After I had said goodbye to mom, I had gotten into Aunt Jovi's car with a sulky Jack to get to Gateon Port, where a ship would take us to Unova's dock in Castelia. From there, we would all go our separate ways, starting our journey in earnest.
Jack didn't make the car ride very fun. He kept complaining and mumbling over anything and everything, and several times Aunt Jovi threatened to throw him out of the moving vehicle, which would grant us several minutes of peaceful silence, but would also saddle us with a homicide charge.
It was a near thing, really. Taking a plea deal for aiding and abetting wouldn't have been so bad…
"Ugh. When can I get out of this hot as hell car already!" The windows were open. "It's so much worse with David here stinking up the place. Ahh! My nose'll fall off!"
….A really near thing.
On the upside, I had taken the opportunity of the time from here to Gateon to familiarize myself with my new partner in the most important area. Pets and scratches.
Styx was, after a bit of trial and error, basically puddy in my hands. It was sort of my specialty. Any Pokemon I had met and had the opportunity to touch had been instantly surrendered towards me. It was my one true skill. No one stood a chance. And with it, I would conquer all the Pokemon and take over the world!
"David, why are you smiling like that?" Aunt Jovi sent concerning looks my way even as she tried to keep her eyes on the road ahead. Even Styx had reared her head from my lap and stared up at me as if I had done something crazy. I gently pushed her head down.
"Go back to sleep."
"Oh good it's ended. That's not a good look on you, David. You shouldn't show that to any girls you meet! They'll run away!"
What the hell is she talking about? And what do girls have anything to do with it?
"Sure, Aunt Jovi. I'll do my best." I guess.
----------------------------------------
Gateon Port looked about exactly like the games did, except for them having more than, say three boats. Oh, and being a wholleeee lot bigger. Basically everything was bigger than the game world, with tons more people making their way this and that. This was the busiest part of the whole region, and it showed.
People came in and out of buildings, inns, and restaurants, moving cargo off of ships, herding Pokemon onto ships. Some were watching a performance some ways down the yard, others were caught up in trying to find a place to park.
Orre was growing, if this place was any indication. Well, good for them.
After parking we had easily found the ship we were meant to dock. It was a giant cruise ship after all. Usually people would either travel by teleportation or flying, but we had to transport too many people to make that option viable. Unova was, on a geological scale fairly close by so the higher ups decided in the end they would just set us on a cruise ship heading that way. It was cheaper, apparently.
Me, I have no thoughts about it. Jack however…
"Agh! A ship?! Why couldn't they have given us a plane ticket or something? We're going to be on that thing for forever!"
"A week, actually. And during that time, every expense is paid for. You should be grateful! We went through all this trouble to get you on that dang ship!"
Jack slumped. "Right whatever… Let's just get on."
----------------------------------------
A bunch of us were gathered on the deck, apart from the rest of the guests on the ship. There were about thirty of us in total. All of these people had been recommended by anyone who was anyone in Orre to represent them in Unova. Some were clearly seasoned trainers, having several Pokemon along their belts, others were obvious rookies, some looking younger than me.
"...And you will be expected to show the highest decorum in your guest region! I won't have it any other way, you hear me?" Aunt Jovi stood on a pedestal, shouting down at us like an authoritarian dictator.
"You all share the same goal. Defeat all the gyms and earn their badges to enter yourself into the Vertress Conference. Win that, and you gain a spot in the Pokemon World Tournament. You will be representing Orre to the best of your ability, which is not a responsibility you should take lightly." She looked each of us in the eye with an expectant gaze. "You will all be ambassadors in your own way. Give Orre a bad name, and we'll make sure yours ends up on a tombstone."
Message received. Some shuddered in fright from Aunt Jovi's statement. She did tend to have that effect.
"With this responsibility comes an obligation. Even though you'll be working towards the Vertress Conference, you shouldn't be neglecting maintaining a public image. We expect you to make a name for yourself one way or another. Whether that be through Contests, tournaments, competitions, or otherwise."
She stepped off the platform, lowering her intensity by quite a bit. "This isn't public news yet, but we'll be sending similar groups to Sinnoh and Kalos in a few months when their season starts. We intend to get as many names on the World Selections Sheet as we can. The people here aren't your only competition. Remember that."
With that she walked off and away from the ship's deck, probably to get off the ship. As soon as she was gone, the crowd dispersed, giving each other shifty looks. No one here was really friends with each other. For all we knew, we were all enemies.
