20 Minutes Earlier
“I’m-late-I’m-late-I’m-laaaate!!” Reese screeched as she slung her duffel bag over her shoulder and ran out the door. She’d received her letter of acceptance the day before and it had been stuffed unceremoniously into her bag along with the rest of her things the moment she finished reading it. A half-asleep, hulking pile of metal creaked as he shifted in confusion, and the girl rapped on his armor, running in place. Her father had left on a dig earlier that week, so that was one less problem to deal with.
Tong-tong-tong! “Wake up, Rocket!” Reese whined restlessly, still banging the Golurk’s arm, the highest part of him she could reach. “We gotta go-go-go!” She clambered onto his head, making sure that Riot (a Sigilyph) and Rune (her newest partner, a Galarian Yamask), were in their Pokeballs on her belt, and continued to drum on the robotic Pokemon. “Come on come on come onnn-!!” The speed with which Rocket took off took her by surprise, and she almost slipped off his metallic shoulders, arms wrapped tightly around his head.
Present Time
Despite her less-than-professional start, Reese had managed to make it to the boat barely on time, her sudden appearance atop a half-fossilized robot sudden enough to cause the dockman to fall over. She had apologized profusely as the boat pulled away, eventually having to yell to be heard across the rift of water, before concluding that (since you know, she couldn’t see him anymore) he couldn’t hear her.
The rest of the time, she’d been treating poor Rocket like a jungle gym, though the sitting Golurk didn’t seem to mind having a hyperactive fifteen-year-old girl crawling all over him; in fact, he seemed quite used to it. That was… probably because he was quite used to it. As far as Reese could tell, Rocket didn’t mind it, in actuality seeming to enjoy the attention. She wondered idly if maybe she should socialize, but everyone seemed to be in large groups already.
Suddenly a loud thunk hit the deck, tilting the boat slightly. The Barbaracle was large and heavy-looking, though not quite on the scale of Rocket. Reese took a moment to appreciate how well-crafted the boat must have been to hold so many massive Pokémon like the Gyarados she’d caught sight of earlier as well as the sheer number of smaller Pokémon.
The girl tapped Rocket’s head again. “Hey-hey-hey, do ya think we should go help them?” The Golurk made a sound like a box of metal nails clattering to the ground. “Yeah, we’d just get in the way of all the littles,” she mused, referring to the somewhat smaller Pokémon possessed by the group. “Or we’d overturn the boat,” Reese added with a cheeky grin. “You’re heavy, buddy! But hey, we still have a pretty good view from here. Let’s watch ‘em!”
Rocket’s back was to the fight, but that didn’t deter Reese in the slightest; she crossed her legs around Rocket’s head for a steady hold, then let herself drop backwards until she was hanging by her legs over the Golurk’s back, giving her a very nice upside-down view of the battle. Rocket’s head rotated so he could watch, too. Her intrigued frown was also upside-down as she wondered idly how exactly a Barbaracle that didn’t belong to any trainer could come to end up on a boat, and exactly why a few “promising young trainers” with a bunch of Pokémon couldn’t figure a way to deal with the Barbaracle.
Reese took on a comically quizzical look, complete with a finger gun beneath her chin. “Maybe we should go over there and chuck it!” she exclaimed playfully. “Just go… yeet!” The girl mimed a throw towards the ocean. “Then again, a thousand pounds on one side of the boat might, uh… tip the scales, so to speak. In a very watery way.” Rocket made a rumbling noise that could be interpreted as laughter as the two continued to observe from around the middle of the boat.