Chereads / Pokemon Hunter / Chapter 54 - S.S. Anne Sinks

Chapter 54 - S.S. Anne Sinks

"You're not going anywhere!" Ryoichi punched the fallen man in his face, "Ariados, tie him up tightly. Don't let him get away."

A giant spider with more than one meter in height slowly climbed down from the wall. It then opened its pair of sharp mandibles, hissing as a series of white threads was released, tying the man up.

Ariados is a large spider-like Pokemon found in the Johto region. It was also the preferred Pokemon of many officers. The spider thread woven by Ariados made many criminals unable to escape after being tied up.

The man lying on the ground was obviously angry after being punched in the face by Ryoichi.

"Just kill me!" he screamed hoarsely.

The tied-up man was Dwayne, who had just run away from Hisoka. Since his Pokemon, Machamp, was knocked out by Hisoka, he didn't have the ability to defend himself after being ambushed by the hidden Ariados while he was escaping, which caused him to get caught by Ryoichi.

"I won't kill you. You will be sent to jail where you'll rot for the rest of your life," Ryoichi landed another punch on the man's face for good measure, knocking the bald-headed man out.

Boom!

Another explosion came from the bottom dock of S.S. Anne.

After that explosion, the whole ship began to tilt to the right.

"Fuck! The ship is going to sink!" Ryoichi shouted.

He then saw an officer stumbling toward the side of the ship and ordered his Pokemon to save the man.

"Ariados quick! Save that man!"

...

S.S. Anne Cockpit,

"Captain Iron, how's the current situation? Can the ship hold until help arrives?" Matthias asked calmly.

The cockpit was messed up after the ship started to tilt toward the side.

Captain Iron rubbed his hands, trying to calm himself while looking at the many red warning signs on the screen.

"If it was only the turbine engine that had exploded, maybe we could still save the ship and wait for the League rescue. But that fucking bastard Team Rocket had destroyed the ship's outer hull with explosives when they left. Now, the water has quickly entered the ship. We can only urge the passengers to get on the lifeboats and leave this ship as soon as possible. Otherwise, once the S.S. Anne sinks, no one would be able to escape."

"Alright, let's leave the ship now!" Matthias sighed helplessly.

As Captain Iron said just now, once the ship started to sink, none of them would be able to escape.

Their individual power is too small in the face of such a disaster.

The tilting of the ship made the passengers on board know that the ship was starting to sink.

When everyone's life is threatened, this is where the dark side of people's hearts begins to show up. The situation on the ship fell into chaos at this moment. It was even more serious than when the Team Rocket was attacking the ship before.

Everyone was doing everything they could to ensure that they got a place on the lifeboats. Still, there were only twenty lifeboats around the ship. The lifeboats were not enough to accommodate the other half of the passengers.

No one wanted to stay behind on the sinking S.S Anne. Everyone was fighting, pushing, and screaming while trying to get to the lifeboats.

Meanwhile, Hisoka did not go to grab the lifeboats with the other thousand passengers. That was not possible, in his opinion. In such a chaotic situation, even if he could grab a seat, he was afraid that everyone else might even beat him up just to secure the seat for themselves. He would never let himself be at the mercy of other people.

Also, once the S.S. Anne weighing thousands of tons, started to sink, the lower pressure inside of the ship would inevitably cause the water outside to ship to rush inside the ship, creating a huge whirlpool. At that time, it would already be too late for the people on the ship to escape, sucked into the ship by the strong water current.

After packing his luggage, Hisoka rushed out of the room. He then put Kirlia, Weavile, and Feebas Pokeballs into his bag that he clasped tightly on his shoulders. He didn't want to lose his precious Pokeballs later during the rush.

"Hisoka!" A surprised female voice stopped Hisoka, who was avoiding the crowd and trotting towards the lower part of the cruise ship.

"Maggie!"

Hisoka looked back and saw Maggie, whom he had a good impression of. Standing next to her were Ash, Misty, and Brock, the famous trio.

