My Role Plays Get Strange: Hoenn
Sep. 23rd, 2013 03:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Dear lord, has it seriously almost been a year in the making on this thing? I love the Hoenn RP sooooooo~~~ In which case, I just felt like doing a summary of it all because honestly I love chattering to people about it and I feel if they really wanted to know, it'll be here to see. Not to mention majority of the stuff confirmed in my headcannon came from here. OTL
The story starts off like typical game stuff because we really had no idea what we were doing with this besides goofing around.
Isaac is a newcomer to Hoenn, just moved to the region because his father, Norman, got a job here as the Petalburg City gym leader. However, Norman has been away for the past six months because the initiation was at the beginning of the year and Monica, wife and mother to these two, said she wanted Isaac to be able to finish out the school year in Goldenrod before moving. Which is why they're just moving here now at the start of the summer. Once they arrived in Littleroot, Monica said that the pokemon movers should have everything handled so Isaac should go look around town and meet long time friend of the family, Prof. Birch, who lived next door. Birch wasn't home but the rest of his family was, and after some confusion and suspicions, his oldest son Cale was the one to accost Isaac and find out that he'd never actually owned a pokemon. Granted, they do have a Snubbull for a family pet, but that's more of Monica's anyway. Cale was excited to have another kid his age in town, even better another boy his age at that. He was even more excited to think Isaac would have brought all these pokemon from Johto (which is like another world away!) to show off but ended up being shocked to think that child of a gym leader wouldn't even know how to use pokemon. Seriously, he's the son of the professor and while only an official trainer recently, has been dealing with pokemon for years. THIS MUST BE FIXED! So the boys went to find Cale's dad to see if he could give Isaac a pokemon so they could be trainer buddies and he could show his new friend all the ropes. Isaac is confused that they just met, he has yet to meet Birch, and the kid is going out of his way to help him in his first few hours of moving. Really he'd just want to sleep but the movers are gonna be a while. The pair heard from one of the kids in the area that it sounded like the professor was in trouble. This.... is not news to Cale, it actually happens more often than it probably should, but hearing this he rushed out there to save his dad (again) this time from a small pack of wild poochyena. There was only three of them, but to someone unarmed that was still more than enough to cause serious injury. Birch? Why are you unarmed? Because his luck sucks that badly, he dropped it when he got attacked. Seems legit, while Cale jumped in with Treecko to fight off the dogs, Isaac found the bag which had a few papers and two pokeballs on the ground. Birch told him to help, and when Isaac said he didn't have any pokemon, Birch told him to just use one of those then. EITHER WAY, HURRY! He's already been bitten once, and quite badly for that matter. The two boys teamed up and fought off the dogs quite handily, and after gathering up the fallen stuff, helped the professor back to the lab.
Birch decided to thank Isaac by letting him keep the Mudkip he used earlier and after getting bandaged up, told the boys that he had a favor to ask of them. Norman had asked him to go to Petalburg with the two starter pokemon but since he was injured right now, he wondered if they could take it for him. After all it was important that they make it before nightfall. Cale and Isaac agreed and Birch gave him his pokedex since, being new to the area, it might be more helpful to him. The two boys set off after informing their mothers where they were off to and eagerly tested their powers against the young trainers in the area along the way so that Isaac could learn how to battle. Cale asked him about his dad and what it was like being the son of a gym leader, Isaac pointed out that he actually wasn't sure what to say as he and his dad weren't exactly that close. That may be changing though as, reminder, Norman wanted those starters delivered before nightfall. Maybe he was planning to give Isaac one as a welcome to your new home gift or something. Isaac could hope, but he highly doubted that. Something that was proved even more painfully accurate when they arrived at the gym only to find that the starter, a Torchic as it was the only one left, was actually meant for the little girl who lived next door the gym named Will. Norman told the boys that they should show her how to battle so she'd know what to do when on her own while staying at her Uncle's house for the summer and finally ended up setting off Isaac on a rant of how he should be more happy to see him as he's his son and hasn't seen him in like forever. Norman didn't take so kindly to being back-talked to, but made it quite clear they will talk about this later. Highly miffed about it, Isaac agreed to help, and the girl found a Ralts right off to fight. Not wanting to hurt it, she decided to catch it instead by borrowing one of their pokeballs. The three of them went back to town where the little girl's mother showed up saying that they had to hurry to catch the boat. The boys went back to Norman who seemed rather proud to hear of Will's efforts and Isaac cut this meeting short saying how it had been a long day and he was heading home.
The next morning the two decided that because Isaac's first day in town was... less than stellar besides getting a pokemon, they should try to have fun around here and planned to go to the beach near Petalburg. All packed up for the day with a change of clothes and some food, and tell their mothers goodbye! But first, Cale wanted to tell his dad he'd be out today so he wouldn't be helping. Birch told told him that he'd gotten word from Rustboro that there was trouble in town and the boys should make sure not to stray too far. Cale said they were just going to the beach, so that shouldn't be a problem. Big surprise, its a problem. Because they get to the beach and find that its actually been closed for the day due to a fishing tournament going on. So Cale thinking the day shouldn't be wasted, suggested they go check out Petalburg woods instead. Which was all fun and fine and dandy until they had gone pretty deep into the woods and ran into an employee from Devon Co. The boys had just stopped to take a break and were thinking about heading back, but the man came up to them curious if they might be able to help him with something when suddenly the three of them were jumped by a strange looking thug threatening to take the briefcase the man had with him. Not being a trainer, the man pleaded that the boys stop the thief, which they did in epic double-battle style. The thief brushed off the loss to Cale having a type advantage and said he'd back off for now because he had to get back to Rustboro anyway. Sensing a threat, the man said the boys should come with him back to town so they could heal up and he could warn the company of the eminent danger. The boys healed at the center and went to Rustboro Gym where Cale explained that things in Hoenn work... differently than Isaac is used to. Isaac suggested if there's a thief, they should go to the police. Cale explained that there are no police in Hoenn, that's what the gym trainers are for. If there's a serious problem, then Roxanne needed to be informed of this. Isaac said that that's stupid, irrational... and probably would have gone into a full rant about how many issues that leaves open, but suddenly realized that this would make his dad like the leader of an entire community. WHUT DA FUCK? Cale takes personal offense to Isaac insulting their backwater ways, and decides if the kid is going to make such a fuss about this, he'll go tell the leader ALONE. Isaac felt bad after Cale left though he was still trying to wrap his mind around the concept of a world without "logical" governing, and decided to ask Mudkip if it thought he was being irrational about this. Mudfish says yes, but he doesn't understand most of this to begin with. GO WITH THE FLOW, MAN~ As they were waiting, Isaac's attention was caught by the thug from earlier making a mad dash out of the sky scrapper across the way and stood up when he heard the familiar employee giving chase. Mudkip was more than ready for a round 2 against this creep and gave chase causing Isaac to have to go after him. Reckless thing.
Cale came out of the gym with Roxanne and the two hurried toward the man in green when they saw him. Isaac had already managed to outrun them in chasing the thief, but the man in green saying that he had asked Isaac if he could get the GOODS back seemed to make the gym leader very bitter. No time for that now though, her and Cale made way toward the cave where they found and old man named Mr. Briney crying out front of the tunnel. A black belt out front was relieved to see Roxanne but said he was very worried about the thug and the boy following him going in there. They might do something stupid and cause a rock slide! Roxanne told Cale to run in and grab Isaac if nothing else, while she and the Black Belt discussed the situation further before rushing in to attack. Cale found Isaac was already in battle with the thug. He managed to warn Isaac about the danger before he did anything stupid, but the thug, not realizing the situation, took his turn and had his Poochyena use Howl. The call echoed through the tunnel and ended up setting all the Whismur in the area into something of a panic thinking they were under attack. The thief's pokemon were knocked out by the falling rocks, and he decided to make a run for it leaving the boys with the GOODS, the wingull he stole from Mr. Briney, and the damage to deal with. Roxanne showed up with a pair of Geodude trying to shield them from the rocks as they made a run for it, but unfortunately they made it outside to find that the Uproar had caused a small cave in and even shook the ground outside. The people were safe though, even if the Whismur likely were not, and Roxanne gave chase after the thief as she and the other enraged trainers of the area went after him. The boys stayed behind to let them do their job and got to talking to Mr. Briney about how Isaac totally saved Peeko, the wingull, from certain doom. Having the field to themselves, and thinking everything was under control, the boys quietly made their way back, apologizing for the outburst at the gym since they were both at fault, and Cale got distracted in wanting to catch a large Nincada that crossed his path. Which worked out as he caught it and got back the pokeball with a great ball from the Devon employee they met at the edge of town. The man said that even if the thief got away from them, the boys did get the GOODS back and that deserved a reward from Devon. In which case he took them to the large company Isaac saw earlier, and they went to meet with the president who said the least he could do since it was getting too late to make it all the way back to Littleroot before dark is he could offer them a room for the night.
The boys settled in and Cale called home to let his folks know that they'd be staying the night there, and that they'd been asked to deliver the GOODS they'd saved twice now to their destination in Slateport. His mom seemed highly against them going so far all of a sudden, but his dad, overhearing the conversation, took up the phone and told Cale he should probably do it. It was an opportunity of a lifetime and all, and it might as well be the one big adventure the kid gets for the summer. Real trainer experience. (We're also pretty sure he was assuming the boys would be supervised for the trip. Oh if only.) Cale thought he was right, but failed to mention exactly how they got roped into this task, or why, leaving it off with the impression that they must have made a real good impression on the employees to be asked for such a large favor. The boys went on to.... well be a pair of boys in a private suite, this is the coolest thing ever seriously. All because they beat up some random dude in a fair battle. If this is what being a trainer entails, then by gosh, bring it. The next morning thought brought some.... not such fine pleasantries. The boys awoke to room service breakfast and a call from Isaac's mom saying she heard the news from Cale's folks about the trip and was totally supportive of this. Isaac still seemed uncertain about all this (and wondered what was wrong with the woman because your son has gone off traveling an unfamiliar territory on a whim, why are you not worried?) but agreed that it might be worth it to explore a little and the two got ready to go tell Mr. Stone, the head of Devon, about their decision. When they got to his office though it seemed someone else was bright and early as they overheard the outrage going down between him and Roxanne as it seemed Devon hadn't told her anything about a threat, the thief, the GOODS or anything and she had to find out from some kid they now hired to do make the trip. Did they not trust her to do her job as leader?! The answer... would have to wait as Mr. Stone answered the door and explained to the boys that this meeting was just ending. The boys having not really heard any of the conversation through the door, were simply told they were discussing the previous day's events and how it could have been prevented. Still, the bigger issue at the moment was that apparently the thief managed to reach the northern shore outside Rustboro and escaped to the sea. That... could be a problem. Mr. Stone said he could arrange for a ship to make the trip, but Roxanne argued that it would make the boys more of a target and suggested they go find Mr. Briney and ask him for a ride. Cale said that they'd get right on that and um... let them finish their meeting then.
The boys decided to grab some supplies before they left, including grabbing some berries from Route 116 that they had missed the day before due to craziness, and found the place to be quite crowded. Turns out there were several volunteers in the area trying to dig out the cave to help the Whismur from the collapse the day before. The Black Belt who had wanted to help them, was glad to see them and explained the history of the tunnel project as well as what was being done here. Good to know...? But he was sad to hear that they wouldn't be helping because they were about to leave town. Oh well, everyone had their job to do and he was off to do his. The boys decided that they were probably as ready as they were going to be and set off toward the woods again BUT before they left town, Roxanne caught up to them saying she never had the chance to thank them for everything and had her number registered to their pokenavs in case ANYTHING should come up while they're making the trip. Also she decided to give Isaac the Stone Badge after finding out Cale didn't plan to take the challenge. Which admittedly had him confused as he hadn't challenged her, but she insisted that they'd done more than just defeated her. They've actually helped in settling somethings that have been a problem for a long time. And besides, they may need the badge's ability for the trip. She'll hold Isaac to a real challenge next time they're in town.
With that understood, Isaac took it as more of a reminder of his promise to her and the three parted ways as the boys went to Mr. Briney's cottage on the other side of the woods, and talked to him about taking them overseas. The old man seemed more than happy to help as they saved his beloved Peeko's life and he needed to thank them. So onto his speed boat and away they went! On the way though Isaac got a phone call from Norman saying he had heard from the boy's mother about them leaving for adventure. Honestly it made him excited about it and he suggested if they were making a stop in Dewford then he should challenge the gym there. Isaac said he just might and because it was so windy they cut the conversation short.
Arriving in Dewford, Mr. Briney said he'd wait for them at his friend's house (and said friend gave them a Silk Scarf which Cale put on his Nincada because it was funny. Oddly the bug seemed to like it) and the pair set off to try and find this "Steven" guy Mr. Stone asked them to deliver a letter two since they'd be stopping there. After asking around a bit, they found out that the likeliest place was at the Granite Cave to the north of town. Great, sure, why not? The gym could wait after all. Meanwhile at the Dewford Gym, Brawly was on the phone with Roxanne about the pair heading his way with some very important items. Brawly seemed surprised and asked what was up, when Roxanne explained to him about the attack from Team Aqua, though it was only one member of the team that had showed himself. Brawly said that Team Aqua wasn't like that, he knew because Dewford had had close ties with these guys for years. He had one of his good friends with him right now that was a member and surely he'd vouch for him on this. Strangely though, when the leader went to tell him what a laugh Roxanne was giving him about this rogue member, it seems that "Ditty" had slipped out of the room. Roxanne mentioned that if he was in the room he likely overheard their conversation just now. Find him, Brawly, find him fast.
Ditty had done more than slipped out of the room, he had made it outside and came across a fisherman he convinced to tell him where the boys were claiming they were his kids. The man pointed him out toward Granite Cave where he saw the pair take off, none the wiser. Meanwhile at the cave, the boys had gotten a little ways in, but it was really dark and there were Zubat. They did however have the luck of coming across a Nugget which made their day as for a brief moment they thought they'd be rich.... until something took it from them. Not having any of that, the pair attacked the Sableye that was trying to eat the gold and when it seemed all else was failing, Isaac threw a pokeball at it and caught it. The fight seemed to have drawn unwanted attention too though as Ditty showed up with a Surskit he had taught Flash to make for easier searching (and you know he's got the badge to use it) and finding them the boys realized that this was in fact the same grunt as before. The fight for the GOODS was on but not before Brawly had managed to track down his buddy and mistook the boys had jumped him because they saw the uniform and mistook him for the guy from Rustboro. Because honestly, he knows his bro wouldn't do anything like that. And he thought they'd settle things and he'd prove it to them. It turned out the fight didn't go as well as planned, especially with how Ditty went down to Cale have the double advantage of both a grass and a bug type now (and for some reason Ditty's Surskit has Attract backfire as she interrupted the battle to fawn over Nincada), but Brawly discovered that he couldn't do a thing about Isaac using the Sableye as a last resort. Frustrated to think that he might lose AGAIN to a couple of kids over something that SHOULD have been an easy gig, Ditty decided to screw the rules of battle and tried to attack Isaac to steal the GOODS from him. Sableye attacked the thief and chaos ensued as he started to freak out. Ditty didn't get hurt though as the fight was interrupted with the arrival of a new light in the darkness revealing that on his way out of the cave came Steven, who demanded to know what was going on around here. Cale explained about the grunt, the attack in the woods, then Rustboro, and now here, all of which made Brawly sink lower in lower at realizing that Ditty was actually the one behind all this. Cale also explained that they had a letter for Steven which is why they came here. Steven thought for a moment before letting Ditty get off with a warning and told him to more or less get the hell out before he had to deal with him. Ditty graciously took the offer in dropping the GOODS and making a run for it not even looking back as Brawly tried to call after him. Brawly however still had to answer to Steven and the group agreed that they would discuss everything in detail back at the gym. Luckily for Brawly there was a pleasant distraction as Cale's Nincada (which was still out from the battle) had crawled away from the group and began evolving. Not that Cale was surprised considering that bug types evolve quickly. Steven suggested they hurry and follow the Ninjask out of the cave as it seemed to know what it was doing.
