They made it out to the SS Anne just before boarding began, and quickly ran into trouble. The Galactic Scouts Troup was also there. Angron did his best to not look at them, choosing to not tempt himself with Aerathur's nearness.
"Why do you want to fight with him again?" Roboute asked. He didn't need to be fully psychic to know that Angron wanted to fight. "I thought everything was settled between you the first time."
"He never apologized," Angron said. "He had time before he transferred. Also, his face makes me angry."
"I don't think that second reason is a valid one," Roboute said. Angron shrugged.
"He also wants to start a fight with me," he replied. "I'm not one to turn down a fight."
"We certainly know that," Mortarion said.
"One of us should keep a close eye on Angron while we're aboard the SS Anne," the Emperor said.
"I'll do it," Valdor said. The Triad had put on their matching shirts again. Valdor was still hoping to return the favor to the Primarchs, probably on Cinnabar Island. The Emperor approved of this idea.
Over in Galactic Scouts Troup 5897 there was a similar discussion going on between the adult chaperones. Kavllyn offered themselves for the position, they had a good rapport with Aerathur, but didn't really understand why he had such a vendetta against Angron. Troup master Feren Mythe went over to the Imperial party to let them know they had someone with Aerathur.
***********************
"The distraction's in place," Klyde said to Boneigh over the vox. He was pretending to be a deck hand, and she was below decks in engineering.
"Excellent," Boneigh replied. "We'll wait until they let their guards down around the two."
"Hopefully they will," Klyde said. "Looks like the Custodian is the one watching the Emperor's brat."
"There's eighteen of them," Boneigh said. "We'll find some way to make a distraction that will get him out of the way."
"Alright," Klyde agreed. They had a bit of a surprise planned for the Imperial party during the voyage of the SS Anne. He decided to guide the Galactic Scouts Troup to their group of staterooms, to see how easy it would be to distract those chaperones.
***********************
"Father, I don't feel good," Vulkan said as they reached the first of their staterooms. Corvus had already spotted the bathroom, and attempted to drag Vulkan in that direction. The Lion quickly grabbed onto Vulkan's other arm, and they were able to get the now gray Primarch moving in the right direction.
"Why couldn't I be the one who gets seasick?" Mortarion grumbled. Konrad giggled at that, which earned him a quick glare.
"I don't think Vulkan was supposed to get seasick," Sanguinius said. "None of the rest of us do."
"True," Mortarion said. The Lion dipped out of the bathroom, leaving the door just slightly open. The others could hear Corvus trying to give Vulkan a pep talk.
"Well, I think this is Vulkan's stateroom," Ferrus said.
They would be staying in three staterooms with three cabin bedrooms apiece. This would put three Primarchs in a room, with each adult getting their own. Valdor was pleased with this, as it gave him one place where he wouldn't have to keep track of Angron. They would share the same stateroom, but if they were all there for the night he had some space to himself. He was also hoping that it wouldn't storm while they were at sea. He wasn't as sensitive as Vulkan, but he knew from experience that he didn't handle rough seas very well.
The Lion, Perturabo, Leman, and Rogal chose to stay with Vulkan and Corvus with the Emperor. Fulgrim, Konrad, Ferrus, Mortarion, and Alpharius made the rest of the group staying with Valdor. This left Jaghatai, Sanguinius, Roboute, Magnus, Horus, and Lorgar with Malcador. They shuffled around, getting everyone settled.
***********************
Kavllyn came into the cabin that Aerathur would be sharing with Surlaz and another of the older boys. They had had issues in the past with Aerathur being rude and domineering towards Scouts that were younger than him. They liked partnering him with Surlaz specifically because he didn't take anything from the other Scouts.
"Aerathur, can we talk about Lord Angron?" Kavllyn asked, taking a seat on one of the beds.
"I hate him," Aerathur said sharply. "He beat me up at tutorium, and got away with it!"
"I doubt he fully got away with it," Kavllyn said. They hadn't even been aware that the Primarchs went to tutorium. "The Emperor would have punished him, even if he made arrangements with the tutorium."
"I got os...oster...osterichized that I had to change tutoriums," Aerathur said. He was actually more upset that he wasn't able to claim top position in his grade at the new tutorium than having to transfer away from Nova.
"Ostracized," Kavllyn corrected him. That was was something they were aware of. Aerathur had joined their Troup after his family had moved. It had been something they had asked his parents. It seemed his mother hoped the Scouts would help Aerathur stop being a bully. His father had seemed more interested in "manning up" his son.
