Day 1

"Excuse me, but have you seen a Floatzel around here?" Jay asked a cowering Shellder, which was standing in a garden of seaweed.

"N-no... I haven't... s-sorry..." replied the Shellder.

Since they couldn't ask her Oyster where she'd seen a Floatzel, for some stupid reason Deluge still didn't understand, Jay suggested that the two Buizel would have to make do with the next best thing: ask other Pokémon in the Orange Branch. Jay did the talking, of course, just like when they found the Alomomola earlier. She also had to slow down to follow him, which just felt weird. What kind of Buizel wasn't fast?

What was up with Jay, anyway? The poor kid could barely swim, yet he knew more about the sea than she did. He had been separated his mother, but he didn't seem too concerned with finding her. Was he an orphan who had spent his life wandering the sea alone, picking up loads of knowledge along the way? Or was he raised by a particularly smart trainer? If so, where was his trainer? Come to think of it, why hadn't she seen any humans around here? This reef, as Jay had called it, looked like the perfect gawking spot. Thinking about stuff like this made her head hurt...

"No luck there, then," said Jay, shaking his head. "But we can still keep trying, right?" Delle could hear the uncertainty in Jay's voice. It was clear that he was trying to not upset her, but it sounded more like he was trying to not upset himnself. There was no way that Delle would give up on the reason she came here! Especially after what had happened yesterday... Delle shook her head to forget about the bad memory.

Slowing down also made Delle realise how eerily silent this place was. The local weirdos were all huddled inside the eye-searingly bright orange... buildings? Is that what they were? Delle had seen those a few times, but never underwater. Weird. Meanwhile, the few Pokémon they came across were all on their own, in stark contrast to that central place. Delle couldn't decide which was worse: this, or the singing Lileep.

It was so silent, in fact, that Delle could hear a shout in the distance.

"Get them!"

Delle looked over her shoulder, and saw a pair of this reef's weird locals (that's what she'd be calling them for now), both of whom were carrying spiralling seashells she had never seen before. Since the two Buizel were the only Pokémon in the immediate area, they couldn't have been talking about anyone else. But what had they done to deserve being captured? They hadn't done anything wrong. If anyone deserved to be captured, it would be the Mareanie they talked to earlier. He was a prick.

Whatever the case, Delle was a good swimmer, so she would easily be able to outspeed and outmanoeuvre them. Jay, however...

Quickly, Delle grabbed Jay by the wrist, practically dragging him as she swam away from the locals, not even caring where she was going.

"What was that for?" asked Jay.

"Some of the locals are trying to capture us, idiot!" snapped Delle.

"No need to be so harsh..." mumbled Jay, but he quickly became more alert when he saw the locals as well.

"Sorry!" she quickly apologised. "Just hold on!"

Unfortunately, the pair of locals were catching up to them. Delle soon realised that this was because Jay was slowing her down, but she couldn't just abandon him! He hadn't done anything wrong!

Delle noticed a branching path and darted across it, hoping that the locals wouldn't notice her.

Once she was deep enough into the path, she leaned against a wall, before realising that it was too bumpy to lean against comfortably.

"That's a relief," she said. "Let's go back to looking for dad, Jay!" She turned towards him... only to realise that he wasn't there. "Jay?"

Delle realised that she had let go of him when she turned around the bend. She looked down the way she came, and saw that the locals had caught Jay in...

A net.

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no oh no OH NO!

They were dragging him to who-knows-where, and she might never see him again, and it was all her fault for not paying attention...

Delle surfaced for air to calm herself. The surface seemed so barren in comparison to the reef, and she started to feel lonely.

Delle assessed the situation. She was going to see Jay again. All she needed to do was follow the locals, making sure they didn't notice her. For once, slow-swimming would come in useful.

Delle dived back into the water again. From her high position, she could see that the pair of locals were taking Jay to the blue centre of the reef. Sincerely hoping that the Lileep had shut up by now, Delle dived down into the corridors of the Orange Branch and chased after pair of locals from a distance, keeping a mental note of where they were headed.

