May 18

24 Days until Torrent Day

Dear Reader,

Yeah, I think that's going to be the best way I open these little entries. After all, if my story is going to be read, addressing this to an inanimate object feels strange. Hopefully that doesn't happen...

But the words are obviously being read if you are seeing this, so I might as well address these entries to you.

As you can tell, the deadline is up. My small team and I have had our chances at attempting to find the location and carry out our plans. I wish I could say it was 100% successful. After all, success is the only thing that's accepted here at Team Magma.

Yet, I somehow got an extension?

It feels weird. It feels wrong. It feels...comforting?

I wouldn't be writing in this stupid thing had Asher not made the comment that I'm a different person when I do this. Of course, he knows I write in this thing. He was the one who got me this damn book to write in. Guess he's right, in a sense.

It's just frustrating how things didn't go my way. I should probably tell you, dear reader, what our plan was, so you're not confused as to why we are behind in our plans. It all started when we went to Slateport City wearing street clothing to blend in. I could tell people were staring at us funny, especially since I was the tallest one in the group.

Okay, so I was already one of the tallest members of Team Magma. Asher beats me by an inch. Wearing three inch heels was probably not the best idea. They were all I had to go with a simple black dress I had with my army green jacket that was worn on top.

I know what you're thinking, dear reader, but I can assure you I have more in my closet than just uniforms. Everyone did. It's why Lynne stopped dying her hair this week, and forced it back to its original blonde state. She could blend in more easily, even if she was out of uniform like Asher and me.

Eventually, we split up, looking for anyone that might resemble a member of Team Aqua. We planned on finding one quickly, and hoped that they'd go straight back to their secret base, but that didn't happen. Time was what cost us. I'll admit, I wasn't much help as after over an hour of searching, my feet started to kill me, so I walked inside the nearest library and slipped my shoes off.

What? The dress didn't bother me. It was just above the knee. Heels normally don't either because I loved wearing them. It's just been a while since I've last worn heels.

I walked around the library, finding myself in the fiction area when a man with a weird looking blue Pokémon on his shoulder reached for a particular book. The book was one I read a while ago, but it wasn't the best. As I looked at the books for a bit, I noticed him reading the summary on the back.

Poor guy didn't know what kind of mess he was getting himself into if he started reading that book.

"You know, that's Summers' worst book ever," I commented. "Good concept, I'll give her that, but the characters don't feel real or genuine, it had a cringeworthy writing style, and the story false genre advertising, if you know what I mean."

The brunette I was talking to chuckled. "I know, but she didn't really mean to have it romance heavy in the books. Really, she wanted it to be primarily action, but the romance between the two main characters just sorta happened, even if she kinda force it within the first part of the book. All that aside, I throughly enjoyed it."

My eyes widened as he turned around. In return, the boy's eyes did too. While he was out of uniform, I still recognized him. His brown hair flopped all around as his brown eyes still looked the same. The only difference was that he wore a white button down long-sleeved shirt with a beige sweater vest over it.

I quickly glanced over at the weird Pokémon on his shoulder, quickly recognizing it from one of the books I've read. This Pokémon had a giant yellow fin on his head while his giant white eyes widened in fear. To think this Pokémon matched his bio perfectly as he scooted closer to his Trainer, shying away from me.

"Holy shit! That's a Sobble," I recognized, seeing as his skin resembled a Politoed.

The Aqua grunt smiled as he took his free hand and scratched the Water Pokémon on the cheek. "Yeah. I'm surprised you know what kind of Pokémon he is."

I shook my head in response. Why would he be surprised? Honestly, if I could, I'd spend my entire day here at the library, or bookstore for that matter. It's because of this I knew what every Pokémon looked like, even if I never seen them. Galar just happened to have the most interesting Pokémon and culture to learn about. The best way to learn about Pokémon or anything is by books.

The biggest surprise was seeing him here. After all, members of Team Aqua aren't exactly the studious type.

"Is it because I'm not from Galar or something? I mean, you don't have an accent, so clearly you're not from that Region either," I commented.

Apparently I was wrong.

"I don't like people pointing it out" the grunt sheepishly said as he took his free hand from Sobble and scratched the back of his neck. "But that's not the reason why I'm surprised. You're the Magma grunt from Mt. Chimney, and Sobble's a Water Pokémon."

Tauros shit.

You know, I should've realized that he was smarter than the rest. After all, he was in a library of all places. No. Correction. He was in a library in Slateport City. There's no way that's normal for someone in Team Aqua. This city was by the damn water and he was in the friggin library for Mew's sake.

Someone clearly has been doing his homework to know something was wrong.

My shocked expression must've been funny to him, which didn't make sense. He started laughing and handed out his hand towards me, as if he was going to introduce himself.

"Ember right?" He asked. "I'm Brook."

Brook. Now, I didn't say anything about it because I wanted to look it up first. If I did say something right away, I would've commented that it was a girl's name.

But I stopped myself. I stopped myself from doing so because I wanted to make sure I was right. Good thing I didn't say a word because Brook is more common as a girl name, but it can also be used as a boy's name too.

