The air felt surprisingly crisp, and Francesco Rojas could watch his own breath rise into the air. His life had been an emotional rollercoaster, and he had nothing better to describe it with than a cheesy metaphor. He rarely had to deal with things that felt specifically like "feelings". Normally, he would down them away with some beer, or with something distracting. But out here in the crisp fall air around Mt. Carello, he had nothing to distract him.
Why had he walked down from his home in Arasam to get some fresh air? Why was a slow, pensive stroll the best idea for times like these? The thoughts were just confusing and mostly annoying.
He clasped his dark brown bomber jacket to himself to warm up a little. The tufts of what Cesc hoped was fake fur kept his neck warm. His scarf, made by his aunt, was green and gold, matching his gloves and woolly cap. His jeans, however, had probably been a poor choice; it was a bit cold for jeans without long johns.
"I have an idea." He said aloud to no one. "It's times like these that we can just buckle down and do some work."
He flipped out one of his pokeballs, summoning his Sneasel to the field.
"Let's work on an appeal for you." He smiled "The weather is in your favour, right?"
The Sneasel gave what appeared to be a salute, a trait he'd perhaps picked up from Cesc's more militant Zangoose.
"Let's get out there! Hmmm...Can you get a cloud of Icy Wind, then carve it into a shape with Fury Swipes...then Freeze it all with Ice Punch?"
The Wind blasted upwards, and as it fell towards the ground, Oberon the Sneasel set to work slashing away before punching the conflageration with a fist glowing with icy blue energy.
The result was a mess; an explosion of icy shards falling every which way. On top of that, the brief shape formed by the Icy Wind combo had no discernible shape whatsoever.
"Good start, buddy, but practice makes perfect." He pointed out a rock-face on the side of the mountain. "Let's use metal claw and work on carving shapes. Let's start with a triangle."
With a nod, the dark weasel Pokemon shot towards the rock. Cesc watched intently, his mind wonderfully devoid of all thoughts about girls.
"Why must you be so difficult?" Scott muttered as he hid within a large bush. The small Vulpix sitting at his side moved slightly and looked up at him, but she wasn't the one Scott was talking to.
Instead, the target of his words was a wild Lairon a few dozen feet in front of him. This Lairon was completely unaware Scott or his Vulpix were even there. And this was how Scott wanted it, because he had specifically lured this Lairon out so that he could photograph it with his Nikon D3100 digital camera. He had lured the Lairon our of a small cave nearby with an apple that had been grown on what was left of his fruit and berry farm. The apple had been placed between some rocks in such a way that someone looking towards the cave wouldn't see it, but someone inside the cave would. He didn't want some common bird to come steal the apple, after all.
But the Lairon seemed concerned about something regarding the apple, and although it was staring at the red fruit from just inside the cave it would not come any closer, and while it remained in the cave Scott could not get any decent pictures of it because of all the cave's shadows.
"Five more minutes, Ruby. Just five more minutes. If Lairon hasn't come out to get the apple by then, it's yours," Scott whispered to his impatient female Vulpix. "And then I suppose we should go on a patrol."
Ignoring the chills in the air, they waited motionless within the bush, but the Lairon never came out. "Tch......" Scott sighed. "Go get it then. I'll be heading back to the trail. We'll meet up at that big dead tree."
As his Vulpix gleefully dashed over to pick up the bait apple that was nearly the size of her head, Scott turned and crawled out of the bush. As a Ranger, he figured that if something happened to him Ruby needed to be able to work on her own without his support. Giving her the task of remembering where the dead tree down the trail was just happened to be a form of his mind training for her.
With his camera hanging from a strap around his neck and his Ranger jacket completely unzipped and hanging loosely around his shoulders, he climbed down a few rocks to a trail that led from the nearby town or Arasam up to a cliff about halfway up Mt. Carello. He didn't mind the chillness in the air at all, just seeing it as training for if he ever got sent into cold places on missions, and Ruby's internal flame kept her warm and helped to warm him up as well.
As he hiked down the trail to the dead tree, he saw a person wearing a brown jacket with a Sneasel not far off the path doing something with ice attacks. He stopped and watched them for a few moments but was completely unable to figure out what they were doing. "A Sneasel, huh? Never seen one before outside of the textbooks."
As he watched them, Ruby caught up to him with the giant apple clamped firmly in her jaws. She was barely even able to see around the fruit, it was so big.
Scott didn't see anything suspicious about what the Trainer and his Sneasel were doing even though he had no idea what exactly they were trying to do, but it did give him another opportunity for pictures. To avoid disturbing them and losing out on another photo opportunity, he crouched down behind a small gray boulder. The boulder didn't block him from view, but it was large enough to use as a substitute for the tripod that he'd never bought. "Now then, just keep on doing...... whatever it is you're doing......"
Ruby didn't bother to hide, instead sitting in front of the rock with the apple perched on her paws as she ripped pieces off of it.
The waters of the small tree-surrounded pond were a deep bright blue today, as clear as the cloudless sky which hung above the young trainer. She was kneeling on the ground, spreading out a red cloth against the grass as she readied lunch for her and her Pokemon. Not too far away from the busy girl was a dozing Nidorino, ears twitching every now and then, listening for the sound of any unwanted visitors. Not too far away in the forest, a Jigglypuff was floating from tree to tree, plucking a number of berries and dropping them to the ground, only to be caught by her partner Charmeleon, who gathered them into a pile, a cloth residing underneath the steadily growing pile.
Finishing their harvest, the pair returned from the forest, the Charmeleon pulling the makeshift bag of berries, while the pink furball pushed it from behind. As Tikal finished her preparations for their meal, she looked over to see her Pokemon returning, meal in hand.
"Great work you guys. Why don't you take a break? I'll let you know when lunch is ready" she smiled, ushering the pair off while she started to boil some water under a makeshift campfire, washing and cleaning some of the berries that her Pokemon had collected.
The group had departed from the closest town about two days ago, having stopped in for a routine checkup, and to check in on her mom. As an only child, she knew it was hard for her mother to think about her daughter out alone in the world, especially with nobody at home to keep her company. She had decided to send her Croconaw home to her, to help keep her company while her daughter ventured around the world. While the trainer couldn't help but miss her Pokemon, she knew that he would be okay. It was his home too, having been captured not too far from the place where she grew up.
"Alright guys, lunch is ready!" she called, a good fifteen minutes after her Pokemon had originally returned with the foraged berries. She had chopped them up, mixing them in with some rice, and a tiny bit of honey mixed in for taste. It wasn't much, as Tikal had only made sure to bring non perishable foods to prepare, but it would be enough to keep them going. She proceeded to spoon out four portions, setting three bowls down for her approaching Pokemon, and keeping the last for herself. With the difference in taste between each of her Pokemon, the girl had opted for using only Oran berries for the meal, with plans on preparing everything else that was gathered later on. The remaining berries could always be used to make remedies for ailments that they may encounter later on.
As the noon hour dragged on, and the pot of rice polished off, Tikal gathered the rest of the plates and the pot, bringing them to the water's edge to rinse off. Her Jigglypuff followed closely behind her, the small Pokemon wanting to help her Trainer clean up so that she could spend more time with her.
"Thanks. I promise once we finish cleaning up I'll play with you." Tikal smiled, her small pink Pokemon chirping with a happy "Jiggly!"
Returning to rinsing, the girl's mind drifted off, unable to help but think back to when she was a child, and both her parents were still around. It was then that she begun to sing quietly a song, one that she could not remember where she had heard it from. She still did not remember the meaning, only that the voice that had sung it before her was strangely soothing, yet haunting.
Be sorrowless
Don't bury your memories beside them
Feel carefree
And you may follow their sacred path, follow their pace.
A shiver is running down your spine
As they walk beside of you, but they can't be seen.
They take all harm away, like you are in mothers arm,
Watch every step you take and keep fortune apart.
They expect no word of grace to dignate all their care.
Just on the other side we'll recognize
Their loved faces as the familiar ones
Of our beloved dears, we've lost in life.
"My friend, you seem distracted."
Cesc watched as Oberon's concentration waned gradually. The Sneasel's ears kept twitching, and he kept shifting his eyes up to the ridge. His co-ordinator looked up to see a Vulpix, who appeared to be eating a rather juicy looking apple. He understood Oberon's unnerved state - a fire-type in the vicinity would be enough to spook an ice-type, especially given that they had no idea if this Vulpix was friend or foe.
"Don't worry about it, Oberon." Cesc smiled reassuringly, examining the shapes carved into the rocks. The first few had been done with great gusto, but the last few seemed quite sloppy, probably due to the Vulpix distraction.
However, a noise soon floated in to Cesc's ears, and he found himself equally distracted. Both he and Oberon's heads turned slowly towards the lake.
"Hmmm. Someone's singing." He looked down at the dark weasel, who looked excitedly back up at him. "Ok, fine. We'll go check it out."
The duo moved through the woods, the Sneasel visibly relaxing now that he seemed to be out of range of the fire-type. Unfortunately, they were heading up-wind, which made it a bit difficult to track the fire fox by smell. He'd just have to keep his ears peeled.
Before long, the music ended, and they found themselves on the receiving end of a fleet of fleeing Pokemon. Several Pidgey Sentret, and various other little critter Pokemon were hurtling back into the foliage and underbrush.
Cesc and Oberon watched them go with fascination, as they'd obvioulsy been drawn to the song just as the human and Sneasel had. Crossing the threshold of the trees into the clearing, the suave co-ordinator instantly spotted a young, vaguely familiar, girl and her pokemon around a campsite. Now, the remnant smells of cooking perked both Cesc and Oberon's noses, and they realized that they hadn't yet broken for lunch.
Not wanting to startle her too badly, as she hadn't seemed to have noticed him yet, Cesc let out some gentle applause, smiling broadly as he crossed over towards her, his Sneasel trotting faithfully beside him.
"Brava, Miss. What an interesting song that was! Would you mind telling me what it's called?"
Scott noticed the singing around the same time the trainer in front of him and his Sneasel did. "Hmm? A song?"
He and Ruby both listened silently for a moment before they noticed the Trainer/Sneasel pair walking off to find the song's source. "Come on, let's go too. And finish that apple already, before all the birds swarm you trying to get it." Ruby's giant apple was about two-thirds eaten now, but the little Vulpix was plenty capable of eating the fruit that had originally been about the size of her head.
He stood up and made sure his camera was fully strapped around his neck before carefully following the human/Pokemon pair he had just been sneaking photos of. As they walked through the woods, several small Pokemon scattered in every direction. Scott recognized many of them as common Pokemon such as Sentret or Pidgey, along with less common species such as Electrike and even a Glaceon. What caught his eyes, though, was not the Glaceon, but an Absol.
This Absol wasn't scattering randomly in every direction like all the others. Instead, it was sitting in front of a bush, staring at him.
Scott had heard all of the rumors about Absols appearing before a disaster, but he'd always believed they were just that- rumors. Regardless, all the hair on his arms and back suddenly stood on end. His gut told him something bad was coming. "Ruby...... keep an eye on that Absol. And seriously, finish the apple already." His small Vulpix quickly tore off one last piece of the apple, then bit through the apple core, snapping it in half and leaving the two halves behind as she followed Scott.
They soon came upon a clearing in the trees, where a small pond was. Next to the pond was a girl with a Jigglypuff, a Charmeleon, and some other kind of Pokemon Scott was not familiar with and couldn't ever recall seeing in the Ranger textbooks. Between him and the girl was the male Trainer with his Sneasel. The two people seemed to be talking, but Scott was too far away to hear what they were saying.
He didn't bother to get closer, instead looking over his shoulder in the direction he had seen the Absol. The large white dog-like Pokemon had moved up into a tree and was still staring at him. "...... that thing is freaking me out." Ruby growled softly, agreeing with him.
Sighing, he muttered to his Vulpix, "Well, at least it doesn't seem hostile, at least not yet," and then turned his back to the dark-type, leaning against a tree and looking into the clearing at the two Trainers and all their Pokemon. "Maybe we should introduce ourselves soon."
As the girl faded back into reality, the audience that had been listening to the melody retreating, she turned her head toward the rustling bush, her own Pokemon hearing the disturbance as well. The trainer's Charmeleon stepped back closer to his trainer's while the dozing Nidorino had stirred, shifting onto all fours to join his alerted companion. The Jigglypuff accompanying the girl also took note of the noise, but rather than rush to defend like the others, tugged on her trainer's shirt, before slipping behind one of her legs.
Standing upright, she soon saw that what had emerged from the bushes was not a threat, but instead a trainer and his Pokemon. Not a Pokemon she was familiar with though, so likely not one that would live in the forest. She saw how uneasy her Pokemon looked, and so after patting her Jigglypuff in reassurance, strode over toward the other two, crouching in between the two, and gently placing her hands on their heads.
"It's all right you two. No need to be aggressive." she told the pair with a quiet voice, offering them a reassuring smile. The pair seemed to understand, relinquishing their aggressive stance to return to what they were doing prior to the human's arrival.
"To be fair, I can't remember the name of the song... Names are always tricky for me." she smiled, before rubbing the back of her head with a small grin. "To be honest, I didn't think there was anyone else out here. Apart from the Pokemon anyways. Singing in front of people isn't a strong point, but if I do so in front of Pokemon... I feel much more relaxed. Maybe it's because I feel like they aren't judging me. But maybe that's just me being crazy."
Trying to laugh off that last thought, she lowered her hand, then extended it to offer a hand shake. "Anyways, my name is Tikal. If you and your friend here are hungry, I can probably cook up a little more lunch. I've got enough to make another batch." she smiled. They were a little ways off from the closest town, and if they were just passing through, she couldn't pass up the chance of offering some help.
Cesc looked over at the bristling Nidorino and Charmeleon, smiling and waving disarmingly. The duo looked pretty menacing, especially considering that none of his own pokemon had evolved past their first forms. Well, one of them, to his knowledge, couldn't evolve...so maybe that counted too?
"A pleasure to meet you Tikal. My name is Cesc, and this is my dear friend Oberon. You're lucky that your Pokemon don't judge you. I'm not so lucky." He glanced pointed down at Oberon, who shrugged dryly, finding something interesting to look at in the woods.
At the mention of food, Cesc's stomach rumbled a little. A demonic food-lust briefly crossed his eyes as he thought about food, but he'd packed a few snacks for himself and his Pokemon; after all, he lived in Arasam not too far away.
"Ah, thank you, but I've got a Contest coming up pretty soon." He grinned striking a ridiculous pose and rubbing his body in a stupidly 'sexy' way. The farce of the seductive pose caused his own Pokemon to snicker, as Cesc patted himself on the belly. "I've got to watch my figure, you know."
In truth, he'd placed himself on a diet for the time being, even though he was pretty sure he hadn't gained any weight. Nevertheless, they say the camera added ten pounds, and he wasn't about to get caught looking fat in his Aunt and Uncle's clothes on National TV.
"I do appreciate though. The offer as well as the song. I think it gave me a little inspiration for a future appeal. Mind if I join you?"
He sat down by the campsite, flipping out his pen and notebook as he penned down an quick idea.
"I was just doing some preparatory training down here in the woods; I live up in Arasam nearby." He waved an arm vaguely in the direction he'd come from, offhandedly marking its location. "You're welcome to join me for dinner in the city; I'll let my Aunt and Uncle know we have guests coming."
Meanwhile, Oberon sniffed at the air again, peering intently into the underbrush. His ears flattened against the back of his head, narrowing his eyes as he looked in the direction of the hidden Scott and Ruby.
Calmly, Cesc continued to gesticulate as though he were still prattling on about dinner, but his voice lowered to a soft volume, contrasting his cheerful appearance.
"Don't look now, Ms. Tikal, but I believe we've company."
"Eh? But how?"
Scott stared at the Sneasel, which seemed to be staring right back at him and Ruby. It didn't seem especially happy about them being in the woods nearby, either.
He had moved from one tree to a different tree, which had provided him a better view of the people and Pokemon in the clearing through a dense mess of bushes, vines, and other plants that had grown in a sunny spot next to the tree.
"I didn't think Sneasel's had a great sense of smell or hearing, and there's no way it can see me through all these plants......"
He quickly looked behind him to make sure there was nothing else that the Sneasel might be staring at, but the area of clear of anything worth staring at. The Absol, still staring at him, was well off to the side, so it couldn't be that......
He sighed. They had definitely been found by the Sneasel, but that didn't mean the two Trainers were aware of them yet.
He crouched down and spoke to Ruby. "You think we should go out and introduce ourselves then? I don't want to be on the receiving end of any of those Ice Shards if it attacks trying to get us out of here."
Ruby looked up at him and shook her head, before twitching her tails and looking at the Sneasel.
That happened to be her way of signaling that she wanted to attack.
"I'm not so sure you can take him on. He looks much stronger than you are. And what if they all gang up on you?"
She responded with a more energetic twitch of her tails.
Scott sighed again. "Well, I suppose you do have a type advantage and Disable does make things interesting...... and I suppose you do need more practice doing things without my help. Very well, you can go. But if they all gang up on you, I'm not helping."
Ruby gave a cute-looking grin and stepped out of the bushes into the Sneasel's sight, her fur raised slightly off of her shoulders as she looked for an easy victim.
Much to Oberon's surprise, a Vulpix appeared. He hadn't been expecting the fire fox, as he'd sensed a different presence all together. His sight, smell, and hearing were just fine for a predator, but he'd sensed something that felt more like a familar presence than anything.
Perhaps a fellow "dark" type. This little creature had only been a blip on his radar earlier, being a fire type, but it popped out of the underbrush, apparently ready for a challenge. Oberon blinked showing his confusion at Ruby's intrusion. It wasn't that she wasn't worth his time, no; he had worried over the fire-type's proximity earlier. He hadn't exactly been expecting her to come waltzing into his area, ready to fight.