The group returned to the gym where they went all the way to the back room where Brawly's usual place was for battle. It seemed they had a lot of explaining to do all around. Brawly explained about Dewford's ties with Team Aqua and the recently reborn Teams's plans for expanding the water, which honestly he didn't think was a bad idea, but seeing how they planned to go about it, he wasn't so sure about siding with them. Steven explained that Team Aqua had been around for ages and stemmed from the culture among the sea side cities with a strong believe in their ties to the water and that the people were meant to be protectors of the sea and water pokemon. He also added that he was sorry to think that they hadn't heard of this revival because he and others of the mainland hadn't been paying attention to this small, out of the way island like Dewford. Isaac interrupted in asking if either of them knew what the GOODS were that would be so important to a group of water guardians which honestly neither Steven or Brawly could answer. It was highly concerning, but that did make Cale remember the letter they had and thought maybe it had answers from Mr. Stone. Much to their dismay, it seemed instead to be a letter of urgent business as Steven voiced that he had planned to take the GOODS from the boys to deliver it to Slateport himself, but now it seemed there was something more dire at hand. Steven didn't specify what, but said he had to leave immediately. He would however, be sure to inform Wattson, the leader in Mauville of the boys' coming so that he might meet them in Slateport and gave them his number if they needed anything. He also suggested Brawly go with them just in case, but after he left, the pair insisted this was all too much and were sure they'd be fine if they left immediately as well. Besides, how would Brawly get back after the delivery unless he waited for them to go home? Isaac suggested Mr. Briney could bring him back, but the leader agreed that it was a bit of a hassle. Besides, "not to shirk responsible" but he had some things to do around town pertaining to Team Aqua he could and should take care of. He did give them his number, as well as the Knuckle Badge because even if the match wasn't finished, the two of them did technically beat him, and outsmart him... in a few things. Isaac said that it wasn't a fair match though, and again they didn't actually win, so Brawly suggested that they rematch him if they cared to then, but for now the Badge would probably be helpful in keeping that Sableye under control. Good point. Isaac took it graciously considering that if he was going to stand up to his dad he had to do this the right way. The boys wondered if Brawly turning against Team Aqua would get the island on their target list, but the man said that he had no intention of cutting ties with them just yet as, for one, he could still learn things from them if they didn't know he had switched sides; for another, taking away one of their safe havens might make them more aggressive. He knows what he's doing, don't worry about him.
With that understood, the travelers met up with Mr. Briney and set out for Slateport. Along the way though there was the ominous sighting of a battered abandoned ship that had been caught on the rocks. Mr. Briney told them that its because of an incident from over a decade ago, quite the story there, lads, but its because of that incident that they no longer permit such large ships to travel through this area. Too many rocks, and while perfect weather would be fine, if there were a storm to come up like the night of that wreck, it'd take a crew of the finest men to keep it from getting damaged. Cale isn't sure he wants to hear any ghost stories and went out on deck to relax outside of the cabin, but it seemed fate had other plans as he went out and tried to relax and was greeted with a super creepy thing hovering in his face. Half spooked, he pulled out his pokedex to see what it was only realize that not was it a Shedinja but apparently it was his. The thing gave a weak moan but otherwise didn't move or anything other than continue to stare at him. So like any good friend, he called Isaac to come check out the freaky thing he apparently owned. Looking at how the pokedex entry said that this thing had the ability to steal someone's soul lead to some debate between the two if there was any truth to that or if it was simply a wives' tales. Either way the thing was freaking them both out and Cale sent it back to the pokeball. The conversation did tie them over until they got to Slateport, but it was already getting closer to night by that time and unfortunately they found when they actually got into town that the Shipyard they had to deliver to had already closed for the night. As did most of the rest of the town, leaving the pair with no other choice than to head to the Pokemon Center and look for a place to stay there.
The next morning lead, partially from exhaustion, the pair ended up oversleeping and after being woken up Nurse Joy, grabbed their stuff and hurried over to the shipyard. It seemed however that Capt. Stern, the man they were supposed to deliver it to, wasn't there right now but at the local museum. Going to the museum was futile though as they had seen on their way to the Shipyard there was a long line of people in the Team Aqua uniform waiting to get in. Going there would be suicide. Telling the man at the Shipyard this, he certainly didn't want to take them but if there was a situation at the museum, the boys should take the GOODS to Mauville. Isaac seemed confused that such a big city as Slateport didn't have its own gym, but that's beside the point right now. Cale was in a mood about all this, and was leading the way to Mauville when they saw something even more disturbing. The road was blocked by Team Aqua members, which would make sense, but more terrifying was that they were already fighting to keep trainers from Mauville at bay to keep them from reaching the city. Meanwhile, Slateport had no idea of the danger it was in! Not sure what else to do, the boys decided that if they could just get the case to Stern, who was the leader for the town even if not a gym leader. Just get it to him, and it'll all be alright, alright? They went into the museum where they got in for free by being mistaken for being part of the rest of the group, and as they cautiously made their way through the visitors they overheard a conversation with one of the grunts saying how he totally wanted to quit. Going closer revealed it was Ditty now getting into a spat with another grunt on the matter of how it was his fault they had to do things this way to begin with. Ditty said when he agreed to this, he was told it'd be real simple task. Clearly he's not cut out for this life anyway. The other grunt said if he was gonna be like that, he could just go back to his stupid little island (of Dewford) and rot. Surprisingly, Ditty took him up on that, said he quit and accidentally ran into the boys on his way out. He even gave them the TM for Thief claiming it suited them better than him and took off laughing. (Boys, I think you broke him.)
Most of the other Aqua members seemed distracted by his mad dash out of there before anyone could stop him, and they decided to scurry to the stairs as it seemed Capt. Stern wasn't on this floor. There was a sign that promoted a new exhibit coming and seeing how they'd been told at the Shipyard the man went there to work on something it seemed the most logical place. Little did the boys realize after they left that the leader of the Aqua members made note of the traitor as he ran out and told another member that they should make their move and seal off the exits. Upstairs, the room was open and empty of visitors. Lots of neat display stuff though, and the captain was easy enough to find. Stern was confused and at first told the boys that this area was off limits currently but when he heard they came here to deliver the parts to him he seemed a lot more relieved. Everything was there and accounted for, and with all that finally said and done he planned to take them back to the Shipyard immediately. No sooner had he said that when a pair from downstairs came bursting in, demanding the captain hand over the GOODS. Stern claimed he had no idea what they were talking about as there's no reason they would be here, IF they had arrived, seeing as they should have been delivered to the Shipyard. The second member, holding an air of importance about him, calmly explained that they were already of this and had been so kind to have some of the team go by there earlier. The people at the Shipyard said that the parts had been sent to the Oceanic Museum where Stern was waiting for them. Stern casually pointed out that if that were the case, then they aren't here. If they HAD arrived, then he wouldn't be working on the exhibit, he'd be at the Shipyard, now wouldn't he? The boys took the hint that while this was going on they should leave it to the grown-ups and tried to sneak off with the case again, only to be stopped by the admin questioning Cale about the case. Cale claimed it was his case and that he'd had it with him since he left home. The man didn't believe him and started to calmly go after the boys saying he'd rather look for himself before letting them go. With tensions rising, Stern was the first to strike by throwing the display he had been working on at the admin and telling the boys to run as he pulled up a pokeball to battle. The man however attacked him before he could even try to start the battle and disarmed him, leaving the ball the helplessly roll away into the corner. The boys tried to listen, but the grunt cut them off at the door pulling up a pokeball... only to be surprised the pair immediately armed themselves as well. These weren't just a couple of pipsqueaks then, eh? The battle didn't take long as the grunt wasn't really any harder than the grunts the boys had faced in their previous encounters except this one had a Zubat. (Which Isaac is actually familiar with, so joke's on you, buddy.) The admin, angry to see how fast his comrade went down in the face of CHILDREN, managed to keep his grip on his hostage as he took away his bag to prevent any other possible attack attempts and tossed it to the grunt. Stern still tried to attack him with physical force to get away, but the odds of escape kept dwindling as another Aqua member, a woman this time, arrived to see what the hold up was as it seemed the cavalry from Mauville had managed to break through their defenses on the road. The admin shoved the captain at the two grunts, ordering them to take him upstairs while he dealt with the boys as they were still a threat since they both could still fight and still had the GOODS as a bargaining chip. ADMIN JENSEN WANTS TO BATTLE. Not that Cale or Isaac want to battle, but what can you do?
Jensen, no surprise to the boys, had a Carvanha like the others before him, but it was obvious that unlike the others he actually knew what he was doing. Two against one normally would have been unfair but given the circumstances it seemed that this guy put them out their league. They took it out with some albeit unorthodox methods of survival but when he sent out a Wailmer they REALLY found themselves on the ropes as it went into a rollout attack that took out their small forces and pretty much everything else in the room while it was at it. All the water that had gathered on the floor between Mudkip and Wailmer though did create a small upside as deciding they had no choice, and even if the man had beaten them fairly, they didn't plan to give up just yet. The pair used the water to slide passed before he could catch them and made a mad dash for the door only then realizing as they ran through the halls that they really had no where to run as the place was still loaded with other members. Cale spotted a door that lead to the attic, telling Isaac he had a plan and the two took the parts from the case trying to shove as many of the parts in their bags and pockets as they could before they were found. Jensen had been trying to figure out which direction they had gone, but seemed rather smug with himself when he opened the door to find the two startled kids huddled on the staircase. Jensen however got startled when a new face arrived on the scene as the Team Aqua leader, Archie, grabbed him to ask what could possibly be holding them up so long? .... And its a pair of kids that's giving them trouble. Rather than threatening them or using brute force, the man simply decided to introduce himself, explained who the team was and what their goals were and tried to assure the boys that they really meant no harm. All the trouble going down was happening because people like them and Stern had refused to cooperate. Even the fighting outside the building was because Mauville had come after them. Really now, all they had to do was hand over the case, the team would leave, and everything would be over. .... So Cale handed the case over. Jensen, though still suspicious, followed his leader upstairs leaving the boys with an icy glare. The boys, thinking that if things were so bad outside for Team Aqua, decided that all they had to do now then was to hide out here in the attic, hope Archie didn't notice the case was empty, and wait for Wattson and the others to arrive and chase them off.
Unfortunately for them, Archie had gone back to Stern to tell the others to release him when he discovered the briefcase was in fact empty. Quite the temper there brewing, he sent Jensen to go find the boys as they must have hid the parts somewhere and they needed to find where. Jensen did end up finding the boys who, hearing trouble approaching, decided to split up to be safe. Isaac stayed put while Cale made a run for it, catching the admin's attention as he gave chase through the old displays and boxes. Cale tried to hide somewhere, but the man managed to track him down using a Zubat. Cale thinking there was a battle to be underway sent out his last resort: the shedinja he hadn't used since he discovered it. Zubat had been making a ruckus to alert Jensen where his pray was though, and the man thought he was going to scare the kid off, and recalled it leading to the confusion that when Cale gave the first order, the Shedinja instead attacked Jensen. Cale made a run for it, thinking to leave the creepy thing as a distraction. Jensen thought that whatever had attacked him didn't belong to the kid seeing as he made a break for it as soon as it showed up and tried to fight it off only to have the eerie thing disarm him before he could call out a pokemon and then proceeding to outright attack him. Now on the defense, he started panicking as he tried to find where the pokeballs had rolled off to while trying to put ANYTHING between him and the deranged.... THING which he'd never seen in his life. Bloodied and tired and cornered the man found himself on the ground and staring into the void on the creature's back, unable to move or look away or anything. Cale got nervous when things went quiet and peeked out to see where the Shedinja may have ended up thinking it had been knocked out and he needed to recall it. Instead he witnessed something far worse as the admin fell dead on the floor. Archie, wondering what all the noise was about, sent the male grunt with them to go find out what the hell Jensen was doing since he was obviously failing at this. Isaac crept over from his hiding place wondering if it was over since Cale had come back to him and the quiet made him wonder if everyone had left. Instead he also got to witness the horror as the grunt passed by where the body lay, had his own brief horror and hurried back to tell the others. The Shedinja rose up and tried to call after "Carter" weakly in the admin's voice. Freaking out as it seemed the man, er, bug, wasn't aware of what happened yet, and then started panicking when he realized the body nearby was his own, the boys in turn started panicking as Cale called the Shedinja back into the pokeball before having a bit of a breakdown as he just sat there under the table not sure how to react to all this. Isaac hadn't seen how exactly this happened, and thought maybe the voice had to be their imaginations or something, but if Cale wasn't moving, it seemed now it was his turn to take a risk in trying to save Stern.
Meanwhile, outside it seemed that the cavalry was made of more than just Mauville trainers as it Birch and Norman were trying to find out from Wattson if he had seen the boys anywhere. He said he hadn't, but knew where they were which was at the museum. Problem was getting in as there was a hostage situation going on, so outright attacking the place didn't seem like an option. That... was an option Norman was willing to take as he had his Slaking use Hyper Beam on the door before charging in and ignoring the now injured grunts that had been in its path. With a keen eye they were quick to see that the boys weren't among the hostages and figured that Stern, the boys, and the leader had to be somewhere upstairs. Back in the attic, Cale spotted the female grunt this time going out the door of the storage room when she came rushing back in to alert the group. Help had finally arrived and this brief slip up told them where to look. Isaac had caught however and in being brought back to the group demanding to know what they did. Stern told him not to say anything and head for his bag where his pokemon were. Having this sudden sense of deja vu, the boy obeyed as he made a dive for it and sent out an Electrike, certainly something to be of help as the lady grunt prepared to fight him... and fell quickly as it seems this pup has been trained. Before Archie could do anything (seriously what the hell is with this kid?!) Norman arrived on the scene in a fierce rage claiming that if the leader was going to be fighting anyone it had better be him. Archie decided instead that since it seems time has run out that instead he and the others take their leave. Isaac stood there dumbfounded as the three took off, wondering why his dad would just let them get away like that. Stern was about to thank Norman for the help, but Isaac cut him off because seriously WHY DID YOU LET THEM GO?! Norman countered by asking why Isaac didn't tell them what was going on with this mission and furthermore not telling of the danger they were in. He had to find out that the boys were heading for Slateport from Birch, and then find out they were in trouble FROM THE NEWS. Isaac didn't have a way to counter that, but instead pointed out that he had to go find Cale. Cale however was not in need of rescuing as it seemed the reunion with his dad was a lot more of the expected version than Isaac had gotten which left the boy a little disheartened. Still, when Wattson showed up saying that while they had captured the lady grunt, Archie and Carter had made it out the fire escape and flew off. There was no catching them now. This... was the last straw for Isaac as he described the team's leader so they could put out a search for him... but when Wattson went to thank the kid, he snapped. Everything, everything that had been bugging him since day one was on the table including that CLEARLY the leaders weren't all that great considering that Team Aqua had managed to get away THREE TIMES NOW and clearly they don't have things under control like they would have if Hoenn had SOME FORM OF POLICE AROUND HERE and you know what, having help be another town away (granted the people at the Battle Tent here in Slateport served as their protection by Team Aqua had cut them off too. Not that Isaac knew about this) is a REALLY STUPID IDEA and... and.... Norman had more than enough of this venting vengeful bitty and shut him up real quick. Wattson didn't seem offended, but he did take this all in silence as it seemed only fair to hear what the boy had to say. Still, he wasn't sure what all the babbling was about and asked if the problem was Isaac thought they were too spread out. Yes, yes that would something like it, yes. Wattson said that realizing this was Norman's son its obvious the boy hasn't been here long enough to understand how things work around here. Normally its not a problem, its just that somehow every. single. thing. that could have gone wrong, more or less did because Team Aqua knew what to expect. Perking up the leader instead of getting bitter with him gave a broad smile as he said that perhaps the boy had a point. IF he somehow thinks that he could have handled this better than a professional, why not put his money where his mouth was and come face him in a duel at the gym. No facing the trainers first, no badge on the line, this is now personal. IF the boy managed to beat him, he would consider the standing army aspect that a police force usually entails (can you tell these guys have never had police? I don't think they understand the concept.) Isaac left the offer hanging, unsure if he was ready for anything like that, but there was still plenty of time to decide as they had some major cleaning up to do. Rallying up all the grunts that had been abandoned, getting help for those hurt, getting all the pokemon to the center, and fixing up the damages in town from the fighting in the streets. This... was going to be a long day.
