Spacemon: Frontier – Chapter 62: Parting Ways

Welcome to another exciting installment of Spacemon, the tale of a Pokemon TRPG campaign! This is a spinoff of the sci-fi space epic played using the Pokemon Tabletop United (PTU) system, this time GMed by yours truly. You can get caught up on the entire Spacemon saga here!

“It’s not gonna be the same around here without you, Axel,” Cyrus said as he placed a firm hand on Axel’s shoulder.

“Yeah, it’ll be a lot quieter,” Gaster said with a chuckle.

“Very funny,” Axel replied.

“In all seriousness, we’re gonna miss you, buddy,” Erik said.

“I’ll miss you guys too,” the mercenary said. “Well, maybe not you, Captain,” he continued, grinning as he looked back at Cyrus.

“You know you can’t live without me,” the Maverick’s captain laughed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him for you,” Persephone said, leaning her head against Axel’s shoulder.

Axel smiled as he looked over at the mother of his unborn child. It had been almost two years since he had first signed onto the Maverick’s crew and in that time they had become like a family to him, but now it was time for him to say goodbye and focus on starting a family of his own. He’d had a lot of time to think in the weeks since Persephone had informed him that she was pregnant and he knew that this was what he wanted.

“Let us hope so, as we all know he can’t take care of himself,” Taraka said.

“Hey,” Axel said.

“Relax, I am merely joking,” the monk replied, a warm smile forming on his face. “I wish both of you well and good luck with the baby.”

“Thank you,” Persephone said, placing a hand on her stomach. “We’ll be sure to keep you all updated on her progress.”

“‘Her?’” Axel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, ‘her,’” Persephone said with a nod. “I just found out this morning. We’re having a girl. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”

“No, of course not,” Axel replied. “I’m just surprised that you know already is all. I hope she turns out to be just as beautiful as her mother.”

“Let’s hope so,” Cyrus laughed. “It’ll be better for everyone if she gets her looks from Persephone and not your ugly mug.”

“Hey!”

The UAS Maverick sat docked in the port city of Greywall on Insipia, refueling for its next journey into space. As predicted, it was much quieter aboard the ship now that Axel was gone. It had only been a few hours since the remaining members of the crew had bid farewell to the mercenary and the difference was already quite noticeable.

In the ship’s living quarters, Gaster was lounging on the couch, looking over his credit wallet on his Pokedex. It had been a while since the Maverick’s crew had been paid and the former smuggler’s funds were starting to run low again. He hoped they would find another job soon.

“How goes it, Gaster?” Taraka asked as he entered the room.

“Alright, I suppose,” Gaster said, glancing over at the monk. “Credits are running a bit low.”

“Well I have good news for you,” Taraka replied. “The captain told me he just found a new job for us. We’ll be on our way in a few hours.”

“That’s good to hear,” Gaster said. “So what sort of job is it?”

“Another delivery,” Taraka informed him. “Nice and easy.”

“Easy sounds nice.”

“Indeed,” Taraka said, nodding. “In the meantime, are you interested in going out and looking for Pokemon? We didn’t get around to it the last time we were here.”

Gaster put his Pokedex back into his Pocket, then stood up. “I’m up for it,” he said. “Let’s get going.”

The sunlight shimmered upon the surface of the lake as Gaster and Taraka emerged from the trees. The pair had been wandering through the forest valley some several kilometers south of Greywall for the past few hours in search of Pokemon and while they had yet to spot any aside from a few Taillows darting amongst the trees, they had seen plenty of the natural beauty that Insipia had to offer. Their latest discovery was the pale sapphire lake that stretched out across the valley before them.

“Quite the sight, isn’t it?” Taraka asked

Gaster nodded. “Sure is,” he said. “But a much nicer sight would be some Pokemon right about now. I don’t want to have come all the way out here for nothing.”

