Out on the sapphire blue sea, a massive ocean liner carved steadily through the waves.
This was the Seagallop Ferry, a passenger ship that had departed from Vermilion City's harbor bound for the Sevii Islands, capable of carrying nearly a thousand passengers at once.
Sevii Islands was only a midway stop, though. The ship's final destination was the Orange Islands, located even further south.
Up on the deck, Caster stood with Pikachu at his side, letting the sea breeze wash over him while he took in the view.
He'd sailed along the coast once before in a small boat, but voyaging into open water aboard a ship this size was something else entirely, and at first, both he and Pikachu had been buzzing with excitement.
That said, the ocean was the ocean. Unless you happened to pass by a small island, it was nothing but endless water stretching to the horizon, with barely anything to tell one stretch from the next.
It didn't take long for Caster and Pikachu to lose interest. Now they just wanted to get there.
There was no way to fish from a ship this big, after all.
His hands were practically itching.
"Once I have enough money, I'm buying my own boat and sailing wherever I want to fish."
Caster made himself that solemn promise.
Then he thought about how even the smallest vessels started at a million or more, and the enthusiasm drained out of him almost immediately.
He glanced at the GPS display on his Rotom Phone, then smiled and patted Pikachu on the head. "We should be pulling into Sevii Islands pretty soon!"
Sevii Islands was an archipelago located to the south of the Kanto mainland, made up of nine major islands and a number of smaller surrounding islets, all falling under Kanto's jurisdiction.
Each of the seven main islands had its own residential community, identified simply by number.
According to the Pokemon World Travel Guide, Sevii Islands had a warm climate and stunning natural scenery, making it a popular tourist destination that drew huge crowds every year.
Pikachu scratched its cheek. "Pika~"
"If we're lucky, we might even spot Moltres!" Caster said, rubbing Pikachu's head as his gaze drifted off into the distance.
When it came to legendary Pokemon, Caster always felt a deep pull toward them, even for the ones that had no place on his rain team. It was probably the universal affliction of anyone who'd grown up playing the Pokemon games: that irresistible urge to catch them all.
In the Pokemon spin-off special The Heavenly Legend, Hiroshi and Fire!, the young protagonist Hiroshi had taken this very same ship to the first island of Sevii Islands, where he encountered a wounded Moltres recovering inside Mt. Ember.
The two had even fought side by side to drive off Team Rocket agents Attila and Hun, who had come to capture it.
It was the only time Sevii Islands had ever appeared in the animated series.
As for the games, Sevii Islands was legendary in its own right. Deoxys, Ho-Oh, and Lugia all had ties to the place.
"ROAAARRR! ROAAARRR! ROAAARRR!"
Just as Caster was settling into boredom, a series of thunderous roars erupted somewhere close by.
The waves nearby surged higher, and the Seagallop Ferry began to rock and pitch.
"What's going on?"
Caster grabbed the deck railing fast, steadying himself before he could get thrown off balance.
Pikachu, perched on his shoulder, had the same scare and nearly went flying into the sea.
"Attention: a congregation of wild Gyarados has been detected approximately one nautical mile ahead. All passengers are requested to return to the cabin immediately and remain off the deck to avoid any accidents."
The ship's intercom crackled to life with the announcement.
"Seriously? A wild Gyarados swarm? I hope this doesn't wreck the whole trip."
"Hard to say. It depends on whether they end up blocking the route. Gyarados is already a handful on its own, let alone a whole group of them."
"Are we in any danger?"
"Probably not, as long as we don't provoke them. Wild Pokemon generally won't go out of their way to bother you. And we have some capable Trainers on board as escorts, so don't worry."
Guided by the crew, the tourists who had been out enjoying the deck shuffled back inside, grumbling the whole way. Most were muttering under their breath, furious at the Gyarados swarm for ruining their vacation.
"A wild Gyarados swarm..."
Caster wore a different look entirely. His eyes lit up, and instead of frustration, he felt a sharp spike of excitement.
Gyarados were mostly solitary creatures, each staking out its own territory. Seeing a whole group of them in one place was genuinely rare.
To the crew and the other passengers, a swarm of Gyarados was a disaster waiting to happen.
To Caster, it looked like a pile of rewards just waiting to be claimed.
Rather than heading back to his seat like a sensible passenger, Caster made his way up toward the bridge at the top of the ship. He wanted to get a clear picture of the situation before deciding on anything.
At the entrance to the bridge, a crew member stepped into his path. "Good afternoon. This area is restricted to authorized personnel only."
"I'm a Pokemon Trainer. I might be able to help you deal with that Gyarados swarm."
Caster explained why he was there.
"You can handle a Gyarados swarm?"
The crew member looked him up and down, skepticism written all over his face. Caster was just too young.
Still, years at sea had taught him that looks could be deceiving, so he didn't dismiss it outright. He passed the message along to the captain instead.
A few minutes later, Caster was invited onto the bridge.
The captain of the Seagallop Ferry was a powerfully built man with a thick beard, a bronze complexion, and arms that looked like they'd been carved from rope. He reached out a hand first, then introduced himself. "Hello. I'm Captain Sanji."
"Captain Sanji, good to meet you. I'm Caster, from Cerulean City."
After the introductions, Caster got straight to it. "What exactly are we dealing with out there?"
"Roughly twenty to thirty Gyarados, fighting and circling along our route. The tricky part is that the waters here are complicated. We can't just change course without taking on some real risk."
Captain Sanji laid out the situation while handing Caster a pair of binoculars.
Caster raised them to his eyes and got a clear look at what was happening in the distance.
A massive ring of Gyarados had formed, and at the center, two particularly large specimens were locked in fierce combat, their cries shaking the air and sending waves crashing skyward.
"Looks like they're fighting to see who leads the pack. We just happened to sail right into the middle of it."
The captain's expression stayed tight. "That kind of thing is hard to predict. If one of them is clearly stronger, it wraps up fast. But if they're evenly matched, it can drag on for days before anything gets settled."
"A fight for leadership..."
Caster's eyebrow went up as an idea started taking shape.
Could his own Gyarados jump into this fight?
And if it won, could he end up leading the whole pack?
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones