Once I met up with Alakazam and placed him in his Pokeball, I started walking. I still had the fish we'd cooked last night, so I wasn't going to be hungry. For now, I'd be able to make my way to the volcano after a nice long walk.
"Fuck this, fuck this, fuck this, fuck this."
Okay, maybe I'd gotten used to hiking in the Pokemon world, but I still freaking hated walking. I marched down the road alongside the ocean, one boring step after the other.
This was so much more boring than in the Pokemon world, too. At least there I'd had Mudkip, Tyrunt, or any of the others to talk to as I went. Here, forced to hide my Pokemon, I was feeling kinda lonely. I pushed onward.
Cars passed me on the road, people walked past me, and the humidity and sun beat down. And I kept on walking.
After about 2 hours, I'd gone about 8 miles at a guess. I needed a break. I headed over to the ocean, dropping near a secluded beach, and brought out Mudkip.
"Mudkip?" he looked around, confused. "Mud?"
"Nah, not yet. I just wanted to get some water," I gave him a chuckle when Mudkip rolled his eyes. "I know, I know buddy. But I've been walking in the hot ass sun for two hours."
"Mudkip, Mud," he shook his head with a sigh and nodded.
A few Water Guns later, and I no longer felt like I was dying of thirst. I passed Mudkip some more fish, and we sat by the ocean for a bit, my legs recuperating from the long walk. After the break, Mudkip slipped back into the Pokeball, and I got back to marching.
At some point, I really needed to get more clothes. The shirt I was wearing was starting to get soaked through. I walked through the town of Paaulio, then 'Ō'Ōkala. Well, they were more like groups of buildings than towns.
Four more hours of walking and night was beginning to fall. I took my time about it. Technically, I could walk pretty damn fast, but the last thing I wanted to do was expend my energy on something stupid. Slow was better than exhausted.
"...Why did I leave the raft behind?" I said with a sigh at one point.
Well, because… Goddamnit. I didn't even think of it until now. I'd just fallen back on the habit I'd built in the Pokemon world of walking where I could. A couple of times I'd hired out a Taurus though. That had been FUN. Riding on the back of a superpowered bull, crashing through boulders as I laughed.
Filled with nostalgia, I soon reached the outskirts of a farm. The moon shone down on the ocean, a beam of silver light on blue that reflected across the sky. I breathed in the chill ocean air, feeling the breeze push past me to whistle through the trees. I thought about stopping to rest. I could still continue walking for a few hours, but my instincts told me to sleep.
I looked over at the farm. It was very quiet now, with the road I'd been walking on empty of any cars. That didn't surprise me. Even when the sun had been up, barely anyone had driven past me. This place was as quiet as the countryside could get. That was the nice thing about the country. Nighttime was a real thing, not a vague suggestion with people still working and roaming around in brightly lit cities.
I took a small detour from the road to head into a grove of trees, hoping I could find a good spot to nap. As I headed in, I realized that despite my thoughts earlier, the farm I was near was relatively active.
The farm was next to the ocean. As I came up to the grove, I could see that the large barn and house blocked the view of some docks, where I could see a large boat being set up. People were roaming from the back of the barn to the boat, carrying packages as they went. Two guys were standing guard.
I hid away when I saw they were holding guns, ducking into the grove of trees.
"What the fuck?" I twisted my head out of cover, keeping to the shadows.
Yep. Guns. Two men were watching the area around them as more men of Asian and Pacific Islander origins continued carrying packages. I slowly fell back until I was behind the trees enough that no one could see the red flash of a Pokeball opening.
Alakazam opened his eyes as he appeared, meeting eyes with me. Our minds met.
"We got trouble. A bunch of guys with guns transporting shit onto a boat."
At that mental warning, Alakazam narrowed his eyes. Together we moved to the grove of trees, Alakazam cocking his head at the sight as we hid in the grove.
"Hm, you are correct. So what?"
Testing me again. No problem, I'd actually thought things out a bit.
"Can you read their minds and tell me what they're transporting?"