First things first, the group decided to get everyone looked over just in case and heal up at the Pokemon Center. The nurse at the hospital was surprised when she went to check Isaac only to find that the weird hard lump in his stomach was actually some of the metal pieces that he had stuffed into the pockets on his hoodie. Seeing as nothing else was really wrong with him and having his dad there still in a mood from earlier, Isaac decided to use the GOODS as an excuse to go find Stern so he could give them to him. After all, its why they came in the first place. Norman rather reluctantly told him to go but not to wander off. Both boys managed to get away and went to find the Captain who, no surprise, appeared to have the most injuries between the three of them. Even though he claimed the people bandaging him up were babying him, really he was fine... um... just don't ask him to carry anything with that arm of his. The boys presented him with the case, (though its likely not all the pieces are in their proper place, but at least they're all there) and the man thanked them most heartily though he did seem to still feel guilty about putting them in danger and all the trouble they went through for the trip. Deja Vu x2 he wanted to thank Isaac at least by letting him keep the Electrike he used to try to save him, which the boy pointed out he didn't really save him as he probably would have gotten himself killed in trying to face those guys. Point still stands, Stern said he had to thank them some way, and if Isaac was planning to go against Wattson, he could certainly use the pup's extra help. The boy seemed surprised to find that a man like Stern, long time co-leader of the territory with Wattson, would seem to show support in Isaac's challenge. Still, it was much appreciated as it seemed he was in the minority. Cale, wasn't sure where he stood on this, but he was a bit stunned to hear that Isaac was honestly thinking of accepting the duel. Not that Cale was going to stand in his way, but as they made their way back to where their dads were, he made it quite clear he didn't support this either.
Meanwhile, back with the fathers, Birch was trying to lighten the gloomy mood of the day in pointing out to Norman how things weren't exactly so smooth when they traveled either. Lo and behold the boys seemed to be as troublesome as they were. This only seemed to make things worse as Norman pointed out that's exactly the problem, ESPECIALLY considering the hell he and Birch had gotten into in their younger days. At least when they were traveling though they'd both been trainers for years, they were teenagers, they had experience. These two... well the man would like to claim that even with all the trouble they got into, they never were outright disrespectful to the leaders or challenged the culture and laws of Johto like Isaac was now. Norman had been proud to see he was becoming a trainer, but if this is how he is, what had he been like the rest of the trip? And more importantly WHAT IS WITH WATTSON TO ENCOURAGE THIS?! Birch honestly doesn't know, other than to bring up that... well yes, they were older and Isaac is new to EVERYTHING so, not to say he's not in trouble, but he is still a kid. Right now they need to sit down with the boys and tell them a thing or two rather than preparing to jump them for their insolence. As for Wattson, he didn't seem mad at the kid, just took it that the boy was challenging him and therefore they needed to settle this properly. WHY he would be trying to treat the boy like this though, as a real challenge like this was more how adults settled things, was a mystery. Perhaps he saw something in Isaac that the others didn't if he was willing to actually try to listen to him. This... just seemed to put Norman in a bigger mood as he didn't see how Wattson could see anything in the boy when he was still so much a child it hurt. By the way, old buddy, did he ever tell you what Isaac did at the gym after the Torchic delivery? That.... was beside the point. Birch still claimed that Isaac is just scared and naive because he's been dragged into all this practically as soon as he moved here. Its painted a very bad image for Hoenn, but the boy needed some time living a normal life. No offense, Norman, but is it possible the boy is in a mood because of you not being there for half a year and then shoving him off to parts unknown? ... Noooot that he'd say that out loud. Instead he diverted the conversation back to the duel in saying how even if Norman didn't like the decision, he could still at least try to be supportive in all this as the boy was actually dealing with some very adult situations here. Norman would still like to disagree. Isaac got himself into this mess, if he wants to play grown-up then he'll have to be the one to deal with it.
Back with the boys, Cale said that while he didn't agree with Isaac's actions, he would at least help him train. Besides, with so much going on, perhaps it was better if they left their dads alone for a while. Isaac would argue, but he was hungry and since things were so crazy the two decided to try to go to the open air market where they saw the balloons and barrels before that morning. Hoping they could maybe find some food there, they went by and noticed the shop keepers were having to clean up as well (admittedly not as much since they were farther away from the action, but still.) As they were passing by, Isaac caught sight of a deep green orb of some sort rolling away from a stand and grabbed it to help out the poor shopkeeper, but the man seemed.... strange. He told the boys to by all means take the thing, but wouldn't tell them why, and when Isaac tried to give it back to him, he practically begged them to keep it, even trying to bribe them with a free doll if they would. Obviously if he refused to take it back, and the boys honestly getting spooked by his frantic chatter, decided to drop the subject, take the skitty plushie and move on. They got their food and headed for the Seashore House to hang out for a while before entering a series of battles to pay for the soda pop that Isaac's Sableye ended up breaking. While the boys were engaged in battle though, there's still one member of their respective teams that hadn't been let out for lunch. Honestly the boys weren't sure what to do with Jensen and it still seemed too soon think about that just yet. Unfortunately he had woken up to find himself in some sort of vague terrain that looked like the shores of Mt. Pyre except that the ocean seemed to extend on forever. Curious where he was and what happened, he began to search the area for any other signs of life. On the outside of things, the boys finished up their battles and got a few congrats from the trainers in there when it came up that Isaac was preparing to battle Wattson here soon. Mr. Sea, the owner of the shack, told the pair that if they were training to go against the thunder gym, they'd best do their training on the route north of town as that's were Electrike and other electric-types dwell. It'd give them more experience than challenging these sea side goers. To the north they went then!
Inside the pokeballs it turns out that the pokemon do actually have some sort of system to communicate with others in the party while inside the pokeballs. Talking at least while still settled into their individual special data created environments. And its while hanging out like usual that Treecko noticed something strange in all this that it seemed like it wasn't just her and Ninjask anymore since there was another voice trying to figure out what was going on. The little lizard decided to be friendly and talk to Jensen to find out who their new friend was, but Ninjask seemed much more on the offense as he told her not to bother with their new companion by any means. Jensen seemed confused about the voices as he didn't see anyone and started to wonder if this was some kind of bizarre holding cell he'd been taken to after being captured in the attic. It was the only thing that made sense anymore especially now that he could hear he wasn't alone. Ninjask still remained hostile toward the newcomer but Treecko, in trying to comfort the poor confused thing, brought up how Jensen was inside a pokeball and that he shouldn't worry because its a safe place. Instead, Jensen started to freak out in trying to wrap his head around how this was even possible. Those things didn't work on people, the idea was insane! That... caught Ninjask's attention pretty quick as he called over asking if he heard that right. Jensen wondered if Ninjask was the one causing all this, like a high level psychic just screwing with him to make him talk. Honestly, the bug assures him that he's as confused as the man is and asked what the last thing he remembered was. After hearing him mention the attack from Shedinja, Ninjask seemed to understand and calmly tried to explain to Jensen how he was killed when his soul was taken hostage by the empty shell. Naturally Jensen thought he was joking but as the bug continued to explain it started to occur to him how serious he was. No longer able to form a coherent response, Nijask told Treecko they should leave the man to his blue screen of doom and let him have some time to himself.
Meanwhile on the outside, Isaac had been training for a while now when Electrike started to kind of spark and fidget giving warning that a storm was rolling in. Not sure how close it was, the boys thought they should head back to town only to have the storm hit in a sudden downpour. They spotted a building with a sign in front of it and thought it was a public house only to discover it was actually the mysterious Trick House. After running into the place's quirky owner, they were challenged by him to complete the Trick House challenge and mysteriously managed to vanish into thin air. Not sure if it was a ghost or something, they instead decided to try to wait out the storm there in the front room and pray their dads didn't kill them for being gone so long. Though.... um.... speaking of, you know... things getting killed and wondering about ghosts and all that, Isaac asked Cale what he planned to do about Jensen. Cale would like to try and ignore that thing forever because after what he saw this morning, if he never saw Shedinja again, so help him it would be too soon. Honestly, he'd rather keep trying to convince himself that never happened and would rather keep his mind off things and actually take the Trick House Challenge. Isaac doesn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation and told him he'd have to face this eventually. Which Cale agrees, and he still felt horribly guilty about everything and if there was any way to apologize, he would, which.... actually he kind of can, can't he? Before he called it back to the ball, Shedinja had spoken to them... Since they were all alone in the place, and given the combined storm and distraction of fixing up in town, it was unlikely anyone would come. Rather reluctantly, he decided he should see how bad it was now rather than make things worse late, and let out the Shedinja. Jensen was still lost and confused and highly disoriented with how huge everything in the room was compared to him, but all that went away when he saw, much to his horror, apparently who his captors were. The fact that the brat he'd been after actually was the owner of the Shedinja didn't really surprise him, but it only made the sting of the truth even worse. At first he didn't want to talk to them or really even want to acknowledge them as Cale began to ask if he was actually in there and began apologizing. Of course, when he didn't answer, the kid honestly started to cry as he began babbling in trying to explain to him how sorry he was and that it was a total accident and everything. Jensen finally got frustrated and snapped at Cale to at the very least stop referring to him as "sir" (though Cale only called him that since he wasn't sure what his name was) and sorta vented on the situation by pointing out he was no longer in a position of authority. CLEARLY. Still, he didn't actually spill to the kid about everything else in the situation that had been bothering him these past few hours as he too was trying to keep his mind off it. This was looking to be the nightmare that just wouldn't end, but he was still certain in his mind that this was only a temporary arrangement. It could be a couple of days, weeks, whatever, so there was no reason to act any different than his usual stubborn self. He introduced himself to the boys and decided that if they were going to be stuck together for a while, there were going to be some rules here. Stop crying, you're making this worse than it needs to be. You will only put him back in the pokeball under dire circumstances or on his terms. Yes he understands he may have to battle at some point, but it will be when he's ready. (Honestly, Cale did stop crying more so out of slight fear what would happen if he didn't. This thing was scary, the admin had been too.) That said, he was still curious to know how long he'd been in there, where they were, what happened after he passed out and who might these two be. The boys tried to answer everything as best as they could while still trying to keep out things like their last names or their dads or any other things that might cause more trouble later. In their asking Jensen about Team Aqua... well he held back just about any and all possibly helpful information as well heavily dotted with sarcasm. Realizing that this was going no where, and that the storm was really coming down hard, they decided that maybe they should just stop trying to get anywhere and instead keep their minds off the situation by doing as Cale suggested and doing the Trick House since there was nothing better to do.
Inside the maze, they found many of the pathways were blocked off by small trees that required the Cut HM....which neither of the boys remembered to pick up when they were in Rustboro. Rather than giving up though, Cale suggested maaaaybe trying Ninjask's Fury Swipes attack to see if it would work. Which it did it was just slow and took a lot of energy. Ninjask didn't like this one bit and noticed that Jensen, who also knew Fury Swipes because of the Shedinja, wasn't helping, and decided to tell him so. Jensen began to freeze up again in realizing that he recognized the voice from when he was inside the pokeball and stared in disbelief before snapping back at the taunting thing only to realize the boys didn't hear the voice like he did. A sudden realization drifted over the group as the boys discovered that Jensen could actually understand the pokemon while Ninjask, slightly impressed, noted that it seems the boys could still understand Jensen as well. Interesting... and possibly quite useful. Jensen understanding this, decided he refused to acknowledge this and decided to try to ignore the bug and possibly all other pokemon because so help him if he starts hearing these things. He's not playing translator and you can't make him! Unfortunately in arguing with Ninjask how he wasn't telling the boys anything, it seems the two attracted unwanted attention as a youngster came by, lost and terrified as he claimed he'd gotten lost in this weird house and couldn't get back out. (Poor thing, imagine the confusion when he goes home that night.) Ninjask cut the tree that separated them as best as he could and the kid thanked them though pointed out that he swore he heard an adult with them and shrugged it off. Thus the new realization that maybe Jensen should just... not talk like at all.
While the boys were doing the challenge (at a very slow pace) back in town Norman and Birch had been catching up on just how bad things had been getting in Johto and why Norman decided to move so far away. Sure it was nice to be living just across the nonexistent street from his best friend, but there was some deeper issues for wanting to get his family away from there. The two were interrupted with Stern coming by. Norman wanted to know what the heck happened with all this, though Stern said that as far as the boys' involvement was concerned, he had nothing to do with it. That was a question for Mr. Stone, after all, all Stern had done was ordered the parts. Birch seemed confused that the company wouldn't inform Stern ahead of time who was delivering the GOODS. The captain explained that they said they found alternative means to keep Team Aqua off the scent and, seeing as the Shipyard already received threat of Team Aqua's coming, Stern decided to go to the Oceanic Museum so it'd be safer. Fate... had different plans it seems. The worrisome thing was wondering if perhaps they knew to go after the museum because of an inside source at the shipyards, which the professor suggested that if Norman was really that hyped up to do SOMETHING in this investigation, perhaps he should look into that and leave Mr. Stone to him. Stern suggested they call him that evening, but the professor made it clear he would much rather talk to him in person. Not wanting to push the subject any more, the captain suggested they get some lunch and try to catch up on other things, but Norman explained he'd rather not sit around chit-chattingwith strangers and headed for the Battle Tent where those captured were being held for now to start the investigation. Stern tried to assure him that the captured grunts weren't going anywhere and if they did it'd be to Mauville to be dealt with by Wattson. Norman would like to point out that is exactly why he doesn't have time for lunch because when Wattson takes over the situation, he won't have a chance to get answers. Once he was gone, the two scientists discussed the slippery slope this was starting, but Birch tried to assure his good friend that he knows Norman and that things would be alright. Now.... about that offer for lunch? Stern is just going to trust him on this for now, but this meeting with Norman has left a bit of a uneasiness about the new leader.
Back with the boys, they'd been making slow progress through the house, but they eventually came across a scroll with the password for the exit. Unfortunately, it seems there was another kid in here (completely oblivious to the day's events) who got frustrated they got to it first. Isaac asked if she got stuck in here too like the kid from earlier, but the girl pointed out that she's not, because she has the Cut HM. These trees can't hold her. Why, was it possible these two idiots came in here without it? Um... yes, yes they did. Jensen, seeing the opportunity here, whispered how Cale should challenge "Sally" here in a battle. Friendly wager that if they won, they could borrow her HM just long enough to teach it to one of their pokemon. Cale instigated the challenge and she accepted it, but when he went to send out Ninjask against her, the thing darted behind him.... leaving Jensen already out of the ball and no logical reason not to fight. Okay then, this plan has backfired horribly! Fortunately, Jensen got to learn the small wonders of Wonder Guard while trying to figure out how exactly he's supposed to attack and Sally, using Oddish, got frustrated in the "not doing anything" and tried a Poison Powder attack. Jensen got hit, but did figure out Fury Swipes long enough to knock out the little grass-type which left him floundering in a brief mixture of relief and confusion and guilt and pride, and.... the poison caught up to him causing him to immediately pass out. Cale called him back into the pokeball, and got the HM from Sally long enough to teach Treecko Cut and gave it back. Sally admitted she may have lost BUT THIS WOULD NOT BE THE END OF IT and went to make her way toward the entrance while the boys made their way to the exit to claim their prize. The Trick Master seemed both pleased and confused how quickly these two made it through the maze but promised them than next time would not be so easy before... vanishing... again. Oh well, at least the rain had let up enough to try to make their way back to town even if wet.
Hurrying back into town, they ran into Birch and Stern on their way back to their meeting place as well. Which was good, because it turns out that the kind captain here was allowing them to stay at his place tonight. Strange, the man had already done so much for them already, but the boys would greatly appreciate it. It... wasn't a very big house though, but the adults agreed that the boys should share the guest room upstairs, Stern had his room of course, and the dads would just sleep in the living room. As they were settling in though, Norman had been told they could stay at the captain's house but when Birch called him about that, it seems Norman didn't ask for directions. Tired and frustrated, the man left the Shipyard only to have an oh so familiar voice greet him no sooner had he stepped outside. He turned around to find that Wattson was there in the shadows of the building just sort of waiting for him. Norman questioned if all this was some kind of joke to him, which the old leader explained that while he was a good humored chap, the attack today was of the utmost concern. Then what about this business with the duel? Wattson countered in asking about the investigation behind his back? Which really left the old man laughing at Norman's lack of a response. Norman said he didn't have time for this, but Wattson did try to give the man a hint to his motives in saying how "Children are wonderfully perceptive" and pointed out that sometimes adults brush things off simply because they are children. PERHAPS YOU SHOULD TRY LISTENING AT SOME POINT. But again, Norman got annoyed in the man trying to tamper with his affairs. Wattson mentioned that he has a grandson out in Sinnoh, a mild hint that he's been doing the parenting thing far longer than his companion here, but when asked if there was any point to this conversation, the old leader seemed to take the hint that the outsider wouldn't listen to him anyway. Wattson decided to drop the subject and leave it at that, but not before leaving Norman with the advice that if he wanted to go around playing detective that's one thing, but there's no reason to try to do it along. He's there for advice not as an adversary. And with him gone, the outsider was left annoyed, confused, and bitter with all of this, but decided the best plan of action now was to go back to Birch and tell him what he'd found out.
