Buizel awoke with a stiff back and wondered why the sun seemed to be in the wrong place.
After a minute, he realized he was still cradling Shaun. He hastily let go of him and gently laid him down on his pillow before sliding off of the bed and stretching. His back popped luxuriously, and he took a deep breath as he did.
He looked back at Shaun, who was still sleeping peacefully, his fur damp with sweat and fever. Buizel gently petted his cowlick before leaving the sick ward in search of something to drink.
Cleffa was at the front desk, idly playing with a piece of rolled up paper. She glanced up at Buizel as he entered the room and smiled at him, a little tiredly. “Oh, good morning, Buizel.”
“Could I have some water?” he rasped. Cleffa nodded and fetched a wooden cup of water that she seemed to have prepared for him.
“How’s the Shinx?” she asked as he gulped down the water.
“Still sick, but he actually slept, I think,” he said, ruefully checking the bottom of the cup for more water. “He woke up screaming in the middle of the night from a bad nightmare. Scared me half to death. Got any more water?” he asked.
Cleffa nonchalantly produced another full cup of water. Buizel took it gratefully and drained it as Cleffa said, “Yeah, I told Mr. Ampharos about you staying the night last night. He seemed to take the news decently well, considering.” She produced yet another full cup of water as Buizel set down his second empty cup. “He actually came down this morning to check in on you two.”
“He did?” Buizel asked before starting on the third cup of water. He didn’t completely empty it on his first drink.
Cleffa nodded. “He went into the sick ward and reported that both you and the Shinx were still asleep. He seemed slightly preoccupied with something else, though.”
Buizel nearly choked as he remembered that he had fallen asleep cuddling Shaun. “Ah.”
“You need to drink slower,” Cleffa chastised. “Mr. Ampharos also told me to tell you not to forget about school.”
Buizel finished drinking his water and set the cup down in sudden trepidation. “I forgot about that.” He thought about how much Shaun had asked him to not leave him and bit his lower lip. “I don’t really want to just leave him, though. He was obsessed with that all night.”
“He’ll be fine,” Cleffa said. “If he made it through last night, then he’ll definitely live. And he’ll most likely sleep through the entire morning, too.”
Buizel was reluctant to just leave. “I’ll go check on him really fast, first.”
He quickly ducked back into the sick ward. As he poked his head around the corner of the curtain, he saw Shaun watching for him expectantly. “Oh, uh, good morning, Shaun.” Buizel’s eyes wandered to the wall behind Shaun and froze. Almost imperceptible was another message, carved out of the splits between boards and shadows cast by the wood grain.
THE OLD MAP, A NEW MAP, AND THE CIPHER
“Morning,” Shaun replied. His voice was still stuffy, but he sounded much more sober. “Do you really have to leave?”
Buizel continued staring at the wall. “Uh… yeah. Sorry.”
Shaun picked up on his absence of attention and looked at the wall behind him. “What? Is there some kind of-“ He stopped and looked back at Buizel. “Don’t tell me.”
“The old map, a new map, and the cypher,” Buizel said faintly. “These are almost instructions.”
Shaun’s eyes lit up. “Hey, wait! Glaceon gave you that map! What if that’s what it’s talking about?”
“Doesn’t explain ‘a new map’, though,” Buizel worried. “I might grab the wrong one.”
Shaun shrugged. “Can’t you just, I dunno, grab a map of the surrounding ocean or whatever?”
Buizel blinked at him. “That’s so easy, it might just work.”
“Occam’s Razor,” Shaun said. “The simplest solution is the easiest one.”
Buizel parsed this through his head. “Nothing about it being ‘correct’, though.”
“Ehh, whatever.” Shaun waved a paw at him. “Do you really need to leave?”
Buizel nodded apologetically. “Yeah, school waits for no ‘mon.”
“The one time I attend school,” Shaun complained, “we get dragged back in time and I get deathly ill.”
“Worst school day ever,” Buizel joked. He glanced out the window at the rapidly rising sun. “I should really be going now.
“Okay, thanks,” Shaun nonsensically replied cheerily. He rolled over and was fast asleep.
The sun was already higher than Buizel would’ve liked, so he had to hurry to get to school on time.
As he approached the path that led to school, he slowed down in surprise as he saw Sneasel leaning against a tree, eyes closed.
“Uh, good morning,” he said as he approached.
Sneasel looked up at him. “You’re late.”
Buizel rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, Shaun was really, really sick last night. Like, bad enough that Chansey didn’t think he would live through the night.”
Sneasel’s eyes widened as she followed him down the school path. “Oh gosh, really?”
