APOLLO

            Apollo Love looked at the project and smiled brightly.  “I think it’s coming along nicely, don’t you?” The green Spirit Pokémon nodded its head as they both looked on at the vessel that was being built.  The Chief of Oldale found himself staring into Gallade’s eyes.  Hold on, Luna, he thought.  I will find you, wherever you are.

            From the time he was little he was always protecting his twin sister.  Luna and Apollo had grown up living separate lives.  Apollo was raised to be the Chief of Oldale, while his sister was being prepared and taught the courtesies of court. Though their lives would eventually take different paths, they always shared in each other’s secrets, and remained as close as the heads on a Doduo. Some secrets were as old as Apollo could remember, and near as old as the twins’ Spirit Pokémon.  And I have kept every last one, as well as my promises to protect you.

Even in the battle of Meteor Falls five years ago, Luna had insisted that she and Gardevoir be there to fight.  Apollo had taken extra precautions to keep her away from the heat of the battle.  Luna had commanded the archers, bowman that line up on the fringes of the war and shoot their arrows at their enemies from a distance. 

If she had not been there, though, how many things would have changed? Apollo remembered how it had been Luna who had convinced the late King Sam Marsh to let Carlos Brightflame live so that a peace could be reached.  “If you kill him now, how long until his sons seek vengeance?” Luna had said.  Apollo shook his head as he watched the builders assemble the aluminum panels of the vessel together.  Sam let King Carlos live, and he attacked Mauville anyway five years later. What if we had executed Brightflame then, defeated the Mt. Chimney Kingdom, and raised his sons as friends until they came of age to take over? There would have been more bloodshed, though, and Sam Marsh never spilled a single drop of blood that was unnecessary. 

Doubtless Brightflame had never thought that Chris would send the call to arms to defend Mauville.  Apollo remembered how the combined force of Slateport and Mauville had smashed the force from the Mt. Chimney Kingdom.  There’s power in marriage pacts, the Chief of Oldale knew. 

He remembered when he and Sam Marsh were young.  Apollo had only been barely over a year older than the late King.  They would visit each other often, and Apollo could recall how quickly Sam had been able to learn the art of combat.  I was always better at battle than Sam. Though he was the smarter one.

Apollo remembered how happy he had been when he was told that Luna would marry Sam Marsh.

            “We’re to be brothers now!” Apollo had exclaimed.

            “Who says you weren’t my brother already?” the then-Prince had responded. Sam had been wise beyond his years, but his wisdom never saved him when the flaming arrow pierced his heart in the battle’s aftermath. 

            He watched as the glass-makers carried an immense panel of thick glass to arrange into place on the light metal box.  It was the thickest glass he had ever seen: near two feet thick. Technology these days, he thought.

            Apollo turned to Gallade again.  “Five years without Sam is five years too long,” he said.  Gallade bowed his head.  Not only were Apollo Love and Sam Marsh as close as brothers, the Spirit Pokémon were as well.  Gallade had played and trained with Sam’s Swampert since they were Ralts and Mudkip.  He didn’t know whether the old King’s funeral was harder on him, Luna, or the Spirit Pokémon.  Or Chris…

            Apollo felt a sense of dread again.  Chris looked so much like Sam, though their personalities were markedly different.  Where Sam was observant and passive, the son was assertive with what he wanted, and stopped at nothing to get it.  He remembered again back to Mauville, where he had obeyed Chris’s command to let him bring back Swampert on his own.  Maybe somewhere in his heart, Apollo wanted Chris to be like his father, his dearest friend. In the five years since his best friend’s death, Chris had grown more like Apollo than he had like Sam. The boy even had taken to training with sword and spear with Apollo’s earnest enthusiasm.

“I convinced myself he was Sam,” he said to Gallade. “I should never have let him make that decision, King or no. What would his father say to me, if he knew I sent his son into danger without even his Pokémon to assist him?” It seemed like the finishing touches were being put on the vessel.  Huge iron chains were being secured just below the wide window on the front of the underwater-ship.