By the time Norman arrived, dinner was already had (though just take-out) and the boys were upstairs playing with the pokemon. While he would have liked to explain things to his BFF alone, Stern was not letting him get off so easily pointing out that, as leader for the area, he have every right to be involved. Birch actually agrees with him, so Norman had no choice but to take a seat and explain. First off, there was no spy at the Shipyard (that's a relief) but it seems that the team had actually been tracking the GOODS and their progress from the start. So really, if Devon thought they were outsmarting them, they were gravely wrong. However, it seems the informant who'd been tailing the boys decided to turn against Team Aqua right in the middle of the attack and actually attacked his own men guarding the Battle Tent to break their defenses... and then ran off amidst the chaos so finding him for his side of things was likely impossible due to hiding from both his former teammates and the leaders. But on the subject of the GOODS they were.... parts to a ship, weren't they? Yes, well, a submarine technically. And after a brief bit of nerdgasm from Stern the captain explained that honestly he wasn't sure why Team Aqua would be so desperate for a briefcase full of ship parts unless either they wanted to build one of their own. Birch wondered if for some bizarre reason wanted to prevent the exploration team from finishing theirs. Norman was sure that what Archie planned to find had to be quite important, treasure, a rare pokemon, maybe even something they weren't aware of yet... The other two decided to interrupt on that note as the possibility of a rare pokemon did seem highly likely as if it was just treasure they were either insane or stupid to risk lives, loyalty and their good relations with the port prior to this. Stern brought up the old legend of the super ancient pokemon, titans of land and sea that were put into a deep sleep ages ago. Its an old story, really just a story as the only evidence of this supposedly was the Red and Blue Orbs that were supposedly left behind after their last battle. But... he wondered, as it was possible this insane group of radicals just might be crazy enough to try it, might they be looking for Kyogre? That.... Well at this point anything was possible. The only thing for certain was that they couldn't allow for something like this to happen again and the chances of Archie returning when the submarine was complete was a very high possibility.
Meanwhile, the boys upstairs had settled in and released all their pokemon (though Sableye didn't stay out long as she was about to try teething on the bed) so while Treecko was excitedly explaining to Mudkip about what all had happened since the museum that morning with her team, Cale talked to Jensen in wondering if he was alright after the battle before. He'd been healed up of the poison and everything, but that didn't change the fact that when he woke up, he found that the situation didn't go away. Seriously, he's spend most of the day unconscious it feels like and every time he woke up, he was still stuck here. Cale explained that they were staying at the captain's house for the night, so Jensen might want to keep it down so not to attract unwanted attention. Honestly they didn't need to tell him twice as the last thing he wanted was for the leaders here to find out that they had a high ranking Aqua member here and get him while he's weak. Isaac changed the subject to curiosities about the pokemon, what they were talking about, what it was like inside the pokeball, and so forth. Jensen pointed out the few things going on in the room, but mostly tried to explain what little he knew about the pokeball from Treecko's explanation to him earlier, but while they didn't mind it in there, he found the place eerie. Which brought up a double-edged sword in that while he stayed out of the pokeball, he couldn't interact with anything. BUT! This was something he could deal with. After all, if Shedinja were notorious for this whole... uh... soul stealing thing of theirs, and most people didn't know about it, then there had to be some way to reverse this then, right? Hearing the men talking downstairs, the boys decided that maybe they should head on to bed as it sounded like they'd be up for a while. Besides, the day had been exhausting, and Isaac still had a big day ahead of him tomorrow. Lights out and everything settled, it was time for bed.
Jensen wasn't tired though, again having spend most of the day unconscious, but he felt weird hanging out with the boys. It was still... too soon. Instead he took his place near the door and listened in on the leaders' conversation. Not that he could tell who the two men talking to Stern were, but its obvious what they were talking about. This was bad news, very bad news, as it sounded like they were starting to figure out Team Aqua's plans and worse, it sounded like they planned to inform the other leaders to put out a search for Archie and the others. He had to warn the team about this, at the very least to stay away from shore for a while, but how was he supposed to do that? He didn't know where they were, he didn't have his pokenav, he- Wait. Even if he didn't have his own, surely one of the boys had one he could borrow for this. Isaac's bed was closer so he went to check his bag first, thinking the boy was asleep. He was proved wrong when no sooner had he reached the bag, he heard movement in the bed as Isaac sat up restless and pulled Mudkip (who was sleeping on the bed next to him) close so they could talk. He had a lot on his mind, and it was all stuff he just wasn't sure he could tell anyone. Honestly he was scared about the match, scared about what had happened at the museum, scared of Team Aqua, scared of the fact he's realized there's such a distance between him and his dad that he isn't sure where he stands with the man anymore. Worse, he felt so alone in all this as so far the only one who seemed to be on his side in all of this surprisingly was Stern who was the one he'd known the least by this point. Things were so different here in Hoenn compared to back home, but a part of him was certain he was right to stand up to them and tell them how wrong they were. Its just... he wondered if he should go through with the match because standing up for his ideals now made everyone hate him. If he won, then they'd really hate him. If he lost.... Either way, no matter what he did, he'd lose everything. His only friend would leave him, his dad would probably be ashamed of him and shut himself off with his training. Jensen found slight humor in all this as Mudkip seemed to have no idea what was going on, barely understood what the big deal was, and seemed highly confused why Isaac looked sad. He needed sleep, that's what he needed, and so the little Mudfish decided to show him a trick his dad had taught him by using Yawn on the trainer and thus knocking him out for the night. Jensen went about very awkwardly getting the pokenav out of Isaac's bag and managed to call Archie after half an hour's worth of attempts with a pen in mouth. Archie was suspicious at first, but hearing it was Jensen, he was a little less on the defensive and a little more anxious to know about the whereabouts of his teammate. Jensen told him to not worry about him, coming to rescue him would be far too dangerous, and instead told him the news of the leaders' plans for an all out manhunt by this point. An exaggeration, but an effective one. Archie understood, but assured him that when things settled down, he'd come for him. Jensen pointed out that it was still too risky even then as he wasn't even sure where the hell they'd taken him anyway. Just stick to the plan, and maybe they can meet up when this is all over. All over...? Well Archie admits its sure going to be quiet at the base without him, but he understands. Jensen said not to worry as he'd try to call again when he got the chance. They may have him caught, but they have no idea what kind of people they're dealing with. Until then, it was partings for now, and the two hung up. After managing to get the pokenav back in the bag, Jensen checked on Isaac to make sure he slept through the noise, which he did, but a feeling of awkward guilt crept over him as he looked at the sleeping child. They both wanted to change the world, right? So, he mused to himself, sometimes the only way to change things is to prove that you're right.
The next morning started on the wrong foot with Norman being the first one up and already making a phone call to Wallace about the previous day's event. That.... didn't really go well at all seeing as just before Cale came into the room he heard Norman hang up while cutting the call short. Cale had awoken, lost in a daze and hoping everything had been a dream as really it all still felt so surreal waking up in the guest room, and it only seemed to really set in after talking to Jensen. Now with Norman in a mood, the bitty wasn't sure what to think as he'd half been hoping his dad would be up by now. Isaac was though, if only because his pokemon woke him up, particularly Electrike wanting to go outside. The house began to stir, the boys took a breather outside as Isaac didn't want to deal with his dad this early in the day when he had his mind on other things, and the adults got to talking while making breakfast, including Norman explaining that Wattson was well aware of the investigation already and had tried to confront him the night before (much to his companion's dismay in him not mentioning this before) and the phone call with Wallace. Stern still totally planned to let Wattson in on everything they had already discussed the night before. The boys returned and Cale went back up stairs to inform Jensen of what was going on, finally convincing him to go back into the pokeball before going back down to eat and get ready to head for Mauville. Isaac made his preparations too, getting all packed up and "borrowing" a Nugget from the captain to feed the poor deranged Sableyea victim to its own picky-ness. The others got berries. and the group began their trip along what felt like one of the longest roads in Hoenn. Mostly due to the awkwardness between Isaac and Norman's silence as they were heading for the match, but it seemed they weren't alone on the path as quite a few people were seen heading along Route 110 and nearly all interested in the outcome of the battle. If Wattson lost, it certainly was something that would affect them after all. Arriving in town brought some relief as Isaac headed for the Mart to grab any last minute supplies and the others, while waiting, ran into Will and her Uncle on their way to the gym.
Will seemed more than a little upset to find that there was no accepting challengers right now, but the man seemed fine with it as he didn't think she was ready for that kind of "excitement" anyway. For that matter, he didn't really want her to be watching the current match either and worried about letting the girl learn the extent of the recent attack in the nearby town. Will decided that she could prove to him she could stand on her own and asked Cale to join her in a friendly battle to do so. With the match under way, the adults couldn't help but notice that it seemed Torchic and Treecko seemed hesitant to fight each other, but went through with it anyway. It was more like the two were testing each other as they saw themselves as friends and didn't want to hurt one another, though they did get more into the groove of things as it went along. Cale still won though, much to Will's disappointment, but even though they decided to head on home after all that, it came up that Cale wasn't wanting to watch the match and maybe it would be a good idea if he got to spend some time with Will since they wouldn't be seeing much of each other this summer. It seemed like a good idea to let her Uncle babysit then and they would meet up afterward back here in Mauville. That all agreed, Norman, Birch and Stern went to the gym to find seating and Isaac was escorted through the gym's challenger puzzle to the arena as Vivian, one of the top trainers under Wattson, explained that he didn't have to fight the rest of them since it this match was a direct challenge. No pressure, eh, buddy?
Because of all the hustle and bustle in town, Will's Uncle decided to take the kids fishing on the other side of the river over on Route 118. It was a nice day for now, so why not? Back at the gym with the battle underway, it definitely seemed Wattson wasn't going down easily, even if his tactics, like having Voltorb use Self-destruct to get Electrike out of the way early, did leave at least Norman wondering if he was taking the match seriously. Though his annoyance with Wattson diminished somewhat in realizing Isaac had a ghost-type on his team. HATRED. Long story. Isaac was struggling to say the least. Even if Cale wasn't watching the match, everyone else sure was as Gabby and Ty, hot for a scoop, were reporting the match on TV. Naturally this caught the attention of many, including Roxanne, Brawly, Steven, Wallace, Monica, Valerie and Brendan. Brawly and Roxanne's pokenav conversation was interrupted though when Brawly heard someone come in, only to find that Ditty, his Aqua pal from before, had returned. He didn't dare explain, but told the girl he'd have to get back to her on that and hung up.
Meanwhile, back with Cale and Will, the fishing had been a pleasant change of pace to pretty much EVERYTHING Cale had been dealing with all week. Even trying to ignore Jensen as he hovered silently a ways down the bank from them in order to fail at putting some distance between himself and the other pokemon running around. Not that Treecko or Torchic were paying him any mind, they were too busy chatting together of all their adventures and misadventures had since they had long since left the Professor. Ralts however had taken a strange curiousness with him, but was told to brush off the bad feelings he was picking up from the Shedinja and instead got to talking to Ninjask about family branches and his.... "brother." Jensen reached his boiling point at that and decided to go back over to Cale to sulk, just in time to see his um... "trainer" fish out a Magicarp. Cale decided to catch it because of Jensen's silent insistence that he'd better either catch it or throw it back as he wasn't fighting the damn thing. Will stunned everyone in pulling out a Feebas which she went on to catch too because its a new pokemon, and Cale just caught one, so why not?Jensen would seriously be biting his fist to keep himself quiet if he could. Poor girl has no idea just how damn lucky she was to find one.
Back with the match, Sableye had found favorable prey in the form of Magneton which was shiny and looked edible. She did not however like its extensive spamming of Shock Wave after she got paralyzed for trying to take a bite. She was also confused. Did we mention that Wattson wasn't playing nice this round? Even if he seemed to be enjoying every minute of this, the old coot. but he did eventually manage to whittle it down to faint, but she didn't stand a chance against Wattson's Electrike, which they only barely won with some quick thinking on Isaac's part and ending in a double knock out. That left... Mudkip. And Manectric. Isaac was so very dead dead dead dead dead dead. However, it turned out he got extremely lucky as Wattson's first attack missed and Mudkip got in a Yawn. And actually managed to survive a direct hit and the dog was suddenly put to sleep giving Isaac the chance to claim victory. Albeit, a very cheap one. Which left Birch cracking up as that is definitely Norman's kid, all right. Wattson admitted that it was certainly one of more amusing matches he'd been in for a long time, and gave the boy his respect. The crowd seemed amused as well, at least by the match though feelings to the outcome were still mixed. Isaac received the badge from the old leader, being told he'd likely need it, and it was about that time the boy looked over at the crowd to watch Norman walking out of the stadium. He may have won, but he wasn't as delighted about this huge relief as he should have been. With everyone slowly leaving the place, Isaac decided now that they were leaving the stadium he should apologize to Wattson for his outburst the day before. Wattson suddenly started laughing at the notion of the kid apologizing NOW. More so that he'd feel the need to apologize at all after winning his bragging right, but he had to admit even if the kid fought the way his father did, at least he a lot nicer about it and that had earned the man's respect. Don't be such a downer, kid, if you ever get the chance to come back here, he'd like to see you. No hard feelings in all this, really. Isaac went back to the Pokemon Center to heal up before rejoining the group where he was more or less snuck up on by a man named Scott who claimed to be some kind of talent scout. After seeing the match and hearing the rumors of the kid trying to take on Team Aqua, he thought he'd keep an eye out for the kid in his future endeavors. Isaac.... wasn't sure what to think of the strange man but thought to himself how he'd be highly disappointed as after all this he'd probably never be allowed to leave home again.
Back at with our fishing buddies, it seemed that it was probably about time they headed back since it had been a while and Wanda was still waiting for them to get back from the gym. Not that Will had gone to the gym but still. Cale's group had, and he was due to meet up with them as well. Will actually explained about her reasons for earlier was actually because her cousin Wanda and her boyfriend had been working hard to dig out the Rusturf Tunnel by hand. The only problem now was they hit actual rock, and were unable to go any further, but the Fighter at least had the idea of using Rock Smash to see if they could break through. But that would require the Mauville City Gym Badge. So Will, having her own pokemon now, decided she wanted to help out. It seems she has a long way to go though, and Cale tried to encourage her that someday she may get to go on a journey too. But there was an idea. If Isaac had won, then he could do it for them, right? After getting back to Will's house, the two decided to swap numbers and part ways with Will going to tell Wanda the plan, and Cale heading back to Mauville to ask Isaac. ..... Rather slowly. Honestly he was still torn on the match, and wondered what he might be going back to. Still, promise was promise, and being alone again he thought he could at least use the company and let Jensen out... only to fall back into his thoughts to continue on in silence. Jensen felt awkward with the silence though and went to ask his normally chatty companion what was on his mind. When Cale told him it was about the match and the possibility of things changing because of all this, Jensen admitted that he agreed with Isaac that there were some serious flaws in the system. Cale got defensive in thinking that perhaps this is what Team Aqua wanted and accused Jensen only siding with Isaac because it would help with their goals later on. Jensen got offended that the kid would even dare to accuse him of... but they got interrupted.