Buizel nodded. “He’s alive, though.”
Sneasel hummed. “Buizel, can I ask you to do something for me?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, sure?”
She stopped and turned to face him. “Don’t let Shaun leave the island.”
Buizel stopped as well. “Huh?”
Sneasel gestured at the area around her. “If Shaun leaves, time stops. Time’s already starting to go strange again, and Shaun can not be allowed to leave the island.”
Buizel cocked his head. “Uh, okay. I don’t know when he’d ever want to leave the island, though.”
“I just have a feeling,” Sneasel said vaguely. “Anyway, I’m not supposed to be talking to you after what happened two days ago.”
Buizel winced. “Ah. Uh, that sucks.”
Sneasel nodded and looked at him pleadingly. “Please understand that it’s nothing personal, and I would really like to talk to you more, but…” She lifted her shoulders and let them drop unhappily.
Buizel watched her with a faint, growing warmth in his chest. “I understand. Though, uh, please try and keep me abreast of any developments.”
Sneasel nodded, the conversation falling into silence as they got to the schoolyard.
Haunter was already there, along with the other children. The lesson hadn’t started yet, luckily, but Haunter grinned nastily at Buizel as he sat down. “A little late today, are we?”
“Yeah,” Buizel said, without much enthusiasm. “Caring for somemon will do that.”
Haunter casually surveyed the other Pokemon in the school. “It’s no ‘mon I know of.”
Buizel eyed Haunter as he remembered that the past week hadn’t happened. “Uh huh. You two probably won’t get along anyway.”
Haunter tilted his head as he grinned, which was more like tilting his entire body. “Why, you seem so positive about that! How can you be so sure?”
Buizel let out a single laugh. “Trust me.”
Haunter looked at Buizel, nonplussed. Breloom finally exited the admin building, silencing any further conversation between the two. Buizel’s brain began to wander as Breloom talked enthusiastically about something that Buizel already knew like the back of his paw. Sneasel’s request lingered in the back of his mind, ominous in its specificity.
He must’ve dozed off, because the next thing he knew, the end of class bell was tinkling. He stood up as the other children began to run around and play, feeling slightly disoriented.
As he began to walk home, he felt like he was being followed. He didn’t think much of it at first, but the feeling grew until he stopped and looked around.
The forest path seemed as empty as it always was, but Buizel knew better. He sighed and folded his arms. “What do you want?”
To only his partial surprise, Haunted faded in out of nowhere in front of him. “My, you’re observant today.”
“Uh huh.” Buizel knew Haunter well enough that he knew he only did this when he wanted something. “Do you want something?”
Haunter lazily gazed around the forest path for a moment. “You and Sneasel certainly have become… fast friends.”
Buizel blinked. That hadn’t been the direction he had been expecting the conversation to go. “Uh. Have we?”
Haunter’s grin seemed a little more forced than usual. “I’m surprised that you haven’t noticed how she looks at you. Then again, you’ve always been… oblivious.”
Buizel began walking down the path again. “Uh, okay. What does this have to do with me? We’ve just started talking a bit more after school, that’s all.”
“‘That’s all’? ‘That’s all’?!” Haunter’s grin began to look malicious. “My, that’s rich. Do you know I’ve been trying to talk to her for over three years?”
Buizel paused and slowly glanced at him. “…Really?”
Haunter threw up his disembodied hands. “Yes! Have you really not noticed! My god, you’re blind!”
It began to dawn on Buizel that Haunter was actually, genuinely unhappy with him. His empathetic side wanted to feel sorry, but his rational side immediately shut it down by saying he deserved it.
“How did she start talking to you?” Haunter asked. “What did you do?”
Buizel shrugged, unsure. “She came to me first, I guess,” he said noncommittally.
“Well, what compelled her to stick around?!” Haunter was getting more unstable. “Why does she like you?”
Buizel shook his head and continued down the path. “I don’t know, actually.”
“You-“ Haunter was unable to process this. “How would you not know?!” he said, floating after Buizel. Any pretense of a grin was gone, replaced by malicious confusion. “I’ve been trying to get her to notice me for years! And then you two start dating overnight!”
Buizel stopped dead and spun around to face Haunter. “Huh?! W- dating?!” The idea had never even crossed his mind. “We’re not dating!” he spluttered.
“Sure,” Haunter said, unconvinced. He stalked up to Buizel and jabbed him in the chest. “Sneasel is mine, got it?”
Buizel backed away to give himself some distance. “We are not dating! Where did you even-“ He glanced down the path, which reminded him he was still a long way from town. “Look, I have things to do today. I am not fighting with you over this.”