"Whatever," Aerathur said. "I want him to get a taste of his own medicine."
"That's a really bad idea," Surlaz said. "I and a couple friends beat up the Lion... Lord Jonson, and it got me in a lot of trouble."
"And there's Lord Valdor as well," Kavllyn said. The Emperor had told Feren Mythe who would be watching Angron and it had been relayed to Kavllyn. They didn't want to have to try the patience of the Captain-General.
Aerathur didn't respond to that. He fully intended to try and slip a message to Angron in the halls or something, then sneak out during the night to have his fight.
"Keep it to pokemon," Kavllyn urged. "That's a perfectly fine way of getting back at him."
"But it's not me beating on him," Aerathur whined.
"Kavllyn's got a point," Surlaz said. He was honestly quite happy that the Lion didn't seem too interested in physically fighting him. He didn't have back up with the Scouts like he did the other time, and knew he wasn't a match for a Primarch on his own, even a child Primarch. "We're humans, just normal humans, and they're the Primarchs. We should just leave it to pokemon fights."
"Just 'cause you're scared of them doesn't mean I am," Aerathur said.
"And that's why you have to have a personal babysitter," the third Scout, Cauthor, said. The other Scouts had free reign of the ship as long as it wasn't a crew only area.
"Aerathur, are you going to be able to behave for the trip to Cinnabar Island?" Kavllyn asked.
"Yes," Aerathur said sullenly. He knew he'd have to at least play along if he wanted to get a chance at a night fight. Kavllyn took that as the best they would get, and left Aerathur with the other two boys.
***********************
"I don't think our distraction is going to work as well as it should," Klyde reported. "The Galactic Scouts seem pretty determined to avoid issues."
"Well, we'll just have to improvise then," Boneigh said. "There's also the chance that the kid will do something on his own."
"True," Klyde agreed. He felt better about that. He knew that kids were a great embodiment of the idea "if there's a will, there's a way", with that, he clicked off the vox.
"Hey! What are you doing over there? Daydreaming?" called chief enginseer Miathyn.
"Coming!"
***********************
The first several days of the voyage were quiet. The Primarchs were a bit surprised by the fact that the ship, in the ocean, had a pool area on it. Valdor had determined to not get in unless he had to. Citing that he didn't bring swimwear when begged by the Primarchs.
"I don't even own swimwear," Valdor said, trying to head off any arguments. To his horror, the Emperor resolved that by tossing some in his face.
"This is your vacation too," the Emperor said. "Don't fight it."
"That means you too, Father!" Horus called. "And Malcador."
"Oh no," Malcador said, backing away from the edge. "I am not getting in the pool."
"You're not getting out of this that easily," Valdor said, starting to get into the spirit of it. "If I have to go in, you have to go in."
"I was hoping you'd be on my side," Malcador said, making a comically exaggerated pout. Valdor chuckled as the Emperor unceremoniously dumped swimwear on Malcador as well. With that decided, everyone headed down to the pool area. There were waterslides, two pools, and a hot tub. Vulkan and Malcador both looked interested in using that.
"You go first, Mal," Vulkan said. He knew he was likely to make it hotter, and didn't want to risk injury. Malcador didn't object to this and headed off. Valdor was trying to figure out the best way to get into the deep end of the deepest pool. He wasn't even sure what he was going to do in the pool, there was no chance it was deep enough for him to swim in, except perhaps a little at the deep end.
"We could try knocking him in," Konrad said to Mortarion conspiratorially.
"That's probably a bad idea," Mortarion said. "He'll displace a lot of water really quickly if he does that. It'd be like Leman's cannonball during the Olympics."
"But that would so much fun," Konrad said. "We'd get everyone wet. After all, what else would they be here for?"
"I guess," Mortarion said doubtfully. "But some people may just be here watching their children. We don't want to cause trouble with them."
"They should be far enough back," Konrad said. "And if their children aren't able to swim, they should let them in the pool."
"It would be kind of funny to drench Fulgrim," Mortarion said. Fulgrim was sunbathing just then, saying he would swim in a little bit. Konrad perked up at that idea, quickly doing some calculations.
"We'll need him to move around the side a bit if we want to get Fulgrim," Konrad said. "Or at least a full drenching."
"Fair," Mortarion said, having made similar calculations. "Angron, can you help us?"
"Help you with what?" Angron said, approaching the other two.
"We want to get Valdor over to this side," Konrad said. "Then we'll knock him in the pool, and drench Fulgrim."
"Like with Leman's cannonball?" Angron asked, looking interested.
"Exactly," Konrad said. He sounded very much like Corvus when he said that.
"He'll move if I stray too far from him," Angron said. "He wants to keep me as close as he can without preventing me from having some fun."
Angron moved around the pool, making it look like he was sizing it up for a cannonball. Having watched Leman's he was interested in trying himself. Valdor noticed Angron's distance, and moved to compensate. He wanted to be close enough that a lunge was all he needed to catch Angron if necessary. It would be about all the time he had to stop a fight. He noticed Konrad and Mortarion, but didn't pay them quite enough heed. By the time he realized they were heading for him, it was too late, and he was heading into the pool.
There was a massive splash wave that caused some of the younger children, and a few of the women, present to scream. Fulgrim, realizing what was happening far too late, got smacked with the leading edge of the wave.
"Konrad! Mortarion!" the Emperor called over the general din of the crowd. The two Primarchs, knowing they got caught, headed over towards the Emperor. They didn't make it though, as Valdor surfaced just long enough to grab both Primarchs, and dip back under the churning surface.
"Well, that was one way to get back at them," Malcador said, cackling as he got out of the hot tub. Vulkan waited only a few moments before getting in himself.
"Konrad really ought to have learned better than to dump people into water on vacations," the Emperor said. "That's the exact thing I did to him on Pallern, after he and several of the others dumped me in the river."
"You almost got me that time," Sanguinius said. He had also gotten drenched and was debating if he was still going swimming, or if he wanted to dry out his feathers.
"Wait for the pool to level out a bit, then swim," the Emperor said, catching the internal debate.
"Where are they?" Magnus asked. None of them had resurfaced after Valdor had dragged them in.
"Probably waiting out the turbulence," Malcador said. He knew the pool would feel extra cold to him after the hot tub, but having to wait was helping with that.
"And having a breath holding competition while they're at it," Sanguinius said. "Mortarion's going to win."
"Valdor has the larger lung capacity," Roboute said. Ferrus was trying to console Fulgrim, who was quite upset about all the tanning lotion that got wasted in the drenching.
Konrad bowed out first, coming up and gasping a bit for air as the water had finally calmed down to something more normal. Mortarion, to Sanguinius' disappointment, popped up a few moments later. Valdor made half a lap of the pool, then surfaced.
"That wasn't fair!" Konrad called out.
"It was your idea to push me in the pool," Valdor said, quickly catching sight of Angron, who had remained near the pool, also soaking wet. He then did a cannonball into the pool.
"Malcador, let's go on the waterslide!" Leman said, coming up pulling gently on Malcador's arm.
"Alright," Malcador said. He wasn't sure why Leman wanted him to go, but had thought it sounded like fun. The Emperor turned to watch as they joined the long line for the tallest waterslide. It was also a long slide, and he nearly lost sight of the two as the line moved a bit. This turned out to be a tactical error. He was suddenly grabbed from behind, his arms pinned.
"You are far too dry, my king," Valdor said quietly in his ear in a tone that would have made any normal human faint with fear. He then tipped himself backwards, dragging the Emperor along with him. The Emperor, for his part let out a startled, and highly undignified, noise that carried psychically as well as aloud.
"Was that Allfather?" Leman asked. He and Malcador had mounted the stairs, and both were looking towards the pool. Malcador was chuckling to himself.
"Yes, that was your father," Malcador said. Leman realized what had happened, and started laughing as well.
"I didn't think Valdor had it in him," Leman said as the line moved again. It was moving slowly, but fairly consistently. It kept Leman from getting too antsy, and Malcador from getting too stiff. He was also now happy that Leman had pulled him away from the pool.
"Why did you want me to go on the waterslide with you?" Malcador asked.
"I need a reason to hang out with my favorite uncle?"
"I'm you're only uncle."
"Not if we consider Valdor as an uncle," Leman said. "Then I'd have two."
"The competition steepens," Malcador chuckled. "But I doubt he'd fit."
"Yeah, that seems likely," Leman agreed.
"But that does leave the option of your father," Malcador persisted.
"True," Leman said thoughtfully. "But, I like doing things with you. And Konrad was likely to try and dump you in the pool too."
"I certainly hope not," Malcador said, but he knew that it was a risk. The water wouldn't hurt him when he hit, and it would be a perfect prank. "Though he can't claim getting your father in the pool."
"What if they were doing battle sign while they were down there?" Leman said. "They were under the surface for quite awhile before Konrad came up for air."
