Origin Story: Part 1 - Haunted by the Truth

CH13: Treacherous Waters

"Rai. Rai, no, no!" you giggled as the large thunder mouse tickled you with his tail around your neck. You yelped as Spirit jumped upward, tackling you to the ground, and sent the three of you tumbling across the wooden planks. Your body eventually rolled into a crate, stopping you from rolling off of the side of the ship. Don was perched up high on the ship, staring down at the three of you with an unimpressed look on his face.

That is... until he spotted someone approaching from a distance, and opened up his wings before swooping down, landing on top of the crate that you were currently leaning against. "Eh? What's the problem, Don?" you asked, your head turning slightly to stare up at the honchkrow while the shiny eevee stood on top of you, looking up curiously as well. It wasn't until the raichu let go of your neck and suddenly jump forward that you turned to notice someone approaching.

"Cap's raichu?" you heard someone say, a bit startled, only to notice you were up against a crate, staring at the sailor with wide, confused eyes. "Oh. Kiddo. You're still on board," he smirked, pulling out a cigarette from his pockets and using a lighter to light the end, and place the newly lit cigarette into his mouth as he fumbled through his pockets. "I would have thought you left the ship, like all those other Rockets."

"Who are you calling a Rocket?" you snorted, shifting to sit up as Spirit jumped off of you, only to leap into your lap, giving the sailor a cautious look. "I'm a very~ proud~~ thief, but no Rocket mutt, thank you very much."

"Wow! Geeze, didn't mean to hit a nerve!... I thought you were with the Rocket crew, though," he huffed, breathing out a breath of smoke, your eyes watching the trail of gray smog as you sighed and scratched the back of your itchy neck.

"Yeah... no. I may have snuck aboard with one of those grunts, but I'm not one of them. I'm just here for the ride. I just know Mr. Surge," you smiled lightly to the sailor, who chuckled and shook his head at you.

"Ah. Okay," he grinned, the two of you staring at each other in silence for a moment before he turned away, breaking eye contact, and you held out your arms, letting the big, fat raichu jump into your chest, his weight sending you to flop backward onto your back, causing another fit of giggles to leave your breath. The sailor couldn't help but glance over, casually, before quickly looking away.

Rai was trying to cheer you up, and now Spirit was in on the action. But now, their weights had pinned you to the ground, and you could tell Don was glancing down at the three of you with mild amusement while you began to let out tired, irritated groans of pain. "Ugh... okay, okay. I think I'm done, guys." The raichu snorted at your response, but noticing you weren't moving from your sprawled out state on the ground, he casually leapt off of you, Spirit doing the same, but as you sat back up Spirit jumped into your lap. You sighed in defeat as you slumped your head against the crate, and let out a deep, tired yawn. "Thanks Rai. I needed that."

"Of course!" the raichu squeaked, a charge of uncontrolled energy leaving his yellow cheeks.

You watched the overenergized raichu run around the deck in front of you, and you smirked when Spirit jumped out of your lap, attempting to chase after the raichu. You sighed to yourself as Don flapped down, landing on your shoulder, suddenly pecking the side of your head, causing you to yelp and glare at the honchkrow. He smirked at you mischievously before flying off of your shoulder, landing back up in his high roosting spot, and glancing down at the pokemon and humans below.

You found yourself slumping into the crate, your eyelids feeling heavy as you watched the two pokemon playing around. But before you could even think about falling asleep, a rather loud caw coming from Don snapped you out of your rest, your head quickly looking to the side to notice a figure, or rather two figures, coming towards you. Two Rocket grunts, to be exact, and the moment they spotted you, unsupervised, the only one on deck, and not noticing the sailor, they quickly made their way towards you. "Rai," you spoke up, as sternly and confidently as you could muster, and before the grunts could reach you, the raichu had already jumped in front of their path, growling as he let his body charge and look as intimidating as possible.