Cesc, meanwhile, mentally tagged the Vulpix, trying to remember what it evolved in to. He already had a fire-type on his team, but perhaps the passionate side of him liked the idea of a second fire-type. If he recalled correctly, the Vulpix would evolve into a beautiful nine-tailed fox, and that wasn't exactly up his alley of cool. However, diversity was the spice of life, and perhaps he needed to branch out a bit.
His next contest would hopefully lead him into a battle with Troy, who liked big flashy moves. Cesc's cool, collected battling style probably wouldn't leave much of an impression, so perhaps going big with the fire-types was the way to go.
"Well, Oberon, let's see if we can catch the little guy." Oberon looked impertinantly back at his trainer, as if in correction, and Cesc bowed to the Vulpix in apology. "My apologies; the little lady." He briefly turned to Tikal, flashing a smile, "If you don't mind the interruption, I'll try to make this quick."
Oberon had the definite type disadvantage here, so the Ice-type remained stalwartly at Cesc's side. The co-ordinator drew a pokeball from his belt, striking a rather suave pose as he casually tossed the pokeball forward.
"Goose!"
Tybalt, his Zangoose, appeared on the field, eying the Vulpix readily, even as his friend Oberon kept staring absently away from the current battle. With a salute, the stalwart Cat-Ferret settled into a battle position, his eye trained on his enemy.
"This is a capture, Tybalt, so try to take it a little easy" He eyed the little Pokemon closely; she didn't seem all that tough, and the level difference would play in his favour. "Let's go with Quick Attack, try to wear it down gently."
With speed surprising for his species, the Zangoose streaked forward, aiming to catch Ruby off guard with the immediacy of the attack. His vicious claws gleamed through the air as he burst forward, leaving a series of glowing trails behind them as he cut through the air. The attack had clearly been polished to look absolutely stunning, despite being a simple one. After his last few encounters, Cesc had come to realize that real life battle was really nothing at all like co-ordinating. While his idol, Darryn Kellor, had been able to switch easily between both styles, Cesc had remained firmly rooted in the glitz and glamour of appeal style attacks. Nevertheless, he stubbornly believed that he could still combine the ruthless efficiency of battle with his own aesthetic. Such a style suited his Zangoose perfectly, and he even took a moment to admire Tybalt's synthesis of the two concepts.
Now to see if it connected.
But even that failed to completely capture Cesc's attention as he turned to his new acquaintance Tikal. "Hey, Tikal, when this is done, shall we have a match?"
Tikal watched with surprise as the small red fox popped out of the bushes, approaching Cesc's Pokemon, which he quickly recalled and sent out another in its place to battle. For such a cute little Pokemon, it sure was fierce. The change in Pokemon though made Tikal wonder what kind of Pokemon Oberon was supposed to be. The fact that his trainer had recalled him against a fire type likely meant some kind of disadvantage. And if it wasn't a forest or water dweller as she had assumed, that could leave it to be an Ice type. Which would make sense, as Ice Pokemon had a tendency to reside in the mountains.
"I suppose a bit of practice wouldn't hurt. I'm sure I'm not as experienced as you are though." the girl admitted, her hand touching her pocket in subconscious thought. Upon saying that, she couldn't help but remember that she already had one badge. Though whether it was from skill or luck, she could not decide. After all it hadnt been as if she was training for that battle... it just sort of happened.
"I wonder what'd happen if we actually trained for it?"
"Actually... I was thinking about going after another gym badge. I want to make sure I'm ready before challenging my next Gym Leader, so any help that you could give would be great."
She hoped that she wasn't asking too much of him. Perhaps he was some secretive trainer who didn't want to give away any secrets. Still it couldn't hurt to ask though, especially if she could learn some miraculous strategy that could help her turn the tide of the fight.
"Then again... I don't even know anything about the next gym... what if they use types all my Pokemon are weak to? Ugh... there I go again" she thought to herself, setting herself off into a cloud of worry. While she could put a lot of confidence and faith in her Pokemon, she found that she could not return the favour to herself, always doubting her judgement. And even when things somehow worked out despite her second guessing, it always had to be because of luck.
"What is that? I know I've seen it before...... but what was it called? Umm...... crap. It's Seviper's mortal enemy. Ahh...... whatever. I hate my memory," Scott muttered to himself inside the bush, frowning.
He had expected them to try and catch Ruby, and he figured that when she was defeated he'd just pop out of the bush and introduce himself, and recall his Vulpix. Then he suddenly had a good idea...... if Rangers wore a special reddish-colored jacket so they would be easily identifiable, why not give Ruby a jacket or collar of the same color so people knew she belonged to a Ranger? Why had nobody thought of this before?
He had also half expected the Sneasel to be switched out for something Ruby couldn't easily deal with, such as a Water or Rock type, but a Normal-type wasn't all that big of a problem.
Ruby could sense that Cesc and Tybalt wanted to go easy on her, and she took advantage of this. Being a cute female Vulpix, her Baby-Doll Eyes were unmatched in effectiveness. She forced herself to look as cute and weak as possible at Tybalt with the hope that it would slow the Zangoose down or even stop him completely.
She always worked under the assumption her attacks would not work, however, so she was ready to use the speed of her own Quick Attack to get out of Tybalt's way.
Neither Cesc nor Tybalt had seen such a move before, which somehow managed to pre-empty even Tybalt's Quick Attack! The Co-ordinator immediately flipped out his notebook, jotting down a note about Vulpix having a move that was beyond normal priority. Tybalt's attack visibly slowed, striking only a glancing blow as he moved to avoid the cute little creature.
"Hmmm. Interesting. The little lady weakened his attack strength, I think. We can swords dance to boost it back up...but we'll keep on the attack." Cesc leaned forward, eying the little creature intently. "Use Crush Claw, let's try and lower her defense."
Springing up into the air, Tybalt utilized the full elasticity of his body as he stretched out, his dangerous claws high in the air. Snapping his body forward, he aimed the heavy blow directly at the Vulpix. Cesc gulped for a second; perhaps he'd gone too hard this round?
"Wait, too much!"
He couldn't afford to use such a strong attack on such a frail creature - this wasn't a full on battle. These were absolutely nothing like the life-or-death struggles he'd consecutively faced over the past month. He had to hold back, especially if he wanted to capture and befriend the cute little fox. Tybalt adjust the aim of his attack at the last second, slamming his claw into the ground, causing a bit of a blast in the earth. The resultant dust cloud and debris scattered heavily all around, leaving visibility quite poor on the field.
Turning back to Tikal, to continue his conversation, despite the battle, he let out a small smile.
"Absolutely. You train for your gym match, and I train for the contest, all in one fell swoop! Sounds great! Both use double batttles, so we'll have one of those...let me just wrap this up...somehow."
Cesc ran through Tybalt's repertoire in his mind, smiling as he settled on just the move. He'd wait for Vulpix's counter attack, then implement the new strategy.
Ruby quickly analyzed her opponent as best as she could while hiding within the dust cloud. Zangoose were far bigger than even the largest Vulpix, but Tybalt's moves probably centered on the use of his giant claws, so if she could stay out of range of those claws...... but then he had a powerful Quick Attack too, so range wasn't going to be of all that much help in the end.
But then, was that something he and his trainer expected her to do? Wouldn't everyone take advantage of their ranged attacks on a non-ranged opponent? She always believed that an unexpected attack gave a far greater advantage than anything the opponent expected, so her first attack of the battle was naturally something someone wouldn't expect something as small as her to do.
Ruby darted forwards towards Tybalt in a zig-zag pattern using Quick Attack. However, her target was not Tybalt, but instead the ground right behind him. She made her attack look like it was against Tybalt however, and only about a second before she would have made contact with him she changed direction, instead darting around him to end up behind him.
Next, she prepared an Ember attack to hit him from behind, gambling that Tybalt would be surprised enough to not turn around in time.
Scott wasn't sure it was going to work. The plan was good, but Ruby's Ember was weak. Even if the attack connected with her Zangoose foe, there wasn't really anything stopping him from just turning around and countering anyway, as it just wasn't strong enough to knock him off balance. He had to give her credit for thinking up an attack like this, though.
He quickly cast a glance over his shoulder. The Absol had moved down from the tree and was much closer to him now, watching Ruby from a spot between two bushes. The dark-type wasn't hidden from view in the slightest, almost as if it wanted to be noticed.
Tybalt braced himself for the oncoming attack. To his surprise, the speeding Vulpix never landed the blow. He looked around for a moment before letting out a screech.
"Tybalt, behind you!" Cesc offered helpfully as the Ember singed his Pokemon's haunches. The Zangoose, looking irritated, had the Vulpix in his range finally.
"Quick Attack and Pursuit."
At the close range, Tybalt's Quick Attack would be very, very difficult to avoid. Pursuit, in turn, would either serve as the second hit in the one-two, or would follow up if Ruby managed to dodge.
Cesc grinned as he settled into the groove. The Vulpix had lowered Tybalt's attack, which allowed him to attack with impunity. With little fear of knocking his opponent out, Tybalt wasn't holding back.
At his side, though, Oberon visibly tensed. Cesc followed the gaze of his weasel friend to an Absol that had made himself quite visible between two bushes. He took a soft step back at the sight of the rare creature. Superstition or not, Absol were harbingers of disaster...which meant he needed to focus his attention on capturing the incredibly cool creature. With two pokemon, that meant he probably had to knock out the Vulpix in order to focus both of his Pokemon on the tougher Absol.
Reaching down, he patted Oberon on the back of the head, signalling him to attack. Without so much as a warning, Oberon slashed the air, sending out a flurry of ice spikes. The Ice Shard lanced through the air, aiming as a warning shot at the ground in front of the encroaching dark type.
"Tikal, our battle might have to wait just a sec. Check out that Absol."
Tikal had watched the battle between the Zangoose and Vulpix press on, and while it seemed less like a serious battle (and more of a lighthearted competition to give the young fox Pokemon something to do), it was worth watching for the fledgling trainer. Her attention shifted however, as Cesc pointed out the now-noticeable Absol that had emerged from the bushes. It simply stood there, staring at the two as if wanted them to notice it.
She had never seen a wild Absol before, the stories she had read telling of how these creatures would appear before a great disaster. While the local townspeople would always blame the mysterious Pokemon as the source of problems, the hero would always discover that the Absol was never the cause, rather only appearing to warn of troubles. Even wild Pokemon were apparently fearful of the Dark-type, which added more to the mystery around them.
As the Absol took a step forward, Oberon was quick to fire a warning shot using Ice Shard, causing it to pause in its tracks. It didn't seem ready to retreat however, which made the girl wonder if the reason it was here was because there was something wrong. It didn't take long for her own Pokemon to notice the presence of the Absol, both her Charmeleon and Nidorino leaping to attention at her side, in case it were to attack their trainer. Even her Jigglypuff, which was normally quiet and shy, joined the rest of her team.
"Wait..." she told them, looking back at the Absol, who stared at them in silence. She then turned to Cesc, and the still combating Pokemon. "What if it's here to warn us about something? They're supposed to appear when something bad's about to happen after all." she suggested. With that, she turned her attention to the Pokemon once more.
"Absol... is something bad going to happen?"
As Oberon's Ice Shard hit the ground in front of her, the Absol stopped. She stared at Tikal and at Ruby, but made no attempt to respond or to come any closer, instead sitting down.
Seeing the Absol again was enough to distract Ruby, taking away all of the already minimal possibility of evading Tybalt's approaching Quick Attack. The moment she turned to growl at the Absol, the Quick Attack connected with her shoulder, knocking her off her feet and sending the petite Vulpix flying backwards a few feet with a surprised cry. She noticed Tybalt approaching with another attack and tried to roll to the side to avoid it, but was still hit with a glancing blow on her side by the Zangoose's Pursuit.
By this point she could only take one more attack before she wouldn't be able to continue, and she hadn't even managed to use her favorite move yet.
She decided to back off for a moment, and used Quick Attack on a rock near the small lake to try and get away from Tybalt long enough to come up with a new strategy.
Scott sighed. Ruby was having problems, as expected considering she was fighting someone three times her level. "Should probably make her give up soon so she doesn't get seriously hurt...... I'll just wait and see what the next move is first."
He shivered slightly when the Absol turned and looked right at his hiding spot inside the bush.
"Tybalt, Swords Dance."
With the Vulpix putting some distance between herself and the much bigger Zangoose, Cesc took the opportunity to boost his partner's attack back up to take on the Absol. At the same time, this wasn't an official match, and Cesc had never liked to pass up opportunities to gain the upper hand. Sure, there were rules and honour, but Cesc had been working on keeping a sense of pragmatism to his battles. He'd learned that being flashy all of the time accounted for very little in anything outside of contests.
And this was no Contest Battle.
"Oberon. Feint Attack on Vulpix."
Without warning, Oberon flash-stepped behind the Vulpix on her rock, utilizing his own speed to his advantage. Both of his own claws were glowing with vicious dark energy, which he brought down with full force towards his opponent's back. He hadn't been on the receiving end of the Baby Doll Eyes, so his attack remained just fine. For a moment, Cesc felt a little dirty, resorting to such an underhanded trick on such a small opponent, but he wanted to focus his attentions on the Absol. For the time being, he'd have to eschew etiquette and focus on getting the job done.
"Well, if it's warning us about something," Cesc placed a pensive finger to his chin, adopting the pose in an attempt to buy himself more time to think about what the Disaster Pokemon's presence could mean, "well, we're probably going to die a horrible, flaming death very shortly." The tension in the air felt quite palpable, even with the battle stirring things up. Tikal and her entire team had tensed, and Cesc felt himself clenching up a little as well.
He watched the Absol focus its attention on a nearby bush, and drew his eyes to meet the point of her gaze. From Cesc's perspective, he saw nothing but an ordinary bush, but it seemed to have drawn the attention of the regal beast. At the same time, there was the possibility that the Absol was merely showing indifference to Oberon's warning shot. Nevertheless, it had ceased its advance, and was sitting patiently. Perhaps it was waiting for the battle to be over?
"Maybe Absol and Vulpix were just drawn here by your singing? They're certainly bolder than the Pokemon that bravely ran away. Maybe they just wanted more singing?" He shrugged, flashing a quick, albeit nervous grin over at Tikal.
Tybalt, eyeing Absol warily, moved closer to his trainer, taking a hunched, battle ready stance. His claws held out to either side in a very...Wolverine-like gesture. His nape bristled briefly as he stared down the Disaster Pokemon. Even though it had remained placid and still, Tybalt could not help but feel unsettled by its presence as well.
With her eyes centered on Tybalt, Ruby never knew what hit her. The Faint Attack could effectively be called a critical hit, as she had been entirely unprepared for it. She collapsed on the rock and slowly slid forwards off of it to the ground.
For a moment Scott wondered if he could sneak around the clearing and recall Ruby while everyone was focused on the Absol, but then he decided he might as well stop just avoiding everybody and actually say hello, and pray to Arceus that when he revealed himself from the bush the Absol wouldn't attack him.
He crawled backwards out of the bush and the stood up, sighed at how weak his team was and then stepped into the clearing. He shot a quick glance at the female Absol, who was staring intently at him once again, before saying to Cesc, "That was very impressive, the way you just beat Ruby. Your Pokemon are quite well-trained. She didn't even manage to use her favorite attack."
He pulled a Luxury Ball out of his bag and recalled Ruby into it so she could rest before introducing himself to Cesc and Tikal. "My name is Scott, and as you can see I'm a Ranger. Well, a Ranger-in-training, but whatever...... pleased to meet you."
"Hello Scott" Cesc looked confused as the boy emerged from the underbrush. Someone had been spying on them, and evidently owned the Vulpix. It felt quite odd that a trainer would just let his Pokemon attack people at random.
"Uh...I'm Cesc, and this is...Tikal." He really couldn't help the confusion that came over him, especially considering that he was about to engage in battle with the Absol. But, if Scott had recalled the Vulpix, maybe the Absol was his too.
"I suppose, that's your Absol then too, right? Would you mind recalling her? She's kinda skeeving us out." He looked to Tikal. "I mean, Tikal asked her a question, and she just stared at us."
Cesc folded his arms as Tybalt and Oberon returned to his side, both of them sizing Scott up. He looked over to Tikal, flashing a smile.
"Guess our practice match will have to wait for a little bit...unless Scott wants to play referee." He looked back at the young ranger, realizing that his penchant for grabbing random people to ref his matches had just resurfaced. "What brings you to this part of the woods?"
In the off chance that the young, earnest looking guy, was in fact an enemy, Cesc was ready to spring back into action, and he kept shooting Tikal significant glances, trying to telepathically get her on her guard in case this was an enemy too. Though, it seemed from the way that that her Nidorino bristled and her Jigglypuff tensed, he didn't really have to worry.
Looking from Cesc to the new face, Tikal scratched her head. How long had this other person been watching them? Though as he commented about the Absol being his 'as well', the girl suddenly realized that the Vulpix had not been a wild Pokemon, but had belonged to their new visitor instead. Her suspicions were confirmed as the Vulpix was recalled into a Luxury Ball, though the Absol remained out, watching them still. Somehow she couldn't help but think that the Absol didn't belong to him, or else it probably would have been recalled by now.
"...Nice to meet you then Scott. As Cesc said, my name is Tikal." the girl finally spoke, offering him a smile as she began to gesture to her three Pokemon as she began to introduce them in order, which eased in their stances slightly. "These are my Pokemon: Charmeleon, Jigglypuff, and Nidorino." With that she looked over at Cesc, who had mentioned about postponing the match unless their new guest wanted to referee the match. As much as she wanted to go along with the original plan, she wanted to be sure of the intentions of their wild visitor as well.