"True," Malcador mused. "There is that possibility."
They fell silent for a bit as they continued up the stairs. They heard someone getting upset that they couldn't take their very young child on the ride. The child was young enough to wail in frustration, throwing a temper tantrum at being told "no".
"I don't remember ever doing something like that," Leman said.
"None of you were quite that young for terribly long," Malcador said. "But you all threw at least one tantrum."
"What was mine about?" Leman asked.
"You had gotten hold of some alcohol," Malcador said. "I took it away, and you nearly made me deaf."
"Oops," Leman said with a chuckle.
"You were a baby," Malcador said with an answering chuckle. "None of you had any kind of volume control."
"I guess that's fair," Leman. "Looks like we'll be up soon."
"Indeed," Malcador said. He saw that there would be inflatable tubes that they would sit on through the water slide. There were a few that had two "seats". He grabbed one of those as they approached the entry of the slide.
"Whoooo!!!!!!!" Leman called out, just keeping himself from howling as they started down the slide. Malcador wasn't quite as excited, but figured Leman was making enough noise for the both of them. Then Leman, in the front part of the inflatable, began trying to steer it up the walls.
"Are you trying to flip us?" Malcador called out.
"No," Leman said defensively.
"Are you sure?" Malcador asked. "If you want to flip us, you shouldn't do it here, but at the end."
"You mean the final drop to the pool?" Leman asked hopefully.
"It'd be better than in here, we'll get dragged along the tube of the slide," Malcador reasoned. "And it'll scare Magnus good if we time it right."
"Wait, you're alright with that?" Leman asked.
"Of course I am," Malcador said. "I am perfectly capable of pranking people."
"Let's do it!"
They spent a little bit of time working out the best way to steer the inflatable tube they were riding on. This included going around a corner in such a way that they ended up going backwards in the slide. They were able to recreate it and get around the right way so they could see when the end of the slide was close. Finally they saw it.
"Alright, let's get the momentum going," Malcador said. Leman nodded and they began to work together to steer the tube, taking it higher up the sides each time. Then, when the tunnel opened into the final open-topped drop, and flipped it. Leman leapt off, howling as he plunged. Malcador found himself whooping as well, hanging on to the tube by only the fingertips of one hand, making it look like he wasn't holding it at all. He flailed his other arm around a bit.
"UNCLE MALCADOR!!!" he heard Magnus scream, just as he had predicted. Using that as his own queue he gripped the handle of the tube, and flipped it under him, using it to take most of the impact into the medium depth pool at the bottom of the slide.
Jaghatai had to grab Magnus by both arms to keep him from going after Leman. Malcador had rolled off the tube, and surfaced close to the edge next to Leman. The two high-fived, and started laughing. Magnus realized what had happened was a prank, and deflated, sagging against Jaghatai's restraining hands.
"Ha! We got you!" Leman shouted. Magnus still glared at him, but found himself smiling.
"It was my idea," Malcador said, coming to Leman's defense.
They joined the rest of the Imperial party in the regular pool. Jaghatai wanted to race, but there were too many other people in the pool. The Emperor promised that they would come back a different time when the pool was less busy and they could race then. They left after even Mortarion started to prune.
***********************
"That was so much fun," Konrad said as he toweled his hair dry on the way back to their state room. Fulgrim glared at him, he was also toweling his hair dry. Ferrus had just shook his head until the worst of the water had gotten out of his short hair. None of the others with Valdor had hair, except himself. As he kept his hair short, and just in a queue down the center of his head it had been dry almost as soon as they had gotten away from the pool.
"And you didn't get sunburned," Mortarion pointed out. Konrad and Corvus had both used the waterproof high SPF sunscreen. They had offered it to Malcador as well, who had said he had his own.
"What's this?" Angron asked, picking up a piece of paper that had been shoved under their door. He unfolded it, and found a hand-scrawled message. 11:30 tomorrow night, in the display room. Don't be late, "Lord" Angron. -- Aerathur.
"What kind of cowardly, dishonorable challenge is this?!" Angron snarled. Valdor came up behind him and read the note, just before Angron crumpled it and threw it across the main room.
"What?" Fulgrim asked, going over and picking up the note. "Oh ho! He's stupider than we thought." With that, he passed the note to Ferrus. It quickly made its way around the rest of the Primarchs.
"What are you going to do about it?" Valdor asked, looking down at Angron.
"Ignore it," Angron said promptly. "I'm not dignifying a challenge like that with a response."