Haunter folded his arms. “Good.” He watched Buizel go, a faint remnant of a glare on his face. Buizel sighed in relief as he turned a bend and was out of sight.
He hurried home, the message from that morning lingering in his mind. He climbed the stairs to his room and rummaged around in his dresser, pulling out the map that had been untouched since he had shown it to his parents the day before. He looked around for the cypher for a minute, growing more and more confused.
He bounded downstairs two at a time and poked his head into the kitchen. Floatzel was there, cutting something up on a cutting board. “Hey, mom,” he asked, “have you seen that weird paper I drew with the squiggles?”
Floatzel smiled at him. “Oh, hello, Buizel! No, I’m afraid not. The last person to have seen it was your father, and he’s asleep.”
Buizel resisted the urge to groan with frustration. “Okay, thanks. Do we have any nautical maps?”
She cocked her head consideringly. “Well, I suppose if we did have any, they’d be on the top of the bookshelf.” She looked at him sharply. “You’re not considering going out on the water, are you?”
“No, I just wanted to compare it to this,” he said, holding up the map. “Might be educational.”
Floatzel paled a little at the sight of it, but nodded. “Alright. Just making sure.”
Buizel walked over to the bookcase and looked up. A promising looking roll of paper sat there, just barely hanging over the edge. He tried to quietly quietly climb the bookcase, which creaked in protest as he did. He grabbed the scroll and jumped to the floor, the bookcase leaning forward a bit further than it was supposed to.
As he dusted himself off, he looked up to see Ampharos standing in the doorway of the master bedroom, apparently having watched the whole thing. “You should know better than that,” Ampharos said, causing Buizel to flush with embarrassment. “You can just ask one of us to get something down for you.”
“Sorry,” Buizel automatically apologized, “I just really need a nautical map. Oh, uh, by the way, have you seen that cypher that I… found the other day?”
Ampharos walked over to the bookshelf and pushed it back up against the wall before taking down the Fairy-type tale book. He opened it and took the paper out, which he had presumably been using as a placeholder. “Here you go.”
Buizel blinked at the book. “What was it doing in there?”
He shrugged noncommittally. “I grabbed the first thing that came to hand when I needed a bookmark. My apologies.”
“It’s fine.” Buizel took the nautical map out of its capsae and looked at it, facepalming when he realized he hadn’t grabbed a nautical map at all.
Ampharos watched this reaction, an amused expression on his face. “If you need a nautical map, you should ask me for one, instead of climbing the bookshelf and grabbing my story drafts.”
Buizel glanced from his father to the papers, which did indeed seem to have a story on them. “Wait, you write?”
“It’s a hobby,” he replied, holding out a paw for the capsae. Buizel hurriedly shoved the paper back in and handed them back. Ampharos put it back on the top of the bookcase with ease and pulled down a different capsae that Buizel hadn’t even noticed. “Here you go. What do you need a nautical map for?”
“I wanted to compare this-“ he waved the map he had gotten from Glaceon. “-with something more modern.”
Ampharos’ eyes flicked between him and the old map. “I see. Well, you’re probably not going to find much of interest. Fifty Island has been a single island for as long as anymon can remember.”
Buizel looked at the map in his paw, his mind drifting to Gray Island. “That’s why I want to compare them, I guess.” He carefully bundled the maps under his arm and rolled up the cypher. “I’ll be back soon, I gotta go compare notes with Shaun.”
Ampharos raised an eyebrow. “Sooner than midnight, I’d hope.”
Buizel waved a paw at him. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on, uh, time traveling. Again.”
He chuckled a little. “You’re going to have to tell me the whole story at some point.”
Buizel had already started towards the door. “Maybe once things calm down a little?” he offered. He didn’t have the heart to tell him that the island would be gone in a week’s time. “Hopefully I should be back before dinner,” he said, whisking out the door.
Once outside and on the path to the clinic, Buizel sighed in relief. He jogged to the clinic, taking in the afternoon sun. It seemed colder than he remembered, but he had just been to a summer who knows how long ago.
He poked his head into the clinic and saw Cleffa sleeping at the front desk, head resting on one arm. He quietly snuck past her into the sick ward and made directly for Shaun’s bed.
Shaun was awake, boredom written all over his face. He cheered up significantly as he saw Buizel walk into view, carrying things. “Dude! You’re back! Finally!”
“Sorry, got a tad sidetracked.” Buizel climbed up onto the bed and spread out the papers on the sheets. “Okay, old map, new map, cypher.” He pointed to each one in turn. “How the heck do we use these?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Shaun replied. “My vote is that we just open them and start looking for points of interest.”
