There was a loud crackling from the walkie-talkie clutched tightly in Kiosia’s hand as she desperately waited a reply from any of her crewmates. Immediately, her first thought was that whatever they had been warned about had gotten to them, and now she was next. Kiosia knew they should have never come to this abandoned shipwreck. Now they were stranded out in the middle of the ocean, miles off the coast of Poni Island, in Sharpedo infested waters, and something was out to get them. Great. Just great.
“Geez, and they wonder why I’m the captain. I’m the only one that can handle themselves.” Kiosia spit to the side, flicking her long brown hair over her shoulder. She waved her hand in the air, summoning her partner from the skies. A furry purple bat fluttered down to her side, landing on her shoulder and grabbing onto her ragged white and blue striped shirt. “You ready to go, Crobat?” Kiosia asked as she tightened her faded Team Aqua bandana.
“Crresh!” he replied, what looked like an eager expression on his face. Kiosia smiled back at her partner and began to walk down the ship. Her crew had been scattered across the ship when she had last contacted them. Her first mate, Dust, had been one deck below, and was the last one to disappear. The other five members had been further below, in the belly of the ship. While Kiosia wasn’t too surprised that they had been captured, the lose of her first mate had caught her off guard. Dust and his Aipom were no laughing matter in battle so whatever had come their way no joke either. Kiosia had seen the entrance to the lower decks on the opposite side of the ship, but the atmosphere seemed to be growing tenser by the moment. Kiosia was finding it more difficult to breathe as she ventured further towards the entrance.
“Bruuoo!” Kiosia immediately jumped back at the sound of several splashes. She barely missed being touched by a pod of Frillish. Apparently they did not want her to cross. Were they minions to whatever had captured her crew? Kiosia sighed and unclipped a pokeball from her belt.
“Cradily! Get these ghosts to move with giga drain!” A pokeball that was covered in multiple shades of blue flew into the air and released a large plant like pokeball. It hit the ship and drooped for a moment, luring the Frillish closer to dispose of the obstacle. Suddenly gold eyes flickered to life within the darkness of the plant shell and the pink tentacles on the creature wrapped around the prey. The Frillish struggled against Cradily’s grasp, trying to free themselves, but it was no use. Green light began to seep from the Frillish down the pink tentacles and into the Cradily as the Frillish slowly faded from visibility. Cradily dropped the four onto the ground, their bodies barely visible. “Good job, Cradily. Return for now.” Kiosia shot a red beam from the dive ball and then made sure to carefully step around the unconscious Frillish. Even if they were knocked out, their stingers were still in effect and the last thing Kiosia needed right now was a Frillish sting.
Picking up the pace, Kiosia made her way to the other end of the ship. Careful to make sure another trap was not lying in wait, Kiosia kicked the door in. The creaky old wood broke easily and the door was forced open. Kiosia waited a second before proceeding inside. It was dark inside but from what the ex-aqua member could tell, it was a spider staircase to the next floor. Kiosia nudged Crobat with her head and her partner got the message. He began to let out a steady clicking noise, using echolocation to help Kiosia be ready in case another trap lay in wait. With that security measure in place, Kiosia began to descend the stairs. Kiosia kept her left hand on the old wooden ship, not wanting to lose her footing as she lost visibility. As Kiosia approached the bottom of the stairs, Crobat tapped his bottom wings against her shoulder twice. Kiosia paused and put a hand on one of her pokeballs. Two bottom wing taps meant there was an enemy in the room. Suddenly light flooded the room, causing Kiosia to flinch and cover her eyes. She winced loudly and blinked several times as her eyes readjusted to light. Crobat began to growl as Kiosia’s sight came back into focus, and candidly, she wanted to growl too. In the center of the room stood a Malamar, and in its tentacles was Dust.
“Hey! Ugly squid! Put the first mate down! He’s not your property!” The Malamar cackled before placing the end of its tentacle on Dust’s head. “Hey that’s not what I said to do!” The Malamar paid no attention to Kiosia as its eyes began to glow blue. Suddenly, Dust began to speak, but it was not him that was speaking.
