Teapot Salty
Popping Corn
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Hey guys, this is (I hope) going to be my second reasonable fanfic, albeit the first just kinda died halfway through. Anyway to avoid
confusion I'm going to explain a bit about how the world I'm writing about differs from ours. First and foremost, is the inclusion of
pokemon, however in a slightly darker aspect. Second is the dis inclusion of gun powder, for as much personal reasons as it would be kind of over powered, anyways that means no guns and few explosives. Third is the lack of (harnessed) electricity, and the inclusion of steam punk style technology. Guns of Icarus style airships will be a big part of the story. Note that the teen rating is due to violence and some strong language, trust me if your ten years old, your parents won't want you to read this, so please don't. Reviews are welcome. Anyway hopefully I'll have a few people hocked or something like that. But I'm sure you guys want the story, so here it is.
Jack stood on the middle deck of the airship, wind ruffling his light brown hair as he surveyed the ship half a kilometer
away, deciding the best way to send it crashing into the restless sea below. Jack hated pirates, not only were they a pain on jobs
that had him and the rest of the crew protecting merchant ships, they had also-no, don't think about that, he thought, it would only
reduce him to a sniveling runt in front of his crew mates, and in this business, showing weakness could lose you your job, or worse.
Jack noticed a courier running down one of the staircases situated at the ends of the ship, and angle his body toward him. Jack
smiled, he already knew what the messenger was going to say, but he remained where he was by a ballista, and waited for the man
to approach. He was shorter then Jack, and just as skinny, with a scar on his cheek and a short sword at his hip. "Jack, the captain
wants you to take out the enemy engines, and this time, do it quietly! He says that we don't need to have bolts stuck in our hull
and half the ship on fire just because you couldn't bother to be careful!" Jack didn't reply. He knew that the captain hadn't really
been angry about the incident the messenger spoke of, in fact he seemed to have enjoyed the confrontation. He shook his head and
made sure that his sword was still at his hip and that his poke balls were still on his belt. Then he took a few running steps and
vaulted the railing at the edge of the ship sending him free-falling toward the distant ocean below.
A massive gyrados broke the surface of the water below and roared in challenge to all around it, Jack looked down on it and thought
to himself 'another time.' He reached to his belt and felt the familiar texture of Brorsen's pokeball. He took it from his waist, pointed
the tip toward the air below him and squeezed the ball until it snapped open, and with a flash of light, a charizard appeared beneath
him. It spread it's twenty-five foot wingspan to catch the air as Jack landed on it's back with practiced ease. He would have liked to
land on the pirate ship and clear the decks with the help of his most trusted friend, but his orders were clear, and he knew that any
pokemon worth its weight in a fight would be very loud, and very obvious. He patted Brorsen on the neck. "Feel good to stretch your
wings?" Jack asked. The beast beneath him grunted in response, and flapped to gain altitude, rising above the pirate ship, an orange
streak in the grey sky. Jack pulled a boarding hook from his back. It was two feet long, with a hook on the end, the outside was
wide and sharpened to slash through flesh. It was a tool used when one had to jump onto another airship to extend their reach, and
well it didn't make the best weapon, it could hold it's own in the ferocious battles to control decks of ships. The pirate ship, now 200
feet away from him and about a fifth of that below, was of an interesting build. The engines appeared to be on catwalks on the top
of the ship, well below them was a walled off area that Jack assumed was the barracks, wheelhouse and weapons room. The
balloons that kept the ship aloft were on the port and starboard of the ship. From his height, Jack could tell that there were four
men on the catwalks, and they seemed to be facing away from him, at least, Jack hoped so, otherwise they would raise the alarm
the instant they saw Brorsen. Once he assumed that the distance was correct he launched himself of Brorsen's back and extended
the boarding hook. Wind slapped at his face until, when the moment seemed right, Jack swung the hook in front of him as it caught
the steel of the catwalk between the two engines that propelled the ship forward, resulting in a clanking noise. The first time Jack
had tried that trick he had done it from a much lesser height, and he still had almost dislocated his shoulder. Now though, he was
used to it and felt only the slightest of discomfort. Jack silently thanked Arceus that the noise hadn't been louder. He knew that
anyone who had worked on an airship for more than a day wouldn't come running at every little noise, after all, the engines often
made clinking and clanking noises, and if people reacted to them all the time, life would be miserable. However, one of the men on
the catwalk must have been new since the sound of footsteps could be heard walking to were Jack had landed. He swore silently
and placed his empty hand on the edge of the catwalk, ready to spring up and drag anyone who came to close over the edge with
the hook. A second pair of footsteps joined the first, along with the grumbling of: "Rookie you can't go look every damn time you
hear something, just focus on loading that fucking crossbow." A young face of a child no older than sixteen looked over the edge of
where Jack was hanging. Before the youth could so much as shout, Jack swung the hook around his ankles and pulled the child
overboard, sending him plummeting toward the hungry maw of the ocean, or a gyarados. Jack quickly pulled himself onto the deck
and came face-to-face with a bearded man who looked to be about forty. The man stepped back, pulled a small crossbow off his
back and pointed it at Jack's face. Before he could pull the trigger, He grabbed the mans wrist and jerked it so that the weapon was
pointed at one of the pirates crew mates, sending the bolt through his chest. Jack pulled a knife from the mans belt and threw it,
spinning end over end at the fourth man, who looked to be the same age as Jack. The knife caught him in the shoulder and he
stumbled over the railing, before free falling into oblivion. Jack punched the Last remaining pirate in the nose drawing blood and a
strangled "shit," before he swung the boarding hook at him and slit his throat. Blood spurted out of the wound like a fountain of
death before the man grasped his throat and fell to his knees, where he remained for a moment, until he slumped and fell backward.
