Wonder if we are ever gonna get a Nother encounter? I can just imagine the drama
Hard Enough - Pokemon SI
- Thread starter Viva01
- Start date
- Users' Choice!
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- Tags
- pokemon self insert
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
This makes me intrigued about Lola. Also always like when we get to see some interactions with the pokemon in their enclosures, or whatever you want to call it.
- Pronouns
- She
Dead curious about why Brock was disappointed meeting Spunky and Bighead
Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
And then Shrek gets revealed to be a Milotic. Because Brock got a Feebass and thought he was funny.
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
What could it be…? Why must we be tortured with this mystery???
Rocko's name is Rocko and he works at a Rock gym. Brock probably hoped for some naming theme for all of his Pokémon.
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Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
Nah, I think I remember it being something about the show Rocko's Modern Life.
- Location
- Borderworld, Xen
No baby khan?
- Location
- New Castle, De
Mr. Bighead was Rocko's neighbor in the show. Some frog type man with his wife. Still don't know why he was upset. Maybe he was hoping for appropriate pokemon for the names?
Chapter 44 - Ranger Patrol
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
Pidgeot and Fearow were renowned for their speed in the air. In fact, they are considered the fastest pokemon that the common trainer has available to them. After all, there's only a small amount of people that could raise and keep a Dragonite. It was possible for elite courier services —owned by the Blackthorn Clan— to have them, but you had to pay for it. They were still considered rare to see flying anywhere however. The most commonly seen Dragonite was in fact Lance's Dragonite. And if Lance was flying around as fast as he could go, then something big was going down somewhere as he typically had a procession around him.
Claire would probably also have a Dragonite to call on, but no one had ever seen her fly off on one publically. Then again I didn't, and still don't, check any magazines for her appearances. Although she might not appear in anything big. She was rather overshadowed by her cousin Lance.
Some people rode Charizard, but that was almost as much of a status symbol flex as it was practical. You'd certainly get where you were going but it was generally faster to get there on a Pidgeot or Fearow. Also, it was a smoother ride.
In the racing circuits, flying-type pokemon were bred, raised, and trained to be paragons of flight. Typically if it was just speed that was being demanded of them then the pokemon would be smaller than the average members of their species. Pokemon that needed to go fast and carry riders? Those tended to be much larger.
The average Pidgeot came in at one and a half metres which was perfect for battle. A good middle ground for power generation with speed and enough evasive ability to dodge most attacks.
Fearow's had a one-point two-metre height which made them fit the same role in a trainer's roster. For commercial purposes or rider roles, these pokemon could easily be found in sizes that were twice, if not three times, as big making it easy for them to carry people, packages, or even both.
The Sevii and Orange island regions were particularly dependent on the messenger birds being able to fly with the speed they did. If you had bigger items that couldn't be delivered piecemeal by a flock, then you had to get them shipped. Which, with some pokemon objecting to ships sailing through their territory, created other hassles, even in tamed or well-charted areas.
Still, Pidgeot and Fearow were the most prolific pokemon for flyers to use.
It made my own choice in Zephyr, my much larger Noctowl, stand out.
Unlike those birds, he couldn't fly as fast or as far. He needed to use the move tailwind to reach their lowest levels of speed. Where he was better was in his ability to fly at night, and on silent wings. This made it much easier to patrol the wilds with the pokemon that might be causing disturbances or being problematic being none the wiser of our approach.
This didn't hold true for dangerous areas like the Mt Silver range where you learnt to keep an eye on the sky or you or your offspring got eaten.
Other, more shaded or protected areas, however, had inhabitants that weren't used to this. When I flew into Ranger command —which for Pewter was located to the northwest of the city— I could use this fact to literally spot the veterans out from the student rangers.
The people that looked up while their hands slid to their waists practically shouted their experience if you knew to look for it.
I landed in front of a set of buildings that had been built into and around trees. The entire structure was made of wood with tightly packed joints that made for an impressive two-storey structure. Where patches of the roof should have been exposed, a netting of khaki greens and browns that matched the vegetation was hung.
The Student Rangers startled at my sudden appearance, one of them even tossing out a pokemon before they could think to check who it was.
"Go Jolteon!" I glanced at that trainer as I dismounted off my pokemon. When they bristled I made a show of huffing. Instead of rising to their challenge, I scratched and straightened out some feathers for Zephyr as he drank from a nearby trough of water. He was ignoring the pokemon growling at him.
"Hey! You! What're you doing here?! You can't just fly in!" shouted the trainer. I didn't pay any more attention to them despite their bristling.
"Get your pokemon back in your ball Gonzo!" barked another trainer. The patch on their sleeve marked them as a third-class Area Ranger. The tree patches with the three symbol on it along with a patch showing a one on a mountain highlighted that they had been at this a while. The Jolteon vanished in red light and the student ranger grumbled about being praised before for good reactions. This drew a snort as the veteran ranger marched them off.
I chuckled at their interactions as another Area Ranger bounded up to me. "Gym Leader Brock! Thanks for coming today!" she said, giving me a polite bob of her head. This one had a patch with mountain two on it.
"No problem, I got the message that Commander Hank wanted me to swing by with my next rostered patrol so here I am." I made a sweep over my body as if presenting myself. "So, what's the news?"
The young woman shifted back and forth. "I'm afraid that's for the Commander to discuss with you, but it has to do with Mt Silver!"
I frowned at that. "Mt Silver?" She nodded and gestured for me to follow her. There were no cement footpaths Leading up to the building and you needed to watch where you were going to avoid being tripped up by the tree roots everywhere.
A few of the trees surrounding the clearing bore berries. I pointed Zephyr over to them to let him eat and relax. He hopped once and glided over to a sitrus berry tree.
"Huh, I thought he'd have gone for the Oran or the Pecha tree," said my guide.
"Nah he likes the tang of sitrus berries more than the others. Got a taste for it over in Hoenn when I was roaming the wilds for a week or so in one of the forests."
"Oh? What was it like? Did you go very deep?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, the Hoenn Rangers were way laxer than you guys are in keeping people close to the routes. Spent a ton of time walking through what's now known as route hundred and eleven's desert. Got super sunburnt on the first day and then spent the rest of the time wandering around with every part of my body covered." I remembered Sabrina in her giant hat and huge scarf trudging along with me. She'd been part of why that trip had truly been so successful. I'd made sure to share the spoils of what I'd found in the desert.
I rubbed the back of my head. "Sorry I didn't catch your name by the way?"
"Oh! It's Rei! Sorry about that! I'm so used to everyone knowing me around the Ranger commune!" She scrutinised me for a bit before shaking her head. "I can't believe you went into the desert in Hoenn! What were you thinking?"
"Ohhhh you know how it is as a young trainer, interesting sights, rare pokemon, experiences to call my own!" I said. I wasn't going to admit to looking for fossils or even a pokemon that I thought should exist in the desert such as a Dwebble. I'd actually come out with nothing I'd wanted to find and more than I'd ever bargained for with all the rocks I'd ended up smashing. I'd also been able to scale a giant rocky outcropping thanks to Sabrina.
It had been there that I'd found Selene and Quirrina. Sabrina had also gotten the attention of a Baltoy that she'd captured. Sadly during that aborted Hoenn trip I hadn't been able to find a Beldum or a Ralts. Or rather we'd found Ralts but none that wanted to spend time around me or Sabrina. I'd asked about that but apparently, Sabrina hadn't projected her emotions like normal people so she scared Ralts off. I had enquired about getting an egg for her but apparently, they were as hard to get as Chansey eggs.
…With my recent winnings maybe I'd rethink that idea.
Still, the desert had been lucrative for both of us. They should call that desert the Star falls desert rather than the Mirage desert it was once known as. Interestingly no one had known about the Mirage tower when I'd asked around about structures or ruins. I'd come across as a very odd foreigner, but I'd been able to pass it off as being a history maniac. Sadly it had eluded even Sabrina.
I might not have found any fossils but I had come away with a number of rare metal finds that I was pretty sure the game called Starmetal pieces.
I jolted as we walked through another set of doors, having been lost in memories. I coughed to hide any sheepishness. The trip through the Ranger base was quick, not really letting me reminisce. While the building was large, it prescribed to an open floor plan with there being a number of pillars to hold everything up while small desks littered the space in between them. Groups of rangers sat around tables discussing findings and reports of pokemon numbers. Others sat writing up reports at separate desks.
I spotted one ranger giving a lecture on survival in the wilderness should the worst happen. I tapped Rei on the shoulder. "Can I get a heads up on the next time some of those courses are on offer? I have two pokemon trainers at the gym and those would be great for them to sit in on," I said thinking of Celia and Missy. Daniel already had the lessons having spent time as a Ranger.
"There's usually one every six weeks, either as a refresher for the older rangers or the new trainers we get coming in. I'll make sure to put your trainers down for a spot!" said Rei helpfully.
When we reached the largest desk we came upon an area that felt more like a strategy meeting room. There were numerous maps about the walls tacked up and on each map coloured zones had been marked out. I could see the topographic map along with simple colours of what each area's vegetation level was like. Different greens announced either forest or scrubland while greys and browns marked out canyons or rocky cliff faces.
Next to this map, there was another map that showed off cave systems but there was a large disclaimer announcing 'that we know of!' atop it.
Another map showed the other two maps once more but this time small stickers with faces of pokemon glared out. Each of these stickers was surrounded by circles that were either larger or smaller depending on the pokemon displayed on the sticker.
Off centre to the highest peak in the Silver range a sticker with a Tyranitar glared outwards. I knew this to be Titan's mother. Her 'territory' overlapped at least eight other pokemon territories. A marker rested next to her sticker. Possible nest? It said simply.
I glanced at the surrounding pokemon. Most of them were Ursaring but there were some other Tyranitar that interestingly enough had their own small territories.
Notably there was a large area that was clear of any other pokemon influence at the top of Mt Silver. This was despite there being lots of pokemon around that area. No pokemon claimed the actual mountain as their own.
Atop it was a black sticker that might have been a pokemon face but white question marks showed that not even the Rangers were sure what was there. Around it they had stickers with what I recognised as Zapdos, Articuno, Moltres and what might have been a Raikou but each of them had question mark stickers which I knew meant they were unsure.
I stood in front of the map and took it all in. It was interesting to see that there were at least eight known Tyranitars over the southern mountain range that the Rangers knew of. Areas that went too far north were greyed out but clusters of stickers announced what pokemon had been sighted.
