Monsters Of My Own
- Thread starter DesertChocolate
- Start date
Man the way you write the pokemon interactions is the most adorable thing in existence!!! I love it!
robopanda
My avatar is the original Avatar!
- Location
- The Northern Air Temple
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You're a Tyrunt, not a Pikachu. Besides, that's Mimikyu's thing.
TvTropes Page
JinnTavar
F=MA. And yes. That -is- a threat.
I think they're more upset that you lost your beard than you are.
When Mimikyu and I got back to the others, the cave they'd been digging had disappeared. Everything looked as though we'd never shown up there in the first place, leaving a clean cliff-face. I walked up to it with some grocery bags in hand, Mimikyu carrying a few more in her shadowy… arm… tentacle… hands. As we approached, a portion of the cliff shifted. With smooth movement and no sound, the dirt fell apart. Alakazam stood behind it. Well, floated behind it.
"Welcome," he said as Mimikyu and I walked in. Once we'd entered, he put the wall up behind us.
"Hopefully I got enough for everyone to be happy," I said as I looked around, placing the groceries on the ground and kneeling down.
"That would depend on if you've gotten what I wanted first," Alakazam said very carefully.
I rolled my eyes while reaching into the bag. "Yeah, yeah. You have the same favorite food as my grandma, you know that?"
"A woman of esteemed wisdom and taste, I'm sure."
I scoffed, tossing him the bag of spicy and sweet snack mix he'd asked for just before we left the store. Then I took out another bag, which he caught and gave a curious look. "It's a local snack called Li Hing Mui. Thought you might like it."
He gave the bag an intrigued look, looking it over. As he did, I looked the place over.
Gurdurr, Tyrunt, Mudkip, and Alakazam had been busy. The space we stood in was huge in terms of width, if not so much height. The ceiling was only a foot taller than I was, I assumed because Gurdurr wanted to reinforce things a bit before making it higher. For now, things were relatively smooth, the walls made of volcanic stone. Gurdurr had, at a guess, set up this side as a sort of entranceway. There was another arched doorway across the room. I picked up the bags and walked up to it. Inside was an even larger chamber, made of dirt and stone like the others, with three archways other than the one I'd entered from leading to other rooms. In one of those rooms, I could see Gurdurr. When I went to join him in that room, I stilled at what I'd found there.
A hole. It was about fifteen feet deep, and started about ten feet from the doorway. Gurdurr was looking down inside it. When I followed his gaze, I found Mudkip and Tyrunt. Tyrunt was digging into the back of the wall, making a tunnel from which I could only see his tail wagging back and forth, while Mudkip was crouched and ready. I thought about the makeup of the cave. The room was closest to the ocean. So if Gurdurr was doing what I thought he was-
Tyrunt took a big bite into the tunnel's end. And water hit him like a hose.
Tyrunt sputtered, staggering back, and Mudkip rushed in to grab him by the tail, pulling him back. More and more ocean water poured in, sloshing along the walls and bottom of the pool they'd created. Mudkip lifted Tyrunt out of the pool, Tyrunt swinging back and forth in the smaller Pokemon's grip, grumbling at the water below him as if it had offended him.
Mikikyu came up behind me and watched, fascinated, as the water continued to fill the pool they'd made. Gurdurr noticed me then and gave me a thumbs up.
"Gurdurr!"
"Yeah, bud, this is really nice work," I said with some amazement I couldn't hide. Even after all this time, small things like this could surprise me. It would take a team of humans with powered equipment a full few days to move so much earth and stone. It took three Pokemon a few hours.
"Well guys, I come bearing snacks," I put down the bags of groceries. Tyrunt rushed over to the bags, Mudkip sitting on his head, waited impatiently for me to take out a bag of chocolate-covered popcorn. He eagerly ripped it open with his claws while Mudkip took a pair of bags of spicy fish and meat jerky, which Gurdurr also got.
Tyrunt handed Mimikyu some popcorn, getting multiple arms hugging around his head from the happy ghost-type, while Mudkip chewed on his own food as he sat on Tyrunt's back. Gurdurr idly chewed on a stick of spiced meat while looking around, his thoughts obviously on the next step.
"How is Slugma doing?" I asked Alakazam while everyone ate.
"She is on her way back."
"...Why do I feel like you're hiding something from me?"
"Paranoia is common among dimensional travelers."
"Okay, now you're just being-" before I could finish, Gurdurr looked over at Alakazam.
"Durr!"
"Hm. Yes, that would be best."
"A forge?" I asked, looking between them. "No, better yet, why do you want a room with an ACTIVE lava pool running in the back?"
"Gurdurr."
I took in that lengthy explanation before sighing. "All right then. Alakazam, let Slugma know where to go."
"Very well."
I looked over at him with narrowed eyes. Something had happened. And he didn't want to tell me. What had my tiny lava monster been up to?
Mudkip, Tyrunt, and Mimikyu stayed behind, eating happily, while Gurdurr, Alakazam, and I walked into a room that could have been considered the 'back' of the base. It was large, with a nice little ditch in the back of the room that was ringed in stones. The pool from the other room apparently extended into this room, because ocean water was filling towards our right. It looked great. But Gurdurr kept looking around at the place with disapproval. I knew why. I don't think I'd ever given him any freedom to just do all he wanted when building things. Now that he had free reign, all he wanted was to build and build until it was done. The Buildslayer.
...I might have been in need of some sleep if I was comparing Gurdurr's love of building to Doomslayer's love of killing demons.
Before I could contemplate the weird places my thoughts took, a part of one of the walls began to glow red. As we waited, the small dot began to grow, pieces of the volcanic stone beginning to fall apart and drop. Once it was about two feet across, a small head popped out, a wave of heat following the magma that dripped out to become lava several feet away from us. I stepped back just a bit at the rise in temperature. Slugma looked around, blinking lazily. She smiled at the sight of us, looking more relaxed than she had in a long while.
"Slugma!" she said to me.
"Good to see you, sweetie," I said, unable to keep a smile off my face at the lazy look of contentment she had on her face. "You look like you had a good time."
She nodded eagerly, coming from the tunnel she'd made. The lava dripped into the runoff ditch and began to pool there.
"Gurdurr?" the fighting-type asked.
Slugma frowned, looking at the ditch, then at either side of it. After realizing what he meant, her eyes widened. "Slugma!"
Moving fast, she dived back into the hole of magma she'd made. A moment later, she came out from the ditch, followed by a torrent of lava. She went along the ditch and went into the other side of it.
Just like that, we had a river of lava going through the base.
"...OSHA is going to be pissed."
"Slugma!" she popped back up, swimming happily in the lava.
"Good job!"
At my praise, she wiggled happily in the lava.
"You are praising her too early," Alakazam thought. "Young one. Do you have what you entered the mountain for?"
Slugma nodded and came to the edge of the lava river she'd made. From her chest, a few things began to leave her body. I watched in interest as a small handful of gems of various sizes and colors soon rested on the floor. Alakazam hummed at the sight of them, raising a hand. The gems rose up and floated over to him in his telekinetic grip. Even from where I was, I could feel the heat coming off of them.
"Great job!"
Slugma wiggled happily, while Alakazam gave me a look that I ignored.
"You see anything interesting while you were down there?"
"..."
Slugma slowly sank into the lava river.
"Slugma?" I asked, confused.
She disappeared under the red waves.
"What the hell?" I turned to look at Alakazam, only to realize he'd disappeared. "Wha- Guys, are you kidding?"
I looked at Gurdurr. He gave me a confused look. "You ever get the feeling… I don't know... that the secrets being kept from you aren't dangerous or bad, but just annoying?"
"Gurdurr," he said sympathetically.
"Good boy."
One and Half Weeks Later:
Gurdurr had been working almost constantly since the moment we got to digging out our new base. As had the rest of us. We spent a whole lot of time doing nothing but making a home for ourselves, working our butts off.
Well, I tried to. While I did my best to help, my best contribution was just being a human being. I could go out and purchase some essentials. Of course, being a teenager, there was only so much money I could spend without it being suspicious, even with my explanation of 'I'm a dumb tourist and my parents are super-rich idiots.' Still, better than Mimikyu trying to go shopping on her own, adorable as that would be.
It was nice that we got so much of the base cleaned up and ready to go. Of course, I hadn't been able to really buy beds and furniture, but people toss that stuff away all the time, so I was able to furnish the place a bit. It still looked like the cave version of the Ninja Turtles hideout, being very makeshift, but Gurdurr was working tirelessly to change that.
He'd have to keep at it. I had some work of my own to do.
------
In the kitchen, I sat at a beat-up old table I'd found at a garage sale, sitting on a chair made of milk crates tied together with zip-ties as I sipped at some water. I would have loved to have coffee, but if I wanted to attain my future height, I'd need to wait on that. Gurdurr was enjoying his coffee though, tipping the hardhat he'd gotten back as he looked down at some blueprints, stopping to jot down notes. Mudkip was chewing on some Flamin Hot Cheetos™, his new favorite snack, as he sat next to me. Mimikyu was sewing at a small table set up for her, using fabrics I'd bought to make something. Slugma was in the oven. Which was really just a small pool of lava in the corner that we used to cook in.
Tyrunt was watching an old TV. I'd bought it and a DVD player while I'd been in a secondhand store, and found some DVDs. To my surprise, the Antonio Banderas Zorro movies were a thing in this world, and he was currently watching the suave swordsman in the black mask dance around a bunch of bad guys while making little growling 'swish, swish!' sounds. The power for it was coming from a generator in the corner of the kitchen, which was also giving energy to a tiny fridge I'd bought for perishables. It would do until we could get Alakazam's plans off the ground.
Which he was having problems with. "It's a simple matter of material. In order to make it, I will need more than just raw chunks of metal," Alakazam was flipping through a manual, frowning angrily at it. "Geothermal energy is simple in concept. Hot water, steam, turbine spinning connected to a generator. But everything else. Internet to conduct our research, resources to build with such as wires, circuit boards… We can make a lot of things. But such precise equipment is needed for all of this… How did this Batman that you spoke of make an entire cave full of technology twice as advanced as this in secret as just one man? Or did he hire and kill contractors to do it all?"
"Nah. He has a butler and more money than some small countries," I said pedantically. "Jokes aside, the Batcave is the product of years of constant work, upgrades, and later aid from trusted friends. So, you know. Us, but without millions of dollars."
"Mudkip," the small blue Pokemon said, looking over at a metal briefcase in the corner, then giving me a smirk.
"Don't be a smartass," I poked his nose, getting a chuckle from him.
"Mahmou-" Alakazam was about to say before I raised a hand with a sigh.
"I get it. I get it. We need to do a lot more than just sit next to a volcano and work out," I looked over at the place where my weights rested. Granted, my 'weights' were chunks of metal Slugma had brought up and helped form into something with handles and holes in the right places, but they worked. "We'll need to make this island ours. Uh, metaphorically."
Tyrunt rose from the TV, turning it off. Mimikyu stopped sewing. The two of them came over to the table, and all my Pokemon watched me, Gurdurr placing his blueprints down.
"Alakazam, how many teleport points can you make in Hawaii?" I asked.
He closed his eyes. "...Provided that you can find somewhere that will not be disturbed or damaged in some way? I will have to see. We will have to go to those places however. And some may take longer than others."
"There's only one I want and need to be honest."
"Honolulu," Alakazam said. He nodded. "I suspected as much. You wish to begin an expedition to go there?"
"Yes. Ideally, we'd have a location on each island," I rubbed my chin. "In some ways, we lucked out with Hawaii. This place isn't some sort of deserted island, but we're far away from Gotham, Metropolis, or anywhere else that might have supers that might mess with us. If we set up a teleport zone in the right locations, we can move about the islands, grab resources, protect-" I cut myself off before continuing. "Well, the point is, we'll be able to get our goals done."
Mudkip puffed up his cheeks. Alakazam shook his head. Mimikyu and Tyrunt looked confused. I pushed on past my superhero-wanna-be friends with a grimace.
I got it. I believed it was right to protect people, sure. But I'd gone over the reasons why we COULDN'T do that multiple times. No matter what their, or my, thoughts were. For their safety.
"Okay, here's the plan. We need to start with Honolulu. Best way to get there from here is by plane. Alakazam?"
"Hilo International Airport. But you do not have a passport," he said. He didn't sound like he was reproaching me or thinking I hadn't remembered. Just thoughtful.
"I know. I'm only laying out our options," I leaned forward. "Options are sneaking on board somehow. Which, you know. I'm not about to become labeled as a stowaway. Or as a terrorist. Same reason we shouldn't steal a plane or helicopter. I'm tempted to simply place your Pokeball in a box and send it there. Have you open the ball yourself, find a place to make a teleport zone, then you just come here."
Alakazam blinked. "...While that is a simple answer-"
"Yeah, I don't want to leave you on your own while making one of the teleport zones," I said. Making one of those took a lot of concentration for him. While he could defend himself if need be, he was still much more vulnerable when he did something like that. And my Pokemon, while they could still handle things on their own, might need me for any of a different number of things. After all, I was still the expert on this universe, their trainer, and the guy who made the plans.
Doomsday falling out of the sky was still a viable threat in my mind. And before anyone thinks it's outlandish, think of the things that fall out of the sky to threaten heroes out of nowhere. There. You get me.
Regardless, none of us was leaving the base in anything but groups of two, and for a long trip, I'd want to take more than that.
"Hilo International Airport is off the table… except for emergencies. I think we need to go shady and slow."
"Then who will go with you?"
"..." I looked over my Pokemon. "Ideally, Gurdurr would stay with a couple of you guys to continue his work on the base."
Gurdurr froze. For a moment, his face switched expressions quickly, wincing and frowning, as he placed a hand on his face. "...Gurdurr."
He sounded torn.
"I know bud. I want you to come too," I said. "But I need this base… Which means you need…" I looked over my Pokemon. "Tyrunt and Slugma."
"Tyrunt!?"
"Slug!?"
I winced at the growl of Tyrunt, and the Slugma's quivering lips. "I know guys, I know! But Tyrunt, you can help Gurdurr with the heavy lifting, and you've got the heat durability to help Slugma. You're IMPORTANT for this job. We need you here."
Tyrunt looked me over, eyes narrowed. After a while, he sighed out a roaring little noise but seemed satisfied.
"And Slugma. While we've got all that money, I'd rather not spend thousands of dollars on things like metal, and the jewels you're bringing up will be a good way for us to get more cash if we end up needing it. Among the other useful stuff."
Slugma's quivering lip calmed down.
"Believe me, I want to take everyone. But we're running on an invisible clock of danger. We might be attacked now, or we might get attacked a year from now. So we need to as much as we can, as fast as we can… Gurdurr. You want to start building the lower levels, right?"
"Gurdurr."
"Then make a list of the stuff we'll need for it. We'll try to grab what we can in Honolulu. I don't want to steal stuff but… Well, we'll cross that bridge later. For now, let's just get there."
"Will we be taking the SUV?" Alakazam asked.
I winced. That thing was a giant damn anvil around my neck. I had to use it sometimes, but it was still risky as hell, driving something that had been owned by criminals and might have been reported as missing by now. "You know what. We'll take it into town. But when we get back. Tyrunt. Slugma," the two looked up at me. "I'm going to need you to eat a car.
Slugma smiled happily at the thought of a snack. Tyrunt grinned at the thought of breaking stuff.
"For now, I think we should get ready to find us a shady guy with a boat," I said while crossing my arms. "And if that's easy, I'll be very disappointed in Hawaii."
Mudkip chuckled under his breath.
------
Author's Note: Next chapter, we see how those plans go. For now, the work is going in full swing. Everyone, pull out your base building XCom maps, then your maps of Honolulu. Meanwhile guys, please consider supporting me on Patreon! I'm going to keep posting stuff early on there, so it's the best way to keep up to date on what fanfics will pop up soon.
"Welcome," he said as Mimikyu and I walked in. Once we'd entered, he put the wall up behind us.
"Hopefully I got enough for everyone to be happy," I said as I looked around, placing the groceries on the ground and kneeling down.
"That would depend on if you've gotten what I wanted first," Alakazam said very carefully.
I rolled my eyes while reaching into the bag. "Yeah, yeah. You have the same favorite food as my grandma, you know that?"
"A woman of esteemed wisdom and taste, I'm sure."
I scoffed, tossing him the bag of spicy and sweet snack mix he'd asked for just before we left the store. Then I took out another bag, which he caught and gave a curious look. "It's a local snack called Li Hing Mui. Thought you might like it."
He gave the bag an intrigued look, looking it over. As he did, I looked the place over.
Gurdurr, Tyrunt, Mudkip, and Alakazam had been busy. The space we stood in was huge in terms of width, if not so much height. The ceiling was only a foot taller than I was, I assumed because Gurdurr wanted to reinforce things a bit before making it higher. For now, things were relatively smooth, the walls made of volcanic stone. Gurdurr had, at a guess, set up this side as a sort of entranceway. There was another arched doorway across the room. I picked up the bags and walked up to it. Inside was an even larger chamber, made of dirt and stone like the others, with three archways other than the one I'd entered from leading to other rooms. In one of those rooms, I could see Gurdurr. When I went to join him in that room, I stilled at what I'd found there.
