Chapter six: High Seas


I had my mind taken off the sneasel as I finally reached my destination: a huge wooden crate. It was aboard a giant ship, which held nineteen more of these—according to the man carrying me.

The man brought the cage up to his face, reached a fat hand in, and ripped off my most valuable possession: my chingling collar. My neck jerked down as he did so, and shortly after, the pain kicked in. He smiled greasily as he threw it to the ground, and I watched as he crushed it with his foot.

My eyes clouded over with fury. “My master bought that for me! How dare you!” I shouted at the human as he threw me into the crate, my cage scraping along the bottom and my fur getting caught between the metal and the wood. I knocked my head on the solid surface, and I screamed as one of my ears became wedged between my cage and the cage I had smashed into.

“You won’t be gettin’ outta there!” the man called, thankfully exiting the scene.

I whimpered as I felt the pain in my ear, and attempted to find a way to free it. I tugged at it once, but immediately regretted it as the pain surged through my ear. Deciding to endure the pain and keep pulling, I shut my weary eyes tightly. But it was no use, and for the sake of my pounding pain, I had to stop pulling.

I panted, my eyes still closed. I leaned my head against the metal bars as my limbs tensed under me. Just when I told myself I’d have to adapt to a trip forcing my trapped ear in place, I began to feel something strange. My eyes opened, revealing the scene before me. The wooden crate was turning! However, it only took me a few seconds to realise that it was me moving, not it! ‘Duh.’ I was turned over and my ear became free as I fell onto my left side with a thud. I shook my head, blinked a few times, and pushed myself up onto my paws again. My ear was finally unstuck, which made a feeling of relief relax my shoulders, and it didn’t take me long to wonder why. I turned to my right to investigate the reason for my fall, as I certainly hadn’t done it myself.

“S-sorry about the tumble,” apologised the pokémon inside the cage I was staring at. He seemed to shrink as he mumbled quietly, “I had to do it to get your ear free.” A smallish dinosaur-like pokémon had his long, green vines out. They trailed back to a giant bulb that rested on the pokémon’s back, which was also green. He had a large head with two triangle shaped eyes holding red irises. The pokémon was a light shade of blue with a tinge of green, and had darker green patches scattered in random places. He gave me a nervous smile as he waited to be either thanked or scolded—for whatever reason.

Looking this pokémon up and down, I recognised him as a ‘bulbasaur’. A few young pokémon trainers in the Kanto region would have them from the start of their journey. Commonly they would also have either an orange lizard pokémon who stood on two feet, or a cheeky blue turtle pokémon who was bald.

“That’s...alright,” I murmured. I was a little too focused on my pain to bother about giving a reasonable response to the stranger. However, he did do me a favour. “...And thanks,” I mentioned. He nodded shyly and sat his rump on the floor.

“Do you know...what’s happening?” I asked after a moment of silence. It was only then when I noticed we, along with about five others, were the only pokémon in the giant crate.

“I’m sorry...but I don’t know,” he mumbled. To this reply, I sighed heavily and tried to figure out why, in fact, we were being imprisoned. “But I think we have been captured, sorry to say. One second I was with my trainer...but now I’m here. The humans treated me roughly and without care. I’m...I’m scared of them,” the bulbasaur trembled, the fear in his eyes stressing his youth and timid nature.

“If they try to hurt you, you could use your vines to hold their arms or trip them over.” I gave him a faint smile. “Don’t be afraid of them.”

“B-but...they have those shocking things. A-and, us, as pokémon, aren’t supposed to attack humans. We’re bad if we attack them.” The bulbasaur had a panicking quality to his voice, and it showed as his fear began to speak for him.

“I believe that we’re allowed to attack them for our own self-defence. Just remember that the humans have no right to abuse us...” It felt weird thinking about abusive humans. I had only ever come across ones loyal to their pokémon, and in return their pokémon were loyal to them. Master never once mistreated me, and prior to now I hadn’t necessarily believed in humans such as the ones working for this ‘Team Rocket’.