Delle had almost reached the end of the Orange Branch, where it met the centre... and promptly smacked face-first into someone.

"Oh!" exclaimed Pearl. "I was looking for you!" Delle turned towards her, hoping this detour wouldn't take too long. "Sorry if this sounds weird, but... can you understand what I'm saying?" Delle nodded. "And where are you going?" Delle pointed in the general direction of the centre. "Are you looking for your friend?" Delle nodded again. "I saw him being dragged to the palace earlier. I tried to tell the guards that he had helped save Conch's life, but they were too busy to listen."

If Delle was paying attention, she might have realised that Conch was the name of Oyster's little sister, but her mind was too preoccupied to notice that. Instead, she realised that Pearl would be able to convince the guards to let Jay go!

Delle grabbed onto Pearl's... forelimb, whatever it was called, as she swam even faster towards the centre.

"What was that for?" exclaimed Pearl.

From the windows in front of the balcony, a tall, white hippocampus with an iridescent sea-green tail watched over the Blue Plaza with a look of concern. Outside, Queen Oceania could see white seals that looked like they didn't belong anywhere near the tropics, long-necked turtles with bumpy shells, purple sea lilies, and brown arthropods with blades for arms. The echoes of their unfamiliar voices reverberated throughout the ocean like a haunting song.

All day, Queen Oceania's council had been flooded with reports about incidents involving the strange creatures that had suddenly appeared that morning. A pink eel with a long, pointed proboscis had bitten a hippocampus; the Pink Branch had been filled with a seemingly endless amount of orange fish; a ball-shaped whale had gotten stuck between walls of coral and had to be freed.

Marelantis had dealt with incidents like this before - sea serpent attacks were fairly common - but never this many at once.

Queen Oceania had ordered the Royal Guard to capture any of the creatures that seemed to pose a threat to Marelantis, and take them into custody until she figured out where they came from and what to do with them. Until then, they would remain in the lowest floors of the palace.

If anyone knew how to deal with this, it would be Princess Celestia. Queen Oceania was about to write a letter, but she was interrupted when a dark blue hippocampus, with a light blue mane and tail fins shaped like clamshells, burst through the doors.

"Your highness!" exclaimed Sunken Treasure, bowing before her. "Another creature has just been taken into custody! It seems to be the young of the large, orange otter that was captured earlier."

The next thing Jay realised, he was in a spacious, light blue room. The walls were decorated with dark blue, vein-like patterns, and encrusted with seashells and jewels he'd never seen before. It looked pretty... until Jay realised he was in a net.

Memories of the last few minutes came flooding back to Jay. He had been escaping from a couple of strange dragons with Delle, then she let go of him, then a net came out of a seashell...?

Why did Delle abandon him, anyway? Did she not care about his well-being, and only cared about him as long as he could help her find her father? Jay felt a twinge of anger.

...Wait, that couldn't be right. She was clearly concerned about him even when he was slowing her down, and she hadn't even found her father yet.

All Jay knew for certain was that he was trapped in a beautiful prison.

"How did you get here, kid?" a deep voice asked, which caught Jay by surprise. He turned around, too see that it was... a Floatzel?

"Oh, me?" Jay replied, taken aback. "Well... I was in the Orange Branch, looking for someone, and then we got chased by a couple of... Those guys... " Jay gestured towards a strange dragon in the room, who he assumed was a guard of some sort. "I got caught, but I was with another Buizel, and I don't know what happened to her."

"Another Buizel?" the Floatzel asked. "By any chance, was her name Deluge?"

Deluge? Where had he heard that name before? Oh... it was Delle's real name!

"Yes," Jay replied flatly, before something clicked. "Wait... are you her father?"