“You’re in luck, it would seem,” Taraka said. The monk pointed off toward the right, down along the lake shore and Gaster followed with his eyes. Sure enough, there were some Pokemon meandering about. Gaster spotted a Bellossom, an Exeggutor, and a Paras.

“Ah,” Gaster said, grabbing one of his Pokeballs off his belt. “Looks promising,” he continued as he sent out his Swablu. The former smuggler had brought along the cloud-like Pokemon he had captured on Meridian along with the intention of training her against some wild Pokemon.

“Any in particular you want to capture?” Taraka asked as he sent out a Pokemon of his own, specifically his Amaura. Gaster hadn’t seen Taraka use that Pokemon much, but he assumed the monk had brought him along for similar reasons.

“That Paras would make a fine addition to my team,” Gaster replied.

“Alright,” Taraka replied. “I shall help you catch it and I will go for the Bellossom myself.”

“Sounds good.”

With their Pokemon in tow, the pair approached their marks. Gaster drew his tesla coil rifle as they advanced and took aim at the Paras. Once in range, the former smuggler pulled the trigger, shooting a beam of electricity at the unsuspecting Pokemon.

“Millicent, use Cotton Guard,” Gaster then instructed his Swablu. “Now, use Disarming Voice!” he followed up with a second command as his Pokemon coated herself with a protective shield of the fluffy cotton that grew on her wings. Once she was ready, the Swablu flew up to the Paras and let out a piercing cry that left it momentarily dazed.

Snapping back to its senses, the Paras reacted defensively by releasing a cloud of spores. As soon as she breathed in the spores, Millicent was knocked out cold.

“Dang,” Gaster responded. “Well, here goes nothing.” The former smuggler pulled out a Great Ball, then threw it at the Paras. The ball pulled the Pokemon inside and fell to the ground, where it shook once … twice … three times … and then it was captured!

“Looks like you didn’t need my assistance,” Taraka chuckled.

“Guess not,” Gaster replied, shrugging.

“Alright, your turn Finny,” the monk said, turning back to his Pokemon. “Hit those two with Powder Snow!” Taraka’s Amaura moved in on the Exeggutor and the Bellossom, then sprayed out a blast of powdery snow from his mouth, pelting both Pokemon with super effective damage.

Angered, the Exeggutor let out a grunt as it blasted Finny with psychic energy. The Bellossom then approached and sprayed the Amaura with immobilizing spores. While Taraka’s Pokemon was stunned, the Exeggutor shot out hypnotic beams from its eyes, putting him to sleep. The Bellossom immediately sprayed out another cloud of spores, these ones of a poisonous nature.

“Wow,” Taraka said as he recalled his Amaura. The two wild Pokemon had done a surprising job of rendering the monk’s Pokemon useless in this battle.

“I’ve got you,” Gaster told his crewmate. He took aim at the Exeggutor with his rifle and shot it with electricity.

Taraka then sent a psionic flame in the three-headed Pokemon’s direction, burning it. The Exeggutor grunted, then shot a blast of psychic energy back at the monk. Taraka quickly hopped out of the way, then turned and threw a Great Ball at it, capturing it instantly.

Left as the last of the three wild Pokemon, the Bellossom began to panic and sprayed acid everywhere, getting some on both Gaster and Taraka. Ignoring the minor pain caused by the attack, Gasster aimed his rifle, then fired, zapping the Bellossom.

Meanwhile, Taraka had sent out his Togekiss. “Sirius, use Thunder Wave!” the monk commanded his newly sent out Pokemon.

Sirius zapped the Bellossom with an immobilizing beam of electricity, then Taraka threw a Pokeball at the grass Pokemon. Just as with the Exeggutor, the Bellossom was captured instantly.

“Well, that was exciting,” Gaster said before walking over to collect the ball containing his new Paras. “I’ll be sure to put this thing to good use.”

“I am not sure I will use these two much,” Taraka said, pocketing his own new captures. “But I would like to acquire as many different species of Pokemon as I can.”

