13 Catch and Release

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Alright so this isn't that bad. Turns out the boat that picked us up belongs to the princess girl's family. Honestly I'm impressed, rather than a luxury yacht, this is more of a luxury research vessel.

My guess is that this thing should be close to 150ft long, 35ft or so wide. There's enough private rooms for us all, a spa, a vehicle bay, PokeCenter equipment, a battle stage. There is even a dedicated crew of five women. The name on the back was the Jolteon.

At the moment we're a couple hours from Littleroot. Dawn is sunbathing on the roof deck among the solar panels. Tubs and Bully Gal are having a match, and Emo kid is reading a book.

I happen to be staring down a gear locker of dive equipment, wondering how it is that I know every piece of gear in here. How to use it, I even recognize that it's a step above even the highest tech dive suits and tanks back on earth.

Grabbing a relatively light tank system off the wall, "This rebreather could let ya stay down for six hours."

"Seems you know what you're looking at Mr. Kurt."

Turning around I see the princess girl in a white bathing suit, beach towel, massive sun hat, the whole nine.

I nod, "You could say that Miss Princess. There something you need? I appreciate the lift to Dewford by the way."

She smiles, "Wattson, Naomi Wattson is my name."

Is that a joke? "You're looking at me like I should recognise the name."

A frown, "My father is Mayor Wattson of Mauville City. Regardless, if you are familiar with that equipment then I'd like to make a request of you as payment for this little jaunt. Perform well and I'll even throw some extra poke your way."

Hired by a pre teen princess, "Sure sounds good I guess. What did you have in mind Miss Watts?"

"Wattson," clearly confused how the name was difficult, "In that side locker is a dive spear and net along with a knife and other tools. We are taking a rather direct route to the gym and the rest of us need to capture a second pokemon."

I see, "You want me to scare or drag up some pokemon for you all to battle and catch. Sure thing, suppose I can grab one for myself while I'm at it."

She gives a sparkling grin, "I'm glad you're clever, for myself specifically, I've read that this area is home to Clamperl and the rare Frillish has been sighted. Clamperl are rather heavy so of course the ship can send down several support lines. Do you have a pokemon that can support you underwater?"

Blue doesn't need air right, "I should manage. Do you know anything else about the area?"

Naomi steps past me and pulls a map from a dive bag, "We're almost to this area here, Sea Mauville. A massive wreck that has been left as a nature preserve managed by the League and my family. If you're an experienced diver then you may find some items among the wreckage. Just don't get yourself killed down there."

After handing me the map she heads for a staircase, "I'll inform the captain we'll be stopping for a few hours."

Twenty minutes later and I'm geared up in the vehicle bay with a scuba jet. The kids and Dawn are gathered around while two of the crew ladies are lowering lines down with baskets and extra equipment in case I need it.

I examine the belt of Dive Balls I've just been handed while the kids list their requests.

Tubby Tommy, "I want something big!"

Bully Jane shoves him aside, "Something tough!"

Emo Edgar mutters, "Scary."

Jane or the Pokémon he wants?

Dawn, "Feebas."

That's super specific, "Is my phone waterproof?"

Naomi checks for me, "Yes, although you should get a better one. Infact, help me beat the Dewford gym and I'll buy you one."

Sure, "I won't say no, but you shouldn't throw poke around like that Miss Watts. It makes others dislike you."

She scoffs, "As if they could afford me caring."

Yup, like that.

A crew gal from the side, "You're all set Mr. Kurt, good hunting."

Dawn ushers the kids up, "We'll be at the back platform for whatever you bring up."

I pull on the full face mask and regulator and fall back into the sea.

The water is bright, clear and warm. Swimming towards one of the dive lines, I turn on my scuba jet and descend. Not far away I can see the looming wreckage of a massive platform. All around it are mangroves and kelp, the giant kelp, like off the coast of california.

From somewhere in the distance echoes a whale call. That's certainly big but I'm definitely not equipped for that.

No coral reef it seems, at least not on this side of Hoenn. The light spectrum fades slightly as I reach the seafloor at 30 ft down. Nothing too outlandish, my immediate surroundings are sandy bottom with a few rock outcroppings creating a perimeter.

As I take a moment to equalize I spot a school of Magikarp swim by. I know what I'm getting the bully. I make my way over to the first lowered gearbox and pull out a net gun.

Turning around again I'm surprised the Magikarp had actually swam my way. There's even one with some black and yellow speckling staring at me curiously.

"Well, thanks for volunteering bud."

I swear the dumb fish didn't even register that it had been caught until I was hooking the net to a line to be brought up.

Hitting a button on the side of my wrist, "Kurt to Ship, first pokemon coming up. Tell Jane I bet she can't raise a Gyarados."

The woman acting as diver attendant responds, "Roger that...You're really giving a teen girl a Magikarp?"

"She deserves that or a swift kick overboard, nah big and mean is just her style."

Moving along I find the pokemon population a bit sparse until I spot a Krabby scuttling towards the large kelp forest surrounding the wreckage. The scuba jet makes a fair bit of noise so I shut it down while sneaking up.

The lazy crustacean doesn't spot me slowly swimming up behind it from rock to rock. Nets away!

