She sat up. [break][break]

Gunner was using his binoculars, so Yujin jumped out of her seat, marched to the nearest civilian who was trying to see what the commotion was about, and grabbed theirs instead.[break][break]

“Good eye,” she said as she focused in, smiling in that way she did—one-sided, and with teeth.[break][break]

---

[break]
It took several more minutes for the pirates to arrive. They came in a trawler, and they came armed with lead in their hands.[break][break]

The ship captain had been informed. Their mission handler had been updated. The passengers… not so much. An ambush hinges on an element of surprise.[break][break]

“Alright, shall we get started?” Yujin would wink at her blond partner, casually slipping away to the darker confines of the deck.
As the smaller vessel came in and the pirates starting shouting orders, a small, unassuming pokeball would be thrown out towards the vessel; an Alolan golem would then materialize, rocking the boat as it thumped down upon its top.[break][break]

Immediately, its MAGNET PULL would engage, flinging the smaller metallic objects (i.e. guns) from the pirates hands and towards it. There was a knife or too as well, but the golem pawed them away.[break][break]

Yujin leaned over the railing, one hand shielding her eyes from the sun like a Dior model.[break][break]

“Trap procedure, Al~”[break][break]

And then the STEALTH ROCK formations would appear, anticipating pokemon retaliation.

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]

“...Chess? Truly?” The words were disbelieving, but the expression was bemused.[break][break]

A handful of pokemon began to appear, glittering in the water like new found treasures and across the trawler like roving barnacles. Even behind them, the cruise passengers’ own beasts came into play—though most of them had been trained for show.[break][break]

“Yes, but I suggest you bring back your kabutops.”[break][break]

She would give him six seconds. By then most of the pirates had also given the golem some space. Then she would clap and shout, “Explosion, please!”[break][break]

A staticky, rumbling charge preceded the golden light that filtered through the golem’s stony center. Then came the EXPLOSION in a brilliant boom of astral white.[break][break]

As the energy returned to her pokeball, she surveyed the destruction without blinking.[break][break]

The ship, already beginning to sink, was blasted apart alongside the nearby waves. Human survivors jumped into the ocean, now calling for any remaining water pokemon. A stray trainer carried by a mantine flew upwards at Gunner and Yujin, looking livid.

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]

“Nothing’s wrong with chess! It’s just—”[break][break]

She waved a hand vaguely as the mantine and its rider got electrocuted behind her and then fell limply into the ocean.[break][break]

“—Well, you didn’t look the type. We should play sometime.”[break][break]

Gunner had roses to go along with his guns, and all the chess players Yujin knew were nerdy, frail academics that needed to be dragged out to have an extrovert's good time.[break][break]

In any case, she returned to looking out over the railing with a frown. It almost felt too easy, didn’t it? She missed the old days; instinctively, she palmed the hilt of the sword that peeked out from beneath her jacket.[break][break]

A porygon-z would be released from her hand, standing by next to them with its swirling eyes bouncing from target to target, scanning for the next approach. But all was strangely quiet, with most of the chaos happening in the water as various passengers began blasting away at the pirates with their own pokemon.

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]

It wasn’t his fault; her chest occupied the vast majority of her torso. Still, Yujin was allowed to gasp in indignation even as he slammed into her face-to-titty first, knocking the two of them against the railing and then tumbling off of it.[break][break]

One hand snapped onto the metal rail. The other caught Gunner by his forearm.[break][break]

Yujin was, pound for pound, strong for her size. But she was also a woman, and one not much over five feet at that.[break][break]

“UFF—”[break][break]

Her feet scrabbled against the sideways surface of the deck while her fingers were seconds away from losing grip. Her porygon-z bounced over in concern, ineffectually offering a smooth little arm. [break][break]

All around them, people screamed and fell into the water like ants being swept off a table.[break][break]

And was that a sharpedo glinting in the water just below them? Say it ain’t so.[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]

The world righted itself in the manner of pale, psychic energy: the ship groaning as it tilted back in place, the people plopped upon its deck relatively unharmed and with a vastly more exciting day than they were expecting.[break][break]

“In mortal danger and you still have good manners.” Her tone implied, what don’t you have?[break][break]

Yujin was quick on her feet after the levitation. Scanning about the stragglers in the water, she couldn’t help but wince. Most of her collection preferred the bowels over the earth rather than the sea, but even the pale memory of the blizzardous mountain of her youth would suffice.[break][break]

A glalie materialized from her hand and floated down to sea level. Crackling sounds filled the air as water quickly froze over to ice near the wailord from before, impeding it near the surface. That ice would then flow outwards towards the half-drowned in the pattern of a great snowflake.[break][break]

“Target the wailord.”[break][break]

And that was the command for her porygon-z to HYPERBEAM the sitting duck-whale.

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]

“A momma’s boy… truly a classic.”[break][break]

She sighed wistfully, as if he wasn’t standing right there and she wasn’t equivocating him to some romance novel male lead.[break][break]

Gunner’s gang proceeded to round up the pirates. Yujin’s yes-mon proceeded to help the ocean-bound passengers onto the ice and slowly make their way back to the ship, rubbernecking at the wailord that was beginning to turn belly side up in a bleak show of its demise.[break][break]

As Gunner spoke, Yujin would nod, brushing her hands together as if they had been physically sullied. The plot had spiraled out of control but they pulled it back together, as heroes(?) do.[break][break]

“...Fraternization.”[break][break]

She pulled out her phone, already beginning to contact their handler. Luckily, it wasn’t for the purpose of tattling—they just needed to report a mission complete.[break][break]

“Why, I would love to fraternize this Sunday! Schedule’s all open, who knew.”

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]