Gallade knew Apollo was referring to Chris.  He put a comforting arm on Apollo’s shoulder.  You’ve done all you can for Chris, Gallade’s eyes seemed to say.

Some nights as Apollo try to sleep, he would rise and sweat, ready to leave Slateport and find Chris to help him on his mission. One thing kept calling back to him, though.  When he would spy Lily’s egg, his resolve to find Luna and avenge his niece’s death won his desire. 

He thought about the egg now, and he remembered why he had let Chris go.  “Chris can protect himself.  I’ve never seen a better lad with a spear. Luna needs my help.” Gallade nodded at that.  Apollo saw Lily’s egg again: a pale blue unhatched thing with a splotch of crimson at the top that wouldn’t wash off.  It reminded Apollo of blood.  Lily’s blood… It made him angry that someone would harm a child.

He clenched his fists as the builders walked up to meet him.  The project was done.  “Shall we take you on a tour?” asked the blacksmith, who had designed the shape and supplied the aluminum. Apollo nodded silently as he and Gallade walked into it.     The ship itself was two-layered.  It seemed to Apollo to look like a metal Sharpedo with spikes on the upper roof.  For the stupid men who try to jump on top of us. The spikes had been his own idea.

The lower level where they boarded was a storage area for food, supplies, and weapons.   There was a round hole in the ceiling and a short ladder to climb, and Apollo found himself on the second level.  The top level was the biggest, and it had the biggest window he had ever seen.  It gave whoever stood at the front of the ship a near circular view of everything around it. The walls on this level had a few wide windows as well, for other forms of sight.  This was where Apollo would have his men that he was taking with him sleep. 

Apollo looked out the window at the strong iron chains.  These were for the many Huntail he would need.  Like Doduo on a cart, they would help pull the lightweight metal ship underneath the sea with great speed.  When Apollo had asked the breeder of these Pokémon to purchase them, the breeder had simply asked to join. 

“Good work, men,” he said to the ship builder, the blacksmith, and the glass-maker.  “I promise you I’ll have your payment when I return. You may go.” 

With that, the craftsmen left.  If Apollo had not stopped to think, he would have grabbed the Huntail driver and set out to sea.  Thankfully, he realized he needed a crew.  “I need no more than four warriors,” he said to Gallade, as they made to depart the ship.  “It seems I must take them from Slateport’s city guard.  Of all the times I need Ares and Hermes, I send them off with Chris.”  Apollo shook his head. 

As Apollo made his way back to the wooden palace of the Marshes, he was met by old Chief Granite of Dewford (who was still in town managing the duties of ruling).  “Chief Love,” the old man said as Aggron stood imposing over him.  “We’ve received a letter from Lavaridge, which was from Mauville.  Chris is… Chris has been captured along with all his men. We must negotiate a peace with Mt. Chimney to get him back alive…”

The words hit Apollo like a charging Donphan.  This is what happens when you don’t finish a war, Sam, he thought angrily to himself.  Apollo tried not to be shaken.  “What does Carlos Brightflame want of us for our king?” he asked.

Old Chief Granite swallowed hard.  “Not Carlos Brightflame,” he said.  “Miguell Starfall rules the Mt. Chimney kingdom now.”  It took a few minutes for the words to register in Apollo’s head.  My how things have changed…

            Apollo remembered an old saying his mother used to tell him.  “Sometimes, it’s better to deal with the devil you know, than the one you don’t.” Apollo punched the side of the wooden palace in anger.  Carlos Brightflame had been the devil he knew.  The man would have wanted gold or slaves… but Apollo knew that Starfall was a wild card; unpredictable and always looking to gain as much as he can at the price of anyone else.

            Apollo thought long and hard about his options. “Find out what Starfall wants from Slateport and try to negotiate with him,” he told Granite.  “I name you active Regent of the Slateport Kingdom.”

            The old man seemed confused. “My lord? What of you? Chris Marsh left you to be in charge did he not?”

            Apollo turned back to where he had come from.  “I’m going to find my sister.”