I flinched as seven more cages were hurled into the crate, their occupants shrieking and crying out as they bounced against the hard wooden floor and metal of their cages. I flinched as every cage crashed to the floor; as every innocent, helpless pokémon were harmed. It began to build up. These pokémon were being hurt. “Bulbasaur!” I cried to the alarmed pokémon in the cage beside me. He looked me in the eyes with a frightened expression. “Use your vines to catch the cages!”

“B-but...that might hurt me! I-I’m sorry...I don’t think I can do it,” he retorted grimly.

“Would you rather try to help other pokémon with a small risk of you being slightly injured?” I snapped, my fur straightening out. I then blinked, as did the bulbasaur. I was getting pushy—and angry.

Another scream came closer as a different member of Team Rocket flung a cage in towards the other cages containing pokémon.

“Ahh! Quick! Catch that nidoran!” I pleaded, unable to stand another crash and shriek.

Long, green, almost string-like vines rapidly extended from under the bulbasaur’s bulb, and they stopped at the guessed landing spot of the cage. The cage continued through the air until it hit the vines, but as it did, both the cage and its supposed stopper plunged into the floor of the wooden crate, and the grass type pokémon beside me bellowed with a distressed cry.

‘Aw, geez—this kid is hopeless!’ I thought to myself as tears began to well in my neighbour’s eyes. His large mouth continued to let out an ear-piercing yell as I found myself feeling sorry for him, since it was my fault.

“Lift them up! You have to lift them up to free yourself!” I shouted at the bulbasaur, who was traumatized. It took few seconds to process, but the pokémon obeyed me as he heaved his thin vines up, standing the nidoran’s cage upright.

The vines dropped and retreated to their bulb as the bulbasaur continued to blubber. “Oowww!!” he whined. I could see that I had given him the wrong instructions. Maybe he was just too young to take the pressure and physical weight.

“Look...” I sighed impatiently, gathering myself. “I’m sorry. I got a little paranoid,” I guiltily explained.
I heard the bulbasaur beside me sniff and stop crying. He drew his vines near and inspected them. To me they seemed fine. It was probably just shock that affected the bulbasaur so.

“I’m...I’m alright,” he sniffed. “I forgive you, flareon. I think I was doing it wrong...” he replied with a red face.

“Dusty. M-my name’s Dusty,” I corrected. “My idea of catching the cages was to grab them while they were still airborne. It wouldn’t cause you any pain that way.”

“Oh...okay.” He seemed to lessen the sadness about him. “I can try that... But, my name’s Sed. It was the name my trainer gave me.”

“...Same. I was given to Master too early to have a name before-hand. She raised me since I was just a pup.”

“Oh. I’ve only been with my trainer for two weeks and...three days. He’s the only family I got,” Sed mentioned forlornly.

‘It must be terrible,’ I thought with sympathy. ‘He’s only been with his trainer for two weeks, and he’s already been separated from him...’

However, my thoughts were taken elsewhere as I heard another human approach. My ears perked up and stood high on my head as I stared with great interest at the entrance to the crate. “Sed...”

“I think I know what to do now.”

I turned to him. He gave a reassuring, cheek-raising expression. “You can do it. Just remember: catch them while they’re in flight,” I prompted. I shifted my paws to a more comfortable position as I watched in slight anticipation for a metal-barred box to enter the huge wooden crate at an unexpected speed. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” Sed answered. His focus was kind of questionable at first, but as the cage was tossed in towards us, he really proved himself as the vines reached out and caught the cage with little effort. The pokémon inside it opened her eyes after having them closed, and cheered as Sed set the cage down in front of us.

The pokémon’s body was a faint yellow colour, except for half of her ears, paws, cheeks and tail—which were all red. There was a cross pattern on her red cheeks, and her tail was shaped the same way. “Thanks for catching me!” she happily sung—or, at least, as happy as one could get given the situation.
“That’s okay. Glad...to help out,” Sed shyly responded.

“Incoming!” I broke the happy moment with my sudden word, my eyes trailing the new cube.
Sed looked past the plusle’s cage, hearing a grunt before another cage soared through the air. With a determined look on his greenish face, the bulbasaur outstretched his handy vines and snatched the cage out of the air.