Jack cleaned the boarding hook on the edge of his tunic, sheathed it on his back, and looked at the carnage around him and said: "I
love my job."
After throwing the limp bodies of the dead pirates over the edge of the ship, completing the assignment that the captain had given
him was a simple matter of dismantling the core components of the engines. Jack prided himself with his skill at assessing the types
of motors in front of him, and deciding the best way to either build it up or tear it apart, his brother had-no stay away from those
thoughts, they don't help anyone, just return to the ship, Jack thought, after once again wondering into dangerous territory in the
treacherous land of his mind. He was just about to call for Brorsen to catch him as he jumped off the rig, but a voice from below
kept him silent. At first it was nothing more than indistinct mumbling, but a few moments later two voices rose in pitch, becoming
fevered yells audible even through layers of metal. "It was nothing! One of the bastards up there probably just slipped and smacked
his head on the engine!" Came a voice, sounding gravely and over-used. "Oh come on! Remember last month, one of the men up
there just 'smacked his head' and when we come up here there's a fucking boarding in progress!" Came another voice, presumably
that of a first mate. "Look if it will shut your damn mouth than I'll check! Just take the fucking wheel for a minute, and try not to
send us into a nose dive at kyogres back!" Came the first voice, which Jack now assumed belonged to the captain of the ship. He
swore under his breath, Brorsen was still to far away to catch him if he jumped off the ship, on account of trying to stay out of sight
of anyone on the vessel. Worse was that a man who seemed to have a loud voice was coming up to make sure that "nothing was
there," and Jack knew better than most that most men who survived long enough to become a captain, where going to be master
sword fighters. To make it even more terrible, the captain was almost surely going to have full access to his pokemon, which, no
matter how good Jack was with a sword, he would have next to no chance of killing. Still he deduced that if he had to die, he'd like
to do by purging one more low-life skulk off the face of the earth. Jack drew his sword. It was about four feet long, with about 60
percent of the weight toward the tip of the blade, and curved to provide as much slashing power as possible without inhibiting the
stabbing potential of the weapon. It was slightly unwieldy, but it easily made up for it with it's power and versatility. He stared
nervously at the narrow stairs leading up to catwalks. Jack would have to end the fight quickly, before the man could call for the
crew or send out a pokemon. He angled himself so that he would not be visible until the captain got to the top of the stairs. He
heard a door open, and then close, along with heavy footsteps. Jack heard him get to the stairs, and begin to climb. Every step
seemed like a hammer blow. He saw the captains head as he climbed the last few steps, weather beaten, with grey hair, and
seemingly unbearded. With a short yell, Jack lunged at the embodiment of his most hated and feared faction, and brought his blade
down in a ferocious downward stroke, intending to rend the man in half. His shout caught the attention of the captain and before his
blade could take his life, the man jumped the last step onto the catwalks and drew his sword, smoothly avoiding Jack's blow. The
man pulled a poke-ball of a strap on his should and toss it at the ground with a snarl of: "Thought you could catch me by surprise,
shithead?" A red pokemon with the approximate shape of a human shot from the ball with a flash of light. Jack couldn't help but
notice the large , clamp-like hands that it had. Ah scizor! that was bad, it was two against one, and he still didn't want to alert the
crew below by taking a pokemon out of one of the three remaining filled balls on his belt, he needed to get help from the air. Where
something could pluck someone off of the deck of a ship without anyone below being wiser. "Brorsen!" Jack shouted, as loud as he
could muster, as he dodged a swing from the captains cutless. Jack responded with a thrust only to have the blade get parried by
the scizor. It swung a claw laden arm at Jack's head, which he caught at the wrist, he staggered at the force of it. This was one