"Why, yes!" the Floatzel enthusiastically answered. "My name is Torrent. Pleased to meet you!" ,

"Well, Torrent... my name is Jay. Delle and I were looking for you." Jay looked down sadly. "How did you get here, then?"

"She still hasn't outgrown that silly nickname?" Torrent muttered, shaking his head. "I ended up here because I SAVED one of their kind from being stuck under some rocks, but they thought I was trying to attack her! I tried to explain that I meant no harm, but they wouldn't listen to a word I said!"

"Well... that's because the inhabitants of this reef can't understand us," said Jay bluntly.

"I knew it!" shouted a raspy-sounding Kabutops in a cage on the other side of the room. Jay figured this was because he would easily break out of a net. "I tried asking some of those Seadra-looking guys where I was, but what answer did I get? NOTHING!" As the Kabutops slashed at the bars, Jay realised that this was the same one he saw in the plaza earlier.

A Milotic on the same side of the room glared at the Kabutops, her pink head-fins swaying slightly. "Mind your manners," she said in a singy-songy voice. She turned to look at Jay. "My trainer and I awoke just outside of this palace, where the guards immediately mistook us for a threat. We tried to calmly explain to them that we weren't, but when that didn't work, I fired an Ice Beam in their general direction to scare them away. But I didn't actually hurt them!" She flicked her blue-scaled, fan-like tail in annoyance. "I was captured while my trainer escaped, and I don't know where she went."

It took Jay a moment to process everything he just heard, but one thing in particular stood out to him. "Wait, did you say trainer?"

"Indeed I did," replied Milotic. "I didn't recognise her at first..."

Milotic was interrupted by the sound of a hole being punched through one of the walls.

After a few minutes that felt like hours, Deluge and Pearl arrived in the centre of the reef. They both looked up at a lumpy, towering structure made entirely of blue coral. In Delle's opinion, it looked rather boring. The only parts of it that stood out were the light blue lines that criss-crossed it like veins, and seemed to glow. Pearl, meanwhile, was gawking at it in awe.

"This is the Aquamarine Palace," said Pearl. "The most beautiful sight in all of Marelantis!" Pearl seemed to notice that Delle tilted her head. "That's what this place is called, by the way. This magnificent palace is home to Her Majesty Queen Oceania, but it also seems to be where your friend is being held captive."

Just then, the two guards from earlier emerged from the palace's entrance.

"Wasn't there another one?" one of them asked, looking around. Delle quickly darted around to the back of the palace, checking to see if the guards had followed her. Pearl followed her shortly afterwards.

"Yes. Can't find it anywhere, though," the other replied.

That was a close one!

"Good call!" exclaimed Pearl, briefly glancing back at the entrance.

"By any chance, are you two looking for someone?" a calm, yet stern, voice asked. Delle turned around to see that the voice in question belonged to a Pokémon she didn't recognise. Her tan, serpentine body was over eight times Delle's length. A long pair of light blue fins that looked like human hair ran down from her head, and her tail was golden.

"Yeah," replied Delle. "Well, I am, anyway. Pearl here just came along with me. My friend got captured for absolutely no reason whatsoever." She crossed her arms.

"A friend of mine was also captured and taken here," replied the other Pokémon. "She thought it was a good idea to try to attack some hippocampi that thought-"

"Some what?" asked Delle.

"Hippocampi, singular hippocampus, are the inhabitants of this reef. Surprisingly, they have little in common with a Hippopotas."

"What's a Hippopotas?"

"Never mind." There was an awkward pause. "Anyway, Milotic thought it was a good idea to try to attack some hippocampi who thought we were a threat. She can be so reckless..." She shook her head. "Still, it would be a disgrace if I were to abandon one of my comrades!"

"So... How exactly are you planning on rescuing... Milotic?" asked Delle, tilting her head as she said the unfamiliar word. Just then, she caught the faint sound of voices coming from inside the palace.

"I was planning to sneak into the palace when there we no guards around," the other Pokémon replied, "but perhaps your friend Pearl could reason with them instead. Though, it would be rather difficult to form a plan with someone who can't understand you..." The two Pokémon turned to look at Pearl, who seemed to be lost in thought.

Delle swam up to the wall, pressing one of her ears against it to hear where the sounds were coming from. No luck there... or there...

Ah! There it was! She couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but she could definitely make out the voices of Jay and... Dad!

Delle had heard that coral was easy to break, and judging from how it felt, this was correct. But how would she go around breaking it...?

Delle span her whole body around in a corkscrew motion until she was surrounded by a vortex of water. She then slammed herself into the wall, causing it to crack slightly. She did this again and again, until there was a hole big enough for her to fit through.

"...Or you could just do that."

Jay turned to look at the newly-formed hole in the wall, broken pieces of coral drifting to the floor.

"Delle!" he exclaimed. Delle seemed to notice him, but didn't say anything. She looked confident at first, but as she looked around the room, her expression turned... uneasy? She swam towards Jay's net and desperately tried to pull it apart, but couldn't.

"Jay... I'm sorry," she said through gritted teeth as she tugged at the net. "If I hadn't let you go, none of this would have happened!" She seemed angry at herself.

"You don't need to blame yourself," Jay replied. "It was an accident!" Delle looked slightly surprised.

Just then, the guard on the other side of the room became alert. Jay watched in shock as he lunged towards Delle, pointing his spear directly at her, a look of shock on her face...

Jay could barely watch. He was about to cover his eyes...

When Delle twirled around, expertly dodging the guard's attack, and causing his spear to hit the wall and get lodged in by its point. Jay noticed that this spear was made not of metal and wood, but of seashells.

As the guard tried to pull his spear out of the wall, Delle twirled around and slammed into him, knocking him to the other side of the room and causing him to hit a wall. While the water slowed down the throw, it still looked like it had to hurt, and the guard was dazed.

"That was a bit excessive, Deluge," said Torrent.

"Sorry, dad..." said Delle, before her eyes lit up. "Wait... dad?!"

"I'm glad you're safe," replied Torrent. "More importantly, I'm glad you're here! I was worried about you!"

"Oh!" exclaimed Delle. "That reminds me, Pearl told me that this place is called Marelantis. She's a hippocampus we met earlier - that's what they're called - some Pokémon just told me that." Finally! Jay didn't have to call them "strange dragons" any more!

"Speaking of which, there she is!" exclaimed Delle, as a differently-coloured Milotic swam into the room through the hole.

"Cynthia!" exclaimed the Milotic in the net. The name sounded oddly familiar to Jay, like he'd heard it on TV. "I'm SO glad you came!"

Cynthia looked from the hole in the wall, to the spear embedded next to it, to Delle, to the dazed guard. "Oh dear," she muttered, before turning to Delle. "As I said, if you want to convince hippocampi that Pokémon are not a threat, attacking them isn't the best idea." Cynthia sounded slightly condescending.

"Fine..." Delle muttered.

Cynthia gave Delle a glare, before turning to look at the rest of the Pokémon. "As for the more... pressing issue at... hand," she said, looking at her sides sadly. "How are we going to free all of these Pokémon?"

"I've already tried pulling the nets apart, and that didn't work, so... good question," Delle replied.

Jay looked around the room, looking for a solution. "I know!" he spoke up. "See that Kabutops over there? He could break us out of the nets! But first we'd need to get him out of the cage, but we don't have a key, and we can't melt it, so..." Jay looked down sadly, feeling hopeless. "Wait... Milotic said she knows Ice Beam! She could freeze the cage, then someone else could shatter it!"

Upon hearing this, Milotic released a straight beam of ice from her mouth. Most of it didn't go through the net, instead freezing the fibres. Jay looked at the other Milotic.

"Um... Cynthia?" he asked, catching her attention. "Would you mind doing that?"

"I'm not so sure," she said. "I'm still an amateur when it comes to moves."