"One moment," he closed his eyes. For a moment, I waited. I knew how he liked to work. Alakazam COULD have ripped the information out of the minds of the guys. If he wanted to be phenomenally cruel, take forever, and make them freak out as he did. There's a reason mind control tends to be an insidiously slow affair. It's better to make people think it was their own idea to do what you wanted.
In the case of Alakazam, all he had to do was ask them a simple question, using their own mental voices.
"Why are we here?"
Save your RvB jokes until later.
Alakazam opened his eyes after a couple of minutes.
"They are smuggling drugs and guns into Hawaii from California and Canada."
"Seriously?" I sighed, finally speaking, though I kept my voice
very low. "Still, this can be good for us. I'm guessing they have already paid for it?"
Alakazam smirked.
"They have. The money is being guarded by several men. What are you thinking?"
"We take advantage of the sudden boon we've found," I stretched my head out, narrowing my eyes. "We have a small army of bad guys. Usually, I'd ignore them."
Alakazam gave me a very skeptical look.
"I'm serious," I scowled at him. "I want to get us home. One group of bad guys smuggling isn't going to end the universe. So usually, I'd leave them. But if we head in there, not only can I steal a gun or two, but we can take their money and buy things we NEED. So yeah. We go in."
"Yes, let us make this entirely logical attack, with no moral reason to do so."
"You're a smart ass, you know that?"
"I take pride in it, young one. What is your plan?"
"Divide and drown."
------
I hid back and brought out my full team, making sure Alakazam hit them with thought-speech to be as quiet as possible. I scratched out a quick map of the area to describe our jobs.
My initial plan was to have Gurdurr, Tyrunt, and Slugma burn down/destroy the barn and house, but that was a lot of destruction that could be traced back to my ass by cops. So for the moment, I'd keep things subtle. For a Pokemon Trainer, anyways.
This wasn't going to be like the operations we'd done before though. In some ways, they were easier on my Pokemon, and harder on me. When I ran in to punch people in the other world, bad guys were shocked enough that I could knock them out and leave their Pokemon masterless. If I did that here, I'd get shot. I had to rethink how I fought.
After explaining the plan, I had to contend with one little thing.
"We're in another world, about to fight possible trained killers… And you want to be on standby?" I asked Alakazam.
"The others need the experience," Alakazam said simply.
"As do you. I will keep the team in contact together, I will interfere if something truly dangerous happens. But you all will be able to handle this."
I decided to concede to that. Alakazam was a powerful asset. But I needed to let the others get stronger as well. Only so long as Alakazam was really ready to jump in if need be.
"Fine. Then we'll get to work. Mudkip. You're up. Slugma, I'll wait for Mimikyu to make her move, then hit the cart so you can make your move," I said, indicating one of the carts that was used to transport things. "I doubt I need to go over the plan again beyond that. Let's get started."
My Pokemon grinned at me. Mudkip spun and dived into the creek nearby, swimming out to the ocean. Mimikyu kneeled next to me and Gurdurr, who hefted his I-Beam. Tyrunt, with his darker covering, rushed out into the tall grass around the farm. Slugma pulled back into her Pokeball, and I hefted it in one hand to get ready for my moment. Alakazam crossed his arms and floated on air, his mind connecting ours.
Mudkip swam towards the boat the smugglers were using, waiting until he was out into the ocean. Then he opened his mouth, sucking in a massive amount of water. I was sure some of what he was doing involved some form of hydrokinesis, or the power to control water. Because when sprayed outwards, a huge amount of water rose upwards from the ocean, rushing forward until it was about 15 feet tall, and moving thousands of pounds of water.
Which is my long way of saying Mudkip used Surf.
One of the guys on the boat shouted out in shock when he realized what had happened. But by the time his friends realized what had happened, it was too late. The big wave of water slammed into the boat and dock, pouring over the railings and sweeping the men on them overboard. The guys on the shore turned around, surprised as they watched about 8 guys now swimming in the ocean next to sinking drugs and guns.