strong pokemon! It thrust it's other pincer at him. Which Jack stopped with his sword. He thanked all the gods that he knew that
steel quality had drastically improved over the last twenty years, enough so that it could withstand the force of the scizors crushing
pincer with only the slightest bend. Nonetheless the scizor managed to force Jack back to the guard rail. Where he stood
desperately trying to resist the force of natures superior strength. It struck him as odd that the captain was just watching this,
instead of plain killing him on the spot. Jack deduced that it must give him perverse pleasure, watching someone desperetly try to
escape the inevitable, for little by little his body was forced back, until, one more shove would send him toppling over into the sea
below, he thought grimly back to the gyrados from earlier, and shuddered at the thought of being it's snack. Then, a roar. A roar of
fury and defiance. Jack had heard it before, and he doubted it would be the last time he heard it, for it was the roar of Brorsen. A
wave of flames covered the deck, and there was a scream as the flames ceased and the mighty charizard picked up the captain of
the crippled ship and tossed him over the edge. It happened so quickly that Jack barely even noticed as the pressure from the
scizors arms had stopped. For the creature had gone limp and collapsed on the deck, where it twitched twice and lay still. Brorsen
hung in the air, flapping his wings. The deep orange of his scales was broken at the base of the neck by a pale scar that ran from its
left wing-shoulder to the right side of its neck. "Thanks," Jack said with a wry smile. He leaped off the deck and heard the hollow
roar of wind rushing by as Brorsen dove down to catch him. After the short return to trip to the airship owned by his employer,
Captain Marcus. Jack dropped off Brorsen and landed nimbly on the deck, before returning him to his poke-ball. Marcus stood waiting
by the same ballista that Jack had taken off from. "Are you done?" He asked, with a hint of mocking sarcasm. Jack arranged his face
and thoughts before he answered: "You could say that."
confusion I'm going to explain a bit about how the world I'm writing about differs from ours. First and foremost, is the inclusion of
pokemon, however in a slightly darker aspect. Second is the dis inclusion of gun powder, for as much personal reasons as it would be kind of over powered, anyways that means no guns and few explosives. Third is the lack of (harnessed) electricity, and the inclusion of steam punk style technology. Guns of Icarus style airships will be a big part of the story. Note that the teen rating is due to violence and some strong language, trust me if your ten years old, your parents won't want you to read this, so please don't. Reviews are welcome. Anyway hopefully I'll have a few people hocked or something like that. But I'm sure you guys want the story, so here it is.
Jack stood on the middle deck of the airship, wind ruffling his light brown hair as he surveyed the ship half a kilometer
away, deciding the best way to send it crashing into the restless sea below. Jack hated pirates, not only were they a pain on jobs
that had him and the rest of the crew protecting merchant ships, they had also-no, don't think about that, he thought, it would only
reduce him to a sniveling runt in front of his crew mates, and in this business, showing weakness could lose you your job, or worse.
Jack noticed a courier running down one of the staircases situated at the ends of the ship, and angle his body toward him. Jack
smiled, he already knew what the messenger was going to say, but he remained where he was by a ballista, and waited for the man
to approach. He was shorter then Jack, and just as skinny, with a scar on his cheek and a short sword at his hip. "Jack, the captain
wants you to take out the enemy engines, and this time, do it quietly! He says that we don't need to have bolts stuck in our hull
and half the ship on fire just because you couldn't bother to be careful!" Jack didn't reply. He knew that the captain hadn't really
been angry about the incident the messenger spoke of, in fact he seemed to have enjoyed the confrontation. He shook his head and
made sure that his sword was still at his hip and that his poke balls were still on his belt. Then he took a few running steps and
vaulted the railing at the edge of the ship sending him free-falling toward the distant ocean below.