A hole. It was about fifteen feet deep, and started about ten feet from the doorway. Gurdurr was looking down inside it. When I followed his gaze, I found Mudkip and Tyrunt. Tyrunt was digging into the back of the wall, making a tunnel from which I could only see his tail wagging back and forth, while Mudkip was crouched and ready. I thought about the makeup of the cave. The room was closest to the ocean. So if Gurdurr was doing what I thought he was-
Tyrunt took a big bite into the tunnel's end. And water hit him like a hose.
Tyrunt sputtered, staggering back, and Mudkip rushed in to grab him by the tail, pulling him back. More and more ocean water poured in, sloshing along the walls and bottom of the pool they'd created. Mudkip lifted Tyrunt out of the pool, Tyrunt swinging back and forth in the smaller Pokemon's grip, grumbling at the water below him as if it had offended him.
Mikikyu came up behind me and watched, fascinated, as the water continued to fill the pool they'd made. Gurdurr noticed me then and gave me a thumbs up.
"Gurdurr!"
"Yeah, bud, this is really nice work," I said with some amazement I couldn't hide. Even after all this time, small things like this could surprise me. It would take a team of humans with powered equipment a full few days to move so much earth and stone. It took three Pokemon a few hours.
"Well guys, I come bearing snacks," I put down the bags of groceries. Tyrunt rushed over to the bags, Mudkip sitting on his head, waited impatiently for me to take out a bag of chocolate-covered popcorn. He eagerly ripped it open with his claws while Mudkip took a pair of bags of spicy fish and meat jerky, which Gurdurr also got.
Tyrunt handed Mimikyu some popcorn, getting multiple arms hugging around his head from the happy ghost-type, while Mudkip chewed on his own food as he sat on Tyrunt's back. Gurdurr idly chewed on a stick of spiced meat while looking around, his thoughts obviously on the next step.
"How is Slugma doing?" I asked Alakazam while everyone ate.
"She is on her way back."
"...Why do I feel like you're hiding something from me?"
"Paranoia is common among dimensional travelers."
"Okay, now you're just being-" before I could finish, Gurdurr looked over at Alakazam.
"Durr!"
"Hm. Yes, that would be best."
"A forge?" I asked, looking between them. "No, better yet, why do you want a room with an ACTIVE lava pool running in the back?"
"Gurdurr."
I took in that lengthy explanation before sighing. "All right then. Alakazam, let Slugma know where to go."
"Very well."
I looked over at him with narrowed eyes. Something had happened. And he didn't want to tell me. What had my tiny lava monster been up to?
Mudkip, Tyrunt, and Mimikyu stayed behind, eating happily, while Gurdurr, Alakazam, and I walked into a room that could have been considered the 'back' of the base. It was large, with a nice little ditch in the back of the room that was ringed in stones. The pool from the other room apparently extended into this room, because ocean water was filling towards our right. It looked great. But Gurdurr kept looking around at the place with disapproval. I knew why. I don't think I'd ever given him any freedom to just do all he wanted when building things. Now that he had free reign, all he wanted was to build and build until it was done. The Buildslayer.
...I might have been in need of some sleep if I was comparing Gurdurr's love of building to Doomslayer's love of killing demons.
Before I could contemplate the weird places my thoughts took, a part of one of the walls began to glow red. As we waited, the small dot began to grow, pieces of the volcanic stone beginning to fall apart and drop. Once it was about two feet across, a small head popped out, a wave of heat following the magma that dripped out to become lava several feet away from us. I stepped back just a bit at the rise in temperature. Slugma looked around, blinking lazily. She smiled at the sight of us, looking more relaxed than she had in a long while.
"Slugma!" she said to me.
"Good to see you, sweetie," I said, unable to keep a smile off my face at the lazy look of contentment she had on her face. "You look like you had a good time."
She nodded eagerly, coming from the tunnel she'd made. The lava dripped into the runoff ditch and began to pool there.
"Gurdurr?" the fighting-type asked.
Slugma frowned, looking at the ditch, then at either side of it. After realizing what he meant, her eyes widened. "Slugma!"
Moving fast, she dived back into the hole of magma she'd made. A moment later, she came out from the ditch, followed by a torrent of lava. She went along the ditch and went into the other side of it.
Just like that, we had a river of lava going through the base.
"...OSHA is going to be pissed."
"Slugma!" she popped back up, swimming happily in the lava.
"Good job!"
At my praise, she wiggled happily in the lava.
"You are praising her too early," Alakazam thought. "Young one. Do you have what you entered the mountain for?"
Slugma nodded and came to the edge of the lava river she'd made. From her chest, a few things began to leave her body. I watched in interest as a small handful of gems of various sizes and colors soon rested on the floor. Alakazam hummed at the sight of them, raising a hand. The gems rose up and floated over to him in his telekinetic grip. Even from where I was, I could feel the heat coming off of them.
"Great job!"
Slugma wiggled happily, while Alakazam gave me a look that I ignored.
"You see anything interesting while you were down there?"
"..."
Slugma slowly sank into the lava river.
"Slugma?" I asked, confused.
She disappeared under the red waves.
"What the hell?" I turned to look at Alakazam, only to realize he'd disappeared. "Wha- Guys, are you kidding?"
I looked at Gurdurr. He gave me a confused look. "You ever get the feeling… I don't know... that the secrets being kept from you aren't dangerous or bad, but just annoying?"
"Gurdurr," he said sympathetically.
"Good boy."
One and Half Weeks Later:
Gurdurr had been working almost constantly since the moment we got to digging out our new base. As had the rest of us. We spent a whole lot of time doing nothing but making a home for ourselves, working our butts off.
Well, I tried to. While I did my best to help, my best contribution was just being a human being. I could go out and purchase some essentials. Of course, being a teenager, there was only so much money I could spend without it being suspicious, even with my explanation of 'I'm a dumb tourist and my parents are super-rich idiots.' Still, better than Mimikyu trying to go shopping on her own, adorable as that would be.
It was nice that we got so much of the base cleaned up and ready to go. Of course, I hadn't been able to really buy beds and furniture, but people toss that stuff away all the time, so I was able to furnish the place a bit. It still looked like the cave version of the Ninja Turtles hideout, being very makeshift, but Gurdurr was working tirelessly to change that.
He'd have to keep at it. I had some work of my own to do.
------
In the kitchen, I sat at a beat-up old table I'd found at a garage sale, sitting on a chair made of milk crates tied together with zip-ties as I sipped at some water. I would have loved to have coffee, but if I wanted to attain my future height, I'd need to wait on that. Gurdurr was enjoying his coffee though, tipping the hardhat he'd gotten back as he looked down at some blueprints, stopping to jot down notes. Mudkip was chewing on some Flamin Hot Cheetos™, his new favorite snack, as he sat next to me. Mimikyu was sewing at a small table set up for her, using fabrics I'd bought to make something. Slugma was in the oven. Which was really just a small pool of lava in the corner that we used to cook in.
Tyrunt was watching an old TV. I'd bought it and a DVD player while I'd been in a secondhand store, and found some DVDs. To my surprise, the Antonio Banderas Zorro movies were a thing in this world, and he was currently watching the suave swordsman in the black mask dance around a bunch of bad guys while making little growling 'swish, swish!' sounds. The power for it was coming from a generator in the corner of the kitchen, which was also giving energy to a tiny fridge I'd bought for perishables. It would do until we could get Alakazam's plans off the ground.
Which he was having problems with. "It's a simple matter of material. In order to make it, I will need more than just raw chunks of metal," Alakazam was flipping through a manual, frowning angrily at it. "Geothermal energy is simple in concept. Hot water, steam, turbine spinning connected to a generator. But everything else. Internet to conduct our research, resources to build with such as wires, circuit boards… We can make a lot of things. But such precise equipment is needed for all of this… How did this Batman that you spoke of make an entire cave full of technology twice as advanced as this in secret as just one man? Or did he hire and kill contractors to do it all?"
"Nah. He has a butler and more money than some small countries," I said pedantically. "Jokes aside, the Batcave is the product of years of constant work, upgrades, and later aid from trusted friends. So, you know. Us, but without millions of dollars."
"Mudkip," the small blue Pokemon said, looking over at a metal briefcase in the corner, then giving me a smirk.
"Don't be a smartass," I poked his nose, getting a chuckle from him.
"Mahmou-" Alakazam was about to say before I raised a hand with a sigh.
"I get it. I get it. We need to do a lot more than just sit next to a volcano and work out," I looked over at the place where my weights rested. Granted, my 'weights' were chunks of metal Slugma had brought up and helped form into something with handles and holes in the right places, but they worked. "We'll need to make this island ours. Uh, metaphorically."
Tyrunt rose from the TV, turning it off. Mimikyu stopped sewing. The two of them came over to the table, and all my Pokemon watched me, Gurdurr placing his blueprints down.
"Alakazam, how many teleport points can you make in Hawaii?" I asked.
He closed his eyes. "...Provided that you can find somewhere that will not be disturbed or damaged in some way? I will have to see. We will have to go to those places however. And some may take longer than others."
"There's only one I want and need to be honest."
"Honolulu," Alakazam said. He nodded. "I suspected as much. You wish to begin an expedition to go there?"
"Yes. Ideally, we'd have a location on each island," I rubbed my chin. "In some ways, we lucked out with Hawaii. This place isn't some sort of deserted island, but we're far away from Gotham, Metropolis, or anywhere else that might have supers that might mess with us. If we set up a teleport zone in the right locations, we can move about the islands, grab resources, protect-" I cut myself off before continuing. "Well, the point is, we'll be able to get our goals done."
Mudkip puffed up his cheeks. Alakazam shook his head. Mimikyu and Tyrunt looked confused. I pushed on past my superhero-wanna-be friends with a grimace.
I got it. I believed it was right to protect people, sure. But I'd gone over the reasons why we COULDN'T do that multiple times. No matter what their, or my, thoughts were. For their safety.
"Okay, here's the plan. We need to start with Honolulu. Best way to get there from here is by plane. Alakazam?"
"Hilo International Airport. But you do not have a passport," he said. He didn't sound like he was reproaching me or thinking I hadn't remembered. Just thoughtful.
"I know. I'm only laying out our options," I leaned forward. "Options are sneaking on board somehow. Which, you know. I'm not about to become labeled as a stowaway. Or as a terrorist. Same reason we shouldn't steal a plane or helicopter. I'm tempted to simply place your Pokeball in a box and send it there. Have you open the ball yourself, find a place to make a teleport zone, then you just come here."
Alakazam blinked. "...While that is a simple answer-"
"Yeah, I don't want to leave you on your own while making one of the teleport zones," I said. Making one of those took a lot of concentration for him. While he could defend himself if need be, he was still much more vulnerable when he did something like that. And my Pokemon, while they could still handle things on their own, might need me for any of a different number of things. After all, I was still the expert on this universe, their trainer, and the guy who made the plans.
Doomsday falling out of the sky was still a viable threat in my mind. And before anyone thinks it's outlandish, think of the things that fall out of the sky to threaten heroes out of nowhere. There. You get me.
Regardless, none of us was leaving the base in anything but groups of two, and for a long trip, I'd want to take more than that.
"Hilo International Airport is off the table… except for emergencies. I think we need to go shady and slow."
"Then who will go with you?"
"..." I looked over my Pokemon. "Ideally, Gurdurr would stay with a couple of you guys to continue his work on the base."
Gurdurr froze. For a moment, his face switched expressions quickly, wincing and frowning, as he placed a hand on his face. "...Gurdurr."
He sounded torn.
"I know bud. I want you to come too," I said. "But I need this base… Which means you need…" I looked over my Pokemon. "Tyrunt and Slugma."
"Tyrunt!?"
"Slug!?"
I winced at the growl of Tyrunt, and the Slugma's quivering lips. "I know guys, I know! But Tyrunt, you can help Gurdurr with the heavy lifting, and you've got the heat durability to help Slugma. You're IMPORTANT for this job. We need you here."
Tyrunt looked me over, eyes narrowed. After a while, he sighed out a roaring little noise but seemed satisfied.
"And Slugma. While we've got all that money, I'd rather not spend thousands of dollars on things like metal, and the jewels you're bringing up will be a good way for us to get more cash if we end up needing it. Among the other useful stuff."
Slugma's quivering lip calmed down.
"Believe me, I want to take everyone. But we're running on an invisible clock of danger. We might be attacked now, or we might get attacked a year from now. So we need to as much as we can, as fast as we can… Gurdurr. You want to start building the lower levels, right?"
"Gurdurr."
"Then make a list of the stuff we'll need for it. We'll try to grab what we can in Honolulu. I don't want to steal stuff but… Well, we'll cross that bridge later. For now, let's just get there."
"Will we be taking the SUV?" Alakazam asked.
I winced. That thing was a giant damn anvil around my neck. I had to use it sometimes, but it was still risky as hell, driving something that had been owned by criminals and might have been reported as missing by now. "You know what. We'll take it into town. But when we get back. Tyrunt. Slugma," the two looked up at me. "I'm going to need you to eat a car.
Slugma smiled happily at the thought of a snack. Tyrunt grinned at the thought of breaking stuff.
"For now, I think we should get ready to find us a shady guy with a boat," I said while crossing my arms. "And if that's easy, I'll be very disappointed in Hawaii."
Mudkip chuckled under his breath.
------
Author's Note: Next chapter, we see how those plans go. For now, the work is going in full swing. Everyone, pull out your base building XCom maps, then your maps of Honolulu. Meanwhile guys, please consider supporting me on Patreon! I'm going to keep posting stuff early on there, so it's the best way to keep up to date on what fanfics will pop up soon.
Does this make him this earths Pokemon Master? Quite the impressive achievement for someone who's been training for so little time.
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king?
I walked around the docks of Hilo, looking around the place as though I had no idea where I was or where I was going, wearing a backpack over my shoulder and a dumb grin on my face. Just a tourist, easy to manipulate and steal cash from. Oh woe is me.
The docks were pretty much how you'd picture it. Granted, I wasn't sure if Hilo had a dock like this in my homeworld. Hard to tell how different the DC universe was in little ways like this. Whatever the case, it was here, with people milling about and doing… boat things. A few looked at me, but were otherwise ignoring me.
"You should be coming up on him soon," Alakazam, currently sitting in the back of the SUV, which was parked next to the ocean, said through our link. "...I would rather not deal with this man. He thinks like a Morgrem," he said, referencing an extremely mischievous and devious Dark-type Pokemon. "He's currently stealing gasoline."
"Which means he doesn't want to deal with cops," I said in my own, much uglier, version of thought-speak. "As long as he takes us to the right location, I don't care how much money he tries to 'con' out of us."
Our target was the scummiest mind Alakazam could possibly find. Obviously we didn't have police reports or anything to look at. But he could read surface thoughts, figure out the sort of person we needed. Namely, someone who took passengers to Honolulu, would do it for cash, and wouldn't ask a lot of questions. And our man just happened to be ready to head there with a small shipment of marijuana.
I didn't make a beeline for our target. If I was too direct, he'd end up getting spooked. I had to make him think tricking me was his idea. Instead, I headed near where he was carefully filling his own boat, walking up to a guy who was tying up his own vessel to the dock. "Hey, you mind if I ask you a question?"
The guy looked up at me. "What do you want?"
I smiled awkwardly, playing up my teenage features. "Hey, sorry. I kinda wanted to know if there was a boat around here taking people to Honolulu."
"Take a plane then, you fucking Haole," the guy said, hate in his eyes as he used the slur.
I almost lost the act. A few Hawaiians kinda hated on outsiders. Usually white ones, but the douchier ones would also become assholes when they pegged me as an outsider. Still, I'd dealt with racist assholes of all shades my entire adult life. A little more wasn't the end of the world.
"Well, I can't. But I have money!" I took out a handful of bills and held it up happily. "Like uh… I don't know how much. But I can pay!"
The guy began to look VERY interested, hate turning to greed when he saw how many hundred dollar bills were in my hand. Yeah right. If I ended up on a boat with someone who called me Haole, I'd end up breaking his arms.
"Whoa, whoa," a voice that was smooth as butter said, a tanned arm stretching around my shoulders. "Now young man, you want to go with this okole? He just called you Haole!"
I looked at the man who was speaking. He was a little overweight, wearing a green Hawaiian shirt that was opened to show a white tank top, black cargo shorts, and blue sandals. He was a little taller than me, with hair the color of mine that went down to his shoulders, except for the top, which was balding. He had a five o'clock shadow, and a bit of ketchup at the corner of his mouth that bounced as he spoke with a proud smile.
"Who are you calling okole you-" the guy began to rise.
The man ignored him, pulling me along. "Now, I hear you want to go to Honolulu?"
"Yeah!" I said cheerily and dumbly. "I always wanted to go by boat, so I got my money and came here!"
"Oh, that's interesting," he very carefully didn't look at my hand full of cash as he walked along. "Ah, best put that way. Let's not talk about money, let's talk about," he waved a hand out at the ocean. "Possibilities! What's your name?"
"Mahmoud."
"Well, Mackmon," God, why was that butchering of my name so consistent from person to person? "I'm Kalini! Owner of the finest boat on the ocean!" Kalini pointed at his boat.