Mimikyu struck then with a Shadow Sneak attack. Her shadow extended out from her. I held back a shiver at the chill I felt in the air, like knives on skin, as her shadow stretched out until it was behind the guy pushing the cart I'd chosen. The guy didn't have time to look away from the sight of his allies bopping in the ocean before his own shadow raised behind him to form the shape of a giant Mimikyu of darkness. Then the darkness slammed into him, dozens of hits in moments. He gasped in silent pain as he fell forward.
That was my cue. I raised my arm and threw Slugma's Pokeball. The guy Mimikyu hit flew back from the cart, leaving no one near it. The Pokeball landed in the cart, then snapped open, Slugma appearing in a flash of red light. The smugglers turned to look just as she blew out a burst of flame in the form of an Incinerate that ignited the cart's contents instantly. My plan had been for her to light whatever was in the cart on fire to force the smugglers to choose between the guys who had been swept into the ocean and the cart with burning merchandise.
BA-BOOM!
Instead, the cart exploded instantly. People were sent flying as they screamed, and the fires rose up into the sky while smoke filled the air.
"Oh shit!" one of the smugglers yelled in shock as the sky was rocked by the explosion. I blinked, trying to understand what had happened. "What happened to the meth!?"
At that statement from the guy, I realized EXACTLY what had happened. Crystal meth and fire. They don't mix well.
Then Slugma came out of the flame, looking around in confusion at the remains of the cart she had destroyed. One of the smugglers noticed her, and screamed in surprise, drawing the attention of the others.
"What the fuck is that thing!?" one guy yelled.
"Shoot it!" the guy who said that raised his submachine gun and unleashed hell, bullets flying into Slugma's body.
She blinked as she continued moving towards him. The metal bullets melted into her body. I grinned as her Weak Armor ability kicked in. With every bullet that struck her, she lost a bit of defense. But she also got faster and faster, until she was in the midst of the group. She leaped from the ground and slammed them in the chest with a Return, the normal type move devastating the poor guy and sending him flying back on the ground.
That was when Tyrunt struck. He ran at high speed, the tall grass separating around him in a way that reminded me of a scene from Jurassic Park, the small dinosaur leaping out of the grass. A smuggler who had been shooting at Slugma was grabbed by the back of his shirt. One of the others turns at his scream, only to see a quick glimpse of the dinosaur pulling his friend into the tall grass. He shouted, rushing in after his friend with a few more guys. They ran around in the glass, trying to find their friends. And one by one, Tyrunt stuck, his rocky head knocking smugglers out as he laughed, a barking roar of noise that I found cute.
I don't think the screaming smugglers felt the same way.
In the ocean, the smugglers who had fallen in realized what was going on, and tried to swim to shore. Then one of the guys was pulled under. He screamed just before he sank underwater as Mudkip held onto his ankle. Mudkip was laughing as he let the guy go, then pulled another and another, forcing them back into the ocean. A few guys on the docks seemed ready to aid their friends.
Then Mudkip jumped out of the water, the moonlight sparkling through drops of water that followed him. His eyes glittered as he opened his mouth, white energy sparkling in his jaws for a moment before a beam of that energy slammed into the ocean. Ice sprouted from the spot he hit, freezing the swimming smugglers. They shouted as they tried to swim away, but were trapped in freezing water up to their shoulders.
Mudkip landed on the dock and faced the smugglers there, who raised their guns to point at the new monster in their midst. Water surrounded him like a shield and he rushed forward, hitting three men with the force of a Waterfall crashing down, sending them off the dock and skidding across the ice, one man's butt slamming into his struggling allies head.
Then Gurdurr came in with Mimikyu. The fighting-type Pokemon had left his I-Beam next to me since that thing would have killed anyone it hit. Instead, he ran straight for the distracted and terrified smugglers with his bare fist, a shit-eating smile on his face. One guy shot at him. The bullet barely dug into his tough body before Gurdurr 'gently' decked him in the face. His nose shattered and he was sent down onto his back in a spray of blood. Gurdurr grabbed the guy's rifle and hefted it. With a grin, he lifted his brand-new club and ran forward again, smashing the rifle into a guy's leg with a bone-shattering force.