Jack went off into another corridor as soon as he got a chance, and I hoped I wouldn't have to see him ever again. Good riddance.
I wanted to keep a low profile for as long as I was on the ship, so I tried to surreptitiously make my way below deck, seating myself in one of the chairs next to the bar. I pretended to be on my new Pokedex while I was actually observing the people around me.
I had done my best to memorize the faces of the Orre group, scanning for them among the crowd of people enjoying their meals and talking amongst each other. I saw a few of them in a small huddle, talking in hushed tones. Two of them walked back up to the deck, a gaggle of other trainers following them.
Already starting Pokemon battles? It was clear they wanted to establish their places in the ranks. I didn't want to be involved. My hair and eye color would give away who I was related to, and I didn't need that kind of attention this early on.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to watch a few of their battles. I went up to the deck again.
----------------------------------------
I had been on this ship for a few days now. I hadn't done much. Unless you wanted to battle there wasn't much space for Pokemon training, so I spent most of my time watching others battle and thinking up strategies inside my mind.
An intimidating looking Golduck launched a Water Pulse at a rambunctious Breloom. The fighting type Pokemon dodged it easily and at his trainer's command moved into the Golduck's guard with a Mach Punch.
These were well trained Pokemon, way beyond the level required to win the first badge. I was so far out of my league it really wasn't funny.
It didn't matter in the end. I would catch up to them soon enough.
"You've been watching these people battle for quite a while now. Why haven't you thrown yourself in the ring yet?" A red haired girl leaned against the wall I was watching the battles from. She had a sharp nose, with green eyes that matched with her intensity. A black tattoo outlining a Dragonair resided on her left shoulder. Her clothes didn't indicate any specialty that I was aware of, just a black woolen turtleneck and a red skirt. She was a trainer, obviously, but her demeanor screamed rookie.
"That depends. Are you offering yourself up?" I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but something tells me I could take her.
She smirked. "You're on then. It would be interesting to see what the son of the Hero can do."
I grimaced. "What gave it away?"
She snorted, pushing off the wall. "I've seen pictures. You look exactly alike. Oh. Looks like we're up."
The Breloom stood victorious over a beat up Golduck, barking its victory. Both trainers returned their Pokemon and left the field.
The girl didn't wait for anyone to claim the empty spot and almost ran to her side of the field. "I hope you're ready! I'm gonna beat you to the ground!"
How confident. I calmly claimed my box on the other side. "You'll be a good stepping stone at least."
I opened my Pokedex just as she did hers, and we connected with each other. Sarah Joyce, huh? I went to the settings for a one-versus-one, setting my Eevee as the participating Pokemon and setting the pot to the standard 15%. She accepted the conditions, and both our Pokedexes little light jumped to green.
"I hope you're ready!" She took out her Poke ball, proudly displaying it.
I took out my own. We both threw in at the same time, officially starting our match. Our Pokedexes turned yellow.
"It's time! Styx!"
"Let's do this! Sigmund!"
Two flashes of light revealed a snarling Styx, ready for her first official battle. Opposite her a Drowzee stood, waving his arms menacingly. I didn't like the look in its eye. There was something off about it.
"Sigmund! Hypnosis!"
Oh no you don't! "Styx! Sand Attack and then Tackle!" We didn't have any space to try the new strategies out practically, but that didn't mean we didn't go over them. Let's see how they do in actual battle.
Styx dug into the earthy ground they had made for the battlefield on top of the ship and flung it out onto the Drowzee. It caught it right between the eyes as it was attempting to hypnotize Styx and recoiled.
"Craawwugh!" It cried out. Styx didn't give it any momentum to recover, going in for a Tackle immediately.
"Dodge!" For whatever reason, (likely cause it was psychic) Sigmund managed to dodge the incoming attack, spinning around in the wrong direction to try to face Styx.
She recovered excellently, rolling into the ground and sending another Sand Attack as soon as Drowzee managed to claw some sand out of its eyes. Perfect. Just like we practiced.
"Tackle! Again!" This time Styx's attack hit just fine, hitting Sigmund right between the ribs. Styx doubled back to avoid a "Pound!" That missed horribly courtesy of the Sand Attacks.
"Tackle!"
Another strike came for the Drowzee's side this time, and Sigmund fell over on to the ground.
