Chapter 50 - Existential Beaches

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Turns out nearly everyone went straight to their rooms. The temple-like lobby only has one of the other teams still present.

Chatting on the marble floors beside a towering pillar are the Kanto Royals and a native woman who clearly resembles Crystal. Her long hair shows signs of greying but flecks of green can be seen in the bright hotel lights. She's wearing some sort of islander spin off of what should be a lavender kimono that reveals a bit too much leg.

She struts over at the sight of us, "You must be Kurt, thank you so much for your efforts that brought my little gem safely home. I'm Olivia by the way, one of the Alola elite four."

"Well, I shouldn't take too much credit away from the Tapu, but it's nice to meet you," I point to her 'Little Gem', "You've got quite the daughter, you know. Always the reasonable one of that trio."

Her smile couldn't possibly contain more pride, "She's the brightest jewel of my life. Stop by our shop on your way to the Aether Lab, as one of the board members I know you have an appointment the day after tomorrow."

She leads the girls out who each give their own version of a thank you, Crystal's big genuine hug, Iris being weirdly shy, and Grace offering a firm handshake that lacks any semblance of femininity.

Lacy pokes my side as we watch them go, "Do I need to beware of older women stealing my man?"

Olivia?

"I guess you wouldn't know what the term 'Cougar' means," I chuckle, "What do you call an older gal that…" right Naomi is still here, "Dates younger men… I mean much younger."

My fiancé arches a brow but Jane has the answer, "A Liepard."

Lacy swats the younger redhead, before guiding Naomi to the check in area. The poor girl is still a bit out of it. To a point that when we get to our penthouse suite, she has to share a bed with Jane just to finally pass out from exhaustion.

The suite is pretty damn fancy, hell, there's a deck lounge that looks over the entire southern half of the island. All the exterior walls are curved glass, like a transparent aircraft hanger. Along with the hyper modern décor, the Wattson Suite is true to form.

From the balcony I can have an Old Amber drink and watch the late evening beach goers enjoying campfires. Acoustic guitar music drifts all the way up here, and in one area I can see trainers battling on a set field complete with bleachers.

Lacy slips her arm around me and rests her head on my shoulder, "You doing alright Mr. Hero?"

"Me? I'm fine, a bit nervous about the super cop coming to ask questions I can't answer, but about the Zekrom, I'll be okay. The adrenaline is long gone thankfully." Glancing down into her golden eyes, "What about you?"

Her eyes close as she lets out a long breath, "That pilot was seconds from bleeding out, nothing I could do in that moment."

"Hold on, I'm sure in that case that every little thing you did helped her hold on until the Tapu,"

"That's just it Kurt," she pinches my side, "I know what you are saying, and sure, you're absolutely right. That doesn't change the fact that once more some absurdly powerful pokemon just swooped in and changed the situation however they saw fit."

"True," No doubt about it, but, "thankfully in this case."

She reluctantly nods, "I'm not ungrateful, as I'm sure that pilot would agree."

I can see her mind wandering far past the ocean view and give her side a squeeze to continue.

"I worked so hard," there's the shadow of tears in her eyes, "I got my doctorate, I save as many as I can! Yet still, every year I see people absolutely ravaged by pokemon. All while seeing endless news coverage of pokemon and trainers miraculously saving the lives of families, towns… and now our stupid plane copter thing."

Lacy searches around as if looking for something to throw over the side of the balcony, "Does nothing I do amount to more than a drop in the bucket compared to the random chance a pokemon decides to be helpful?!"

Finally she just grabs a pillow but by the time it's over her head she's already scoffed at her own antics, "Futility, everything humans do without pokemon is an exercise in futility."

No, not at all, "There are no pokemon where I come from. Humans did everything from build nations to visit the moon, no fancy magical creatures involved. The same thing here, each region slowly advances by their own sweat and blood."

Before she dismisses that as just a nice story, "The difference in this world, is that at least some aspect of the greater workings behind it all wish to see humans flourish, hand in hand with the other inhabitants of this world… Where I'm from animals get slaughtered to extinction or lose habitat until the only food source remaining for them are the humans that took their land."

Probably thinking of getting eaten by Cindy's Pyroar, Lacy shudders before calming back down, that consistently cooler head prevailing.

"Fine, better the Darkrai you know then." She looks out over the water again, "You know not every region maintains contact with the rest… I feel our world is so behind yours."

"War," I won't let her think this place isn't a paradise, "My world is constantly in a state of slaughter. I'd take the peace of this world every time, even if it's enforced by crazy space animals."

She plops onto the sofa, "I don't hate pokemon Kurt… Maybe it's just time I gave up trying to keep them out of my life. Actually train Archy, catch a pokemon for myself, Arceus, I've never even fought a trainer battle."

I collapse next to her, "Well that settles it, tomorrow you're catching a pokemon!"

A light punch to my shoulder, "Don't make light of it! Really, I'm going to dial in Archy's moves and work with my Leafon, I just need to catch a pokemon for the Battle Tower invitational in five days."