Mimikyu, on the other hand, lashed out with her shadow arms, grabbing a guy and pulling him close.
"No, no, nonononono
NONO!!!!"
He was pulled in under Mimikyu's power to the shadows she was hidden in nearby, where his screams continued filling the air. Then two more arms sprouted. Followed by eight more. One guy had tears falling down his cheeks as he shot at the darkness while screaming, only to be pulled by his ankles to fall on his back with a sound like meat slapping concrete, and he and four other guys were pulled into the darkness.
"Guys," I said through the mental link, feeling a little guilty.
"Tone it back. They're a lot more fragile than you'd think," I winced again when the sound of a Waterfall attack cracking ribs came from Mudkip's direction.
My Pokemon calmed down just a bit. Thank god, because Mimikyu and Tyrunt's sections calmed down with the terrified screams.
One of the smugglers, to my surprise, made a smart decision. He turned and ran for it, jumping over a shadowy arm, avoiding the tackle Slugma tried to hit him with, then booked it towards the house.
I narrowed my eyes. There was no one in the house, but there was likely a car he could use to leave…
"We can't let anyone escape."
I looked over at Alakazam. He gave me a look of annoyance before sighing. His eyes glowed for a moment. Then his body followed, shining a bright white before he disappeared in a flash of static.
The running smuggler was panting as he ran. A burst of static appeared in front of him, and Alakazam appeared. He raised a single hand. And the guy froze in place, floating mid-run. His muscles twitched as he tried to keep moving, but was held in the grip of psychic power, his eyes twisting widely as he soundlessly met eyes with Alakazam.
"It was a good idea to run," Alakazam said reluctantly. A spoon flew into his hand, the metal twisting and bending in his fist as he raised it like the weapon it was. "
Sadly, your higher level of intelligence has forced my attention. Sleep. And forget this night."
The smuggler passed out, falling onto the ground with a small sigh.
I kept an eye on the battle. Soon though, it was over. My Pokemon were standing amongst piles of smugglers, guns resting around the area as the few men awake groaned and moaned in pain. Alakazam's eyes flashed. Those guys passed out instantly.
It was only then that I came out of the woods. I felt a little guilty that I'd hung back and let my Pokemon fight, something I'd done rarely before. But the various guns on the floor reminded me why I'd done it.
Mudkip used a Scalding blast of water on the iceberg he'd made, melting it apart. I went over with Gurdurr onto the dock and helped Mudkip pull the guys he'd knocked out onto the dock.
Tyrunt and Mimikyu did the same sort of clean-up with the guys they'd knocked out, dragging them out to lay them on the dock side-by-side. Slugma burbled happily as she chewed on a shotgun, the metal melting in her mouth as she came over to join us.
Alakazam, in the meantime, headed over the barn, where an important package had been waiting.
Soon, working in tandem, we'd gotten the bad guys together on the dock. I looked over the large group. God, fifty guys? What sort of gang had so many guys all working in the countryside? Granted, if I had to bet, they were likely from two different gangs, but still…
Then I looked at the drugs that were laying around the area before ignoring them for the guns.
Damn. I was pretty sure NONE of Hawaii's extremely strict gun laws would allow submachine guns, assault rifles, and shotguns. And yet, there we were. Not just the guns they'd been carrying, but the ones in the crates that had been getting transported. It was a damn armies worth.
I grabbed a pistol out of an open crate. The side of the handle had a 'Sig Sauer' emblazoned on it, while the barrel had 'P365' written on it. I didn't know anything about the gun in particular, but I knew Sig Sauer did good work. I took some ammo and a holster as well. I would have loved a semi-auto assault rifle, but that was rather hard to hide.
Alakazam came over with the package that had been hidden away in the barn, in a secret compartment only a mind reader could have found. A briefcase floated on waves of telekinetic power, landing in my arms. I stared at the lock on the metal case, then passed it to Gurdurr. He quickly tapped the lock, sending pieces of metal flying and denting the case inward. I placed it on the ground and popped it open.