"Perhaps we could practice after we figure out what the Absol wants, as I don't think it belongs to Scott." Tikal noted, nodding to the Dark Pokemon once more. She couldn't understand why she felt so uneasy around it, as she was skeptical about the whisperings of it having some sort of connection to disasters being caused. Still, she wanted to know why it came, and why it had been watching them for so long.
"You are correct, Tikal. She isn't mine. She's been following me and watching me since I came over here after I heard you singing, and I have no idea what she wants. She might want a battle, or food, or something else, or maybe she's just curious." He cast a quck glance over at the Absol, whose gaze had shifted to Tybalt for some reason.
Scott made a mental note that Tikal's third Pokemon was called a Nidorino, although he doubted he'd remember that for more than a day or two.
"As for what brings me to this part of Furoh...... well, nothing really. I'm just exploring and doing some Ranger patrols. I haven't been on some mountains like this in at least ten years, and that was way back in Sinnoh too."
He paused for a moment. "You've already met Ruby, my Vulpix. It was her idea to start a fight, by the way, not mine. I do have two other Pokemon, a pair of Eevees named Ebony and Scarlet, but I'd rather not bring them out right now. They're very young and probably exhausted from some training earlier."
Scott sat down, pressing his back against a tree. "Now then, what was that you said about getting a referee?"
As he asked Cesc that, he let Ruby back out of her Luxury Ball. The small Vulpix wobbled and fell down on his lap, but at least she was awake. He reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of Oran berries and a Leppa berry to help restore her health and energy in case she was needed again later.
"Good idea, Tikal. I'm sorry we have to postpone our match." Cesc sighed, eying the Absol once more. It only further alarmed him that it wasn't a companion of the newcomer. "Though, everyone seems intent on watching us today," he looked pointedly at the Absol, Scott, and Ruby "I wish we could've given them a little show."
Cesc watched as Scott let his VUlpix back out, but wasn't quite sure where to direct his attention.
"Well, we'll wait on the match, Scott. Tikal's right; we need to figure out what this Absol wants first. I'm getting a little nervous with her just hanging around like that, you know? Flaming, horrible death and all that when a Disaster Pokemon's nearby.
Not recalling Tybalt or Oberon, he stepped forward. His two Pokemon tensed, moving to join him, but his outstretched hands bade them stay back.
"Hello Absol." He said nervously, approaching the creature. Both of his Pokemon were quite quick; they would intervene if the Absol decided to attack him. Also since Absol ignored Tikal's earlier remarks, he even wondered what chances he had of communicating with the Pokemon. "Is there something we can do for you?"
The Absol looked at Cesc for a moment, before turning around and trotting at a somewhat fast speed out of the clearing and into the nearby forest, disappearing from sight through some thick bushes.
Scott narrowed his eyes, but remained silent. Perhaps the Absol had just been curious, or perhaps it had been seeking a battle but didn't want to make the opening move, hoping one of them would attack first. Maybe she knew about all the rumors humans spread amongst themselves about Absols appearing before disasters and was simply trying to scare them for fun. He had a feeling it was something else, though.
He stroked the tuft of fur on the back of Ruby's head as she ate her berries and leaned back against the tree as he tried to think of a good reason why an Absol would want anything to do with them. Was she actually trying to warn them of an impending disaster? I think she would have been more vocal if something was going to happen, or at least she would have tried harder......but why else would she be bothering us? I doubt the rumors about an Absol showing up before a disaster are anything more than just rumors anyway......
Then a sudden thought occurred to him.
Maybe she wanted them to follow her somewhere?
But she had just disappeared from their view, and his Pokemon had not yet been trained for any kind of tracking. He doubted any of Tikal's or Cesc's Pokemon were able to follow her either, so he didn't voice his thought just yet. Instead, he merely asked the others, "Well, she left...... what are you going to do now?"
Tikal watched as the Absol looked at her new companion, before turning and running off into the undergrowth of the forest, leaving the group of three to wonder what it was the Pokemon had wanted. While the others were a little confused about the motives of the Dark type, Tikal couldn't help but think that the Absol had wanted them to follow. Perhaps the haste it had taken off in was just a matter of how grievous the situation was that it wanted to lead them to. Of course, she still couldn't be fully sure, but it wouldn't hurt to follow it for curiousity's sake.
With that, the girl looked down at her trio of Pokemon, giving them a nod and looking back at their temporary resting grounds. The three set off to work, Charmeleon grabbing the dishes and stacking them together, Jigglypuff cleaning off the blanket that served to be their eating space, and Nidorino rolling the mat up with his horn. The speed in which the three cleaned up showed the practice that had gone through the manuever, their trainer soon joining them as she stacked the different belongings into a fairly large knapsack, tossing it over her shoulder. Belongings now cleaned up, she pulled out two Pokeballs, recalling the Charmeleon and Jigglypuff, leaving her Nidorino free of its confines.
"I think we should follow it. I'm certain it came here for something more than just listening in." Tikal replied, looking at the pair that she had grouped up with. "Nidorino's hearing should help us catch up to the Absol, so let's not keep it waiting." With that, she flashed them a small smile, before heading into the bush, her Poison Pokemon in tow.
Cesc's question had been met with a poignant look before the Absol made an abrupt exit. If that didn't feel like communication, then Cesc didn't know what did.
"So much for our battle." Cesc shrugged. "Well, Scott. It's usually best to do what the lady says, right?"
Between Nidorino's hearing, and perhaps Oberon's sense of smell, the two would be able to track after the Absol.
"Tybalt, return" The Zangoose disappeared into his Pokeball. As he moved over to Scott and Ruby, he patted the boy on the shoulder in a friendly manner, urging him to stand up and follow.
"What's the worst that could happen. Flaming-Disaster-Catastrophe-of-Doom? That's like a daily occurence for us adventuring types, am I right?" He laughed heartily as he and Oberon broke into a trot after Tikal.
"Hey, Tikal. Your Pokemon are very well trained. Maybe after our battle, you'd share some of your training techniques with me? I've got a rather unruly Pokemon that I can't seem to get to listen to me half of the time."
His hand unconsciously brushed over the Pokeball for Bardolph, his Scyther. Since the incident in Petropolis, it felt like he'd started over at square one again with the stubborn bug. He'd gotten to the point where Bardolph would listen to his commands, but now it seemed like all of that training had been lost.
"You know" he chatted animatedly "I only moved to Arasam a little while ago. I don't know this area that well at all. Scott, you're a ranger-type. What can you tell us about this area?"
So a Nidorino has good hearing...... another nice thing to try and remember. Maybe I should get one. I should definitely be on the lookout for a good bird too...... Staraptor seems to be the general bird for a Ranger, maybe there's one around here I can use...... or maybe I should keep my parent's Braviary with me.
Scott's thoughts were interrupted by Cesc's question. "Eh? Well, I honestly can't tell you much...... this is my first time in this area, and my first time in mountains in quite a few years. I came up here to try and learn the area myself. The people at Arasam's Ranger Station didn't even know I was coming when I checked in with them early this morning."
He quickly mulled over what he had learned in the basic Ranger courses. "Well, I can tell you a bit about what the Pokemon in this kind of region is like...... the training said that mountain Pokemon tended to be a bit less aggressive, less territorial, and more likely to just try and avoid you than Pokemon living in other areas like forests, and they also tend to be more agile and with a better sense of balance because of their need to handle rough terrain on a daily basis. The rough, open terrain also means that they have more of an ability to see any threats as they approach, so their sense of sight tends to be quite good, but their sense of hearing is rather lacking compared to a forest Pokemon because they rely on their sight so much. Most of the Pokemon in these areas are either Rock, Ground, or Flying types...... and I think someone mentioned somewhere that there were more dragons in mountains too. And there are more Ice types as well on the really tall mountains."
He briefly thought back to the Glaceon he had seen. He almost wished he had made an attempt to catch it, since he doubted he'd see one ever again.
Scott paused, thinking. "I think that's about it. There are exceptions, obviously, such as Rhyhorn's terrible sense of sight. I sure hope we don't run into a dragon......"
He stared off in the direction the Absol had gone before starting to follow Tikal and Cesc while carrying Ruby in his arms.
"Oh, by the way...... if either of you happen to see a Staraptor, or a Staravia, please do tell me. Oh, and if you see a Glaceon, tell me about that too, because I saw one earlier and I think ignoring it was a bad idea since they're so rare."
"Huh. Sounds like the Rangers aren't that organized." Cesc shrugged as he jogged alongside Scott and Tikal. Or, he's just someone underfoot in their group. He recalled, back in his teenage days back home, running around with his gang of friends. While they were all rapscallions, they made sure that each member felt like family. Each kid was listened to, and was allowed to give input to group decisions...maybe professional organizations were much colder than that. It didn't quite sit right with him.
Cesc continued to listen intently as Scott listed off the qualities of Pokemon who lived on wooded mountainsides. It seemed like useful information, and from the qualities he listed. He liked agile Pokemon with a good sense of balance. He noted that his team of Chimchar, Sneasel, Scyther, and Zangoose definitely represented this.
Perhaps he'd find a Pokemon he liked on the way? What better way to come up with a new appeal and new combinations? He'd have a new partner, and more possibilities would spring into the open.
"Dragon?" An eyebrow raised at the thought. He had yet to see a Dragon in any of the appeal footage he'd come across. Rare and powerful creatures that were inherently majestic? Mythical beasts that just reeked coolness?
Cesc needed to catch and train a dragon.
"Well, I hope we do." The tanned man grinned cheekily at Scott. "And if we come across one...dibs! Any Glaceon, Staraptor, any of the rest? All yours."
OOC- Cave time soon. Maybe. If we don't get sidetracked somewhere. I don't really have much of a plan for when that happens anymore.
______________________________________________
Scott sighed. "Then again, just about any Glaceon or Staraptor out there would smash my team if I tried to fight it, so no real hurry...... and don't base all the Rangers off of me, I'm not too terribly organized nor am I real good at paying attention to boring classes. Although, the whole Ranger network here isn't nearly as good as it is in places like Almia, Oblivia, or the Sevii Islands. Man, I've heard those island Rangers even get their own boats and sometimes even helicopters! That would be so much fun. I think that each of the seven Sevii Islands has at least one helicopter, yet here in Furoh I don't think we have a single one. It's kind of sad how little funding we get."
But wait...... wasn't there something in the news a few days ago about some five million dollars given to the Rangers? Where did all that money go? Scott pushed the thought away, unwilling to want to think about things like that at a time like this.
Up ahead, the Absol was visible watching them between two giant oak trees. As she watched the three humans and their Pokemon approach her, she turned around and darted away again, heading down the mountain.
"Looks like she really does want us to follow her. Maybe one of her babies is stuck somewhere and she wants us to help?"
Cesc worked fairly quickly, despite a few fumbles here and there. He worked to disinfect the cuts and patch them up with bandages, but his first aid was quite limited. He wasn't sure what else he could do. Finding a pokeball that hopefully belonged to the Pawniard nearby, Cesc activated the recall beam so that the Pokemon could at least rest within, before clipping it back to the Ranger's belt. It felt odd, handling someone else's Pokemon with the person right in front of him...but it was a necessity.
"Makes sense." Cesc stood, wiping his brow as he looked around the room. He double checked the list that Scott made, so the deduction was simple.
"Well then, if he's still here, then it means they got the journal; otherwise they wouldn't have knocked him out, or they would still be here looking for it." He looked pityingly at the man on the ground, too worried that moving him would do nothing more but open up some of the patched wounds.
"45 minutes, mierda", Cesc sighed. If it took them 45 minutes, the poachers would most likely already have arrived at the cave, considering it looked like tha man had been out for awhile. Cesc wasn't the most intelligent kid on the block, but he'd ready enough to have a semi-decent grasp on deduction.
"So here's the rub: We stay here, make sure this man is evacuated safely. If it takes that long, though, our poacher friends will most likely get away, unless they're held up at this 'elemental stone cave'."
He looked over at the Absol, pondering for a moment if the Pokemon had come from aforementioned cave. He whipped out his "Co-Ordinator In You" book, flipping to the handy section on which Pokemon evolved with Elemental Stones, and where said stones were often found. Absol, as he fingered down the list, was not on that list. It didn't make sense to him that the Disaster Pokemon had come from the cave.
Cesc never liked having leadership thrust on him, especially not in situations like these. He gathered up the remaining first aid supplies, neatly bundling them one of the satchels nearby and slinging it over his shoulder. He wasn't too worried about stealing, especially if the supplies came in handy later.
"Scott, Tikal." He looked to them, speaking loud enough so both could hear: "What should we do now?"
"Umm...... I'm not quite sure," Scott said, looking around and rummaging through the papers scattered all over the floor and furniture. "It doesn't look like there's a map anywhere, so finding this cave will be quite difficult, especially considering no one else has found it before now. I don't really have the slightest clue where to look...... it could even be on the far side of the mountain, for all we know."
He returned Ruby to her Luxury Ball, seeing as she was starting to poke at the fainted Pawniard that belonged to the unconscious Ranger, and quickly looked outside. "That Absol is still here...... I wonder if there is something else she wants? I hope she isn't hoping for some kind of reward for bringing us here."
For now, he ignored the Absol and searched through the rest of the building. In addition to the kitchen and the central area where the Ranger and his Pawniard currently were, there were two small bedrooms for whomever lived at the station (one which wasn't currently used, but still seemed to have been torn up anyway), a small bathroom bathroom between the bedrooms, and a third room which was torn up so badly Scott couldn't really tell what it was. It seemed to have been some kind of office, but none of the furniture inside was in a single piece anymore. A laptop, or at least the remains of a laptop, sat on the floor in a corner of the room and the two halves of a desk were near the door. There was even more paper scattered around, along with several small photos.
As he picked up some of the photos, he noticed a tuft of gray hair sitting on the floor. "That looks like Mightyena hair...... great...... it must have been cut off by the Pawniard during the fight." He placed the hair on what was left of a chair, knowing it might be useful for tracking the poachers by scent of Cesc or Tikal had a Pokemon capable of doing so.
The pictures were all of various Pokemon, and there were at least four dozen of them. Some of them appeared to be inside a cave with the photo taken from outside the cave, others were in a forest, and still others were on rocky cliffs. Among the Pokemon shown were a Gabite, a Rhydon, a Lucario, a female Ninetales, the male Glaceon he'd seen before...... and the female Absol that had led them here. There were multiple pictures in multiple different locations of each Pokemon. In addition, the Ninetales was shown in two photos with two little Vulpixs and the Absol had a pair of much smaller Absols and a Gible with it in another photo. Many of the photos had very poor lighting or other obvious flaws, as if taken in a hurry by someone who didn't know much about cameras.
There were also a few photos of some other, more common Pokemon in picturesque environments. These photos didn't really fit in with all the others.
He had a feeling the pictures were important, but he wasn't quite sure why. "What are all of these for......? I didn't think Arasam had any Rangers who did photography, so he must have taken these for a reason...... but...... why......?"
At the bottom of the pile of photos, he found one that especially stuck out. It appeared to have been taken inside a dark cave, as all the edges of the photo were pitch-black. The center of the photo contained a flashlight shining on about a dozen stones, each with different colors. Scott recognized two of the stones as Fire Stones. Behind the stones was the cave wall and another photo, which was of a much larger crystalline rock that almost looked like it was made of ice. "Huh. So that much be the cave...... I wonder what that big crystal rock is."
Scott took a brief look at the papers on the floor but didn't see anything of interest, as they seemed to be mostly related to running the Ranger Station, so he picked up as many of the photos as he could carry along with the tuft of gray fur and carried them out of the room to a table in the central area of the station, near where Cesc and the injured Ranger were. "You might want to look at these...... they're kinda interesting. I get the feeling they're important somehow. There's one that seems to be the inside of that elemental stone cave too," He said, pointing at the picture of all the stones. "And I found a little bit of fur too. Do you have any Pokemon that can track something by scent?"
Cesc watched Scott move around the wrecked place curiously. Considering everything that had gone on recently in his life, he took a moment to consider the fact that the young Ranger wasn't necessarily trustworthy. He didn't like the thought, of course, but considering the people he'd met in the past few months, he wasn't even entirely sure.
As if on cue, the Scott in question returned to the room with some photographs, which he wasted no time spreading on the desk for Cesc to examine. Cesc peered at them closely, noting that the pictures weren't exactly set up; they seemed more like snapshots. It seemed that the Ranger had been researching or documenting something, hence the photographs. It would also explain that lack of corresponding notes.
A camera seemed like a brilliant thing to carry around. He'd have to consider that on his next excursion.
With a waterproof baggie, Cesc added with a surly mental roll of his eyes. After all, his primary mode of transportation seemed deadset on dumping him in rather unsavory places; bodies of water not excluded.
Continuing to mull, Cesc gently pushed the photos back towards Scott while he plastered his pensive face back on. If everything else was an evolution stone, it stood to sense that the big crystal rock was also one. Perhaps it was one that hadn't been broken down into smaller, more portable pieces yet. It would stand to sense that in its current size, it would most likely yield some sort of fortune.
As for the Pokemon, he noted no real correlation between any of them. Gabite was a Dragon Pokemon that evolved by level, Rhydon needed a special item, Lucario evolved from Riolu once sufficiently happy, Ninetales was a Vulpix that ate a Fire Stone, and Absol didn't evolve. He also had no idea how a Glaceon came from Eevee. Maybe there was an ice stone? He mentally lined them up by type, and again, there seemed to be little correlation.