Buizel did, spreading out the map they had gotten from Glaceon. It displayed an entire chain of islands, each one with a name next to it. The smallest one was labeled Fifty Island, which Buizel tapped with a paw. “So we’re here.”
Shaun traced the shape of the archipelago, which vaguely resembled a crescent moon. “And these don’t exist. Heck of a quandary,” he said. He glanced at the largest one. “What’s that one called?” he asked, gesturing to it.
“Atlantis Island,” Buizel read.
Shaun stared at the island. “Wait, like, the Atlantis that sank?”
Buizel looked at him curiously. “Huh?”
“Didn’t Atlantis sink?” Shaun trailed off as he stared at the island. “Sorry, weird thoughts being weird. Or faint memories being faint,” he muttered.
They stared at the map for a while, but nothing inspired any breakthroughs. After a while, Buizel took out the cipher. “Well, time to break out- this!”
“And use it on what?” Shaun asked. “We have no leads. At all.”
Buizel hesitated for a moment. “Well, we could take a look at the new map.”
“We should probably do that first,” Shaun said. “We need as much information as we can get before we start trying to figure out what the message wants.” He startled as he finished saying the sentence. “Wait, I never told you about that dream!”
Buizel rolled a paw at him. “Go on.”
“So I was walking along in this strange place,” Shaun recounted. “Lots of floating blue… murals? I want to say murals? Anyway, at the end of the passageway thing, a cat-like thing talked to me for a minute or so. Oh! Um, he also mentioned me touching the Time Gear and reversing time and all that jazz, and told me to find him.” He cocked his head to the side. “I think there was more, but I’ve forgotten the finer details.”
Buizel gaped at him. “Wait, so there’s another Pokemon who remembered everything?”
He just then seemed to grasp the implications of this. “Oh. Oh crap.”
Buizel stared down at the maps without seeing them. “That’s… huge, actually. But we don’t even know where to find the ‘mon. If it even exists.”
Shaun shuffled in bed uncomfortably, his leg unable to move. “Well, I think it exists. Probably somewhere nearby, too.” Without waiting for a response, Shaun unrolled the nautical map of Fifty Island.
It was a much sadder looking map in comparison. A grid stretched across the entire map, with various measurements that neither Buizel nor Shaun could understand written along the edges. “Wow,” Shaun said after a moment. “Real helpful there, message.”
Buizel glanced at the cipher, which had sat forgotten in his paw. “Well, it might be useful.” He traced along the grid with his paw until he found a tiny note: Strong currents.
“Aha,” he said. “Remember what my dad said about currents?”
Shaun thought for a moment. “That conversation feels like it happened years ago. I think I can faintly recall-“
“Watch,” Buizel interrupted. He carefully arranged the cypher over the currents, pressing the paper onto the map until they could vaguely make out the map through it.
The current lines matched up exactly. Shaun whistled through his teeth. “Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.” He looked at the old map. “So how does that help us?”
Buizel also looked at the old map. “I’m… not entirely sure.” He glanced at the tiny dot that was Fifty Island through the paper and a faint idea began to burn inside his head. “Wait, I might have something.”
Putting his paw over where the Fifty Island dot was on the nautical map, he carefully moved the paper over to the old map, aligning the Fifty Island on the old map with his paw.
Shaun watched appreciatively. “How the heck did you even figure that out?”
Buizel stared at Shaun for a few seconds. “I- I don’t know.” He glanced at the map again. “Looked for common points of interest, I guess.”
“Do the currents still line up?” Shaun asked curiously.
Buizel squinted at the map through the paper. “Well, not exactl-“ He froze as he looked at the currents. Each line intersected several different letters, creating an entirely new message.
FIND GRAY ISLAND
FOR AN EXPLANATION
UNDER THE OCEAN
IS MY LOCATION
Buizel slowly read this aloud. Shaun’s eyebrows shot up as he listened. “Whoa, it’s in verse now!”
“Under the ocean?” Buizel repeated. “But we can’t get to…” His eyes drifted up to the wall again.
YOU HAVE 2 DAYS
Buizel began to hyperventilate. Shaun’s gaze flicked to the wall behind the bed before looking at Buizel sharply. “You’ve already seen that message.”
“It’s- it’s different, now,” Buizel gasped, breathing too fast. The sudden onslaught of messages was terrifying. “‘You have two days’- Wh- who’s-?”
“Buizel?” Shaun looked genuinely concerned. “You’re hyperventilating.”
“It’s- sorry, it’s just-“ Buizel tried to focus on calming himself down. “Why does- why does it have to be me, of all Pokemon? Why me?” He buried his face in his paws. “Why couldn’t it have been anymon else?”