"So you won't be going?"
"No. My word as a Primarch on it."
"Very well," Valdor said. He knew that Angron would rather chew his own foot off than break his word, it was an embodiment of his honor.
***********************
It turned out to be a very good call on Angron's part. A massive storm blew up the afternoon of the next day, and everyone was confined to their staterooms. Valdor was having issues with the rocking of the ship. It was upsetting his stomach. The Primarchs with him were being very attentive. Angron had joined him on the floor, sitting in contact with his leg. This way Valdor didn't have to do anything to ensure he was close by. Then he felt the Emperor's mind touch his.
+How are you holding out?+
+As well as could be expected, my king.+
+It should pass soon. Large storms rarely last long.+
+Unless the weather patterns are different from Terra's of old.+
There was a loud, grinding metallic sound that echoed throughout the ship. The Emperor's mind instantly withdrew. Valdor, who had been keeping his eyes closed, opened one eye and glanced at Ferrus, who was already working at the cogitator interface for the room. After a moment the silver-eyed Primarch shook his head.
"Alpharius, see if there's any staff in the hall," Valdor said quietly.
"No one's there," Alpharius said after a moment. "The lights are still on."
"It's possible they just don't have an alert up yet," Fulgrim said. "Still investigating so they can give the most information possible."
"Possibly," Ferrus said. He was reloading the main cogitator page to see if there was anything about the noise, or the storm in general, which had also been absent. "Still nothing."
"It was possibly just deck chairs," Angron said. "The way the ship is tossing around it's probably really windy out there."
"Please don't say 'tossing' again," Valdor groaned.
"Sorry," Angron said. Valdor managed a weak smile at that. Angron was a surprisingly empathetic Primarch, despite all the anger. Angron said they came together, the anger sometimes being a buffer for him, and sometimes going the other way around. This seemed to be going the other way around.
"I don't think it was deck chairs," Konrad said. "It sounded louder than that."
"The ship has a competent crew," Fulgrim said. "We should stay put and let them handle it."
"Agreed," Valdor murmured. He didn't want to have to go out of the stateroom unless he absolutely had to. They remained in silence for a time, then Mortarion turned his head, sniffing.
"Does anyone else smell smoke?" he asked.
"Yes," Fulgrim said. The others nodded, Valdor making an agreeing motion with his hand instead. A wailing alarum sounded, alerting everyone to a fire. An overhead announcement followed asking for everyone to gather in the main dining room. This was closer to the lifeboats if they had to abandon ship, and kept people out of the rain. Valdor made a grunting noise as he stood. Fulgrim and Angron settled in on either side of him, each taking a hand. The hallway was crowded, and the others moved to form a bit of a barrier between Valdor and the crowd.
"Where's the fire?"
"I heard it's down by the display room."
"Do we have everyone?" This last was from Feren Mythe.
"I'm missing Aerathur," Kavllyn's voice came. "He must have snuck out on me. I don't know where he went."
Angron stopped short, feeling his feet slide as Valdor took another shuffling step. "Valdor, I have to go get him, I know where he is."
"Go quickly," Valdor said, releasing Angron's hand. Ferrus slipped in as Angron moved away, sprinting down the hallway towards the display room. Suddenly, the power failed on the ship.
"Infernape," Angron called out. He needed something that provided light, but could take the heat of the fire they were running into. He tore off a banner that was on the wall, quickly ripping two smaller bits of cloth off. One went around his face, the other in his pocket for Aerathur.
The fire hadn't started in the display room, where passengers could learn about the history of the SS Anne, but it had spread there early on. It caught greedily on the wood paneling in the room, the ceiling also catching on fire, causing things to start collapsing. Angron arrived in time to see some of the ceiling panels drop.
"AERATHUR!!!!" He shouted as loud as he could through his makeshift mask. He barely heard a whimpering noise from a pile of rubble, but it was enough for him to find the boy. Digging quickly, and with some help from infernape, Angron was able to pull Aerathur free. Aerathur was only semi-conscious, so Angron quickly wrapped his face in the other mask, and tossed him over his shoulder.
The fire was starting to spread fast from the display room, and the way that Angron had safely gone through moments before was already filling with smoke, and flickering flames could be seen in some places. Aerathur chose that moment to wake up properly, and start struggling.
"Stop moving," Angron growled. "I don't want to drop you."
"Wait...." Aerathur said. "Why are you carrying me?!?"