To my surprise, it actually looked pretty good. Television had taught me that shady guys with boats had crappy boats, but crappy boats tended to sink. So it made sense that the blue fishing vessel he was pointing at was in solid-looking shape. It was about forty feet long, with a lot of attachments and ropes I didn't know anything about. "The Pussy Galore, after the Bond Girl! Like it?"
Damn, that name is horrible.
"It looks great!" I said honestly, ignoring the name written in pink letters on the side.
"Thank you," Kalini hopped into the boat. He waved me over to a chair in the back of the boat. "Now. What does a young man like you want to go to Honolulu for?
"Mostly, sand, sun, and babes," I answered casually. "My parents came here to visit the volcano," I sighed sadly. "I mean, it was cool for a bit. Then you're just looking at rocks melting," Sorry Slugma, I love ya.
Kalini nodded, rubbing his 5 o'clock shadow. "Parents. Is that so? So you aren't about to get me stuck with a kidnapping charge."
I chuckled at the thought. "No, not at all. I just want to go to Honolulu, and my parents said I could go if I found someone willing to take me."
"Hm," he still looked a little suspicious. Alakazam looked through my eyes, watching him carefully. "Well, I'm actually about to leave in twenty minutes. So I'll need payment upfront for taking on a last minute passenger."
"That's fine. How much?"
"2000 dollars, usually," he said while leaning back in his seat and giving me a grin. "But hey, I like you kid. How about a discount. Say, drop it to 1800."
Discount my ass. A plane ticket there was 98 dollars. If I wasn't desperate, I could have found more reputable ways to get there for a lot less money. But I was desperate, and I'd honestly expected a hell of a lot more to be charged.
"That's great!" I said, pretending to be stupid as hell. "Here, let me call my dad and mom and tell them, then I'll come back!"
"Uh, do you really need to tell-" Kalini cut himself off as I leaped off the boat, rushing for the SUV. I made sure to leave my bag behind.
I dropped my smile the instant I was out of view of the boat.
"He is looking through the bag," Alakazam told me. "He found the decoy money, but he wants to wait to steal it. He thinks you might be a runaway, but doesn't care as long as the cops don't come. And if they do, he might get reward money."
What a standup guy.
I got to the vicinity of the SUV, making sure to walk calmly.
"He's found the snacks you brought, as well as the clothes."
"No need for the play by play. Just tell me. Do I need to fight a grown man to keep from getting tossed into the ocean?"
"No. He's at least going to do the job. He will take you for every cent he can, but he'll take you to Honolulu."
"Good. But just in case, Mudkip is gonna swim in our wake."
"A reasonable precaution. And me?"
"Stay in the Pokeball," I opened the SUV doors to see him sitting calmly, eyes meeting mine. "But the second he causes the right kind of trouble… Well. No skin on my nose if he's knocked out."
"...Be careful."
With that, he disappeared into his Pokeball at my waist. I closed the SUV, placed the keys away, and headed back.
When I got back to the boat, the Captain gave me a grin as he untied the boat from the dock. "Ah, good to have you back! Your parents all right?"
"My mom doesn't think I should go," I said with a shrug. "But otherwise they're all right."
"Goodie! Then let's get going Mackmon."
I sighed internally at that. Once his back was turned and he was entering the boat, I took out Mudkip's ball and followed. He turned to look at me, and held out his hand. I reached into my pocket, counted out 1800 dollars in cash, and passed it to him. He gave the rest of my money a look of greed, but took the money I handed with a happy laugh.
"Go ahead and sit down," he said, pressing some buttons on the console of his ship. "We'll be off soon enough."
The boat started up with a sound like a tiger's purring. Using the noise for cover, I leaned my arm out of his view and released Mudkip. He popped out in a flash of light and jumped into the water. The boat began moving. I looked with practiced eyes, and could see Mudkip's trail, the little guy dancing happily in our wake.
------
"This thing is a lot faster than I thought it was!" I noted to Kalini as we bounced across the waves about an hour later, the sun shining high above.
"That's the beauty of the Pussy Galore!" Kalini patted his dashboard happily. "Ah, my little Ku'uipo has gotten me out of many scrapes before!"
"Like sharks?" I asked.
"...Well, something like that," he said evasively.
Yeah, cops more likely. Oh well.
"Anyways, this little Ku'uipo can go 50 knots, er, that's around 57 miles, an hour if she wants to!" Kalini chuckled. "Don't worry, Mackmon! You'll be in Honolulu in about five hours! Little more if you wanna stop and fish!"
"I'm good," I said to the friendly Hawaiian scammer. "I'm not much of a fisher."
"Ah, crying shame," Kalini shook his head. "I tell ya, few things as good just relaxing on the waves, nothing but you and your thoughts. You youngin's are all about speed, get as much done as you can," he gave me a smile. Kind of a soft one. "When you get to Honolulu, enjoy yourself. Take your time. These islands man," Kalini looked around. "You need to take them in, bit by bit. Slowly take every little place you can. This old Kalini you see, he's seen many a tourist make that mistake," Kalini patted his belly with a smile. "They don't learn to really enjoy themselves. But when you do? Hawaii rewards you with her beauty. With her spirit."
That was… a lot more contemplative than I thought it would be.
"You left your parents at the volcano because you were bored. Headed right to Honolulu…" Kalini chuckled. "And now you might miss out on the greatness of the Big Island! On the incredible views and sights… and the women," he winked at me, laughing. "Take your time, Mackmon. And stop paying too much for five hour boat trips."
To my surprise, he took some bills out of his pocket and passed them to me. When I looked them over, it was three hundred dollars. When I looked at him, Kalini chuckled. "Maybe do some research on that sort of thing, eh?"
...Still a sleazebag. But better than I thought he was. I folded away the money and left the cabin, moving to look at the water.
Mudkip popped his head out of the water, giving me a smile. He was still chugging along at high speed, apparently uncaring of how fast the boat was going. "Mudkip!"
"What was that?" Kalini asked me in the background.
"Nothing," I said, watching Mudkip dive back into the ocean. "Just thinking of taking you up on your offer of fishing."
Mudkip would need a break at some point after all.
"Great! We'll stop in a couple of hours! If all goes well, we might catch some humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa."
"...Whut?"
------
After a quick break to fish a couple of hours later, (Mudkip did not put fish on the hook for me by the way, I'm just a supernaturally good fisherman), we eventually made our way past Kahanamoku Lagoon.
"We can't stop there?" I asked Kalini as we passed the ultra large yacht's there.
"Not unless you want to deal with a bunch of rich assholes," Kalini spat off the side off the boat. "Nah, I've got a better spot."
We went towards a local dock, pulling in to port. Kalini pulled up, or boated up, maybe? Whatever the name for the maneuver, he brought us in. "Well kid, it's been fun," he looked over at me with a grin as he started tying his boat to the dock. "You sure you don't want to hang around? Fisherman as good as you, I'd make a killing with ya."
"I don't think that's my path man," I said with a grin, shaking my head.
"Ah, leave your options open, kid, I… Fuck."
I looked over at him. He was staring out at the shore, holding onto one of the ropes he'd been tying to the dock. Sweat beaded his brow and he was twisting the ropes in his hand very carefully, his knuckles white. I looked in the same direction he was staring at.
A group of five guys were coming over to us. The four in the back were scowling, while the lead guy was smiling just a bit too much to be real.
"Kid," I looked at Kalini. He gave me a serious look. "Get in the cabin. No matter what happens, don't leave it."
"...I-"
"Do it!" he barked.
I slowly rose to my feet and followed his direction. As I did, I looked at the water. Mudkip was there, watching as I walked in there. I nodded slowly. He ducked under the water.
Once I was in the cabin, I ducked down and grabbed my bag, opening it to reveal a mask. I stared at it for a moment. At some point, Mimikyu must have gotten her hands on the hockey mask we'd stolen from those gangsters we'd stopped weeks ago. Now the formerly white mask was dark red on it's left side, with a black circle in the center and a line down the middle. It looked like a Pokeball.
She really had a way with costumes.
I hesitated with the mask in my hands. Then I looked out the door carefully. The five guys had gotten to Kalini, and were speaking to him.
"You've got a lot of nerve, Kalini," the lead guy was saying. "Coming here after stealing from us."
"I didn't steal from anyone!" Kalini said. "You all refused to pay me for my work!"
"You got what you deserved," the lead guy said with a wave of his hand. "No more, no-"
"You cheated me!" Kalini said. Right then, I realized what a big man he was. He stepped forward, thick arms raising up. The five men across from him narrowed their eyes.
"...Come with us," the lead guy said angrily. "You owe the Silicon Dragons, Kalini."
...That name is terrible.
"You want me?" Kalini slapped his chest, growling. "Then take me."
Three of the guys stepped forward. I found myself in the middle of a decision.
I should let them take him. Kalini wasn't really a friend, or any kind of person I knew well. He was a scammer, a sleazy big guy who had overcharged me for my trip and kept acting like he'd done me a favor, while staring at my money like it was food before a dog…
But we'd fished together. And honestly, at the heart of it, even if he hadn't shown the genuine human under the con artist… I still didn't want to let him get dragged off by random gang members or whatever those guys were to get assaulted.
Damn it. Of course the one sleazebag I met had to get attacked by gangsters at the end of our trip. And of course, I didn't want to stand by and let some guy get hurt, no matter the possibilities of trouble it would cause.
I grabbed the mask and put it on angrily. I pulled out the gun I'd hidden in my bag. I didn't want to shoot anyone, but it was a precaution.
"Mudkip!" I roared just as one of the gangsters was about to grab Kalini. Kalini froze, his fist pulled back, and stared back at me as I stepped out of the boat, the mask over my face. "Waterfall that one!"
I pointed at the one about to grab Kalini.
The ocean behind me exploded. A tiny blue rocket, surrounded in a blue aura of water, hit the chest of the gangster, who was sent flying back with a scream, landing in the ocean. Mudkip backflipped through the air and landed in front of Kalini.
"Mudkip," the little guys said with a smirk, gazing up at the four gangsters.
"W-What the hell is that!?" one of the gangsters yelled, looking at the guy who'd been punted off the dock.
"Ma-" Kalini was about to say. I rushed forward and leaped out of the boat, handgun lazily held in my hand as Mudkip laughed slowly under his breath at the enemies before us.
"Mudkip. Use Water Gun."
He opened his mouth. As though it had come out of a firehose, a blast of water hit the gangsters, sending them bouncing back along the dock as they screamed, one guy's arm hitting a wooden post with a sound like a stick breaking.
"Ca-" one guy sputtered, spitting out water. "Call the others! Match him! Match him!"
"Oh fuck me," Kalini whispered.
"Come on!" I grabbed Kalini's arm and pulled him along. One of the gangsters, soaked in water, tried to rise and grab me. I stepped on his face, smashing his head back into the dock as we ran, Mudkip following us. One other guy raised something and pointed it at me, but Mudkip hit him with a tackle, sending him into unconsciousness.
"Who the hell are those guys?" I growled at Kalini as we ran from the docks and into the streets, hefting my backpack onto my shoulders.
"Silicon Dragons!" Kalini said, recoiling when Mudkip jumped up to land on my shoulder. "What the hell is that!?"
"A Mudkip, who are the Silicon Dragons?"
"What's a Mudkip!?"
A van came squealing around the corner. I grabbed another Pokeball at my waist and looked around. It was night, so not a lot of people were by the docks. There was one building across the street, a big one, but there were only a few curious bystanders. Still people that needed to be protected…
The van came to a stop a little away from us. I tossed the Pokeball in my hand out. Mimikyu came out of it, looking at the van furiously.
Three guys came out of the van immediately, holding assault rifles. The driver and another guy were still getting ready. The guys with the assault rifles pointed them at us. Mudkip, Mimikyu, and I stared at them, my palm a little sweaty.
"...Are you serious?" one of the assault rifles lowered, it's owner laughing. "This is why those idiots wanted to escalate? A kid, a weird dog, and a… I don't know, an ugly doll?"
"..."
The shadows lengthened. My breath started to frost in the now chill air. Mimikyu stared at the man, eyes slowly widening. I glared at the asshole, knowing tears would be at the edges of her eyes.
"You really shouldn't have said that."
Mimikyu rose slowly in the air. Below her, long shadows lifted her up, shivering and shaking as they did, forming into long appendages. Some rose up, clenching fingers of darkness that ignored the streetlights.
"What in God's name-" one of the assault rifles began to clench.
"MIMIKYU."
A yellow costumed shadow seemed to disappear. The asshole's shadow rose up from behind him, white eyes staring from beneath a Pikachu costume.
"Danny!" one of the guys said when he noticed.
The asshole spun around. Black claws spun out, slicing through the assault rifle, steel shredded before the power of Mimikyu.
"FU-" Claws wrapped around his mouth, pulling him down to the ground. "Oh god, oh god, no!" He screamed around the writhing claws of shadow. He was pulled under the van, screaming as he disappeared. "NO, NO, NOOOO!"
One of the other guys looked under the van, pointing his gun at it and shooting frantically. Then he froze. "D-Danny! ...He's gone."
The other guys looked at me. Mimikyu sat on my shoulder.
That was enough for them. Guns were raised. Kalini stepped back. Mudkip opened his mouth, while Mimikyu stretched a single tendril from under her costume.
"Get moving!" I roared at Kalini. He ran for it, heading to the building. The gangsters ignored him. Off to the side, some people began to point guns at us, ignoring Kalini as he rushed away. "Protect, Mimikyu!"
"BRAT-A-TAT-TAT "
A big forcefield of clear light shone in front of me. The loud as hell sound of bullets bouncing on nothing filled the air. I raised my gun vaguely in the direction of the gangsters, who ducked at the sight of a familiar threat.
"Mudkip, hit them with a Bliz- Icy Wind!" I'd been ready to say something else, but remembered we weren't trying to kill these guys
"Mudkip!" the little guy jumped into the air, opening his mouth. A wave of frosty wind flew from his lips, covering the distance between us in seconds. The asphalt was covered in rime where it passed, and the guys screamed as they hid behind the van. One guy didn't dodge the wave of cold in time.
"Oh shi-" the wind overtook him. He slipped as his limbs got covered in a thin layer of slick ice, slowly trying to run as he shivered in the freezing cold.
"Take them down!" the driver shouted, tossing a grenade at us. Mudkip slapped the grenade out of the air, sending it flying into the ocean to explode harmlessly, and ran forward. Mimikyu jumped off my shoulder and into a shadow.
Then something hit me in the back, just below my backpack. I staggered forward. It felt like a heavy stick had stabbed me in the back, before pain erupted from the spot I'd been hit. I turned around.
One of the guys from the dock was pointing a pistol at me. I raised my own gun. He fired, and I felt another hard smashing blow hit me across my right pectoral. I fired in the air, the guy running into cover, then looked at myself.
I had a hole in my shirt. I stared at my chest, my eyes widening. I raised a hand and patted at my shirt.
I fell to my knees, biting back a scream of pain as the sensation of liquid filled my body from my chest and back. I ripped the hole in my shirt bigger, staring at where the pain came from.
A bullet was stuck in my chest, having pierced my skin and lodged into the muscles, blood spattered around the small copper object. I reflexively pulled it out, then shouted in agony. The bullet landed on the ground, and blood began seeping out of my wound.
"Goddamn," I hissed, trying to figure out what happened. Then the thought struck me.
"He shot me…" I stared up.
The guy I'd been facing popped out of cover, then ducked back when I snapped to my feet and shot at him, screaming. "YOU SHOT ME!" I ran at the guy, tossing my backpack to the ground. His eyes widened, and he backpedaled while raising his gun. I jumped, knees slamming into his chest in a move I'd perfected in another world, and brought him to the ground. "YOU ASSHOLE!"
He punched me in the face. I ignored the ineffectual blow to my hockey mask and headbutted him. His eyes crossed. Then I punched him in the chest. He tried to block another blow, so I got him in the chin. "YOU SHOT ME!"
"G-Get off-"
I cut him off by grabbing him by his shirt and rising, lifting him up with me. I screamed wordlessly, red filling my vision as I spun, twisting him over my back and hefting him. He let out a shriek of noise as he landed in the harbor with a loud splash. I'd tossed him several feet, so his friends we'd left on the dock were able to see it.
"Well!" I yelled, my ripped shirt falling to the ground, blood dripping from the hole in my chest, my mask distorting my face. "WHO ELSE WANTS SOME!?"
They spun and ran. I looked at the van.
Mudkip hit one of the guys there with a pawfull of earth in a mud-slap, the innocuous move sending the guy tumbling unconscious across the ground to land with filth across his face. Mimikyu dropped a pale-faced man on the ground. The final guy stared at us as I prowled over, my fists clenching and unclenching, blood slowly leaking down my chest. Mimikyu looked at him. Then Mudkip.
"...Screw this."
The guy jumped into his van.
"Mimikyu, Phantom Force that van."
"Mimikyu!" she stood still for a moment. The van started. Then shadows rose from beneath the van, like a venus fly trap snapping its teeth together, and smashed into it, crumpling steel and shattering glass. The guy in the car screamed, raising his gun and aiming at Mimikyu. A hail of bullets flew. A couple hit her. And her Pikachu costume fell limp as the neck was damaged.
The guy was surrounded in darkness. When it faded, he was passed out, covered in sweat and pale as a sheet.
I looked around. People were staring at us, cameras pointed our way. Well… shit.