“Buizel!” Shaun managed to stand up in his cast and walk over to him on the bed. “Come on, don’t be like that.” He draped a friendly leg around his shoulder. “Look, I… I get that seeing messages that no one else can see can be… overwhelming. Maybe even polarizing. But you shouldn’t have a breakdown over it.”
Buizel dropped his paws into his lap. “I know, just…”
“You are the most observant person I have ever met,” Shaun continued. “This is just an extension of that.” He glanced at the maps. “Besides, we just need to find the person at the bottom of the ocean, and we’ll get answers. No issues there.”
Buizel laughed, surprising himself. “There are, like, several different issues with that, but alright.”
Shaun gave him an affectionate squeeze. “Don’t breathe like that, man. Scares me to death and back.”
He raised a paw. “Sorry! Sorry! It’s just- too much information too quickly, I guess. Not to mention we have a time limit now,” he added ruefully.
“Hooray,” Shaun deadpanned as he dropped his leg from around Buizel’s shoulder. “Yet another for the list.”
Buizel glanced at Shaun in sudden surprise. “Wait, how long has it been since you coughed?”
He looked at Buizel blankly for a minute. “Hey, you’re right!” he said suddenly. “I don’t feel miserable anymore!”
Buizel threw his arms around Shaun in a hug. “Oh, I’m so glad! I’m so glad!”
“Dude,” came Shaun’s muffled response. “You need to calm down with the hugging a little.”
Buizel immediately let go of him. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know that-“
Shaun smiled at him, a real, genuine smile. “I’m- actually, I don’t mind it that much. Just give me a little warning, next time.”
“Okay,” Buizel said, fooling with his arm fins. “I guess I’m just used to hugging people. And they don’t usually mind.”
Shaun, whose attention had returned to the map, glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “And by ‘people’, you mean your parents?”
Buizel flushed with embarrassment. “Um. Maybe.”
Shaun laughed, but it wasn’t intentionally mean. “Let’s drop that particular topic, shall we? Do you think aligning the currents in this map with the cypher will do anything?”
Buizel leaned over the map, trying to forget the previous conversation. “Well, let’s try it.”
They moved the paper around a little, but the currents weren’t marked on the old map. They moved the cipher to various places, but the map seemed to have run out of messages. Buizel was a little relieved when Shaun yawned. “Gosh, I’m exhausted,” he said. “And we still haven’t even discussed how we’re going to get to the bottom of the ocean.”
Buizel stretched. “Yeah, and that’s especially a problem.”
Shaun noticed a shift in his tone and looked at him curiously. “How come?”
“Well…” Buizel rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve never learned how to swim.”
Shaun stared at him. “You’re kidding.”
“The area around Fifty Island is really rocky,” Buizel began, “And my parents have always been worried that a rogue wave would slam me against a rock or something…”
Shaun glanced at his cast. “I’d make fun of you for that, but I can’t swim either, at the moment.”
Buizel leaned back and groaned frustratedly. “Why is there a time limit? Why do we have to do this within two days? Why can’t we have been given a week?”
“I assume that at the end of the week, the world as we know it is doomed,” Shaun replied dryly. “I honestly really want to do this as soon as possible, but…”
Buizel glanced out the window. “Looks like it’s about four in the evening.”
“Since it’s midwinter, let’s assume it’s two P.M,” Shaun said jokingly. “That averages to three, which means we have plenty of time to do things.”
Buizel continued to stare out the window. “You know, we might actually be able to do this today.”
Shaun tapped his cast. “I may be well, but my leg is still very broken. There’s also the small issue of neither of us being able to swim, and we don’t even know where Gray Island is.”
Buizel looked down at the maps again. “Well, we know the general direction from Fifty Island to go. It’s not really that far away, either. We got there after, what, half an hour of rowing?”
“From my count, it was closer to an hour.” Shaun wiggled his cast in frustration. “Ugh, this is the worst. I think I still remember how to swim, but that doesn’t exactly help much with this on.”
Buizel began rolling up the maps. “Might as well put these away. I don’t think we’re gonna get anything else from these tonight.”
“Good,” Shaun replied. “The last time we got something from it, you had a panic attack.”
“That- it wasn’t really a panic attack,” Buizel replied defensively.
“Yeah, whatever you say.”
“No, like, I’ve had panic attacks before,” Buizel said seriously. “That- had the makings of one, but you calmed me down before it could really go anywhere.”
Shaun took a hard look at him. “You have panic attacks?”