"Checking in on the old Empress eh?" said a voice, cutting through my inspection of the maps.
I looked over to find a man with a number of scars watching me. He had a rather unfortunate scar that ran from the top of his nose across the top of his head. The scar forced him to have a long line that disrupted his hair. He might have been able to cover it if he had hair but instead, he had shorn himself bald, making it stand out all the more.
Glinty, steel-like eyes watched me as I turned from the maps. "Commander Hank," I said, raising a hand in greeting.
"Gym Leader Brock," he said with a nod, catching my own hand with his very scarred hand to shake it once. I glanced at the burn marks that were shown up along the back of his arm.
It was tougher in this life to take an injury that really left a mark. That didn't mean you couldn't do it. This old man had obviously put himself into a lot of dangerous situations to have just the visible scars. I suspected he had a lot more under his clothes which would only reveal a tapestry of a harsh life. His clothes themselves perhaps mimicked this with the patches all being in gold with a mountain fifteen and a forest ten resting near an ocean eight.
He waved a hand towards the maps. "Checking on the Old Empress eh?" he said again.
I nodded, turning back to the maps, "I swung by after the match with Lance. Told her about how Titan's been doing."
He snorted harshly. "Course you did." He shook his head. "You're insane for getting that close with her!"
"Helps that I have her son as my starter."
He levelled a look at me. "Brock, I've seen her mate. The period after such an act is when those pokemon are supposed to be most docile. They're supposed to calm down for a few days. Not her. I've seen her kick her mate out of her territory minutes after she's done with them."
"Soooo she's a private pokemon?" I shrugged, ignoring the ick factor of that last comment. I looked at the clear space around her. "It probably helps that I don't come into her area much and I'm never trying to claim space. Just stopping by."
"She's not some old granny you drop in on," Hank said gruffly.
I shrugged, not really having an answer. When I'd come back as Gym Leader I'd learnt just how ridiculous my asking her for Titan had been. She should have mauled me at least. For some reason, she'd accepted my request. It remained a question I didn't have an answer to. One that had grown with her recent gift of another of her children.
Hank snorted and waved a hand at the maps. "Well, she's not the issue this time. Nothings' stirring her up like the time a swarm went through Mt Silver but there have been some issues for the other Tyranitars in the area." He pointed towards the other seven marked territories. "Your success has drawn a lot of attention to Tyranitar as a pokemon that can match or exceed Lance's Dragonite."
I snorted at that and Hank nodded in agreement. "Yeah, they're idiots for thinking it's that simple but sadly some idiots are rich. The demand for the Tyranitar line has resulted in trainers that have no business being out here trying to stray into the mountain range. There are also dedicated poachers. Some of them are legitimate professionals, while other groups of criminal origin have also been spotted, such as Team Rocket." I straightened up at that.
Hank grunted. "We've had some fights, but they're being as evasive as ever. The Mt Silver Ranges aren't an area they can set anything up permanently. They employ snatch and grabs only."
He pointed to a brown area. "We used to have a bunch of Tauros ranging around here, but now there's only young timid pokemon as the strongest of the bunch have been taken. We suspect that to be a dedicated snatch op but we only caught the dust cloud of people getting out of there." He huffed in annoyance. "It's got a whole squad of rangers locked into that area now as those Tauros are still too young to fend off the Ursaring and Donphan that roam around there. Forget it if a Tyranitar comes down from a peak or some Onix emerges from the caverns through there."
"So things are busy and we need to push back some people that are looking to make a quick buck." I tilted my head. "Seems like business as usual except for the usual troublemakers aiming a bit higher, and ranging a bit deeper than usual."
Hank's lips twitched in a facsimile of a smile. "Heh, you're not wrong. It's just what the current situation is."
Another person might have reprimanded me for my defeat of Lance. This was a flow-on effect of my victory. A giant spotlight on one of the Pseudo legendaries. It was well-known that Tyranitar roamed the mountains.
Dragonite however were only thought to be found in the Blackthorn area. If people ever worked out what was hidden in the storm off the coast of Vermillion I had no doubt that others would be trying to find their way in.
I'd never heard anything about it from Surge or the Rangers that did stints there, but then again the rangers were never going to openly talk about it. Surge probably would have also kept quiet about it. For all that he had a lot of bluster, he could keep secrets and not talk about some things.
I tapped the area that had a much smaller tauros sticker. Something about that stuck out to me but I wasn't sure why that was. Something to do with Tauros.
"What tracks were there?" I asked, pulling at the threads of memory.
"Mostly off road bikes. They knew not to fly in as we would have caught sight of them."
"Unless they came in fast… what about psychic pokemon?" A memory of an old movie where a psychic pokemon assisted Team Rocket in capturing a lot of Tauros came to the fore. Could this have been something like a Mewtwo appearance?
"Most pokemon don't teleport in if they can avoid it. It'd take a strong Alakazam or Gardevoir to do that with what the tracks showed and that's also taking into account all the pokemon that use dark-type moves. Some sections like the Ol' Empress' area is something pokemon either flat out won't or can't teleport into."
"They do say that Psychic pokemon are the smartest of us all," I said, recalling another factoid from the games about Alakazam supposedly being as smart as a supercomputer. The veracity of that statement was debatable, however. This got another snort from Hank as he crossed his arms.
"So you've got the Tyranitar areas under watch?" I said to continue our conversation.
"Yeah, everyone but hers of course. She gets mad when too many squatters are around. Her getting agitated tends to cause a flow-on effect to all the other pokemon in the area."
"Like a landslide?" I said, checking which pokemon surrounded Titan's mother.
"Eh, technically yes but that doesn't give it the right scale. She's more like an explosion atop a mountain. It's similar but more sudden and dangerous. We keep people well clear. If we had to do something with her… I'd need to bring a few teams to handle her."
I glanced at Hank. I wasn't sure I liked the idea of her being 'handled' but that might have been my bias. I'd spent time with her in close proximity while she'd been almost docile. An enraged Tyranitar would be a much different beast.
"If anything ever stirs her up you have my number. I might be able to calm her down."
"Don't teach your grandmother…" He got a pinched face. "I always forget that most of your generation…" he trailed off with a shake of his head. I gave him a tight smile. It was rare that a saying involved grandparents these days. I stared at the mountains that served as a natural divide between Johto and Kanto.
My eyes relaxed as I took in the mapped territories of pokemon. How many of these species had been here before the war? I turned that over for a while before shaking off my thoughts.
"So, patrol and push back for me?" I asked running a circle around the common routes that trainers would attempt to enter the mountains through.
Hank nodded. "Yup just wanted to read you into the situation."
"Appreciate it." I nodded and walked out of the building after collecting a radio that would have me linked to the Ranger radio channels. When I made it outside I whistled and Zephyr who'd tucked his head under his wing for a quick nap perked up.
"Simple search route for us today and tomorrow boy," I said. He chirped into my touch and I indulged him. A few Rangers walked past and spotted me. They instantly started whispering among themselves and scurried into the building.
Most of the job was actually doing the assigned work, but as I'd come to learn in my time as a Gym Leader. You had to also be seen working with the organisations. This helped everyone below me. I hadn't had to stand around next to Commander Hank like I had. Everything he'd told me could have been handled over transceiver, but it was important to be seen talking with him.
The Rangers seeing that would understand that a good relationship between my gym was to be expected. Hank treated me as important enough to talk with. When my own trainers worked with Rangers they would do so for longer stints of time but they would do so with a sort of social lubricant already established.
I'd need to spend some time with Missy and Daniel up here in future. They wouldn't be assigned to the Mt Silver areas. Typically you needed a year or more of experience in the mountain region or a 'mountain one' before you were trusted with simple tasks around Mt Silver or the dangerous mountainous regions around the Indigo region. The same applied to the forested areas, the oceanic, the caves, or even the swamps, rare as they were.
I had been elevated after my first year liaising with the Rangers and when I'd revealed to them that I had a Tyranitar born from Mt Silver. Most of the time my trainers would only have to work the routes. Viridian forest was considered relatively safe just like Mt Moon was, apart from the warning around the swarm of Beedrill and Zubat respectively.
"Brock!" called out a familiar voice. I turned to find a rangy-looking woman with teal-coloured hair waving at me. "I didn't realise you were coming in today!"
"Hey, Sylvie!" I said waving at her. She trotted up to me only to pause as she had to look up at me.
"Urgh, stupid boys and their height! I'm catching up though!" she said. I opened my mouth to correct her with a tease about how the crick in my neck from looking down would say otherwise but the heat of her gaze made me rethink it. My shins were always in kicking distance after all. Her eyes narrowed as if she could tell I was still thinking about how small she was compared to me.
Another ranger approached and gave a lazy wave. "Brock," he said with a drawl before letting his arm fall back to his side. His actions caused his rather rotund form to jiggle slightly.
I tilted my head. "I see you're doing well Andrew," I made a pointed look at his expansive stomach. Rather than being offended he threw his head back and laughed.
"The rookies can't work it out! How can there be a fat ranger? Ha!" He slapped his stomach and I watched it ripple slightly under his shirt. "Shows what they know! There's food all over if you know where to look!"
I could only nod at that. Sylvie bounced on her feet. "So! Are you on patrol? We're the next team going out! Are you our third?"
"Yeah I think I am," I said. I looked around. "No Roo— I mean, Student Rangers with us today?"
Sylvie and Andrew snorted. "Just call em rookies. The HQ might insist on the new terms but everyone knows that they're rookies. And no, no rookies with us today. They're in a training course."
I gestured to Zephyr. Sylvie raised her own pokemon and a large Fearow appeared with a flap of her wings.
Andrew tossed out a Rapidash. "I'll stay on the road and look for tracks. Radio in anything of note."
Sylvie and I nodded as we mounted up. Sylvie keyed her microphone. "Mic check, mic check this is Fearow omega come in Nightwing."
I chuckled as I keyed my own radio. "Read you Fearow, this is… Nightwing… thought I was Rocker last time?"
"I have to get my fun somewhere Brock, now maintain radio discipline! Heavy, you read me?" said Sylvie.
"Roger Fearow One," said Andrew deliberately calling her what actually radio should dictate her name would be on radio if she insisted on a number with her callsign. Usually, you only did that when there were two trainers with the same pokemon. Higher ranked Rangers always got lower numbers.