"Come on!" I picked up Mimikyu, holding her to my chest, while Mudkip hopped onto my shoulder and grabbed my backpack from where I'd tossed it on the ground. As police sirens began to ring in the distance, I ran towards the ocean.
"Wait, hold on!" a woman asked as I ran for the docks. "Who are you!?"
"Pick a name!?" I yelled back at her, jumping into the ocean, cold water covering me and Mimikyu. Mudkip popped his head up, grabbed my arm, and pulled me through the water, Mimikyu pulling her costume along as she swam alongside us. People with smartphones ran over, but Mudkip was already pulling me under the water, rushing us further down the docks until we were a few hundred feet away, where he brought me back up. I looked back at the docks to see around ten people staring at the spot we'd dived in while yelling and talking to each other.
So much for being inconspicuous. All to save a guy who had scammed me. And now knew what I looked like. Damn it.
"Well… that went well."
"Mudkip," the little guy shook his head, chuckling just a bit. "Kip."
"Mimikyu," she said sadly, holding her soaked costume. Mudkip patted her head softly, and I gave her a hug as we bobbed in the water.
"Come on," I said softly to Mimikyu. "Lets get it fixed. Good work guys."
Mudkip stared at my chest, where I felt the salt of the ocean stinging the bullet hole there. The same stinging came from the one in my back. I shook my head and he nodded. Not right now.
"Let's go."
With my Pokemon coming along, I got out of there, heading down the shore.
------
Author's Note: Couldn't go too crazy in this fight. Despite the dangers, Mimikyu and Mudkip can cause a LOT of damage to the people and property of Hawaii. They aren't quite Superman level, but they can legit kill people.
As for the MC's durability, I'm keeping it relatively low-key. So he's durable and strong, enough to tank low calibur bullets and toss grown men, but he's still on the lower end of things in terms of superhuman.
Also, this chapter was a lot of fun to write man. I loved every moment of it.
Please consider supporting me on the Patreon guys! Thus far, it's been helping me and my family from starving, so every dollar has been a huge boon. Next chapter of Dial should be up there soon. Later guys!
The docks were pretty much how you'd picture it. Granted, I wasn't sure if Hilo had a dock like this in my homeworld. Hard to tell how different the DC universe was in little ways like this. Whatever the case, it was here, with people milling about and doing… boat things. A few looked at me, but were otherwise ignoring me.
"You should be coming up on him soon," Alakazam, currently sitting in the back of the SUV, which was parked next to the ocean, said through our link. "...I would rather not deal with this man. He thinks like a Morgrem," he said, referencing an extremely mischievous and devious Dark-type Pokemon. "He's currently stealing gasoline."
"Which means he doesn't want to deal with cops," I said in my own, much uglier, version of thought-speak. "As long as he takes us to the right location, I don't care how much money he tries to 'con' out of us."
Our target was the scummiest mind Alakazam could possibly find. Obviously we didn't have police reports or anything to look at. But he could read surface thoughts, figure out the sort of person we needed. Namely, someone who took passengers to Honolulu, would do it for cash, and wouldn't ask a lot of questions. And our man just happened to be ready to head there with a small shipment of marijuana.
I didn't make a beeline for our target. If I was too direct, he'd end up getting spooked. I had to make him think tricking me was his idea. Instead, I headed near where he was carefully filling his own boat, walking up to a guy who was tying up his own vessel to the dock. "Hey, you mind if I ask you a question?"
The guy looked up at me. "What do you want?"
I smiled awkwardly, playing up my teenage features. "Hey, sorry. I kinda wanted to know if there was a boat around here taking people to Honolulu."
"Take a plane then, you fucking Haole," the guy said, hate in his eyes as he used the slur.
I almost lost the act. A few Hawaiians kinda hated on outsiders. Usually white ones, but the douchier ones would also become assholes when they pegged me as an outsider. Still, I'd dealt with racist assholes of all shades my entire adult life. A little more wasn't the end of the world.
"Well, I can't. But I have money!" I took out a handful of bills and held it up happily. "Like uh… I don't know how much. But I can pay!"
The guy began to look VERY interested, hate turning to greed when he saw how many hundred dollar bills were in my hand. Yeah right. If I ended up on a boat with someone who called me Haole, I'd end up breaking his arms.
"Whoa, whoa," a voice that was smooth as butter said, a tanned arm stretching around my shoulders. "Now young man, you want to go with this okole? He just called you Haole!"
I looked at the man who was speaking. He was a little overweight, wearing a green Hawaiian shirt that was opened to show a white tank top, black cargo shorts, and blue sandals. He was a little taller than me, with hair the color of mine that went down to his shoulders, except for the top, which was balding. He had a five o'clock shadow, and a bit of ketchup at the corner of his mouth that bounced as he spoke with a proud smile.
"Who are you calling okole you-" the guy began to rise.
The man ignored him, pulling me along. "Now, I hear you want to go to Honolulu?"
"Yeah!" I said cheerily and dumbly. "I always wanted to go by boat, so I got my money and came here!"
"Oh, that's interesting," he very carefully didn't look at my hand full of cash as he walked along. "Ah, best put that way. Let's not talk about money, let's talk about," he waved a hand out at the ocean. "Possibilities! What's your name?"
"Mahmoud."
"Well, Mackmon," God, why was that butchering of my name so consistent from person to person? "I'm Kalini! Owner of the finest boat on the ocean!" Kalini pointed at his boat.
To my surprise, it actually looked pretty good. Television had taught me that shady guys with boats had crappy boats, but crappy boats tended to sink. So it made sense that the blue fishing vessel he was pointing at was in solid-looking shape. It was about forty feet long, with a lot of attachments and ropes I didn't know anything about. "The Pussy Galore, after the Bond Girl! Like it?"
Damn, that name is horrible.
"It looks great!" I said honestly, ignoring the name written in pink letters on the side.
"Thank you," Kalini hopped into the boat. He waved me over to a chair in the back of the boat. "Now. What does a young man like you want to go to Honolulu for?
"Mostly, sand, sun, and babes," I answered casually. "My parents came here to visit the volcano," I sighed sadly. "I mean, it was cool for a bit. Then you're just looking at rocks melting," Sorry Slugma, I love ya.
Kalini nodded, rubbing his 5 o'clock shadow. "Parents. Is that so? So you aren't about to get me stuck with a kidnapping charge."
I chuckled at the thought. "No, not at all. I just want to go to Honolulu, and my parents said I could go if I found someone willing to take me."
"Hm," he still looked a little suspicious. Alakazam looked through my eyes, watching him carefully. "Well, I'm actually about to leave in twenty minutes. So I'll need payment upfront for taking on a last minute passenger."
"That's fine. How much?"
"2000 dollars, usually," he said while leaning back in his seat and giving me a grin. "But hey, I like you kid. How about a discount. Say, drop it to 1800."
Discount my ass. A plane ticket there was 98 dollars. If I wasn't desperate, I could have found more reputable ways to get there for a lot less money. But I was desperate, and I'd honestly expected a hell of a lot more to be charged.
"That's great!" I said, pretending to be stupid as hell. "Here, let me call my dad and mom and tell them, then I'll come back!"
"Uh, do you really need to tell-" Kalini cut himself off as I leaped off the boat, rushing for the SUV. I made sure to leave my bag behind.
I dropped my smile the instant I was out of view of the boat.
"He is looking through the bag," Alakazam told me. "He found the decoy money, but he wants to wait to steal it. He thinks you might be a runaway, but doesn't care as long as the cops don't come. And if they do, he might get reward money."
What a standup guy.
I got to the vicinity of the SUV, making sure to walk calmly.
"He's found the snacks you brought, as well as the clothes."
"No need for the play by play. Just tell me. Do I need to fight a grown man to keep from getting tossed into the ocean?"
"No. He's at least going to do the job. He will take you for every cent he can, but he'll take you to Honolulu."
"Good. But just in case, Mudkip is gonna swim in our wake."
"A reasonable precaution. And me?"
"Stay in the Pokeball," I opened the SUV doors to see him sitting calmly, eyes meeting mine. "But the second he causes the right kind of trouble… Well. No skin on my nose if he's knocked out."
"...Be careful."
With that, he disappeared into his Pokeball at my waist. I closed the SUV, placed the keys away, and headed back.
When I got back to the boat, the Captain gave me a grin as he untied the boat from the dock. "Ah, good to have you back! Your parents all right?"
"My mom doesn't think I should go," I said with a shrug. "But otherwise they're all right."
"Goodie! Then let's get going Mackmon."
I sighed internally at that. Once his back was turned and he was entering the boat, I took out Mudkip's ball and followed. He turned to look at me, and held out his hand. I reached into my pocket, counted out 1800 dollars in cash, and passed it to him. He gave the rest of my money a look of greed, but took the money I handed with a happy laugh.
"Go ahead and sit down," he said, pressing some buttons on the console of his ship. "We'll be off soon enough."
The boat started up with a sound like a tiger's purring. Using the noise for cover, I leaned my arm out of his view and released Mudkip. He popped out in a flash of light and jumped into the water. The boat began moving. I looked with practiced eyes, and could see Mudkip's trail, the little guy dancing happily in our wake.
------
"This thing is a lot faster than I thought it was!" I noted to Kalini as we bounced across the waves about an hour later, the sun shining high above.
"That's the beauty of the Pussy Galore!" Kalini patted his dashboard happily. "Ah, my little Ku'uipo has gotten me out of many scrapes before!"
"Like sharks?" I asked.
"...Well, something like that," he said evasively.
Yeah, cops more likely. Oh well.
"Anyways, this little Ku'uipo can go 50 knots, er, that's around 57 miles, an hour if she wants to!" Kalini chuckled. "Don't worry, Mackmon! You'll be in Honolulu in about five hours! Little more if you wanna stop and fish!"
"I'm good," I said to the friendly Hawaiian scammer. "I'm not much of a fisher."
"Ah, crying shame," Kalini shook his head. "I tell ya, few things as good just relaxing on the waves, nothing but you and your thoughts. You youngin's are all about speed, get as much done as you can," he gave me a smile. Kind of a soft one. "When you get to Honolulu, enjoy yourself. Take your time. These islands man," Kalini looked around. "You need to take them in, bit by bit. Slowly take every little place you can. This old Kalini you see, he's seen many a tourist make that mistake," Kalini patted his belly with a smile. "They don't learn to really enjoy themselves. But when you do? Hawaii rewards you with her beauty. With her spirit."
That was… a lot more contemplative than I thought it would be.
"You left your parents at the volcano because you were bored. Headed right to Honolulu…" Kalini chuckled. "And now you might miss out on the greatness of the Big Island! On the incredible views and sights… and the women," he winked at me, laughing. "Take your time, Mackmon. And stop paying too much for five hour boat trips."
To my surprise, he took some bills out of his pocket and passed them to me. When I looked them over, it was three hundred dollars. When I looked at him, Kalini chuckled. "Maybe do some research on that sort of thing, eh?"
...Still a sleazebag. But better than I thought he was. I folded away the money and left the cabin, moving to look at the water.
Mudkip popped his head out of the water, giving me a smile. He was still chugging along at high speed, apparently uncaring of how fast the boat was going. "Mudkip!"
"What was that?" Kalini asked me in the background.
"Nothing," I said, watching Mudkip dive back into the ocean. "Just thinking of taking you up on your offer of fishing."
Mudkip would need a break at some point after all.
"Great! We'll stop in a couple of hours! If all goes well, we might catch some humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa."
"...Whut?"
------
After a quick break to fish a couple of hours later, (Mudkip did not put fish on the hook for me by the way, I'm just a supernaturally good fisherman), we eventually made our way past Kahanamoku Lagoon.
"We can't stop there?" I asked Kalini as we passed the ultra large yacht's there.
"Not unless you want to deal with a bunch of rich assholes," Kalini spat off the side off the boat. "Nah, I've got a better spot."
We went towards a local dock, pulling in to port. Kalini pulled up, or boated up, maybe? Whatever the name for the maneuver, he brought us in. "Well kid, it's been fun," he looked over at me with a grin as he started tying his boat to the dock. "You sure you don't want to hang around? Fisherman as good as you, I'd make a killing with ya."
"I don't think that's my path man," I said with a grin, shaking my head.
"Ah, leave your options open, kid, I… Fuck."
I looked over at him. He was staring out at the shore, holding onto one of the ropes he'd been tying to the dock. Sweat beaded his brow and he was twisting the ropes in his hand very carefully, his knuckles white. I looked in the same direction he was staring at.
A group of five guys were coming over to us. The four in the back were scowling, while the lead guy was smiling just a bit too much to be real.
"Kid," I looked at Kalini. He gave me a serious look. "Get in the cabin. No matter what happens, don't leave it."
"...I-"
"Do it!" he barked.
I slowly rose to my feet and followed his direction. As I did, I looked at the water. Mudkip was there, watching as I walked in there. I nodded slowly. He ducked under the water.
Once I was in the cabin, I ducked down and grabbed my bag, opening it to reveal a mask. I stared at it for a moment. At some point, Mimikyu must have gotten her hands on the hockey mask we'd stolen from those gangsters we'd stopped weeks ago. Now the formerly white mask was dark red on it's left side, with a black circle in the center and a line down the middle. It looked like a Pokeball.
She really had a way with costumes.
I hesitated with the mask in my hands. Then I looked out the door carefully. The five guys had gotten to Kalini, and were speaking to him.
"You've got a lot of nerve, Kalini," the lead guy was saying. "Coming here after stealing from us."
"I didn't steal from anyone!" Kalini said. "You all refused to pay me for my work!"
"You got what you deserved," the lead guy said with a wave of his hand. "No more, no-"
"You cheated me!" Kalini said. Right then, I realized what a big man he was. He stepped forward, thick arms raising up. The five men across from him narrowed their eyes.
"...Come with us," the lead guy said angrily. "You owe the Silicon Dragons, Kalini."
...That name is terrible.
"You want me?" Kalini slapped his chest, growling. "Then take me."
Three of the guys stepped forward. I found myself in the middle of a decision.
I should let them take him. Kalini wasn't really a friend, or any kind of person I knew well. He was a scammer, a sleazy big guy who had overcharged me for my trip and kept acting like he'd done me a favor, while staring at my money like it was food before a dog…
But we'd fished together. And honestly, at the heart of it, even if he hadn't shown the genuine human under the con artist… I still didn't want to let him get dragged off by random gang members or whatever those guys were to get assaulted.
Damn it. Of course the one sleazebag I met had to get attacked by gangsters at the end of our trip. And of course, I didn't want to stand by and let some guy get hurt, no matter the possibilities of trouble it would cause.
I grabbed the mask and put it on angrily. I pulled out the gun I'd hidden in my bag. I didn't want to shoot anyone, but it was a precaution.
"Mudkip!" I roared just as one of the gangsters was about to grab Kalini. Kalini froze, his fist pulled back, and stared back at me as I stepped out of the boat, the mask over my face. "Waterfall that one!"
I pointed at the one about to grab Kalini.
The ocean behind me exploded. A tiny blue rocket, surrounded in a blue aura of water, hit the chest of the gangster, who was sent flying back with a scream, landing in the ocean. Mudkip backflipped through the air and landed in front of Kalini.
"Mudkip," the little guys said with a smirk, gazing up at the four gangsters.
"W-What the hell is that!?" one of the gangsters yelled, looking at the guy who'd been punted off the dock.
"Ma-" Kalini was about to say. I rushed forward and leaped out of the boat, handgun lazily held in my hand as Mudkip laughed slowly under his breath at the enemies before us.
"Mudkip. Use Water Gun."
He opened his mouth. As though it had come out of a firehose, a blast of water hit the gangsters, sending them bouncing back along the dock as they screamed, one guy's arm hitting a wooden post with a sound like a stick breaking.
"Ca-" one guy sputtered, spitting out water. "Call the others! Match him! Match him!"
"Oh fuck me," Kalini whispered.
"Come on!" I grabbed Kalini's arm and pulled him along. One of the gangsters, soaked in water, tried to rise and grab me. I stepped on his face, smashing his head back into the dock as we ran, Mudkip following us. One other guy raised something and pointed it at me, but Mudkip hit him with a tackle, sending him into unconsciousness.
"Who the hell are those guys?" I growled at Kalini as we ran from the docks and into the streets, hefting my backpack onto my shoulders.
"Silicon Dragons!" Kalini said, recoiling when Mudkip jumped up to land on my shoulder. "What the hell is that!?"
"A Mudkip, who are the Silicon Dragons?"
"What's a Mudkip!?"
A van came squealing around the corner. I grabbed another Pokeball at my waist and looked around. It was night, so not a lot of people were by the docks. There was one building across the street, a big one, but there were only a few curious bystanders. Still people that needed to be protected…
The van came to a stop a little away from us. I tossed the Pokeball in my hand out. Mimikyu came out of it, looking at the van furiously.
Three guys came out of the van immediately, holding assault rifles. The driver and another guy were still getting ready. The guys with the assault rifles pointed them at us. Mudkip, Mimikyu, and I stared at them, my palm a little sweaty.
"...Are you serious?" one of the assault rifles lowered, it's owner laughing. "This is why those idiots wanted to escalate? A kid, a weird dog, and a… I don't know, an ugly doll?"
"..."
