved a manxome foe that Maxie loathed to encounter. A formless, shapeless, unknowable beast, after all, would be impossible to slay.

“That’s very kind of you, Archie. But we may have more pressing matters to attend to in the coming days.”

“That’s another ‘but’ from you, isn’t it, mister? Cant’cha just accept an act of kindness for once in your life?”

“I’d like to get back to reading, if that’s alright with you.”

“Go to sleep, you need your beauty rest.”

“I—”

“I’m joking, do what’cha want,” Archie said as he hoisted himself back onto the top bunk. “Thanks for the talk. G’night.”

Maxie’s hand still lingered on the scale and the old, worn piece of twine. While the twine was long dead, the stone continued to radiate warmth from Archie’s palm. The exhaustion began to hit Maxie for the first time; he didn’t feel like studying anymore. That, and he was starting to feel a creature dwelling in him that did not show itself in the daytime.

“Goodnight, Archie,” he said and turned off the reading light.