A massive gyrados broke the surface of the water below and roared in challenge to all around it, Jack looked down on it and thought
to himself 'another time.' He reached to his belt and felt the familiar texture of Brorsen's pokeball. He took it from his waist, pointed
the tip toward the air below him and squeezed the ball until it snapped open, and with a flash of light, a charizard appeared beneath
him. It spread it's twenty-five foot wingspan to catch the air as Jack landed on it's back with practiced ease. He would have liked to
land on the pirate ship and clear the decks with the help of his most trusted friend, but his orders were clear, and he knew that any
pokemon worth its weight in a fight would be very loud, and very obvious. He patted Brorsen on the neck. "Feel good to stretch your
wings?" Jack asked. The beast beneath him grunted in response, and flapped to gain altitude, rising above the pirate ship, an orange
streak in the grey sky. Jack pulled a boarding hook from his back. It was two feet long, with a hook on the end, the outside was
wide and sharpened to slash through flesh. It was a tool used when one had to jump onto another airship to extend their reach, and
well it didn't make the best weapon, it could hold it's own in the ferocious battles to control decks of ships. The pirate ship, now 200
feet away from him and about a fifth of that below, was of an interesting build. The engines appeared to be on catwalks on the top
of the ship, well below them was a walled off area that Jack assumed was the barracks, wheelhouse and weapons room. The
balloons that kept the ship aloft were on the port and starboard of the ship. From his height, Jack could tell that there were four
men on the catwalks, and they seemed to be facing away from him, at least, Jack hoped so, otherwise they would raise the alarm
the instant they saw Brorsen. Once he assumed that the distance was correct he launched himself of Brorsen's back and extended
the boarding hook. Wind slapped at his face until, when the moment seemed right, Jack swung the hook in front of him as it caught
the steel of the catwalk between the two engines that propelled the ship forward, resulting in a clanking noise. The first time Jack
had tried that trick he had done it from a much lesser height, and he still had almost dislocated his shoulder. Now though, he was
used to it and felt only the slightest of discomfort. Jack silently thanked Arceus that the noise hadn't been louder. He knew that
anyone who had worked on an airship for more than a day wouldn't come running at every little noise, after all, the engines often
made clinking and clanking noises, and if people reacted to them all the time, life would be miserable. However, one of the men on
the catwalk must have been new since the sound of footsteps could be heard walking to were Jack had landed. He swore silently
and placed his empty hand on the edge of the catwalk, ready to spring up and drag anyone who came to close over the edge with
the hook. A second pair of footsteps joined the first, along with the grumbling of: "Rookie you can't go look every damn time you
hear something, just focus on loading that fucking crossbow." A young face of a child no older than sixteen looked over the edge of
where Jack was hanging. Before the youth could so much as shout, Jack swung the hook around his ankles and pulled the child
overboard, sending him plummeting toward the hungry maw of the ocean, or a gyarados. Jack quickly pulled himself onto the deck
and came face-to-face with a bearded man who looked to be about forty. The man stepped back, pulled a small crossbow off his
back and pointed it at Jack's face. Before he could pull the trigger, He grabbed the mans wrist and jerked it so that the weapon was
pointed at one of the pirates crew mates, sending the bolt through his chest. Jack pulled a knife from the mans belt and threw it,
spinning end over end at the fourth man, who looked to be the same age as Jack. The knife caught him in the shoulder and he
stumbled over the railing, before free falling into oblivion. Jack punched the Last remaining pirate in the nose drawing blood and a
strangled "shit," before he swung the boarding hook at him and slit his throat. Blood spurted out of the wound like a fountain of
death before the man grasped his throat and fell to his knees, where he remained for a moment, until he slumped and fell backward.
Jack cleaned the boarding hook on the edge of his tunic, sheathed it on his back, and looked at the carnage around him and said: "I
love my job."