The shadows lengthened. My breath started to frost in the now chill air. Mimikyu stared at the man, eyes slowly widening. I glared at the asshole, knowing tears would be at the edges of her eyes.
"You really shouldn't have said that."
Mimikyu rose slowly in the air. Below her, long shadows lifted her up, shivering and shaking as they did, forming into long appendages. Some rose up, clenching fingers of darkness that ignored the streetlights.
"What in God's name-" one of the assault rifles began to clench.
"MIMIKYU."
A yellow costumed shadow seemed to disappear. The asshole's shadow rose up from behind him, white eyes staring from beneath a Pikachu costume.
"Danny!" one of the guys said when he noticed.
The asshole spun around. Black claws spun out, slicing through the assault rifle, steel shredded before the power of Mimikyu.
"FU-" Claws wrapped around his mouth, pulling him down to the ground. "Oh god, oh god, no!" He screamed around the writhing claws of shadow. He was pulled under the van, screaming as he disappeared. "NO, NO, NOOOO!"
One of the other guys looked under the van, pointing his gun at it and shooting frantically. Then he froze. "D-Danny! ...He's gone."
The other guys looked at me. Mimikyu sat on my shoulder.
That was enough for them. Guns were raised. Kalini stepped back. Mudkip opened his mouth, while Mimikyu stretched a single tendril from under her costume.
"Get moving!" I roared at Kalini. He ran for it, heading to the building. The gangsters ignored him. Off to the side, some people began to point guns at us, ignoring Kalini as he rushed away. "Protect, Mimikyu!"
"BRAT-A-TAT-TAT "
A big forcefield of clear light shone in front of me. The loud as hell sound of bullets bouncing on nothing filled the air. I raised my gun vaguely in the direction of the gangsters, who ducked at the sight of a familiar threat.
"Mudkip, hit them with a Bliz- Icy Wind!" I'd been ready to say something else, but remembered we weren't trying to kill these guys
"Mudkip!" the little guy jumped into the air, opening his mouth. A wave of frosty wind flew from his lips, covering the distance between us in seconds. The asphalt was covered in rime where it passed, and the guys screamed as they hid behind the van. One guy didn't dodge the wave of cold in time.
"Oh shi-" the wind overtook him. He slipped as his limbs got covered in a thin layer of slick ice, slowly trying to run as he shivered in the freezing cold.
"Take them down!" the driver shouted, tossing a grenade at us. Mudkip slapped the grenade out of the air, sending it flying into the ocean to explode harmlessly, and ran forward. Mimikyu jumped off my shoulder and into a shadow.
Then something hit me in the back, just below my backpack. I staggered forward. It felt like a heavy stick had stabbed me in the back, before pain erupted from the spot I'd been hit. I turned around.
One of the guys from the dock was pointing a pistol at me. I raised my own gun. He fired, and I felt another hard smashing blow hit me across my right pectoral. I fired in the air, the guy running into cover, then looked at myself.
I had a hole in my shirt. I stared at my chest, my eyes widening. I raised a hand and patted at my shirt.
I fell to my knees, biting back a scream of pain as the sensation of liquid filled my body from my chest and back. I ripped the hole in my shirt bigger, staring at where the pain came from.
A bullet was stuck in my chest, having pierced my skin and lodged into the muscles, blood spattered around the small copper object. I reflexively pulled it out, then shouted in agony. The bullet landed on the ground, and blood began seeping out of my wound.
"Goddamn," I hissed, trying to figure out what happened. Then the thought struck me.
"He shot me…" I stared up.
The guy I'd been facing popped out of cover, then ducked back when I snapped to my feet and shot at him, screaming. "YOU SHOT ME!" I ran at the guy, tossing my backpack to the ground. His eyes widened, and he backpedaled while raising his gun. I jumped, knees slamming into his chest in a move I'd perfected in another world, and brought him to the ground. "YOU ASSHOLE!"
He punched me in the face. I ignored the ineffectual blow to my hockey mask and headbutted him. His eyes crossed. Then I punched him in the chest. He tried to block another blow, so I got him in the chin. "YOU SHOT ME!"
"G-Get off-"
I cut him off by grabbing him by his shirt and rising, lifting him up with me. I screamed wordlessly, red filling my vision as I spun, twisting him over my back and hefting him. He let out a shriek of noise as he landed in the harbor with a loud splash. I'd tossed him several feet, so his friends we'd left on the dock were able to see it.
"Well!" I yelled, my ripped shirt falling to the ground, blood dripping from the hole in my chest, my mask distorting my face. "WHO ELSE WANTS SOME!?"
They spun and ran. I looked at the van.
Mudkip hit one of the guys there with a pawfull of earth in a mud-slap, the innocuous move sending the guy tumbling unconscious across the ground to land with filth across his face. Mimikyu dropped a pale-faced man on the ground. The final guy stared at us as I prowled over, my fists clenching and unclenching, blood slowly leaking down my chest. Mimikyu looked at him. Then Mudkip.
"...Screw this."
The guy jumped into his van.
"Mimikyu, Phantom Force that van."
"Mimikyu!" she stood still for a moment. The van started. Then shadows rose from beneath the van, like a venus fly trap snapping its teeth together, and smashed into it, crumpling steel and shattering glass. The guy in the car screamed, raising his gun and aiming at Mimikyu. A hail of bullets flew. A couple hit her. And her Pikachu costume fell limp as the neck was damaged.
The guy was surrounded in darkness. When it faded, he was passed out, covered in sweat and pale as a sheet.
I looked around. People were staring at us, cameras pointed our way. Well… shit.
"Come on!" I picked up Mimikyu, holding her to my chest, while Mudkip hopped onto my shoulder and grabbed my backpack from where I'd tossed it on the ground. As police sirens began to ring in the distance, I ran towards the ocean.
"Wait, hold on!" a woman asked as I ran for the docks. "Who are you!?"
"Pick a name!?" I yelled back at her, jumping into the ocean, cold water covering me and Mimikyu. Mudkip popped his head up, grabbed my arm, and pulled me through the water, Mimikyu pulling her costume along as she swam alongside us. People with smartphones ran over, but Mudkip was already pulling me under the water, rushing us further down the docks until we were a few hundred feet away, where he brought me back up. I looked back at the docks to see around ten people staring at the spot we'd dived in while yelling and talking to each other.
So much for being inconspicuous. All to save a guy who had scammed me. And now knew what I looked like. Damn it.
"Well… that went well."
"Mudkip," the little guy shook his head, chuckling just a bit. "Kip."
"Mimikyu," she said sadly, holding her soaked costume. Mudkip patted her head softly, and I gave her a hug as we bobbed in the water.
"Come on," I said softly to Mimikyu. "Lets get it fixed. Good work guys."
Mudkip stared at my chest, where I felt the salt of the ocean stinging the bullet hole there. The same stinging came from the one in my back. I shook my head and he nodded. Not right now.
"Let's go."
With my Pokemon coming along, I got out of there, heading down the shore.
------
Author's Note: Couldn't go too crazy in this fight. Despite the dangers, Mimikyu and Mudkip can cause a LOT of damage to the people and property of Hawaii. They aren't quite Superman level, but they can legit kill people.
As for the MC's durability, I'm keeping it relatively low-key. So he's durable and strong, enough to tank low calibur bullets and toss grown men, but he's still on the lower end of things in terms of superhuman.
Also, this chapter was a lot of fun to write man. I loved every moment of it.
Please consider supporting me on the Patreon guys! Thus far, it's been helping me and my family from starving, so every dollar has been a huge boon. Next chapter of Dial should be up there soon. Later guys!
"Mudkip," the little guy said with a smirk, gazing up at the four gangsters.
Matsci
Grash itsh griah! Rwar arr rawrrawrarar!
Ah, Pokemon trainer durability.
Sadly, no. Mimikyu can, technically, but only with the move Pain Split. And the main character would HEAVILY object to her using that move.
Thanks mate! Yeah, I decided to try using the setting, and letting the group show up down the road, working more on establishing the seven main cast of characters on their own, ya know?
Sam Mokoa
"...What a shitshow," Sam whispered to himself, rubbing his forehead as he looked around. He was standing on a street next to some docks in Honolulu. A van that had been heavily battered by some unknowable force sat in the center of the road. Yellow placards with numbers on them sat around the floor next to spent bullet casings. Nine men had been arrested, all of them Silicon Dragons, two of whom had to be fished out of the ocean, most of whom had been caught on camera shooting at someone with illegal weapons.
Someone with superhuman abilities, accompanied by animals with abilities.
"He was a teenager," Sam mused. "A damned kid…" the FBI agent looked around with hard eyes, tracing his vision wherever he could. He'd already taken notice of everything he could, but he was trying to make sure he got everything.
Technically, witness reports mentioned a large man had been with the teen, but whoever that was, he'd disappeared before anyone started filming him. After that was when the kid started causing a mess.
He'd taken two bullets and came out with nothing but scratches. His animals had been terrifying. The small blue one had incredible physical abilities, it's speed and strength beyond what a being its size should have been capable of. It had obliterated the men before it, with powers of water and ice, like a storm brought to life.
And then, that yellow hooded creature. If the blue one had been all the power of the ocean shoved into a puppy-sized package, then the yellow one was all the shadows that crawled in the night. The darkness brought to life. It had shattered a car, took a man… somewhere, a man they couldn't find.
Three superbeings. And Sam knew there had to be more. If they were the same ones that hit that smugglers farm on the Big Island, then there had to be more, based on the footprints he'd found. If they hadn't been there, well… That left seven footprints to account for.
"Sir!" a uniformed officer ran over, her face pale. "We found the last guy! H-He's, he doesn't want to leave the dumpster."
Sam sighed slowly, shaking his head. "Lead the way, Janey."
The officer nodded so fast she looked like her head was about to fly off, turning and rushing away. Sam followed her at a more sedate pace. He wasn't about to rush this. He took in the sights as he walked, noting every last detail. They were dealing with monsters and gangsters. Anything could be a clue. And that was putting things lightly. He'd heard of reports in London of officers having trouble with a literal poltergeist. They'd had to find a random stone in a garden that was tying the poltergeist to the city of London. This, among many cases, was proof that the best way for a normal detective to deal with the supernatural, was accounting for everything. Leave nothing to chance. No stone left unturned, brought to its literal conclusion.
In an alleyway behind the hotel, very far from where the fight had taken place, two officers were waiting. They parted as Sam approached the garbage dumpster they had been guarding. Sam looked inside.
"...Danny?" Sam blinked slowly. "Danny Shousa? What the hell are you doing in the trash?"
Danny Shousa was a Silicon Dragon. One that had taken advantage of the powerful lawyers and his lack of any truly violent crimes, any people could prove anyways, to escape jail time. Now, however, he'd been on camera carrying a gun with intent to kill someone.
He was also pale, covered in sweat, curled up in the fetal position, and had a banana covered in mold on his head.
"What the hell happened to-" Sam was cut off when Danny spun up to his knees, gazing into Sam's eyes.
"The shadows, Samuel!" he grabbed Sam by his jacket. The uniformed officers stepped forward with guns drawn, and Sam quickly waved them back. "They cut, but I do not bleed!"
"Why were you going after that guy?" Sam asked seriously, unfazed by the screaming man in his face.
"She comes," Danny trembled, clutching at Sam. "Smelling like the dark of the forest and fabric softener-"
"I know, the yellow one," Sam without skipping a beat. "Focus, Danny. Why were you here?"
"...I don't know," Danny laughed, tears falling down his cheeks. "There are things out there, Sam. Monsters."
They eyed each other. Finally, the FBI agent turned around.
"Get him outta here," Sam said. He watched as the uniformed officers came forward to lift Danny out of the dumpster. The terrified gangster was half-laughing as he passed by. Maybe, with some time, Danny would be willing to talk, but as of now, the other gangsters weren't talking, and Danny was too crazy to talk.
He needed more. To find whoever that kid was, stop him from running around the island getting in fights. The Silicon Dragons had to have some idea of who was fighting them now. With that smartphone footage people had created spreading around-
"Sam! Sam!" someone ran up to him as he was broodingly strolling past the yellow tape lines. A microphone was shoved into his face. "Any thoughts on this superhuman that has been fighting criminals across the islands?"
"No comment," he squinted down at the reporter. He was a skinny man, with short-cropped blonde hair and dark eyes. The reporter was also smiling way too much, the cameraman behind him pointing a camera right at his face. "Get out of my way."
"What do you have to say about the things people are calling him? Some have been saying he's Hawaii's First Superhero!"
"He's a vigilante," Sam snarled. "Not a superhero. He's causing trouble for the islands, nothing more. If he's smart, he'll either stop, or turn himself in."
"You disapprove, then," before Sam could choose to ignore him, the reporter continued. "Well, what about the names people have been giving him!? Any in particular you prefer? Beastmaster, Monster Tamer, Blood Vengeance-"
"Vigilante. Or Idiot," Sam lifted a palm and pressed it against the reporter's chest, pushing him aside.
"Sam, come on," the reporter said. Seriously, why did this guy know his name? "You can't tell me having a little superhero backup is a bad thing for Hawaii."
Sam almost punched him right there. He kept walking instead, trying to keep calm. This damn kid was causing problems on top of problems. If he started becoming famous, the Silicon Dragons would have to escalate to keep their vaunted 'honor'. Worse. Heroes attracted trouble. Superman may not have wanted it to happen, but the number of disasters in Metropolis had risen drastically since he came along. Worse, he had enemies. People with vendettas coming after him, and causing damage.
If this kid started running around, he'd attract enemies of his own. Enemies that would see Hawaii as collateral damage.
Sam entered his car, more determined than ever to find this kid. Before people started getting hurt.
------
"This really hurts," I winced, feeling the antibiotic ointment being placed on the shallow bullet hole in my chest. I placed it gently there, while a small paw placed more against the hole in my back. "Since when am I bullet-resistant?"
"I imagine, since you appeared in our world," Alakazam twirled a bullet in between his hands, the flattened piece of metal dancing in the air. "While guns are used in my world, they are relics of an age before Pokemon training became commonplace. And I'm glad you said bullet-resistant."
"I'm a nerd, I know the different levels of bulletproof," Mudkip grabbed a bandage off the pile of first aid stuff we'd gotten. I'd bought two first aid kits at a pharmacy once we'd gotten some distance. After all, we didn't know when we'd want more first aid stuff, and the ones in Honolulu were more professional than the ones I'd found near Kilauea.
"We wouldn't have been discussing it, if it weren't for the fact you decided to help that man," Alakazam said. He smirked, tossing the bullet he'd been playing with towards me. "There really was no need to fight for him. It was in your best interests to let them kidnap-"
"Enough," I snapped. Alakazam stopped, though I could still feel the amusement he was sending me. I looked around for a moment, thinking.
As soon as we'd left the area, I'd made a beeline for a pharmacy, put one of my back up shirts on, went in, grabbed the two first aid kits, then went to a rooftop of a nearby McDonald's. Now, as the sun slowly rose, the four of us were thinking about what we'd done and seen. "Mimikyu, you okay?"
My little eldritch abomination looked up at me. She had taken her costume off, laying it out in front of her so she could stare at it. The Pikachu outfit had taken bullets on her behalf, but it needed to be repaired so that it would be able to stand up on its own again. She had tears in her eyes, her shadowy and horrific form trembling just a bit, though she nodded.
"Do you want one of your backups?" I asked her. I easily held in a shudder as her body shifted in a way that reminded me of the sound your mouth makes when something in the night tastes your skin. Then she nodded.
"Here," Alakazam said gently, passing her my backpack.
Mimikyu hopped into it. For a moment, my backpack shifted as I wrapped my chest in clean bandages and tape, trying to implement what little I remembered from health class, while Mudkip completed his work on the wound on my back. Then Mimikyu hopped out of the backpack. I eyed what she was wearing.
When we'd met those kids in a store a while back, Mimikyu had come to a realization. Nobody in this universe knew who Pikachu was. With that epiphany, she'd decided that if she wanted people to like her, she had to change her methods.
So when she looked up at me with a black flowing cape, grey costume, and a fake black cowl with a yellow symbol on her chest, I knew exactly what she was thinking. She looked at the three of us nervously.
"That's one of the best Batman costumes I've ever seen," I said with a grin.
"Mudkip!"
"A well-crafted suit," Alakazam said simply. I got the feeling he didn't care that much, but cared that she cared.
Mimikyu gave us a happy-eyed look, wiggling in place, her Batman head shaking back and forth. I had to wonder what the Dark Knight would have thought of that.
Well. Back to business then.
"Okay, well, we're here," I sighed. "I don't suppose the roof of a McDonalds will do the job for a teleport zone."
Alakazam scoffed. "The lack of dignity aside, now, it would not. The best place would be somewhere relatively undisturbed. A place of peace, or healing. I can sense a few that would work near us."
"We can get there," I shook my head. "After that, we'll head right home."
"Mudkip?" the little guy said, surprised.
"I'm not staying here long enough for people to track us down," I explained. "We'll disappear for a while, let the heat die down. It's too bad, since I'd have loved to get an internet connection into the cave, but we can't risk it."
Alakazam stroked his mustache. "That makes sense. But I might recommend that we at least visit more regularly. I can already see that you've made quite an impact on the public consciousness."
"Made an impact?" I groaned. "Damnit. What are people saying?"
