Battle for Nowhere

[MysticalMonkeyMan]

OOC: Jump in, I'm easy.
Shemp shuddered as the wind hit him. It wasn't a regular wind, but rather a brisk, stinging breeze that dives over the ocean, skimming the surface and snapping into anyone in its way. His scruffy hair was tussled and flowed like the waves. He was a boy of sixteen, but quite mature and independent for his age. Shemp laid back on Lapras, or as he fondly referred to her, Noon. It was in the heat of one summer day that he found her on a beach, frantic and alone, so he took her, thus creating his affectionate nickname based on that special time he found his oldest friend. She was awfully special, quite large in stature, yet gentle and a reliable transport and friend. Brisk today, she stated, as she could communicate telepathically with Shemp. This activity was not unheard of in Noon's species, but made Shemp love her even more.

"Agreed. I just hope we aren't stuck out here all night.", replied Shemp. "Think we will see that Team Rocket ship Oak told us about?" Shemp was not out here in the middle of the ocean for leisure, but instead was on the lookout for an ocean liner belonging to the nefarious Team Rocket. Professor Oak had received word that stolen Pokemon were on board, and sent Shemp out with the utmost urgency.

Shemp recoiled again as the wind swooped back down. He pulled his scarf tighter, warming his breath against the soft fabric. Shemp tightened his grip on Noon's shell. "Wonder if that aerial support Oak mentioned is going to report in anytime soon?". He relaxed his whitening knuckles and looked to the horizon, in search of his aid and the ship.

 

[Clockworks]

With a groan, the nineteen year old girl fell onto the couch, dropping a sports bag by her side. She brushed her dark red hair out of her brown eyes, and laid there in silence for a moment before turning onto her side to face her first Pokemon. Vaiden, the mentioned Pokemon, looked just as worn out as she did, his tiny white wings drooping and blue ringed eyes shut with exhaustion. Even his pointed tail didn’t twitch at all.

“That was some training session, huh Vaiden?” The girl, Kiana Anu, breathed to smaller than average Dusparce. “Those Kimono Girls are just crazy sometimes.”

The Land Snake Pokemon merely grunted with annoyance, probably remembering the strength of those girl’s Pokemon. The Kimono’s offered training sessions to the general public every Saturday morning in Ecurteak City, and Kiana wasn’t someone to give up on such a chance. Although she hadn’t been aware of just how powerful they were, and how serene… Even when it looked like they were losing, they didn’t change their facial expression a bit and just kept on battling, usually turning the situation into their favour.

A knock rapped on the door to the apartment she’d been renting during her time in this area of Johto. Curious, she dragged herself off the couch and let in the man who stood outside of it. His name was Renn Dupont, a twenty something year old who’d she’d bumped into during her time in Johto. Kiana mentally steeled herself. Knowing Renn, he never visisted someone unless he wanted something. And he wasn’t the kind of person to ask nicely either.

“Kiana.” He said, grey eyes cold. “Professor Oak recently asked me to help him out. With dealings with Team Rocket. Unfortunately, I cannot help out as an aerial support for the other trainer he sent because Capricorn had severe damage done to one of her wings by a Jynx in a battle the other day.”

Kiana felt a moment of concern for the Tropius, knowing that whatever that Jynx had down, it would have been something very serious to bring that Pokemon down. But she’d recover, and the red haired girl had to try and focus on the task that had been given to her… or at least how she could try and get out of it.

“But Renn I don’t thi-“

“No buts.” He said sharply, voice like a knife. “I need you to do this for me. The Rockets have Pokemon which were stolen off other people. To allow them to go unpunished is inexcusable, unless it is impossible for the person to fulfil the role required. I expect to hear that the mission was a success. If not, there will be consequences.”

The black haired man dressed completely in green handed her a letter, before turning around and walking out as quickly as he’d came inside. Kiana slumped to the ground, feeling very disheartened.

“Arceus damn him!” She exclaimed to no one in particular as she threw on a black jacket. “Who does he think he is?!”

Vaiden raised one eyebrow at that remark, causing Kiana to shrug sheepishly. “Come on now, don’t give me that. Let’s just go get this over and done with so Renn doesn’t kill me.”

***

After she’d switched her Pokemon team around to allow for more flying types, Kiana set off through the sky, flying on an ancient Pokemon that resembled a grey flying dragon, with huge carnivorous teeth and a pointed tail. Ptero, an Aerodactyl, was the fastest flying Pokemon that Kiana had and could carry her from place to place. They’d soared through the sky towards the Kanto sea, where the letter claimed another trainer called ‘Shemp’ would be waiting.

It was getting closer to nightfall when they were finally searching around the area where the letter claimed Shemp would be. Unfortunately, it was getting harder and harder to see, due to the lack of light and due to the high winds. Even a natural flyer like Ptero was having a bit of trouble keeping steady.

After an hour of searching for the mysterious trainer with no success, Kiana had had enough. It was far too dark for her to see anything now, but some of her Pokemon would have a better chance at searching. And besides, a group of them would be able to cover a larger area faster.

With three flashes of white light, Kiana released a powerful black and white bird Pokemon with a red comb, an even larger blue snake with white wings on its head and a single horn, and a tiny golden bug type which flitted about in the wind faster than the eye could see.

“Okay, you guys!” She shouted above the wind. “We’ve gotta try and find a trainer out here! So, if you come across anyone out here at all, report back to me! If you can’t find anything in half an hour, come back. We’ll be here, as Ptero needs to rest for a while.”