“Is that your new goal now that your pilgrimage is over?” Gaster asked.

“Perhaps,” the monk replied, a slight smirk on his face.

“I see,” Gaster said. “But anyways, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to head back to the ship.”

Taraka nodded in agreement. “As am I.”

Captain Cyrus of the UAS Maverick stood in the cockpit of his ship, leaning on the back of the co-pilot’s seat as he viewed the navchart with Anya. The Maverick’s young Romanov pilot was plotting a course for the ship’s next destination as the captain looked on.

“How’s that look, Captain?” Anya asked as she finished plugging everything in. “After we make our pickup in Sector 30 and jump to Sector 31, we’ll stop here to refuel before continuing on to the far end of the sector to make our delivery.”

“Sounds good to me,” Cyrus told his pilot, nodding in approval. “Get the ship ready for takeoff. Once the boys get back we’ll be out of here.”

“You’ve got it.”

Cyrus pushed himself off the seat, then stretched his back before exiting the cockpit. The Maverick’s captain let out a sigh as he made his way through the ship’s system control room. As much as he liked to rag on the mercenary, Cyrus had to admit that Axel was a good worker, but he understood the man had new responsibilities that took precedence. The rest of the crew would just need to pick up the slack.

At the very least, the loss of one of the captain’s most valuable employees was mitigated by the fact that things would be going back to business as usual. For now it seemed that the Maverick would be resuming a regular delivery schedule. There were no more dangerous missions on the horizon for the foreseeable future, but it was only a matter of time before one popped up. In the meantime, Cyrus planned to make the most of the relative peace and safety these easy jobs afforded him and his crew.

As he stepped out into the Maverick’s main corridor, Cyrus spotted Gaster and Taraka stepping in from the cargo hold. “Good timing, boys,” the captain told the two members of his crew. “We’re about to get out of here.”

“Where are we heading next, Captain?” Taraka inquired.

“Sector 30,” Cyrus informed the monk. “Got us a delivery job. Should be easy money.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Gaster said.

Cyrus nodded. “You and me both, pal,” he said. “You and me both.”

Notes: And so we have come to the end of what I like to think of as the third ‘season’ of Spacemon: Frontier. A bunch of major plotlines have been tied off and there’s really only one big one left to tackle. This chapter covers the second half of session 45. After the battle with Sikari and the resolution of Taraka’s pilgrimage, the players decided to spend the rest of the session looking for Pokemon. This was also the point at which Axel had confirmed that he was officially dropping out. Now that the leftover stuff from the end of the previous session had been resolved, it was time to address this fact. In the session I basically just said he goes to Insipia to be with Persephone and then we immediately went on to do the next thing. I gave it some more attention in the writing, opening this chapter with a proper send off for him. For the sake of narrative flow, I decided to make the random unnamed planet they went looking for Pokemon on just another part of Insipia, and then I just added some extra scenes around the Pokemon search to give some more meat to the chapter. There’s not a whole lot to this chapter, but I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

Post-Chapter Challenge: This chapter sees the departure of a longstanding member of the Maverick’s crew. Naturally, the question that follows from that is who should replace Axel? I challenge you to come up with a new member of the crew to fill the vacancy! I know there’s technically a new member of the crew in the form of Sikari, but she fills a very different role on the crew than Axel. So let’s see what you’ve got. Who’s the new member of the crew? What’s their name? What’s their story? I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

That does it for this chapter. As always the Spacemon gang and I will be monitoring the comments to foster discussion and answer any questions. Feel free to give feedback and critiques of the writing so I can improve it for the future, or just leave a comment with what you think about what went down in this chapter or what you think might happen next! You can also revisit past chapters, check out the rest of the Spacemon saga, join the Spacemon Discord server, or like our Facebook page to stay updated on all things Spacemon! Click here for the next exciting installment of Spacemon: Frontier!