"Based on the surface thoughts of the customers here? That Mudkip and Mimikyu are adorable. But they're also saying that you looked like a bloodthirsty lunatic, covered in blood and throwing men into the ocean."
"It could always be worse, I guess," I'd written fanfics on the internet. I'd dealt with a bunch of people who didn't know me making weird assumptions. A bunch of strangers calling me a lunatic was low on the ladder. "Okay. Alakazam, what's the closest place to us that we can get this done at?"
He pointed at a building in the distance. I nodded slowly. "Before we leave… Anyone hungry?"
The smell of french fries in the air was driving me nuts.
Even then though… Well, I could try to ignore it, but the thought that I could tank bullets, even just lower caliber ones, made me feel so strange. On the one hand, the little kid in me was dancing. Every kid imagines bullets bouncing off of them. The pragmatist in me was happy. I was in a lot less danger now. Though I had to worry about people bringing much bigger guns to kill me now.
A part of me, though, felt a little bit… violated. No, not violated, that was far too strong a word. It was more that I felt less real somehow. I'd clung to the idea that I, at least, was still human. Not, I don't know, whatever you would call the anime equivalent of a human being.
I'd noticed I was a little stronger than I'd been when I was a teenager the first go around, but it wasn't until now that the differences really struck me. That humans weren't supposed to be able to do some of the things I did.
With those thoughts running through my head, I went to satisfy my cravings for unhealthy food.
------
Tana Moon
"Why did you interview Sam Mokoa?" Tana asked, sitting behind her desk with a skeptical look on her face.
Tana Moon was a beautiful young woman, with shiny black hair, large brown eyes, and brown skin. She was wearing a purple suit cut to her figure, red lipstick, and looked like she was constantly wondering if the person in front of her was a moron.
The desk held a single placard with the words 'News Director'. She was sitting in the middle of KONA-TV, with a blonde-haired man sitting in front of her. "I told you to avoid him. Sam is like interview poison. He hates anything that isn't a clue."
"That's why he was perfect for this!" the blonde man said proudly.
"John, you're an idiot."
"No, no, seriously, Mrs. Moon, I promise, I have a plan! Look, this isn't just another supermarket opening or something. This is Hawaii's first superhero! We have a chance to drive the narrative here. This kid is gonna be our Superman!"
Tana rolled her eyes. "First, no reporter worth their salt is going to stake their career on some teenage kid being the next Superman. Second, you're ignoring reality."
"I'm not, I swear," John said placatingly. "But look at what we have," John held his arms out. "A teenager with superpowered animals fighting the Silicon Dragons in the street. A gruff and tough detective, ready to arrest all of them. I know you hate it when we manipulate the news to make ratings, but we don't have to manipulate the news here, Mrs. Moon! This is going to make ratings soar."
Tana thought about that. In truth, it was a boon. Hawaii had never had a story like this. One that they could follow and spread across the islands. If this kid continued the way he was, things would be very good for the news. But she was worried.
The Silicon Dragons were a problem. One that a lot of people didn't know about. Thus far, they'd been a relatively 'safe' gang, if such a thing could be said to exist. But that was if you didn't know the truth…
Still. The news had to be told.
"By the way, have you come up with a name?" Tana asked.
"I came up with a couple," John took out a notepad. "Based on what people are calling him on Twitter."
"You really want to use Twitter to decide something?" Tana said. "That's a horrible idea."
"No, no, there's some good ones! Here's one. Beastmaster?"
"That's the name of a show."
"Dr. Moreau?"
"Are you serious? I thought you wanted this guy to be a hero, and you want him to have the name of some asshole who rips apart animals."
"Okay, okay, don't worry, we have more!"
"How many more?"
"Thirty or so."
Damn you, twitter.
"How about Pickaname?"
"What?"
"It's what he yelled while he ran off. 'Pick a name!'"
"That's off the table."
"Well, how about this one. Kahu Koko."
"...Hawaiian for Blood Keeper."
"According to Google."
"Well, the translation is a little off. Still, Kahu is a good name," Tana looked at a picture on the wall. The image of the young man, shirtless and covered in his own blood, a red and white goalie mask.
"Not bad. Little vicious though. Even if this kid does turn out to be a secret supervillain, we can't go giving him the name 'Blood' right out of the gate. Besides, anyone who uses the word blood in their name is a pretentious asshole."
"Ah. Well, I have more names-"
"No, hold on John," Tana raised a hand, cutting him off. "...Red Keeper. He's covered in blood, has two animals who fight for him. It's a good combination. Kahu Kia'i, the Red Keeper of Monsters. Make that the headline."
"Kahu Kia'i," John said softly. "Yeah. Yeah, that'll work."
"Of course it will," Tana smirked. "I'm the one who came up with it after all."
------
A Penthouse Suite, Honolulu, Hawaii
A man dressed in an immaculate black and red suit turned off his smartphone before leaning back in his chair contemplating the image of the strange "animals" that were currently being spoken about in social media. One, a small blue-finned creature. The other, a yellow-clad creature of the shadows. Both accompanied by a young man who controlled them.
"How unexpectedly interesting,"
He smiled sinisterly and turned his head towards the man seated at the door who was currently cleaning one of the many pistols from his extensive personal arsenal. "Mr. Lawton, would you be so kind as to get one of our people to investigate deeper into these recent reports on this new superhero?"
The man looked up with his usual hard-eyed stare. "Sure thing boss. But you know, messing with heroes…" he glanced down at a mask that rested on the table, a single red lens attached to the white mask. "It never ends well."
"Oh don't worry," he told Lawton. He looked at his phone again. At the image of a young man covered in blood, with those animals on either side of him. "I think this is only going to get more intriguing."
"...What a shitshow," Sam whispered to himself, rubbing his forehead as he looked around. He was standing on a street next to some docks in Honolulu. A van that had been heavily battered by some unknowable force sat in the center of the road. Yellow placards with numbers on them sat around the floor next to spent bullet casings. Nine men had been arrested, all of them Silicon Dragons, two of whom had to be fished out of the ocean, most of whom had been caught on camera shooting at someone with illegal weapons.
Someone with superhuman abilities, accompanied by animals with abilities.
"He was a teenager," Sam mused. "A damned kid…" the FBI agent looked around with hard eyes, tracing his vision wherever he could. He'd already taken notice of everything he could, but he was trying to make sure he got everything.
Technically, witness reports mentioned a large man had been with the teen, but whoever that was, he'd disappeared before anyone started filming him. After that was when the kid started causing a mess.
He'd taken two bullets and came out with nothing but scratches. His animals had been terrifying. The small blue one had incredible physical abilities, it's speed and strength beyond what a being its size should have been capable of. It had obliterated the men before it, with powers of water and ice, like a storm brought to life.
And then, that yellow hooded creature. If the blue one had been all the power of the ocean shoved into a puppy-sized package, then the yellow one was all the shadows that crawled in the night. The darkness brought to life. It had shattered a car, took a man… somewhere, a man they couldn't find.
Three superbeings. And Sam knew there had to be more. If they were the same ones that hit that smugglers farm on the Big Island, then there had to be more, based on the footprints he'd found. If they hadn't been there, well… That left seven footprints to account for.
"Sir!" a uniformed officer ran over, her face pale. "We found the last guy! H-He's, he doesn't want to leave the dumpster."
Sam sighed slowly, shaking his head. "Lead the way, Janey."
The officer nodded so fast she looked like her head was about to fly off, turning and rushing away. Sam followed her at a more sedate pace. He wasn't about to rush this. He took in the sights as he walked, noting every last detail. They were dealing with monsters and gangsters. Anything could be a clue. And that was putting things lightly. He'd heard of reports in London of officers having trouble with a literal poltergeist. They'd had to find a random stone in a garden that was tying the poltergeist to the city of London. This, among many cases, was proof that the best way for a normal detective to deal with the supernatural, was accounting for everything. Leave nothing to chance. No stone left unturned, brought to its literal conclusion.
In an alleyway behind the hotel, very far from where the fight had taken place, two officers were waiting. They parted as Sam approached the garbage dumpster they had been guarding. Sam looked inside.
"...Danny?" Sam blinked slowly. "Danny Shousa? What the hell are you doing in the trash?"
Danny Shousa was a Silicon Dragon. One that had taken advantage of the powerful lawyers and his lack of any truly violent crimes, any people could prove anyways, to escape jail time. Now, however, he'd been on camera carrying a gun with intent to kill someone.
He was also pale, covered in sweat, curled up in the fetal position, and had a banana covered in mold on his head.
"What the hell happened to-" Sam was cut off when Danny spun up to his knees, gazing into Sam's eyes.
"The shadows, Samuel!" he grabbed Sam by his jacket. The uniformed officers stepped forward with guns drawn, and Sam quickly waved them back. "They cut, but I do not bleed!"
"Why were you going after that guy?" Sam asked seriously, unfazed by the screaming man in his face.
"She comes," Danny trembled, clutching at Sam. "Smelling like the dark of the forest and fabric softener-"
"I know, the yellow one," Sam without skipping a beat. "Focus, Danny. Why were you here?"
"...I don't know," Danny laughed, tears falling down his cheeks. "There are things out there, Sam. Monsters."
They eyed each other. Finally, the FBI agent turned around.
"Get him outta here," Sam said. He watched as the uniformed officers came forward to lift Danny out of the dumpster. The terrified gangster was half-laughing as he passed by. Maybe, with some time, Danny would be willing to talk, but as of now, the other gangsters weren't talking, and Danny was too crazy to talk.
He needed more. To find whoever that kid was, stop him from running around the island getting in fights. The Silicon Dragons had to have some idea of who was fighting them now. With that smartphone footage people had created spreading around-
"Sam! Sam!" someone ran up to him as he was broodingly strolling past the yellow tape lines. A microphone was shoved into his face. "Any thoughts on this superhuman that has been fighting criminals across the islands?"
"No comment," he squinted down at the reporter. He was a skinny man, with short-cropped blonde hair and dark eyes. The reporter was also smiling way too much, the cameraman behind him pointing a camera right at his face. "Get out of my way."
"What do you have to say about the things people are calling him? Some have been saying he's Hawaii's First Superhero!"
"He's a vigilante," Sam snarled. "Not a superhero. He's causing trouble for the islands, nothing more. If he's smart, he'll either stop, or turn himself in."
"You disapprove, then," before Sam could choose to ignore him, the reporter continued. "Well, what about the names people have been giving him!? Any in particular you prefer? Beastmaster, Monster Tamer, Blood Vengeance-"
"Vigilante. Or Idiot," Sam lifted a palm and pressed it against the reporter's chest, pushing him aside.
"Sam, come on," the reporter said. Seriously, why did this guy know his name? "You can't tell me having a little superhero backup is a bad thing for Hawaii."
Sam almost punched him right there. He kept walking instead, trying to keep calm. This damn kid was causing problems on top of problems. If he started becoming famous, the Silicon Dragons would have to escalate to keep their vaunted 'honor'. Worse. Heroes attracted trouble. Superman may not have wanted it to happen, but the number of disasters in Metropolis had risen drastically since he came along. Worse, he had enemies. People with vendettas coming after him, and causing damage.
If this kid started running around, he'd attract enemies of his own. Enemies that would see Hawaii as collateral damage.
Sam entered his car, more determined than ever to find this kid. Before people started getting hurt.
------
"This really hurts," I winced, feeling the antibiotic ointment being placed on the shallow bullet hole in my chest. I placed it gently there, while a small paw placed more against the hole in my back. "Since when am I bullet-resistant?"
"I imagine, since you appeared in our world," Alakazam twirled a bullet in between his hands, the flattened piece of metal dancing in the air. "While guns are used in my world, they are relics of an age before Pokemon training became commonplace. And I'm glad you said bullet-resistant."
"I'm a nerd, I know the different levels of bulletproof," Mudkip grabbed a bandage off the pile of first aid stuff we'd gotten. I'd bought two first aid kits at a pharmacy once we'd gotten some distance. After all, we didn't know when we'd want more first aid stuff, and the ones in Honolulu were more professional than the ones I'd found near Kilauea.
"We wouldn't have been discussing it, if it weren't for the fact you decided to help that man," Alakazam said. He smirked, tossing the bullet he'd been playing with towards me. "There really was no need to fight for him. It was in your best interests to let them kidnap-"
"Enough," I snapped. Alakazam stopped, though I could still feel the amusement he was sending me. I looked around for a moment, thinking.
As soon as we'd left the area, I'd made a beeline for a pharmacy, put one of my back up shirts on, went in, grabbed the two first aid kits, then went to a rooftop of a nearby McDonald's. Now, as the sun slowly rose, the four of us were thinking about what we'd done and seen. "Mimikyu, you okay?"
My little eldritch abomination looked up at me. She had taken her costume off, laying it out in front of her so she could stare at it. The Pikachu outfit had taken bullets on her behalf, but it needed to be repaired so that it would be able to stand up on its own again. She had tears in her eyes, her shadowy and horrific form trembling just a bit, though she nodded.
"Do you want one of your backups?" I asked her. I easily held in a shudder as her body shifted in a way that reminded me of the sound your mouth makes when something in the night tastes your skin. Then she nodded.
"Here," Alakazam said gently, passing her my backpack.
Mimikyu hopped into it. For a moment, my backpack shifted as I wrapped my chest in clean bandages and tape, trying to implement what little I remembered from health class, while Mudkip completed his work on the wound on my back. Then Mimikyu hopped out of the backpack. I eyed what she was wearing.
When we'd met those kids in a store a while back, Mimikyu had come to a realization. Nobody in this universe knew who Pikachu was. With that epiphany, she'd decided that if she wanted people to like her, she had to change her methods.
So when she looked up at me with a black flowing cape, grey costume, and a fake black cowl with a yellow symbol on her chest, I knew exactly what she was thinking. She looked at the three of us nervously.
"That's one of the best Batman costumes I've ever seen," I said with a grin.
"Mudkip!"
"A well-crafted suit," Alakazam said simply. I got the feeling he didn't care that much, but cared that she cared.
Mimikyu gave us a happy-eyed look, wiggling in place, her Batman head shaking back and forth. I had to wonder what the Dark Knight would have thought of that.
Well. Back to business then.
"Okay, well, we're here," I sighed. "I don't suppose the roof of a McDonalds will do the job for a teleport zone."
Alakazam scoffed. "The lack of dignity aside, now, it would not. The best place would be somewhere relatively undisturbed. A place of peace, or healing. I can sense a few that would work near us."
"We can get there," I shook my head. "After that, we'll head right home."
"Mudkip?" the little guy said, surprised.
"I'm not staying here long enough for people to track us down," I explained. "We'll disappear for a while, let the heat die down. It's too bad, since I'd have loved to get an internet connection into the cave, but we can't risk it."
Alakazam stroked his mustache. "That makes sense. But I might recommend that we at least visit more regularly. I can already see that you've made quite an impact on the public consciousness."
"Made an impact?" I groaned. "Damnit. What are people saying?"
"Based on the surface thoughts of the customers here? That Mudkip and Mimikyu are adorable. But they're also saying that you looked like a bloodthirsty lunatic, covered in blood and throwing men into the ocean."
"It could always be worse, I guess," I'd written fanfics on the internet. I'd dealt with a bunch of people who didn't know me making weird assumptions. A bunch of strangers calling me a lunatic was low on the ladder. "Okay. Alakazam, what's the closest place to us that we can get this done at?"
He pointed at a building in the distance. I nodded slowly. "Before we leave… Anyone hungry?"
The smell of french fries in the air was driving me nuts.
Even then though… Well, I could try to ignore it, but the thought that I could tank bullets, even just lower caliber ones, made me feel so strange. On the one hand, the little kid in me was dancing. Every kid imagines bullets bouncing off of them. The pragmatist in me was happy. I was in a lot less danger now. Though I had to worry about people bringing much bigger guns to kill me now.
A part of me, though, felt a little bit… violated. No, not violated, that was far too strong a word. It was more that I felt less real somehow. I'd clung to the idea that I, at least, was still human. Not, I don't know, whatever you would call the anime equivalent of a human being.
I'd noticed I was a little stronger than I'd been when I was a teenager the first go around, but it wasn't until now that the differences really struck me. That humans weren't supposed to be able to do some of the things I did.
With those thoughts running through my head, I went to satisfy my cravings for unhealthy food.
------
Tana Moon
"Why did you interview Sam Mokoa?" Tana asked, sitting behind her desk with a skeptical look on her face.
Tana Moon was a beautiful young woman, with shiny black hair, large brown eyes, and brown skin. She was wearing a purple suit cut to her figure, red lipstick, and looked like she was constantly wondering if the person in front of her was a moron.
The desk held a single placard with the words 'News Director'. She was sitting in the middle of KONA-TV, with a blonde-haired man sitting in front of her. "I told you to avoid him. Sam is like interview poison. He hates anything that isn't a clue."
"That's why he was perfect for this!" the blonde man said proudly.
"John, you're an idiot."
"No, no, seriously, Mrs. Moon, I promise, I have a plan! Look, this isn't just another supermarket opening or something. This is Hawaii's first superhero! We have a chance to drive the narrative here. This kid is gonna be our Superman!"
Tana rolled her eyes. "First, no reporter worth their salt is going to stake their career on some teenage kid being the next Superman. Second, you're ignoring reality."