"The greatest trainer in all of Sinnoh, calling herself an amateur?" exclaimed Milotic, earning her several confused looks. "Go on, try! You've seen me perform Ice Beam countless times. I can always help you hone your skills later, but for now, this is our only chance." She proudly placed her blue tailfin against her front.

Wait a minute... THAT'S why Jay recognised Cynthia's name! Which meant... he wasn't the only Pokémon here who used to be a human!

"I suppose so." Cynthia nodded, before releasing her own, rather jagged, Ice Beam onto Kabutops' cage. She then struck the frozen metal with her tail, freeing him.

"Thank you!" shouted Kabutops. "But how are you a trainer?"

"It's a long story," replied Cynthia.

Kabutops went around the room, slicing apart the nets with his scythe-like forelimbs. Jay was one of the last Pokémon to be freed. He flinched as his net was torn apart, worried that Kabutops might strike him by accident, but was grateful afterwards.

Once all of the Pokémon had been freed, the guard became alert again. He stared at the events that had just unfolded in complete and utter shock, before fleeing the room. The Pokémon all stared at the door in silence, wondering what would happen next.

Queen Oceania had just finished writing her letter to Princess Celestia, when a silver hippocampus burst into her room.

"Your majesty, the creatures... They've freed themselves!" he shouted.

"Really?" asked Queen Oceania, rhetorically. "Show me."

After a few minutes that felt like seconds, Jay stared as the guard returned, along with a very tall hippocampus. She looked at the hole in the wall, the shattered cage, and the shredded nets littered all over the floor with concern. The Pokémon didn't dare to move.

"What happened here?" she asked in a motherly tone.

The guard pointed at Delle. "That one broke down the wall, and tried to pull apart that one's net." He pointed at Jay, while Delle looked furious. "Since it posed a threat, I tried to attack it, but it ended up attacking me instead!" The tall one looked appalled. "I passed out, and when I awoke, the brown thing was free and had torn apart all the nets!" Kabutops awkwardly hid his arms behind his back.

"That does seem strange..." said the tall one. "How did it break out of its cage?"

"I haven't a clue, your majesty," the guard replied.

"I see..." The tall one paused to think. "For the time being, I order that these creatures should not only be recaptured, but restrained - especially the two you mentioned. We cannot rule out the possibility that they are a threat to the safety of Marelantis."

"NO!" Delle shouted. She tried to lunge forwards, but was stopped by Jay placing a paw on her shoulder.

"Don't," he shout-whispered. "You'll only make the problem worse."

"WAIT!" someone shouted. Jay turned around to see Pearl squeeze herself through the hole.

"Your majesty... You don't know the full story!" Pearl shouted, bowing in respect. "I can't vouch for the others, but the orange ones mean no harm!"

"Please could you elaborate?" asked the tall one. Considering that other hippocampi called her "majesty", Jay figured she was the queen.

"I was about to!" shouted Pearl, earning her a stern look from the queen. "Sorry. Anyway, those two were among some of the first creatures I met. They followed me for a bit, and overheard my friend Oyster telling me that her sister had been poisoned by another one of those creatures. Despite not knowing who we were, despite having no obligation to help us, they decided to save Conch! Okay, some big pink thing they found did the saving for them, but still. The point is, not only can these creatures be benevolent, but they can even understand us!"

"I see," replied the queen. "But if they were benevolent, why would one of them attack a guard?"

"The one who attacked the guard was looking for her friend, who had been captured for no reason." Delle nodded in agreement. "Of course, I don't know the full story, so how about you ask them?" The queen looked confused. "You can cast a translation spell, right?"

"Yes..." The queen turned to the guard. "Fetch me my trident." He left, and returned a few minutes later with what looked like the world's largest, fanciest fork, and gave it to the queen. The tips of it glowed, causing a wave of... magic, Jay figured, to spread across the room.

The queen swam closer to Delle and looked her in the eye. "Tell me everything, little one," she said, in a slightly condescending tone.