When Maggie was about to ask him a question, Hisoka immediately interrupted her, "There's no time to explain. If you guys want to live, just follow me."

After saying that, he quickly ran toward the bottom right side of the sinking ship.

Maggie didn't hesitate and quickly ran after Hisoka's figure.

"What should we do?" Ash scratched the back of his head in confusion.

Brock pondered for a moment and then firmly said, "We will also follow them. Although we are not familiar with that Hisoka, it will be too hard for us to grab the lifeboats with so many people on the ship. If we drag it for too long, we might not be able to escape later.

"Brock is right!" Misty nodded in agreement.

After everyone said their opinion, the three immediately ran toward the bottom side of the ship.

Hisoka took out five diving masks from his backpack. This transparent diving mask can filter the oxygen in the water and allow the user to breathe freely underwater without carrying the heavy oxygen tanks. Unfortunately, the filtering function of the mask can only last for thirty minutes. After that, they would have to quickly surface from the water or drown.

Hisoka then distributed the diving masks to the four people who had followed him.

"Do you guys have any Water-type Pokemon? Release them quickly!" he asked urgingly.

Maggie and Brock shook their heads.

"I have Squirtle!"

Ash released the Squirtle from his Pokeball.

Misty then took out three Pokeballs and threw them in the air, "Come out, Goldeen, Staryu, Starmie!"

"Ok, this is enough for each person," said Hisoka while releasing his own Feebas.

Although Feebas was weak and didn't know any kind of moves, he only needed her swimming capability right now.

Then, they put on the diving mask on their faces. Ash tightly held Squirtle's tail, and Maggie was hugging the Staryu. Meanwhile, Brock was grabbing onto Golden's horn while Misty was riding her Starmie.

The five of them then jumped from the opened hatch on the side of the ship. It was a five-meter jump toward the sea, which had no other effect besides a stinging pain on their skin when splashing on the water due to the height.

Feeling a slight suction of the water current from his back, Hisoka shouted to the four people beside him, "The S.S. Anne is sinking. We must leave the hull now, or we will be sucked into the water together with the ship.

Everyone nodded their head in unison. Then, they urged the Pokemon to swim away from the ship with haste. The Pokemon understood their urging and tried their best to swim forward.

...

The five of them were swimming away from the ship, and because it was nighttime, they had to be careful, not daring to stray away from each other. Once they got lost in the sea, it would be hard to find their way back.

Under Hisoka's lead, everyone moved forward in the darkness. Ash and the others were quiet as they followed after Hisoka. Their minds were focused only on escaping at the moment.

It had been almost half an hour since Hisoka and the others left S.S. Anne. At this moment, there was a loud bang in the distance. When they looked back, they were horrified to see the large cruise ship broken in half as it sank under the water. The harsh sound of metal snapping made everyone shiver in fright.

As the world-famous luxury liner broke in half, it quickly sank into the ocean's floor. A few minutes later, it had almost disappeared below the sea level.

The sinking of the huge ship brought along giant waves that threatened everyone in the ship's periphery. Even Hisoka and the others who were far away from the ship could feel the strong water current pulling them under the water.

Without hesitation, everyone quickly swam forward to escape from the affected area.

"Let's stop here!" Hisoka shouted.

A beam of light suddenly appeared in the darkness. Hisoka took out a flashlight from his bag and began to wave it around him repeatedly, "I'm here, guys! Follow this light."

"I can see the it" It was Ash's voice.

"We are coming!" Maggie and the others yelled.

When they arrived at Hisoka's side, everyone had a frightened expression on their faces. Luckily, they were able to survive this dangerous situation. If they hadn't listened to Hisoka and left the cruise ship early with him, they might have been buried in the sea together with S.S. Anne.

"S.S. Anne sank en route to Porta Vista," Hisoka said solemnly.

"We can't move anywhere from here. It's too dark. We can only stay here and wait for rescue. The League will surely come to this place to look for survivors. Hopefully, they'll arrive by sunrise," he wiped the water on his face.