I smiled both on the inside and the out. He was getting better! And with every new catch, Sed became more and more confident about his selfless actions, and he was swiping the cages one after another with reasonable ease. And pokémon after pokémon, I could see that he was happy with himself for doing something good.

***

Brown eyes set at half-mast in the far corner of the crate were locked on the two vines’ movement. The pupils moved back and forth as the vines caught and placed down each pokémon cage that was carelessly thrown into the wooden prison one at a time. The eyes belonged to a dark face which was somewhat rounded. A very small smile was placed at the bottom of the muzzle, which completed the being’s unreadable expression. Further up the face, past the eyes, were two smallish ears which match the eyes in size, and were also dark. His body was long and slender, and ended roundly and without a tail. The top half of the body, including most of the muzzle, was dark green—which was often mistaken for black. His underbelly and limbs were yellow, however. Two oval-shaped red polka dots were between his ears, and they showed up quite clearly. The same sort of spots appeared in a group of three at the rear—before the dark green colour rounded off and turned to a light, faded yellow.

The pokémon was sitting down, his front paws out in front while its chest sat up. “Hmm,” he began, “seems like this bulbasaur’s confidence has grown...” His theory was supported as the vines caught yet another cage which was about to collide with a different one on the floor. “Impressive... But he’s not the one with the brainy ideas. That flareon is instructing him... I wonder where she’s from.”

“I doubt it’s near,” interrupted a voice that came from behind him. “That flareon’s not from around here...”

The quilava moved his head coolly towards whoever spoke to him. He noticed a light blue body seated in about the same position as himself, who had long ears and a darker blue almost hat-like head piece. There were the same dark coloured blue socks on all of her paws, and she had dark blue marks on her back. Her swishing tail looked the same as two appendages coming from her headpiece, which ended in a darker blue diamond and drooped down on either sides of her face. She was a glaceon.

“Good observation,” the pokémon mentioned in response, looking back briefly.

Seconds went by, and the two pokémon continued to watch the green vines move around. However, one of the pokémon was getting impatient, her agitation growing by the moment. “Raiys!” the pokémon snapped. The pokémon she was talking to didn’t seem to flinch at all. “When are we getting out of here? I’m tired of being held in these cages, and it’s not necessary.”

“Soon enough, Azure. Once the humans load up the crate completely, we can break free.”

“We shouldn’t have to escape,” she growled.

“While at it...we should also free the other pokémon.”

“What? Why should we? They’re all just insignificant strangers,” Azure hissed, “and it’s not part of our mission! As a matter of fact, being in here isn’t part of the mission, either!”

“We could use their help. This capture is merely a minor hold up. And we’re quitting. Or have you forgotten?”

The glaceon narrowed her eyes. “No, I have not! Our last mission is to hunt that pokémon down and report his whereabouts. We should see to it instead of being held hostage.”

“Yes. After that...you and I part ways,” Raiys murmured. “I assume that you’ll be returning to your co—”

“Working with you has been a pleasure,” she muttered hastily. “Now let’s break free! Why do we have to wait?!”

“Calm yourself. Your icy body might melt if you grow any hotter with agitation. You could use some of that energy to help me set some pokémon free instead.” Raiys still kept his cool, speaking with a calm tone.

“I told you—we don’t need their help!”

“We need all the help we can get. Who knows how many Team Rocket grunts are out there who don’t know our identities?”

“Do what you want. But I’m sticking to escaping my way,” huffed the glaceon. “I can fight them off myself.”

“It’s a wonder why he hired you. Even I’m having trouble keeping you on your lead. And that’s saying something.”

The glaceon would have shuddered at the mention of her boss, but focused too much on Raiys’ comment. “I am no-one’s pet! My lead is far beyond broken, Raiys. And I was hired long ago...”

“Yes...your temper fires up too easily. I’m surprised you’re an ice type,” Raiys remarked. However, his supposed friend simply looked away, not wishing to listen to her fellow teammate. “It’s only a matter of time...”

