Chapter Text
Green was almost done writing the fake break-up letter ‘from Ruby’. She originally wrote some flowery language of never being able to ‘make love to her again’, but she reconsidered. It was technically possible that they weren’t sleeping together, if extremely unlikely. She shouldn’t risk Sapphire figuring out the letter was fake by putting in things she wasn’t sure of.
After knocking out Ruby, the conspirators took away his bag, tied him up, and taped his mouth shut. He was then stuffed into a sack and carried off by one of their flying Pokémon. After being carried like that for hours, the bag was eventually dropped off on a sandy beach. Green had her Wigglytuff use Sing to put him to sleep so that she could cut his bindings without risking her own safety. After checking to make sure the unconscious man didn’t have anything on him, Green got back on Red’s Aero and flew away. That was how Ruby woke up the next day stranded on a deserted island. Stranded with no supplies, alone, and betrayed by his friends, this was probably the worst birthday gift he’d ever been given!
Checking his person, Ruby found that he’d been stripped of his gear, his Pokémon, and virtually everything else other than the clothes on his back (and legs, head, feet, and butt). He briefly panicked when he thought he’d lost the most important object he was carrying with him, but the man was relieved when he felt it was still there, hidden in a secret pocket.
Ruby surveyed his surroundings and explored the island as a whole. His former friends weren’t kidding when they said they’d take him somewhere nobody could find him again. At least this island had several fruit trees and berries he could sustain himself with. The climate was also still fairly warm. The betrayers that left him there probably thought he’d just accept the hopelessness of his fate. In most any other situation, he would, but there was still one thing fueling him, and it wasn’t revenge, oddly enough.
Sapphire needed him. If he needed to part the sea to get back to her, he’d do it. That being said, parting the sea would take way too long! It’d be easier to try to get a Pokémon to give him a ride there. Unfortunately, this island lacked any other inhabitants, Pokémon or otherwise. The only hope he had of finding something to ride would be the sea. He was no survivalist, so crafting a raft or fishing rod was out of the question. Instead, Ruby took the time to gather every kind of berry he could find on the island. After tasting them to note their qualities, he started working on something he was actually good at: Making Pokéblocks.
Grind up the berries, mix them into a paste, shape into cubes, and then let them dry. I hope the climate isn’t too humid for this to work.
Without a blending machine, the process was very time consuming, but Ruby eventually made several crude Pokéblocks out of some of the berries he’d gathered. The man decided on making Pokéblocks that were mostly bitter but still had a bit of sweetness in them. The sweetness would repel sassy-natured Pokémon, while the bitterness would attract either a calm-, gentle-, or careful-natured Pokémon. That combination of possible natures would yield the most ideal Pokémon for confronting on his own. Now he just had to lay a trail of the stuff from where he was to the sea.
One sunny day, a Wailmer was playfully hopping along the beach of a random island when some bitter yet slightly sweet aroma wafted into the Pokémon’s nostrils above its eyes. Following the smell inland slightly, it found a trail of scrumptious treats on the ground leading deeper into the forested area. It considered its options before ultimately deciding to gobble up the snacks that were on the ground, one after another. Its actions for the next several minutes were a cycle of *Hop* *Hop* *Hop* *Eat*, *Hop* *Hop* *Hop* *Eat*. Eventually, the Wailmer reached a clearing where a human was sitting on a log, grinding berries into paste. Most Pokémon would either attack him or run away, but this Wailmer was calm. It debated leaving, but it ultimately decided to stay when it saw that the human was making more blue Pokéblocks. By now, the man had noticed the Pokémon that had entered the clearing and tossed a Pokéblock towards it. The blue beachball-like creature hopped up to catch the block out of the air and into its mouth.
“Wailmer, huh? I’m glad you like the treats I made.” Ruby said as he lightly tossed another blue Pokéblock to the wild Pokémon. The Pokémon again jumped up to eat it. It thought it was a good exercise to jump and eat at the same time. It also just loved hopping.
The scarred man knew that, without a Hidden Machine to teach the Pokémon Surf, the Wailmer would probably be unable to safely transport him across the ocean. His best bet was to train it until it evolved. Wailord’s size alone should be enough for it to carry him even without specialized training from a machine… Hopefully…
“Look, I need your help. I’m stranded here, and you’re my best shot of getting back home. I want to train you until you evolve into a Wailord. In exchange for making you stronger, you carry me across the sea and back to civilization afterwards. Deal?”
The Wailmer stared at Ruby for a few moments before deciding it didn’t really have anything to lose in this arrangement. Almost all Pokémon had a desire to grow stronger, hence their symbiotic relationship with human trainers. It hopped up and down in excitement, which Ruby interpreted as a yes.
Ruby learned a lot from the Wailmer. The first thing he learned was that, despite its calm nature, it loved to spray seawater at him through its nostrils. The next thing he learned was that it would have to frequently take breaks to eat, like, a lot. It was as if it was ingesting a ton of food a day. The round, blue Pokémon also couldn’t stay on land for very long, but that was fine, as all their opponents were in the ocean anyway.
The eighteen-year-old trained the Wailmer every day. Unfortunately, since he could not make use of a Pokémon Center to heal the creature, there was a limit to how much training they could do at once. At first, they went until the beachball-like Pokémon was nearly too injured to continue, but even after becoming strong enough to avoid too much damage, they were still limited by Power Points, and Ruby didn’t want to risk it using Struggle. Once training was over for the day, Ruby would treat the Wailmer to a Pokeblock and it would then bounce off to ingest the remainder of its literal ton of daily food. Ruby himself would then go back to his makeshift hut and feed himself. After, he resumed the time-consuming process of making more blocks, and he even mixed different flavors into the blocks now. Sometimes he used different kinds of berries that were still bitter, sometimes he would add something dry, sweet, or sour (but never spicy) into the blend; it depended on the berries he had available. The Pokémon later gobbled them all up all the same.
After the glow of evolution faded, Ruby was now standing next to what was basically a blimp in the water. It had taken months, but they finally did it.
“Well, I think we rent the local population of Tentacool extinct, but it appears to have been worth it.”
(Ruby’s comment was hyperbolic; the Tentacool were fine. Very bruised, but fine. Same for everything else they fought.)
The newly evolved Wailord made an excited cry. It had reached the next stage in its life cycle much sooner with the human’s help than it would’ve on its own in the wild.
“Alright, now time to hold up your end of the deal. Would you mind going out just far enough to submerge to just below the surface so I can swim onto your back?”
The Wailord made a sound that Ruby assumed was agreement and followed the man’s instructions. Before leaving the island for good, Ruby checked to make sure he was still carrying his important object. Fortunately, it was still secure on his person. He had decided to use it when he got back. Ruby swam out to his probably safe ticket back to civilization, and the Pokémon resurfaced once the human was in position above its back.
“I can’t teach you Surf properly, but if you manage to go slow and steady enough, I should be able to stay on your back. Just check if you suddenly notice my weight missing, okay?”
The Pokémon made the same cry of assent and the pair set off towards the mainland.
I’m coming, Sapphire…