Poor guy to have a name like that. I mean, it's not like Brook is a bad name, it just sounds like a girl's name. It's a pretty girls' name too, but a boy's name. Geez. The grunt probably got made fun a lot for having a girly-sounding name.

If you're wondering if I shook his hand, I didn't. Instead, I crossed my arms and looked down at the book in his other hand. Out of all the books he had to pick, why did it have to be that one?

"You know, just because we're enemies on the battlefield doesn't mean we can't be friends outside of it," Brook suggested.

That was when an awful idea came into my mind. I looked up at the guy's face and told him exactly what I was thinking.

To my surprise, Brook nodded his head in agreement. "Of course I could show where the hideout is, but I can't. You'd more than likely get me in trouble."

Trouble.

See, this guy wasn't as dumb as he looks. He refused to take me to their hideout, but luckily I had a better idea. Thanks to the past few days of training, Asher helped me with a little invention. It was a tracker of sorts. If we couldn't follow them into their base, all we would have to do is outsmart them.

Besides, the tracker Archer made was pure genius. It had a camera that could map out the entire thing. We needed a clear insight as to what their base looked like. This was the perfect way of doing so.

All I had to do was outsmart him and plant it on him.

"Damn, worth a shot," I muttered.

Brook smiled. "Course, I could always show you around if you do the same for the Magma base first."

His offer was tempting, if I got to Team Aqua's place first. Once he got to Team Magma's hideout, we could easily lock him up and make sure he never sees the light of day again. After all, it wouldn't be the first time that happened. While I didn't agree with those methods, I knew what was at stake if we let someone go.

Besides, Team Aqua's done it a few times with some of our members too. If we were lucky, the poor grunt that was caught would escape, giving out horror stories of what happened. I overheard a few of them a few days ago to prepare myself for what could happen, and thought of ways to stay strong if I was thrown into that situation.

Going through with his deal would've more than likely forced me into one of those horrendous horror stories my fellow grunts talked about.

"I'll pass on that," I told him as I snatched the book out of his hands.

The boy didn't even try to reach for it as I flipped through the pages, noticing nothing out of the ordinary from the book. For a moment, after he made the comment, I thought someone hid something very important in this book. Turns out the grunt only wanted the book for mere entertainment.

That is until I turned to chapter ten. I stopped, slowly flipping through the pages as I read the one part over again. I'm not sure why I even started reading it, but I did. The writing style still needed improving, and the two main characters were just being forced into a relationship at that point, but I still read it.

"Thought you said it was 'Sumer's worst book ever,'" he quoted as he snagged the book out of my hands.

I tried to grab the book out of his hands again, but missed, grabbing into his sweater vest instead. While doing so, I slipped the tracker inside.

Did you honestly think I wanted to read that book? The book was more of a cheesy romance novel than it was an action one. You have two characters who are in a forced relationship that would've never worked out in real life and yet there's a whole fan-club shipping them, demanding that the two characters must get married by the end of it.

Thank goodness the author stopped with that book. If she would've made a sequel, or worse, a trilogy, that would've been just awful.

And now I'm rambling on about a pointless book rather than explaining what happened.

Well, let's just say I let go of him and explained these horrendous details as to why the book was just awful, concluding with the fact that the only reason why I tried to grab it was so I could point it out.

Brook shook his head and was about to say something when someone interrupted our conversation. I wasn't unhappy about that. I mean, I did what needed to be done and should be off to finding my friends. There was only one reason I was a bit disappointed as to why we had stopped talking.

"Aye! Brooks! I thought I lost ye," an all too familiar voice said.

You know, now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen my nemesis out of uniform. Everything about him was a mystery. Seeing him now, towering over me, made me want to throw my heels on so I could reach his height for once.

At the same time, the book Brook was holding gave me another idea. Maybe it was for the best that my heels were in my hands. If things would've gone bad, I could wack him upside the head with the heels in my hand.

I wasn't the only one who realized this. As I turned towards the Aqua grunt, he scowled in response. He didn't look that much different from when he was in uniform. Sure, without a bandana, I could actually see his silver-white hair that matched his eyes, but he still wore the blue and white stripped shirt with a pair of ripped gray pants.

Think it was a bit overkill to try that hard to be a pirate.

"Wha' are ye Magma scum doin' here?" Scott asked.

I looked down at my black dress, looked back up at him, and shrugged. "You know, just because we only see each other at work, doesn't mean we have off days."

Scott shook his head in disbelief, but before he could say anything, Brook waved the book in front of him. "I got what I wanted. Let's go."

For a moment, I swore I saw Brook hesitated for a moment before he followed Scott out of the library with that book in his hands. I watched as the little Sobble on Brook's shoulder turned around and gave a small wave.

I don't know what's better? The fact that I found a member of Team Aqua and could easily deceive him, or the fact that I saw a Sobble?

Something just didn't add up about that guy. I mean, why would anyone leave Galar of all places? The place is filled with rare Pokémon like Sobble. And for him to lose his accent or hide it? That didn't make sense either. Nothing was adding up about this guy, which only made me trust him less.

