As we wrenched the ship into harbor in Malie City I wheezed. I had done more physical labor in the last half hour than ever before in my life to get this rust bucket back around to Ula'ula. Gerald slapped me in the back and I retched. "Right, you're still a young'un.", he muttered. As Gerald mosied down the harbor, a grin cracked my face. 'A city where no one knows who I am with loads of junk just laying around? It's the motherlode!'
I slinked into the back alleys of the unfamiliar city, easily slipping from the empty harbor to the dark corners of the city proper. Once, I had been lucky enough to talk with a man in the Seafolk Village from Unova who grew up similar to me. He had told me that in cities tourists, businesses, and even normal people left a veritable litter of refuse to be picked up by pokémon working in recycling and that all of it was ripe for the taking. Until now, I hadn't realized just how right he was. There was almost too much trash to go through! Almost.
I was having myself a perfectly good malasada, left just sitting on the top of a pile of other trash, as I weaved between the alleys just like I would my part of the ruins. Just as I was thinking, 'These city people don't know how good they have it!', I spotted something brilliant out of the corner of my eye. Down a street lined with nice little houses in the weird building style of this place, was a shining bastion. A recycling plant, or in other words, the jackpot.
I darted to the side and began my way behind the houses of the street towards my prize, house by house, past the backyards of these privileged city people. I crawled through tall grass to avoid being spotted by one home's Rockruff, shooed and appeased a Minccino in the brush with me by giving the last of the malasada, and continued on. Finally, I was at the wire fence of the recycling plant. Grimers, Muks, Trubbish, and Garbadors gorged themselves on a sea of trash and processed them into ready to use materials. I waited in the brush for the workers of the plant to focus their efforts on a different section of the refuse mountain before clambering up over the fence and barbed wire. I had enough experience doing the same at Hapu's ranch to do it in seconds. Before the workers looked back I was already submerged in the recycling plant's seas.
I dug through my putrid surroundings to find my treasure. The trash was so compact and so abundant that even my years of dumpster diving did not save me from its rank odor. My nose and tongue practically shriveled on my skull as I reached deeper. Finally, I found a handhold that wasn't crushed or lacking structure. It was a spherical, metallic, ball with a dip cutting it in half and a raised, circular surface along that dip.
As I realized what I had grabbed, I sucked in air to shout in joy, a bad idea in two ways. First, the polluted air that filled my mouth, and second, that I was trying to sneak in and out of here. I held back a gag as I gripped the pokéball I had found and dug my way back to my entrance. I found the fence with a hand reaching out of the trash, stuffed the pokéball in my pocket, and burst out of the garbage and over the fence. Standing above me as I hunched over in the tall grass was a gray haired man with a badge on the shoulder of his black work shirt. "Now that is a first.", he said, looking amused down at my crouched position. Then, he grabbed the back of my shirt and dragged me away.
----------------------------------------
"Jaywalking, loitering, public disturbance, disrupting public services, and several counts of trespassing. That sound right to you Kau'i?" Nanu half-heartedly chided. "My Honchkrow saw everything, from the moment you picked up that malasada." I gave no response. A man in my village once told me that you should never say anything to cops you didn't want thrown back at you like a Payback to the face. Given the way his face looked, I trusted him on that. "Good poker-face kid, I can feel the joy radiating off you. I'm gonna file this on your record, can't lock up a kid after all. Gerald you said was your ride home yeah?", Nanu ran down his checklist of duties, again I gave no response. "I'll take that as a yes."