Sure enough the crab is in the bag but without a delay the bugger gets this glint in his eye and then starts snapping the net with his claw!

Reaching for my belt, "Blue, use astonish."

A small stump appears right in front of the Krabby, it's shape warps to a massive toothy maw, his eyes beam with an eerie red glow. The poor crab bastard gets frightened out of his mind and freezes up.

Moving to quickly get him reeled up I notice a small problem. Blue is starting to float to the surface looking all kinds of confused.

After hooking the net to a return line I swim up to blue and hang a dive weight on each of his branches. A creepy giggle and he's good to go.

Hailing the boat again, "Kirk to Enterprise, I've got a crab for the lard boy on line two."

The woman up top audibly sighs, "Wrong ship Kurt, I'm glad that poor boy can't hear you. Reeling in line two."

Blue perches on the scuba jet and points for us to continue forward.

"Alright buddy, we're looking for a Clamperl and then something cool for ourselves."

He nods energetically and begins to scan the underwater horizon. Does he even know what a clam looks like?

Another ten yards towards the wreck at the entrance to the Kelp forest and Blue points up at something in the murky green algae mass.

The scuba jet has a sort of scan gun attached to the dock for my phone.

Following Blue's guidance I hear the app voice ping in my ear, "Skrelp, it blends into rotten seaweed to hide from larger pokemon, if necessary it can spray poison to defend itself."

Reading down, "Evolves into a dragon type eh, guess I missed that on the list before. Blue let's go with the same tactic except we're going all the way this time, I wanna catch it."

Blue shakes his head and let's himself drop to the ocean floor. After approaching the base of the giant kelp with the Skrelp he reaches out and sinks his lower body into the algae holdfast.

I use my app to identify the move, "Ingrain, Phantump is merging with the kelp to absorb health… Grass Knot, plants grow to ensnare the opponent, damage is based on use or weight of the pokemon."

In a clever but disturbing display, Blue is causing the kelp to wrap around and strangle the poor little seahorse pokemon. It sprays dark bubbles and jets of water but it can't find it's attacker as it gets constricted tighter.

Just as it's about to pass out I toss out a dive ball, the little guy didn't have a chance.

This is the last time I'm swimming with a ghost, "Blue, I got it buddy, um ya, good job."

Check off dragon I suppose, but this won't help me on land and most dragons have wings.

It takes thirty minutes of combing the edge of the kelp to avoid getting lines tangled before I find my next target.

As requested, a Clamperl. It looks like a blob of pink jello nestled in a giant clam.

I pat my ghost's head, "Alright, here's the play, you scare it into its shell, then I'll wrap it up and send it up."

Blue hops down and scoots into the kelp for a moment before returning with a bunch of dead seaweed draped all over him, his red eyes peeking out. Buddy sure likes to be dramatic.

The ghost swims out from around a rock and charges at the Clamperl who instinctively closes up. I quickly swim down and wrap a cord around the shell before giving the line a tug.

"Kurt here, inform Miss Watts I found her prize. Reel it in."

Looking around I feel like I've seen all I can without heading off line and into the wreck. However If I want to do that then we may not make it to Dewford by sundown. There's also the part of not having a stronger pokemon, halloween tricks will only go so far until we meet a large pokemon.

Even as this crosses my mind I get the chills and spin towards the shadowy kelp forest expecting something large and toothy to rush out.

But nothing does....

"Let's go Blue, time to head up." He nods and swims over but elects to keep his costume.

Whatever, a flash of red and he's back in his ball. In the distance a school of Carvanha curves in and out of the kelp, some barracuda like pokemon looming in pursuit.

Back at the site below the boat I get my gear separated back to the lockers to get reeled up.

When I open the box for the net gun I'm greeted by a pair of large menacing eyes.

"Holy Hell!" A plume of bubbles escapes my mask.

I quickly slam the locker back shut. After taking a moment to calm down I crack it back a bit to aim the scanner, I hear the app ping as a tentacle reaches out and tries to grab my arm. On pure reflex I grab the knife from my leg and slash.

The mini sea monster recoils into the box as the voice enters my mask, "Tentacool, hunts in shallow seas. If you get stabbed by its poison tentacles, rush to the hospital."

Yup, that counts as scary, "Kurt to strangely equipped yacht, reel everything up, I'm done. The net gun box picked up a new resident, keep a safe distance when we haul it in."

Looking back at the looming wreck in the distance as I swim up, "I'm definitely gonna revisit this place... with my sea dragon."

Flopping back on board like a beached seal, I find an angry Jane, "Hey old bastard, what's the big idea?"

I take off my mask and give a single laugh, "I knew you'd be too scared to train a Gyarados. Side note, I'm only like 15 or so years older than you chill."

"That still means you're twice my age! And I'm not scared! But how am I supposed to fight a gym battle with a carp?"

"Hey it's a pretty carp!"

Looking at the frustrated teen, something in my head eases back, "Tell you what, I'm sure there's other pokemon on the island, I'll help you find one."

She glares at me, "You better." and storms off to the side to see what else I sent up.

The crew gal giggles, "Well you have a way with kids. What about this thing."

She points to the net box that is slightly shaking.

I grab a zip tie from a workbench and fix it to the lock ring on the box front.

"I wonder If Edgar likes surprises?"