"Crap!" Sarah was losing pretty bad. I knew from the get go that a Drowzee's most effective weapon were its eyes. The focus of it's psychic power came from there, and it would have a hard time doing much of anything else at this level.
This was essentially a checkmate already. "Tackle! Keep going!" Styx hit his face, that was already on the ground, eliciting another scream of pain from the Drowzee.
She reared in for another shot when: "Sigmund! Shock Wave!"
That's an AOE move! What— "Back! Back!" Styx heeded my words, jumping backwards just as Sigmund raised up his arms from the ground threateningly.
And nothing happened. Drowzee can't learn Shock Wave. "That was a fake out!"
Sarah smirked, the first sign of her confidence coming back up since the match started. "That's right. It gave Sigmund just enough time to recover too."
Oh crap. "Tackle! Quickly!" Styx, eager to fix her mistake, ran straight for a now standing Sigmund, not giving it any chance to get the sand out of its eyes. "Tank it!"
The Tackle hit just fine, skirting Sigmund back a whole metre, but it still stood. It didn't dodge, instead it took the hit to give it time to get rid of the sand.
The eyes were visible again, and they were furious. Here we go— "Growl!" I knew what move she was going to use next.
"Disable!" Before Styx could fully get the move off, Sigmund disabled her, locking the move. It would have a small cooldown, giving us enough time to attack again and end this.
"Tackle! Go!" Styx ran as fast as she could, she didn't have much of a window to attack.
"Confusion!" A ripple in the wind manifested itself before Styx's path. That looks like it'd hurt.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
"Side!" Another new command. She executed it flawlessly, abandoning her trajectory and half jumping half rolling to her left, effectively dodging the attack. We would need to work on the smoothness of the switch to make it less of a tumble and more of a sidestep but it did the job.
"Tackle!"
Sarah's eyes were wide in panic. "Confusion! Don't stop!" But it was too late. Styx was already at his feet and rammed into him, knocking him on to his back harshly. Styx fell with him and stood on top of her fallen foe, victorious.
The Drowzee didn't look to be getting up anymore. We had won.
"Sigmund. Return." Sarah held out her pokeball, a red jot of light enveloping the Pokemon and sucking it back into its ball.
My Pokedex dinged and turned green again, while Sarah's turned red. I had won my first official Pokemon battle. I smirked to myself in victory.
Styx sauntered back up to me as if nothing of note just happened, not a scuff mark on her. That was a perfect run, and you could feel the smugness rolling off of her.
"Great job, girl. Cheers to many more, yeah?" I scratched her under her chin, which she seemed to like. Her expression softened up in appreciation.
"That was pretty amazing, gotta say. You have that Eevee for a while?" Sarah came and looked down at me, a wistful look on her face. She wasn't happy about losing, but she was trying to be a good sport about it.
No sense in being a sore winner. "She's pretty amazing, right?" It was clear she had undergone training before being gifted to me. She responded to commands well, and could think on her own what to do in a situation. I couldn't be any luckier with a starter, really. Hearing she was being praised, Styx puffed up her neck fur a little.
"Sure, sure. You interested in a little more where that came from? I see some hungry Vullaby's out there."
The crowd had initially thinned when they saw it was just two new trainers facing off, but when they noticed the Eevee they probably made the connection. There were several of the Orre trainers I recognized who looked like they wanted a piece of me.
"Uhh. Thanks, but no thanks. See ya around, yeah?" I scooped up my Eevee in my arms and left as quick as possible without making it look like I was running.
Their eyes followed me as I left. Yikes.
----------------------------------------
I need to get off this ship. Seriously, every time I've come out of my cabin since the battle there's been someone coming up to challenge me. Can't I just get some goshdarned rest already?! I just went out to get some food!
I sighed heavily. I entertained Styx with a little toy on a string I had seen in one of the little shops and promptly bought. She was smart, and mature for her age, but she was still barely 10 weeks old, so I let her have it.
I flicked around the little Magikarp just above her head, which she tried clawing at, and was failing. Oh! She jumped. She's so cute. Still didn't catch it.
I lapsed back into thought as the ship. Plans for what I would be doing once we arrived in Castelia City were numerous, but I ended up narrowing it down to two main plans.
One, head north to Nimbasa and tackle as many gyms as I could as fast as I could. That would be the popular path. There's plenty of interesting Pokemon down the road to catch, and that's where most of the trainers would be also. The thing is, it wouldn't give me much space to truly flesh out and plan my team. Being so filled with trainers also meant it would be lucrative, but could also be equally as devastating. It was a high risk, high reward type of road.