"I'm not, I swear," John said placatingly. "But look at what we have," John held his arms out. "A teenager with superpowered animals fighting the Silicon Dragons in the street. A gruff and tough detective, ready to arrest all of them. I know you hate it when we manipulate the news to make ratings, but we don't have to manipulate the news here, Mrs. Moon! This is going to make ratings soar."
Tana thought about that. In truth, it was a boon. Hawaii had never had a story like this. One that they could follow and spread across the islands. If this kid continued the way he was, things would be very good for the news. But she was worried.
The Silicon Dragons were a problem. One that a lot of people didn't know about. Thus far, they'd been a relatively 'safe' gang, if such a thing could be said to exist. But that was if you didn't know the truth…
Still. The news had to be told.
"By the way, have you come up with a name?" Tana asked.
"I came up with a couple," John took out a notepad. "Based on what people are calling him on Twitter."
"You really want to use Twitter to decide something?" Tana said. "That's a horrible idea."
"No, no, there's some good ones! Here's one. Beastmaster?"
"That's the name of a show."
"Dr. Moreau?"
"Are you serious? I thought you wanted this guy to be a hero, and you want him to have the name of some asshole who rips apart animals."
"Okay, okay, don't worry, we have more!"
"How many more?"
"Thirty or so."
Damn you, twitter.
"How about Pickaname?"
"What?"
"It's what he yelled while he ran off. 'Pick a name!'"
"That's off the table."
"Well, how about this one. Kahu Koko."
"...Hawaiian for Blood Keeper."
"According to Google."
"Well, the translation is a little off. Still, Kahu is a good name," Tana looked at a picture on the wall. The image of the young man, shirtless and covered in his own blood, a red and white goalie mask.
"Not bad. Little vicious though. Even if this kid does turn out to be a secret supervillain, we can't go giving him the name 'Blood' right out of the gate. Besides, anyone who uses the word blood in their name is a pretentious asshole."
"Ah. Well, I have more names-"
"No, hold on John," Tana raised a hand, cutting him off. "...Red Keeper. He's covered in blood, has two animals who fight for him. It's a good combination. Kahu Kia'i, the Red Keeper of Monsters. Make that the headline."
"Kahu Kia'i," John said softly. "Yeah. Yeah, that'll work."
"Of course it will," Tana smirked. "I'm the one who came up with it after all."
------
A Penthouse Suite, Honolulu, Hawaii
A man dressed in an immaculate black and red suit turned off his smartphone before leaning back in his chair contemplating the image of the strange "animals" that were currently being spoken about in social media. One, a small blue-finned creature. The other, a yellow-clad creature of the shadows. Both accompanied by a young man who controlled them.
"How unexpectedly interesting,"
He smiled sinisterly and turned his head towards the man seated at the door who was currently cleaning one of the many pistols from his extensive personal arsenal. "Mr. Lawton, would you be so kind as to get one of our people to investigate deeper into these recent reports on this new superhero?"
The man looked up with his usual hard-eyed stare. "Sure thing boss. But you know, messing with heroes…" he glanced down at a mask that rested on the table, a single red lens attached to the white mask. "It never ends well."
"Oh don't worry," he told Lawton. He looked at his phone again. At the image of a young man covered in blood, with those animals on either side of him. "I think this is only going to get more intriguing."
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oooooh this seems cool~
Let me make some predictions..
The Justice League will find him and then he'll reveal everything about himself and his secrets,
After that, he'll get into the Teen Titans or some other teenager superhero group,
And then, whenever he fights somebody he'll let them get away and we'll get some angst about how lonely and sad he is.
Did I get some of it right?
Let me make some predictions..
The Justice League will find him and then he'll reveal everything about himself and his secrets,
After that, he'll get into the Teen Titans or some other teenager superhero group,
And then, whenever he fights somebody he'll let them get away and we'll get some angst about how lonely and sad he is.
Did I get some of it right?
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Not strange at all. Goodness knows if I had money to spare, I'd be finding someone to commission a drawing of that.
Really glad I finally caught up and read chapters 7 and 8. Batkyu for the win.
The perfect place to have Alakazam place his teleport zone turned out to be a garden. Near a hospital.
Alakazam needed an area that fit a variety of criteria. The garden was well guarded, groomed and cleaned regularly, and didn't have much chance of someone coming by and burning the place to the ground. At the least, we had a way to go back to Honolulu. The last thing I wanted was to take a boat ever again. Or at least, not unless the chances of meeting gangsters was far lower.
I also took the plunge and bought a mobile hotspot. One of those big hefty ones that gave you internet access even in the furthest jungles of deep Africa. I'd had a choice. I could take the cheaper one, which had a relatively sedate advertising campaign written on it, or the expensive one that screamed about what an incredible machine it was.
I took a look at the expensive one. LexCorp. Then the cheaper one. WayneTech.
I went with the cheaper one. If I was choosing a crazy billionaire to finance, I knew the right choice. I also picked up a laptop. Nothing crazy, just one that any person could grab. Those were the big ones, but I made sure to add some odds and ends that would be more useful. USB drives, chargers, that sort of thing.
I ran into a bit of a slowdown at the cashier stand when I had to pay cash. The cashier went over each hundred dollar bill with a fine-toothed comb. I let her do it. They were real after all. She called her manager over, they discussed, then they bagged up my purchases and let me leave.
With that, I made my way back to the teleport point, where Alakazam was waiting.
"I'm worried," Alakazam said the instant I got there.
"You tend to do that. Should I have you talk to a therapist, work on those issues?"
"When you deal with your anger first, then you can make those sorts of comments," Alakazam said. "Let us go home and discuss the issues with the others. We may have to prepare for more problems than we believed."
I nodded, knowing what he was talking about, stepping forward to place a hand on Alakazam's shoulder. He closed his eyes. The world seemed to spin around us.
In a flash, we disappeared, then reappeared in the cave. Just like that. Teleport really did live up to its in-game counterpart, in terms of speed. I looked around. We'd shown up in a corner of the harbor area, a section that Slugma had placed volcanic dirt on, with some budding plants growing out of the black soil.
"Slugma!" a small red body hit me in the chest. I grinned, hugging Slugma tightly.
"Heya."
"Slug, slug!" Slugma rubbed her head against my chest. She hopped onto the ground when she'd been still for just long enough, before she could harden up too much, giving me a grin.
"Where is everybody?" I asked Slugma, heading towards the center room. She followed along, bopping happily, Alakazam placidly floating along with us. I took out Mudkip and Mimikyu's PokeballsPokeball's and released them, allowing the pair to show up in flashes of light. The four of us entered the center room. I stopped, staring.
"It seems some changes have been made," Alakazam noted.
There was a big metal grate in the center of the room. It was around eight feet across, shaped in a circle. I walked up to it. It was very rough, looking as though it had been made by a blacksmith who's only tools had been rocks. I looked through the gaps of the grate. Some stairs were going down in a circle along the walls of a pit that went down for… well, until I couldn't see anything but darkness at the bottom.
"Mimikyu?" the little yellow-clad Pokemon stood on top of the grate looking down at the same pit I was. She reared up, then called down into the hole. "Mimikyuuuuu!"
Her voice echoed into the shadows.
"...TYRUNT!" came a roar from the pit. After a moment, a beam of light came from the side of the wall. A familiar head poked out of the beam of light. Tyrunt gave us a saurian smile. Gurdurr came out next, wearing his hardhat and twirling his I-beam in his hands.
"Gurdurr!" he gave us a smirk, waving proudly.
"Dude, how deep does this go?"
"...Gurdurr?"
"You asking me or telling me?"
He hesitated, looking down at the pit. Then back up at me. "Gurdurr."
I sighed at the number he gave me. Well, I had promised his next construction project would be to his specifications. Hadn't really given him a time limit on how long he could do whatever he wanted with that.
"Is the room I requested ready?" Alakazam asked.
Gurdurr grumbled at the comment, before raising a reluctant thumb. He still had a complaint about Alakazam's placement of the room. "Gurdurr. Gurdurr."
"Aesthetics?" Alakazam blinked. "What are you-"
I tapped Alakazam's forehead. "No fighting," he gave me an affronted look. "He made it for you. You guys can argue about how it messes with the Feng Shui of our little Pokemon Gym."
"Mudkip?" the little guy gave me a look.
"...Yeah, why not?" As Gurdurr and Tyrunt came up to join us, pushing the grate out of the way. "Guess this place does need a name other than, 'The Cave'. I still think you could come up with something better."
"Mudkip," he gave me a stubborn look that made me smile. It was no surprise. My sister and brothers had the same stubborn look. So did I.
"Fine. Let's embrace the cliche. As of today, this base will be known as Kīlauea Gym. And if Lance pops out of a wall and kicks my ass for claiming a gym without a license or whatever you need to be a Gym Leader, I'm blaming you. Now show us what ya made here, Gurdurr."
"...Gurdurr?"
We all looked at Mimikyu. She preened in her Batman-themed costume. "Mimikyu!"
Gurdurr gave her a thumbs up.
------
He'd made quite a lot, as it turned out. Gurdurr's focus had been on just making the rooms, but he explained what they were as we went down the steps on the sides of the pit and entered each level.
He'd made it so the pit he'd chopped out of volcanic stone had caverns on each side of it, three levels, two large spaces on each level. For the top level, a room for recreational activities, with a large section chopped out to have space for things like small basketball matches and such, and a room that would become extra living quarters.
The second level had training facilities, with the weights I'd bought strewn about as well as a makeshift bunch of rings, and a room across from it for research and development. I don't know what Gurdurr was expecting us to research and develop in a cave with a bunch of scra- Okay, cutting off that meme before it goes too far. Whatever the case, Mudkip was interested in the training room, while Alakazam gave our new R&D department a greedy smile.
The bottom had the prison. I didn't know I needed one. But I might. So Gurdurr had built a room just in case we needed to imprison people. Complete with a floor that could be removed by the right Pokemon move to send villains into lava. Vicious. But it was there.
Across from that was a room for Alakazam's project. He took a long time in there, measuring the shape of it, before calling it 'somewhat adequate.'
After we held back an offended Gurdurr from punching him in his triangular face, it was back up top to talk over the issues of the hour. This led to me taking my shirt off to change first, then Gurdurr catching sight of my wounded chest and back.
"GURDURR!?"
I stopped, looking over at him. He looked shocked, then worried. Tyrunt was slowly chewing at some goat jerky, while Slugma stared at me. She was still for so long that Alakazam had to give her a telekinetic push to get her moving again, her body dancing in place to keep her blood moving.
"So… I got shot," I said with a small grimace. "But uh, only a little bit, so it was okay."
Tyrunt swallowed his meal. Then he nodded calmly. "Tyrunt."
He apparently didn't know most people weren't able to shrug off bullets, and just thought I was bragging about a normal everyday thing.
Gurdurr gave his friend a dumbfounded look, then back at me, walking over to look closely at my bandages.
"So. It turns out, I'm at least a little bullet-resistant," I said. "And the reason I know that is that I ended up fighting a bunch of gangsters. Mudkip and Mimikyu took most of them down though."
Mudkip nodded grimly. "Kip."
"Gur!" came an accusatory yell, Gurdurr pointing at my wounds.
"Mudkip," the small blue Pokemon said, narrowing his eyes.
"You know he didn't let this happen," I agreed with Mudkip. "Let's call it lucky I didn't die, and figure out where to go from here, because three of us are on the internet now. Alakazam, we hooked up?"
"Barely," the psychic-type was floating near the generator, laptop on his lap and plugged in and the WayneTech mobile hotspot up and running under his hovering form. "This hotspot is more powerful than I expected, but the laptop is not acting as I wish."
"I'll update the Amazon review page," I said with a sigh. "Just be thankful Batman made sure he could get wifi in a cave."
"Yes, but remind me to learn how to build something that does not complain when I change the default browser," he typed quickly. He was doing pretty well for only having three fingers on each hand. Then again, I had a friend who typed damn fast with just his index fingers in my old world. "For now, I have several sites open. Twitter has been quite… interesting."
He said that in a tone like the website had slaughtered his family.
"You three have obtained some fame, though I don't believe many outside of Hawaii have any interest. There is some speculation."
"What's confirmed?" I asked seriously. "The stuff people guessed right?"
"They know of Mudkip's strength, durability, and control over water and ice abilities, Mimikyu's ghost powers, and your durability and strength. Though they are calling Mimikyu's powers either shadow-control or magic."
I thought about that. "That's all fine. I'd rather we weren't seen in public at all, but I'm glad you two have some tricks up your sleeve no one guessed at. Were those guys we fought arrested?"
Alakazam nodded seriously. Gurdurr grumbled, though he seemed happier at that. "They were called the Silicon Dragons."
"I heard. God that name sucks. I don't remember them," I admitted. They sounded somewhat familiar, but who the hell memorized everything in every comic ever written.
"They have a reputation for being obsessed with a code of honor. For never escalating a fight beyond the amount of force needed to defeat it."
I thought about that for a moment. "... Like the Power Rangers? I swear, if we end up fighting giant mecha animals I'm gonna get pissed."
Alakazam opened his mouth, likely to reprimand me, then closed it when he realized I was being serious despite that joke. "Would you like me to compile a file on their capabilities, then? Or simply write Power Rangers under their name?"
I chuckled, nodding slowly. "Anything that's public will work. Mudkip, work with him. Assess every threat and come up with counters, note everything we might need to prepare for."
Mudkip nodded slowly, frowning. "...Mudkip?"
"I agree. Do you plan on fighting them, or simply preparing defensive measures?"
"Hn," I crossed my arms, looking around. "That's my first instinct," I admitted. "It's how we dealt with Team Rainbow Rocket. But gangsters in this world are a lot more ruthless than those idiots."
"Because Giovanni left them," Alakazam said.
"...Yeah, that's fair," they were a lot less of a threat without their badass leader in charge. "Regardless, I don't want to go attacking a bunch of gangsters anymore than we have to."
"So not a third time," Alakazam said with a smirk.
"Yes, we're gonna avoid our third strike. So. Who's the pissed off police commissioner?" I asked with a sigh.
Alakazam showed that his intelligence was legendary for a reason by turning the laptop immediately to show a stern faced man. A blue placard under his face said his name was Sam Mokoa. An FBI agent. Dope, I could make more references that way. I listened to the grumpy man talk for a moment, then shrugged.
"I mean, he's not wrong. I was a vigilante, as far as he knows. Personally I think this was more of a citizen's arrest type deal, since we were protecting Kalini. Any news on him?"
"He has not appeared in the news. Are you truly so unfazed?" Alakazam turned the monitor back towards him. "This Mokoa seems quite ready to arrest you."
"I'm not going to take that personally," I mean, kind of. "He's a cop, and gangsters are fighting metas in his streets. At least he's still arresting the Dragons. For now, we need to think about our next plan. Now that you have an internet connection and a teleport zone in Honolulu, our options have exploded. We can start doing some crazier work."
"I'm already getting started on that. I-"
"Tyrunt!" the small dinosaur said happily.
"Dinosaur documentaries?" Alakazam gave him a look like he'd never heard anything so dumb. "We brought this in for work, you stone-headed dolt, not for this obsession you have with-"
"Mimikyu!"
"This isn't so you can watch cat videos. The internet is to study, not to-"
"Mudkip!"
"You don't need to play video games!"
"Slugma!"
"...Well, that might be all right-"
"Gurdurr!"
Alakazam stared at Gurdurr, affronted. "What use could we have for wrestling!?"
Huh. Somehow, despite everything, I'd forgotten how distracting giving everyone an internet connection might be.
"This is all a waste of time," Alakazam sighed, looking at me. "...They've given you names, by the way."
"Really?" despite everything, I couldn't help a bit of excitement at that. Hopefully I wouldn't be stuck with a name like 'the Blur' or 'the Streak' or something. "What are they calling us?"
Mimikyu shook slightly, nervous to hear about public perception of her, and Slugma went over to bump heads with her, the two small Pokemon hugging each other close. Mudkip was much more confident, sitting on his haunches and waiting.
"Mudkip has been called Mako."
"...As in a Mako shark, or the Japanese name that means sincerity?"
"Both, apparently. You speak Japanese?"
"Only a little. But I know what the name Mako means. One of my favorite actors has the name. Or, did, I suppose," I said sadly, giving Mudkip a look. He looked back at me solemnly, before nodding. "What about Mimikyu?"
She perked up, eyes blinking excitedly, the Batman head of her costume waving.
"The Shroud," Alakazam said, the word foreboding in that tone of voice.
The Batman head stilled. She looked so crestfallen. "Mimikyu…"
She was disappointed to have a name that sounded so serious and scary. Slugma bumped heads with her again while I thought about that. "...Alakazam, what are the cuter ones?"
He looked at her. At the hopeful look she gave him, he started typing fast. Curious, I looked over his shoulder. I held back a smile at what I saw.
He wasn't looking at what the internet named her. He was google searching a good name to give her. When he saw me looking, he tried to glare, but I let it wash off of me.
Funny, how a psychic was so protective of a ghost at times. After a second, he found a name he seemed to like, looking over at her.
"Aumakua. It's a Hawaiian mythological deity, a spiritual ancestor that protects families and loves children."