The Pokemon disappeared, with the Staraptor flying high above to use its excellent eyesight, Dragonair swimming through the water like a sea serpent and Ninjask keeping close to the water, but well out of its reach. Ptero dropped out of the sky, to relax and rest in the waters. Despite the fact that Kiana was now getting her boots and jeans wet, she didn’t complain, as he probably really needed the rest.

After a period of time, the Dragonair reappeared, his gemstones glowing eerily in the dark. He made a ‘come this way’ gesture with his tail, and started swimming to his left.

“Wait a minute for the others to get back, Ismenios.”

When the other had been returned to their Pokeballs, Ptero followed Ismenios through the darkness until they came across a teenage boy on his Lapras. Kiana had no idea of how long he’d been there, but it probably had been a while. She returned the Dragonair to his Pokeball, and then spoke to the boy, who looked to be two or three years younger than she was.

“Oh Arceus I hope you haven’t been out here for ages…” Kiana said apologetically. “I’m the other trainer Oak sent – Kiana Anu.” She got off Ptero and stood on the shell of the Lapras, returning the ancient Pokemon. “Anyway, you’re Shemp right? Mind telling me exactly what we need to do for Oak? He wasn’t very specific in his letter…”

 

[MysticalMonkeyMan]

Shemp had just drifted off to sleep when the monotonous flapping of wings awoke him. He looked out into the darkness and spotted a glowing orb, possibly a Pokemon. Silently, he opened a Pokeball directly into the frigid waters. "Blue, go under and keep watch, just in case things get rough." The Wartortle obeyed and dived, his tail just disappearing into the darkness when Shemp spotted an Aerodactyl. Before he knew it, its trainer was standing before him, a girl not much older than he.
She introduced herself as Kiana, and he rose to shake her hand. "Let me fill you in here", he said, trying to summarize their mission in case the freighter appeared. "So, somewhere out here lies the nefarious Team Rocket. I myself have been tracking them since I left pallet town nearly five years ago. They stole Oak's Pokemon, so I stole them back." He chuckled, then became solemn. He dipped his hand into the frigid water, creating a ripple that was barely noticeable to human eyes. Underwater, however, Blue picked it up with his acute hearing and rose to float next to Noon. "Anyways", said Shemp, "Team Rocket hacked the main frame of the PC system, allowing them to transfer nearly every Pokemon in storage directly to them. After that, they packed them on a liner and sailed out in the dead of night about three days ago. What their intentions are is unclear, but a fine mess of water Pokemon were within the known haul, so something could be related here. We need to find them and infiltrate the vessel silently, possibly through a small breach in the hull. While we look out, you have any ideas?"

 

[Clockworks]

Kiana listened carefully to Shemp’s words, a hint of worry flickering through her. She found herself wondering exactly what it was that Renn had gotten himself – and her – into. Team Rocket! He wanted her to go and deal with Team freaking Rocket?! This would be very very interesting… But from the sounds of it, Shemp did seem to know what he was doing – hopefully that would make up for her ignorance.

She took note of the Wartortle rising to the surface silently, and figured that it was probably one of his Pokemon. Two water types already – did he specialise in them? No, she was jumping to conclusions too quickly. Time would give her the answers.

“They must have a pretty good hacker to do that…” Kiana murmured to herself, remembering lessons at school where they’d been told about the firewalls and other security measures that surrounded the PC storage system. But it must have only been those in Kanto – Johto’s PC system hadn’t been touched when she’d left Ecurteak that morning.

An idea jumped to her mind when Shemp mentioned the water types – it would be a bit like Team Rocket to threaten to swamp Kanto with a giant tsunami created by the water types in exchange for heaps of money or something like that. As for how to breech it…

“Making a hole in the hull could be potentially dangerous to those inside, if things were to go wrong. Also, it would be a bit of a dead giveaway if some of the Rocket’s found a hole in the side of the ship. However, it’s almost certain that they’ll be look outs and cameras on the main deck so…” She trailed off, wondering if there was a way to bypass them. She ran through the list of six Pokemon she had with her, and found her thoughts falling on Joy and Misery.

“I’ve got an electric type which could fry the circuit which the cameras are attached to, which would take them out of the action. A flying type could keep watch from a high, and then we could learn what their guards rounds are like and sneak on that way?” She shrugged, not sure if it was really possible or not. “They’d check out the cameras of course, but it could buy us some time..”

“Or…” She mused, trying to come up with another option, “we can still melt a hole in the hull, and if you have a steel type, we can fix it back up so that it looks like there was no breach at all.” The other, silent alternative was to just destroy the whole thing, and retrieve the Pokemon on board after the ship had sunk.

(OOC: My appologies - school often keeps me off the computer)

 

[MysticalMonkeyMan]

Shemp listened intently to Kiana's suggestions. She mentioned using an electric type to fry the circuits and a flying type to keep watch. Shemp was hit with an idea. "Listen, I've got a nice quiet flying type, big enough for me to keep watch off the back of. You could scale up, fry the circuits, and I watch from the sky. Once you do that, I'll swoop down to the side of the ship and grab the Pokeballs from you, fly them back to Noon, then we can proceed to wipe Rocket off the ship. There is bound to be someone running this operation, and maybe we can find out their real intentions. Sound good?"