"Well, the question still remains, should we stay or should we go?" Cesc folded his arms across his chest, indicating the man on the floor with a nod. "I say we go, but I don't want to leave this man here unconscious in a compromised location with no protection."
He looked at the tuft of fur in Scott's hand, dropping a pair of Pokeballs to the floor, summoning his Sneasel and Zangoose once more.
"Oberon and Tybalt are both hunters. I know they rely more on their sight and hearing, but I imagine their senses of smell are also pretty good too."
They both looked up at Cesc, then over at the tuft of fur in Scott's hands. Oberon sniffed it disdainfully, then shook his head, crossing his claws across his arms in a move that almost completely mimicked Cesc's action earlier. His Zangoose, however, sniffed the tuft of fur, and looked out the door. He bolted out the door, but stopped just outside the entrance, looking confused as he sniffed at the air. Either the smell had simply wafted off, or the Mightyena had been recalled to its Pokeball.
"Maybe your Vulpix, being somewhat canine, would have a better sense of smell?"
A small smile popped onto Cesc's handsome features as the little Eevee appeared in the room. Ebony, who if Cesc was any judge, was probably being prepped to evolve into an Umbreon. He had looked through the so called "Eeveelutions" before, and had considered catching an Eevee for contest training. While heavily leaning towards Vaporeon or Espeon, he wasn't sure he wanted to continue to add to his team immediately; he had his hands full enough with the team he had now.
While Cesc mulled the thoughts over in his head, Ebony had accomplished precisely what Tybalt had, and now they were back at square one. His momentary reprieve of planning out his career future snapped back to the grim reality that there was a man potentially dying on the floor near by him, and a group of poachers was about to defile an area of wonder and beauty.
Well, perhaps it wasn't that dramatic, but it certainly felt that way.
He flipped out his P*DA and tapped out a quick e-mail to Branwys.
Heroes? I don't know about that......, Scott thought to himself. He let the word sink in for a moment and decided he didn't really care for it much, but he didn't say anything to Cesc about it.
Instead, he looked at the Absol, who looked at him, then back at Cesc, before turning and dashing off.
"Well, it looks like she knows the way. Lets go then," he said to Cesc.
Maybe I should have notified Command about this cave...... but they probably couldn't help much. And I'm already afraid that someone up above might be a little corrupt. How did the poachers learn about that journal anyway?
He pushed the thought away and ran after Cesc and the Absol, leaving Tikal behind. He'd half expected the wild Dark-type to lead them up the mountain towards the top, but instead she led them farther down, into a several square mile section of dense oak forest. The trees in this area were quite wide but not especially tall, and their leaves were so thick that the ground beneath them was almost dark, with just enough light making its way through for someone to be able to see. The area had obviously never been touched by human development, but at the same time there were no signs of poachers coming through either.
But then suddenly the Absol stopped, and darted sideways into a bush.
"Wait, what? What is she...... oh," Scott started to say, before realizing that the Absol was hiding. Of course, it had been so sudden that he and Cesc couldn't hide themselves before a middle-aged woman stepped out from behind a tree in front of them and saw them. She was as surprised to see them as they were to see her...... and not in a good way.
"Another Ranger?!?! And someone else too...... well, I'll stop your snooping right here. We can't allow you to interfere with our operation. The boss will be happy to get some extra Pokemon too!"
The woman reached towards her belt, and Scott noticed that she was carrying quite a few items...... a machete, pepper spray, and a handgun. But she reached for a set of Pokeballs, sending out four different Pokemon- a Zorua, a Murkrow, an Electrike, and last but not least a Houndoom.
Scott stiffened. This was bad...... but at least Cesc was there to help. He had a feeling that his poacher woman would concentrate on him at first, just because he was a Ranger...... so hopefully Cesc would be able to get the upper hand unnoticed.
He let Ruby out of her Luxury Ball, and after a moment of hesitating let out both Ebony and Scarlet as well. "Well, I guess this means one fewer poacher to deal with at the cave......"
Jogging after the Disaster Pokemon, Cesc felt the feeling of dread rising in his gut once more. He had used the word heroes, but he was anything but that. A part of him hoped that Scott would prove to be an incredible trainer with an incredible display of Pokemon. Ruby had seemed pretty strong...maybe? He hadn't gotten to see a full display of her abilities and she was probably still recovering from the earlier match.
And sure enough, while Cesc was lost in thought, he failed to see the Absol dart to the side into a bush. As he heard Scott's protestations, he stopped to see what was up, only to notice a surprised looking woman stepping out into their path. It didn't seem like a deliberate sort of step, so it appeared that she'd been caught off guard.
She boldly announced that she would basically be taking Scott's and Cesc's Pokemon, as well as announcing that there definitely was some sort of operation underway. That alone gave Cesc the confidence that they were facing a villain, and not a very good one at that.
"Someone else?" Cesc looked a little miffed. He certainly wasn't the second fiddle in this situation, and he was going to prove it right off the bat. The woman summoned four Pokemon, so Cesc wasted no time summoning one more to join Tybalt in the field.
"Oberon!"
The Sneasel reappeared once more, squaring off with his partner against the four in front of them. Ideally, if Cesc took two and Scott took two, it would make the most sense. But the co-ordinator still felt slighted at being referred to as simply 'someone else'.
"Tybalt! Cuchillada Houndoom!. Oberon! Puño Hielo Murkrow!"
Cesc naturally lapsed back into his usual masked play. Unless the mystery villainess was fluent in Spanish, she'd hesitate at least for the first round.
Scott looked over at Cesc in confusion. "...... What?" His two Eevees merely looked at each other and at their foes, who also seemed confused at Cesc's sudden switch to an entirely unfamiliar language. As far as their young minds knew, he'd switched to some ancient language whose words had magical properties, and they briefly stared at him as if they were expecting him to suddenly grow wings and take flight.
Ruby did what she did best, though, and entirely ignored Cesc, focusing only on her objective of winning. Noticing a weird look on the female poachers face as if her train of thought had suddenly derailed, she made the first move of the fight.
Normally she chose the strongest-looking opponent and went after it first, but seeing as the strongest of the poacher's four Pokemon was a Houndoom who could easily resist all of her attacks, she instead picked the Zorua to pick on first as she was unfamiliar with it. Ruby's attack consisted of a quick run to the left (Cesc's team is to the right of Scott's) followed by five Embers launched in a shotgun-like spread to try and prevent the Zorua from dodging.
Scott let his Vulpix do her own thing and took charge of managing his two Eevees. Seeing as this wasn't a proper battle, he had no problem with playing unfairly and going for the poacher and not her Pokemon. Besides, even if they won, nothing was currently stopping her from trying to shoot them or run away to warn her allies. "Scarlet, wait for their attack and just dodge it, don't try any counters. Ebony, come back here for a moment."
As his male Eevee came back towards him, the poacher snapped out of her momentary confusion about Cesc's sudden language switch and entered a totally separate stage of confusion when she realized that Cesc's Pokemon looked far stronger than Scott's did, leaving her with no idea who to concentrate on. This was enough to prevent her from making any attacks of her own, although she did order her Houndoom to cancel out Ruby's Embers with its Flash Fire ability.
Watching the Houndoom step in front of the fireballs, Scott clicked his tongue before bending down to whisper in Ebony's ear so that his foes could not hear him. "I want you to sneak around the side of the battle and use Covet to steal that poacher's gun. Then bring it back to me, or if you can't then just ditch it somewhere and hide, and we'll find it later."
The little Eevee nodded and backed up a few more steps before darting off into the nearby trees.
Four on Five just felt really odd. cesc had summoned two Pokemon just to counter the woman's four, but it almost felt like a melee. It seemed really difficult to co-ordinate just his two Pokemon amidst all of the craziness. In his periphery, he noticed something speeding off to one side from Scott's end of the field.
Cesc wondered for a moment if he should've had Oberon use Icy Wind to throw in some cover so that the departure was stealthier, but it seemed a bit too late now. He'd have to draw their attention in the way he was most accustomed: PURE PIZAZZ.
The woman commanded her Houndoom to attack Oberon, as expected. She seemed to have figured out quite quickly that Cesc had the strong pokemon of the two, but she was still a little behind when it came to Cesc's masked play. She rallied quickly, switching up the matchups so that Houndoom was squaring off against Ruby, the Vulpix, while her Zorua swapped over to tangle with the remaining Eevee. In the mean time, Murkrow assailed Tybalt, pecking wildly with its sharp beak, while the Electrike let off a Thunder Wave in an attempt to slow down Cesc's speedy Sneasel.
"Oberon! Equipo Doble!
Attempting to stave off the encroaching Thunder Wave, the sneasel split into several copies of himself. The thunder impacted the first clone, but instead of just dissipating it in the way that Cesc had anticipated, it travelled along the chain of clones until Oberon wound up receiving the attack in full. Twitching as the paralysis overtook him, Oberon took a knee, glaring angrily at the little electric Dog.
Meanwhile, the Houndoom couldn't go unchallenged, as it neatly absorbed Ruby's Ember. Cesc recalled that absorbing abilities remained, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember all of their names, or which elements they absorbed. This one was obviously fire, so at least he could lay on the offensive with Tybalt.
"Garra Brutal!"
Batting the offending Murkrow aside, Tybalt charged towards the demonic dog, his claws beginning to glow with an intense strength. For a moment, it almost looked as if the claws themselves were extending, but really the energy had extended from beyond the edges themselves. The heavy Crush Claw attack slammed down hard on the Houndoom, who found itself flattened to the ground.
So much for pizazz. He wanted to retain the poacher's focus, and he had wanted to do it stylishly...but he remembered the last time he'd try to get fancy in a situation that potentially spelled his doom.
Glancing sidelong at Scott, he was interested to see if Scott was, in fact, just a newbie junior ranger, or was hiding a layer of expertise that he just wasn't showing.
As she was trained to be able to battle on her own, Scott let Ruby simply do her thing, although he kept a close eye on her in case the opposing Houndoom decided to target her. There was nothing she could do against a foe who would simply absorb her Ember attacks. Fortunately, the big dog was preoccupied with defending itself from Cesc's Zangoose.
Scarlet could not battle on her own, so she was Scott's priority. He quickly looked at all the opposing Pokemon. Zorua was matced with Ruby, Oberon was matched with the Electrike and paralyzed, and Tybalt was trying to keep the attention of the Houndoom while trying to avoid the Murkrow at the same time.
"You have no experience fighting birds and you can't match a Houndoom...... Scarlet, assist Oberon with a Sand Attack followed by Helping Hand. And stay behind him."
Scarlet darted to Oberon's side and kicked at the ground with one of her front legs, sending a spread of dirt flying at the poacher's Electrike, which had been positioned on a tree stump by the poacher. The lightning wolf simply closed its eyes and looked away to avoid getting blinded, but that was still enough to create a brief pause in the battle. During this pause Scarlet took up position just behind Oberon and used Helping Hand to power him up, which merely required that she touch him with her paw to transfer over a small amount of energy for him to use in his next attack.
As the Electrike hesitated and waited for its next command, it became clear that the poacher was concentrating on her Houndoom and Murkrow, trying to get rid of Tybalt. She was less aware of Electrike's and Zorua's problems and entirely unaware that Ebony wasn't in the battle. Gotta make a mental note that people can't concentrate well on multiple battles at once...... this is why I trained Ruby to act on her own.
His Vulpix, meanwhile, was having problems of her own. Zorua was stronger than she was and just as fast, and was doing its best to improvise and figure out a way to stop the little fire fox from gaining any ground. Every time Ruby attempted to get close enough to strike with Quick Attack, she was met with a powerful Fury Swipe, and if she tried to back off and attack from range with Ember, the dark fox used Pursuit to follow her. She wasn't able to build up the concentration required to use Disable yet with the Zorua constantly trying to attack, so Scott broke his silence with her and gave her some help. "Ruby, try Roar and then Disable!"
Ruby's ears twitched, as she was used to fighting on her own by now, but she carried out his commands anyway. Her Roar was less than spectacular, more of a rather loud growl, but it still caused the Zorua to pause and take a step back, somewhat frightened. Ruby used this moment to crouch down, her six tails glowing a bright purple color before they each shot off a beam of light that hit Zorua. "Hah. That ought to totally destroy that fox thing's strategy for a minute or so......"
He turned his attention back to Scarlet and Oberon for a moment, but Oberon was still struggling with paralysis and the Electrike was still hesitating to make another move, so he turned his attention to the opposing poacher herself and the little Eevee that was creeping up behind her. "Just a few moments more......"
Amazed that Scott continued to let Ruby just do her own thing, Cesc kept an eye on the little vulpine pokemon as she darted about the field. Such a level of trust in Scott's pokemon was truly admirable, but with Cesc's fairly unruly bunch, he doubted he could do the same. While he wasn't a staunch disciplinarian, he'd gotten his Pokemon to learn commands in two languages, which credited his training skills. Why, as a trainer and as a co-ordinator, he considered himself quite strong. However, as a straight up battler or brawler...he counted himself lucky that this time his Pokemon's levels were higher.
As the battle progressed, Scarlet launched a cloud of sand at the Electrike while Oberon doubled over in paralysis. Cesc watched as a quick attack shot wide of Oberon, a testament to Scarlet's sand-attack. As the little paw impacted his back, the Sneasel felt a gentle surge of energy, loosening his limbs a bit and momentarily easing the paralysis as he geared up for an attack.
"Oberon, Finta!!"
With the extra power, Oberon disappeared from sight, appearing behind the blinded Electrike. The resulting flurry of slashes, powered up with Scarlet's help, landed heavily on the startled electric puppy.
Much to Cesc's chagrin, the attack wasn't enough to knock out the Electrike, who bounded back towards its trainer. At the same time, Houndoom appeared in its stead. With a powerful bound, the devil dog leaped foward, demonic flames bursting from its mouth before clamping down on Sneasel's arm. The resulting screech of pain from Oberon drew everyone's eyes as the Houndoom yanked its head back, tossing the beleaguered and paralyzed Sneasel into the air. The powered up Fire Fang was followed up with a powered up Ember. The shotgun spray of little fire flowers juggled the poor Sneasel for a moment. He sailed through the air, landing on the ground with a low thud, and lay unmoving.
Quickly recalling the Sneasel, Cesc drew another Pokeball.
"Bardolph! Tybalt! Cuchillada!
Without waiting for the dust and eyes to settle on his defeated Pokemon, Cesc quickly summoned another Pokemon to the field as his Sneasel disappeared. This time, a wicked looking Scyther appeared on the field. While weak to Murkrow, Houndoom, AND Electrike, Cesc was determined to press on the offense, as was his style.
Zangoose broke free of the pestering Murkrow, lancing towards Houndoom from the side as his partner, Bardolph, moved to pincer from the front. With a devastating flash of blades, the double Slash attack sent the Houndoom spinning through the air, slamming it into the ground, where it seemed like it would not rise.
The Poacher had apparently sent all of her Pokemon out in one barrage, so it seemed that she wouldn't be replacing her fallen Houndoom on the field. But another Thunder Wave came floating through the air, aimed at Bardolph as the Murkrow once again descended from the sky to peck at Tybalt. Even though the ground had been evened a bit, Cesc needed a way to get rid of the Electrike, whose only purpose seemed to be spreading paralysis to his entire team.
He couldn't afford to have anyone else fall here; there were still more poachers waiting in the cave.
"There has to be some way to stop those electric attacks......" Scott muttered, trying to collect his thoughts. If only Scarlet had a way to cause the sand she threw up into the air with Sand Attack linger in a cloud, then maybe he could dampen the attacks...... but she couldn't do that and probably wouldn't be able to until she evolved into an Espeon. And by then she'd have more useful abilities anyway.
Scyther won't do well here...... I need to keep Electrike as busy with Scarlet as I can. With the damage it has taken, Scarlet might actually be able to win on her own if she can avoid becoming paralyzed.
The opposing poacher brought Murkrow and Electrike together into a tag-team, aiming on taking down Cesc's Scyther quickly so she could move on to Tybalt and Ruby. Scarlet was being ignored entirely, because she looked so fragile and incapable of damage, considering she was almost an inch shorter than Ebony was.
Scott decided to use that to his advantage. "Scarlet, use Helping Hand and assist Scyther." As the little fennec fox powered up her ally with a little extra energy, Scott gave his next command. "Now use Quick Attack! Aim for the spot behind Electrike and Murkrow!"
Scarlet darted straight up the middle of the battlefield at blinding speed, going right between her two foes. At the end of her dash, she turned around and latched on to one of Electrike's back legs with her teeth, something that Scott hadn't anticipated her doing. "Well...... I guess that works."
However, Electrike used the physical contact to give Scarlet a surprisingly powerful Thundershock that sent sparks flying out of her into the ground nearby. When that failed to get her to let go, the lightning wolf-puppy tried paralyzing her with Thunder Wave, but the pain from being paralyzed only made her clamp down even harder. As Electrike cried out in pain, Murkrow grabbed on to Scarlet with its talons and pulled, trying to separate her from its ally.
In the meantime, Ruby had managed to get the upper hand on Zorua now that Disable was in effect. By remaining at range and striking over and over with various styles of Ember attacks, she was able to remain entirely out of Zorua's reach, as the dark fox could no longer catch up with Quick Attack. In particular, Ruby was mostly using a three-Ember attack with a slight spread to it, with one Ember going straight while the other two angled off slightly to the sides to make the attack a little harder to dodge. With that attack, she mixed in single-Ember attacks that she launched with as much force as she could to make the attack go quite fast, and five-Ember shotgun-spread attacks for extra damage. As she shot off all of her bright orange fireballs, her tails stood straight up in the air and glowed a deep purple color as they disrupted Zorua's flow of energy to stop her from retaliating.