"...alright let's get out there!" Sylvie said after deciding not to get into it with Andrew.
Andrew and I shared a thumbs up behind Sylvie's back. She swept her hand up in a Ranger sign for 'take wing' and Zephyr and the Fearow took off. We swept around and circled up towards the road where we saw Andrew riding his Rapidash along the Victory road that cut north. When we reached a point of a service road to help with access for some jeeps that the Rangers used, Andrew dismounted and methodically searched the road.
I swept around in wide circles. Zephyr's head, much like my own, turned slowly to take in the area we were passing. If there were any fallen trees, dust clouds, or large-scale pokemon moves then we'd call it in. More often though it was trainers.
"This is Heavy, got some tracks here that don't match our Jeeps… There's also tracks from a jeep with our tread on this road, but I know for a fact no one's been on this route for a week in a jeep; someone thinks they were clever."
"How do you know that Heavy?" said Sylvie over the radio.
"Made sure to check the register when I got the assignment. Hasn't been anyone doing any road checks or medical call-outs since Jason's team. They had a Tauros they had to take to Nurse Joy."
"Hmmm so we have some suspicious behaviour for sure then… or some idiot not registering their jeep usage."
"Get that much?" I asked.
"..." There was a notable silence that made me chuckle. Most of the people acting as Rangers were still young by my old world's standards after all. It wouldn't surprise me that they might go on some joy rides with the jeeps.
"Right well we'll see what the situation is when we come upon them!" Sylvie said getting us back on track.
"Coming down the track now Fearow One," said Andrew. I glanced over and saw him mounted up and trotting down the road. His eyes swept from side to side as he kept to one side of the road. His Rapidash was quite a large pokemon but that made sense with him using it for his own purposes. It left its own tracks, along with the occasional burst of charred earth as it trotted down the road.
A flash of light had Zephyr shifting position and I snapped from watching Andrew to where Zephyr was taking me.
"Got a pokemon move… looks like Sunny day?" I said as I squinted against the mirroring effect that was coming in around a set area.
"Roger that Nightwing!" said Sylvie gleefully. "You are cleared to engage!"
I huffed and shook my head at her antics. I didn't need her ordering me in but she must have been feeling rather energetic. I came in low onto the battle and found a young trainer fighting with an ivysaur. I had to applaud their use of Sunny day as it had been used rather well to allow his pokemon to apparently get off a quick Solarbeam.
Across from the celebrating trainer and his pokemon was an unconscious Onix. I landed to the side on a slight rise.
"Hello there!" I said cheerfully. Zephyr hopped to the side as I dismounted. He went into a minor threat display with his feathers bristling up in warning. The Ivysaur was confused. I dubbed the move a mix of not very effective and effective. I clicked my tongue and had him settle down. I kept a hand on him and trained my eyes on the trainer's hands. "Nice day we're having!"
"Gym Leader Brock? O-oh! Hey yeah! It's a great day!" said the trainer with only a small stammer. That could be good. Usually, people that are in the wrong reacted one of two ways. Still, it was possible that he might be a wonderful actor.
"Cool, so this is a bit awkward but I need to check your papers to make sure you're cleared to be out this far," I said quickly before he could say anything else. It was quick and tough, much like ripping off a band-aid. The trainer blinked up at me.
"Ah? Papers?" he tilted his head before perking up. "Oh! The papers that the Ranger gave me! Sure thing!"
I relaxed and moved forward. Zephyr remained on watch with his much sharper eyes as I closed in to inspect the papers. Papers for clearance into a restricted area usually looked like a small booklet. The booklet's themselves never remained the same colour, style or even shape to make it harder for criminals to fake. Still, it was possible. I toggled the Ranger HQ channel.
"This is Brock getting a check-in on Trainer…Justin…" I frowned. That name was familiar and not just because I had probably fought him. I glanced at his Ivysaur. I couldn't recall an Ivysaur but a young trainer with a Bulbasaur…
I snapped my fingers. "You fought Celia in her last match before her quarter-finals! You made the top sixteen?"
Justin perked up. "You saw?" Then he blushed. "I mean! Of course, you saw…" He kicked the ground sheepishly, "Chonk and I were against your sponsored trainer."
I glanced down at the Ivysaur. "Chonk?"
"Saur!" replied the Ivysaur.
Justin continued to blush, "Oh yeah! I plan for him to be a beefy boy one day! A big old Venusaur!" Chonk perked up and waggled his flower back and forth.
My radio broke through our conversation. "This is HQ, Trainer Justin is in the log and cleared to access Mt Silver. He's even got clearance to camp on the mountain."
I smiled at that. "Well that's a good start to the day," I said aloud. I nodded to Justin. "Sorry for coming in like that."
Justin waved his hands back and forth. "Oh no! I completely get it! Restricted area and all!"
I made a gesture to the downed Onix. "Going to catch it?"
Justin shook his head. "No, I'm here for training with Chonk. We're going to go for a drop-down second year to Johto so I'm getting my starter as strong as I can."
"Saur!" said Chonk happily. I hummed in approval.
"Well best of luck then! Stay safe!"
"Ah! Actually… If you wouldn't mind Gym Leader… how did you capture your Tyranitar?"
I huffed as I checked over Zephyr. "I got stupid lucky. I'd advise against it Justin, don't go straight for a Tyranitar, stick to your first objective."
"No chance of getting a Larvitar?" said Justin.
"Larvitar usually don't leave the nest of their mother," I said as I mounted up on Zephyr. I looked sternly at Justin. "If you're thinking of creeping into a nesting mother Tyranitar's nest don't expect to keep your rights to the mountain for long. Or you know…" I grimaced and left the words unsaid.
"Ah, right that's fair," he said, understanding how he'd be literally putting his head into the maw of a beast if he did that. He waved as I took off. It was nice to have the first interaction of the day be someone who actually deserved to be here. It used to be that anyone that made it past the group stages were allowed into the Silver mountains.
I'd seen the death toll from those misguided times and nowadays you needed to make it to the top sixteen to earn the right. Justin, following my —extremely hypocritical— advice would probably determine whether or not he'd be leaving the mountain soon.
I hoped he had a good head on his shoulders.
I soared away and switched my radio back to my 'team's channel'. I linked back up and found Fearow dropping down. Before Fearow had even reached the ground I could already tell this was going to be someone caught out.
"Got a runner!" screamed Sylvie into her radio.
I tapped Zephyr and he dove to intercept. I braced as Zephyr opened his wings near the ground to break his descent. The trainer stopped dead in the face of the sudden dark wings blocking out the sun in front of them. I stayed atop Zephyr as we hovered. "This is the part where you get on the ground," I said firmly.
The girl got on the ground and that signalled the first arrest we'd be making for the day I suspected.
It wasn't even lunchtime yet.
A.N. Special thanks goes to my patreons for their support!
Special thanks goes to Raikor, Ab9999 and Elnoorz for betaing and editing this chapter
Claire would probably also have a Dragonite to call on, but no one had ever seen her fly off on one publically. Then again I didn't, and still don't, check any magazines for her appearances. Although she might not appear in anything big. She was rather overshadowed by her cousin Lance.
Some people rode Charizard, but that was almost as much of a status symbol flex as it was practical. You'd certainly get where you were going but it was generally faster to get there on a Pidgeot or Fearow. Also, it was a smoother ride.
In the racing circuits, flying-type pokemon were bred, raised, and trained to be paragons of flight. Typically if it was just speed that was being demanded of them then the pokemon would be smaller than the average members of their species. Pokemon that needed to go fast and carry riders? Those tended to be much larger.
The average Pidgeot came in at one and a half metres which was perfect for battle. A good middle ground for power generation with speed and enough evasive ability to dodge most attacks.
Fearow's had a one-point two-metre height which made them fit the same role in a trainer's roster. For commercial purposes or rider roles, these pokemon could easily be found in sizes that were twice, if not three times, as big making it easy for them to carry people, packages, or even both.
The Sevii and Orange island regions were particularly dependent on the messenger birds being able to fly with the speed they did. If you had bigger items that couldn't be delivered piecemeal by a flock, then you had to get them shipped. Which, with some pokemon objecting to ships sailing through their territory, created other hassles, even in tamed or well-charted areas.
Still, Pidgeot and Fearow were the most prolific pokemon for flyers to use.
It made my own choice in Zephyr, my much larger Noctowl, stand out.
Unlike those birds, he couldn't fly as fast or as far. He needed to use the move tailwind to reach their lowest levels of speed. Where he was better was in his ability to fly at night, and on silent wings. This made it much easier to patrol the wilds with the pokemon that might be causing disturbances or being problematic being none the wiser of our approach.
This didn't hold true for dangerous areas like the Mt Silver range where you learnt to keep an eye on the sky or you or your offspring got eaten.
Other, more shaded or protected areas, however, had inhabitants that weren't used to this. When I flew into Ranger command —which for Pewter was located to the northwest of the city— I could use this fact to literally spot the veterans out from the student rangers.
The people that looked up while their hands slid to their waists practically shouted their experience if you knew to look for it.
I landed in front of a set of buildings that had been built into and around trees. The entire structure was made of wood with tightly packed joints that made for an impressive two-storey structure. Where patches of the roof should have been exposed, a netting of khaki greens and browns that matched the vegetation was hung.
The Student Rangers startled at my sudden appearance, one of them even tossing out a pokemon before they could think to check who it was.
"Go Jolteon!" I glanced at that trainer as I dismounted off my pokemon. When they bristled I made a show of huffing. Instead of rising to their challenge, I scratched and straightened out some feathers for Zephyr as he drank from a nearby trough of water. He was ignoring the pokemon growling at him.
"Hey! You! What're you doing here?! You can't just fly in!" shouted the trainer. I didn't pay any more attention to them despite their bristling.
"Get your pokemon back in your ball Gonzo!" barked another trainer. The patch on their sleeve marked them as a third-class Area Ranger. The tree patches with the three symbol on it along with a patch showing a one on a mountain highlighted that they had been at this a while. The Jolteon vanished in red light and the student ranger grumbled about being praised before for good reactions. This drew a snort as the veteran ranger marched them off.
I chuckled at their interactions as another Area Ranger bounded up to me. "Gym Leader Brock! Thanks for coming today!" she said, giving me a polite bob of her head. This one had a patch with mountain two on it.