“Well,” Buizel said slowly, “I used to have a lot when I was a kid.” He smiled ruefully. “You know, lack of anymon other than my parents.”
Shaun winced. “Oof.”
Buizel considered the scrolls in his paw before bending tuck and hiding them under the hospital bed. “I don’t want anyone stealing these while we’re gone.”
Shaun sat up straighter. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about?”
Buizel glanced at him. “We’re going to find Gray Island, of course.”
Shaun stared at him for a moment before beginning to laugh. “I thought I was supposed to be the reckless one!”
He bristled a little. “Hey, the sooner we can get this done, the sooner we can get answers for… everything.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he glanced out the window again. “And maybe somehow keep the island from being destroyed.”
Shaun’s mirth faded as he watched Buizel. “Oh. Okay, I see.” He pointedly looked around the sick ward. “So how do we leave?”
In response, Buizel slid off the bed and tiptoed over to the door. Cleffa was still asleep and snoring.
He tiptoed back to Shaun’s bed. “Okay, I’m gonna carry you out of here. We can sneak down to the docks after that, and then maybe find a boat.”
Shaun wiggled his cast again. “Are you sure? This cast is heavy.”
“I’ll manage,” Buizel replied. He picked up Shaun and slung him over his back, supporting his legs. “Let’s be quiet until we get outside,” he suggested.
Shaun nodded. Buizel tried to very quietly slip out the door of the clinic, barely breathing as he watched Cleffa sleep.
He got outside and away from the clinic before sighing in heavy relief as they began walking into town. “Okay, we can talk now.”
“Great!” Shaun said brightly from his back. “Something I’ve been wondering about: how are we going to get a boat?”
Buizel slowed his pace as he considered the question. “Um. I was sorta thinking that we’d just… wing it.”
“With boats?” Shaun laughed, a short, pained laugh. “The last time that happened, it disintegrated. And I don’t think you really have boat rentals around here. Not that we even have the money anymore,” he mumbled into Buizel’s shoulder.
Buizel, with a shock, remembered that the 1,000 Poke he had gotten from turning in the single translation no longer existed. “I- I didn’t even think about that,” he replied mareepishly as they made their way towards the docks.
The town was a lot busier than Buizel remembered. Pokemon darted from this store to that store, fixing up various buildings, or loudly chatting with their compatriots above the noise.
Buizel tried to navigate through the crowd as best he could, but Shaun had been right about his cast being heavy. It felt like he was wielding a battering ram, and he desperately tried not to knock it into other Pokemon as he made it to the docks.
It was just as busy here as it was the rest of the town, even though the Lapras shipment wasn’t due today. Buizel glanced around at the long wooden docks that extended over the water, which were depressingly void of any boats.
“Welp,” Shaun said matter-of-factly. “Now what?”
Buizel’s eyes drifted over the crates and barrels that were stacked against the wall. Buizel didn’t actually know what the island exported, he just knew that it was valuable to someone somewhere.
As he looked out over the ocean again, biting his lower lip, Shaun pulled himself up a little. “Hey, what’s that?”
Buizel looked where Shaun was pointing. A barrel, that had somehow been sawed in half lengthwise, leaned up against a crate. Buizel blinked at it and then at Shaun. “What?”
“It’s a perfect canoe!” Shaun bounced a little with excitement. “Put me down, I want to look at it.”
“You see with your eyes, not your paws,” Buizel joked.
But he obligingly let Shaun down onto the dock, where he hobbled over to the barrel and pushed it down onto the boards with a clatter. “Looks plenty seaworthy to me!”
Buizel had the sudden feeling he was being watched. Casually, so that Shaun wouldn’t notice, he let his eyes drift around the docks, trying to see if they were being watched.
His eyes finally latched onto a red tiled roof. Perched on top of it was Sneasel, who was making hugely exaggerated “NO” motions. Sucking in an involuntary breath as he remembered their conversation from that morning, he turned to Shaun. “You know, maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all.”
Shaun glanced at him curiously before returning his attention back to the possible boat. “What’s the holdup?”
“Well…” Buizel rubbed the back of his neck. “Neither of us can exactly swim, we don’t have a boat, we don’t even know where Gray Island is…”
“Didn’t seem to stop you from bringing us out here,” Shaun murmured. He suddenly looked at Buizel sharply, causing him to flinch. “Okay, out with it. What’s wrong?”
Buizel rocked back and forth nervously. “Um. Well, Sneasel talked to me this morning about not letting you leave the island for any reason.”
Shaun rolled a paw. “Keep going.”
Buizel sighed in defeat. “Something about you leaving the island causing time to stop.” He really didn’t want to make Shaun feel like a burden again.
