[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 The path itself, while clearly visible, was also quite clearly not very well-traveled; it was originally made of cobblestone, but was in the latter stages of disintegration and now contained just as much dirt and weeds as it did stone.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]

“That’s for embarrassing me, arsehole,” the poacher said, venom in her voice, after shooting Ebony. She could barely contain her anger, shooting a glare at her Gurdurr, who promptly picked up the fallen pokémon, carrying them on his namesake. Thanking her boss’ Umbreon half-heartedly, mainly out of wounded pride and respect, she walked over to her scarred Scizor, whose demeanor seemed to have changed entirely. Gone was the silent bruiser attitude; now the Scizor looked ashamed and sheepish. With the poacher’s Heliolisk staring at Lucie so she wouldn’t run off, she got out a small knife and promptly jammed it into her Scizor’s chest, making it cry in agony. She slowly and painfully carved a new scar in the insectoid’s chest, enraged and completely uncaring. Since Scizor’s body was hard as steel, this definitely was a long, painful process that did tire out the poacher somewhat. Lucie was stunned to see this… she had been violent with her pokémon, mainly out of petty anger, but never had she tortured them like this.

“Now,” the bony woman said, aiming her cold glare at Lucie now. The pudgy girl froze in fear, sweat dripping down her forehead. Her dress was now three shades darker than it was that morning due to all the sweating… the same reason she was so thirsty (and starving). Panic once again set in her ignorant mind as the skeleton of a poacher drew her pistol once more, this time aiming at her. Lucie had no idea that this was a tranquiliser gun and thought this was a real lethal gun… it sure as hell looked like one. Overcome by fear, Lucie spun on her heels and only had time to take three steps before getting shot in the back of the neck. Yelping, she fell to the ground after losing her balance, still having the presence of mind to fall on her side as not to completely crush Peanut, as she was still holding him.

The poacher sneered at this pathetic display and forced her Scizor to get back up, the tortured pokémon having fallen down from the pain of its new scar. “You carry the fat lass,” she said, voice as cold as her stare, knowing very well that Lucie’s 230 pound frame could easily be carried by her Gurdurr alongside all the knocked out pokémon with a single arm, but she wanted to teach her Scizor a lesson, punish it for failing to protect her. The humanoid bug complied, Lucie’s large body rubbing against the fresh scar and causing a large amount of pain. While the Scizor had extremely powerful prehensile strength in its pincers, as all Scizors did, its master’s previous orders of not harming any of the targets forced it to use its pincers to lift up Lucie’s heavy frame, the pokémon’s lifting strength being much lesser than its prehensile strength. To make things worse, the Scizor knew it would get intensely scolded for its mistake. Its master may have had a meek appearance, but she was as terrifying as a demon when angered.

“Now let’s go, the boss is waiting.” And with that, the malnourished poacher led her team of pokémon (and her boss’ Umbreon) back to HQ, still angry and embarrassed at her humiliating display. In fact, her usually snowy white cheeks were a bit rosy due to her current state of mind. Knowing her boss, Lucie and her pokémon would probably be separated and stuck in cages for selling and/or ransom. “And you… I’ll make sure you pay for what you did,” she said to her Scizor, not even needing to look at it to make herself clear.

Scott’s pokémon would certainly get a grim surprise when the poacher would come back with a fallen Ebony and Lucie’s fallen team…