All of the multi-shot Ember attacks were quickly tiring her out, however. On the bright side, the Zorua had been struck several times and now had small burns on her front left leg and her right side, just behind her right shoulder.
Ebony also finally got close enough to the poacher to make his move with Covet. Her handgun was in a holster on her right hip, and to get to it Ebony used his claws to (painfully) climb up the lady's leg. Once he reached the holster, grabbed the hilt of the gun with his teeth and then jumped away, pulling the gun with him and leaving behind a furious poacher. "You...... I'm going to kill you!"
In her fit of rage she tried to tackle Ebony to take the gun back, but Ebony darted sideways and eluded her grasp. Desperate to get her trump card back, she then commanded all of her remaining Pokemon to try and take out Ebony. Of course, Electrike had a weight clamped on to his legs to keep him from helping out and Zorua was having problems of its own, while Houndoom had been knocked out, so as Ebony darted into the forest only Murkrow was able to actually give chase.
However, as the bird started to take flight after Scott's male Eevee, the wild Absol that had been leading him and Cesc towards the cave stepped out of the bushes and blocked its way. With it was the Glaceon Scott had seen back when he'd first met Cesc and Tikal and that hed had seen in a few of the photos back at the Ranger Station, along with a pair of Zigzagoon and, to Scott's great happiness, a Staraptor with a small band around one of its legs that had the Ranger insignia on it.
"I think it's time we finished this fight," Scott said to Cesc.
Thanks to Scarlet's timely intervention, Bardolph had been saved the incoming super-effective onslaught from Electrike and Murkrow. In hindsight, perhaps the choice of Scyther had been a poor one, tactically.
Cesc mentally admonished himself once more. Out of sheer reflex, he'd opted for glitz, glamour, and the 'cool' factor, rather than focusing on the battle. While the double attack from Zangoose and Scyther had been effective, he needed to find a way to think more strategically. Or tactically. Whichever one was needed of him.
"Bardolph, Wing Attack on Murkrow!"
Now that he was co-ordinating his attacks with Scott, and the battle had moved from a free-for-all melee into a more concentrated effort, Cesc switched back to English. It was a small effort to work with his teammate, and now that the Poacher had more than likely caught on to the fact that it was a mere confusion ploy, he could drop it.
With a ferocious upwards leap, Bardolph easily knocked the Murkrow away from the Absol who had just appeared on the field. With the advent of Absol and Glaceon's arrival, several other pokemon came thundering in. Scott seemed pleased to have reinforcements, which was a good sign.
Now they outnumbered the Poacher, and she seemed more preoccupied with retrieving her firearm from Ebony.
As Scott turned to Cesc, the classy co-ordinator flashed a thumbs up back at the young ranger.
"I couldn't agree more. Quick Attack on Murkrow!"
He didn't want to attack the Electrike, for fear of hitting the attached Scarlet, but he could at least take out one of the offending Pokemon, leaving just the Zorua and Electrike for the newly arrived Ranger team to handle.
In a flash, Cesc's Pokemon had toppled the Murkrow out of the air, but it still seemed insistent on fighting. Cesc took a moment to admire its tenacity, as trainer-less, it launched another torrent of pecks aimed at his Scyther.
"Not exactly what I had in mind as a finisher. Guess we'll have to try again..."
The Ranger Staraptor seemed to be some kind of messenger, as there was a small bag strapped to its back. Regardless, it was still a Staraptor, a giant leap in strength above Scott's team. However, it did not join in the fight.
The Absol, Glaceon, and the two Zigzagoon did however. While the female poacher was still lying on the ground after trying and failing to grab Ebony, the Glaceon used some kind of ice attack to freeze her shirt to the ground and then sat on her to make sure she didn't run off. The two Zigzagoon tried to help Ruby, while the Absol went straight for Murkrow.
"Okay, Scarlet, let go of Electrike and then hit it with a Quick Attack!" Scott commanded.
Scarlet let go of her foe's leg like she was supposed to, but when she tried to step backwards in preparation for her attack she stumbled, stiff from the paralysis. The Electrike used this opportunity to tackle her to the ground, and she hit her head on a rock and was knocked out cold.
"Well that didn't quite work......" Scott recalled his little Eevee back into her great Ball, and turned to look down at Ebony, who had returned still holding the poacher's gun. Ebony dropped the handgun right on Scott's foot and then darted off towards the Electrike. "Ebony, Tackle!"
Electrike turned around just in time to get tackled right on the nose by Scott's second Eevee. Dazed and knowing it was losing, it paniked and ran back towards the poacher, only to get flattened by a massive barrage of Ice Shards from the Glaceon standing guard there. As Electrike slumped over on the ground and lay unmoving, Scott cringed at how much power the Glaceon had used on such a weakened opponent. "That...... looked painful."
Ruby had also finished off the Zorua, driving her foe back against a tree with her Ember barrages and with the help of the Zigzagoon pair's Tackle attacks, before she had used her own Quick Attack to seal the win- although not before she accidentally set the tree on fire with a stray Ember attack. As she frantically kicked dirt over the small fire, Scott sighed. As only the Murkrow was left and it was stuck between a Zangoose, a Scyther, and an Absol, Scott took his mind off the battle for a moment and walked over to the small fire at the base of the tree before stomping it out with his shoe. "Nice job there. I suppose setting the forest on fire is one way to defeat anyone within the forest," He told his Vulpix. "Now go see if you can make Murkrow......"
He didn't get to finish before the Glaceon, who apparently suffered from a major lack of patience, knocked Murkrow out of the sky with some kind of ice-breath attack. Scott couldn't help but notice that the attack looked like Blizzard, but surely this Glaceon wasn't that strong.
"...... never mind then. Return, you could use a good rest. You too, Ebony." Scott recalled both of his Pokemon and took a long look at the poacher before walking over to Staraptor.
"Do you have something for me?" He asked the big bird, and when it nodded he reached for its bag and unzipped it. Inside, there was a letter from Loch family back next to where his home used to be. In other words, it wasn't actually a message from Ranger Command, but simply a message sent using a Ranger courier bird. "Tch. Not what I was hoping for, but thank you anyway. Now listen...... the local Ranger Station was the site of an incident earlier, so you may want to skip over it and head to the station at the north end of the mountains, just outside the Ariana Desert if you are looking for a place to sleep and some food." He rubbed Staraptor's neck feathers a little, and then the bird took flight, heading northwards.
Scott stuck the letter in a pocket inside his vest, not bothering to read it since it wasn't Ranger-related. "Okay, Cesc, so...... now what do we do with her? Since I'm not a full-fledged Ranger yet, I don't have the equipment or the authority to actually arrest someone. I suppose we could just tie her to a tree and come back for her later, or we could just let her go, but then she might warn the other poachers that we're coming. Actually, we could just leave her here as is...... it'll take a while for all that ice to melt, so she won't be going anywhere until after we've dealt with her allies. That does leave the problem of what to do with her Pokemon though. Man, why did I not take the class about arresting people before I came out here......"
As he spoke, Scott poked at the ice that lined the poacher's shirt, freezing her to the ground. He looked back at the gun Ebony had stolen from her, but he had no idea what to do to unload it, so he just left it lying on the ground where his Eevee had dropped it since it was well outside of her reach.
With the battle wrapped up, Cesc took a second to call his warriors back to his side. Tybalt moved over immediately, standing at attention, while the more unruly Scyther continued to scan the battlefield for opponents. With a sigh, Cesc recalled the two Pokemon.
The cavalry that had charged in now milled about, as if waiting for for Cesc and Scott to make a decision. It seemed like the Absol and the Glaceon at least looked like they were eager to continue on to the cave.
While the poacher was incapacitated for the moment, Cesc knew that she could get free eventually. At least, for now, her Pokemon were unconscious, so it meant that it would probably be a little while before she could follow and pose a threat.
"Leave the gun?" The co-ordinator clicked his tongue disapprovingly, picking up the aforementioned gun. He took a moment to pop the clip as well as the one in the chamber. Dumping the bullets into his shoulder bag, he palmed the clip back into place. "We don't want her coming after us with a loaded gun now, do we?" Cesc grinned, slipping the empty gun into his waistband. The young man had spent some time running around with gangs back in The Under, over in Orre. He wasn't the most intelligent, but he at least had both street smarts.
"If the other two have guns, well." He crossed his arms as he looked over at the eager Absol and impatient Glaceon. "Let's just say that this might help us level the playing field a little. Shall we?"
With that, he signalled to the Absol and Glaceon, breaking into a job behind them.
"Yeah. We must be close by. I wonder, if all the Pokemon in those pictures are as strong as this Absol and Glaceon...... how could a few poachers with skills like that manage to take control of that cave? There must be something we still don't know," Scott said as he followed Cesc and the two wild Pokemon. "Maybe their boss is really strong, or maybe there's more than just a few of them, or maybe it's something else......"
"Plus, I still can't help but wonder what that giant crystalline rock in that one picture was. Maybe that's what they're after. Or maybe it's just all of the evolution stones mentioned on those pieces of paper. Either way, they're also going to need something to transport all of their prizes and the captured Pokemon back to wherever their base is...... maybe we could just wait by that and ambush them instead of entering the cave."
Scott decided not to mention that he'd never been inside a cave before, and that the thought of going underground was not very appealing to him. His mind was spinning with all the things that could go wrong in a cave and trap them.
The pair of wild Pokemon, with Absol in the lead, led them farther down the mountain and into an even thicker section of forest. This part of the forest had so many large oak trees that the light from the sky was nearly entirely blocked by the leaves, and the ground was covered in bushes of many kinds, some which had thorns. A variety of small Pokemon and birds, unaccustomed to being around humans, fled from the group as they made their way deeper and deeper into the forest.
The path picked by the Absol, however, managed to skirt by most of the thorn bushes and lead them on a winding course through the few lesser-covered sections of the underbrush. Scott was thankfull for this, considering he was wearing shorts and had no protection from any of the thorns.
When Absol paused briefly to sniff the air for scents, Scott rubbed a cut on his leg from a thorn and muttered, "I can see why this cave was never discovered before now...... I'm going to look like...... like...... umm...... something shredded...... a ribbon used to play with a Glameow. Err...... whatever."
They walked a little bit farther, to a small cliff. At the bottom of the cliff (around 20 feet down), there was a small clearing with a tiny silver helicopter in it. There was a thick metal chain extending from the bottom of the helicopter to the top of a large wooden crate, one end of which was open. Near the crate there was a group of metal cages, which held various Pokemon within them. Among them were most of the other Pokemon shown in the pictures back at the Ranger station- a female Ninetales and her two little Vulpix, a Gabite and a tiny Gible, two little Absol, and a Rhydon, along with a pair of Luxio and a Noctowl. Apart from the wild Absol and Glaceon that were with Scott and Cesc, the only Pokemon that had been in the pictures but was not in a cage was a Lucario.
At the bottom of the cliff, directly below Scott and the others, was an entrance to a cave.
Standing near the cages, crate, and helicopter were three people, all male. Two of them were equipped much like the poacher they had fought earlier, with a handgun and some pepper spray on their belts. The last guy, who was standing in front of Gabite's cage, had a shotgun slung across his back and a taser on his belt. Scott guessed that was the boss.
Behind the three men were a few more Pokemon, who presumably belonged to them. Of particular note were a pair of Butterfree. Scott suddenly wondered if they had managed to subdue most of the Pokemon in the cave by blowing Stun Spores inside, but from the distance they were at he couldn't tell if any of the caged Pokemon were paralyzed.
In addition to the Butterfree, there were two more Electrike and Zorua, two Rufflet, a Houndour, a Mightyena, and an Umbreon. There was no telling how many Pokemon might still be inside Pokeballs on the poachers' belts.
"Mightyena...... oh no. That brings up a lot of really bad memories. My poor Eevees will be scared to death of it. So then...... what do we do now? Maybe we could try and lure one of them away so we can fight them separately." Scott's hand brushed against Ruby's Luxury Ball. This was something his Vulpix was pretty good at doing.
"Well, let's not get too cocky." Cesc shrugged as he continued to jog alongside the leading Pokemon "They probably got the drop on the Pokemon, just like we got the drop on their comrade."
Conjuring up the mental image of the crystalline rock, Cesc had absolutely no idea what it was. Well, other than pretty, it seemed to be nothing more than a natural phenomena.
"Before we decide on a plan, we should probably scout out the area and see if we can at least figure out how many there are." He looked down to the Zigzagoon trotting along side him.
"Hey Zig, Zag?" He looked down at the too, casually tossing them nicknames "Would you two be able to sneak in and figure out how many poachers we're facing?"
For a moment, he was met with confused looks from the raccoon-like faces, but happy barks indicated that they seemed quite up to the task. The two, with their funny running pattern, bounded ahead towards the cave.
As they approached the cliff edge, where Absol indicated the cave below, Cesc took a moment to check his outfit, noting that the rough underbrush had scratched his pristine outfit in numerous places. With a sigh, he began going over the stitch patterns in his head, though admittedly, it seemed like it was a bit of a loss now. Shame; he'd rather liked the outfit.
In the mean time, Scott had mentioned transport, and sure enough there was a helicopter perched at the entrance to the cave. How Cesc had missed a helicopter in the air was beyond him; they weren't exactly the most silent of transports. The Zigzagoon bounded back up, indicating what their eyes could simply tell them; there were three enemies, and they were armed.
Cesc briefly regretted emptying the clip from the gun he was now carrying. Nevertheless, he looked over at the enemy Pokemon, who were all out and about. Two Butterfree, Two Electrike, Zorua, Two Rufflet, Houndour, Mightyena, and Umbreon. 10 enemy Pokemon, and no telling how many more were still in their pokeballs. On "Team Good Guy", they had Ruby, Valentine, Tybalt, Bardolph, Ebony, Absol, Glaceon, and a pair of Zigzagoon. Things looked rather grim.
"Let's see if we can lure one of them away." Cesc whispered to Scott, "Our best bet is to split them up and take them down one at a time. We need to get those guns out of their hands, then...looks like our main tactical threats are the Butterfree and those Electrike, right?"
His mismatched eyes scanned over the group again, noting cages where pokemon resided within.
"If we can free some of those captured Pokemon, then maybe they'll join us in the fight too." He scratched his stubbly chin idly as he continued to gaze down at the opposition.
"Okay...I'll set up over there. I'll try and draw one of them out with one of my Pokemon, and I'll use this gun to bluff him into dropping his weapons." He plucked out a Pokeball for Valentine.
"See if you can set up on the other side...maybe Ruby can draw one of them the other direction, and Ebony can take his gun, like earlier?"
It seemed like a decent sort of plan on the fly. He looked to Scott for confirmation, then two the wild Absol and Glaceon who would hopefully go with the young Ranger.
Once received, he would make his way down to set up an ambush.
"Ebony won't have any problems disarming one more poacher, but disarming both of the subordinates would be rather hard for him...... and there's nothing he can do about the boss's shotgun since it's slung across the guy's back. I'm more worried about Ruby though. She's...... tired. And I'd bet we're going to have major paralysis problems with all those Electrike and Butterfree, plus that Umbreon probably has Confuse Ray and maybe even Moonlight, so there may be problems there too."
Remembering back to basic training, Scott looked towards the wild Absol and Glaceon. Glaceon seemed to glare at him, giving him the "You're not good enough for me" look, but the Absol seemed like she would be more than happu to help. There was just one problem.
"Umm...... what kinds of moves does an Absol learn?" Scott quickly pulled out his cell phone to look it up, but even with the somewhat-more-advanced Ranger technologies that were supposed to allow a Ranger to contact allies even in the most remote locations, he still had no signal. "Well, crap. So much for being able to use a phone everywhere. Apart from the usual myths about Absols bringing destruction, really the only thing I know about them is that they have Perish Song, because that was mentioned in one of the training courses as a very dangerous move." Looking at Absol's huge claws and the horn on one side of its head, he said, "I presume they have some kind of slashing attacks, but other than that......"
Silently, he made a mental note to try and find a method to be able to figure out what kinds of moves any Pokemon he might come across during his travels would use. Maybe some kind of booklet would work...... or maybe he needed a Pokedex or something similar. He knew that a few of the higher-ranked Rangers (usually those who patrolled an entire region instead of just part of the region) had an item called the Rangerdex, but they were very hard to get a hold of and much more limited in their usage than a Pokedex, along with being restricted to the Pokemon naturally living in the region, thus leaving out any rare Pokemon from other regions that Trainers might bring with them.
In any case, he didn't have such an object now, so his knowledge was rather limited. In a perfect world he would have been able to sit down and figure out what Absol could do before they attacked the poachers, but they didn't have time for that and Cesc looked like he was ready to stomp on some poachers. "Oh well. I'll improvise. Ruby already does her own thing, so hopefully this won't be too bad...... let's go."
To prevent the poachers from seeing any of the lights created by him releasing his Pokemon from their Pokeballs, Scott let Ebony and Ruby out at the top of the cliff before he began to skirt around the side of the cave towards where the cages were. Absol followed him, while Glaceon stayed at the top of the cliff. For a minute Scott was confused as to why it wasn't coming to help, before he remembered that it had some nasty ranged attacks. "Staying at the top of the cliff to stay out of range of any counterattacks? That's smart for a wild Pokemon...... "
He took up position behind a thick tree and looked around. Between him and the clearing where the poachers stood arguing about something, there were two rows of large bushes (with no thorns) and no more trees, while around him there were several other small trees and bushes. He pointed to a small bush right across from him and whispered, "Ebony, hide in there. When a poacher comes through, I want you to use Covet to steal his gun. After that, I'm going to tackle the guy, and I want you to bite one of his hands and hold on tight until I tell you to let go." If only Scarlet could still fight, I could have her take the poacher's other hand.