"No problem, I got the message that Commander Hank wanted me to swing by with my next rostered patrol so here I am." I made a sweep over my body as if presenting myself. "So, what's the news?"
The young woman shifted back and forth. "I'm afraid that's for the Commander to discuss with you, but it has to do with Mt Silver!"
I frowned at that. "Mt Silver?" She nodded and gestured for me to follow her. There were no cement footpaths Leading up to the building and you needed to watch where you were going to avoid being tripped up by the tree roots everywhere.
A few of the trees surrounding the clearing bore berries. I pointed Zephyr over to them to let him eat and relax. He hopped once and glided over to a sitrus berry tree.
"Huh, I thought he'd have gone for the Oran or the Pecha tree," said my guide.
"Nah he likes the tang of sitrus berries more than the others. Got a taste for it over in Hoenn when I was roaming the wilds for a week or so in one of the forests."
"Oh? What was it like? Did you go very deep?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, the Hoenn Rangers were way laxer than you guys are in keeping people close to the routes. Spent a ton of time walking through what's now known as route hundred and eleven's desert. Got super sunburnt on the first day and then spent the rest of the time wandering around with every part of my body covered." I remembered Sabrina in her giant hat and huge scarf trudging along with me. She'd been part of why that trip had truly been so successful. I'd made sure to share the spoils of what I'd found in the desert.
I rubbed the back of my head. "Sorry I didn't catch your name by the way?"
"Oh! It's Rei! Sorry about that! I'm so used to everyone knowing me around the Ranger commune!" She scrutinised me for a bit before shaking her head. "I can't believe you went into the desert in Hoenn! What were you thinking?"
"Ohhhh you know how it is as a young trainer, interesting sights, rare pokemon, experiences to call my own!" I said. I wasn't going to admit to looking for fossils or even a pokemon that I thought should exist in the desert such as a Dwebble. I'd actually come out with nothing I'd wanted to find and more than I'd ever bargained for with all the rocks I'd ended up smashing. I'd also been able to scale a giant rocky outcropping thanks to Sabrina.
It had been there that I'd found Selene and Quirrina. Sabrina had also gotten the attention of a Baltoy that she'd captured. Sadly during that aborted Hoenn trip I hadn't been able to find a Beldum or a Ralts. Or rather we'd found Ralts but none that wanted to spend time around me or Sabrina. I'd asked about that but apparently, Sabrina hadn't projected her emotions like normal people so she scared Ralts off. I had enquired about getting an egg for her but apparently, they were as hard to get as Chansey eggs.
…With my recent winnings maybe I'd rethink that idea.
Still, the desert had been lucrative for both of us. They should call that desert the Star falls desert rather than the Mirage desert it was once known as. Interestingly no one had known about the Mirage tower when I'd asked around about structures or ruins. I'd come across as a very odd foreigner, but I'd been able to pass it off as being a history maniac. Sadly it had eluded even Sabrina.
I might not have found any fossils but I had come away with a number of rare metal finds that I was pretty sure the game called Starmetal pieces.
I jolted as we walked through another set of doors, having been lost in memories. I coughed to hide any sheepishness. The trip through the Ranger base was quick, not really letting me reminisce. While the building was large, it prescribed to an open floor plan with there being a number of pillars to hold everything up while small desks littered the space in between them. Groups of rangers sat around tables discussing findings and reports of pokemon numbers. Others sat writing up reports at separate desks.
I spotted one ranger giving a lecture on survival in the wilderness should the worst happen. I tapped Rei on the shoulder. "Can I get a heads up on the next time some of those courses are on offer? I have two pokemon trainers at the gym and those would be great for them to sit in on," I said thinking of Celia and Missy. Daniel already had the lessons having spent time as a Ranger.
"There's usually one every six weeks, either as a refresher for the older rangers or the new trainers we get coming in. I'll make sure to put your trainers down for a spot!" said Rei helpfully.
When we reached the largest desk we came upon an area that felt more like a strategy meeting room. There were numerous maps about the walls tacked up and on each map coloured zones had been marked out. I could see the topographic map along with simple colours of what each area's vegetation level was like. Different greens announced either forest or scrubland while greys and browns marked out canyons or rocky cliff faces.
Next to this map, there was another map that showed off cave systems but there was a large disclaimer announcing 'that we know of!' atop it.
Another map showed the other two maps once more but this time small stickers with faces of pokemon glared out. Each of these stickers was surrounded by circles that were either larger or smaller depending on the pokemon displayed on the sticker.
Off centre to the highest peak in the Silver range a sticker with a Tyranitar glared outwards. I knew this to be Titan's mother. Her 'territory' overlapped at least eight other pokemon territories. A marker rested next to her sticker. Possible nest? It said simply.
I glanced at the surrounding pokemon. Most of them were Ursaring but there were some other Tyranitar that interestingly enough had their own small territories.
Notably there was a large area that was clear of any other pokemon influence at the top of Mt Silver. This was despite there being lots of pokemon around that area. No pokemon claimed the actual mountain as their own.
Atop it was a black sticker that might have been a pokemon face but white question marks showed that not even the Rangers were sure what was there. Around it they had stickers with what I recognised as Zapdos, Articuno, Moltres and what might have been a Raikou but each of them had question mark stickers which I knew meant they were unsure.
I stood in front of the map and took it all in. It was interesting to see that there were at least eight known Tyranitars over the southern mountain range that the Rangers knew of. Areas that went too far north were greyed out but clusters of stickers announced what pokemon had been sighted.
"Checking in on the old Empress eh?" said a voice, cutting through my inspection of the maps.
I looked over to find a man with a number of scars watching me. He had a rather unfortunate scar that ran from the top of his nose across the top of his head. The scar forced him to have a long line that disrupted his hair. He might have been able to cover it if he had hair but instead, he had shorn himself bald, making it stand out all the more.
Glinty, steel-like eyes watched me as I turned from the maps. "Commander Hank," I said, raising a hand in greeting.
"Gym Leader Brock," he said with a nod, catching my own hand with his very scarred hand to shake it once. I glanced at the burn marks that were shown up along the back of his arm.
It was tougher in this life to take an injury that really left a mark. That didn't mean you couldn't do it. This old man had obviously put himself into a lot of dangerous situations to have just the visible scars. I suspected he had a lot more under his clothes which would only reveal a tapestry of a harsh life. His clothes themselves perhaps mimicked this with the patches all being in gold with a mountain fifteen and a forest ten resting near an ocean eight.
He waved a hand towards the maps. "Checking on the Old Empress eh?" he said again.
I nodded, turning back to the maps, "I swung by after the match with Lance. Told her about how Titan's been doing."
He snorted harshly. "Course you did." He shook his head. "You're insane for getting that close with her!"
"Helps that I have her son as my starter."
He levelled a look at me. "Brock, I've seen her mate. The period after such an act is when those pokemon are supposed to be most docile. They're supposed to calm down for a few days. Not her. I've seen her kick her mate out of her territory minutes after she's done with them."
"Soooo she's a private pokemon?" I shrugged, ignoring the ick factor of that last comment. I looked at the clear space around her. "It probably helps that I don't come into her area much and I'm never trying to claim space. Just stopping by."
"She's not some old granny you drop in on," Hank said gruffly.
I shrugged, not really having an answer. When I'd come back as Gym Leader I'd learnt just how ridiculous my asking her for Titan had been. She should have mauled me at least. For some reason, she'd accepted my request. It remained a question I didn't have an answer to. One that had grown with her recent gift of another of her children.
Hank snorted and waved a hand at the maps. "Well, she's not the issue this time. Nothings' stirring her up like the time a swarm went through Mt Silver but there have been some issues for the other Tyranitars in the area." He pointed towards the other seven marked territories. "Your success has drawn a lot of attention to Tyranitar as a pokemon that can match or exceed Lance's Dragonite."
I snorted at that and Hank nodded in agreement. "Yeah, they're idiots for thinking it's that simple but sadly some idiots are rich. The demand for the Tyranitar line has resulted in trainers that have no business being out here trying to stray into the mountain range. There are also dedicated poachers. Some of them are legitimate professionals, while other groups of criminal origin have also been spotted, such as Team Rocket." I straightened up at that.
Hank grunted. "We've had some fights, but they're being as evasive as ever. The Mt Silver Ranges aren't an area they can set anything up permanently. They employ snatch and grabs only."
He pointed to a brown area. "We used to have a bunch of Tauros ranging around here, but now there's only young timid pokemon as the strongest of the bunch have been taken. We suspect that to be a dedicated snatch op but we only caught the dust cloud of people getting out of there." He huffed in annoyance. "It's got a whole squad of rangers locked into that area now as those Tauros are still too young to fend off the Ursaring and Donphan that roam around there. Forget it if a Tyranitar comes down from a peak or some Onix emerges from the caverns through there."
"So things are busy and we need to push back some people that are looking to make a quick buck." I tilted my head. "Seems like business as usual except for the usual troublemakers aiming a bit higher, and ranging a bit deeper than usual."
Hank's lips twitched in a facsimile of a smile. "Heh, you're not wrong. It's just what the current situation is."
Another person might have reprimanded me for my defeat of Lance. This was a flow-on effect of my victory. A giant spotlight on one of the Pseudo legendaries. It was well-known that Tyranitar roamed the mountains.
Dragonite however were only thought to be found in the Blackthorn area. If people ever worked out what was hidden in the storm off the coast of Vermillion I had no doubt that others would be trying to find their way in.
I'd never heard anything about it from Surge or the Rangers that did stints there, but then again the rangers were never going to openly talk about it. Surge probably would have also kept quiet about it. For all that he had a lot of bluster, he could keep secrets and not talk about some things.
I tapped the area that had a much smaller tauros sticker. Something about that stuck out to me but I wasn't sure why that was. Something to do with Tauros.
"What tracks were there?" I asked, pulling at the threads of memory.
"Mostly off road bikes. They knew not to fly in as we would have caught sight of them."
"Unless they came in fast… what about psychic pokemon?" A memory of an old movie where a psychic pokemon assisted Team Rocket in capturing a lot of Tauros came to the fore. Could this have been something like a Mewtwo appearance?
"Most pokemon don't teleport in if they can avoid it. It'd take a strong Alakazam or Gardevoir to do that with what the tracks showed and that's also taking into account all the pokemon that use dark-type moves. Some sections like the Ol' Empress' area is something pokemon either flat out won't or can't teleport into."