Right, the mini tournament for locals to challenge visiting trainers. We're all participating, Naomi mentioned that one of the requirements was to use one locally caught pokemon in a team of three.

"I'll be cheering you on," I pull her close and lay back on the likely super overpriced sofa on this balcony under the stars and with a view of the vast ocean in the night.

Her lips gently kiss my neck, "You better, or you'll be missing couches this soft for a month."

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It's some god awful early when the sunrise hits me square in the face to wake Lacy and I up.

She grumbles out a, "Coffee," and shuffles towards the kitchen,

I start looking for my bag in my room and my phone to figure out what we're doing this morning when I find my Tirtouga with her head buried in my backpack.

"Zilla, what are you doing?"

The small blue head comes out with something red in her beak.

"Ah, Drop it!" stern as I sound she just tries to shuffle away.

It's not hard to catch a turtle.

Her eyes glare at me as I set her on her back and examine the red star piece gem for any damage, "This is not a snack," the sharp edges would probably shred her stomach, "We'll go down to the beach to play in a bit, let's get some food."

All my other pokemon except Blue are still asleep. The little ghost pokemon has a pencil and paper from the desk in the room and is messily planning a new sand castle.

"How about I help you today buddy, Zilla and Tesla too."

He gives a quiet giggle in excitement, oddly considerate of the still sleeping pokemon in this massive room. Shak is on another fake tree perch, though this one doesn't bend. My Joltik is in a nest of blankets with my Sandshrew. Last my Skrelp is snoozing in a floor to ceiling pool and live wall display that frankly is just stunning.

Skrelp's eyes pop open as she senses me approach.

"Good morning little lady, I never did give you a name, did I."

She uses a bit of rock to scratch at her leafy scales and shakes her head.

Honestly I'm not great at names and nothing inspiring comes to mind but looking up Dragalge I do finally get an idea, "How about Nessie?"

Her little head excitedly bobs.

The other girls meet Lacy and I for a quiet pancake breakfast before we head for the elevator.

"Naomi," I flick her ear to make her take out the ear buds blasting music loud enough for me to hear, "How ya feeling this morning?"

Rubbing her ear, "I'm alright, Father and Grandfather arrived late last night. Father stopped by to check on me, before storming off to tear apart the Zekrom. Grandpa is with Zapra."

"So is today all about the beach?"

She nods in affirmative, "We'll basically be looking to catch local pokemon and interact with other hotel guests. Gabby wants some shots of us acting like normal tourists, or so she says."

Personally I think a chill day is perfect after yesterday's nonsense.

Hmm, "Is the Jolteon at the dock? I'd like to grab some snorkel gear."

"No, Father sent the boat out to comb for any debris from the Zekrom that got pulled out with the tide."

Alright I guess I'll swim later.

Which is probably fine as the beach looks packed. Even this early I can see people lounging in deck chairs, fisherman on a little pier, and even trainers working out with their pokemon.

One such group is May's team doing some warm up stretches in the sand. Her Grotle doing his own stretches beside her. Vermilya is showing a bipedal otter, Dewott, how to follow along. The nerdy girl who I think was named Patricia is stretching her arms beside a similarly upright yellow fox, Braixen.

Lastly the girl who was once all muddy but now cleaned up, she's got a weird frog thing my dex calls a Croagunk. I'll have to actually learn her name at some point.

"Alright, guess we're gonna need to head up the beach to find wild pokemon."

It's not too far, even just ten minutes and we start to see some promising rocky outcroppings and potential tidal areas.

First to score a potential new pokemon is Jane, who finds a Wimpod. Now initially I looked up the bug and was like, 'Why?' However it turns out the creepy big arthropod evolves into a six foot samurai/hockey goalie monster. And, this one is a different color than the picture.

"Human shiny charm strikes again I guess?" I suppose this thing will look pretty cool once its white and red armor gets my height.

Crooky shows the bug who's boss, just in time for Naomi to find a Corsola. The little thing looks like a horned pig made out of branching corals. While Naomi pouts that this one isn't shiny, the dex says they live in colonies.

"Naomi if we come back with the boat and search around a bit offshore I bet we can find a ton more. Odds practically guarantee there will be some uniquely colored ones."

Next pokemon is nearly an hour later when Lacy finally finds a pokemon she wants.

...it's a sea anemone? Just under a foot tall and clinging to a rock as the tide goes further out.

"So uh, why this thing? I bet those barbs burn like hell."

She uses a stick to point at the unmoving pokemon, "I've treated these a couple times, they make you want to claw off your own skin. Plus it's kind of cute."

I totally heard that last part which was more of a mumble. Regardless, Archy actually makes easy work of capturing it, flinging rocks and dodging the tentacles.

Lacy seems contemplative about her first real catch, I can only be supportive and hope she's happy with her decision.

Which just leaves me, the one that already has a full team including two water pokemon. So I pass on the few fish pokemon and colorful birds. Then, treasure hunter Blue shrieks with delight at a lonely little sand castle, complete with abandoned shovel.

He reaches for the shovel only to be blasted in the face with a spray of sand.

Dexa pings, 'Sandygast."

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