"Absol, find a large bush and stay hidden for now. If any Pokemon come with the poacher, I want you to take them down however you see fit, but try and keep it as quiet as possible and stay out of sight of the rest of the poachers."
"Now then, Ruby......" He paused for a moment, before continuing, "I want you to go out there and get their attention. Act cute or bark at them or something, but don't actually attack them." Ruby looked away for a moment, so Scott cupped her small head in between his hands and forced her to look at him. "Look at me. Don't attack. You'll only get yourself hurt. Okay? You want to save those other little Vulpix in that cage, right? Get them to come right between me and Ebony."
He gave Ruby a little push towards the clearing, followed by a quick "And be careful!" as she darted off through the bushes.
She paused at the last bush, before walking out into the clearing. Nobody noticed her do this, so she began barking at the Ninetales' cage. "Vul! Vul! Vul! Vul......pix!?!?!"
This, of course, caused all the poachers, their Pokemon, and the wild Pokemon stuck in the cages to swing around and look at her, causing her to stutter mid-bark. Slowly, she backed up a few steps, before whipping around and running into the bushes.
And this was where things started to go wrong, because the first thing to start to chase after Ruby was not one of the poachers...... but instead the Mightyena, followed by a poacher who was yelling, "No, Mightyena, wait!"
Scott's heart caught in his throat. Any of the other Pokemon would have been taken care of by his team easily, but Mightyena......
His mind quickly flashed backwards almost seven months to when he got his two Eevees. They had been orphaned by a pack of Mightyena, who killed their parents before they were driven off by Scott and Ruby. They understandably were terrified of the dark dogs, and Ruby didn't much care for them either.
In particular, though, his mind flashed back to one particular moment in that battle...... when a Mightyena had torn his right arm open from his shoulder to his elbow with a clawing attack. The scar would be with him permanently, although it wasn't especially noticeable since it was on the underside/back of his arm and it was often partially covered by his shirt.
As Ruby ran past him, Scott tensed and noticed that Ebony began to cower as the Mightyena approached. He quickly thought up a plan. "Absol, let Mightyena pass us and then attack it with Ruby. Whatever you do, don't let it come back near Ebony."
A moment later, Mightyena ran by them. However, it must have seen Scott as it ran by, because it put on the brakes and slid to a stop, beginning to turn around before getting blindsided by the female Absol. As they wrestled on the ground, the poacher ran up beyond the tree, and Scott and Ebony.
However, as his gaze was still transfixed on the Mightyena, Ebony failed to part the poacher and his handgun. Scott decided to take the chance and didn't waste any time tackling the guy to the ground, even as he reached for his gun to help his Mightyena.
As their fight started, he could only hope that Cesc was having better luck.
Cesc had made his way down the rocky face, a bit slower than he would have liked, but he had to make sure his outfit stayed fairly pristine. No point in facing villains if he looked like he had already been through crap. Though, the timing caused him to curse his co-ordinator standards.
As he settled into a position a safe distance away from the sharp Pokemon senses, he did his best to make out what was going on in the camp, and how best to draw one of the poachers away. A part of him wished they'd taken more time to solidify a good plan, but his own haste had perhaps compromised that.
I work better on the fly, anyways, Cesc thought to himself as he scouted the soon-to-be battlefield by the cave entrance. Reaching into his case, he pulled out a bandana, tying it around his face in the manner of the banditos of old. Some level of anonymity would help him, he felt, though why, he wasn't entirely sure.
To his surprise, Ruby burst onto the scene before promptly disappearing. The exit, pursued by the Mightyena and one of the poachers left...still too many Pokemon for Cesc to deal with solo. Summoning his available Pokemon, he set about directing them. Bardolph moved up into a tree, Tybalt into some thick underbrush, and perhaps the rarest of them, Valentine, stood with Cesc.
"Ready, amigo?" The co-ordinator grinned down at his companion, who nodded nervously. Valentine, the ever excitable Chimchar, seemed oddly down, given his usually cheery disposition. Perhaps the constant slew of life-threatening activities was starting to wear down on him too. "You'll be great", he spoke reassuringly, patting the Fire monkey on his warm head. "Off you go."
Deftly moving through the brush, Valentine burst onto the scene as well, catching the attention of the already confused poachers. With a taunting sort of dance, he turned and disappeared into the brush. The other human, one clearly not the boss, recoiled as his Pokemon followed afterwards, eager to pursue the gibbering monkey. With him came the two Electrike, the two Rufflet, and the two Butterfree. By Cesc's count, that left the Umbreon, Houndour, and Zorua, meaning the "Boss" was probably a dark-type specialist.
As the six Pokemon approached Cesc's position, he readied himself. Valentine sprang from the ground, deftly landing on his trainer's shoulder before turning to face the incoming enemies. The man stumbled through the woods, looking up to see that Cesc had drawn the gun, pointing it directly at his face.
"Whoa there..."
"Call back your Pokemon." Cesc growled, summoning his thickest 'spanish' accent. "You know a bullet is faster than all of them."
Nervously, the man eyed the gun, his hand straying towards his own.
"No way, cabron." the 'bandito' grinned, despite the fact that it was obscured by the bandana. "You draw, you die."
Giving a nod to the treetops, Bardolph descended, landing behind the armed man in a surprisingly ninja-like fashion. In an instant, one of the Scyther's wicked blades was across the man's throat.
"F-fine!" The man squeaked, his whole frame shaking with fright from the sudden intrusion. Reaching to his pokeball belt, he recalled his Pokemon before holding his hands in the air. Bardolph's blades deftly flashed around for a moment, slicing through the various belts, leaving the man sans weaponry and sans Pokeballs.
Striding confidently over, Cesc swaggered with every ounce of machismo he could muster. He was physically smaller than the man, but he had the upper hand and the confidence (albeit shaky) to match. Raising the gun into the air, he brought the butt down on the side of the man's head. He hadn't wanted to resort to such violence (mostly because it didn't suit him), but he'd done it many times before in his checkered past. The man slumped to the ground, unconscious from the blow. The suave co-ordinator felt a bit guilty, but this had been the most practical way to take one enemy down without resorting to the all out fight that would draw too much attention.
With Valentine still on his shoulder, Cesc bent down and relieved this man of his gun too. Dropping the ammo clips, as he didn't really want to fire the guns, despite their obvious advantage.
Moving through the woods towards the helicopter clearing, Cesc waited to see if Scott would arrive as well before making his move. These Pokemon looked a lot tougher, and there was no telling whether or not Cesc could handle them without some kind of backup.
As the Scott slammed into the poacher and took both of them to the ground, the poacher's handgun slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground. Going off of the limited close-quarters training he had been given as a fledgling Ranger, Scott pinned his foe to the ground by kneeling on the guy's back, and pulled a moderate-length switchblade out of his back pocket before flicking it out and holding it to the side of the poacher's neck.
After the Eevee incident he had not hesitated in a search to find a weapon to defend himself with if something similar were to happen again. Initially he'd been set on buying a handgun, but he didn't want a weapon he'd be too scared to use for fear of killing someone, so he gave up on that idea and looked for a taser or stun gun instead. However, a taser only had one shot so missing or fighting multiple enemies would be problematic, not to mention it was entirely useless against Electric-types, while most stun guns (cattle prods?) only caused brief pain and had no range at all, so they weren't real effective either.
So Scott had gone with a simple switchblade. In the few months since then, he'd used it only twice, once to cut through some rope securing a gate while on a patrol, and the second time to discourage a hungry Persian from fighting with Ruby over a pear he'd bought for her. This was the first time he'd actually used it for fighting. He hadn't even used it during any kind of self-defense training.
The poacher froze, and Scott said, "It would be best for everyone if you would just surrender now."
They both looked at Mightyena and Absol, but the wrestling match between them was over too. Considering the wild Absol was significantly bigger and weighed 25% more than Mightyena, not to mention physically much stronger, it had been far from a fair fight. Absol had ended up immobilizing its foe by simply sitting on Mightyena, with one of its huge paws pressed on the dark dog's neck.
The poacher had three Pokeballs on his belt, but only one of them seemed to be currently occupied, meaning that in addition to Mightyena, one of the Pokemon remaining in the clearing belonged to this guy. One of the things Scott had learned while in Ranger school was distinguishing occupied Pokeballs from unoccupied ones- although most people didn't know this, the button on the Pokeball changed color ever so slightly when something was currently inside it. That way, law enforcement could more easily figure out the scope of any kind of crisis, and they could also determine whether someone was bluffing about having an extra Pokemon to use or not.
Scott grunted and pulled one of the unoccupied Pokeballs off of the poacher's belt, and used it to recall Mightyena before sticking back on the belt. The poacher didn't resist, nor did he resist when Scott pulled a couple of vines off a nearby tree and used them to tie the guy's hand behind his back and to tie his feet together. After that, Ruby gave him a few scratches on his face just to make sure he knew what would happen if he tried to escape.
Scott started to walk away, but then walked back to the poacher and took all three of his Pokeballs, sticking them in an otherwise-empty pocket of his bag. After a moment of hesitation, he also bagged the poacher's handgun (without unloading it) and pepper spray, although he didn't think of searching the poacher for any extra ammunition.
Then he, his two Pokemon, and his wild ally moved back towards the clearing, and then around the side of it to meet up with Cesc and his team.
As he reached Cesc, the boss poacher began to look around, frowning. He seemed to have figured out something was wrong, and he released a Pawniard and a Chatot from two of the five Pokeballs on his belt. "One of the Pokemon in that clearing belongs to the poacher I just took down, although I'm not sure which one......" Scott whispered to Cesc. "So with five Pokeballs and four Pokemon out, it's possible that he might have one more Pokemon in reserve." Scott watched as the poacher's hand stroked the last Pokeball, as if hesitating whether to use it or not. "And I'd bet it's a strong one."
Unfortunately, the Pokeball's button was pointed away from Scott, so he could not tell if it was actually occupied or not.
"So what now? I could send Ruby and Absol with you to help out while Ebony and I try to open all those cages. Getting the keys to the cages will be a problem though...... Which reminds me, I bet you could use that helicopter as cover. They probably won't attack the helicopter, as it is their main ride out of this forest."
It appeared that the slipshod plan had worked well. They'd winged it, and now they had the upper hand in the situation. Perhaps having a ranger and some very powerful wild Pokemon as allies was a more useful thing than Cesc had imagined. All he'd remembered of Rangers, really, was that they spun ropes of pretty light. It was good to know that they were more than that.
As Scott sidled up to him, Cesc gave the customary head nod, grinning his infectious grin.
"I see it went well."
The boss-man called out two more Pokemon, meaning that they were up against Umbreon, Houdour, Zorua, Pawniard, and Chatot. Scott had noted another pokeball unused, and he was probably right about it being the trump card.
With Cesc's three fight-capable pokemon, Absol and Ruby, he'd still be outnumbered by one. But, the element of surprise was still on their side.
"That's a brilliant plan." Cesc admitted, nodding sagely towards the ranger. "Good on you, Scott. I'll go ahead and be the distraction. You get our caged friends to help. Maybe use your ranger magic to make sure they don't attack us too, yeah?"
Waiting patiently for Absol and Ruby to join, Cesc would begin laying out his attack strategy once they appeared in his little cluster.
"Hit them with your strongest moves. That's the plan!" The co-ordinator smacked his fists together, nodding. His Pokemon seemed a bit unsure of the plan, and it looked as if they were struggling to come up with their individual tactics.
"Fine then. Let's see...tactical threats are Umbreon and Zorua. Let's have Absol engage the Umbreon, keep it from hitting us with Confuse Ray and other statuses. Ruby, why don't you take the Zorua. You're a sharp gal, keep it from using its illusion ability to cause a ruckus."
Looking at his three Pokemon, he placed a hand to his chin in the way that indicated he was pondering, though really, he was just staring at them rather blankly.
"Okay. Bardolph...you're going to want to send in a cover wave of Silver Wind, like surpressing fire, right? Keep them pinned down for Valentine and Tybalt to get in for the CQC."
He wasn't quite sure what CQC was. It was probably "Close Quarters Combat", but that was only his inference from watching tv shows to brush up on his military terminology.
"Valentine, try to take out that Pawniard as fast as possible. Stick to fire attacks. Tybalt, your target is Chatot. Get in close, and keep close with Quick Attack and Pursuit. Heavier attacks when it's in range, ok?" He looked to Bardolph, leaving the Houndour and the type disadvantage to the Scyther.
"Bardolph, you think you can handle a Houndour?"
The Scyther nodded grimly, his wicked looking blades flashing in the light.
"Good. Keep it away from Ruby and Valentine. If he has Flash Fire, then he's a defensive threat."
He looked around at the ragtag team, letting out a low sigh. "It's gonna be a brawl guys, but we just gotta hold out until Scott can free the captive Pokemon. Everyone good on the plan? Anyone who can, use Swords Dance now, so we can get hit hard right off the bat."
He watched as Absol, Bardolph, and Tybalt all engaged in the move he'd specified. He wasn't sure if Ruby had any stat boosting moves, and he was sure that Valentine didn't really have any, so they would just have to be fine at their current level.
"Scott, you ready?"
* * *
Once they were in position behind the helicopter, Cesc let out a sharp whistle. Springing up to the top of the chopper, Bardolph rained down a stunning Silver Wind display, aimed wide to catch all of the opponents.
As the poacher raised his gun, Cesc stepped out from his hiding place, holding both of his acquired guns and pointed them at the gruff looking man.
"I wouldn't do that, hefe." His bandana was once again concealing his grin, which he wore more out of the fact that he was nervous and that his heart was racing uncontrollably at the adrenaline high.
With that, his team of Pokemon burst from their cover, quickly engaging their destined targets. Meanwhile, the poacher and Cesc stood in their mexican stand off, guns pointed dangerously at one another. Cesc felt a thick knot in his throat, and swallowed deeply as he stared down the other man. Hopefully, he wouldn't realize that Cesc's weapons had no ammunition in them.
Scott and Ebony stayed in the cover of the bushes as the battle began, observing. "I don't see the poacher's keys, but he does have a lanyard sticking out of his pocket...... it might be attached to the keys, so go for that with Covet. Once you have it, hide underneath the helicopter until it's safe to bring them to me. If something comes under the helicopter to attack you, drop the lanyard and run."
After giving his commands, he gave Ebony a little push and the small Eevee stepped out of the bushes and into the clearing. He quickly darted behind the cages and waited for an opportunity to pilfer his target.
Ruby didn't take orders from anyone other than Scott real well, but considering she'd already fought a Zorua and knew what its capabilities were, she decided to go along with Cesc's plan this time. However, as Umbreon was clearly a bigger threat from her point of view, her first attack was against it and not Zorua.
Since Ebony was destined to become an Umbreon, Scott had mentioned the things Umbreons were good at multiple times, and so she knew that they had great defensive abilities and a set of decent support moves, such as Confuse Ray and Screech, and even worse was the area-effect healing move Moonlight that some Umbreon had access to. She had no idea that an Umbreon was rather lacking in attack strength, but since she was going after Zorua anyway, just one quick Disable should work to take Umbreon's threat level down a notch......
...... or so she thought. As soon as her six tails began to glow purple and charge up the Disable attack, the Umbreon noticed who she was aiming at and, after sidestepping a Slash attack from Absol, charged straight for her.
Ruby tried to leap high into the air to dodge, but as she did so Zorua (whom had apparently chosen her as a target without her even attacking it yet) bit one of yer tails and pulled her back down to the ground. Zorua jumped out of the way an instant before Umbreon slammed into Ruby with a Quick Attack that sent her flying back several feet because of the difference in weight between the two Pokemon. Having stopped himself from becoming Disabled, the Umbreon turned back around to re-engage Absol, leaving Ruby barely able to stand back up while Zorua homed in on her with its own Quick Attack.
From back in the bushes, Scott knew that Ruby was essentially already defeated, but there wasn't anything he could do about it until Ebony got the keys to the cages.
The little Eevee was hard at work trying to do that, having walked all the way around the clearing to the cave, which was behind where the boss poacher was standing. From there, he effortlessly walked up to the man, reached up, and grabbed the green lanyard hanging out of the guy's left pocket. The poacher was so focused on the battle that he didn't even notice he'd been robbed. Seeing this, Ebony turned around and started back on his path around the clearing to where the cages were, reaching them without a problem as Scott crouch-walked out of the bushes to him.
"Okay, good job. Wait...... these are......" Ebony dropped the lanyard on his foot, and he picked it up. Attached to it was only a single key, and it clearly wasn't the key to any of the cages. "The key for the helicopter...... this doesn't help at all. He must have the cage keys in one of his pockets somewhere."
He quickly tried to think up a plan that might use the helicopter, but nothing came to mind, so he simply pocketed the key and the lanyard. Since Ebony didn't know exactly where the cage keys were, stealing them with Covet was impossible. They had to find a new way to open the cages.
"I guess we could try simply breaking the locks. If only you or Ruby knew Iron Tail or something similar...... wait, there's that gun I picked up off of that poacher. That might work."
Scott had no idea how to use a gun, or even how to load or unload it. He slowly reached into his bag and pulled it out. Some words inscribed on the side of the gun said "Glock 17 9mm." He had no idea what any of that meant, but the gun did appear to be loaded, so he pointed it at the padlock on the closest of the cages (the one with two Luxio in it) and pulled the trigger. However, the gun didn't fire, so he tried again twice more. It still didn't fire, so he assumed it was broken somehow. He had no idea that the handgun's safety was turned on. He didn't even know there was a safety in the first place.