"They do say that Psychic pokemon are the smartest of us all," I said, recalling another factoid from the games about Alakazam supposedly being as smart as a supercomputer. The veracity of that statement was debatable, however. This got another snort from Hank as he crossed his arms.
"So you've got the Tyranitar areas under watch?" I said to continue our conversation.
"Yeah, everyone but hers of course. She gets mad when too many squatters are around. Her getting agitated tends to cause a flow-on effect to all the other pokemon in the area."
"Like a landslide?" I said, checking which pokemon surrounded Titan's mother.
"Eh, technically yes but that doesn't give it the right scale. She's more like an explosion atop a mountain. It's similar but more sudden and dangerous. We keep people well clear. If we had to do something with her… I'd need to bring a few teams to handle her."
I glanced at Hank. I wasn't sure I liked the idea of her being 'handled' but that might have been my bias. I'd spent time with her in close proximity while she'd been almost docile. An enraged Tyranitar would be a much different beast.
"If anything ever stirs her up you have my number. I might be able to calm her down."
"Don't teach your grandmother…" He got a pinched face. "I always forget that most of your generation…" he trailed off with a shake of his head. I gave him a tight smile. It was rare that a saying involved grandparents these days. I stared at the mountains that served as a natural divide between Johto and Kanto.
My eyes relaxed as I took in the mapped territories of pokemon. How many of these species had been here before the war? I turned that over for a while before shaking off my thoughts.
"So, patrol and push back for me?" I asked running a circle around the common routes that trainers would attempt to enter the mountains through.
Hank nodded. "Yup just wanted to read you into the situation."
"Appreciate it." I nodded and walked out of the building after collecting a radio that would have me linked to the Ranger radio channels. When I made it outside I whistled and Zephyr who'd tucked his head under his wing for a quick nap perked up.
"Simple search route for us today and tomorrow boy," I said. He chirped into my touch and I indulged him. A few Rangers walked past and spotted me. They instantly started whispering among themselves and scurried into the building.
Most of the job was actually doing the assigned work, but as I'd come to learn in my time as a Gym Leader. You had to also be seen working with the organisations. This helped everyone below me. I hadn't had to stand around next to Commander Hank like I had. Everything he'd told me could have been handled over transceiver, but it was important to be seen talking with him.
The Rangers seeing that would understand that a good relationship between my gym was to be expected. Hank treated me as important enough to talk with. When my own trainers worked with Rangers they would do so for longer stints of time but they would do so with a sort of social lubricant already established.
I'd need to spend some time with Missy and Daniel up here in future. They wouldn't be assigned to the Mt Silver areas. Typically you needed a year or more of experience in the mountain region or a 'mountain one' before you were trusted with simple tasks around Mt Silver or the dangerous mountainous regions around the Indigo region. The same applied to the forested areas, the oceanic, the caves, or even the swamps, rare as they were.
I had been elevated after my first year liaising with the Rangers and when I'd revealed to them that I had a Tyranitar born from Mt Silver. Most of the time my trainers would only have to work the routes. Viridian forest was considered relatively safe just like Mt Moon was, apart from the warning around the swarm of Beedrill and Zubat respectively.
"Brock!" called out a familiar voice. I turned to find a rangy-looking woman with teal-coloured hair waving at me. "I didn't realise you were coming in today!"
"Hey, Sylvie!" I said waving at her. She trotted up to me only to pause as she had to look up at me.
"Urgh, stupid boys and their height! I'm catching up though!" she said. I opened my mouth to correct her with a tease about how the crick in my neck from looking down would say otherwise but the heat of her gaze made me rethink it. My shins were always in kicking distance after all. Her eyes narrowed as if she could tell I was still thinking about how small she was compared to me.
Another ranger approached and gave a lazy wave. "Brock," he said with a drawl before letting his arm fall back to his side. His actions caused his rather rotund form to jiggle slightly.
I tilted my head. "I see you're doing well Andrew," I made a pointed look at his expansive stomach. Rather than being offended he threw his head back and laughed.
"The rookies can't work it out! How can there be a fat ranger? Ha!" He slapped his stomach and I watched it ripple slightly under his shirt. "Shows what they know! There's food all over if you know where to look!"
I could only nod at that. Sylvie bounced on her feet. "So! Are you on patrol? We're the next team going out! Are you our third?"
"Yeah I think I am," I said. I looked around. "No Roo— I mean, Student Rangers with us today?"
Sylvie and Andrew snorted. "Just call em rookies. The HQ might insist on the new terms but everyone knows that they're rookies. And no, no rookies with us today. They're in a training course."
I gestured to Zephyr. Sylvie raised her own pokemon and a large Fearow appeared with a flap of her wings.
Andrew tossed out a Rapidash. "I'll stay on the road and look for tracks. Radio in anything of note."
Sylvie and I nodded as we mounted up. Sylvie keyed her microphone. "Mic check, mic check this is Fearow omega come in Nightwing."
I chuckled as I keyed my own radio. "Read you Fearow, this is… Nightwing… thought I was Rocker last time?"
"I have to get my fun somewhere Brock, now maintain radio discipline! Heavy, you read me?" said Sylvie.
"Roger Fearow One," said Andrew deliberately calling her what actually radio should dictate her name would be on radio if she insisted on a number with her callsign. Usually, you only did that when there were two trainers with the same pokemon. Higher ranked Rangers always got lower numbers.
"...alright let's get out there!" Sylvie said after deciding not to get into it with Andrew.
Andrew and I shared a thumbs up behind Sylvie's back. She swept her hand up in a Ranger sign for 'take wing' and Zephyr and the Fearow took off. We swept around and circled up towards the road where we saw Andrew riding his Rapidash along the Victory road that cut north. When we reached a point of a service road to help with access for some jeeps that the Rangers used, Andrew dismounted and methodically searched the road.
I swept around in wide circles. Zephyr's head, much like my own, turned slowly to take in the area we were passing. If there were any fallen trees, dust clouds, or large-scale pokemon moves then we'd call it in. More often though it was trainers.
"This is Heavy, got some tracks here that don't match our Jeeps… There's also tracks from a jeep with our tread on this road, but I know for a fact no one's been on this route for a week in a jeep; someone thinks they were clever."
"How do you know that Heavy?" said Sylvie over the radio.
"Made sure to check the register when I got the assignment. Hasn't been anyone doing any road checks or medical call-outs since Jason's team. They had a Tauros they had to take to Nurse Joy."
"Hmmm so we have some suspicious behaviour for sure then… or some idiot not registering their jeep usage."
"Get that much?" I asked.
"..." There was a notable silence that made me chuckle. Most of the people acting as Rangers were still young by my old world's standards after all. It wouldn't surprise me that they might go on some joy rides with the jeeps.
"Right well we'll see what the situation is when we come upon them!" Sylvie said getting us back on track.
"Coming down the track now Fearow One," said Andrew. I glanced over and saw him mounted up and trotting down the road. His eyes swept from side to side as he kept to one side of the road. His Rapidash was quite a large pokemon but that made sense with him using it for his own purposes. It left its own tracks, along with the occasional burst of charred earth as it trotted down the road.
A flash of light had Zephyr shifting position and I snapped from watching Andrew to where Zephyr was taking me.
"Got a pokemon move… looks like Sunny day?" I said as I squinted against the mirroring effect that was coming in around a set area.
"Roger that Nightwing!" said Sylvie gleefully. "You are cleared to engage!"
I huffed and shook my head at her antics. I didn't need her ordering me in but she must have been feeling rather energetic. I came in low onto the battle and found a young trainer fighting with an ivysaur. I had to applaud their use of Sunny day as it had been used rather well to allow his pokemon to apparently get off a quick Solarbeam.
Across from the celebrating trainer and his pokemon was an unconscious Onix. I landed to the side on a slight rise.
"Hello there!" I said cheerfully. Zephyr hopped to the side as I dismounted. He went into a minor threat display with his feathers bristling up in warning. The Ivysaur was confused. I dubbed the move a mix of not very effective and effective. I clicked my tongue and had him settle down. I kept a hand on him and trained my eyes on the trainer's hands. "Nice day we're having!"
"Gym Leader Brock? O-oh! Hey yeah! It's a great day!" said the trainer with only a small stammer. That could be good. Usually, people that are in the wrong reacted one of two ways. Still, it was possible that he might be a wonderful actor.
"Cool, so this is a bit awkward but I need to check your papers to make sure you're cleared to be out this far," I said quickly before he could say anything else. It was quick and tough, much like ripping off a band-aid. The trainer blinked up at me.
"Ah? Papers?" he tilted his head before perking up. "Oh! The papers that the Ranger gave me! Sure thing!"
I relaxed and moved forward. Zephyr remained on watch with his much sharper eyes as I closed in to inspect the papers. Papers for clearance into a restricted area usually looked like a small booklet. The booklet's themselves never remained the same colour, style or even shape to make it harder for criminals to fake. Still, it was possible. I toggled the Ranger HQ channel.
"This is Brock getting a check-in on Trainer…Justin…" I frowned. That name was familiar and not just because I had probably fought him. I glanced at his Ivysaur. I couldn't recall an Ivysaur but a young trainer with a Bulbasaur…
I snapped my fingers. "You fought Celia in her last match before her quarter-finals! You made the top sixteen?"
Justin perked up. "You saw?" Then he blushed. "I mean! Of course, you saw…" He kicked the ground sheepishly, "Chonk and I were against your sponsored trainer."
I glanced down at the Ivysaur. "Chonk?"
"Saur!" replied the Ivysaur.
Justin continued to blush, "Oh yeah! I plan for him to be a beefy boy one day! A big old Venusaur!" Chonk perked up and waggled his flower back and forth.
My radio broke through our conversation. "This is HQ, Trainer Justin is in the log and cleared to access Mt Silver. He's even got clearance to camp on the mountain."
I smiled at that. "Well that's a good start to the day," I said aloud. I nodded to Justin. "Sorry for coming in like that."
Justin waved his hands back and forth. "Oh no! I completely get it! Restricted area and all!"
I made a gesture to the downed Onix. "Going to catch it?"
Justin shook his head. "No, I'm here for training with Chonk. We're going to go for a drop-down second year to Johto so I'm getting my starter as strong as I can."