When he left, I remembered that he caught me from falling down in Mount Chimney a few days ago. He seemed nicer than the other Aqua grunts, but seeing him with Sebastian Scott, well, his act wouldn't last long.

Probably the next time I see him, he'll probably be brainwashed. He'll regret saving me, or...

Not that I care. It's better he's the enemy anyways. Why I'm overthinking this is beyond me. It's the way things are.

I got out of that library, abandoning my thoughts for a moment. After all, we had a mission. Team Magma will stop Team Aqua from making Torrent Day happening with Kyogre. They've gotten close to succeeding twice. Both times, they nearly won because some teenager decided they wanted to play hero.

Well not this time.

We will stop them. I'm not letting anything get in my way.

_____

Yeah, so I found Asher and Lynne and told them about everything that had happened. Well, almost everything. Guess I was keeping part of the truth from them about actually knowing Brook from before. I just told them I recognized him, and after talking, I tricked him into taking the chip by slipping it into his clothing.

Of course, Asher's dirty mind took that somewhere else.

"Wait, Em, hold up," Asher stopped me. "His clothes? How did you pull that one off? Oh Mew, please tell me you didn't kiss him or anything!"

At this point, the three of us booked a room in a hotel, being that we wouldn't be able to track them until morning. It was plan B as our original plan was to find a member ASAP and track them down from there.

Of course, we didn't have a Flying-type to fly us over, but Maxie did grace us the usage of a small helicopter. Thank Mew Asher knew how to drive one of those things. After all, he's more on the intel side like me, but is just well rounded when it comes to that and battling. Battling, research, planning...you name it, he can do it.

Think he'd have some common sense about the kind of person I was.

I even scrunched my nose in disgust as I plopped down on one of the two beds. One was for myself, as I wasn't one to share. Seeing as Asher had already passed out on the other bed while Lynne is getting ready for bed, it would look like my roommate would be sleeping on the floor tonight.

But earlier, that time Asher made that comment, I just didn't believe out of all people, Asher would've accused me of that.

"You're gross," I told him. "I'd never stoop that low."

Of course, Archer just rolled his eyes in disbelief, but he should've known. Team Aqua was the worst. If anything, I'd die before I kissed an Aqua member. I'd rather jump into the nearest ocean before I did that.

"Asher, have you met Ember? She'd never kiss a guy she hardly know. She can barely hold a conversation with the opposite sex," Lynne argued.

That wasn't true.

I talked to Asher without freezing up. I have a few older brothers I could talk to if I wanted to. I just didn't because that's a problem within itself I didn't want to think about. I talked to that new grunt with no problem earlier today.

It wasn't guys I had a problem with. Surely enough, I'd have to deal with them, but to the point where I can't talk to them? That's not me.

The only reason she could back up that answer was because Lynne witnessed me shaking as I talked to our leader about extending the mission by a day. She could see me shaking and stutter for words as I tried asking. I was just afraid. My job was on the line. No. OUR JOBS were on the line.

I just didn't answer to Lynne's comment. There was no way I could answer her because then she'll know my weakness. The more people that knows what you're scared of and the weaknesses you have, the more control they have over you. That gives them power. There's no way I was going to let people have that.

Her conversation made me think back to when I went to the library. Yes, I did what needed to be done. We'd be going into Team Aqua's hideout tomorrow, but that boy didn't seem interested that I was a member of Team Magma. Could I have had the choice, we probably could've talked about Summer's books for the longest time.

Again, I'm not a fan of her work, but it's been a while since I've had a conversation with someone about books. It was kinda nice talking to someone about that. True, I could force Asher to listen to me ramble on about books, but it wasn't the same as being interested in it.

No. He probably only seemed so interested like that so that he could distract me or something. I mean, that's all it was...right? He could've been in there for research.

Why be in the fiction section if he was?

Dear Reader, I know it may sound like I'm becoming too friendly with the enemy, and may possibly be looking at him as a friend, but there's no way that can happen. Brook will one day turn like the rest of Team Aqua. Getting too close to him may ruin our chances of success. We have no room for failure if we are to stop Team Magma from going through with Torrent Day. I just have to keep reminding myself that.

I have to keep myself from creating any friendly feelings for him. He's the enemy. Brook will always be the enemy.

Signing off,

E. Flame

Author's note:

I know the last time I said the next time I'd update, it'd be Christmas time; however, this is a happy little chapter. Happy chapters like this should be shared (especially since it was a nice break from what I normally write). Now, it will be on official hiatus until Christmas time. I have some more planning I want to get done for this book before I update again.

The pic above is how I pictured our main guy, Brook, in full Aqua gear. I found this pic a while ago, before I wrote the story, but I lost it as I didn't save it. Luckily, it was sent by a reader (though, I can't remember who...) they get total credit for this pic being here and for being awesome in sending that in.

Anywho...QUESTION TIME!: What's your favorite Pokéfic on Wattpad?