"First, stop wiggling," Angron said. "Second, there's a fire, and you were trapped in a burning room. Now, I need to move quickly to get a head of the fire."
"Let go of me!" Aerathur snapped. "We're alone, we can fight now."
"No," Angron said. "The fire is catching us."
"The perfect timer."
"Now you're making me think you're an idiot as well as a coward."
They finally pulled ahead of the fire, turning towards the dining room, and quickly got mired in the crowd of other passengers moving towards the dining room. Angron slipped through the crowd, keeping Aerathur on his shoulders. He had stopped to recall his infernape, and removed the masks.
"I've got someone injured here, can I move ahead?" Angron asked politely. The crowd was trying his patience, and he knew that Aerathur needed to be checked out by medicae. It took a few minutes, but people started realizing he had come from the area the fire was. This opened a corridor through the crowd towards the dining room.
"Aerathur!" Kavllyn said, spotting Angron's entrance. Malcador converged on them as well, signaling for a medicae. The Emperor was focusing on Vulkan and Valdor, the other Primarchs staying close by them.
"Let me go!" Aerathur snarled. "I can walk on my own."
"Idiot," Angron said. "Do you not feel the burns on your legs?"
"Angron, behave," Malcador said.
"Bring him over here," the medicae said, indicating a row of pallets they had set up.
"Right," Angron said, moving over and gently setting Aerathur down. That done, Angron and Malcador headed to the Imperial party. Angron quickly moved around to Valdor's side. He and Vulkan were both sitting on the floor trying to stay in command of themselves.
"My lord?" chief enginseer Miathyn approached the Emperor with more trepidation than normal.
"Enginseer?" the Emperor asked. He recognized that she wasn't the same person as the Miathyn he had encountered on Lianth.
"The engines were sabotaged," she said. "I have teams working on it, but we may need assistance."
"Of course," the Emperor said. Suddenly the stage where dinner time entertainments happened was light up with bright flood lights. It startled everyone in the dining room as it was mostly lit by emergency lumens, and some fire pokemon. Boneigh and Klyde stood on the stage, holding microphones.
"To protect the world---"
"Weezing, use smoke screen!"
"Rataskyr, short out the microphones!"
"Lickilicky, haunter, use lick!"
Several of the Primarchs rushed through the crowd, calling out pokemon. Once the smoke screen cleared, Boneigh and Klyde found the Lion between them, with doublade angled to be pointing at both of them.
"You are the ones who sabotaged the engines?" the Lion asked in a menacing voice.
"Ye....yes," Boneigh stammered.
"And the fire?" Malcador asked, scaring the two members of team melta even more.
"Yes, sir," Klyde said in a stilted, high voice.
"What shall we do with them, Malcador?" the Lion asked. He was fine tying them up and leaving them in the middle of the ocean on a boat.
"There's no need to be that harsh with them," Malcador said. He glanced towards the windows of the dinning room, noting that the storm was abating. "The storm is passing, and there's the Seafoam Islands near by. We can leave them there."
"I like that plan," the Lion said. Some security officers for the ship took them in hand.
The Emperor assisted with repairing the engines while other members of the crew got the fire out. Perturabo, Rogal, Ferrus, and even Vulkan offered to assist in repairs to areas damaged by the fire. Vulkan did admit he wouldn't be assisting right away.
"Hey, Corvus!" Konrad called as they all headed back to their staterooms. "Have a gengar."
"Sweet!" Corvus said, catching the pokeball that was thrown his way. "Have your honchkrow back."
***********************
They arrived on Cinnabar Island without any other mishaps. Vulkan was first off the ship, wanting to get to the gym as soon as possible. Realizing he had gotten way ahead of the others, he waited to the side. Once together, they all headed in the direction of the gym. The Triad clustered together towards the back, letting the Primarchs get ahead of them. They were excited to watch Vulkan fight for their volcano badge and didn't even realize the Triad were falling behind.
"Perfect," the Emperor said. "Let's go."
"Right," Valdor said. He was determined to find the most obnoxious patterned shirt to give the Primarchs. Malcador chuckled at the idea.
"We should probably get them actual souvenirs," Malcador said aloud.
"That can be when we are all together," the Emperor said. "They bought our shirts without us, we can buy theirs without them."
"Let's try this store," Valdor said, keeping them on task. "We don't know how long it'll be before they notice we're gone."
"Probably not until after the badge fight," Malcador said. "But Vulkan's been specifically trying to train for that this whole vacation. It may go quickly."