“Puny human, you and your friends are no match for me. And even if you were, my master would easily put you all down. It was stupid of you to invade the ship. If you jump off the vessel now then we’ll spare you.” Kiosia put a hand to her chin and pretended to consider the offer.
“See that’s a convincing argument because you’re saying my life’s at stake but I just can’t get behind it because you’re making me leave my crew and I can’t really do that. I don’t know if you know much about sea captains but it’s not exactly our thing to abandon our crews. You feel me?” The Malamar gave Kiosia an annoyed look.
“Leave, human, or else I will be forced to kill you and your crew.” Kiosia unclipped a pokeball from her belt and charged the Malamar.
“Well you know what they say! A good captain always goes down with her ship!” Kiosia tossed the pokeball into the air then grabbed onto Dust. This caught the Malamar off guard, turning all its attention to Kiosia. “Crobat! Chatot!” Kiosia called, “Double U-turn!” The Malamar suddenly realized Kiosia was merely a diversion and looked up just in time to spot the purple bat and multi-colored parrot diving straight for it. The Malamar took both hits and tried to swipe at the two, but the small flying pokemon were too quick, and shot out of its reach before the attack could land.
Kiosia grit her teeth and got a better grip on Dylan. Slamming her iron toe boot into the Malamar, she tried to wrench the man free from the pokemon’s grip. The Malamar screech but refused to let go, even going so far as to wrap its tentacle around Kiosia and Dust. Kiosia froze up instantly, pain prickling up everywhere the tentacle touched. She hissed a little and glared at the Malamar. No doubt this was a bind attack. Kiosia turned her head and nodded to her pokemon, signaling for them to continue the barrage of attacks. Chatot dove into another u-turn while Crobat opted for a Leech Life. The Malamar took Chatot’s attack before releasing a series of psycho cuts at Crobat. Crobat managed to dodge the first few, but was hit by the last one and fell to the ground. Chatot landed next to Crobat and began to block the psycho cuts with echoed voice. It wasn’t a strong shield, but it was enough. As the fight was going on, Kiosia began to struggle and managed to knock a ball loose from Dust’s belt. It clattered to the ground and opened to reveal a Shuckle.
“Shucku!” The Shuckle looked up at the sound of Kiosia’s voice. It recognized his master’s captain and saluted with one of his yellow tentacles. “Use struggle bug!” Shucku nodded and withdrew all his tentacles into his shell then shot at the Malamar. It began to hit the large squid pokemon repeatedly, hitting it with struggle bug after struggle bug. The Malamar tried to counter, but any attacks that hit Shucku he easily brushed off because of his high defense and special defense. Before long, the Malamar’s grip on Kiosia and Dust weakened, and the opponent collapsed. Kiosia stumbled back, Dust in her arms as she fell back onto the floor. She took a moment to collect herself as Crobat, Chatot, and Shucku gathered around her. Kiosia smiled at the pokemon.
“Good work guys,” she said before looking at her first mate. He was out cold from what she could tell. Kiosia shifted into a better sitting position, then placed Dust’s head in her lap to hold him steady. Kiosia lowered her ear to his mouth and listened. After a moment, Kiosia felt Dust’s host breath hit her ear and was comforted to know he was breathing. She checked his pulse as well, just to make sure he was alive, before pondering over something that was troubling her. Dust was no idiot. He knew type matchups like nobody’s business, and it was obvious that Shucku had no trouble taking down the Malamar. So how had Dust fallen prey to that? Kiosia frowned, recalling something the Malamar had mentioned before about a “master”. Had it actually been this so called “master” that had taken him down?
“Argh… mm…” Kiosia looked down at the sound of Dust’s wince. She watched his hazel eyes flicker open and come into focus on her face. He waited a moment, breathing a few times before smiling at Kiosia. “Well hello there, Captain Marinosa. To what do I owe the pleasure of having my head held in your lap? Have I finally won your affections?” Kiosia’s face went red and she pushed her first mate away, not wanting him to catch how flustered his comments made her.