"Saur!" said Chonk happily. I hummed in approval.
"Well best of luck then! Stay safe!"
"Ah! Actually… If you wouldn't mind Gym Leader… how did you capture your Tyranitar?"
I huffed as I checked over Zephyr. "I got stupid lucky. I'd advise against it Justin, don't go straight for a Tyranitar, stick to your first objective."
"No chance of getting a Larvitar?" said Justin.
"Larvitar usually don't leave the nest of their mother," I said as I mounted up on Zephyr. I looked sternly at Justin. "If you're thinking of creeping into a nesting mother Tyranitar's nest don't expect to keep your rights to the mountain for long. Or you know…" I grimaced and left the words unsaid.
"Ah, right that's fair," he said, understanding how he'd be literally putting his head into the maw of a beast if he did that. He waved as I took off. It was nice to have the first interaction of the day be someone who actually deserved to be here. It used to be that anyone that made it past the group stages were allowed into the Silver mountains.
I'd seen the death toll from those misguided times and nowadays you needed to make it to the top sixteen to earn the right. Justin, following my —extremely hypocritical— advice would probably determine whether or not he'd be leaving the mountain soon.
I hoped he had a good head on his shoulders.
I soared away and switched my radio back to my 'team's channel'. I linked back up and found Fearow dropping down. Before Fearow had even reached the ground I could already tell this was going to be someone caught out.
"Got a runner!" screamed Sylvie into her radio.
I tapped Zephyr and he dove to intercept. I braced as Zephyr opened his wings near the ground to break his descent. The trainer stopped dead in the face of the sudden dark wings blocking out the sun in front of them. I stayed atop Zephyr as we hovered. "This is the part where you get on the ground," I said firmly.
The girl got on the ground and that signalled the first arrest we'd be making for the day I suspected.
It wasn't even lunchtime yet.
A.N. Special thanks goes to my patreons for their support!
Special thanks goes to Raikor, Ab9999 and Elnoorz for betaing and editing this chapter
Great as always! Love the descriptions of the Rangers and the aftermath of Brock's battle with Lance. Especially like the fact that he's looking for a Dwebble! One of my favourite non-legendary Rock-Types besides Roggenrola, Aaron and Carbink! Oh, and Minior, LOVE Minior!
I somehow suspect next chapter we might be seeing a dead or critically injured trainer...
We've got it setup. People moving into Mt. Silver to poach, try to get a larvitar. We know the Empress is pretty much a legendary on her own, but hte other tyranitar are no slouches, nevertheless all the other pokemon there. We just saw even a comparatively top tier trainer was woefully misinformed about his chances of getting a larvitar.
I suspect next chapter we're either going to see a full on Team Rocket incursion into the mountain, or we're going to see what happens when someone unprepared decides stealing an egg from an enraged mother is a good idea when no one is around for miles to hear them scream.
We've got it setup. People moving into Mt. Silver to poach, try to get a larvitar. We know the Empress is pretty much a legendary on her own, but hte other tyranitar are no slouches, nevertheless all the other pokemon there. We just saw even a comparatively top tier trainer was woefully misinformed about his chances of getting a larvitar.
I suspect next chapter we're either going to see a full on Team Rocket incursion into the mountain, or we're going to see what happens when someone unprepared decides stealing an egg from an enraged mother is a good idea when no one is around for miles to hear them scream.
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
It's stuff like this that is going to make more and more people think the two have more than a purely professional relationship.
Surge meanwhile will be thinking Brock is playing with fire.
- Location
- Newfoundland
This is an interesting AU of the Kanto Anime. I say AU because Both Professor Oak and Professor Sycamore were revealed to have been Students of Professor Rowan prior to them becoming Actual Professors with Professor Elm later becoming one of Oak's own Students before graduating not to mention Samuel's Cousin Samson Oak went to Alola to study Regional Variants before deciding to become a School Headmaster. All of this is Canon in the Anime BTW. I wonder though if this Brock's Job would have been Potentially easier if one of his siblings also had the knowledge of an SI and would have lightened the Load on him before trying to Help the Gym while on their Journey by Catching Rock-Types from Other Regions or acquiring Fossils for Brock?
Chapter 45 - Ranger suprises
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
By the time we'd stopped for lunch I'd only encountered four trainers. Three of them had been well within their rights to be on Mt Silver having reached the top sixteen in the last cycle. I was happy that my pessimism was proven wrong so far.
The one young girl had been, so far, the only trespasser. Thankfully she'd chosen the easy option by trying to flee. Sylvie had carried her back to HQ to deposit her while Andrew and I had continued to patrol.
Now, it was lunchtime and I was happily setting up with a lunchbox next to some berry trees. Rapidash, Fearow and Zephyr happily munched away. My own lunchbox amusingly had riceballs.
"Mmmm donuts," I said to myself. Sylvie and Andrew gave me concerned looks but I waved them off. "Don't mind me, it's a silly joke I heard one time." They both shrugged and turned back to their own lunches.
I gave Andrew's extra large lunch box a pointed look.
"What? It's in the wilds so it still counts!" he said with a cheeky grin. I snorted and shook my head at him while Sylvie ignored us both as she chewed some jerky. She relished each chance to tear into her food, punctuating each bite with exaggerated growling sounds.
"Not too bad so far," I said to start some conversation.
"Yeah, still, this period is always a bit busy cause of all the newbies coming into the area with the conference over. They go home to decompress and then they remember that as a part of the top sixteen they're worth something and that they have the right to be here! So out they come!" Sylvie said while Andrew dabbed at his mouth with a handkerchief.
"You can't stop them from coming Sylvie, it is their right," the large man said.
"I know! I know, and I'm not one of those legislation change types that wants it to only be the top eight or top four that you hear people talking about sometimes. But I do think there should be a cap on how many people can be on the mountain at one time."
I rubbed my chin, interested to hear this gossip. "People are talking about upping the restrictions?"
Sylvie waved her hand. "Not really, it's just one of those things that people talk about occasionally. There's no real push for it to happen right now. With how things are, the pencil pushers are more focussed on other things than Mt Silver."
"Other things?" I said, interested in what could be more important than one of the most dangerous sites in the Indigo region being ignored.
Sylvie and Andrew shared a look. "It's… not something we can really talk about!"
I tilted my head at that. "Not even to a Gym Leader?" I closely watched their expressions as they licked their lips and glanced at each other. Apparently, they had already said too much. Now, I was very interested. Had they encountered something like a Legendary pokemon's nest? Did they finally know what was at the top of Mt Silver?
Sylvie and Andrew squirmed in their seats. "It's not bad news. It's just news that has to be… managed," Sylvie said.
Andrew rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure why it would bother Brock…" he said leadingly.
Sylvie straightened up. "It is on a need-to-know basis and he does not need to know!" she said waspishly.
"Fiore will eventu—" before Andrew could say anymore Sylvie had stood up and swept her hand out sharply.
"Zip it Andrew! Brock is cool but we shouldn't be discussing this at all. Not here, not at HQ! It's not a habit we should let form!" she said, suddenly much more serious.
Andrew bowed his head. I glanced between them in interest. Fiore… Fiore… that was… It was a region that was part of the game series, wasn't it? It was known for a different gameplay style where you played as a pokemon Ranger. You couldn't capture pokemon but you could have companions that would come with you for fights.
I'd actually seen some of the styluses used in the games on some of the Area Rangers hips in the past but I'd never seen them used on pokemon. I knew from the games that it was possible to make pokemon much more amenable to working with you using them. Legendary Pokemon like Celebi, Mew and Suicine came to mind as examples if you were committed enough.
In this world Fiore had been a well-known area with an interesting quirk in that they did not believe in the capturing of pokemon using pokeballs. This had resulted in the widespread use of the stylus and in Rangers being extensively employed throughout Fiore according to the history books. Or at least the ones that I now had access to as a member of the guardians.
The past however… had not been kind to Fiore. Their cultural practice of not capturing pokemon and instead befriending them had resulted in a number of instances where they were overwhelmed. Or when the friendship was revealed to be, more fair weather than anything solid. Three were records of Fiore trainers holding their ground with truly powerful pokemon but those were rare.
This resulted in them being raided often and almost destroyed as other nations plundered them for pokemon or other resources. It wasn't until Legendary pokemon roused in large numbers around the Fiore Region that any fights had stopped. But that was due to losing actionable routes to the region. Routes that had now calmed enough to return Fiore to the fold.
It made sense that the Rangers and the Pokemon League were going to be in a bit of a tizzy over this. Many history books claimed that the Ranger methodology and spiritual heart began in Fiore.
A 'weak' region re-emerging would possibly lead to a lot of poachers and trainers trying to flaunt borders to capture any rare pokemon. Fiore would need to have tight restrictions on who could come in. People coming out would probably be in for a rude shock with how every other region captured pokemon on a much larger scale than before.
If they hadn't changed… they'd be much, much further behind in strength.
I chewed on my rice balls and turned over the idea of Fiore. It was a very different place to the rest of the world as it currently stood. Or indeed as it had been. I could see lots of potential friction over trainers from both regions moving about. How would Fiore be able to stand without support?
I turned the idea of what they could do and how their culture would shape their potential response. Their culture of abhorring the use of pokeballs put me to mind of another person that had emerged in the games advocating pokemon freedom.
An antagonist by the name N. Now specifically N was from the Unova region and hadn't grown up exposed to Fiore but his methods could be used similarly couldn't they? His creed of not having pokemon in pokeballs would have been very popular in Fiore. Instead of fighting other regions Fiore could exert soft power and convert people to their way of thinking. He was also supposedly charismatic enough to get some trainers to give up their pokemon in large numbers after listening to him speak.
Perhaps that might be something they might use? People weren't unsympathetic to their pokemon after all. There were potential arguments to be made for it even.
I'd even offered Titan the chance to leave not long ago. Other people not as close might not stick together with their pokemon.
It would almost be like having a wave of priests trying to convert a heathen group. I finished my rice balls and dusted off my hands. Would that be realistic now however? It held a certain potential to be possible perhaps and might be something to keep an eye out for.
It could just as much be me jumping at shadows or thinking too much on an issue. Still, it was an interesting consideration.
Sylvie stood and I realised that with my slipping into introspection she and Andrew had endured a somewhat awkward silence after she'd shouted over Andrew.
Whoops.