A researcher that had been in the grass noticed the two and hurried over in thinking the Shedinja was about to attack the boy given its hostile movements. The pair looked at him like he was crazy and Cale explained that the Shedinja actually belonged to him. That was a relief then, as the man wasn't sure if the tunnel had opened yet or something for there to be a wild one out there. He introduced himself as Derek, a bug researcher who had been trying to study the Ninjask family for years now and if Cale actually owned a Shedinja, he'd like to ask the boy a few questions then? Why? Because Shedinja owners were actually exceedingly rare. He wanted to know how recently Cale's Nincada had evolved, which was really only two days before, but the man showed off a neat trick by taking a flashlight and trying to shine it in the hole on Jensen's back. Not that the bug would let him. Derek said that was fine, it just showed by its reaction that at least this shell was already occupied. Which is the real danger he was worried about in calling Cale over was if it wasn't. You see, for some reason when a Shedinja is occupied, even light itself vanishes into the void on its back, but if its unoccupied then it lights up like a lantern because of how empty it is. No one knows WHY it does that, but its a good way to test when coming across a wild one since... well it seems Cale has already discovered the unpleasant quirk in dealing with these things. Also why most trainers try to avoid them. Not to mention it made it exceedingly hard for researchers to study them because wild Shedinja cannot be captured, due to the Wonder Guard (which he also explained) the pokeballs go right through them, and unfortunately Nincada take yeeeeaaaars to evolve so progress is slow. Cale decided to ask him about that um... yes... "quirk" of the bug's in wondering if there was any way to reverse the damage that had been done. He was feeling quite guilty right now since his Shedinja decided to, uh.... well it kind of sorta killed... his friend's carvanha. Yeah. Happened right in the middle of battle too really freaked them both out. Derek seemed to find that all very interesting because he'd only heard of wild Shedinja trying to take a trainer's pokemon, but one that is owned can be controlled. How long had Cale had his? Years? A few months? .... Not even a week? Good gravy, how the heck did that happen? Older Nincada are harder to find after all because they're usually farther underground so it seems the minor earthquake from the cave in caused Cale's Nincada to scurry to the surface in a panic. Possibly was already hurt too which is why it was so easy to catch despite being a higher level.Also explained why it was having fun one-shotting things when it could because its a higher level than they expected. Jensen was starting to feel a bit sick as the man went on to explain the circumstances that Cale would have had to have for this kind of accident to occur. Catch a Nincada at a high enough level it was about to evolve, have it evolve when he still had less than six pokemon, have the spare pokeball for the Shedinja to possess, and lack the badges to make it listen when trying to stop it from RIPPING ITS OPPONENT'S SOUL OUT. Which for that matter, Derek pointed out that on the upside with it happening during a battle it just goes to show that a Shedinja will take a pokemon over a human any time. So the odds just grew more ridiculous to take into account that Jensen was unarmed when it cornered him. IF THESE THINGS ARE SO HARD TO KILL AND SO DEADLY, WHY DO WE NOT HEAR MORE ABOUT THIS? SHOULDN'T THIS BE ON THE NEWS OR SOMETHING? Well for one thing there's a lot of speculation if this is true or not though the people of Rustboro, which is really the only major nesting ground in the world for Nincada, firmly believe this, not many buy into the theory. Mostly because wild Shedinja have never been observed in said "soul stealing" so what few eye-witness accounts there are come from trainers who either lost a partner or actually owned a Shedinja. Research is mostly just within Hoenn. Also most Shedinja don't make it out of the Route 116 area considering that while they are resistant to a lot of different types, Flying-type is not one of them and therefore they're usually eaten by the Tailow and Swellow that also live in the area as a favorite treat after the Ninjask has abandoned the shell. Which may be why Shedinja kill to begin with. His theory at leas is since they were abandoned, it may be natural instinct to seek out a "kindred spirit" if you will, someone that shares that same spirit as the Nincada had to fill the void it was left with. Though even among the believers, many seem under the assumption that they will just attack the first thing it succeeds to defeat. As for getting "his friend's pokemon" back, that was pretty much impossible. Its technically dead now anyway, but SOMEDAY perhaps. After all, if they can revive fossils then perhaps someday they could find a way. Cale took all of this in, and apologized to Derek saying that he wouldn't mind helping him with his research if it might help, but, for now he had to think about all this, and Derek said that was fine. If the boy was ever in the area again he'd love to meet with him since he'd be in the area trying to level up his own Nincada with training and help from the Day Care. Cale agreed and began to head to head for Mauville, but once they had gotten away from Derek he stopped to ask Jensen if he was going to be okay after all that. The man didn't exactly give an answer, but simply asked that he actually go into pokeball so he could have some time alone to think about all this. Cale, having the same idea, agreed it might be best for both of them and continued on alone until he found the group waiting for him. He told them about Will and Wanda's plan which sadly brought up the awkwardness in his dad telling him that Isaac had won. .... And commenting that he thought Cale would be happier to hear that then he seemed, but the kid brushed him off saying he was just had stuff on his mind. Birch decided to lighten the mood after the others agreed to help Wanda and take the shortcut to Rustboro if it worked and went on to ask Cale what he and Will had been up to all day.
The story starts off like typical game stuff because we really had no idea what we were doing with this besides goofing around.
Isaac is a newcomer to Hoenn, just moved to the region because his father, Norman, got a job here as the Petalburg City gym leader. However, Norman has been away for the past six months because the initiation was at the beginning of the year and Monica, wife and mother to these two, said she wanted Isaac to be able to finish out the school year in Goldenrod before moving. Which is why they're just moving here now at the start of the summer. Once they arrived in Littleroot, Monica said that the pokemon movers should have everything handled so Isaac should go look around town and meet long time friend of the family, Prof. Birch, who lived next door. Birch wasn't home but the rest of his family was, and after some confusion and suspicions, his oldest son Cale was the one to accost Isaac and find out that he'd never actually owned a pokemon. Granted, they do have a Snubbull for a family pet, but that's more of Monica's anyway. Cale was excited to have another kid his age in town, even better another boy his age at that. He was even more excited to think Isaac would have brought all these pokemon from Johto (which is like another world away!) to show off but ended up being shocked to think that child of a gym leader wouldn't even know how to use pokemon. Seriously, he's the son of the professor and while only an official trainer recently, has been dealing with pokemon for years. THIS MUST BE FIXED! So the boys went to find Cale's dad to see if he could give Isaac a pokemon so they could be trainer buddies and he could show his new friend all the ropes. Isaac is confused that they just met, he has yet to meet Birch, and the kid is going out of his way to help him in his first few hours of moving. Really he'd just want to sleep but the movers are gonna be a while. The pair heard from one of the kids in the area that it sounded like the professor was in trouble. This.... is not news to Cale, it actually happens more often than it probably should, but hearing this he rushed out there to save his dad (again) this time from a small pack of wild poochyena. There was only three of them, but to someone unarmed that was still more than enough to cause serious injury. Birch? Why are you unarmed? Because his luck sucks that badly, he dropped it when he got attacked. Seems legit, while Cale jumped in with Treecko to fight off the dogs, Isaac found the bag which had a few papers and two pokeballs on the ground. Birch told him to help, and when Isaac said he didn't have any pokemon, Birch told him to just use one of those then. EITHER WAY, HURRY! He's already been bitten once, and quite badly for that matter. The two boys teamed up and fought off the dogs quite handily, and after gathering up the fallen stuff, helped the professor back to the lab.
Birch decided to thank Isaac by letting him keep the Mudkip he used earlier and after getting bandaged up, told the boys that he had a favor to ask of them. Norman had asked him to go to Petalburg with the two starter pokemon but since he was injured right now, he wondered if they could take it for him. After all it was important that they make it before nightfall. Cale and Isaac agreed and Birch gave him his pokedex since, being new to the area, it might be more helpful to him. The two boys set off after informing their mothers where they were off to and eagerly tested their powers against the young trainers in the area along the way so that Isaac could learn how to battle. Cale asked him about his dad and what it was like being the son of a gym leader, Isaac pointed out that he actually wasn't sure what to say as he and his dad weren't exactly that close. That may be changing though as, reminder, Norman wanted those starters delivered before nightfall. Maybe he was planning to give Isaac one as a welcome to your new home gift or something. Isaac could hope, but he highly doubted that. Something that was proved even more painfully accurate when they arrived at the gym only to find that the starter, a Torchic as it was the only one left, was actually meant for the little girl who lived next door the gym named Will. Norman told the boys that they should show her how to battle so she'd know what to do when on her own while staying at her Uncle's house for the summer and finally ended up setting off Isaac on a rant of how he should be more happy to see him as he's his son and hasn't seen him in like forever. Norman didn't take so kindly to being back-talked to, but made it quite clear they will talk about this later. Highly miffed about it, Isaac agreed to help, and the girl found a Ralts right off to fight. Not wanting to hurt it, she decided to catch it instead by borrowing one of their pokeballs. The three of them went back to town where the little girl's mother showed up saying that they had to hurry to catch the boat. The boys went back to Norman who seemed rather proud to hear of Will's efforts and Isaac cut this meeting short saying how it had been a long day and he was heading home.
The next morning the two decided that because Isaac's first day in town was... less than stellar besides getting a pokemon, they should try to have fun around here and planned to go to the beach near Petalburg. All packed up for the day with a change of clothes and some food, and tell their mothers goodbye! But first, Cale wanted to tell his dad he'd be out today so he wouldn't be helping. Birch told told him that he'd gotten word from Rustboro that there was trouble in town and the boys should make sure not to stray too far. Cale said they were just going to the beach, so that shouldn't be a problem. Big surprise, its a problem. Because they get to the beach and find that its actually been closed for the day due to a fishing tournament going on. So Cale thinking the day shouldn't be wasted, suggested they go check out Petalburg woods instead. Which was all fun and fine and dandy until they had gone pretty deep into the woods and ran into an employee from Devon Co. The boys had just stopped to take a break and were thinking about heading back, but the man came up to them curious if they might be able to help him with something when suddenly the three of them were jumped by a strange looking thug threatening to take the briefcase the man had with him. Not being a trainer, the man pleaded that the boys stop the thief, which they did in epic double-battle style. The thief brushed off the loss to Cale having a type advantage and said he'd back off for now because he had to get back to Rustboro anyway. Sensing a threat, the man said the boys should come with him back to town so they could heal up and he could warn the company of the eminent danger. The boys healed at the center and went to Rustboro Gym where Cale explained that things in Hoenn work... differently than Isaac is used to. Isaac suggested if there's a thief, they should go to the police. Cale explained that there are no police in Hoenn, that's what the gym trainers are for. If there's a serious problem, then Roxanne needed to be informed of this. Isaac said that that's stupid, irrational... and probably would have gone into a full rant about how many issues that leaves open, but suddenly realized that this would make his dad like the leader of an entire community. WHUT DA FUCK? Cale takes personal offense to Isaac insulting their backwater ways, and decides if the kid is going to make such a fuss about this, he'll go tell the leader ALONE. Isaac felt bad after Cale left though he was still trying to wrap his mind around the concept of a world without "logical" governing, and decided to ask Mudkip if it thought he was being irrational about this. Mudfish says yes, but he doesn't understand most of this to begin with. GO WITH THE FLOW, MAN~ As they were waiting, Isaac's attention was caught by the thug from earlier making a mad dash out of the sky scrapper across the way and stood up when he heard the familiar employee giving chase. Mudkip was more than ready for a round 2 against this creep and gave chase causing Isaac to have to go after him. Reckless thing.
Cale came out of the gym with Roxanne and the two hurried toward the man in green when they saw him. Isaac had already managed to outrun them in chasing the thief, but the man in green saying that he had asked Isaac if he could get the GOODS back seemed to make the gym leader very bitter. No time for that now though, her and Cale made way toward the cave where they found and old man named Mr. Briney crying out front of the tunnel. A black belt out front was relieved to see Roxanne but said he was very worried about the thug and the boy following him going in there. They might do something stupid and cause a rock slide! Roxanne told Cale to run in and grab Isaac if nothing else, while she and the Black Belt discussed the situation further before rushing in to attack. Cale found Isaac was already in battle with the thug. He managed to warn Isaac about the danger before he did anything stupid, but the thug, not realizing the situation, took his turn and had his Poochyena use Howl. The call echoed through the tunnel and ended up setting all the Whismur in the area into something of a panic thinking they were under attack. The thief's pokemon were knocked out by the falling rocks, and he decided to make a run for it leaving the boys with the GOODS, the wingull he stole from Mr. Briney, and the damage to deal with. Roxanne showed up with a pair of Geodude trying to shield them from the rocks as they made a run for it, but unfortunately they made it outside to find that the Uproar had caused a small cave in and even shook the ground outside. The people were safe though, even if the Whismur likely were not, and Roxanne gave chase after the thief as she and the other enraged trainers of the area went after him. The boys stayed behind to let them do their job and got to talking to Mr. Briney about how Isaac totally saved Peeko, the wingull, from certain doom. Having the field to themselves, and thinking everything was under control, the boys quietly made their way back, apologizing for the outburst at the gym since they were both at fault, and Cale got distracted in wanting to catch a large Nincada that crossed his path. Which worked out as he caught it and got back the pokeball with a great ball from the Devon employee they met at the edge of town. The man said that even if the thief got away from them, the boys did get the GOODS back and that deserved a reward from Devon. In which case he took them to the large company Isaac saw earlier, and they went to meet with the president who said the least he could do since it was getting too late to make it all the way back to Littleroot before dark is he could offer them a room for the night.
The boys settled in and Cale called home to let his folks know that they'd be staying the night there, and that they'd been asked to deliver the GOODS they'd saved twice now to their destination in Slateport. His mom seemed highly against them going so far all of a sudden, but his dad, overhearing the conversation, took up the phone and told Cale he should probably do it. It was an opportunity of a lifetime and all, and it might as well be the one big adventure the kid gets for the summer. Real trainer experience. (We're also pretty sure he was assuming the boys would be supervised for the trip. Oh if only.) Cale thought he was right, but failed to mention exactly how they got roped into this task, or why, leaving it off with the impression that they must have made a real good impression on the employees to be asked for such a large favor. The boys went on to.... well be a pair of boys in a private suite, this is the coolest thing ever seriously. All because they beat up some random dude in a fair battle. If this is what being a trainer entails, then by gosh, bring it. The next morning thought brought some.... not such fine pleasantries. The boys awoke to room service breakfast and a call from Isaac's mom saying she heard the news from Cale's folks about the trip and was totally supportive of this. Isaac still seemed uncertain about all this (and wondered what was wrong with the woman because your son has gone off traveling an unfamiliar territory on a whim, why are you not worried?) but agreed that it might be worth it to explore a little and the two got ready to go tell Mr. Stone, the head of Devon, about their decision. When they got to his office though it seemed someone else was bright and early as they overheard the outrage going down between him and Roxanne as it seemed Devon hadn't told her anything about a threat, the thief, the GOODS or anything and she had to find out from some kid they now hired to do make the trip. Did they not trust her to do her job as leader?! The answer... would have to wait as Mr. Stone answered the door and explained to the boys that this meeting was just ending. The boys having not really heard any of the conversation through the door, were simply told they were discussing the previous day's events and how it could have been prevented. Still, the bigger issue at the moment was that apparently the thief managed to reach the northern shore outside Rustboro and escaped to the sea. That... could be a problem. Mr. Stone said he could arrange for a ship to make the trip, but Roxanne argued that it would make the boys more of a target and suggested they go find Mr. Briney and ask him for a ride. Cale said that they'd get right on that and um... let them finish their meeting then.
The boys decided to grab some supplies before they left, including grabbing some berries from Route 116 that they had missed the day before due to craziness, and found the place to be quite crowded. Turns out there were several volunteers in the area trying to dig out the cave to help the Whismur from the collapse the day before. The Black Belt who had wanted to help them, was glad to see them and explained the history of the tunnel project as well as what was being done here. Good to know...? But he was sad to hear that they wouldn't be helping because they were about to leave town. Oh well, everyone had their job to do and he was off to do his. The boys decided that they were probably as ready as they were going to be and set off toward the woods again BUT before they left town, Roxanne caught up to them saying she never had the chance to thank them for everything and had her number registered to their pokenavs in case ANYTHING should come up while they're making the trip. Also she decided to give Isaac the Stone Badge after finding out Cale didn't plan to take the challenge. Which admittedly had him confused as he hadn't challenged her, but she insisted that they'd done more than just defeated her. They've actually helped in settling somethings that have been a problem for a long time. And besides, they may need the badge's ability for the trip. She'll hold Isaac to a real challenge next time they're in town.
With that understood, Isaac took it as more of a reminder of his promise to her and the three parted ways as the boys went to Mr. Briney's cottage on the other side of the woods, and talked to him about taking them overseas. The old man seemed more than happy to help as they saved his beloved Peeko's life and he needed to thank them. So onto his speed boat and away they went! On the way though Isaac got a phone call from Norman saying he had heard from the boy's mother about them leaving for adventure. Honestly it made him excited about it and he suggested if they were making a stop in Dewford then he should challenge the gym there. Isaac said he just might and because it was so windy they cut the conversation short.
