Summertime was the time to get out and do fun summer stuff. Go on vacations, travel the world, see different sites, and do things you normally don’t do. Those were all fun for people who weren’t workaholic’s like Maverick. The trainer hardly ever did things like go on vacation or other fun summer activities. However when an unknown number popped up on his phone and a familiar voice rang in his hear when he answered it, his mind set swiftly changed. This man usually didn’t really have any friends, especially those that were female. So when Selena Desmarais invited him on a free ticket to go on a boat ride, he wasn’t going to say no. She was one of his ‘friends’ he could stand and didn’t mind having around.

“Yeah,” the man chuckled softly as she playfully nudged him, almost spilling his own drink when he temporarily lost his balanced, “I guess this is.” He regained his balance, glad he didn’t spill on his white shirt. Warm gaze flickered over the crowded boat ride, feeling uneasy with the amount of people on a single boat. “Do you do this every year?” He asked her as they moved through the crowds, “I mean... taking a random boat rides.” It wasn’t that he thought gym leader’s shouldn’t have fun, kick their feet back and relax every once in a while. It was just random in his mind. “There are an awful lot of people here.” Lucky for him, Maverick recalled Azula in her ball as soon as he saw the amount of people on the ship. She would be protective as shit right now if she was out. The man sighed, trying to relax a little and enjoy his time with a friend. “What do you want to do first?”

Before Maverick could ask any follow up questions, it didn’t take long for the date to start turning in the wrong direction. The sudden arrival of masked bandits made the man tense up. Warm colored orbs flickered from the hijackers to the masked members in the crowd. Screams of panic filled his ears as the intruders tried to take the upper hand. The sudden pull on his arm made him turn to Selena has she urged them to duck under a table. But before he should ask if ‘are you okay?’, she was ready to step into action. It took Maverick a moment to comprehend what was going on. But when he snapped out of his daze, he gave her a nod.

Reaching into his pockets, the man pulled out his own creatures. Three poke balls burst open. “Tharisiron, help Selena get the other ships way from here and keep anymore form coming.” The Dragonair nodded, slithering towards the edge of the boat before diving in to help. “Azula and Evo,” he hollered over the screams of people, “We need to get this people to safety. Let’s round them up.” The canine’s nodded as Maverick stood up from their hiding spot, not even thinking about his own safety as they waved gun in the air. The dogs disappeared into the chaos.

“Get inside,” the man hollered as loud as he could, waving his arms in the air to motion to the nearest door, “Keep your head low and go!” It took a moment for people to register what he said but soon, people starting heading for he nearest door. As he got people attention, he did of the hijackers too. In fact, two of them started to stroll right up to Maverick. Guns pointed at him. “You are not the hero kid,” one man growled at him, finger on the trigger. Maverick nodded to one and without warning, Azula’s took him out with razor sharp teeth on his forehand as hard as she could. The gun fired into the sky as the man screamed in pain. Distracted by his team mate being hit by the houndoom, he pointed his gun at Azula. “No you don’t,” Maverick grunted, hitting the gun up as it shot. Luckily, it didn’t hit anyone as Maverick twisted his arm forcing the man to drop the gun. He snatched it, bashing the butt of the gun into the man’s skull to knock him out. The other man screamed as she ripped his arm back and forth, slapping her skull that protected her face before Maverick bashed his head too to knock him out.

Gun still in hand though had no intentions to use it, Maverick continued to motion for people to head instead. In the distance, he heard the gun shots fired and the enemies screams. The man could only hope his canine’s would not get shot as they took them down, one by one. “Let’s go! Hurry! Get inside!” His gaze flickered to find Selena, unsure of where she went in the mix of all the chaos.

Everything, for the lack of better words, was going smoothly. With the aid Selena pokemon, everyone was actually going pretty good. Even as Maverick turned to see if everyone was making it through the door okay, a ferocious holler erupted behind him. He turned to face the foe, only to see his partner’s pair of eeveeeolutions take the armed man down in the matter of seconds. Maverick blinked as the pair met his gaze once the foe was down. “Thanks,” he mumbled, still a little shaken, “for covering my back.” With that, the pair when back to continuing doing their part.

Meanwhile, the Dragonair helped the massive turtle below using SLAM while he used his skull bash. He followed his lead, aiding the water type in whatever he was doing next.

It wasn’t until Maverick heard Selena call out for him that the man realized what was going on. Upon calling his name, Maverick replied “yeah”. He tried to move to the sound of her voice, but quickly got lost in the thick vapor that soon consumed the boat. His vision was nothing but haze, seeing dark shadows move all around him but unable to identify them until they came closer. Fearing for what as about to come, Maverick pinched his bottom lip and a loud whistle expelled from him. The cries of howls sounded off all around him, his two canine’s came to his call. What was going on?

“Selena!” He called out, warm gaze flickered as screams erupted from all around, “I can’t see anything. What’s going on? Where are you?” Right now would be a really good time to have a pokemon with the move whirlwind, defog, or anyone move that would get rid of this thick haze. But unfortunately for Maverick, he didn’t have those pokemon on him right now. He didn't think he would if he was going on a date.

This not date ‘date’ was not going to plan even at the slightest. Or at least, not they way he thought it would go. It was to be a simply two friends having a good dinner while drinking some alcoholic beverages that has the taste of fruit in it. They could have even played some games or something while on the cruise. But of course, Maverick’s unluckiness had to ruin that too. At this point, he wasn’t sure if she would even want to be around him ever again. He sighed softly, warm gaze flickered over the haze in search for the woman that would surely hate him soon enough.