"Hey Brock, sorry for saying you shouldn't know. I'm sure you'll be one of the first people to be told but everything is still in the early days on this development alright?" she said carefully.
I waved a hand and shook my head. "Sylvie. It's perfectly understandable and I don't think I need to be read in if you're not comfortable." I'd honestly just ask Karen when I saw her next and she'd tell me if my suspicions were true. The perks of joining a secret society I suppose.
Still, it made Sylvie visibly relax as she accepted the reasoning. She gestured to Andrew and he packed his lunch case away into a silph co bag. Then it was time to mount up once more.
When we took to land and air we spotted a few other ranger patrols floating about. One pair of rangers dropped low.
"Ranger team six on intercept," chimed the radio from their group. They had apparently spotted something or someone worth investigating.
I could tell what they'd found a moment later when an explosion bloomed up from the region.
"Contact! Ranger team in battle! Poachers are located in zone seven-gee! I repeat! Seven-Gee!"
"HQ this is Team Two, we're close enough to move to intercept! No need for fast responders!" chimed Sylvie into her radio.
"Roger, Team Two, you're good to assist! Team Five holding pattern for any stragglers or sneak attempts," said the radio.
Sylvie's Fearow turned and I didn't need to see the arm rising and falling in the direction of the explosion for Zephyr to already be beating his wings furiously to get moving. Unlike Fearow, who flew in a straight line Zephyr instead rose up only to tuck his wings. I leaned in to reduce our drag as much as possible as we rocketed through the air.
The wind stung my cheeks as we hurtled downwards. The smoke from the explosion was causing visibility to be an issue and when I arrived with Sylvie we directed our pokemon to clear the field.
"Gust!" "Whirlwind!" we both shouted. Our pokemon flapped their wings and a wall of wind swept the area clean of dust to reveal a battlefield with two rangers fighting against two trainers that each had pidgeot and were half in their saddles while behind them a Scyther, Machoke, Raticate and Beedril attacked the Rangers pokemon.
The Blastoise of one ranger seemed to be holding out well enough now that he had visibility and the other trainer's choice of Victribell helped to control the area.
"What do you wanna do Sylvie?" I said into my radio as the two poachers took off. This was going to become a much bigger hassle than I wanted it to be due to it becoming either an aerial race or aerial battle.
When the poachers didn't pause to return their pokemon and instead ordered them to keep fighting Sylvie grunted her order into her radio. "Get in there Andrew! Take those pokemon down!"
Andrew, who'd only been a little behind us, blasted out of the woods with his Rapidash charging into the fray as Andrew jumped off and rolled to a stop. He righted himself and another pokeball was hurled forwards as he reached into his bag for something else.
I lost track of that as the poacher's pidgeot came straight at us.
"Hypnosis!" I ordered. Zephyr's head snapped at them and I could see the air in front of us filled with psionic energy. Both pidgeot faltered only for the Poachers to prod them with electric batons. They shrieked and flew up and over us.
"Shit! Poachers are furreting on us! They've dumped some fighting pokemon and Andrew should have them but the pidgeot are going to give us trouble! Are they worth pursuing?" Sylvie barked into her radio.
A trumpet from behind us had me looking back to see a herd of Donphan emerging looking enraged. The team on the ground were quick to fill us in on just how bad this situation was about to turn. "HQ! The poachers got some baby Phanpy! The herd is going to rampage if we don't get them back or get the hell out!"
"Zephyr! Tailwind on us! We need to catch up!" Zephyr beat his wings and I could feel the winds pushing us along. Ahead of us Sylvie was slowly catching up with her Fearow. It looked like she'd be able to soon do something to slow them down.
Sadly the poachers were not only morally bankrupt in their actions but also paranoid as they looked over their shoulders and saw Sylvie coming for them. Two more pokeballs were hurled over their shoulders and a second later a pair of golbat were charging towards Sylvie.
"Damn it! They've got more aerial delays! HQ I need a fast response unit to help us clean up the Donphan that we're going to have to knock around!" Sylvie shouted into the radio.
"You can't get through!?" as they said this Sylvie began her aerial dogfight with the golbat. I could see they were specifically using supersonics and delaying moves. It was already letting the poachers pull ahead.
"No! I'm in a fight right now! Brock! I need some help!" Sylvie screamed into her radio.
"Hold on! We're coming!" I channelled my dark energy into Zephyr. This wasn't a move we could do often from my practice and he couldn't handle much but his normal typing made him much more capable of absorbing the energy and using it. The next beat of his wings saw him accelerating.
He tilted his body just in time to slam into one of the golbat and stop the pressure on Sylvie. Sylvie performed a loop-de-loop and as she was upside down just above the other golbat she opened her bag and tossed a net at the pokemon. It missed but it did force the golbat to break off its flight path. Now Sylvie was on its tail. In a few more moments she'd have it.
I turned towards the now very distant pair of poachers. My stomach churned. They must have gotten a good number of Phanpy to both enrage the Donphan herd so much and to make it worth ditching so many pokemon. It irked me to see them simply write those pokemon off as losses like a business would a bad investment. It spoke of a ruthlessness that I could only wish didn't belong in the pokemon world.
Worse, they were obviously going to get away with it.
Just as I thought that the radios crackled to life. "Hello Ranger team, this is Dragon-one, I'm passing by and I can see your scuffle, would you like me to nab them?" came a voice that anyone in the region would know instantly. I could recognise it from having to fight him. I grinned as relief swept through me.
"Champion!? You're cleared to assist! Please and thank you!" gushed the radio handler back at Ranger HQ. I chuckled, glancing around for wherever Lance was. If I was him I'd be—
Two black shapes materialised from the sun and like perfect dive bombers intercepted the fleeing poachers. I whistled and judged the distances involved.
That had been fast. But then again Dragonite were considered some of the fastest pokemon around.
I turned back to find Sylvie taking out her golbat. In Zephyr's claws the other golbat had gone limp, not willing to struggle against my pokemon. Sylvie levelled out and glanced around.
"Bro- I mean, Nightwing! What happened?"
" Dragon-one just intercepted our criminals," I said in response. "Think we can return to try and settle things down."
"Hmmm, I missed that, but rightio. We'll trust in Drag… Oh… oh!" she said as her mind connected the dots as to who Dragon-one had to be.
I grinned as I turned around to the area we'd left. We returned as fast as we could but things were still tense.
Off to one side the Rangers had the poachers pokemon. All of them looked thoroughly trampled and more than a few now had bruises, cuts and dents to their bodies that didn't belong. None of them were in any way conscious despite this. One Ranger, who looked like a Student Ranger on their first tour judging by the nervous looks they were giving the herd, —and the blank sleeve where the badges of duty were placed— was in front of them with a Blastoise by his side protecting them.
Andrew was standing slightly in front of them with his hand slightly raised. In front of him was another girl with aqua hair and what looked like a baton. She waved it back and forth with a series of clicks and whistles while occasionally speaking in low careful tones.
"Heeeeeey, heeeeeey, caaaaalm down now," she said.
Andrew spotted us. "Guys unless you have the baby pokemon do not land they'll take it as aggression. It's all Ginny can do to keep them from killing the poacher's pokemon and then going on a rampage. Give her time," he said.
"We've got good news on that front, a fast response team got them." Sylvie made her fearow turn. "Uhmmm E.T.A is… Holy shit! ten—" whatever Sylvie had been able to say was disrupted when a wind swept through us and Zephyr cried out in shock as he had to work to stay in the air. I glared up as the Dragonite that had blown past us rose into the air before coming down into a landing. In its arms a struggling poacher and limp pidgeot were deposited to the ground.
From that Dragonite's back Claire dismounted onto the suddenly much quieter field.
I glanced over to see another dragon pokemon coming in, only this one had the pidgeot clamped in its jaws. The bird was alive but staying as still as possible. The blue dragon passed me and for half a heartbeat I locked eyes with Lance. He nodded with a tight smile, then he was gone.
When he landed, all the Donphan took some steps back, suddenly unsure of themselves. Lance, still standing on his pokemon's back instead of being strapped in like a normal pokemon rider, swept his hand out. His cape flapped wide and caught everyone's attention.
"Donphan! There is no need to rampage! The Rangers and I have captured the poachers that attempted to steal from you! On my honour your kin will be returned to you!" he said with a clear carrying tone.
Sylvie's fearow flapped over to me. "Crazy how his words mean nothing to those pokemon but that doesn't matter cause of the way he said them."
"Are you referring to his calming, sure tone or how he came in with two Pseudo-legendaries?" I said with a cheeky grin.
Sylvie snorted. "More of the second I should think."
The Donphan didn't try anything as Claire and Lance assisted the Rangers in divesting the poachers of their stolen pokemon. When they were releasing them, the pokeballs that had been used to capture the pokemon were destroyed while the pokemon that were injured were returned for emergency treatment. Those got handed over to Sylvie.
Claire approached the Donphan with bottles of potion outstretched to the pokemon. For a moment the Donphan looked like they wanted to object to her assisting their Phanpy but Claire's dragonite trilled something and waved his antennae. The Donphan listened and relaxed.
I landed, giving Lance a nod in greeting but otherwise kept my eyes on Claire as she slowly saw to the Donphan herd. Soon all the injured pokemon had been treated and Claire walked out with a few of the small elephant-like pokemon trumpeting at her and nudging her in thanks. She had a rather nice smile as she pet a few of them but didn't let them waylay her for long. When her eyes turned to me there was a pause as her eyes narrowed for half a second. I waved and she grimaced before jerking her head in a tight greeting.
Hmmm might I detect some annoyance directed my way?
"Well done Rangers," Lance said as the herd began to fade back into the forest. The rangers all straightened up at his praise, with the Student even adopting an at-attention pose, their chest puffing out so much I thought they were about to lift off the ground for a moment.
Sylvie glanced over to Ginny and I could see a silent conversation happen between them with Ginny stepping forward a second later as Sylvie ducked her head. "Thank you for your words Champion Lance, and for the assistance. We didn't have the speed to catch up with them."
I nodded in agreement at that. Claire perked up and smiled at Lance who accepted the praise with a rather stoic nod. "Of course, I'm glad we were able to help. This is rather fortuitous for us all." He then looked at me and his smile grew slightly.
"Well met Brock! I've been meaning to get in contact with you but sadly the role of a Champion is rather busy," he said with a grimace.