Even still, the Glock made a decent blunt weapon, so he whacked the lock a few times with the side of the barrel. Scott wasn't especially strong, but after a dozen or so tries the padlock's cover broke, giving him access to the internal components. Then, it was just a matter of moving a little part inside the padlock to open it and release a pair of angry Luxio into the battle.
The next cage, and the largest one, held Rhydon. He started to do the same thing to that cage's padlock, but after two strikes a great big mass of fur hit him from behind and bit onto his shoulder.
It was an Absol. For a moment, Scott thought that the wild Absol had turned on him for some reason.
Then he noticed it had wings.
He had failed to realize that the poacher had spotted him and then had released his final Pokemon to stop him from freeing all the captive Pokemon. That final Pokemon happened to be an Absol, which had a spiked collar. Embedded within this spiked collar was a certain extremely rare stone that appeared to be reacting with Absol and causing its body to change...... causing it to grow wings, among other things.
And it was now clamped onto his shoulder. "Gahh!"
What is that thing?!?! Is this really an Absol??? Scott cried out internally. He'd heard of mega evolution, but he'd never actually seen it so it didn't register to him that he was being bitten by a Mega Absol and not a mutant Absol.
Ebony grabbed at one of Mega Absol's legs, but he was simply outclassed by his foe's strength and there wasn't anything he could do. Then the two Luxio he had just freed attacked with Spark, but when they did so the electricity flowed through Absol and into Scott, causing even more pain.
Ruby and the wild Absol attempted to help him, but they were quickly cut off by Umbreon, who took up a position between Scott and Cesc's group while Zorua continued to hound Ruby with repeated Quick Attacks until she finally fainted.
It was then that the wild Glaceon finally joined the battle. He was still perched on a rock on top of the ridge, well out of range of any counterattacks. From his vantage point, he could see everyone in the clearing, and he attacked repeatedly with long-range strikes using Ice Shards.
As those shards of ice rained down on the boss poacher and most of his team (only Mega Absol was spared, since he was a bit separated from the rest fighting with Scott), a wild Lucario suddenly came charging out fo the cave to join the fight as well, bringing the battle to an 8-on-6 free-for-all, with the poacher's Mega Absol, Umbreon, Zorua, Pawniard, and Chatot, plus Houndour who seemed simply confused about what was going on, against Ebony, Cesc's team of Bardolph, Valentine, and Tybalt, and their wild allies Absol, Glaceon, Lucario, Luxio #1, and Luxio #2. The two Zigzagoon from earlier did not join the battle.
His finger itched on the trigger as he stood stock still, like a bandito of old in a standoff. However, if he so much as pulled it slightly too far, he'd throw his bluff, revealing the emptiness of the weapon. At the very least, it kept the set of weapons from even entering as factors in the melee that ensued around them. However, it kept Cesc from co-ordinating the assault, leaving the powerful personalities of his pokemon in charge.
It seemed that had been a mistake; not having a tactician on the field made it all the harder. Cesc had never worked with Ruby or this Absol before today (not like they would have taken orders from him anyways), and his own team had only been trained to really work in pairs. Having three on the field at once seemed maddening, as Cesc's training focused so heavily on paired synergy. Splitting them up had caused only problems.
Meanwhile, the enemy poacher's team had worked together in such a fashion before, no doubt their teamwork basically meant that their power had increased tenfold. Umbreon broke free of Ruby, which was fine, since the Vulpix had not been commanded to engage the Moonlight Pokemon. But, in doing so, Ruby left herself vulnerable to a flank, which the enemy Zorua took full advantage of. Now two of the tactical threats were free to do as they pleased, meaning bad news for Cesc's distraction assault.
As Cesc nervously looked to the battle, the poacher took advantage of the situation, firing a shot from his hip. With no time to aim, the shot went wide, denting the front of the helicopter, but Cesc threw himself to the ground out of reflex, giving himself away.
The poacher threw out a pokeball, summoning an enemy Absol, adding yet another dark type to the mix, but this one immediately began glowing, resonating with something around the poacher's chest, and on his hand. The three lights radiated brightly...evolving the Absol.
Cesc had no time to marvel at the beauty of the moment, as the Absol bounded off. As the poacher turned his attention back to Cesc, the co-ordinator had already closed half the distance between them. With a triumphant grin, the poacher drew his gun, this time taking a second to aim.
With a yelp, he felt his arm swing upwards, the shot resounding as the bullet whizzed harmlessly off into the air. Wrapping his hands around the gun, Valentine had disengaged from his opponent at the sight of Cesc's dismay. Grabbing onto the weapon, he kicked off with his little feet, springing free of the poacher with the gun. As he cleared, Cesc swung as hard as he could with the guns, using them like bludgeoning tools as he threw the poacher bodily to the ground.
The wild Pokemon were joining the battle left and right, and there was no co-ordination whatsoever, just madness on the field as Cesc and the man grappled fiercely in the dirt. The arriving Rhydon and Lucario immediately targeted the new threat, the Angel Absol, and immediately focused their assault on it.
The Umbreon, breaking free of the wild, regular Absol, fired off a confuse ray at his opponent before breaking into a sprint towards his master. The rings on his body glowing fiercely in tandem with his eyes, he prepared to hit Cesc clear off of his boss, but was met instead by a flaming wheel descending out of the air. Jumping to one side, the Umbreon glared down his new opponent, Valentine.
With a determined stomp, the Fire Monkey took a stance and immediately began to glow. Cesc, distracted, look over to see what was happening to his old friend, and watched as the glowing outline of Valentine grew.
Cesc had not yet seen any of the Pokemon on his team evolve, and here he was, struggling with a villain, all covered in dirt, and too busy to really take in the moment due to the surrounding bedlam.
"Monferno!" Valentine grinned wickedly, pumping his fist into the air as if to signify victory. The Umbreon, meanwhile, seemed relatively unfazed and immediately began forming a glob of shadowy energy in its mouth. The attack never finished, as the newly evolved Valentine flashed forward with a punch that was so swift, it appeared like the monkey had teleported. It slammed home, through the growing Shadow Ball and into the Umbreon's muzzle, scattering the attack and sending the dark-type sprawling backwards from the impact.
"Way to go!" Cesc cheered at the momentum swing, but his own victory was cut short as one of the guns was wrested free from his hand. Feeling the sharp sting of metal on the side of his face, the young man from the Under fell to one side, gasping from the blow. The poacher rose to a knee, pointing the gun down at Cesc in a much more professional manner.
"Shoulda shot me when you had the chance" he growled, pulling back the trigger. After a moment's silence, he noted that nothing had changed, except that Cesc's eyes seemed to be twinkling merrily. Underneath the scarf, it appeared that the young man was grinning.
"Oh Tybalt!" Cesc sang happily, his voice rising above the din. Perking up, Tybalt immediately withdrew from his own target, leaving the two Luxio to engage the chattering Chatot. Trundling towards the poacher, the Zangoose unleashed a mighty Crush Claw from behind. With a surprised cry, the poacher went tumbling head-over-foot over Cesc's body, landing in an uncivilized heap on the floor.
"That's my boy." Cesc gave a thumbs up, rising off the ground and taking a moment to fastidiously dust himself off. "Now let's try to wrap this up."
With the tremendous weight of the mutant Absol pulling backwards on his shoulder, it didn't take much effort for Scott to end up falling on his back, almost directly below the giant Dark-type. As he fell, Absol let go of him, then stared down at him for a brief moment before raising one paw, intent on delivering a final blow.
However, as it brought down the paw and the giant claws attached to it, Scott propped both of his elbows into the ground on either side of him and caught Absol's ankle with both of his hands. His foe growled and tried to put as much force as possible into it's leg to try and get out of his grip, but before it could do that Ebony jumped on Scott's stomach, then used Tackle right on Absol's nose.
While the attack didn't do much damage, having a mass of brown fur hitting his nose was enough to make the poacher's Mega Absol flinch and momentarily lose it's focus on Scott, allowing him to angle his arms in such a way as to let Absol's paw and claws hit the ground next to his head. He quickly rolled sideways to get out from under his opponent, and stood up.
Ebony had grabbed onto the tuft of fur that hung down on the left side of Mega Absol's head, and was hanging on for dear life as Absol tried to shake him off. In the meantime, the two Luxio attacked with Spark from either side of the Dark-type and Rhydon (who had managed to break out of his cage on his own after Scott damaged the lock) rushed in from behind with an all-out Take Down that sent both Ebony and the Absol flying into the cage that Rhydon had been inside.
Seeing a chance to end the fight right away, Scott slammed the door shut and then recalled Ebony into his Great Ball. He then turned to Rhydon and said, "I need you to sit right here and keep the door shut while the rest of us finish this battle."
Rhydon nodded and sat down right in front of the door, becoming a giant, immovable 260-pound mass that even the immense strength of a Mega Absol could not move. After several attempts to break the door down, Absol was reduced to simply screaming at them. "Well, that finishes that. I'm glad I can't understand what he's saying, it probably isn't real nice."
He released Ebony back out of his ball and said, "Stay with that wild Absol. I want the two of you to take out Zorua and make sure Umbreon doesn't rejoin the battle." He looked around, but Houndour seemed to have disappeared. Without its own trainer, it had probably gotten scared and fled. Off to the side and in front of the Ninetales/Vulpix cage, Umbreon was sprawled out on the ground, attempting to get back to his feet but not having much luck. However, when he looked for Zorua, he found that there were now three Luxio staring confused at each other. "Great......"
He reached down to pick up the handgun he'd dropped while fighting Absol, but a blast of pain stopped him from moving his right shoulder very far. Grimacing, he looked at his shoulder. His shirt was almost entirely torn off, and his sleeve was hanging on by only a few threads. His actual shoulder was quite bloody, with multiple puncture marks from Absol's teeth. "Probably going to need stitches...... again. Damn. I'm not going to be able to get the other cages open like this."
He sighed, and then reached down with his left hand instead to pick up the gun. "Now why won't you fire? Surely that poacher wasn't carrying around a broken gun?"
Staring down at it, he randomly pulled the trigger and then cried out in surprise when the gun actually fired, and quickly dropped it back onto the ground before looking forward to see where the bullet had gone. About a half a foot in front of Umbreon's nose was a spot of dirt that appeared to have been disturbed, presumably by the bullet, and Umbreon himself was as still as a rock.
"Well, umm......" He looked down at the gun and then at the remaining cages. "I think it would be better to have Cesc open those and not me."
Seeing as he had effectively just failed at his own objective, he stepped forwards to help command Ebony and Absol against the few enemy Pokemon that remained- Zorua, Pawniard, and Chatot.
In the process of getting back up, Cesc flung himself back to the ground at the sound of the gunshot. Peeking up, he spotted Scott holding the gun, looking rather sheepish. His bandana pulled down, he let out a small, amused smile as he shook his head.
Rising back up, he took stock of the battle; it appeared to be pretty much over.
"Valentine! Hit the Umbreon!"
With a nod, the newly evolved fire monkey disappeared from sight, surprising both Cesc and himself. As he aimed for the Umbreon with his new Mach Punch technique, he found himself slammed into the cage. His power and speed had increased to a point where he no longer could move with his usual carefreeness.
The monkey let out a groan, having soared past the Umbreon and denting a bar in the cage behind it.
He looked over at his other two fielded Pokemon, noting his Scyther slashing away with abandon at the beleaguered Chatot, while Tybalt was going blade for blade with the Pawniard. While the Pawniard easily resisted the Zangoose's onslaught, the latter was not necessarily true. Tybalt appeared to be wearing down from the sharp blades of the little soldier looking metal dude.
"Switch up!"
As the Umbreon rose, Valentine landed on its back, slamming it back into the ground before throwing himself into a flip. The flip extended into a roll before igniting in flame. The Monferno's Flame Wheel attack struck home on the Pawniard, while Zangoose turned his attention to the Chatot, leaping up as the attack hit the Pawniard, and lashed out with his wicked claws to the airborne bird. Bardolph's earlier assault had worn it down, and now the creature went toppling earthside, landing in a heap of feathers on the ground from the blow. Meanwhile, Scyther charged the downed Umbreon, who was once again shakily rising. The devastating Slash sent the creature flying once more.
With that, there was only the Zorua left, but it apparently had taken the form of a Luxio, and Cesc had no idea how to discern them.
"Luxio!" He called out. "Use...uh...an electric attack!" He figured that Zorua, despite its illusion ability, couldn't replicate attacks in the way that say...a Ditto could. Hopefully that'd be a means of discerning?
"Scott, can you use their radio?" He pointed to the helicopter "Let's get your ranger friends out here to clean up this mess."
With that, he turned to the boss poacher, who was still sprawled out on the ground. Walking over, he gave the man a little kick to test for wakefulness, before reaching down and dragging the man by his arms. Without any pomp or circumstance, he pushed the man into one of the cages, relishing in the sense of poetic justice.
He looked around for the wild Pokemon from the cave, looking at the cave entrance.
"You think there are any more enemies down there?"
"I would say yes, but...... I don't have a radio, it was drowned a few weeks ago and I never replaced it. My cell phone has no signal all the way out here, either. But...... since these poachers took the radio from that Ranger Station, it should be around here somewhere, and we should be able to call for help with that," Scott said, pulling out his small flip-phone to make sure it hadn't magically regained cell service.
He looked at the three Luxio, two of whom had sparks of blue lightning coming from their fur after they'd heard Cesc's suggestion. The third Luxio was quickly attacked from all sides by practically everyone, and turned back into Zorua as it fainted.
He looked briefly around the metal cages and then peeked inside the giant wooden storage crate, which was full of various evolution stones, but didn't see the radio. "Also, could you check that guy's pockets? He's got to have the keys to those cages somewhere. The keys Ebony swiped were the ones for the helicopter."
Leaving the crate and cages behind and with his small Eevee right on his heels, Scott made his way over to the poacher's small helicopter. It seated four people, but was quite a bit smaller than the four-seat helicopters that many news stations used, and it was painted silver with no markings and no identification numbers. In addition, there was a large hook on the bottom of the helicopter, with a chain attached to it that led to the wooden storage crate.
The doors were unlocked, so Scott hopped in and looked around. "If I were to leave a radio lying around somewhere, it would probably be in here...... aha! Here it is." The stolen radio was sitting in between the two front seats, next to the helicopter's main radio system. Scott quickly decided that instead of turning in the radio as evidence against the poachers, he was going to keep it as a replacement for his other radio. Hopefully that wouldn't cause any problems.
He used a dial on the top of the radio to set it to channel 2, which was the regional primary operations channel. From there, he made a call to the regional HQ about what had happened since he and Cesc had left the trashed Ranger Station about two hours prior.
The medical helicopter with the injured Ranger from the station (which was the southern mountain station, one of three stations in the region) had only recently arrived at the Arasam hospital, but apparently the Ranger and his Pokemon were doing well, "Or at least as well as someone who was stabbed twice could possibly be doing," as the female Ranger on the other end of the radio had told him.
The medical helicopter had apparently been waiting on standby in case it was needed again, so it would only take about 20-30 minutes for it to reach them, and this time it would be serving as a transport for a Ranger support team who would clean up the area and take all the poachers and their Pokemon into custody.
Once he started explaining about the winged Absol, however, someone else came over the radio and told him to switch to channel 6, a private operations channel, for a quick briefing on that.
As he did so, Scott stepped back out of the helicopter so Cesc could hear, thinking that it might be useful information for both of them.
However, after the apparently high-level Ranger confirmed he'd switched channels, he got a response he wasn't expecting. "You never saw, fought, or otherwise interacted with any kind of winged Absol. Am I clear?"
Scott was taken aback by the response from the radio. "Umm...... what?"
"You heard me. Once the support team arrives, you are to take the helicopter back to the hospital. Any injuries to you or your Pokemon were not caused by an Absol but rather by a Honchcrow." After that short statement, the voice cut out and a message came over the radio stating that Channel 6 was not being used by any other radios within range.
He looked over at Cesc. "Well, that's kinda weird. They must be wanting to cover up something about that Absol. Maybe this guy is a former Ranger?" He tapped the boss poacher with his foot.
When he looked back over at the poacher's winged Absol, however, he discovered that it had transformed back into a regular Absol and was also looking especially fatigued. "Okay, this is just crazy. But if we're supposed to take the helicopter back, there isn't much we can do about it. It'll be here in about 30 minutes, so let's finish up things before then. I'm wanting to see what that big crystalline rock inside the cave is. Although...... he did only say I had to take the helicopter, so if you want to hang around and see what the support team does with the Absol, you can."
Cesc had smiled offhandedly at Scott's remarks. He'd hoped that Scott would use that radio in the helicopter, as it seemed silly to have such an aircraft without built in communications tech. But, Scott did have a point about the stolen radio, meaning it was around there somewhere.
At the ranger's behest, Cesc sidled over to the boss poacher, stuffed inside the cage, and rummaged around for any set of keys. If Scott had the helicopter keys via Ebony, he wasn't quite sure where he'd find any other keys. With the man cramped in such a funny position, Cesc felt a bit odd groping around on an unconscious man; it simply wasn't his style.
"Tybalt. Bardolph. Break open the locks on the remaining cages."
As the two Pokemon set about freeing the remaining prisoners, Cesc hopped up to take a seat on the cage, watching the ranger curiously. As Scott poked back out from the helicopter, the former-street urchin leaned forward to hear the crackle coming from the radio. He cocked his head to one side, raising an eyebrow curiously.
Hopping off the cage, he eyed Scott, who seemed just as perplexed by the command. That, at least, meant that this wasn't proper protocol.
"I never trust an organization that forces me to lie." Cesc shrugged nonchalantly. "But, Honchkrow it is. I'm not in the mood to make more enemies today."