Arriving in Dewford, Mr. Briney said he'd wait for them at his friend's house (and said friend gave them a Silk Scarf which Cale put on his Nincada because it was funny. Oddly the bug seemed to like it) and the pair set off to try and find this "Steven" guy Mr. Stone asked them to deliver a letter two since they'd be stopping there. After asking around a bit, they found out that the likeliest place was at the Granite Cave to the north of town. Great, sure, why not? The gym could wait after all. Meanwhile at the Dewford Gym, Brawly was on the phone with Roxanne about the pair heading his way with some very important items. Brawly seemed surprised and asked what was up, when Roxanne explained to him about the attack from Team Aqua, though it was only one member of the team that had showed himself. Brawly said that Team Aqua wasn't like that, he knew because Dewford had had close ties with these guys for years. He had one of his good friends with him right now that was a member and surely he'd vouch for him on this. Strangely though, when the leader went to tell him what a laugh Roxanne was giving him about this rogue member, it seems that "Ditty" had slipped out of the room. Roxanne mentioned that if he was in the room he likely overheard their conversation just now. Find him, Brawly, find him fast.
Ditty had done more than slipped out of the room, he had made it outside and came across a fisherman he convinced to tell him where the boys were claiming they were his kids. The man pointed him out toward Granite Cave where he saw the pair take off, none the wiser. Meanwhile at the cave, the boys had gotten a little ways in, but it was really dark and there were Zubat. They did however have the luck of coming across a Nugget which made their day as for a brief moment they thought they'd be rich.... until something took it from them. Not having any of that, the pair attacked the Sableye that was trying to eat the gold and when it seemed all else was failing, Isaac threw a pokeball at it and caught it. The fight seemed to have drawn unwanted attention too though as Ditty showed up with a Surskit he had taught Flash to make for easier searching (and you know he's got the badge to use it) and finding them the boys realized that this was in fact the same grunt as before. The fight for the GOODS was on but not before Brawly had managed to track down his buddy and mistook the boys had jumped him because they saw the uniform and mistook him for the guy from Rustboro. Because honestly, he knows his bro wouldn't do anything like that. And he thought they'd settle things and he'd prove it to them. It turned out the fight didn't go as well as planned, especially with how Ditty went down to Cale have the double advantage of both a grass and a bug type now (and for some reason Ditty's Surskit has Attract backfire as she interrupted the battle to fawn over Nincada), but Brawly discovered that he couldn't do a thing about Isaac using the Sableye as a last resort. Frustrated to think that he might lose AGAIN to a couple of kids over something that SHOULD have been an easy gig, Ditty decided to screw the rules of battle and tried to attack Isaac to steal the GOODS from him. Sableye attacked the thief and chaos ensued as he started to freak out. Ditty didn't get hurt though as the fight was interrupted with the arrival of a new light in the darkness revealing that on his way out of the cave came Steven, who demanded to know what was going on around here. Cale explained about the grunt, the attack in the woods, then Rustboro, and now here, all of which made Brawly sink lower in lower at realizing that Ditty was actually the one behind all this. Cale also explained that they had a letter for Steven which is why they came here. Steven thought for a moment before letting Ditty get off with a warning and told him to more or less get the hell out before he had to deal with him. Ditty graciously took the offer in dropping the GOODS and making a run for it not even looking back as Brawly tried to call after him. Brawly however still had to answer to Steven and the group agreed that they would discuss everything in detail back at the gym. Luckily for Brawly there was a pleasant distraction as Cale's Nincada (which was still out from the battle) had crawled away from the group and began evolving. Not that Cale was surprised considering that bug types evolve quickly. Steven suggested they hurry and follow the Ninjask out of the cave as it seemed to know what it was doing.
The group returned to the gym where they went all the way to the back room where Brawly's usual place was for battle. It seemed they had a lot of explaining to do all around. Brawly explained about Dewford's ties with Team Aqua and the recently reborn Teams's plans for expanding the water, which honestly he didn't think was a bad idea, but seeing how they planned to go about it, he wasn't so sure about siding with them. Steven explained that Team Aqua had been around for ages and stemmed from the culture among the sea side cities with a strong believe in their ties to the water and that the people were meant to be protectors of the sea and water pokemon. He also added that he was sorry to think that they hadn't heard of this revival because he and others of the mainland hadn't been paying attention to this small, out of the way island like Dewford. Isaac interrupted in asking if either of them knew what the GOODS were that would be so important to a group of water guardians which honestly neither Steven or Brawly could answer. It was highly concerning, but that did make Cale remember the letter they had and thought maybe it had answers from Mr. Stone. Much to their dismay, it seemed instead to be a letter of urgent business as Steven voiced that he had planned to take the GOODS from the boys to deliver it to Slateport himself, but now it seemed there was something more dire at hand. Steven didn't specify what, but said he had to leave immediately. He would however, be sure to inform Wattson, the leader in Mauville of the boys' coming so that he might meet them in Slateport and gave them his number if they needed anything. He also suggested Brawly go with them just in case, but after he left, the pair insisted this was all too much and were sure they'd be fine if they left immediately as well. Besides, how would Brawly get back after the delivery unless he waited for them to go home? Isaac suggested Mr. Briney could bring him back, but the leader agreed that it was a bit of a hassle. Besides, "not to shirk responsible" but he had some things to do around town pertaining to Team Aqua he could and should take care of. He did give them his number, as well as the Knuckle Badge because even if the match wasn't finished, the two of them did technically beat him, and outsmart him... in a few things. Isaac said that it wasn't a fair match though, and again they didn't actually win, so Brawly suggested that they rematch him if they cared to then, but for now the Badge would probably be helpful in keeping that Sableye under control. Good point. Isaac took it graciously considering that if he was going to stand up to his dad he had to do this the right way. The boys wondered if Brawly turning against Team Aqua would get the island on their target list, but the man said that he had no intention of cutting ties with them just yet as, for one, he could still learn things from them if they didn't know he had switched sides; for another, taking away one of their safe havens might make them more aggressive. He knows what he's doing, don't worry about him.
With that understood, the travelers met up with Mr. Briney and set out for Slateport. Along the way though there was the ominous sighting of a battered abandoned ship that had been caught on the rocks. Mr. Briney told them that its because of an incident from over a decade ago, quite the story there, lads, but its because of that incident that they no longer permit such large ships to travel through this area. Too many rocks, and while perfect weather would be fine, if there were a storm to come up like the night of that wreck, it'd take a crew of the finest men to keep it from getting damaged. Cale isn't sure he wants to hear any ghost stories and went out on deck to relax outside of the cabin, but it seemed fate had other plans as he went out and tried to relax and was greeted with a super creepy thing hovering in his face. Half spooked, he pulled out his pokedex to see what it was only realize that not was it a Shedinja but apparently it was his. The thing gave a weak moan but otherwise didn't move or anything other than continue to stare at him. So like any good friend, he called Isaac to come check out the freaky thing he apparently owned. Looking at how the pokedex entry said that this thing had the ability to steal someone's soul lead to some debate between the two if there was any truth to that or if it was simply a wives' tales. Either way the thing was freaking them both out and Cale sent it back to the pokeball. The conversation did tie them over until they got to Slateport, but it was already getting closer to night by that time and unfortunately they found when they actually got into town that the Shipyard they had to deliver to had already closed for the night. As did most of the rest of the town, leaving the pair with no other choice than to head to the Pokemon Center and look for a place to stay there.
The next morning lead, partially from exhaustion, the pair ended up oversleeping and after being woken up Nurse Joy, grabbed their stuff and hurried over to the shipyard. It seemed however that Capt. Stern, the man they were supposed to deliver it to, wasn't there right now but at the local museum. Going to the museum was futile though as they had seen on their way to the Shipyard there was a long line of people in the Team Aqua uniform waiting to get in. Going there would be suicide. Telling the man at the Shipyard this, he certainly didn't want to take them but if there was a situation at the museum, the boys should take the GOODS to Mauville. Isaac seemed confused that such a big city as Slateport didn't have its own gym, but that's beside the point right now. Cale was in a mood about all this, and was leading the way to Mauville when they saw something even more disturbing. The road was blocked by Team Aqua members, which would make sense, but more terrifying was that they were already fighting to keep trainers from Mauville at bay to keep them from reaching the city. Meanwhile, Slateport had no idea of the danger it was in! Not sure what else to do, the boys decided that if they could just get the case to Stern, who was the leader for the town even if not a gym leader. Just get it to him, and it'll all be alright, alright? They went into the museum where they got in for free by being mistaken for being part of the rest of the group, and as they cautiously made their way through the visitors they overheard a conversation with one of the grunts saying how he totally wanted to quit. Going closer revealed it was Ditty now getting into a spat with another grunt on the matter of how it was his fault they had to do things this way to begin with. Ditty said when he agreed to this, he was told it'd be real simple task. Clearly he's not cut out for this life anyway. The other grunt said if he was gonna be like that, he could just go back to his stupid little island (of Dewford) and rot. Surprisingly, Ditty took him up on that, said he quit and accidentally ran into the boys on his way out. He even gave them the TM for Thief claiming it suited them better than him and took off laughing. (Boys, I think you broke him.)
Most of the other Aqua members seemed distracted by his mad dash out of there before anyone could stop him, and they decided to scurry to the stairs as it seemed Capt. Stern wasn't on this floor. There was a sign that promoted a new exhibit coming and seeing how they'd been told at the Shipyard the man went there to work on something it seemed the most logical place. Little did the boys realize after they left that the leader of the Aqua members made note of the traitor as he ran out and told another member that they should make their move and seal off the exits. Upstairs, the room was open and empty of visitors. Lots of neat display stuff though, and the captain was easy enough to find. Stern was confused and at first told the boys that this area was off limits currently but when he heard they came here to deliver the parts to him he seemed a lot more relieved. Everything was there and accounted for, and with all that finally said and done he planned to take them back to the Shipyard immediately. No sooner had he said that when a pair from downstairs came bursting in, demanding the captain hand over the GOODS. Stern claimed he had no idea what they were talking about as there's no reason they would be here, IF they had arrived, seeing as they should have been delivered to the Shipyard. The second member, holding an air of importance about him, calmly explained that they were already of this and had been so kind to have some of the team go by there earlier. The people at the Shipyard said that the parts had been sent to the Oceanic Museum where Stern was waiting for them. Stern casually pointed out that if that were the case, then they aren't here. If they HAD arrived, then he wouldn't be working on the exhibit, he'd be at the Shipyard, now wouldn't he? The boys took the hint that while this was going on they should leave it to the grown-ups and tried to sneak off with the case again, only to be stopped by the admin questioning Cale about the case. Cale claimed it was his case and that he'd had it with him since he left home. The man didn't believe him and started to calmly go after the boys saying he'd rather look for himself before letting them go. With tensions rising, Stern was the first to strike by throwing the display he had been working on at the admin and telling the boys to run as he pulled up a pokeball to battle. The man however attacked him before he could even try to start the battle and disarmed him, leaving the ball the helplessly roll away into the corner. The boys tried to listen, but the grunt cut them off at the door pulling up a pokeball... only to be surprised the pair immediately armed themselves as well. These weren't just a couple of pipsqueaks then, eh? The battle didn't take long as the grunt wasn't really any harder than the grunts the boys had faced in their previous encounters except this one had a Zubat. (Which Isaac is actually familiar with, so joke's on you, buddy.) The admin, angry to see how fast his comrade went down in the face of CHILDREN, managed to keep his grip on his hostage as he took away his bag to prevent any other possible attack attempts and tossed it to the grunt. Stern still tried to attack him with physical force to get away, but the odds of escape kept dwindling as another Aqua member, a woman this time, arrived to see what the hold up was as it seemed the cavalry from Mauville had managed to break through their defenses on the road. The admin shoved the captain at the two grunts, ordering them to take him upstairs while he dealt with the boys as they were still a threat since they both could still fight and still had the GOODS as a bargaining chip. ADMIN JENSEN WANTS TO BATTLE. Not that Cale or Isaac want to battle, but what can you do?
Jensen, no surprise to the boys, had a Carvanha like the others before him, but it was obvious that unlike the others he actually knew what he was doing. Two against one normally would have been unfair but given the circumstances it seemed that this guy put them out their league. They took it out with some albeit unorthodox methods of survival but when he sent out a Wailmer they REALLY found themselves on the ropes as it went into a rollout attack that took out their small forces and pretty much everything else in the room while it was at it. All the water that had gathered on the floor between Mudkip and Wailmer though did create a small upside as deciding they had no choice, and even if the man had beaten them fairly, they didn't plan to give up just yet. The pair used the water to slide passed before he could catch them and made a mad dash for the door only then realizing as they ran through the halls that they really had no where to run as the place was still loaded with other members. Cale spotted a door that lead to the attic, telling Isaac he had a plan and the two took the parts from the case trying to shove as many of the parts in their bags and pockets as they could before they were found. Jensen had been trying to figure out which direction they had gone, but seemed rather smug with himself when he opened the door to find the two startled kids huddled on the staircase. Jensen however got startled when a new face arrived on the scene as the Team Aqua leader, Archie, grabbed him to ask what could possibly be holding them up so long? .... And its a pair of kids that's giving them trouble. Rather than threatening them or using brute force, the man simply decided to introduce himself, explained who the team was and what their goals were and tried to assure the boys that they really meant no harm. All the trouble going down was happening because people like them and Stern had refused to cooperate. Even the fighting outside the building was because Mauville had come after them. Really now, all they had to do was hand over the case, the team would leave, and everything would be over. .... So Cale handed the case over. Jensen, though still suspicious, followed his leader upstairs leaving the boys with an icy glare. The boys, thinking that if things were so bad outside for Team Aqua, decided that all they had to do now then was to hide out here in the attic, hope Archie didn't notice the case was empty, and wait for Wattson and the others to arrive and chase them off.
Unfortunately for them, Archie had gone back to Stern to tell the others to release him when he discovered the briefcase was in fact empty. Quite the temper there brewing, he sent Jensen to go find the boys as they must have hid the parts somewhere and they needed to find where. Jensen did end up finding the boys who, hearing trouble approaching, decided to split up to be safe. Isaac stayed put while Cale made a run for it, catching the admin's attention as he gave chase through the old displays and boxes. Cale tried to hide somewhere, but the man managed to track him down using a Zubat. Cale thinking there was a battle to be underway sent out his last resort: the shedinja he hadn't used since he discovered it. Zubat had been making a ruckus to alert Jensen where his pray was though, and the man thought he was going to scare the kid off, and recalled it leading to the confusion that when Cale gave the first order, the Shedinja instead attacked Jensen. Cale made a run for it, thinking to leave the creepy thing as a distraction. Jensen thought that whatever had attacked him didn't belong to the kid seeing as he made a break for it as soon as it showed up and tried to fight it off only to have the eerie thing disarm him before he could call out a pokemon and then proceeding to outright attack him. Now on the defense, he started panicking as he tried to find where the pokeballs had rolled off to while trying to put ANYTHING between him and the deranged.... THING which he'd never seen in his life. Bloodied and tired and cornered the man found himself on the ground and staring into the void on the creature's back, unable to move or look away or anything. Cale got nervous when things went quiet and peeked out to see where the Shedinja may have ended up thinking it had been knocked out and he needed to recall it. Instead he witnessed something far worse as the admin fell dead on the floor. Archie, wondering what all the noise was about, sent the male grunt with them to go find out what the hell Jensen was doing since he was obviously failing at this. Isaac crept over from his hiding place wondering if it was over since Cale had come back to him and the quiet made him wonder if everyone had left. Instead he also got to witness the horror as the grunt passed by where the body lay, had his own brief horror and hurried back to tell the others. The Shedinja rose up and tried to call after "Carter" weakly in the admin's voice. Freaking out as it seemed the man, er, bug, wasn't aware of what happened yet, and then started panicking when he realized the body nearby was his own, the boys in turn started panicking as Cale called the Shedinja back into the pokeball before having a bit of a breakdown as he just sat there under the table not sure how to react to all this. Isaac hadn't seen how exactly this happened, and thought maybe the voice had to be their imaginations or something, but if Cale wasn't moving, it seemed now it was his turn to take a risk in trying to save Stern.