Shaun considered him thoughtfully for a moment. He seemed to zone out a lot further than he should have for a moment. “Hang on,” he said faintly.
He slammed his front paw into the ground.
Buizel winced as he heard the bones in it crack against the wood, which creaked protestingly. “What are you-!?”
Something jolted inside of Buizel. He gasped and stumbled to the wooden dock. “Ow!”
“Sorry,” Shaun mumbled. His voice seemed off, for some reason. “Just gotta…”
Something clicked audibly, above the noise of the crowd. A few other Pokemon seemed to notice it, but they shrugged it off as they continued on their business.
Shaun lapsed into a coughing fit, bending down on one leg. “Ow…” he groaned.
Buizel pushed himself up and stared at him, noting that his eyes had gone back to normal. “Wh- what in the void was that, Shaun?!”
Shaun cleared his throat. “Time Gears are fourth dimensional objects,” he explained. “I just, kinda… pulled it to the present for a while. We’re probably good for a while.”
“No, like-“ Buizel waved his arms frantically. “What the heck did you just do?! How did you- do that?! How did you know how to do that?!”
Shaun watched him, a little confused. “I’m- I don’t really-“ He stared straight ahead for a minute. “What did I even do? I- I remember wanting to do that, but I don’t really-“ He shook his head. “Nope, not thinking about that right now. Boat. Time for boat.” He turned and began pushing it towards the water, wincing a little. “Ow, my hand hurts.”
Buizel followed him. “Yeah, because you slammed it into the ground. I heard something break when you did that.”
Shaun groaned. “Great, more hospital time.”
The barrel half fell from the dock, into the water with a splash. Buizel half expected it to immediately capsize, but it stayed upright, somehow.
“Okay, you go first,” Shaun voluntold him. “I can’t really… jump.”
Buizel shrugged and did. It was a longer fall than he had expected, his stomach doing a flip as he landed in the barrel. It rocked back and forth dangerously, already threatening to capsize.
“Okay, catch!” Shaun called before Buizel had really regained his balance. Buizel turned to see Shaun awkwardly jump from the dock, falling directly towards him.
Buizel couldn’t react in time. Shaun slammed into him, knocking him down. The barrel rocked even more as they pushed themselves upright.
“…warn me before you do that,” Buizel admonished. “That kind of hurt.”
Shaun shrugged. “Hey, at least I didn’t clobber you with my cast.”
Buizel tilted his head in acknowledgement. “Point.” He glanced around, suddenly realizing something. “Uh, we can’t move the boat.”
To his surprise, Shaun scoffed. “Yeah, we can.”
“How?” Buizel challenged. “We don’t have oars.”
Shaun gestured to him. “You have that water beam thing, right?”
“Water Pulse, yeah,” Buizel corrected. “What about it?”
“Just use it under the water like a thruster,” Shaun said. “It should push us right along.”
Buizel stared at him for a second. “Uh, okay, if you say so.” He moved to the back of the barrel and put his paw under the cold seawater. “Okay, here goes.”
He concentrated on forming a Water Pulse. It was a lot faster than he had anticipated, the small orb of moisture forming easily underwater. He directed it away from their boat, still under the water.
The barrel launched across the water. Shaun let out a yelp of surprise as they sped over the waves, almost getting a bit of airtime. “Whoa, that was sick!” Shaun said over the ocean waves. “Do that again!”
Buizel obliged, grinning to himself. “This is way more fun than rowing!” he shouted as they flew across the ocean again.
“You said it!” Shaun stood up and looked around. “Okay, so Gray Island was around that way,” he said, gesturing with his broken paw. “Let’s keep going that way!”
“Got it,” Buizel affirmed. He shot another Water Pulse away from the boat, trying to angle it properly.
“Wow, we might be there in fifteen minutes!” Shaun said as they continued to speed along. “This is unbelievably faster!”
After about the seventh Water Pulse, Buizel slumped a little and panted. “I don’t think I’ve ever had to use a move so often before.”
Shaun looked at him with concern. “Try not to burn yourself out too badly. We’re still going to need to get back.”
Buizel groaned and slumped further, the barrel rocking from side to side precariously. “Ughhh, don’t remind me.”
Shaun stood up and looked around the endless ocean. “Actually, I don’t think we’re too far off. Maybe another, ehhhh, two boosts?”
Buizel sat up. He could do two more boosts. “Are we really that close?”
“Probablyyyyy?” Shaun’s tone didn’t instill much confidence. “I remember that we got about this far before the boat hit the rocks and disintegrated.”