On the other hand, I could go east towards Nacrene City. While there aren't nearly as many trainers there, and the pool of Pokemon is limited, there were at least two gyms and it would definitely give me enough space to figure out a real team dynamic.
Really, it would depend on what I wanted my team to look like from here on. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what I wanted Styx to be, but I needed to build a team around her, or have her be a build around someone else.
Most elite level Trainers usually worked with two or three core strategies and cycled between 9 to 15 Pokemon. For right now I just needed one core, and then work my way out.
Umbreon is an amazing tank. Intelligent and sneaky, it can become a real Prankster type build as well, even without having the ability. It would work well in almost any team. I didn't have to worry about how I was going to build around her, but whoever I brought in next. But who did I want?
Common logic says that after a tank comes a sweeper. Although smogon type thinking isn't gonna get me far in the real world, it's a good framework to tweak around with. I needed a hard hitter that'll complement Styx well.
There were several options in Unova. It used to be more of an isolationist region but it's really opened up recently and now there's over 500 species of Pokemon documented to be living there. Something about the biospheres being conducive to many different types of Pokemon. Whatever it is, there's plenty of Pokemon to pick from.
I felt a little tug on the string I was holding. She caught it! Wonderful. She yipped happily to herself, the Magikarp held snugly between her tiny paws. I grinned and lifted her up into my lap. She settled down more comfortably and snuggled up into my belly.
As I absently scratched her I went over my short list again for what I truly knew I wanted.
Tauros
Dragapult
Lucario
Weavile
Salamence
All of them were fast and strong, and all of them would be available in Unova. Some were harder to find than others.
A Riolu and a Dreepy would be the hardest. Tauros would probably be the easiest, but also the hardest to tame. You could only really find Sneasel in extremely hostile environments, and Bagon's growth rate was notoriously slow. As was Dreepy's for that matter.
I could opt for an easier Pokemon to capture and train, like a Ralts or something, but that wasn't very original. Gardevoir and Gallade were extremely common Pokemon in the higher meta. Basing my team around one would lead to doom fairly quickly.
For Salamence and Weavile I would have to go north from Castelia. For Dragapult I would need to go east, and for Lucario and Tauros I would end up west. Not even one of the directions I had thought of going.
I could also consider slower, but more powerful Pokemon like Rhyperior or Bouffalant. Or faster ones like Accelgor or Mienshao. Agh! There was just so much to think about!
It makes my head hurt. And now I'm hungry. I should go for some food.
With some regret about another wasted day, I put a half-sleeping Styx back into her Pokeball, shrunk it and hid it inside my jacket pocket. There were too many people that knew I was carrying an Eevee around for me to be comfortable with.
I opened the door to my cabin and walked out, the door auto-locking behind me. I sat down at a cozy looking restaurant on the second floor. Not many people, but no real clear theme. Nondescript, but homey. There were low hanging lights hanging over the tables and chairs, plants from all sorts of regions interspersed here and there to add character.
It was relaxing. I opened my Pokedex and reopened my tabs. Pokemon forums, articles, videos. Anything I could find on what I needed I had been mindlessly scrolling through to give me some idea of what I should do next.
A core Pokemon. Something to base my team around. Something strong, but not too slow. Going back my shortlist made no sense at all. I didn't like any of the options offered to me anymore.
A core Pokemon. Everyone who was anyone in the Trainer scene had them. Cynthia and her Garchomp. Steven Stone and his Metagross. Ethan and his Typhlosion. Olivia and her Lycanroc. Jasmine and her Steelix. My dad and his stupid Espeon…
"Hey, what's up." A voice calmly asked, coming from right in front of me. Sarah had apparently sat down opposite of me and I hadn't even noticed. -2 to situational awareness. "You even reading that thing anymore?"
I looked down at my Pokedex. Skitty breeding habits? "Not really, no." I sighed heavily again.
She leaned back against the bench, folding her legs like she was some kind of adult. Sarah had, since the battle, been acting real chummy with me. She didn't ask me to battle again, thankfully, but anytime she saw me she had made it a point to talk to me. I'm not really sure why, but it does beat having some 6'4'' bald guy with 5 Pokeballs around his belt "ask" if he could have a friendly bout of Pokemon battling.
"What's got your knickers in a twist?"