After throwing the limp bodies of the dead pirates over the edge of the ship, completing the assignment that the captain had given
him was a simple matter of dismantling the core components of the engines. Jack prided himself with his skill at assessing the types
of motors in front of him, and deciding the best way to either build it up or tear it apart, his brother had-no stay away from those
thoughts, they don't help anyone, just return to the ship, Jack thought, after once again wondering into dangerous territory in the
treacherous land of his mind. He was just about to call for Brorsen to catch him as he jumped off the rig, but a voice from below
kept him silent. At first it was nothing more than indistinct mumbling, but a few moments later two voices rose in pitch, becoming
fevered yells audible even through layers of metal. "It was nothing! One of the bastards up there probably just slipped and smacked
his head on the engine!" Came a voice, sounding gravely and over-used. "Oh come on! Remember last month, one of the men up
there just 'smacked his head' and when we come up here there's a fucking boarding in progress!" Came another voice, presumably
that of a first mate. "Look if it will shut your damn mouth than I'll check! Just take the fucking wheel for a minute, and try not to
send us into a nose dive at kyogres back!" Came the first voice, which Jack now assumed belonged to the captain of the ship. He
swore under his breath, Brorsen was still to far away to catch him if he jumped off the ship, on account of trying to stay out of sight
of anyone on the vessel. Worse was that a man who seemed to have a loud voice was coming up to make sure that "nothing was
there," and Jack knew better than most that most men who survived long enough to become a captain, where going to be master
sword fighters. To make it even more terrible, the captain was almost surely going to have full access to his pokemon, which, no
matter how good Jack was with a sword, he would have next to no chance of killing. Still he deduced that if he had to die, he'd like
to do by purging one more low-life skulk off the face of the earth. Jack drew his sword. It was about four feet long, with about 60
percent of the weight toward the tip of the blade, and curved to provide as much slashing power as possible without inhibiting the
stabbing potential of the weapon. It was slightly unwieldy, but it easily made up for it with it's power and versatility. He stared
nervously at the narrow stairs leading up to catwalks. Jack would have to end the fight quickly, before the man could call for the
crew or send out a pokemon. He angled himself so that he would not be visible until the captain got to the top of the stairs. He
heard a door open, and then close, along with heavy footsteps. Jack heard him get to the stairs, and begin to climb. Every step
seemed like a hammer blow. He saw the captains head as he climbed the last few steps, weather beaten, with grey hair, and
seemingly unbearded. With a short yell, Jack lunged at the embodiment of his most hated and feared faction, and brought his blade
down in a ferocious downward stroke, intending to rend the man in half. His shout caught the attention of the captain and before his
blade could take his life, the man jumped the last step onto the catwalks and drew his sword, smoothly avoiding Jack's blow. The
man pulled a poke-ball of a strap on his should and toss it at the ground with a snarl of: "Thought you could catch me by surprise,
shithead?" A red pokemon with the approximate shape of a human shot from the ball with a flash of light. Jack couldn't help but
notice the large , clamp-like hands that it had. Ah scizor! that was bad, it was two against one, and he still didn't want to alert the
crew below by taking a pokemon out of one of the three remaining filled balls on his belt, he needed to get help from the air. Where
something could pluck someone off of the deck of a ship without anyone below being wiser. "Brorsen!" Jack shouted, as loud as he
could muster, as he dodged a swing from the captains cutless. Jack responded with a thrust only to have the blade get parried by
the scizor. It swung a claw laden arm at Jack's head, which he caught at the wrist, he staggered at the force of it. This was one
strong pokemon! It thrust it's other pincer at him. Which Jack stopped with his sword. He thanked all the gods that he knew that
steel quality had drastically improved over the last twenty years, enough so that it could withstand the force of the scizors crushing
pincer with only the slightest bend. Nonetheless the scizor managed to force Jack back to the guard rail. Where he stood
desperately trying to resist the force of natures superior strength. It struck him as odd that the captain was just watching this,
instead of plain killing him on the spot. Jack deduced that it must give him perverse pleasure, watching someone desperetly try to
escape the inevitable, for little by little his body was forced back, until, one more shove would send him toppling over into the sea
below, he thought grimly back to the gyrados from earlier, and shuddered at the thought of being it's snack. Then, a roar. A roar of
fury and defiance. Jack had heard it before, and he doubted it would be the last time he heard it, for it was the roar of Brorsen. A
wave of flames covered the deck, and there was a scream as the flames ceased and the mighty charizard picked up the captain of
the crippled ship and tossed him over the edge. It happened so quickly that Jack barely even noticed as the pressure from the
scizors arms had stopped. For the creature had gone limp and collapsed on the deck, where it twitched twice and lay still. Brorsen
hung in the air, flapping his wings. The deep orange of his scales was broken at the base of the neck by a pale scar that ran from its
left wing-shoulder to the right side of its neck. "Thanks," Jack said with a wry smile. He leaped off the deck and heard the hollow
roar of wind rushing by as Brorsen dove down to catch him. After the short return to trip to the airship owned by his employer,
Captain Marcus. Jack dropped off Brorsen and landed nimbly on the deck, before returning him to his poke-ball. Marcus stood waiting
by the same ballista that Jack had taken off from. "Are you done?" He asked, with a hint of mocking sarcasm. Jack arranged his face
and thoughts before he answered: "You could say that."
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