[X] My Assistant

[7eeveelutions]

Deep within the rainforests of Fidona, Pokemon of many different varieties could be heard communicating with each other. The trees and underbrush were filled with the songs of birds, the grunts and growls of foxes, wolves, and cats, and many sounds, some more unique than others.

Such as the sound of a Ninetales being slammed into the ground and yelping.

In fact, in this particular part of the forest, the sounds of a battle had been ongoing for nearly fifteen minutes.

The (male) Ninetales was on a path through the northernmost portion of the island, nearly 50 miles north of the small town of Fidona that gave the island its name. The path itself, while clearly visible, was also quite clearly not very well-traveled; it was originally made of cobblestone, but was in the latter stages of disintegration and now contained just as much dirt and weeds as it did stone. On one side of the path were the large trees that made the rainforest so famous, while on the other side of the path was a small clearing maybe a hundred feet wide shaped somewhat like a circle.

On one side of that clearing was the Ninetales' Trainer, a bulky Hiker who looked like he was about to pull his hair out in frustration. Across from him sat a tall, thin Ranger, who was perched on a boulder about as big as he was and looked far calmed than the Hiker. In front of the Ranger stood a little female Espeon wearing a reddish-brown Ranger vest.

Notably, the Ranger had a short sword with a red-brown sheath dangling from one side of his waist, and a small black plastic holster on the other side, although the contents of the holster were not visible. The Hiker, of course, had a giant backpack with what appeared to be some kind of fold-up tent attached to it.

"This is going much better than I ever would have hoped......" the Ranger muttered.

Just going off of size alone, the Espeon should never have won that battle. She was not yet fully grown, and her height currently sat at about two and a half feet. The Ninetales, on the other hand, was not only fully grown but actually substantially bigger and bulkier than most of its species, and it stood right around four and a quarter feet tall. In addition to this, there was clearly a huge age difference, and thus a huge difference in battle experience. It was quite clear what would normally happen when something that big got a hold of something that small.

But that hadn't happened. In fact, the Ninetales had yet to even land a hit on the Espeon. Whenever it tried attacking from range, the Espeon would either dodge or use Protect. If it tried to close in and strike, the Espeon would not simply dodge, but do something far more dangerous.

Every time the Espeon was caught at close range in an unfavorable situation, it teleported into a more favorable location.

And that was why the Ninetales was currently lying flat on his belly with his legs spread out in random directions.

He had attempted to use Flamethrower as a distraction to get the Espeon to dodge, then use Quick Attack to catch it while it dodged. Only moments before it had already forced the Espeon into using Protect to block another attack, so she had to wait a little while before she could use it again. The hiker had ordered the combo attack thinking this would be their best chance, as the Espeon was clearly getting tired by this point.

But then she had teleported to a position about ten feet directly above the Ninetales, and had used Telekinesis on herself to give her body downwards velocity. Essentially, she turned the dodge into a flying drop-kick that struck poor Ninetales right on his back.

And to make things worse, the Ranger and his Espeon were communicating through telepathy, so the Hiker and his Ninetales didn't ever have the sligtest clue about what was coming next.

As his Pokemon struggled to stand back up after that attack, the Hiker decided to take the easy way out and cast aside his pride so that Ninetales could rest.

"All right, that's enough! We forfeit. You win, Ranger. That little Eeveelution of yours is surprisingly adept."

"Ahh? You give up? Well, fine. Scarlet hasn't lost a battle yet since she learned how to teleport. It isn't something most people or Pokemon are used to fighting against. Nobody seems to have the slightest clue how to counter it...... except for me, of course. My name is Scott by the way. I'm an Area Ranger from the Loch Ranch area, but I'm all the way out here because of some personnel shortages."

The Hiker recalled his Ninetales. "My name is Luke. I'm actually the head of the Fidona Tour Services. I usually try to make a point of challenging all the rangers I see, but..... I'm not used to losing. This was just a 1 on 1 battle though, maybe if it had been two on two or 6 on 6......"

"4 on 4 is the best I can manage, but you still would have lost, because then you would have been distracted by Scarlet while a more threatening member of my team attacked." The small Espeon suddenly teleported again, this time onto Scott's shoulders with her backs legs on his left shoulder and her front legs on his right shoulder, and her body curved around the back of Scott's head somewhat similar to a neck pillow.

"...... I am going to have to go home and reflect upon this battle. If we meet again and have a rematch, you can be sure the outcome will be different." Hiker Luke started off down the path southwards back towards Fidona.

Scott and Scarlet watched them leav, before Scott fed his Espeon a pair of berries- Oran and Leppa- to restore her health and strength. Afterwards, she finally got down from his shoulders, and he returned her back to the Great Ball she resided in so she could rest. "Guess I might as well get back to patrolling......"

He looked up at the sky for a few moments and tapped his sword sheath twice with one of his fingers before jumping down off of the rock.