***

Black shoes clapped against the hard ground, almost sounding like they were walking upon stone. Black clothes rustled and the red ‘R’ on the front became creased and almost unreadable. A man with high authority about him approached a large wooden crate aboard the large Team Rocket ship. He had a well-built body and was reasonably taller than the others around him. His facial expression – which suggested that he was always sneering – kept people from questioning his word.

As he neared the crate, he observed members of Team Rocket passing cages of pokémon from person to person, until it got to the crate entrance, which was only a tiny crack between two massive doors which nobody bothered to pay attention to. However, as the Rocket man was thrusting the cages into the crate, the man standing and observing him noticed something which made him mad. He tapped his foot until he realised it was, in fact, missing. “Why don’t I hear a clash?!” the angry Rocket member demanded.

“What?” scoffed the man tossing the cages. As he turned around, he regretted saying it immediately. The man he had spoken to with such disrespect in his tone was one of the Team Rocket admins.

The highly ranked man snatched the lower man by his shirt, and brought him close to his face. “Would you care to re-phrase that?” he growled.

“I m-mean, s-sir!” the young man stuttered, feeling completely terrified by the unwelcome visitor.

“Better,” replied the man with a raised right end of his lip, and a greasy tone, “but how about you answer the question?”

“Qu-question?”

“YES, fool! Why isn’t there a loud noise when you throw in the cages?! We don’t want these pathetic creatures to feel like they’re at home!”

The grunt swallowed hard, searching his mind for an answer. “U-um...I-I don’t know, s-sir.”

The admin tightened his grip, saliva seeping through his many teeth. “You pathetic WASTE OF SPACE!” he roared, his face radiating hatred. “I want them TREMBLING AT THE SIGHT OF TEAM ROCKET! NOW SEE TO IT!”

The intimidating Team Rocket member struck his victim across the face, then thrust him to the ground, hearing a thud as he landed. The smaller man scrambled up against the closest side wall of the crate, shaking and whimpering until his attacker spat and walked away. The frightened man slowed his breathing and reached to his eye where he had been punched. He could only see fuzzily through it, and when he pulled his hand away from to inspect it, red stained his dirtied gloves.

“Are you okay, man?” asked another random member. He bent over, placing down the cage he was holding, and attempted to tend to his colleague.

“Get OFF me!” he snapped, and the man who offered his help huffed, throwing the pokémon cage in himself. The man with the injured eye knew that the cage had been thrown into the large wooden crate, and he noticed something missing. “...He’s right... There’s no noise...”

***

“Get ready; another one!” I informed as an incoming cage appeared.

“SWIIII!” a pokémon cried as he soared through the air. The vines whipped (literally) into action, wrapping ‘round the swinub’s cage and holding it up in the air safely.

I smiled. This bulbasaur had really done a good job, and I intended to tell him.

“Thank you,” nodded a clogged-nose sounding small brown pokémon with stripes of black on his back.

“Hehehe...” Sed chuckled, still holding the cage in the air. I really thought he was having a great time. And with all these “thank you”s, he was bound to feel somewhat higher of himself than before.

I suddenly shrieked as a loud, ear-piercing screech echoed throughout the crate. A number of other pokémon cringed and squinted as it happened, and everyone turned their gazes towards the entrance. A rough looking man was hunched at the doorway, hanging one of his arms while the other one leaned against the door to the crate. His black clothes contributed to his unidentifiable silhouette as we stared, and I noticed Sed beginning to tremble.

The human stood with a rotten frown on his face and scanned the room as if searching for that someone to blame. But I was soon to find out that he was—and who that someone was. “YOU!” he boomed, directing a finger covered in black material at Sed and his frightened face. “YOU got me into trouble... This is YOUR FAULT!”

The man, looking like he was possessed with anger, drove himself into the crate. Sed screamed in both fear and confusion as he dropped the swinub’s cage and cowered at the back of his own. I stepped forward, my eyes widened and my chest puffed up. ‘I must protect him!’