Then I stared at the money.
"...What the fuck did we walk into?" I asked, shocked.
There had to be over a million dollars in hundred dollar bills there. Enough money to change lives.
"..." I looked around the docks. Then I closed the case and handed it to Gurdurr. "I don't want to steal police evidence, but we might need this money to survive," I said with a sigh. "Hopefully they'll be happy with all the rest of the evidence. But we need a better way to restrain these guys."
Mudkip barked, looking at the water around us. I chuckled. "Not without giving the hyperthermia."
"Slugma!" I looked at my small slug monster. "Slug, ma, ma!"
"...That could work," I said thoughtfully.
I noticed something then, floating on the ocean. It must have been washed overboard when Mudkip's Surf hit the boat and dock. It was bone-white, with holes drilled into it. I cocked my head to the side as I looked at it, then leaned over and picked it up out of the water. I was surprised by how heavy it was, considering it had been floating. I shook it out and took a close look at it. A hockey mask, the kind that would be worn to protect the wearer from pucks and sticks on the ice. Or, you know, hunt teenagers around Crystal Lake.
"What do you think?" I turned and raised the mask to my face.
Mudkip cocked his head to the side, then shrugged.
"Mimikyu!" the small costumed nightmare gave me an excited look, hopping up and down. She wiggled in place.
"Yeah, I guess I have a disguise like you, huh?" I said with a grin. Mimikyu wiggled more.
"Runt," Tyrunt said, looked a little jealous. I didn't know what to think of that.
"Does this mean you've decided to become a superhero after all?" Alakazam said idly.
"...Let's just get this done," I said with a sigh.
Still, I hooked that cool looking mask on my hip, reminding myself to paint it later.
------
About an hour later, I opened one of the cars we'd found in the house's garage, a big SUV. My Pokemon began to enter the back of the car. Of the five cars that were in the big garage, the SUV was the only one with tinted windows and room for all my Pokemon.
Mimikyu and Mudkip shared the front passenger seat, sitting closely side by side, since they were short enough for no one to see them. Behind the front seats, Alakazam sat next to Gurdurr, the psychic and fighting-type Pokemon glaring at each other before they calmed. In the very back, Tyrunt curled up his body next to Gurdurr's I-Beam, poking his head over the seat between Gurdurr and Alakazam so he could look out at the road.
That left Slugma and me outside the car. We walked together towards the car, Slugma giving her Pokeball a sad look.
"I know you want to hang out with us, sweetie," I looked down at her. "But if you sit still… well, you know."
She stared down at the ground, trailing slowly next to me. "But we'll be at a volcano soon. And when we do," I kneeled down and held her head in my hands, her warmth almost painful against my palms. She closed her eyes. "We'll be together. I promise."
Slugma rubbed her head against my hands, standing still for just a moment. Then I hurriedly grabbed her Pokeball and put her away.
I looked up at my other Pokemon. Mimikyu and Mudkip gave me sad looks, while Tyrunt let out a sad growl.
Then I got in the SUV and started driving. As we peeled off, the sounds of sirens coming towards the farm could be heard.
I knew what they would find. Several crates of weapons and drugs neatly stacked and opened for the night air. A stack of wallets laid out next to them.
And a whole lot of unconscious bad guys buried up to their necks, six feet apart, with spotlights from the boat illuminating them all.
As I drove off, I wondered what the cops would think of all that.
------
As the sun rose up over the horizon, an army of police officers were trying to unravel a mystery.
When the call had come in, the police station had thought it was a prank. The towns on the Northeast side of Hawaii's Big Island were small and peaceful, places tourists would go for nice hikes and calm atmospheres. Namely, not a place with very serious crimes.
So when a man who clearly sounded like a teenager called in, the dispatcher wasn't ready for what he heard.
Around fifty criminals, from possibly different gangs, smuggling in meth and guns into the islands in the dead of the night. It was the kind of thing that happened in movies! Not in quiet towns like his!