Everyone agreed with Hisoka's decision. There was nothing else they could do but wait until help arrived.

After that, Hisoka looked at the time on his watch. It was three in the morning, and there were still three hours left before dawn.

It was dangerous for them to float in the middle of the sea. There were also wild Pokemon that might attack them at any time. And someone might fall asleep, which they couldn't afford to at this moment.

Fortunately, Hisoka is always prepared for this kind of situation. Hisoka opened his bag and took out a piece of vacuum plastic bag.

It was an inflatable lifeboat, which was quite easy to use. As long as the vacuum bag was torn, it would immediately expand into a lifeboat that could hold up to six people.

Under everyone's surprised eyes, Hisoka tore the bag open and threw it into the sea. A few seconds later, a simple orange lifeboat appeared in front of everyone.

Ash opened his mouth wide in shock and said, "Is that a lifeboat?"

"Let's get on the boat first. It will be much safer than staying in the water," After saying that, Hisoka quickly climbed into the lifeboat and pulled the others into the lifeboat one by one.

Brock patted the lifeboat under his butt and sighed in relief, "Luckily, you brought this lifeboat. If not, we will be sitting duck in the middle of the sea."

Ash then excitedly looked at Hisoka, who was sitting down with his eyes closed, and said, "Hisoka, are you a League officer?"

After saving their lives, Ash had a good impression of Hisoka. He also thought that Hisoka was a cool person, unlike his rival, Gary.

"No, I'm a hunter," Hisoka replied

"Hunter?" Ash said in confusion. This was his first time hearing about this kind of job.

Hisoka smiled and explained, "Basically, we are people for hire. Everyone pays to do all kinds of things, such as catching criminals, rescuing people, looking for rare herbs and other things."

"Oh! So cool!" Ash replied as stars appeared in his eyes.

Everyone felt tired after their successful escape from the ship. Ash and the others were already asleep on the lifeboat. Hisoka also felt exhausted. His eyes were half-closed, but he still didn't dare to relax his vigilance. Although they had escaped from the sunken S.S. Anne, that did not mean

they were out of danger. He still had to watch out for wild Pokemon that might surface at any moment.

Just like a forest fire would make the Pokemon living in the forest to riot, so do the sinking of a ship. Due to the turbulence caused by the sinking of S.S. Anne, many Water-type Pokemon in this area would be affected, making them angry and restless.

Time slowly passed by. Hisoka, who had been awake for two hours, finally couldn't resist his sleepiness and quickly fell asleep amidst the gentle rocking of the waves.

And when he opened his eyes again, the sun was already up in the sky. He looked at his watch and saw it was already eight in the morning.

"Something's wrong!"

Hisoka's face looked grim as he looked around the quiet surroundings. There were no small fish around their lifeboat, nor any kind of birds in the sky.

Roar!

A roar came from below the sea. After that, a giant serpentine with blue scales emerged from the sea, creating huge waves around the area.

It had a large and gaping mouth, bearing four pointed teeth that gleamed with a metallic sheen under the sun's reflection.

"What happened!"

The roar also awakened the others. When they saw the giant Pokemon right in front of their eyes, they all showed a horrified look.

Among them, Misty was the most affected. She pointed at the giant Pokemon with a trembling hand and said, "It's a Gyarados!"

She still remembered the time when she had accidentally crawled into the giant mouth of a Gyrados as a young child. It had left a huge shadow on her young mind, causing her whole body to tremble whenever she saw this ferocious Pokemon.

Gyarados is an evolution of Magikarp. Since ancient times, Gyarados has been feared for their fierce temper and wanton destructive tendencies. In some regions, Gyarados is called the "deity of destruction" because of this.

Even the Magikarp trained by their own trainer would not listen to their command after evolving into Gyarados. In some cases, some Gyarados would also attack their trainer in their rage.

You can only imagine how aggressive a wild Gyarados would be.

...