[Darkrow]

“Pecan!”

Lucie’s eyes almost instantly filled with tears when her darling Minccino jumped into her arms; she thought she would never see Pecan again, after all. She squeezed him somewhat tightly, not wanting to hurt him. Praline and Pistache cuddled against Pecan with as much joy as their master. Things were finally starting look up, now the only thing left was to help Peanut.

Vision blurry due to her tears, Lucie merely saw a red and orange blotch arrive, and her joy dissipated into fear. That monstrous bug was still around, was that another of its allies? Rubbing her eyes swiftly to clear her vision, the plump girl found herself glaring fearfully at the Vulpix in front of her while holding her four pokémon away despite Pecan’s protests.

“Stay away from me! I didn’t do anything!” she yelled at the Vulpix angrily, not really noticing the little fox’s apparent lack of interest in her or its jacket. Even if she had noticed that jacket, she didn’t know what a Ranger was, so it didn’t mean anything to her. Pecan, however, knew that the Vulpix was friendly: if she was Moss’ friend then she was his as far as he was concerned.

Then came that white monster.

It knocked out the Vulpix right as a young man popped out from the same place Pecan and the Vulpix had come out of. The bizarre white pokémon and the young man glared at each other for a few moments. While they were busy looking at each other, the horrible metallic hum that red monstrosity made earlier was heard throughout the rainforest again. Lucie’s heart almost literally skipped a beat when the scarred Scizor made its second appearance in just a few minutes, landing at the white monster’s side. Then came an Umbreon on the other side, and a weird bird landed on its head a few moments afterwards.

Covering her mouth with one hand as she did, Lucie shrieked in horror as a muscular man knocked the young man (who was wearing a jacket similar to the Vulpix’s, she noticed) with one quick strike of a rifle. Then, he shot a dart at the Vulpix’s limp body and lifted it up by the scruff of the neck.

This was terrifying.

This was a nightmare.

Lucie was shaking with her mouth agape in complete shock and fright. And that Scizor was merely glaring at her while the other pokémon did their job. Fixated on the red insectoid, Lucie merely stayed still, hugging her pokémon. Maybe it’d just go away like last time?

It was then that a small woman, sickly and gaunt, stepped in, holding a pokéball in her bony hand. Wearing her messy and spiky pitch black hair in cute pigtails that contrasted completely with her demeanor and the rest of her appearance, she looked wicked and awkward, standing pigeon-toed. She had a lot of make-up on around her eyes, enough to give her the raccoon eyes look. Quite simply, she looked like a mess. Following her were a Heliolisk and a Gurdurr. Was she the Scizor’s owner? If so, Lucie was in a lot of trouble.

“That’s what took it out? This Electrike is shite. Another for the garbage bin, I guess,” she said matter-of-factly, her English accent very clear. After speaking, the abnormally thin girl nonchalantly and gently tossed the pokéball to the muscular man. So they were allies.

Scrambling to her feet despite being terrified, Lucie ended up being stared at by all the pokémon there as well as the thin woman. Whimpering a bit and squeezing her beloved Litleo a bit, she took a few steps back, almost tripping on the roots of the tree she was sitting against.

A gray Minccino, a pink-nosed Litleo, a Purrloin with a strange tail… these pokémon were definitely at least a little unique. The Spritzee was also fairly rare. The scraggly woman took a few steps forward and held her hand towards Lucie, palm towards the sky and gesturing towards herself.

“Hand ‘em over or we’ll take ‘em by force,” she said in a dull tone of voice. She sounded dead serious, and Lucie noticed that she too had a rifle, except it was strapped to her back instead of being in her hands.

“…St-Stay away from me…” Lucie stuttered, taking a few more steps back. Her mind was racing. She had only three options: attack, run or surrender. Her ego not deflating despite the less than pleasant predicament, the latter option did not even cross her mind for more than a millisecond. Furthermore, even someone as clueless as Lucie knew that attacking these two poachers was downright suicidal… but then again, more running didn’t sound very good to the pudgy girl either.

“Hand ‘em over and we will, don’t and we won’t, simple as that,” the sickly woman explained her relaxed stature becoming a bit more tense. Something as subtle as that escaped Lucie’s mind, but she was getting impatient. After a few panicky deep breaths, Lucie turned on her heels and ran as fast as her round body allowed her to, holding onto her pokémon for dear life, especially the fainted Peanut. Her oversized dress was making it hard to run too fast without tripping, which didn’t really help. In her panicked state, she hadn’t noticed the other pokémon that had followed the young man and the Vulpix.

The cadaverous young woman sighed deeply and looked at the muscular man in disgust, hand on her bony hip. “'S'it worth giving chase? Doubt her fat ass'll get anywhere fast,” she asked, clearly as disgusted as her look suggested. "Either way, your word's law."