Mmmm. Maybe she could help. I had seen some of her other matches since coming onto this ship, and she already had two other Pokemon besides her Drowzee. She had real life experience building a team.
"I'm thinking of what I should get for my Core Pokemon."
"Your what?" She raised an eyebrow.
"My Core Pokemon. My ace. My flagship Pokemon. You know, like Lance and his Dragonite."
Her face lifted up in understanding. "Ah I get it. You're looking for a cornerstone-type Pokemon right? Mmmm. That is a tough one. What's that Eevee of yours gonna turn into?"
"I thought that would be obvious. Her name is Styx."
She blinked at me. "What's a Styx if you don't mind me asking?"
I deadpanned her. "It refers to the river Styx. You know, the one that leads to the underworld?"
"Not..familiar?" Oooh right. That's Greek mythology. Greece doesn't exist here. Duhh.
"It's from some faraway myth. Don't worry about it. Styx is going to be an Umbreon."
"Gotcha, gotcha." She sat there for a while in thought, one hand under her chin. "Well, I can give you my team for reference." She put three Pokeballs on the table. "This left one here is Sigmund, who'll turn into a Hypno. His main job is sticking around long enough to cause as much mayhem as possible. Sleep, confusion, taunt, disable. The whole nine yards. You can call it the trickster." She pointed to the next one. "The middle one here is a Wailmer, who'll turn into a Wailord. He's my tank. Absorbs everything and anything and hits back just as hard. You can call it the wall. Then this last one," Her finger moved to the rightmost one.. "Is a Salandit, who'll turn into a Salazzle. This one hits faster than anything, and packs quite some firepower. That's my glass cannon, you could say."
A good selection, but it means nothing to me. "And what does that tell me?"
"It means you don't have to build your team around anything. Just build and balance, and your cornerstone Pokemon will reveal itself eventually. I thought my cornerstone Pokemon would be my Salandit, but recently my Wailmer is really pulling through." She shrugged. "Sometimes planning is overrated, and you just gotta go with the flow of things. Plenty of really strong trainers don't have a famous Pokemon like that either. Malva for example. She doesn't have one, and she's champion of Kalos."
She was right I guess. The idea of having a Pokemon like that isn't necessary in the strictest sense. You could still work with a general strategy that didn't revolve around a Pokemon if it didn't require it. Still, it wasn't like the idea was born from nothing. The association was there for a reason.
"You're right of course. I just can't get the concept out of my head."
"Maybe you could talk to some of the other trainers around here and see what they think? It would be very informative." She smiled hopefully.
I shook my head. "No thanks. All they'd want to do is have a go at my ten week old Eevee, the bastards."
Her smile turned wistful. "Ten weeks, huh. And you don't have any other Pokemon?" I shook my head. I was quite vulnerable all things considered. "That explains your reluctance to battle."
"Yeah. What'd they all say? That I'm a stuck up brat?" I scoffed derisively.
"And a privileged daddy's boy."
"Cute." We're all privileged. It's why we're on this boat. "They can talk. They all have like a dozen Pokemon already."
"True that. Even with their attitude, half of em' are bound to wash out before the season is out. Wanna bet?"
I choked on a laugh. "Oh for sure." Her green eyes were smiling back at me, dancing in the low hanging lights like fireflies.
"Say, why—"
*CRAAAASSHH!*
All the lights suddenly went out. It was nighttime already, so the entire ship was surrounded by darkness. I turned on the flash on my Pokedex as Sarah did the same. In other corners of the ship all sorts of people cried out, little lights flickering on all over.
"What was that?" I asked.
Sarah looked just as lost as me. "I don't know."
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!*
That was a hell of a lot louder! "What was that?!" I stood.
"I don't know! We'll have to seek shelter!" Whatever it was, it likely wasn't safe.
"Good thinking. Back to the cabins. Is yours closer or mine?"
"Mine's on the third floor." That's two floors up. I don't think so.
"Mine it is then. This way!" We both ran out of the restaurant, wading our way through panicked people scattered this way and that.
I led Sarah down through corridors and hallways, bumping into too many people to count in the confusion. Another explosion rang off in the distance.
*BAAANG!*
Great. Room 119. We'd made it. "Get in. It's likely we're under attack by someone. Unless it's a group of wild Gyarados or something, I doubt they're going to go down here."
We shuffled in the small cabin. There wasn't much in it really. Just a bed and a little coffee table. They really cheaped out on mine, but I didn't truly mind.