“Sh-Shut up! It was the best way to check if you were breathing!” Kiosia could heard Dust chuckling from behind her. Curse that man and the anchor he had placed in her heart! Kiosia stood up and brushed herself off. Crobat flapped his wings before returning to Kiosia’s shoulder. She crossed her arms and gave Dust a stern look. “What happened to you? First I lost contact with Barlo, Maple, Terrace, Yule, and Greg, and then suddenly you stop reporting in too? What gives?” Dust frowned and stared at the floor, as if trying to collect his thoughts before replying.
“The anchor,” he replied after a moment, returning his gaze to Kiosia. She raised her eyebrows, requesting more at the strange answer. “The locals on Poni Island mentioned that the ship seemed to come alive. We all thought they were joking, but they weren’t. The ship’s anchor is alive.” Kiosia put a hand on her chin before smirking.
“Oh! I see what we’re dealing with here.” Dust stared at his captain, utterly confused as to how she could have put something together so quickly. He gestured with his hand as if to say ‘well out with it’. “It’s a Dhelmise,” Kiosia explained, “Saw them all the time back at the abandoned shipwrecks in Hoenn. It’s a ghost pokemon that possesses pieces of abandoned ships. More often than not though it takes control of the anchor. Never could figure out why though. Maybe because it’s heavy? I don’t know. Anyway, that must be who is running this whole operation. They’re generally not sinister creatures but during my time in Team Aqua we had quite a few ships go missing if they strayed too close to Dhelmise territory.”
“So how do we rescue our crew from it? Sounds like they don’t go down easy.” Kiosia shook her head to confirm Dust’s thought. In her experience, Dhelmise were some of the toughest pokemon she had faced. They were nothing to scoff at, that was for sure. Their best bet was to outsmart it rather than face it head on in battle. But how to do so? Kiosia didn’t have time to come up with a plan, as a loud moan rattled through the ship. Suddenly the whole shipwreck began to shake, causing Kiosia to stumble and brace herself against a nearby wall. The floor near the Malamar cracked and the Malamar went crashing into the floors below. Out of the darkness of the lower part of the ship emerged the final boss of this whole adventure, the Dhelmise. It let out another bone rattling moan before unleashing a series of seaweed vines, grabbing hold of Kiosia and Dust.
“Crobat! Acrobatics!” Crobat let out a screech as it leapt from Kiosia’s shoulder and dive bombed the Dhelmise. Chatot charged at the Dhelmise as well, not awaiting Kiosia’s command, and slashed the anchor with an aerial ace. However, it seemed to not affect the Dhelmise at all. Kiosia grit her teeth and looked to Dust. She noticed him messing with his belt, as if he were trying to grab something. He gave her a “distract it” look as he messed with his belt. Kiosia nodded and yelled out, “Keep it up, guys! Shucku, you join in too! Sludge Bomb it!” Shucku cheered before coughing up acid and spraying it at the Dhelmise. The Dhelmise tried to return fire with several Power Whip attacks, but the smaller pokemon were much too quick for the Dhelmise. It moaned in anger, rattling the whole ship. Kiosia heard a sudden clattering sound followed by a roar. She looked to her left to spot Dust’s Torracat.
“Siber!” Dust commanded, “Flamethrower! Light this whole place up!” Now Kiosia was onto Dust’s plan.
“Fan the flames! Spread the fire!” The pokemon did as they were told, acting out the seemingly counterintuitive plan. However, as the fire spread, the Dhelmise started to panic. It dropped Kiosia and Dust before flooding the whole place with a surf attack to put out the flames. Kiosia covered her mouth as she was submerged underwater. She spotted Dust through the blue tint as well as the five bodies of their crewmates, who floated to the surface as the Dhelmise flooded the whole ship. Kiosia grabbed hold of two of them before swimming for the surface. As they broke air, Kiosia looked at Dust. “What now?” Dust reached over and took a ball of Maple’s belt. He threw the nest ball into the air, revealing an abra.
“Aka!” he called, “Use teleport! Get us all out of here!” The Dhelmise screamed in anger at their attempt to flee, but it was too late. Everything went blurry and the scenery suddenly changed. The group came crashing down in the middle of Seafolk Village. Water spilled back into the ocean around them as the group regained their bearings. Kiosia began to count heads. Six crew members, plus five pokemon. Everyone was accounted for. Once again, they had escaped by the skin of their teeth, but they had made it back safe and sound.
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