Meanwhile, outside it seemed that the cavalry was made of more than just Mauville trainers as it Birch and Norman were trying to find out from Wattson if he had seen the boys anywhere. He said he hadn't, but knew where they were which was at the museum. Problem was getting in as there was a hostage situation going on, so outright attacking the place didn't seem like an option. That... was an option Norman was willing to take as he had his Slaking use Hyper Beam on the door before charging in and ignoring the now injured grunts that had been in its path. With a keen eye they were quick to see that the boys weren't among the hostages and figured that Stern, the boys, and the leader had to be somewhere upstairs. Back in the attic, Cale spotted the female grunt this time going out the door of the storage room when she came rushing back in to alert the group. Help had finally arrived and this brief slip up told them where to look. Isaac had caught however and in being brought back to the group demanding to know what they did. Stern told him not to say anything and head for his bag where his pokemon were. Having this sudden sense of deja vu, the boy obeyed as he made a dive for it and sent out an Electrike, certainly something to be of help as the lady grunt prepared to fight him... and fell quickly as it seems this pup has been trained. Before Archie could do anything (seriously what the hell is with this kid?!) Norman arrived on the scene in a fierce rage claiming that if the leader was going to be fighting anyone it had better be him. Archie decided instead that since it seems time has run out that instead he and the others take their leave. Isaac stood there dumbfounded as the three took off, wondering why his dad would just let them get away like that. Stern was about to thank Norman for the help, but Isaac cut him off because seriously WHY DID YOU LET THEM GO?! Norman countered by asking why Isaac didn't tell them what was going on with this mission and furthermore not telling of the danger they were in. He had to find out that the boys were heading for Slateport from Birch, and then find out they were in trouble FROM THE NEWS. Isaac didn't have a way to counter that, but instead pointed out that he had to go find Cale. Cale however was not in need of rescuing as it seemed the reunion with his dad was a lot more of the expected version than Isaac had gotten which left the boy a little disheartened. Still, when Wattson showed up saying that while they had captured the lady grunt, Archie and Carter had made it out the fire escape and flew off. There was no catching them now. This... was the last straw for Isaac as he described the team's leader so they could put out a search for him... but when Wattson went to thank the kid, he snapped. Everything, everything that had been bugging him since day one was on the table including that CLEARLY the leaders weren't all that great considering that Team Aqua had managed to get away THREE TIMES NOW and clearly they don't have things under control like they would have if Hoenn had SOME FORM OF POLICE AROUND HERE and you know what, having help be another town away (granted the people at the Battle Tent here in Slateport served as their protection by Team Aqua had cut them off too. Not that Isaac knew about this) is a REALLY STUPID IDEA and... and.... Norman had more than enough of this venting vengeful bitty and shut him up real quick. Wattson didn't seem offended, but he did take this all in silence as it seemed only fair to hear what the boy had to say. Still, he wasn't sure what all the babbling was about and asked if the problem was Isaac thought they were too spread out. Yes, yes that would something like it, yes. Wattson said that realizing this was Norman's son its obvious the boy hasn't been here long enough to understand how things work around here. Normally its not a problem, its just that somehow every. single. thing. that could have gone wrong, more or less did because Team Aqua knew what to expect. Perking up the leader instead of getting bitter with him gave a broad smile as he said that perhaps the boy had a point. IF he somehow thinks that he could have handled this better than a professional, why not put his money where his mouth was and come face him in a duel at the gym. No facing the trainers first, no badge on the line, this is now personal. IF the boy managed to beat him, he would consider the standing army aspect that a police force usually entails (can you tell these guys have never had police? I don't think they understand the concept.) Isaac left the offer hanging, unsure if he was ready for anything like that, but there was still plenty of time to decide as they had some major cleaning up to do. Rallying up all the grunts that had been abandoned, getting help for those hurt, getting all the pokemon to the center, and fixing up the damages in town from the fighting in the streets. This... was going to be a long day.
First things first, the group decided to get everyone looked over just in case and heal up at the Pokemon Center. The nurse at the hospital was surprised when she went to check Isaac only to find that the weird hard lump in his stomach was actually some of the metal pieces that he had stuffed into the pockets on his hoodie. Seeing as nothing else was really wrong with him and having his dad there still in a mood from earlier, Isaac decided to use the GOODS as an excuse to go find Stern so he could give them to him. After all, its why they came in the first place. Norman rather reluctantly told him to go but not to wander off. Both boys managed to get away and went to find the Captain who, no surprise, appeared to have the most injuries between the three of them. Even though he claimed the people bandaging him up were babying him, really he was fine... um... just don't ask him to carry anything with that arm of his. The boys presented him with the case, (though its likely not all the pieces are in their proper place, but at least they're all there) and the man thanked them most heartily though he did seem to still feel guilty about putting them in danger and all the trouble they went through for the trip. Deja Vu x2 he wanted to thank Isaac at least by letting him keep the Electrike he used to try to save him, which the boy pointed out he didn't really save him as he probably would have gotten himself killed in trying to face those guys. Point still stands, Stern said he had to thank them some way, and if Isaac was planning to go against Wattson, he could certainly use the pup's extra help. The boy seemed surprised to find that a man like Stern, long time co-leader of the territory with Wattson, would seem to show support in Isaac's challenge. Still, it was much appreciated as it seemed he was in the minority. Cale, wasn't sure where he stood on this, but he was a bit stunned to hear that Isaac was honestly thinking of accepting the duel. Not that Cale was going to stand in his way, but as they made their way back to where their dads were, he made it quite clear he didn't support this either.
Meanwhile, back with the fathers, Birch was trying to lighten the gloomy mood of the day in pointing out to Norman how things weren't exactly so smooth when they traveled either. Lo and behold the boys seemed to be as troublesome as they were. This only seemed to make things worse as Norman pointed out that's exactly the problem, ESPECIALLY considering the hell he and Birch had gotten into in their younger days. At least when they were traveling though they'd both been trainers for years, they were teenagers, they had experience. These two... well the man would like to claim that even with all the trouble they got into, they never were outright disrespectful to the leaders or challenged the culture and laws of Johto like Isaac was now. Norman had been proud to see he was becoming a trainer, but if this is how he is, what had he been like the rest of the trip? And more importantly WHAT IS WITH WATTSON TO ENCOURAGE THIS?! Birch honestly doesn't know, other than to bring up that... well yes, they were older and Isaac is new to EVERYTHING so, not to say he's not in trouble, but he is still a kid. Right now they need to sit down with the boys and tell them a thing or two rather than preparing to jump them for their insolence. As for Wattson, he didn't seem mad at the kid, just took it that the boy was challenging him and therefore they needed to settle this properly. WHY he would be trying to treat the boy like this though, as a real challenge like this was more how adults settled things, was a mystery. Perhaps he saw something in Isaac that the others didn't if he was willing to actually try to listen to him. This... just seemed to put Norman in a bigger mood as he didn't see how Wattson could see anything in the boy when he was still so much a child it hurt. By the way, old buddy, did he ever tell you what Isaac did at the gym after the Torchic delivery? That.... was beside the point. Birch still claimed that Isaac is just scared and naive because he's been dragged into all this practically as soon as he moved here. Its painted a very bad image for Hoenn, but the boy needed some time living a normal life. No offense, Norman, but is it possible the boy is in a mood because of you not being there for half a year and then shoving him off to parts unknown? ... Noooot that he'd say that out loud. Instead he diverted the conversation back to the duel in saying how even if Norman didn't like the decision, he could still at least try to be supportive in all this as the boy was actually dealing with some very adult situations here. Norman would still like to disagree. Isaac got himself into this mess, if he wants to play grown-up then he'll have to be the one to deal with it.
Back with the boys, Cale said that while he didn't agree with Isaac's actions, he would at least help him train. Besides, with so much going on, perhaps it was better if they left their dads alone for a while. Isaac would argue, but he was hungry and since things were so crazy the two decided to try to go to the open air market where they saw the balloons and barrels before that morning. Hoping they could maybe find some food there, they went by and noticed the shop keepers were having to clean up as well (admittedly not as much since they were farther away from the action, but still.) As they were passing by, Isaac caught sight of a deep green orb of some sort rolling away from a stand and grabbed it to help out the poor shopkeeper, but the man seemed.... strange. He told the boys to by all means take the thing, but wouldn't tell them why, and when Isaac tried to give it back to him, he practically begged them to keep it, even trying to bribe them with a free doll if they would. Obviously if he refused to take it back, and the boys honestly getting spooked by his frantic chatter, decided to drop the subject, take the skitty plushie and move on. They got their food and headed for the Seashore House to hang out for a while before entering a series of battles to pay for the soda pop that Isaac's Sableye ended up breaking. While the boys were engaged in battle though, there's still one member of their respective teams that hadn't been let out for lunch. Honestly the boys weren't sure what to do with Jensen and it still seemed too soon think about that just yet. Unfortunately he had woken up to find himself in some sort of vague terrain that looked like the shores of Mt. Pyre except that the ocean seemed to extend on forever. Curious where he was and what happened, he began to search the area for any other signs of life. On the outside of things, the boys finished up their battles and got a few congrats from the trainers in there when it came up that Isaac was preparing to battle Wattson here soon. Mr. Sea, the owner of the shack, told the pair that if they were training to go against the thunder gym, they'd best do their training on the route north of town as that's were Electrike and other electric-types dwell. It'd give them more experience than challenging these sea side goers. To the north they went then!
Inside the pokeballs it turns out that the pokemon do actually have some sort of system to communicate with others in the party while inside the pokeballs. Talking at least while still settled into their individual special data created environments. And its while hanging out like usual that Treecko noticed something strange in all this that it seemed like it wasn't just her and Ninjask anymore since there was another voice trying to figure out what was going on. The little lizard decided to be friendly and talk to Jensen to find out who their new friend was, but Ninjask seemed much more on the offense as he told her not to bother with their new companion by any means. Jensen seemed confused about the voices as he didn't see anyone and started to wonder if this was some kind of bizarre holding cell he'd been taken to after being captured in the attic. It was the only thing that made sense anymore especially now that he could hear he wasn't alone. Ninjask still remained hostile toward the newcomer but Treecko, in trying to comfort the poor confused thing, brought up how Jensen was inside a pokeball and that he shouldn't worry because its a safe place. Instead, Jensen started to freak out in trying to wrap his head around how this was even possible. Those things didn't work on people, the idea was insane! That... caught Ninjask's attention pretty quick as he called over asking if he heard that right. Jensen wondered if Ninjask was the one causing all this, like a high level psychic just screwing with him to make him talk. Honestly, the bug assures him that he's as confused as the man is and asked what the last thing he remembered was. After hearing him mention the attack from Shedinja, Ninjask seemed to understand and calmly tried to explain to Jensen how he was killed when his soul was taken hostage by the empty shell. Naturally Jensen thought he was joking but as the bug continued to explain it started to occur to him how serious he was. No longer able to form a coherent response, Nijask told Treecko they should leave the man to his blue screen of doom and let him have some time to himself.
Meanwhile on the outside, Isaac had been training for a while now when Electrike started to kind of spark and fidget giving warning that a storm was rolling in. Not sure how close it was, the boys thought they should head back to town only to have the storm hit in a sudden downpour. They spotted a building with a sign in front of it and thought it was a public house only to discover it was actually the mysterious Trick House. After running into the place's quirky owner, they were challenged by him to complete the Trick House challenge and mysteriously managed to vanish into thin air. Not sure if it was a ghost or something, they instead decided to try to wait out the storm there in the front room and pray their dads didn't kill them for being gone so long. Though.... um.... speaking of, you know... things getting killed and wondering about ghosts and all that, Isaac asked Cale what he planned to do about Jensen. Cale would like to try and ignore that thing forever because after what he saw this morning, if he never saw Shedinja again, so help him it would be too soon. Honestly, he'd rather keep trying to convince himself that never happened and would rather keep his mind off things and actually take the Trick House Challenge. Isaac doesn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation and told him he'd have to face this eventually. Which Cale agrees, and he still felt horribly guilty about everything and if there was any way to apologize, he would, which.... actually he kind of can, can't he? Before he called it back to the ball, Shedinja had spoken to them... Since they were all alone in the place, and given the combined storm and distraction of fixing up in town, it was unlikely anyone would come. Rather reluctantly, he decided he should see how bad it was now rather than make things worse late, and let out the Shedinja. Jensen was still lost and confused and highly disoriented with how huge everything in the room was compared to him, but all that went away when he saw, much to his horror, apparently who his captors were. The fact that the brat he'd been after actually was the owner of the Shedinja didn't really surprise him, but it only made the sting of the truth even worse. At first he didn't want to talk to them or really even want to acknowledge them as Cale began to ask if he was actually in there and began apologizing. Of course, when he didn't answer, the kid honestly started to cry as he began babbling in trying to explain to him how sorry he was and that it was a total accident and everything. Jensen finally got frustrated and snapped at Cale to at the very least stop referring to him as "sir" (though Cale only called him that since he wasn't sure what his name was) and sorta vented on the situation by pointing out he was no longer in a position of authority. CLEARLY. Still, he didn't actually spill to the kid about everything else in the situation that had been bothering him these past few hours as he too was trying to keep his mind off it. This was looking to be the nightmare that just wouldn't end, but he was still certain in his mind that this was only a temporary arrangement. It could be a couple of days, weeks, whatever, so there was no reason to act any different than his usual stubborn self. He introduced himself to the boys and decided that if they were going to be stuck together for a while, there were going to be some rules here. Stop crying, you're making this worse than it needs to be. You will only put him back in the pokeball under dire circumstances or on his terms. Yes he understands he may have to battle at some point, but it will be when he's ready. (Honestly, Cale did stop crying more so out of slight fear what would happen if he didn't. This thing was scary, the admin had been too.) That said, he was still curious to know how long he'd been in there, where they were, what happened after he passed out and who might these two be. The boys tried to answer everything as best as they could while still trying to keep out things like their last names or their dads or any other things that might cause more trouble later. In their asking Jensen about Team Aqua... well he held back just about any and all possibly helpful information as well heavily dotted with sarcasm. Realizing that this was going no where, and that the storm was really coming down hard, they decided that maybe they should just stop trying to get anywhere and instead keep their minds off the situation by doing as Cale suggested and doing the Trick House since there was nothing better to do.
Inside the maze, they found many of the pathways were blocked off by small trees that required the Cut HM....which neither of the boys remembered to pick up when they were in Rustboro. Rather than giving up though, Cale suggested maaaaybe trying Ninjask's Fury Swipes attack to see if it would work. Which it did it was just slow and took a lot of energy. Ninjask didn't like this one bit and noticed that Jensen, who also knew Fury Swipes because of the Shedinja, wasn't helping, and decided to tell him so. Jensen began to freeze up again in realizing that he recognized the voice from when he was inside the pokeball and stared in disbelief before snapping back at the taunting thing only to realize the boys didn't hear the voice like he did. A sudden realization drifted over the group as the boys discovered that Jensen could actually understand the pokemon while Ninjask, slightly impressed, noted that it seems the boys could still understand Jensen as well. Interesting... and possibly quite useful. Jensen understanding this, decided he refused to acknowledge this and decided to try to ignore the bug and possibly all other pokemon because so help him if he starts hearing these things. He's not playing translator and you can't make him! Unfortunately in arguing with Ninjask how he wasn't telling the boys anything, it seems the two attracted unwanted attention as a youngster came by, lost and terrified as he claimed he'd gotten lost in this weird house and couldn't get back out. (Poor thing, imagine the confusion when he goes home that night.) Ninjask cut the tree that separated them as best as he could and the kid thanked them though pointed out that he swore he heard an adult with them and shrugged it off. Thus the new realization that maybe Jensen should just... not talk like at all.
While the boys were doing the challenge (at a very slow pace) back in town Norman and Birch had been catching up on just how bad things had been getting in Johto and why Norman decided to move so far away. Sure it was nice to be living just across the nonexistent street from his best friend, but there was some deeper issues for wanting to get his family away from there. The two were interrupted with Stern coming by. Norman wanted to know what the heck happened with all this, though Stern said that as far as the boys' involvement was concerned, he had nothing to do with it. That was a question for Mr. Stone, after all, all Stern had done was ordered the parts. Birch seemed confused that the company wouldn't inform Stern ahead of time who was delivering the GOODS. The captain explained that they said they found alternative means to keep Team Aqua off the scent and, seeing as the Shipyard already received threat of Team Aqua's coming, Stern decided to go to the Oceanic Museum so it'd be safer. Fate... had different plans it seems. The worrisome thing was wondering if perhaps they knew to go after the museum because of an inside source at the shipyards, which the professor suggested that if Norman was really that hyped up to do SOMETHING in this investigation, perhaps he should look into that and leave Mr. Stone to him. Stern suggested they call him that evening, but the professor made it clear he would much rather talk to him in person. Not wanting to push the subject any more, the captain suggested they get some lunch and try to catch up on other things, but Norman explained he'd rather not sit around chit-chatting
Back with the boys, they'd been making slow progress through the house, but they eventually came across a scroll with the password for the exit. Unfortunately, it seems there was another kid in here (completely oblivious to the day's events) who got frustrated they got to it first. Isaac asked if she got stuck in here too like the kid from earlier, but the girl pointed out that she's not, because she has the Cut HM. These trees can't hold her. Why, was it possible these two idiots came in here without it? Um... yes, yes they did. Jensen, seeing the opportunity here, whispered how Cale should challenge "Sally" here in a battle. Friendly wager that if they won, they could borrow her HM just long enough to teach it to one of their pokemon. Cale instigated the challenge and she accepted it, but when he went to send out Ninjask against her, the thing darted behind him.... leaving Jensen already out of the ball and no logical reason not to fight. Okay then, this plan has backfired horribly! Fortunately, Jensen got to learn the small wonders of Wonder Guard while trying to figure out how exactly he's supposed to attack and Sally, using Oddish, got frustrated in the "not doing anything" and tried a Poison Powder attack. Jensen got hit, but did figure out Fury Swipes long enough to knock out the little grass-type which left him floundering in a brief mixture of relief and confusion and guilt and pride, and.... the poison caught up to him causing him to immediately pass out. Cale called him back into the pokeball, and got the HM from Sally long enough to teach Treecko Cut and gave it back. Sally admitted she may have lost BUT THIS WOULD NOT BE THE END OF IT and went to make her way toward the entrance while the boys made their way to the exit to claim their prize. The Trick Master seemed both pleased and confused how quickly these two made it through the maze but promised them than next time would not be so easy before... vanishing... again. Oh well, at least the rain had let up enough to try to make their way back to town even if wet.