"Kid, I don't have time for a prank-" the dispatcher was about to say.
"It's not a prank," the kid said, sounding annoyed. "But I can understand why you're skeptical. Just send a car over. I guarantee you that you'll find something. And hey, if I'm lying, one guy took a short drive."
The dispatcher thought for a moment. Technically, it didn't matter what he thought. All calls had to be taken seriously by regulation. But he wanted to teach the kid a lesson for misusing 911. Finally, he sighed.
"Okay kid, we'll have an officer there in 20 minutes."
Nothing was supposed to follow that. One car was sent out, got to the farm, and went to the back. Then the officer panicked and called everyone he could about the insane mountain of evidence he'd found.
Now cops filled the area, digging the criminals out of the ground, cataloging everything they had, and keeping back a small group of reporters that seemed shocked at what was happening. So did the police. None of them had ever encountered anything on the scale they found that day.
The sun had risen completely when the sound of helicopter blades filled the air. Everyone looked up to see a white and blue striped aircraft singing through the air, coming towards them. It landed in a cleared off-space near the barn. On the side of the copter were three letters.
FBI
As the rotors shut down, one of the officers, an older man, came running up. The helicopter door opened, and a man came out.
He was a dark-skinned Polynesian man, average in height, but thickly built with muscle, his biceps flexing through the brown suit he wore. He had thick black hair cut in rough shape that spoke of a lax barber, a craggy face that seemed unused to smiling, and deep dark black eyes.
Despite his average height, he seemed to loom over the older man that came over to him. "You Chief ʻŌpūnui?"
"Y-Yeah!" the chief said, sweating heavily. "You're the FBI guy?"
"Samuel Makoa," the man looked around, his eyes taking in the view. He dismissed the drugs being photographed by crime scene techs. He was unflinching at the sight of enough guns to arm every man and woman around him being cataloged. It was on the men being dug out of the ground and handcuffed that he finally stopped. He noted a few men being pulled into ambulances with broken arms, ribs, or other injuries.
"How many we got?"
"Fifty-three men," the older man said, his voice weak. "This is the worst thing that's ever happened here. Or at least the worst since I became chief."
"Then you're lucky," Sam said.
"Lucky!?" ʻŌpūnui gaped at him.
"No one died," Sam looked around, his eyes hard. "Someone came here. Several someones," Sam pointed at some footprints on the ground, trailing his fingers around. "Someone's with very strange feet. Claws, paws, some sort of… tentacle? In fact, I'd say only one of them was human. They somehow took down fifty men armed with more weaponry than I've seen outside a Rambo movie without a single death, leaving broken arms and legs."
Sam scowled, his face somehow suited for the motion, placing fists on his hips. "These were supers. We're in big trouble."
"Superheroes?" Chief ʻŌpūnui smiled. "Oh, that would be quite nice."
Sam, veins throbbing in his neck, his jaw jutting outwards, looked at the chief. The chief swallowed.
"R-Right?"
"First, I said
supers. People with powers. Not necessarily heroes. For all we know, these were a rival gang. And second… you have no idea who these guys are, do you?" Sam said with a
very tight-lipped smile. The chief shook his head. "I'm going to guess less than half own that piece of shit," he pointed at the dock, where a small cargo boat rested in the sun. "Transporting all the weapons and drugs in. But the rest are Silicon Dragons."
Chief ʻŌpūnui tilted his head and pressed his lips together for a moment. Then his mouth opened. "Oh no."
Sam's tight-lipped smile gained some teeth. "That's right. They'll hear about this soon. And when they do, they'll start more trouble than anyone in this island will ever be able to stand."
------
Author's Note: The Silicon Dragons and Sam Mokoa are from the DC Comics, being part of Superboy's run when he lived and worked in Hawaii as a hero. They'll be more in line with the Young Justice universe, but I'm still going to have fun with them.
Let me know what you guys think of the fight and the characterization and such. Next chapter, a road trip begins.
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