"Indeed," the Emperor said as they went inside the store. Valdor quickly found a shirt with comfey, kingler, horsea, and basculin. He raised it up to the other two, silently asking their opinion.
"I like it," Malcador said. He had found one with charizard, blastoise, and venasaur, but it wasn't quite as good as the one Valdor found. "Do they have enough?"
"No," Valdor said, disappointment showing on his face. "We'll have to find another."
"Maybe not," the Emperor said. "They got a custom shirt for you, maybe we can get more made."
"No need," Malcador said. "There's children sized shirts that Valdor found, and adult sized ones. Maybe large on some of them, but shouldn't be too bad."
"True, and there's just enough of them," Valdor said happily.
They paid, and hurried off towards the volcano that housed the gym. They were a little late, and found the Primarchs waiting outside for them. Vulkan looking quite pleased with himself.
"What do you have there, Father?" Horus asked.
"Shirts for you all," the Emperor said. "Valdor picked them out."
"This ought to be good," Fulgrim said. The Triad had put on their own shirts when they arrived. Valdor handed out the shirts, and Fulgrim's face fell.
"It's perfect!" Angron declared.
"They're hideous!" Fulgrim wailed. Ferrus just gave him a look, and put his shirt on. He then grabbed Fulgrim's, and forced him to put it on.
"I'm right here," Valdor said with a wince. Fulgrim instantly stopped, looking ashamed of himself. "I did pick them to be obnoxious."
"Hey, I picked yours with loving care!" Konrad said jokingly. Valdor chuckled, relieving some of the tension that Fulgrim's reaction had caused.
"They are distinctive," Fulgrim said. "Makes us harder to lose in a crowd."
"You're always easy to spot in a crowd," Ferrus said. Fulgrim shot him a look.
"We should get going," the Emperor said.
***********************
It didn't feel like long at all before they were back in Viridian City. The gym was open, and they had determined the Emperor would get them their earth badge. It was crowded at the gym, there were people just starting their adventures, and the Galactic Scouts there as well.
"We'll have to wait our turn," Jaghatai said somewhat sadly. They just needed this last badge to go to the final four tournament which was the finale of the adventures. Afterwards their pokemon would either be retired or given to other high ranked trainers and breeders. Jaghatai was ready to go home, and he was sure several of the other Primarchs were as well.
"Indeed," the Emperor said. "But we can buy more proper souvenirs while we do."
They found a store that sold all sorts of souvenirs. It also had an area for picts. Angron was hoping none of the others had seen it.
"It looks big enough for a full group pict," Malcador said, telling Angron that his hope was in vain. He wasn't the biggest fan of having his pict taken.
"There's a distinct lack of picts with Valdor in the family album," Sanguinius mused. It was something that they bemoaned on occasion.
"Hmmm, one normal pict and a candid shot?" the Emperor asked the group. Everyone agreed, Angron did like candid shots. He wanted to try slipping bunny ears onto Roboute. It took a moment for everyone to arrange themselves to be in frame. Valdor ended up having to sit on the end of the second row, making it easier to keep him in frame and not have his head cut off. The employee who ran the pict area asked for them all to smile.
"Candid shot time!" the Emperor called. There was a slight shuffling as Fulgrim struck a dramatic pose, others shuffled to get out of Sanguinius's way so he could spread his wings, and various people did bunny ears on others. This included the Emperor and Malcador putting bunny ears on each other. Angron changed his target to Leman as they ended up closer to each other after the shuffle.
"Alright, let's see if the gym has settled down a bit," the Emperor said after they had received the picts and found other souvenirs. Several had found small trinkets of various kinds, some for themselves, and some for others. This included a snorlax figurine that Corvus found for the Lion. Leman finding a shot glass with the logo for the region's league, Alpharius finding a hand puppet of cofagrigus, and Valdor ending up with a large foam hat in the shape of a solrock. It was surprising as Valdor himself and picked it out.
"But a solrock makes sense," Valdor said. "We live in the Sol system, on a rocky planet."
"But it looks goofy," Fulgrim pointed out. "You've been unhappy with all the goofy, and cutesy pokemon we've found for you."
"True," Valdor said slowly. "But, this is something I picked for myself. Also, I do appreciate the pokemon." Truthfully, the Emperor had talked to Valdor about his reactions to some of the pokemon the Primarchs had caught for him and he still stung a bit from it. He'd never meant to be disparaging of the Primarchs selections, and the variety they had caught was interesting, pushing him outside of what he considered his normal.
