Beyond the Adventure - A Pokémon Story

Chapter 4: New Friends, New Enemies pt3

        Being reunited with Brawny is the happiest moment in my life.  I have known him for over a year and to find out he missed me as much as I missed him makes me shed a manly tear.  I owe Craig big, for I do not know how he convinced the store manager to let Brawny go.  I stare at his Great Ball as I pull him in, my thumb tracing the dents on it as I drift along Memory Lane.  Brawny was the biggest and strongest Machoke at the Goldenrod Department Store.  When I started working there over a year ago, he had been captured only a week prior and was still in training.  He was capable of doing the same workload as two other Machokes combined, but he was also much more aggressive.  Craig was considering releasing him because he was resisting the training and it was taking much longer than the other Machokes.  I offered to help, and somehow, I managed to get him to settle down.  His aggressiveness waned, he became much friendlier and much more helpful.  Once his training was complete, productivity soared in the basement.  That was when I learned to understand the Machokes, particularly Brawny.  For the most part, the Machokes did not have much to say, but Brawny was especially chatty, for a Pokémon.  Craig told me how when Brawny was captured, he had given them the most trouble.  He knocked out their Hypno, which should have made the fight easy, and they went through two more Pokémon before finally weakening him enough for capture.  Even then, he punched the Great Ball away, leaving the dents that are in his ball now.

        “Yo, Earth to Crono!” Darius shouted, snapping me out of my haze.  “The boat leaves soon!”

        “Ah, right,” I say.  I grip Brawny’s ball tightly, then place it in my jacket pocket, alongside my newly acquired Dunsparce.  The three of us head to the dock, where a long line of people are waiting to board a non-existent ship.  I check the time on my Pokégear and noticed it is close to departure time.  I guess the ship is running a little behind.

        “Hey dude,” Darius says, gently elbowing me.  “Check her out.”

        “Huh?”  I look in the direction he is looking.  A couple people ahead of us is a skinny young woman dressed in blue.  She wore a blue and white striped tank top, tattered grey shorts, thigh-high blue and white striped stockings, and a black bandana.  “She looks like a pirate.”

        “Nah,” Darius snorts.  “She’s a pirate’s worst nightmare.  She has a sunken chest with no booty!”

        “Hey, that’s mean,” I say, chuckling.

        We stand in silence for a minute, then I say “Have you seen the new pirate movie?  It is rated RRRRRRRR!”  We both laugh.

        After several minutes of cracking cheesy pirate jokes, a woman in a pristine white uniform walks up to the crowd, followed by two men in black suits.  She clears her throat and speaks in a loud, authoritative voice.  “I am Captain Diaz.  I regret to inform you that the trip to Slateport City has been cancelled.”  The crowd grumbles, and some random guy boos her.  “We are having serious engine trouble with both of our international ships.  It will be several weeks before the engines will be repaired, so all departures until then have been cancelled.”

        The crowd begins to grumble louder.  The people get restless and start verbally expressing their irritation towards the Captain, some people even spitting some very uncouth language.  The Captain furrows her brow and clears her voice again.

        “SILENCE!” she bellows.  The crowd quiets down.  “I understand many of you are upset.  We have our best mechanics working on repairs as we speak, but it takes time.  I have already coordinated to have each of your tickets refunded.  Please head to the dock house in an orderly fashion to receive your refund.”

        The crowd starts grumbling again.  Darius frowns.  “That’s a bummer,” he says, arms crossed.

        I look around and notice Pirate Girl is missing.  I look back at Captain Diaz, who was currently talking to the black suits.  I look down at Jaws, who is looking at Captain Diaz intently.  I pat his head, and he looks up at me.  I nod, then nudge Darius.