Hurrying back into town, they ran into Birch and Stern on their way back to their meeting place as well. Which was good, because it turns out that the kind captain here was allowing them to stay at his place tonight. Strange, the man had already done so much for them already, but the boys would greatly appreciate it. It... wasn't a very big house though, but the adults agreed that the boys should share the guest room upstairs, Stern had his room of course, and the dads would just sleep in the living room. As they were settling in though, Norman had been told they could stay at the captain's house but when Birch called him about that, it seems Norman didn't ask for directions. Tired and frustrated, the man left the Shipyard only to have an oh so familiar voice greet him no sooner had he stepped outside. He turned around to find that Wattson was there in the shadows of the building just sort of waiting for him. Norman questioned if all this was some kind of joke to him, which the old leader explained that while he was a good humored chap, the attack today was of the utmost concern. Then what about this business with the duel? Wattson countered in asking about the investigation behind his back? Which really left the old man laughing at Norman's lack of a response. Norman said he didn't have time for this, but Wattson did try to give the man a hint to his motives in saying how "Children are wonderfully perceptive" and pointed out that sometimes adults brush things off simply because they are children.
By the time Norman arrived, dinner was already had (though just take-out) and the boys were upstairs playing with the pokemon. While he would have liked to explain things to his BFF alone, Stern was not letting him get off so easily pointing out that, as leader for the area, he have every right to be involved. Birch actually agrees with him, so Norman had no choice but to take a seat and explain. First off, there was no spy at the Shipyard (that's a relief) but it seems that the team had actually been tracking the GOODS and their progress from the start. So really, if Devon thought they were outsmarting them, they were gravely wrong. However, it seems the informant who'd been tailing the boys decided to turn against Team Aqua right in the middle of the attack and actually attacked his own men guarding the Battle Tent to break their defenses... and then ran off amidst the chaos so finding him for his side of things was likely impossible due to hiding from both his former teammates and the leaders. But on the subject of the GOODS they were.... parts to a ship, weren't they? Yes, well, a submarine technically. And after a brief bit of nerdgasm from Stern the captain explained that honestly he wasn't sure why Team Aqua would be so desperate for a briefcase full of ship parts unless either they wanted to build one of their own. Birch wondered if for some bizarre reason wanted to prevent the exploration team from finishing theirs. Norman was sure that what Archie planned to find had to be quite important, treasure, a rare pokemon, maybe even something they weren't aware of yet... The other two decided to interrupt on that note as the possibility of a rare pokemon did seem highly likely as if it was just treasure they were either insane or stupid to risk lives, loyalty and their good relations with the port prior to this. Stern brought up the old legend of the super ancient pokemon, titans of land and sea that were put into a deep sleep ages ago. Its an old story, really just a story as the only evidence of this supposedly was the Red and Blue Orbs that were supposedly left behind after their last battle. But... he wondered, as it was possible this insane group of radicals just might be crazy enough to try it, might they be looking for Kyogre? That.... Well at this point anything was possible. The only thing for certain was that they couldn't allow for something like this to happen again and the chances of Archie returning when the submarine was complete was a very high possibility.
Meanwhile, the boys upstairs had settled in and released all their pokemon (though Sableye didn't stay out long as she was about to try teething on the bed) so while Treecko was excitedly explaining to Mudkip about what all had happened since the museum that morning with her team, Cale talked to Jensen in wondering if he was alright after the battle before. He'd been healed up of the poison and everything, but that didn't change the fact that when he woke up, he found that the situation didn't go away. Seriously, he's spend most of the day unconscious it feels like and every time he woke up, he was still stuck here. Cale explained that they were staying at the captain's house for the night, so Jensen might want to keep it down so not to attract unwanted attention. Honestly they didn't need to tell him twice as the last thing he wanted was for the leaders here to find out that they had a high ranking Aqua member here and get him while he's weak. Isaac changed the subject to curiosities about the pokemon, what they were talking about, what it was like inside the pokeball, and so forth. Jensen pointed out the few things going on in the room, but mostly tried to explain what little he knew about the pokeball from Treecko's explanation to him earlier, but while they didn't mind it in there, he found the place eerie. Which brought up a double-edged sword in that while he stayed out of the pokeball, he couldn't interact with anything. BUT! This was something he could deal with. After all, if Shedinja were notorious for this whole... uh... soul stealing thing of theirs, and most people didn't know about it, then there had to be some way to reverse this then, right? Hearing the men talking downstairs, the boys decided that maybe they should head on to bed as it sounded like they'd be up for a while. Besides, the day had been exhausting, and Isaac still had a big day ahead of him tomorrow. Lights out and everything settled, it was time for bed.
Jensen wasn't tired though, again having spend most of the day unconscious, but he felt weird hanging out with the boys. It was still... too soon. Instead he took his place near the door and listened in on the leaders' conversation. Not that he could tell who the two men talking to Stern were, but its obvious what they were talking about. This was bad news, very bad news, as it sounded like they were starting to figure out Team Aqua's plans and worse, it sounded like they planned to inform the other leaders to put out a search for Archie and the others. He had to warn the team about this, at the very least to stay away from shore for a while, but how was he supposed to do that? He didn't know where they were, he didn't have his pokenav, he- Wait. Even if he didn't have his own, surely one of the boys had one he could borrow for this. Isaac's bed was closer so he went to check his bag first, thinking the boy was asleep. He was proved wrong when no sooner had he reached the bag, he heard movement in the bed as Isaac sat up restless and pulled Mudkip (who was sleeping on the bed next to him) close so they could talk. He had a lot on his mind, and it was all stuff he just wasn't sure he could tell anyone. Honestly he was scared about the match, scared about what had happened at the museum, scared of Team Aqua, scared of the fact he's realized there's such a distance between him and his dad that he isn't sure where he stands with the man anymore. Worse, he felt so alone in all this as so far the only one who seemed to be on his side in all of this surprisingly was Stern who was the one he'd known the least by this point. Things were so different here in Hoenn compared to back home, but a part of him was certain he was right to stand up to them and tell them how wrong they were. Its just... he wondered if he should go through with the match because standing up for his ideals now made everyone hate him. If he won, then they'd really hate him. If he lost.... Either way, no matter what he did, he'd lose everything. His only friend would leave him, his dad would probably be ashamed of him and shut himself off with his training. Jensen found slight humor in all this as Mudkip seemed to have no idea what was going on, barely understood what the big deal was, and seemed highly confused why Isaac looked sad. He needed sleep, that's what he needed, and so the little Mudfish decided to show him a trick his dad had taught him by using Yawn on the trainer and thus knocking him out for the night. Jensen went about very awkwardly getting the pokenav out of Isaac's bag and managed to call Archie after half an hour's worth of attempts with a pen in mouth. Archie was suspicious at first, but hearing it was Jensen, he was a little less on the defensive and a little more anxious to know about the whereabouts of his teammate. Jensen told him to not worry about him, coming to rescue him would be far too dangerous, and instead told him the news of the leaders' plans for an all out manhunt by this point. An exaggeration, but an effective one. Archie understood, but assured him that when things settled down, he'd come for him. Jensen pointed out that it was still too risky even then as he wasn't even sure where the hell they'd taken him anyway. Just stick to the plan, and maybe they can meet up when this is all over. All over...? Well Archie admits its sure going to be quiet at the base without him, but he understands. Jensen said not to worry as he'd try to call again when he got the chance. They may have him caught, but they have no idea what kind of people they're dealing with. Until then, it was partings for now, and the two hung up. After managing to get the pokenav back in the bag, Jensen checked on Isaac to make sure he slept through the noise, which he did, but a feeling of awkward guilt crept over him as he looked at the sleeping child. They both wanted to change the world, right? So, he mused to himself, sometimes the only way to change things is to prove that you're right.
The next morning started on the wrong foot with Norman being the first one up and already making a phone call to Wallace about the previous day's event. That.... didn't really go well at all seeing as just before Cale came into the room he heard Norman hang up while cutting the call short. Cale had awoken, lost in a daze and hoping everything had been a dream as really it all still felt so surreal waking up in the guest room, and it only seemed to really set in after talking to Jensen. Now with Norman in a mood, the bitty wasn't sure what to think as he'd half been hoping his dad would be up by now. Isaac was though, if only because his pokemon woke him up, particularly Electrike wanting to go outside. The house began to stir, the boys took a breather outside as Isaac didn't want to deal with his dad this early in the day when he had his mind on other things, and the adults got to talking while making breakfast, including Norman explaining that Wattson was well aware of the investigation already and had tried to confront him the night before (much to his companion's dismay in him not mentioning this before) and the phone call with Wallace. Stern still totally planned to let Wattson in on everything they had already discussed the night before. The boys returned and Cale went back up stairs to inform Jensen of what was going on, finally convincing him to go back into the pokeball before going back down to eat and get ready to head for Mauville. Isaac made his preparations too, getting all packed up and "borrowing" a Nugget from the captain to feed the poor deranged Sableye
Will seemed more than a little upset to find that there was no accepting challengers right now, but the man seemed fine with it as he didn't think she was ready for that kind of "excitement" anyway. For that matter, he didn't really want her to be watching the current match either and worried about letting the girl learn the extent of the recent attack in the nearby town. Will decided that she could prove to him she could stand on her own and asked Cale to join her in a friendly battle to do so. With the match under way, the adults couldn't help but notice that it seemed Torchic and Treecko seemed hesitant to fight each other, but went through with it anyway. It was more like the two were testing each other as they saw themselves as friends and didn't want to hurt one another, though they did get more into the groove of things as it went along. Cale still won though, much to Will's disappointment, but even though they decided to head on home after all that, it came up that Cale wasn't wanting to watch the match and maybe it would be a good idea if he got to spend some time with Will since they wouldn't be seeing much of each other this summer. It seemed like a good idea to let her Uncle babysit then and they would meet up afterward back here in Mauville. That all agreed, Norman, Birch and Stern went to the gym to find seating and Isaac was escorted through the gym's challenger puzzle to the arena as Vivian, one of the top trainers under Wattson, explained that he didn't have to fight the rest of them since it this match was a direct challenge. No pressure, eh, buddy?
Because of all the hustle and bustle in town, Will's Uncle decided to take the kids fishing on the other side of the river over on Route 118. It was a nice day for now, so why not? Back at the gym with the battle underway, it definitely seemed Wattson wasn't going down easily, even if his tactics, like having Voltorb use Self-destruct to get Electrike out of the way early, did leave at least Norman wondering if he was taking the match seriously.
Meanwhile, back with Cale and Will, the fishing had been a pleasant change of pace to pretty much EVERYTHING Cale had been dealing with all week. Even trying to ignore Jensen as he hovered silently a ways down the bank from them in order to fail at putting some distance between himself and the other pokemon running around. Not that Treecko or Torchic were paying him any mind, they were too busy chatting together of all their adventures and misadventures had since they had long since left the Professor. Ralts however had taken a strange curiousness with him, but was told to brush off the bad feelings he was picking up from the Shedinja and instead got to talking to Ninjask about family branches and his.... "brother." Jensen reached his boiling point at that and decided to go back over to Cale to sulk, just in time to see his um... "trainer" fish out a Magicarp. Cale decided to catch it because of Jensen's silent insistence that he'd better either catch it or throw it back as he wasn't fighting the damn thing. Will stunned everyone in pulling out a Feebas which she went on to catch too because its a new pokemon, and Cale just caught one, so why not?
Back with the match, Sableye had found favorable prey in the form of Magneton which was shiny and looked edible. She did not however like its extensive spamming of Shock Wave after she got paralyzed for trying to take a bite. She was also confused.
Back at with our fishing buddies, it seemed that it was probably about time they headed back since it had been a while and Wanda was still waiting for them to get back from the gym. Not that Will had gone to the gym but still. Cale's group had, and he was due to meet up with them as well. Will actually explained about her reasons for earlier was actually because her cousin Wanda and her boyfriend had been working hard to dig out the Rusturf Tunnel by hand. The only problem now was they hit actual rock, and were unable to go any further, but the Fighter at least had the idea of using Rock Smash to see if they could break through. But that would require the Mauville City Gym Badge. So Will, having her own pokemon now, decided she wanted to help out. It seems she has a long way to go though, and Cale tried to encourage her that someday she may get to go on a journey too. But there was an idea. If Isaac had won, then he could do it for them, right? After getting back to Will's house, the two decided to swap numbers and part ways with Will going to tell Wanda the plan, and Cale heading back to Mauville to ask Isaac. ..... Rather slowly. Honestly he was still torn on the match, and wondered what he might be going back to. Still, promise was promise, and being alone again he thought he could at least use the company and let Jensen out... only to fall back into his thoughts to continue on in silence. Jensen felt awkward with the silence though and went to ask his normally chatty companion what was on his mind. When Cale told him it was about the match and the possibility of things changing because of all this, Jensen admitted that he agreed with Isaac that there were some serious flaws in the system. Cale got defensive in thinking that perhaps this is what Team Aqua wanted and accused Jensen only siding with Isaac because it would help with their goals later on. Jensen got offended that the kid would even dare to accuse him of... but they got interrupted.
A researcher that had been in the grass noticed the two and hurried over in thinking the Shedinja was about to attack the boy given its hostile movements. The pair looked at him like he was crazy and Cale explained that the Shedinja actually belonged to him. That was a relief then, as the man wasn't sure if the tunnel had opened yet or something for there to be a wild one out there. He introduced himself as Derek, a bug researcher who had been trying to study the Ninjask family for years now and if Cale actually owned a Shedinja, he'd like to ask the boy a few questions then? Why? Because Shedinja owners were actually exceedingly rare. He wanted to know how recently Cale's Nincada had evolved, which was really only two days before, but the man showed off a neat trick by taking a flashlight and trying to shine it in the hole on Jensen's back. Not that the bug would let him. Derek said that was fine, it just showed by its reaction that at least this shell was already occupied. Which is the real danger he was worried about in calling Cale over was if it wasn't. You see, for some reason when a Shedinja is occupied, even light itself vanishes into the void on its back, but if its unoccupied then it lights up like a lantern because of how empty it is. No one knows WHY it does that, but its a good way to test when coming across a wild one since... well it seems Cale has already discovered the unpleasant quirk in dealing with these things. Also why most trainers try to avoid them. Not to mention it made it exceedingly hard for researchers to study them because wild Shedinja cannot be captured, due to the Wonder Guard (which he also explained) the pokeballs go right through them, and unfortunately Nincada take yeeeeaaaars to evolve so progress is slow. Cale decided to ask him about that um... yes... "quirk" of the bug's in wondering if there was any way to reverse the damage that had been done. He was feeling quite guilty right now since his Shedinja decided to, uh.... well it kind of sorta killed... his friend's carvanha. Yeah. Happened right in the middle of battle too really freaked them both out. Derek seemed to find that all very interesting because he'd only heard of wild Shedinja trying to take a trainer's pokemon, but one that is owned can be controlled. How long had Cale had his? Years? A few months? .... Not even a week? Good gravy, how the heck did that happen? Older Nincada are harder to find after all because they're usually farther underground so it seems the minor earthquake from the cave in caused Cale's Nincada to scurry to the surface in a panic. Possibly was already hurt too which is why it was so easy to catch despite being a higher level.