The man reached for Sed’s cage, his hands progressing towards it in a frightening manner. However, it was then when I realised I couldn’t help my new friend—if I used my flamethrower attack, it would be more likely to hit Sed than to hit the man—who now had Sed’s cage.

In a desperate attempt to change the deranged human’s mind, I screamed, “NO,” and fired the flamethrower anyway. It powered through the bars of the cage and onto Sed, only mere embers jumping out to attack the Rocket member. I gasped horridly as I yelled out an apology, and screamed internally at myself for making a decision I knew would turn out horribly.

The man rammed spears into my eyes as he cast a wicked glare upon me, and I was beyond startled. “SHUT UP! You wanna be executed too?!”

I staggered backwards. ‘E-executed?!’

From Sed’s cage came another startling cry, and it killed me to hear him suffering while I stood helplessly and watched. I tackled into the bars surrounding me, but to no avail. I tried blowing scorching flames onto the metal, but still, nothing happened. I had come to assume that the cages, naturally, were pokémon-proof.

“Sed! I’m sorry! This is my fault!” I yelled to him, his eyes drowning in tears.

“WHY?!" wailed the green pokémon, his voice mangled with his whimpering despair. “Why did you do this to me?! I thought you were my friend!”

My pupils shrunk. Violent tingles ripped down my spine. My face became overpowered by the unrepairable guilt that plagued my very soul. I crinkled my nose and clenched my jaws together, the tears failing to contain themselves. My heart felt as if it had stopped beating, and it seemed to sink in my chest.

It was my fault, and I had let him down completely. How could I ever forgive myself?! ‘He’s gonna be killed because of me.’ I stabbed my claws into the metal floor, squeezing tears from between my eyelids. ‘BECAUSE OF ME!’

I slumped my body into a sitting position, hanging my head low as my tearful eyes followed my screaming friend out of the giant crate. I longed to do something...anything, but it was useless. He looked as if he would never feel happy—ever, ever again. And he wouldn’t.

As he disappeared from view, I couldn’t stop hyperventilating. In a matter of time he would be dead...because of me.

***

My eyes were shut. Emptiness lingered as meaningless throughs whizzed around inside my head. It had been roughly five hours since Sed was taken away, and he hadn’t come back. I knew he never would. All the pokémon were grateful to him for saving them from plummeting into the floor of the crate, but it would have been better for him to never have met me. He was surely... He had surely been executed by now. And for what—catching the cages of pokémon?! It was insanity! It was simply sick and despicable! And it made me feel more frightened and insecure. What kind of a monster would kill a pokémon? We were designed to battle, so being killed would take a whole lot more than a flamethrower and a tackle... Unless they used evil human ways.

The guilt that stirred inside of me made my breathing unstable. It made me only able lie on the ground with eyes that continuously dripped tears which were building up. The pain in my ear throbbed, but only reminded me of my horrible mistake. Even worse, it reminded me of Sed’s kindness, and how that was what got him killed.

During the more recent time of the five hours, the ship had departed, and the crate I was in was swarmed with cages. It must’ve been stacked up as high as three rhyperior—and I was on the bottom row. I truly hoped that the cages were strong enough to support the weight of so many pokémon. If not...then soon enough I would be as flat as a gengar who melted into a shadow.

“You shouldn’t blame yourself,” a calm voice interrupted my thoughts. “There’s nothing you could have done to stop it.”

I looked in the direction that it came from, and realised it was to my right—the cage beside mine. “You shouldn’t be listening to my thoughts,” I responded.

“It’s my job. If I don’t know what pokémon are thinking, how can I connect with them?”

“You don’t.”

“Haha, okay,” laughed the dark coloured fire type. However, I stayed quiet. I needed not to get involved with more pokémon I could possibly endanger... “Sorry to bother you. Just curious.”

“...Leave me alone,” I grumped, placing my chin on my paws and turning to face away from the quilava.

“Alright. Just thought you might like some help.” He didn’t seem to take offence, but instead he tried to lure me into talking to him again. ...And it worked.