It sounded rather pretty. Mimikyu thought about the name for a moment, before wiggling happily. "Mimikyu!"
"Alakazam," the psychic mumbled under his breath, sounding like a parent who'd been dealing with a precocious kid. He coughed, continuing. "So. Mahmoud. You have a codename that has been given to you as well. Kahu Kiaʻi."
"That sounds kinda cool. What does it mean though?"
"Several things. Although the writer of the article said the translation they're using is 'Red Keeper'."
"Red Keeper?" I asked, surprised. "What does that even, why call me that?"
In answer, he turned the screen around. Set above the main article was a picture of me. I was in front of Mimikyu and Mudkip, at an angle from the camera. I had my red and white mask on. I was also soaked in blood. Well, not 'soaked' per se, but enough that my tanned skin was covered in red. So, a red goalkeeper mask, protecting small animals, chest bloody. Fine. That was fair, as names went. I was terrible with names anyway (It's why I didn't nickname my Pokemon), so it was better than I would have made.
"You have yet to, as they say, 'trend' on the internet, but you have all become memes in Hawaii," a click on the keyboard, and another image of me popped up. It was a gif of me lifting a gangster up and tossing him into the harbor, with the word 'YEET!' flashing under it. The next one was of Mudkip glaring at the camera, and then one of Mimikyu using protect, though Alakazam went too fast for me to figure out what those two were.
The one he came to a stop on made me chuckle though. It was Mimikyu popping up behind the guy in shadows, her eyes edited so they were flashing red. The words below her were very familiar to me. "OMAE WA MOU SHINDEIRU." The gangster's eyes widening was perfect for the next part. "N-NANI!?"
God, that brought backme so many memories.
"Yay, we're famous," I said with a sigh again. "Okay, so now we need to figure out our next step. I need an identity, so that I can get things like debit cards. Hopefully, with the magic of the internet and ways to buy shit with those fat stacks over there, we can actually make a portal home. To both our homes. And I think I have an idea for that. After all."
I lifted my bag onto my shoulder. "I figure Kalini owes me a favor. And he might know a guy."
Alakazam needed an area that fit a variety of criteria. The garden was well guarded, groomed and cleaned regularly, and didn't have much chance of someone coming by and burning the place to the ground. At the least, we had a way to go back to Honolulu. The last thing I wanted was to take a boat ever again. Or at least, not unless the chances of meeting gangsters was far lower.
I also took the plunge and bought a mobile hotspot. One of those big hefty ones that gave you internet access even in the furthest jungles of deep Africa. I'd had a choice. I could take the cheaper one, which had a relatively sedate advertising campaign written on it, or the expensive one that screamed about what an incredible machine it was.
I took a look at the expensive one. LexCorp. Then the cheaper one. WayneTech.
I went with the cheaper one. If I was choosing a crazy billionaire to finance, I knew the right choice. I also picked up a laptop. Nothing crazy, just one that any person could grab. Those were the big ones, but I made sure to add some odds and ends that would be more useful. USB drives, chargers, that sort of thing.
I ran into a bit of a slowdown at the cashier stand when I had to pay cash. The cashier went over each hundred dollar bill with a fine-toothed comb. I let her do it. They were real after all. She called her manager over, they discussed, then they bagged up my purchases and let me leave.
With that, I made my way back to the teleport point, where Alakazam was waiting.
"I'm worried," Alakazam said the instant I got there.
"You tend to do that. Should I have you talk to a therapist, work on those issues?"
"When you deal with your anger first, then you can make those sorts of comments," Alakazam said. "Let us go home and discuss the issues with the others. We may have to prepare for more problems than we believed."
I nodded, knowing what he was talking about, stepping forward to place a hand on Alakazam's shoulder. He closed his eyes. The world seemed to spin around us.
In a flash, we disappeared, then reappeared in the cave. Just like that. Teleport really did live up to its in-game counterpart, in terms of speed. I looked around. We'd shown up in a corner of the harbor area, a section that Slugma had placed volcanic dirt on, with some budding plants growing out of the black soil.
"Slugma!" a small red body hit me in the chest. I grinned, hugging Slugma tightly.
"Heya."
"Slug, slug!" Slugma rubbed her head against my chest. She hopped onto the ground when she'd been still for just long enough, before she could harden up too much, giving me a grin.
"Where is everybody?" I asked Slugma, heading towards the center room. She followed along, bopping happily, Alakazam placidly floating along with us. I took out Mudkip and Mimikyu's PokeballsPokeball's and released them, allowing the pair to show up in flashes of light. The four of us entered the center room. I stopped, staring.
"It seems some changes have been made," Alakazam noted.
There was a big metal grate in the center of the room. It was around eight feet across, shaped in a circle. I walked up to it. It was very rough, looking as though it had been made by a blacksmith who's only tools had been rocks. I looked through the gaps of the grate. Some stairs were going down in a circle along the walls of a pit that went down for… well, until I couldn't see anything but darkness at the bottom.
"Mimikyu?" the little yellow-clad Pokemon stood on top of the grate looking down at the same pit I was. She reared up, then called down into the hole. "Mimikyuuuuu!"
Her voice echoed into the shadows.
"...TYRUNT!" came a roar from the pit. After a moment, a beam of light came from the side of the wall. A familiar head poked out of the beam of light. Tyrunt gave us a saurian smile. Gurdurr came out next, wearing his hardhat and twirling his I-beam in his hands.
"Gurdurr!" he gave us a smirk, waving proudly.
"Dude, how deep does this go?"
"...Gurdurr?"
"You asking me or telling me?"
He hesitated, looking down at the pit. Then back up at me. "Gurdurr."
I sighed at the number he gave me. Well, I had promised his next construction project would be to his specifications. Hadn't really given him a time limit on how long he could do whatever he wanted with that.
"Is the room I requested ready?" Alakazam asked.
Gurdurr grumbled at the comment, before raising a reluctant thumb. He still had a complaint about Alakazam's placement of the room. "Gurdurr. Gurdurr."
"Aesthetics?" Alakazam blinked. "What are you-"
I tapped Alakazam's forehead. "No fighting," he gave me an affronted look. "He made it for you. You guys can argue about how it messes with the Feng Shui of our little Pokemon Gym."
"Mudkip?" the little guy gave me a look.
"...Yeah, why not?" As Gurdurr and Tyrunt came up to join us, pushing the grate out of the way. "Guess this place does need a name other than, 'The Cave'. I still think you could come up with something better."
"Mudkip," he gave me a stubborn look that made me smile. It was no surprise. My sister and brothers had the same stubborn look. So did I.
"Fine. Let's embrace the cliche. As of today, this base will be known as Kīlauea Gym. And if Lance pops out of a wall and kicks my ass for claiming a gym without a license or whatever you need to be a Gym Leader, I'm blaming you. Now show us what ya made here, Gurdurr."
"...Gurdurr?"
We all looked at Mimikyu. She preened in her Batman-themed costume. "Mimikyu!"
Gurdurr gave her a thumbs up.
------
He'd made quite a lot, as it turned out. Gurdurr's focus had been on just making the rooms, but he explained what they were as we went down the steps on the sides of the pit and entered each level.
He'd made it so the pit he'd chopped out of volcanic stone had caverns on each side of it, three levels, two large spaces on each level. For the top level, a room for recreational activities, with a large section chopped out to have space for things like small basketball matches and such, and a room that would become extra living quarters.
The second level had training facilities, with the weights I'd bought strewn about as well as a makeshift bunch of rings, and a room across from it for research and development. I don't know what Gurdurr was expecting us to research and develop in a cave with a bunch of scra- Okay, cutting off that meme before it goes too far. Whatever the case, Mudkip was interested in the training room, while Alakazam gave our new R&D department a greedy smile.
The bottom had the prison. I didn't know I needed one. But I might. So Gurdurr had built a room just in case we needed to imprison people. Complete with a floor that could be removed by the right Pokemon move to send villains into lava. Vicious. But it was there.
Across from that was a room for Alakazam's project. He took a long time in there, measuring the shape of it, before calling it 'somewhat adequate.'
After we held back an offended Gurdurr from punching him in his triangular face, it was back up top to talk over the issues of the hour. This led to me taking my shirt off to change first, then Gurdurr catching sight of my wounded chest and back.
"GURDURR!?"
I stopped, looking over at him. He looked shocked, then worried. Tyrunt was slowly chewing at some goat jerky, while Slugma stared at me. She was still for so long that Alakazam had to give her a telekinetic push to get her moving again, her body dancing in place to keep her blood moving.
"So… I got shot," I said with a small grimace. "But uh, only a little bit, so it was okay."
Tyrunt swallowed his meal. Then he nodded calmly. "Tyrunt."
He apparently didn't know most people weren't able to shrug off bullets, and just thought I was bragging about a normal everyday thing.
Gurdurr gave his friend a dumbfounded look, then back at me, walking over to look closely at my bandages.
"So. It turns out, I'm at least a little bullet-resistant," I said. "And the reason I know that is that I ended up fighting a bunch of gangsters. Mudkip and Mimikyu took most of them down though."
Mudkip nodded grimly. "Kip."
"Gur!" came an accusatory yell, Gurdurr pointing at my wounds.
"Mudkip," the small blue Pokemon said, narrowing his eyes.
"You know he didn't let this happen," I agreed with Mudkip. "Let's call it lucky I didn't die, and figure out where to go from here, because three of us are on the internet now. Alakazam, we hooked up?"
"Barely," the psychic-type was floating near the generator, laptop on his lap and plugged in and the WayneTech mobile hotspot up and running under his hovering form. "This hotspot is more powerful than I expected, but the laptop is not acting as I wish."
"I'll update the Amazon review page," I said with a sigh. "Just be thankful Batman made sure he could get wifi in a cave."
"Yes, but remind me to learn how to build something that does not complain when I change the default browser," he typed quickly. He was doing pretty well for only having three fingers on each hand. Then again, I had a friend who typed damn fast with just his index fingers in my old world. "For now, I have several sites open. Twitter has been quite… interesting."
He said that in a tone like the website had slaughtered his family.
"You three have obtained some fame, though I don't believe many outside of Hawaii have any interest. There is some speculation."
"What's confirmed?" I asked seriously. "The stuff people guessed right?"
"They know of Mudkip's strength, durability, and control over water and ice abilities, Mimikyu's ghost powers, and your durability and strength. Though they are calling Mimikyu's powers either shadow-control or magic."
I thought about that. "That's all fine. I'd rather we weren't seen in public at all, but I'm glad you two have some tricks up your sleeve no one guessed at. Were those guys we fought arrested?"
Alakazam nodded seriously. Gurdurr grumbled, though he seemed happier at that. "They were called the Silicon Dragons."
"I heard. God that name sucks. I don't remember them," I admitted. They sounded somewhat familiar, but who the hell memorized everything in every comic ever written.
"They have a reputation for being obsessed with a code of honor. For never escalating a fight beyond the amount of force needed to defeat it."
I thought about that for a moment. "... Like the Power Rangers? I swear, if we end up fighting giant mecha animals I'm gonna get pissed."
Alakazam opened his mouth, likely to reprimand me, then closed it when he realized I was being serious despite that joke. "Would you like me to compile a file on their capabilities, then? Or simply write Power Rangers under their name?"
I chuckled, nodding slowly. "Anything that's public will work. Mudkip, work with him. Assess every threat and come up with counters, note everything we might need to prepare for."
Mudkip nodded slowly, frowning. "...Mudkip?"
"I agree. Do you plan on fighting them, or simply preparing defensive measures?"
"Hn," I crossed my arms, looking around. "That's my first instinct," I admitted. "It's how we dealt with Team Rainbow Rocket. But gangsters in this world are a lot more ruthless than those idiots."
"Because Giovanni left them," Alakazam said.
"...Yeah, that's fair," they were a lot less of a threat without their badass leader in charge. "Regardless, I don't want to go attacking a bunch of gangsters anymore than we have to."
"So not a third time," Alakazam said with a smirk.
"Yes, we're gonna avoid our third strike. So. Who's the pissed off police commissioner?" I asked with a sigh.
Alakazam showed that his intelligence was legendary for a reason by turning the laptop immediately to show a stern faced man. A blue placard under his face said his name was Sam Mokoa. An FBI agent. Dope, I could make more references that way. I listened to the grumpy man talk for a moment, then shrugged.
"I mean, he's not wrong. I was a vigilante, as far as he knows. Personally I think this was more of a citizen's arrest type deal, since we were protecting Kalini. Any news on him?"
"He has not appeared in the news. Are you truly so unfazed?" Alakazam turned the monitor back towards him. "This Mokoa seems quite ready to arrest you."
"I'm not going to take that personally," I mean, kind of. "He's a cop, and gangsters are fighting metas in his streets. At least he's still arresting the Dragons. For now, we need to think about our next plan. Now that you have an internet connection and a teleport zone in Honolulu, our options have exploded. We can start doing some crazier work."
"I'm already getting started on that. I-"
"Tyrunt!" the small dinosaur said happily.
"Dinosaur documentaries?" Alakazam gave him a look like he'd never heard anything so dumb. "We brought this in for work, you stone-headed dolt, not for this obsession you have with-"
"Mimikyu!"
"This isn't so you can watch cat videos. The internet is to study, not to-"
"Mudkip!"
"You don't need to play video games!"
"Slugma!"
"...Well, that might be all right-"
"Gurdurr!"
Alakazam stared at Gurdurr, affronted. "What use could we have for wrestling!?"
Huh. Somehow, despite everything, I'd forgotten how distracting giving everyone an internet connection might be.
"This is all a waste of time," Alakazam sighed, looking at me. "...They've given you names, by the way."
"Really?" despite everything, I couldn't help a bit of excitement at that. Hopefully I wouldn't be stuck with a name like 'the Blur' or 'the Streak' or something. "What are they calling us?"
Mimikyu shook slightly, nervous to hear about public perception of her, and Slugma went over to bump heads with her, the two small Pokemon hugging each other close. Mudkip was much more confident, sitting on his haunches and waiting.
"Mudkip has been called Mako."
"...As in a Mako shark, or the Japanese name that means sincerity?"
"Both, apparently. You speak Japanese?"
"Only a little. But I know what the name Mako means. One of my favorite actors has the name. Or, did, I suppose," I said sadly, giving Mudkip a look. He looked back at me solemnly, before nodding. "What about Mimikyu?"
She perked up, eyes blinking excitedly, the Batman head of her costume waving.
"The Shroud," Alakazam said, the word foreboding in that tone of voice.
The Batman head stilled. She looked so crestfallen. "Mimikyu…"
She was disappointed to have a name that sounded so serious and scary. Slugma bumped heads with her again while I thought about that. "...Alakazam, what are the cuter ones?"
He looked at her. At the hopeful look she gave him, he started typing fast. Curious, I looked over his shoulder. I held back a smile at what I saw.
He wasn't looking at what the internet named her. He was google searching a good name to give her. When he saw me looking, he tried to glare, but I let it wash off of me.
Funny, how a psychic was so protective of a ghost at times. After a second, he found a name he seemed to like, looking over at her.
"Aumakua. It's a Hawaiian mythological deity, a spiritual ancestor that protects families and loves children."
It sounded rather pretty. Mimikyu thought about the name for a moment, before wiggling happily. "Mimikyu!"
"Alakazam," the psychic mumbled under his breath, sounding like a parent who'd been dealing with a precocious kid. He coughed, continuing. "So. Mahmoud. You have a codename that has been given to you as well. Kahu Kiaʻi."
"That sounds kinda cool. What does it mean though?"
"Several things. Although the writer of the article said the translation they're using is 'Red Keeper'."
"Red Keeper?" I asked, surprised. "What does that even, why call me that?"
In answer, he turned the screen around. Set above the main article was a picture of me. I was in front of Mimikyu and Mudkip, at an angle from the camera. I had my red and white mask on. I was also soaked in blood. Well, not 'soaked' per se, but enough that my tanned skin was covered in red. So, a red goalkeeper mask, protecting small animals, chest bloody. Fine. That was fair, as names went. I was terrible with names anyway (It's why I didn't nickname my Pokemon), so it was better than I would have made.
"You have yet to, as they say, 'trend' on the internet, but you have all become memes in Hawaii," a click on the keyboard, and another image of me popped up. It was a gif of me lifting a gangster up and tossing him into the harbor, with the word 'YEET!' flashing under it. The next one was of Mudkip glaring at the camera, and then one of Mimikyu using protect, though Alakazam went too fast for me to figure out what those two were.
The one he came to a stop on made me chuckle though. It was Mimikyu popping up behind the guy in shadows, her eyes edited so they were flashing red. The words below her were very familiar to me. "OMAE WA MOU SHINDEIRU." The gangster's eyes widening was perfect for the next part. "N-NANI!?"
God, that brought backme so many memories.
"Yay, we're famous," I said with a sigh again. "Okay, so now we need to figure out our next step. I need an identity, so that I can get things like debit cards. Hopefully, with the magic of the internet and ways to buy shit with those fat stacks over there, we can actually make a portal home. To both our homes. And I think I have an idea for that. After all."
I lifted my bag onto my shoulder. "I figure Kalini owes me a favor. And he might know a guy."
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
Duplicate word
So tech sold by Batman is called WayneTech? I'm impressed it can work through several metres of solid rock.