"We can just ride out the chaos for now."
I sat down on the bed. Sarah was pacing around the little space available, clearly very worried. "What if we're being raided?"
"The personnel will take care of it. There's no way they don't have security on a ship this big."
*BAAAAANNNG!*
Another explosion. It sounded closer too. That can't be good.
"How'd they even get on the ship anyway? We're still half a day out from Castelia City! You think it's pirates?"
"Could be. If it's not a Wild Pokemon attack it might be they were on the ship the whole time. Right now it's just far enough away from Castelia for there to be no back up in time, but also just close enough to land to make an escape."
She bit her nails in frustration. "Either way it doesn't matter. Whatever they came here looking for, they're not gonna find it. We're too far away from the main hall to—"
A scream from the hallway prompted the door being banged open, two men in all black with a Starmie at their feet.
Sarah stepped in front of me, a hand on her belt. "What the hell!? Who are y—"
"Starmie."
With no warning, the Starmie lit up with lightning and launched a bolt of it at Sarah.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" She screamed and fell down. Holy— He just attacked another person!
The Starmie let up from its attack and Sarah dropped down to the ground, clothes singed and unconscious.
"Take her. We gotta go." The first man said, his voice partly obscured by the thick black mask he wore.
"What about the kid?" The other guy with him asked.
"Don't worry about him. Let's go!" He moved towards Sarah, about to pick her up. I can't let them take her!
I moved to protect her downed form, but one revv of the Starmie had me backing up. They didn't want to take me, but I don't think these people had compunctions about murder.
I could do nothing as they took her away, leaving me alone completely. Two other men in black carrying a guy and an elderly woman ran behind them.
I watched as they ran off and away from the crime scene, my hands curled up into fists. I was powerless to do anything.
No….
----------------------------------------
Ten minutes later the explosions finally started calming down. I didn't dare leave the cabin that entire time. Thinking back on it, those explosions were likely collisions from Pokemon battles. Twenty minutes later the lights came back on, but I still didn't go out. I couldn't stomach the possibility that the kidnappers might still be on board.
*CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSHHHHH!*
That one could be felt in my bones. The whole ship shook and the lights flickered again. The screams started back up and panic seized my heart again. I took several deep breaths to calm down. The ship probably just crashed into something. Something big. That doesn't make it better.
That either means we crashed into Kyogre, or land.
----------------------------------------
It turns out we had reached land. We didn't manage to get to Castelia City. Instead we collided against the coast just off of Aspertia City on the western side of Unova. League authorities had come onto the ship in search of any assailants, but found no one.
"And then they took her." I answered for the police officer who had come to take witness statements.
He nodded resolutely. "I understand. Did they reveal any motive for why they took just her?"
"I—I don't know. Maybe cause they ran out of manpower to carry me as well?"
"The man you said ordered the Starmie to attack Sarah Joyce ordered the second operative as well, correct?" I nodded. "And there were four of them in the hallway. Three victims, meaning the leader didn't want to or couldn't carry one more." He muttered more to himself than me.
"Thank you David. That will be all for now. If you come across any more information or just need help you can always reach us by calling our hotline."
"Of course, officer."
I had been waiting to start my own interview for about two hours after they had taken us off the ship and brought us out to the nearest Pokecenter.
I headed up to my dorm and curled in on myself, hiding beneath the blankets.
Twelve people were injured in the attack, and seven people, including Sarah, were kidnapped. They had also stolen over 200 million in goods from the ship. They were ruling it as a pirate raid for now, but that doesn't explain why they would kidnap those people.
Pirates were usually in it for money alone. Unless they think they could have sold those people in a human trafficking ring or something, but that doesn't explain why they would kidnap the grandma. She wouldn't offer up any value there, and neither did she have any valuables on her. I didn't know who she was, so it was possible she was some big shot they could ransom off, yet something felt off about it.
Why kidnap random people off a boat filled with many things much more valuable?
I didn't understand. The randomness and suddenness of the attack was what struck me. Why here? Why now?
Why Sarah? I clung to my bed sheets as hard as I could. I had only known her for a few days, but seeing her get taken like that did something to me I couldn't describe.
I took out Styx's Pokeball and opened it. Without words, she climbed up into my bed and snuggled up next to me. I held her in my arms as I tried to go to sleep.
It would be noon by the time I gave up and stepped out of bed.