An aggravated Delle was about to speak, but Jay interrupted her, his heart pounding. "Um... I'll do the talking."

"Go on, then," said the queen.

And so Jay explained everything, about how he woke up on the atoll that morning not knowing where he was, about how he met Delle, about how they were looking for Torrent, about how they saved Conch, about how most of the Pokémon here had been unfairly captured, about the plan to free everyone.

"I see... since most of you are innocent, you can go off free," she said. "But!" She banged her trident on the floor. "This one - Delle - shall still be punished for property damage and assault." Delle looked ashamed, but didn't say anything. "I have to ask though, Jay... what is the meaning of the word 'Pokémon'?"

"Oh! Um..." In Jay's entire life, he'd never had to explain what Pokémon were. Explaining his day was one thing, but explaining something he had always taken for granted, to a queen? He couldn't find the words.

"Allow me to explain," Cynthia spoke up. "We are all Pokémon. Pokémon are highly powerful, elemental beings that come in all shapes and sizes, but they... we all have one thing in common: a strong desire to grow stronger by battling. Don't worry, though: most Pokémon won't attack unless provoked." She named the species of every Pokémon in the room.

"Very well," said the queen. "My court and I will discuss how to integrate you into Marelantis. In the meantime, I must issue an apology to all of you Pokémon who were unfairly captured."

The guard began reluctantly guiding the rest of the Pokémon out of the palace. Delle, of course, had to stay behind, but Torrent promised that he'd wait for her. Jay turned to Pearl.

"Thank you," he said.

"Why are you thanking me?" she replied. "I should be thanking YOU!"

That night, Jay returned to the atoll, struggling to fall asleep under a sky of unfamiliar constellations. He absent-mindedly rubbed two sticks together, hoping to create a spark, to no avail.

Something moving in the moonlit water caught his attention. It was Delle, who clambered onto the shore.

"There you are!" she exclaimed. "My punishment was that I had to fix the wall. It wasn't that bad, really. What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to light a fire."

"What's a fire?"

"Never mind..."

"Jay, I came here to ask... My dad's over at this island that he woke up on, not far from the Orange Branch. Would you mind staying with us tonight?" Delle asked.

"No thanks," Jay yawned. "I don't want to spend ages getting there at this time..."

"That's okay," Delle replied. "But you could always meet up with us tomorrow! Maybe we could help you find your mom?"

"Delle..." Jay sighed, staring down at the sand. "Remember Cynthia earlier, and how that Milotic called her a trainer?" Delle nodded. "Well... the truth is... she's not the only one here who used to be a human. I was, too..."

Delle gasped, and just stared at Jay for a solid few seconds. "Really? Well... that would certainly explain why you swim like one."

"Not funny," Jay sulked. "You can teach me how to swim tomorrow. The point is, if my mom's here, then she's probably a Pokémon too, so we wouldn't recognise each other. And that's assuming that she's here in the first place..."

Delle looked puzzled, as if she didn't know how to respond. "Well... that's a shame. Still, would you mind if I met up with you tomorrow?"

"Sure..." Jay replied.

Jay watched as Delle jumped into the water. She waved goodbye, and he waved back, before she dived beneath the surface.

As Jay fell asleep, he stared up at the vast, starry expanse, wondering if this whole day was a strange dream.

Author's Note

While I was writing chapter 1, I made a playlist of music to listen to for inspiration. (Links are barely visible in author's notes, wow.)

I'm trying to keep this story at an E rating, but it may change to T at some point.

I barely ever write canon characters. Have I written Cynthia well?

I've tweaked this chapter several times since it was published. I originally rushed the last parts because I was about to go out.

Major revisions
29/Jul/2018: Removed the part about Cynthia becoming Queen Oceania's adviser because it felt too abrupt. I'll save it for later.

16/Aug/2018: Removed the first paragraph and moved it to chapter 2.5.