Buizel dipped his paw into the water again. “Okay, here goes-“
Unfortunately, right as he fired the next Water Pulse, a large wave hit the side of the barrel.
They launched forward, the barrel rolling from side to side and spinning wildly. Buizel and Shaun both held onto the boat as tight as they possibly could. “What happened?!” Shaun yelled.
“I- I dunno!” Buizel said, trying not to panic. “It just-“
Another rouge wave slapped the side of the boat. The barrel, still rolling from side to side, slowly slipped upside down before slamming down on top of them, dumping them into the water.
The sounds of the water he was submerged in echoed off of the barrel that blocked out the sun. Buizel struggled to keep himself afloat for all of five seconds before he looked down into the water. Shaun was sinking rapidly, desperately trying to swim up out of the ocean with a horrifyingly haunting expression. Buizel took a deep breath and dived after him.
He didn’t know what he was going to do, exactly. It was almost a relief to not have to try and keep himself above the water, but he wasn’t thinking about that.
He pushed through the water, almost clawing his way towards Shaun. Bubbles were everywhere, making it hard to see, and invisible forces kept pushing at them, pushing them closer together before tugging them apart. Buizel wanted to scream in frustration, but oxygen was valuable.
He desperately tried to reach for Shaun, who’s movements had slowed down. His bright blue eyes were beginning to fade, his eyelids flickering shut…
Buizel did scream, a sudden influx of bubbles leaving his mouth. He desperately dived towards Shaun, trying to grab him, trying to save him-
Miraculously, he sped through the water. The sudden speed took him by surprise, and he nearly forgot to grab Shaun as he slammed into him.
Holding Shaun was like holding a boulder. His cast, meant to help his leg, was trying to sink both of them. Buizel wanted to take a breath, but the water weighed down on him, trying to push him up and down and away from air. His lungs burned.
The edges of his vision beginning to darken, he started to swim up. Up. Up. He needed to go up. The colors of the water around him melded together into one blinding mass as he floundered in a direction he hoped was up. He clawed at the water, trying to get to any semblance of air-
He suddenly shot upwards, launching out of the water a few inches before coming to a rest with the water slightly below his neck. He gasped for air, trying to hold Shaun out of the water.
Shaun breathed in air and began to cough horribly. A lot more water than Buizel had expected came out, with Shaun gasping for air in between coughs. “Wh- what-“
Buizel hugged Shaun to him. “You’re not dead,” he said reassuringly. “You’re- you’re not drowning.” He said it to reassure himself as much as Shaun.
Shaun looked around. “Yeah,” he said hoarsely, “but we are screwed.”
Another rogue wave smacked into Buizel and Shaun, knocking Shaun out of Buizel’s grip. Shaun barely had time to inhale before sinking again.
Buizel took multiple deep breaths, trying to get as much oxygen as possible before he dived underwater again.
To his surprise, the ocean seemed much shallower than he had expected. It was only about 30 feet deep, the gray rocks jutting out of the ocean floor like something had pulled an island out of the ground.
As Buizel dived towards Shaun again, much, much faster than last time, the sensation that he was overlooking something touched his brain again. He wanted to groan. Not another message! At a time like this!
He scooped up Shaun and hastily looked around. An odd, dark pocket caught his eye, impossibly dark for how lit up the surroundings were. His brain screamed at him to get him and Shaun to air, but his skin was almost buzzing as he drifted closer to it. On a whim, he shot towards the cave.
A wave of vertigo washed over him as he swam into the darkness. He rolled across the floor, completely sopping wet. Shaun rolled slightly less far, his fur completely saturated with seawater.
Buizel, sputtering and gasping, wobbily stood up. “Wh- air? How is…?” He trailed off as Shaun gasped and began to cough again. He quickly ran to Shaun’s side, feeling helpless. “Are you okay?”
Shaun opened a bleary eye and looked at him, his blue eye glowing in the darkness. “…I’ll live through worse,” he said. He began to cough up more water. “Where even are we?”
Buizel looked around. The area they were in was almost completely dark. “Um, a little light would be nice.”
Shaun groaned. “I feel awful,” he complained. But he obliged, the end of his tail lighting up. It was significantly dimmer than usual, but it still shone a little light around them.
They were in a small cavern, a passageway leading deeper in. The floor seemed oddly smooth, almost fragile. “Where are we?” Shaun repeated, glancing around.
“A mystery dungeon, I think,” Buizel replied. “There was an entrance that was just- dark. Even though there was plenty of light.”
Shaun pushed himself up unsteadily. “Well, hopefully this is the right place. Because we are royally screwed.”
Buizel inhaled shakily. “Yeah. Yeah, we are.”