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"Hey, brah!" Beau bellowed over the rain as Jack approached. He grinned widely as the other man called out his Gyarados, pausing momentarily to admire the fierce pokemon, its angles made sharper by the scattered light. "Glad you could make it!" he enthused.
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He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at his Blastoise, who offered a complacent grunt. "Heard about the Tidal, we gotta go check it out. Bad fuel tank, they said!" He hoped it wouldn't be too disastrous, but he'd seen firsthand the effect malfunctioning ships and their associated chemicals could have on marine life.
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Grinning at his friend, he grabbed the Blastoise by the arm and stepped off the dock, hanging off the turtle's back as the pokemon landed in the water with a splash. "Last one to find the ship buys drinks after!" WHOOSH, the pair took off in a white-capped spray that arced across the bay.

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Whooping, Beau and his Blastoise did indeed manage to reach the Tidal first, though not by much with Jack's Gyarados cutting through the water like a hot knife through butter. Slowing as he approached the bulk of the ship, he guided Blastoise in a sweeping circle around the hull until he saw the smoke of a signal flare near the prow, on one of the lower decks.
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Digging in his pack, he pulled out a flare of his own and lit it with a sizzling flash, waving it over his head. A crackle sounded from the position on a boat and a man's voice rang out, staticky through a megaphone. "Rangers, thank goodness! One of the fuel tanks malfunctioned - engines are fine, but we can't start them without risking a fire."
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Another burst of static interrupted the man before he continued. "If the waters keep calming down, we'd be able to port, but without the engines we can't get over there, and no other vessel's coming. Much obliged if you could do something!"
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Lacking the proper tools to convey anything he'd have to say to the boat, he simply waved his flare forward and backward a few times before snuffing it in the water and shoving it back into his pack. Peering around through the downpour, he rode over to Jack and hollered, "I think I've got a way to help tow the ship, you ever run into anything like this before??"

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Beau cursed under his breath. He'd thought that maybe Jack, with greater experience in this sort of thing, would have a more cohesive idea than Beau's half-baked notion of getting the ship into port.
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Still, with no better options forthcoming, all he could do was try, right? Worst that could happen is that it didn't work. He hoped. Reaching for his belt, he threw a pokeball that was lost in the dark downpour, but the crimson light of its release briefly eclipsed the silhouette of the ship, and the displacement of water from the Wailord appearing was enough to almost knock Beau from his Blastoise.
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"YO, TINY!" Beau bellowed over the driving rain. "PUSH THE BOAT! THAT WAY!" he hollered, gesturing wildly toward the Lilycove docks - or, what he hoped was the direction of the Lilycove docks and not some untimely shoal. With a keening wail, the Wailord DOVE beneath the surface of the water, and several long moments later, the SS Tidal began to move.
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"Holy cow, it's working," Beau marveled. He turned to Jack, punching the air in victory. "It's not perfect, but it's somethin'! We just gotta make sure it doesn't tip over on the way, let's keep it smooth, yeah?"

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Beau nodded as Jack called out his intentions, urging his Blastoise on and pulling forward to the middle of the ship's body as his partner circled away to the other side. Progression was slow and steady, and Beau thought for coming up with his first plan on his own, things seemed like they were actually going fairly smoothly.
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That thought proved to be his undoing, as almost immediately the ship started to list away from him. Unable to do anything here but watch helplessly as it tipped over toward starboard, Beau performed an immediate 180 and surged to the aft, the rain like needles on his face to match what he felt in his chest right now.
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Coming up on his Wailord and unable to call to it half-submerged into the water, he urged his Blastoise forward in a WAVE CRASH near its flank. With a deep, persistent cry, the Wailord slowly course-corrected, angling under the back of the boat from the left. Too slow, too slow, dammit... his thoughts raced.
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He felt the surge of energy before he saw it, and a wave of relief washed through him. Jack's Mega Gyarados was correcting the tilt, thank Arceus, and all he had to do...
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Was be back where he was, in case it overcorrected. Crap.
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Panting from exertion, his Blastoise cut through the water back to mid of port, but - miracle of miracles - the bearing stabilized on its own, and continued straight.
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What followed were the most anxious minutes of his life, but fortunately no further imbalances occurred, and when the Lilycove docks came into sight, he felt warm pride bloom through his chest. They'd done it.
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Once the ship came to rest just outside the docks, anchors safely deployed, Beau recalled his Wailord and cruised through the water's surface to accost Jack. "We did it, brah!" he yelled, pumping his fists in the air triumphantly. "And DAMN that was cool!"

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