They arrived at the gym, and everyone went in. It felt different to the other gyms, almost like some kind of business building. There was of course the large main room where most fights happened, but the gym leader wasn't there, much like Vermillion City.
"Maybe it's a hidden thing again?" Leman asked.
"No," the Emperor said. "Looks like it's an office affair, just have to go to the correct door."
"But how do you chose?" Perturabo asked.
"I'll try each door." It only took him two tries to find the correct door to the gym leader's office. Stepping into the large room, he prepared to fight. The gym leader was sitting behind a desk, and spun to face the Emperor as he entered.
"So it really is you," the gym leader said. "Boneigh and Klyde certainly know how to pick targets beyond their ability to grasp."
"Ah, so you're Georgiano," the Emperor replied. Georgiano nodded. "It wasn't your idea for those two to dog me and my sons?"
"Not directly," Georgiano admitted. "They were allowed their choice of targets though."
"Interesting, but not what I'm here for."
"I know what you're here for, Emperor."
"Shall we get on with it?"
"Indeed."
***********************
The Emperor came out twenty minutes later, earth badge in hand. They spent the night in Viridian City, and set out to Victory Road the next day. They had determined that Sanguinius, Roboute, Horus, and Lorgar would be the ones to face the Final Four.
The Lion and Angron had their own fun on Victory Road, being the end of the rivalry between them and Surlaz and Aerathur. They all had their six pokemon fully evolved. Surlaz was hoping this would fully bury the hatchet with the Lion. Angron wanted the same thing with Aerathur. He wasn't as hopeful as Surlaz was.
"Let's get this over with," the Lion said when they met up with the Galactic Scouts on Victory Road. "One last time."
"Sounds good to me," Surlaz said. "Dewgong!"
"Purrugly!"
The fight between the Lion and Surlaz started in Surlaz's favor, taking out purrugly and braviary. Aegislash took care of the dewgong, following it quickly with tentacruel. A sandslash did a number on aegislash before going down itself. Aegislash went down to kabutops, to be replaced with incineroar. Incineroar made short work of kabutops, but got surprised by wigglytuff. Rhyperior put it down, then charizard came out. The two fought for a bit, then the Lion recalled rhyperior and brought out raikou to finish the fight.
Angron and Aerathur's fight wasn't going as evenly. Aerathur had managed to get his primeape to evolve into annihilape, but Angron took it down with aggron. In fact, it was a very one sided fight as annihilape was Aerathur's best pokemon. Angron was only switching out pokemon to either gain a type advantage, or to let all of them have a chance at the fight.
"Let that be an end to it," Angron said.
"That wasn't fair!" Aerathur yelled. Kavllyn quickly grabbed a hold of the boy. "You took out my best pokemon right away!"
"It's not my fault you lead with that," Angron said. "I'm going to go back to choosing to not remember you exist."
"Leave it," Surlaz said. "You're not going to beat him. Also, this is a really crummy way of paying him back for saving your life."
"I didn't ask him to," Aerathur snarled.
"You didn't have to," Angron said. "Saving you was the right thing to do. Even if you don't recognize it as such."
"We've talked about this, Aerathur," Kavllyn said, starting to pull the boy away. Feren Mythe tried to quickly wrap up his duel with Malcador so he could take over Aerathur. Kavllyn had challenged Valdor just before Aerathur's defeat. Valdor was excited, it was the only time someone not from the Imperial party had challenged him, and Kavllyn wanted to give him the chance.
"Ha! Good job exeggutor," Malcador said with a slight cackle. He'd just defeated Feren Mythe's last pokemon, a hariyama.
"I've got him," Feren Mythe said to Kavllyn. "Go, try and get a win in."
"I'll count defeating any of his pokemon as a moral victory," Kavllyn joked. Their fight was quick, and Kavllyn lost completely.
"I appreciate you fighting me," Valdor said. Kavllyn nodded, looking both nervous and excited by having done what they had done.
"Father!" Horus shouted, coming out of the main battle arena where he and his three brothers had fought the final four. "We won!"
"Good job!" the Emperor said.
***********************
They finally returned to Terra. Malcador wasn't sure if he had been restored by the vacation, or more worn out. It seemed to have done some good for Valdor, which surprised him. The Primarchs were excited to get to share their adventures on Teramyn when they returned to Nova. Alpharius had already told Omegon everything that had happened, the two spending hours in their secret lair. They were proud that while they hadn't caught all the pokemon, they had caught the widest variety of any group in the area.
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