Maverick could hear feminine voice call out to him. Yet, he just couldn’t see anything with the thick haze. “Uhhhh,” he mumbled, arms extended in from of him in hopes to guid his way through the fog, “I can try.” It was no easy task. Every once in a while, a bandit would appeared out of the haze. But before they could order their pokemon to attack, Azula was quick to blast them with a flamethrower that sent them both flying. A splash confirmed they were off the ship. Screams erupted from all around him, followed by demanding barks of orders from the pirates. Seeing that the haze wasn’t going to be useful to him, Maverick motioned for his canines to help. “Go,” he whispered to them, “Help the others. I’ll be fine.”

At first, the two canine’s lingered by his side not wanting to leave their trainer. But with a simply “go” in a firmer tone, the canine’s left his side to go take down more bad guys. Turning his attention back to finding Selena, the man tried to follow her voice the bast he could. But with the mixture of screams and shouts, it was rather difficult. But due in time, the scarred trainer found her in the mix of the shadows. He rushed to her, eyes widen with concern. “Are you alright?” Another shout followed by screams forced Maverick to turn, warm gaze searched for the shadows in the haze before turning back to her. “You shouldn’t happen to have a pokemon to get rid of this haze do you?”

Meanwhile, the Dragonair below continued to help the blastoise. He watched the pokemon hydro pump away and for good reasons. The once cool water turned toxic, feeling the slim of polluted water on his blue scaly body. He slithered to a ship that had the pokemon poisoning the water. His long tail took on a low glow as he slammed the boat with his aqua tail, forcing the sink before moving to the next. The water was starting to become littered with broken ships and muk, slowing the dragon down as he tried to reach another boat. If his trainer wasn’t in the way, he could use twister to try and get rid of all of them. But it was took dangerous, too risky at the moment.

Once again, Maverick followed her lead and didn’t ask questions. At this point, they just needed to survive. With a new direction, the man turned to face what he was tasked with. The toxic spikes. But before the man could even think about a proper way to take care of them, her espeon used her psychic ability to move them with her mind and toss them into the sea. Maverick felt useless with her and her team pretty much doing everything by themselves. But as he turned to see what she was doing, a pirate charged at him.

The man was about to fist fight the man when Evo, the massive arcanine leaped out of the haze. Muzzle parted ready to crunch down on the man’s head. However, the massive creature missed and got his arm instead. Razor sharp teeth dug into his soft flesh as he tugged the man towards the edge of the boat. The pirate screamed in pain, beating the canine’s face with his other hand and demanding to let him go. Evo let out a muffled growl before tossing the pirate overboard. Blood stained his muzzle, turning to attack another enemy pokemon. Maverick blinked, hearing his houndoom howl with excitement as a pirates pokemon scattered away and jumped off the boat. She must of scared the pokemon away.

A hollered mode Maverick turn to see a pirate climbing a rope to get onto the boat. “I don’t think so,” he grumbled, rushing to detect the grapple from the side of the boat. After fiddling with it for a few minutes, the man managed to get the rope unlocked. The man hollered as he fell back into the water with a slash. Another shout made him turn, seeing someone cowering in fear in front of another man. “Evo!” The man cried out as he pointed to the bandit. Without warning, the arcanine leaped from no where and tackled the man to the ground just a few inches from the scared person. The canine roared in his face before his teeth came down onto his shoulder. He hollered as the fire types teeth crunch down on his shoulder, pleading for Evo to let him go. Maverick motioned for Evo to send him off the boat. And with that, Evo dragged him to the edge and tossed him over with a slash indicating he was off. “Great work,” the man praised the canine.

When the haze lifted, warm gaze flickered over the ship. Hostages still being threatened by the last few remaining pirates. “You take those and I’ll take them,” he told her as he faced the ones he was to fight. Expression stern, the man motioned with a simple nod towards them. “Let them go or else your life will be taken,” the man growled, arms crossed over his chest. “If you kill us, we will kill them!” One of them shouted, holding blades to their hostages throat. “Suit yourself.” One that cue, Azula and Evo came from behind and both crunched down on one of them to dragged them away from the people. While they were distracted, Maverick rushed in and managed to coke hold one of them while kicking another one in the face. Finally, all his hostages were free as Evo and Azula tossed them off the boat before Evo used agility to grab the one that got kicked in the face. Dragging him off the boat and tossing him off as well.

“You will regret ever coming across us Maverick,” the man threatened while gasping for air and snuggling against the trainers strong coke hold. Maverick huffed, wondering how the man knew his name before tossing him over the side of the boat as well. With his side clear, warm gaze spotted the Dragonair in the water. “Twister.” The Dragonair took on a glow blue glow, tail twirled in the water as soon a water twister was formed. It pulled all the men and woman in the water away from the boat and any boats on their side away before disappearing into the distance with the twister. With the taken care off, the man pulled out his ball and recalled him.

Turning back to Selena, he nodded. “Everything is good over here.” His canine’s gathered next to him, patting each of them and thanking them for their service. Each had been beaten and bruised, both had blood stained on their fur. But whether the blood was theirs or the enemies was unknown, they will find out later. Moving closer to Selena, he gave her a polite but exhausted smile. “Some date huh? Is it took late to offer to buy you a drink?” He chuckled lightly, bloody hand stretched the back of his head, “I think I’m done with cruises for a while. How about you?”