I was left in the cubicle of the unenthused officer. A quick look in the trash can revealed nothing, 'Typical.' Without anything to do that didn't warrant further paperwork from Nanu, which might make him actually angry, I reached into my pocket. The pokéball was minimized to its carrying size. I enlarged and minimized it repeatedly in my hands, turned it over and observed its grime coated surface. I opened it. It was empty. I slumped back in the chair and put the ball away before theft was added to my record too. At the end of the day it was still worth it.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
After frankly too long, clearly Nanu was taking his sweet time, Gerald entered the police station with Nanu and a barely contained grin on his face. They approached me, Gerald said, "Right lass, let's get you back to Poni ay?" while Nanu just sat back at his desk and began typing something. I glanced his way, then dropped out of the chair and followed Gerald. When we were out of earshot of the precinct he glanced around then let loose his grin. "So what'd'ya steal lass? A girl like you don't just jump a fence fer nothin', that I know.", Gerald practically announced. I lowered my head, kicked him in the shin when I was sure no one was looking, then briefly took the pokéball out of my pocket. Having gotten my kick's meaning, he just nodded and smiled seeing what I'd gotten. We reached the floating bucket again as I snacked on another malasada, seriously it was like they grew on trees here or something, and I went below deck to sleep off the jitters of the day. Tomorrow I would be back helping with the ship and I wanted minimal time to dwell on that.
----------------------------------------
In the dead of night, the shadow of one Gerald of Galar's ship extends out across the harbor before forming into a short, hunched figure. The Sableye wanders off into the night to report its findings.
----------------------------------------
The trip back was much less frantic, both because this time there was no need to swing the boat around to not drift out to sea and because Gerald had a new pokémon to guide the ship. The Gyarados Moby and Miser had defeated in battle was now swimming through the sky above the ship. Gerald had nicknamed her Argona. She was as intimidating as the first time I saw her, and yet she just floated about in giddy excitement to face down any pokémon who approached from the sky or the water. Gerald set the course, put a reminder in his Rotom phone, and called Argona over. He lounged in the patio chair, discussing with Argona what she would do with him in his journeys.
I sat in my own chair, occupied with my rod and my thoughts. At several points Gerald insisted I catch whatever pokémon I reeled in with the ball. I just told him I'd think about it. All I ended up catching were 2 Magikarp, whereas Gerald caught a Huntail, Lumineon, and an assortment of other small Water Types. As his final act of one-upmanship, Gerald pulled the longevity pokémon Relicanth up from the water and onto the deck and used its distress to have Argona show what moves she knew.
Argona started by dancing in a tight spiral in the air, forming rain clouds above the battlefield with her Rain Dance. The Relicanth became unbothered, Hardened to the events around it. Argona waved her fins and sent forward a Hurricane at the Relicanth. Now the fish was angry. It formed a pool around itself and Dived in, shielding itself from normal attacks. Argona just smiled that terrible smile as she circled the Relicanth's pool, trapping it in a Whirlpool of its own making. The leviathan dipped and dived over the trapped fish, raising its stature with Dragon Dance. When the Whirlpool fell apart into a score of water across the deck, the Relicanth was Resting on its side. Once again falling for such a ploy, Argona danced and danced, flying in a frenzy around the ship. In one swoop across the deck, the Relicanth saw its opening and hit Argona with a flawless Take Down, taking no recoil from the head-on strike. She Flailed in protest but in moments the giant cracked into the deck of the ship in a repeat of her previous battle. The Relicanth tried to push its advantage, aiming for another Take Down, but Argona let out the frenzy she had worked herself into. All. On. Relicanth. She Thrashed and Thrashed and Thrashed and Thrashed, not giving the rocky fish a moment to interject before it was flung out of the tornado of scales, unconscious. When I ran to the railing to see where it would land, a wet, red, and unamused familiar face glared back at me and Gerald.
Hapu kicked the Relicanth off the dock, stormed up the gangway (a rare sight from a Ground Type specialist) pressed the button on Gerald's great ball to return Argona as he just stood there in shame, then picked me up and walked off the boat. Shaking myself, I spoke up, "I don't have my things." Hapu paused, walked back up the gangway past Gerald as he stared at his great ball, before setting me down at the door that went below deck. I opened the door, turned and said, "Just a minute!", before bolting down the stairs and packing my spoils into the many sewn in pockets of my baggy clothes. After a moment's hesitation, I took the hammock too. I swung the door open, ready to face Hapu's silent rage, only to see Gerald and an otherwise empty deck. I left as quickly as I had arrived, ensuring he wouldn't catch me in the act and could only act impressed and mildly annoyed at my success. Mahā's back was even more uncomfortable with guilt on the mind, that I had learned before.