“I don’t need help. What I need is some time to myself,” I mumbled, not bothering to look at him or take my head off my paws to be heard clearly.

“Sure looked like it earlier,” he stated. To this I twitched, and felt something make me frown. I clenched my teeth, automatically assuming he was talking about...the bulbasaur... “When your tackling didn’t seem to do anything but give you a headache.”

My tense feeling released. He was talking about me trying to escape, not about Sed. ‘...Wait...’ I realised. “What?” I asked, this time actually raising my head and facing him. My eyes darted from his right one to his left as a sly grin spread across the left of his face (from my point of view). The grin vanished, being replaced with a regular smile, and he nodded casually. “Are you planning to escape?” I questioned, the tone in my voice suggesting that the task was impossible.

He chuckled. “Yes.”

I really had no time for a jester. “...How?”

“Like...this.” One of the quilava’s claws fiddled around with the lock on the outside of the cage.

‘Oh yeah, that’s really gonna work,’ I thought sarcastically, nearly turning back to my paws.

Before I could say anything though, a small click sounded. “Ah-huh!” My eyes were wide with disbelief as the quilava then rammed into the cage door, and he stumbled out, falling onto his side.

“How the hell did you get out?!” I questioned.

The quilava lifted himself onto his paws and shook off. “I’ve been working on breaking this lock for hours. Lucky I have sharp claws, right?” he chuckled, smiling.

“Can you—can you get me out?” I asked with a slight frown and urgency.

“Hm, I don’t think so. I had been working on that for a while.”

To that response my ears dropped and my eyes became covered by a disappointed frown. I noticed him smirk.

“...However... If I can’t do it, I know who can,” he mentioned, causing my head to rise again and look at him.

Doing the last thing I expected, the quilava leaped onto a nearby cage which was poking out slightly from the stack, and continued making his way up to near the top rows. I couldn’t follow him for very long though, especially because I didn’t particularly want to look directly up from me. I was looking underneath a green and white pokémon... Let’s just say...it wasn’t the prettiest aspect of a kirlia.

As I was distracted about trying to find a way to keep track of where the quilava was going, a large explosion sounded. Many pokémon whipped their heads in the direction of the noise, including me, and before I found out what it was, a figure dropped down in front of me. In his mouth was a rather large seed.

“What’s that?” I questioned in a curious but also suspicious manner.

“I suggest shielding yourself.”

Slightly annoyed that the fire type ignored my question, I pulled my tail in front of me as I pressed myself against the back of the cage—which was barely different from the front’s space, considering the cage’s size.

A blur of yellowy colouring flew towards me—and frankly, I wasn’t expecting what happened next.

KABOOM!

The sudden explosion caught me completely off guard, and I shrieked as the sound carried out through the huge wooden crate. Lucky I had covered my ears.

As the smoke cleared, and several pokémon coughed and spluttered, I began to stare at the small hole that was only a few seconds ago not there. The silver metal around it had blackened, and it looked fragile and hot. That’s when the quilava dropped from above.

“That, Miss Flareon, is a blast seed,” he answered, smiling coolly with his eyes half shut.

***

A Team Rocket grunt snored loudly as his inanimate body lay slumped against one of the many large crates. His snoring would surely have disturbed anyone in close range. Drool dripped from one corner of his mouth while the other emitted the loud noise. His rough hair was carelessly shoved under a grubby hat which was pulled over his eyes, and his clothes were stained and stinky. The saliva slipping between his lips gathered in a small pool on his shirt, which was propped up because of the position he was ‘lying’ in.

A sudden explosion type of noise woke him with a start. His hat fell off his head as he jumped, and the drool trailed down the side of his top.

“Uh, what, what?” he uttered in a low, dopey tone. His hat brushed against his side as he brought his hat up, plonking it back on. He glanced around the place, expecting to see someone nearby with something like dynamite or a gun. This face searched around the premises, and only after did he get up to poke his head around the closest corner. He waited.

After seeing nothing strange, he sat back down in the same spot and lowered his eyelids. Again looking around to make sure nobody was looking, he lay back up against the wall of the crate, drifting off once more.