He pondered the Ranger's suggestion, and shrugged once more in response.
"Guess I'll stick around. I'm curious to see what that rock is, myself." Their work done, his Pokemon all sidled up to him once more, looking at him expectantly. He grinned cheerily, petting them all before returning them to their pokeballs. "Excellent work, my friends. Rest well for now."
He turned, slipping his hands into his pockets as he looked towards the cave entrance.
"What're you going to say about me in your report?" He cast a sidelong glance with an amused look on his face as they began to enter the cave. "Dashing and Handsome Cesc Rojas proved to be an invaluable ally?"
"I don't know if I'll quite put it like that...... but you did do most of the work battle-wise. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I'm going to put in the report about that Absol...... or Honchcrow or whatever. I figure the official report will probably state that I assisted a stronger trainer, you, in defeating a bunch of poachers. Maybe I'll throw in something about us pulling one of them out of the helicopter as they tried to use it to flee or something, just to make us sound more amazing," Scott remarked. "Although, considering the two of us took down four poachers, I think that's pretty good. We might even end up in the newspapers, although I bet the higher-ups will want to keep the location of this cave secret so it doesn't get attacked again by every thief in the region."
For now, though, he simply took all the Pokeballs off of the boss poacher and used them to return all his opponent's Pokemon other than Absol to a safe place where they couldn't cause any more problems..
"Anyway, most of these Pokemon seemed like they're capable of going through the Ranger rehab program, so they'll all either be released or adopted by someone else. At least, all of them but 'Absolcrow.' Even without whatever reasons the higher-ups have for keeping him secret, he'd probably have to be euthanized, considering he tried to tear my shoulder off. As is, he'll probably be taken to some research facility somewhere for...... something...... maybe......"
He decided not to dwell on that, and instead returned Ebony to his Great Ball, muttering "You did good, so rest up for a while and I'll let you out for dinner when I get out of the hospital later," then reached into his bag and pulled out the two Pokeballs that belonged to the poacher he'd taken down earlier, dropping them on the ground next to the cages.
"It seems like Houndour ran off. Well, as small as he was, it probably won't cause any problems."
It was then that he noticed that the wild Glaceon had come down from the ridge above and was sitting near him. "You know, you might not act real friendly, but someone as cute as you can't be all that ba- ach!"
He had been reaching down to pat the wild ice-type on the head when it suddenly clamped it's jaws around his hand. Luckily, it didn't have a real strong bite strength (barely enough to break his skin), but Glaceon still held on for as long as he could. "Okay, I get it, you don't like me. Now let go......!"
He struggled with it for a moment before grabbing the ice fox by the scruff of its neck, which finally caused it to let go and merely glare at him until he let go. "Oww...... okay, well, about that big crystal rock...... we might as well go see what it is."
He followed Cesc into the cave. As he had never been inside a cave before, he was startled by how dark it was. Luckily, a flashlight was standard issue for Rangers, and unlike with his radio his flashlight hadn't had the misfortune of being stolen by a greedy Purrloin and dropped in a river, so he was able to use it to light up the path directly in front of them. None of the wild Pokemon followed them.
The cave was initially rather large, big enough for two Rhydon to stand side-by-side and just barely tall enough for the wild Absol to stand on top of the Rhydon without being crushed into the ceiling. However, it quickly narrowed and lowered to where it was just barely big enough for Rhydon to fit if he crouched down. The walls were pockmarked with evolution-stone-sized marks, where it appeared the poachers had removed stones and stuck them in the storage crate outside.
About a hundred and fifty feet into the cave, it split into two paths. The wider path was on the right, and it led to a large cavern where the wild Pokemon the guarded the cave apparently slept. As there was no wind inside the cave, the Stun Spore that the poachers' Butterfree had used to quiet any resistance was still visible on the floor. Scott didn't know if it was still capable of causing paralysis, and the cavern didn't appear to have any exits, so he decided against going very far into the cavern and instead pushed Cesc towards the other cave path.
The second path was much smaller, and they had to crouch to walk through it. It twisted and turned all over the place, and it also sloped upwards. The walls, floor, and ceiling here were also pockmarked with spots where evolution stones had been removed, but after a few minutes of walking those were replaced by actual evolution stones that still remained in the cave. "Seems like this is as far as the poachers got."
The path seemed like it continued on forever, and eventually it began to get quite cold. The evolution stones slowly began to become less common, and eventually they stopped appearing along the walls altogether, but the path still continued until eventually they came upon a spot where it opened up into a small cavern.
The cavern was almost circular, about ten feet across and ten feet high. At the far end of the cave, there was a hole in the top where sunlight was visible. The hole was just big enough for an Absol to fit through, so Scott briefly wondered if this was how she and the Glaceon escaped the cave before his eyes were drawn to what else was in the cavern.
Sticking out of one of the cavern walls was what appeared to be a great crystalline rock, which was almost entirely surrounded on the walls and floor by a thick layer of crystal-clear ice. Scott walked up to the stone and placed his hand on it, and quickly realized it wasn't crystal at all, but rather it was also made of a weird form of ice.
"Is this...... that Never Melt Ice stuff? No...... wait, it can't be......"
Suddenly it all made sense to him. He'd been wondering why a Glaceon was living in an area where there was no snow on the ground, and where the temperatures were much warmer than farther up the mountain near the peak. "This...... I think it's an Icy Rock. It's how that Glaceon evolved from an Eevee. If so, this is the first one found in all of Furoh, so it's quite an amazing discovery."
He pulled out his knife and tried to chip off a piece of the rock to take as a souvenir, but his small blade couldn't even scratch the Icy Rock, let alone chip a piece off. So Scott instead pulled his camera out of his bag and snapped a few quick photos of the giant evolution stone. "This is just awesome. I'm going to be rather sad if it isn't an Icy Rock, but what else could it be?"
Cesc pondered for a moment as Scott went over the details of what he'd possibly put in the report.
"If it were me...I'd make sure the only lie was the bit about the Honchkrow." He said, somewhat darkly. The young co-ordinator wasn't above lying himself, but something didn't sit right with him when the authority figures seemed crooked. Perhaps the rangers weren't crooked, though. Perhaps they had a good reason to hush them up in that way, but it didn't sit well with Cesc. Perhaps they'd fill him in on the helicopter ride later.
"Wait...euthanized?"
Cesc frowned. That definitely didn't sit well with him. These rangers sounded less and less like heroes and more and more like beaurocrats with each passing moment.
Scott mentioned the Houndour, and Cesc felt a wave of sympathy for the young man. He was joining an organization that just felt shady, and so far, while he had skills, he'd proven woefully naive of the various dangerous situations he was in.
"Best not to let our guard down until we know for sure it's gone. It could've gone to wake up its trainer for all we know."
Another amused look crossed his face as the Glaceon chomped down on Scott's hand. Each new instance just set it in stone with Cesc that Scott was new. He had figured that Rangers had some sort of magical-telepathic-control with wild Pokemon, but perhaps like regular Pokemon training, it seemed that high-level Pokemon would simply do their own thing.
As they entered the cave, a nagging concern tugged at the back of Cesc's mind. None of the Pokemon who, presumably, lived in the cave had followed them in. Either the two had earned the trust of the Wild Pokemon by freeing them, or they were walking right into a trap and were about to be dinner.
He noted the marks from where evolution stones had been excavated, and it seemed pretty amazing that there was such a place where they all existed in such quantity. No wonder the Poachers had set their sights on this cave; Cesc figured that if each stone sold for 3000 Poke on the standard market, he could only imagine the sort of profit they would've reaped from such a cache. Admittedly, it was rather tempting for him too. Just a few stones would set up his Aunt and Uncle with a few months reserve, and maybe even a little extra to spend on advertising...
His thoughts snapped back to the fact that they were traversing a cave in near pitch darkness. He was tempted to call Valentine back out, to at least give them a little more light in all directions, rather than the pinpoint of a flashlight. As the light refracted off of the few gem-like stones still embedded on the wall, Cesc found himself eying them greedily. He reached out and brushed his hand along one, almost longingly, but quickly snapped back; he couldn't be like those men up there, and that was easily the first step. Since leaving the under, he'd resolved to do things the proper way.
What good is history if we don't learn from our mistakes? He thought, sighing mentally as they continued to pass the veritable fortune of stones.
They entered a cavern shortly thereafter, with a crepusular beam of light lancing down from the ceiling onto...the rock from the picture.
Cesc really didn't know anything about what Scott had started to go on about this time, so he just listened closely, absorbing the information. "Nevermeltice" sounded familiar, but "Icy Rock" made little sense in his mind. He ran through the mental checklist of Pokemon evolutions he knew: Level. Stone. Item. Trade. Happiness.
This...seemed like none of those things. Perhaps it resembled an item, but it seemed rather large. Scott had mentioned that Glaceon had evolved from proximity to this rock.
"Well, if it evolves Eevees, maybe Scarlet or Ebony want to evolve now?" Cesc shrugged. He figured Scott wouldn't agree to such a thing. After all, names like Scarlet and Ebony had suggested that they had already settled upon the chosen evolution path. "Probably not."
He stood in front of the large rock, watching as Scott futilely attempted to steal a piece. It seemed odd that most evolution stones came in portable sizes, but this one in particular seemed rather cumbersome to carry around. The stones were also known to be one-time use. If that was the case, then maybe the evolution into Glaceon had used up part of its power?
Cesc was no scientist; he had no real grounds for any of these theories other than the history present behind what he had taken as fact.
"I don't know if we should tell anyone about this." Cesc frowned, crossing his arms. "It just doesn't sit right, you know? People find out about this, and suddenly a bunch of people come plodding through here, making a mess out of these Pokemon's homes, like those poachers. And whose to stop more people from coming back here and taking the rest of those stones, right?"
Not to mention that he didn't trust the Ranger Organization with that knowledge, now that he'd seen how sketchy they were behaving. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have the option of just hopping over if he ever needed one himself. Not to sell for cash. That was the important distinction.
"I think maybe we should keep this part a secret. Maybe put the stones they harvested back in here, and just say that the poachers were after the rare Pokemon, like Glaceon, Absol, and Lucario. I know I said keep the lies to a minimum earlier," He sighed, annoyed; he hated having to amend the things said earlier, "but it never hurts to be cautious, no?"
"Well, the Rangers that are coming on that helicopter will undoubtedly explore the cave and find this rock and all the other stones, but I doubt word of the existence of the cave will spread any farther than them and some of the higher-ups and maybe one or two very strong trainers, like the regional champion. Once they leave, though, even if it's only for a day or two...... I bet all those strong wild Pokemon that were stuck in those cages will do their best to keep anyone else from re-entering the cave. I'm not even sure if they'd let the two of us back in...... much less someone they don't know. I'm more worried about someone getting killed trying to get in than the cave being trashed by other people. And besides, there were far too many stones in that crate to move them all before they arrive."
He paused, before continuing. "And no, Scarlet and Ebony aren't going to be evolving here...... I'd like a Glaceon, but neither of them wanted to evolve into one. Scarlet has chosen to be an Espeon, and her brother will be an Umbreon. I couldn't decide what to evolve them into, so I let them choose. If I had to choose, Leafeon would be next for its healing powers, and after that Jolteon for the paralysis abilities, and then Glaceon for its shear destructive power. Also, I heard that Leafeon can use Aerial Ace, and when that move is combined with a psychic power from someone else, they can grow energy wings and fly around...... apparently, some Co-ordinator in Sinnoh used it to get to the semi-finals of the Grand Festival a few years back. That definitely makes me want a Leafeon before getting anything else, just to try it. That, and Leafeon are supposedly very gentle, so they'd be great for having around little kids."
He poked at the Icy Rock one last time before motioning to Cesc, "We should get back to the entrance. Who knows if the helicopter will show up early, or if more poachers will appear from somewhere."
He led the way back out of the cave, and grimaced at the bright sunlight before looking over at the Absol that was still stuck in the cage. "I mentioned earlier that they'll probably euthanize it, but maybe they won't...... it's something very rarely done, and only to the most aggressive Pokemon that we have no way of taming. he seemed pretty aggressive to me, though," Scott said, rubbing his right shoulder slightly. It was too painful to touch, and by now his shirt sleeve was soaked with his blood, which was starting to drip down onto the ground. "Man, I hope that helicopter gets here soon......"
He sat down next to the poachers' small helicopter and took off his shirt to better see the injury before rummaging through his bag for a first-aid kit. He'd been rather lazy with the training courses he had taken, but he had been smart enough to take first-aid classes. He'd hated them, but he knew he'd need them one day. He couldn't stitch his own shoulder, but he could at least wrap it in bandages and gauze to slow the bleeding.
His shoulder had two lines of broken skin where the Absol's top and bottom jaws had bitten in. The mark from the top jaw was about three inches long, while the bottom mark was about two inches. "Great. I guess that adds two more scars." With his shirt off, the long scar on his arm from an incident several months prior was quite visible, running from just below his right shoulder down to his elbow.
He checked the time on his phone. They had between five and fifteen minutes left before the helicopter arrived, so he pulled some bandages and medical tape out of his first-aid kit and began to wrap up his shoulder. As he did so, the wild Absol sat down on the ground next to him, and a much smaller Absol that had been stuck in one of the cages sat with it. "Well, at least we know that not all Absol are mean. I heard that one of my classmates caught one a while back, but I've never actually seen it, so today was my first time meeting one. Maybe, if you're worried about what will happen to Absol......crow, you could try and make it look like he broke out of the cage, then catch him for yourself. Although that would be stealing, but...... that will be the least of the poacher's worries when he's stuck in prison. If you do, I'm not helping you, though."
He sighed. "Flying Absol would make for an amazing trump card. You'd probably be the envy of every other Trainer out there, but I'm not sure how well the higher-up Rangers who wanted to keep this secret will take it. I couldn't capture it myself, because there's a certain person who will complain very violently if I catch a non-fox Pokemon...... and I doubt my team is capable of taking him down anyway."
Scott then finished wrapping up his shoulder and pulled an apple out of a side pocket in his bag before beginning to eat it.
Scott looked for a moment at the piece of paper with Cesc's contact information, then stuck it in a side pocket of his bag- and in the process found the envelope that the Staraptor had given him earlier. He had nothing else to do but wait, so he opened it to read it.
It was from the Loch family, his former neighbors and the owners of the best-known and largest day care in the Furoh region.
The content was short and to the point, which was rather odd for the Lochs but Scott didn't mind. Essentially, a request they had put in a few months ago to have a Ranger station built near their home had been granted by Ranger Command- and the location had been decided as well.
It would be located next to the ruins of Scott's burned-out house, in the center of the fruit and berry farm that had once belonged to his parents and was now technically owned by him.
The construction workers that had been contracted out to build the station wanted him to review the plans and see if there was anything he wanted to add. That, and they needed him to convince his parents' last remaining Pokemon, Braviary, to let them onto the land without getting torn limb from limb.
In other words, he was finally going to return home, for only the second time since he had started Ranger training nearly seven months ago.
"Well, this was unexpected......" Part of him wished Cesc had hung around to share some of the happiness about getting a home again, but the other part was worried he'd cry...... and he didn't want anyone to see that.
Scott smiled, and then suddenly passed out from his injuries.
~~~
When he came too, he was lying in a hospital bed, and there was a familiar and quite pretty girl sitting in a chair next to the bed.
"Oh, looks like you've woken up, Fox."
"...... Wolf. Where am I?" Scott slowly pushed himself up so that he was sitting.
Amber Harrison was one of his two classmates during Ranger school. Due to the oddness of their instructor, known only as "Boss" or "Master," each of the three cadets had been given nicknames related to some series of games he'd never even heard of. Due to his team of foxes, Scott became "Fox" while Amber became "Wolf due to her own team of a pair of wolves. Their third teammate had been given the nickname "Falco" for his use of birds, but he was transferred to a different region halfway through training.
Amber was about as tall and even thinner than Scott was, and also matched most of his style of dressing, although that was a pure coincidence. She had long, light brown hair, and most of the guys she had met would count her as a very attractive women. At least, when she wasn't biting you......
He wasn't sure how much he liked being called Fox, but only Amber and his instructor called him that so it was okay...... he didn't know what he would do if Cesc learned about it. Scott was already pretty sure he didn't have the best opinion of the Rangers, so what would he do if he knew they all had silly nicknames? Would he lose faith in them entirely?
"You're in the general hospital in Arasam. You've been here about...... four hours now. The doctor seemed busy, so he said that when you woke up you could leave," Amber told him.
Scott looked at his shoulder. "How many stitches?"
"65. Which, by the way, is about quadruple your score for teamwork for this event. You should have waited for me to arrive at the Ranger station before you set out on your own to take down all those poachers!"
Scott cringed, expecting that he might need more stitches by the time the day had ended, due to himself being bitten. "Wait, I didn't go off on my own! There was another guy, Cesc, who went with me! He actually did most of the battling!"
Amber didn't seem to believe him, probably due to the fact that Cesc had left on foot before the helicopter arrived. "I swear! See, I have his contact information right here...... please don't bite me, I have enough injuries as is!" Scott nearly cried.
"Sure. Whatever. You still failed, and those cute little foxes of yours got all beat up in the process. You know that makes me a little mad...... but at least you're still in one piece. Now come on, let's get out of this hospital."
She may seem mean, but Amber was luckily a person with a good heart, so she helped Scott stand up and leave the hospital. The pair made a stop by Arasam's main Ranger Station so Scott could file the official report, which took about another hour.
After that was finally done, Amber asked one simple question. "So where are you headed next?"
Scott paused for a moment and looked up towards the sky. The sun had just dropped below the horizon, and the stars were beginning to become visible.
After a moment of staring at the stars, he answered.
"Home."
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