I offered a shrug, "I can only imagine. Good to see you though!" I said approaching and offering a handshake.
He accepted it happily and then got a thoughtful look on his face. "Say, are you almost finished your patrol?"
I looked over to Sylvie who stiffened when everyone turned to her. "We could finish early!" she said shrilly.
I snorted. "What she means is we still have like… an hour or two before we're done."
Sylvie, and indeed most of the people in the clearing snapped their heads towards me as they blanched. Lance merely rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, if you're amenable I wouldn't mind sticking around and assisting you Rangers?"
"We'd be delighted to have you!" said Ginny with a smile only to turn to me and mouth 'what the hell? He's the champion!'
I rolled my eyes at her. When Lance glanced around, obviously aware of the undercurrent of nervous energy but not sure how to address it, I decided to drag it into the light. "They're intimidated and don't want to say no to you despite needing to finish things off. Think they're a bit annoyed with me for seeing it through."
Sylvie whirled on me. "Brock! You can't act like that to the Champion!"
I chuckled and smiled at Lance. "I dunno, I think I've done worse than just act unruly around you, no?"
Claire inhaled with a hissed breath at the joke, only for Lance to laugh loudly. "Ha! I should agree with that Brock!" He then grinned and showed some fang. "If you're interested I'd like to test out one of my pokemon and having you here is wonderful timing!" he gestured to the Salamance that was inspecting me.
"Ho?" I said as my blood began to stir at the chance of a friendly, but very challenging match..
"Holy Ho-oh! They're gonna fight!" whispered Sylvie out loud.
I felt my hand creeping down to my belt. I had just the pokemon to put Lance in his place. Selene hadn't gotten her chance to shine and—
A chorus of roars coming from the peaks had us all breaking out of the battlelust. Ginny stiffened. "We should probably get out of here if we don't want to have some alpha pokemon coming to defend their territory! No fighting right now boys!" she said as she tossed out a Fearow.
Lance and I both clicked our tongues before sharing a smile. I nodded, "When we're done."
"When we're done," he agreed.
The riders took to the sky and land respectively. Sylvie keyed her radio "Damn it Brock you're bold! You're just gonna fight him? Just like that?"
"Yup!" I said.
Andrew snorted over the radio. "Maintain radio discipline Fearow-two… also Dragon-one is on the line."
"Indeed," said Ginny. I chuckled as Sylvie drifted away from me with a furious blush. I glanced over to the side and found Claire easily keeping pace with me. Her gaze was very assessing as we flew, I offered a wave but she merely shook her head as though exasperated.
I looked at Lance and felt a surge of anticipation. Things were looking much more interesting than I had been planning for a simple patrol with the Rangers. But then again, random events occurring outside of the norm seemed like a pretty common event in the pokemon world.
Claire and Lance began to perform some aerial acrobatics with each other as our patrol continued. They tested each other with speed and agility in the air and I found it half distracting, but not distracting enough to not spot something.
A flash of light off to the side caught my attention and I ducked away. "Got a pokemon battle over here." As the first person to see it, I got to confront the trainer.
Not that it stopped Sylvie from accelerating her Fearow away from the group, likely trying to put distance between her previous embarrassment.
Sylvie landed and shouted her challenge. "Team Rocket! On the ground now!"
I perked up and had Zephyr fly a bit faster to catch up with her. I landed on a small hill much like the first confrontation of the day, only this time I was behind the team Rocket grunt; he was easily identifiable in his black uniform with the red R. You could almost consider him 'card carrying'; he looked that cliche.
"You ain't taking me out Ranger!" he said with a snarl as he tossed out an Arbok.
The Arbok emerged and hissed at Sylvie only to stiffen and look behind itself. Arbok lowered its head as Zephyr twitched his head back and forth in a threat display, his wings rising up to the side to make him look even bigger and more menacing.
The grunt turned and blanched when he saw me standing next to my pokemon.
He took one look at me and put his hands behind his head. "Alright! Nope! Screw that! No fight from me! I'll get on my knees!"
I nodded at his wise decision.
Claire landed next to me and peeked around her Draongite's shoulder. "What have you got?"
The Rocket grunt stared at Claire. "Alright! Alright, I'm getting on the ground!" he said as he lowered himself to his stomach. His hands stayed laced behind his head.
Lance then dropped in with his Salamance. The Grunt looked up and gaped "Uhhhhh?!" He gaped at the three of us watching him before wailing, "What do you want from me!? I can't get any lower?!" he said.
I snorted while the Dragonmaster and Mistress tilted their heads in confusion.
Was it wrong to feel a little bad for any poachers we encountered for the rest of the patrol? It really seemed like overkill to have two gym leaders and the Indigo Champion sweeping a portion of Mt Silver.
I grinned, it was looking to be a very good day.
A.N. Thanks to all my patreons for your support as always!
Special thanks to Raikor, Ab9999, and Elnoorz who're acting as Betas and editors.
The one young girl had been, so far, the only trespasser. Thankfully she'd chosen the easy option by trying to flee. Sylvie had carried her back to HQ to deposit her while Andrew and I had continued to patrol.
Now, it was lunchtime and I was happily setting up with a lunchbox next to some berry trees. Rapidash, Fearow and Zephyr happily munched away. My own lunchbox amusingly had riceballs.
"Mmmm donuts," I said to myself. Sylvie and Andrew gave me concerned looks but I waved them off. "Don't mind me, it's a silly joke I heard one time." They both shrugged and turned back to their own lunches.
I gave Andrew's extra large lunch box a pointed look.
"What? It's in the wilds so it still counts!" he said with a cheeky grin. I snorted and shook my head at him while Sylvie ignored us both as she chewed some jerky. She relished each chance to tear into her food, punctuating each bite with exaggerated growling sounds.
"Not too bad so far," I said to start some conversation.
"Yeah, still, this period is always a bit busy cause of all the newbies coming into the area with the conference over. They go home to decompress and then they remember that as a part of the top sixteen they're worth something and that they have the right to be here! So out they come!" Sylvie said while Andrew dabbed at his mouth with a handkerchief.
"You can't stop them from coming Sylvie, it is their right," the large man said.
"I know! I know, and I'm not one of those legislation change types that wants it to only be the top eight or top four that you hear people talking about sometimes. But I do think there should be a cap on how many people can be on the mountain at one time."
I rubbed my chin, interested to hear this gossip. "People are talking about upping the restrictions?"
Sylvie waved her hand. "Not really, it's just one of those things that people talk about occasionally. There's no real push for it to happen right now. With how things are, the pencil pushers are more focussed on other things than Mt Silver."
"Other things?" I said, interested in what could be more important than one of the most dangerous sites in the Indigo region being ignored.
Sylvie and Andrew shared a look. "It's… not something we can really talk about!"
I tilted my head at that. "Not even to a Gym Leader?" I closely watched their expressions as they licked their lips and glanced at each other. Apparently, they had already said too much. Now, I was very interested. Had they encountered something like a Legendary pokemon's nest? Did they finally know what was at the top of Mt Silver?
Sylvie and Andrew squirmed in their seats. "It's not bad news. It's just news that has to be… managed," Sylvie said.
Andrew rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure why it would bother Brock…" he said leadingly.
Sylvie straightened up. "It is on a need-to-know basis and he does not need to know!" she said waspishly.
"Fiore will eventu—" before Andrew could say anymore Sylvie had stood up and swept her hand out sharply.
"Zip it Andrew! Brock is cool but we shouldn't be discussing this at all. Not here, not at HQ! It's not a habit we should let form!" she said, suddenly much more serious.
Andrew bowed his head. I glanced between them in interest. Fiore… Fiore… that was… It was a region that was part of the game series, wasn't it? It was known for a different gameplay style where you played as a pokemon Ranger. You couldn't capture pokemon but you could have companions that would come with you for fights.
I'd actually seen some of the styluses used in the games on some of the Area Rangers hips in the past but I'd never seen them used on pokemon. I knew from the games that it was possible to make pokemon much more amenable to working with you using them. Legendary Pokemon like Celebi, Mew and Suicine came to mind as examples if you were committed enough.
In this world Fiore had been a well-known area with an interesting quirk in that they did not believe in the capturing of pokemon using pokeballs. This had resulted in the widespread use of the stylus and in Rangers being extensively employed throughout Fiore according to the history books. Or at least the ones that I now had access to as a member of the guardians.
The past however… had not been kind to Fiore. Their cultural practice of not capturing pokemon and instead befriending them had resulted in a number of instances where they were overwhelmed. Or when the friendship was revealed to be, more fair weather than anything solid. Three were records of Fiore trainers holding their ground with truly powerful pokemon but those were rare.
This resulted in them being raided often and almost destroyed as other nations plundered them for pokemon or other resources. It wasn't until Legendary pokemon roused in large numbers around the Fiore Region that any fights had stopped. But that was due to losing actionable routes to the region. Routes that had now calmed enough to return Fiore to the fold.
It made sense that the Rangers and the Pokemon League were going to be in a bit of a tizzy over this. Many history books claimed that the Ranger methodology and spiritual heart began in Fiore.
A 'weak' region re-emerging would possibly lead to a lot of poachers and trainers trying to flaunt borders to capture any rare pokemon. Fiore would need to have tight restrictions on who could come in. People coming out would probably be in for a rude shock with how every other region captured pokemon on a much larger scale than before.
If they hadn't changed… they'd be much, much further behind in strength.
I chewed on my rice balls and turned over the idea of Fiore. It was a very different place to the rest of the world as it currently stood. Or indeed as it had been. I could see lots of potential friction over trainers from both regions moving about. How would Fiore be able to stand without support?
I turned the idea of what they could do and how their culture would shape their potential response. Their culture of abhorring the use of pokeballs put me to mind of another person that had emerged in the games advocating pokemon freedom.
An antagonist by the name N. Now specifically N was from the Unova region and hadn't grown up exposed to Fiore but his methods could be used similarly couldn't they? His creed of not having pokemon in pokeballs would have been very popular in Fiore. Instead of fighting other regions Fiore could exert soft power and convert people to their way of thinking. He was also supposedly charismatic enough to get some trainers to give up their pokemon in large numbers after listening to him speak.
Perhaps that might be something they might use? People weren't unsympathetic to their pokemon after all. There were potential arguments to be made for it even.
I'd even offered Titan the chance to leave not long ago. Other people not as close might not stick together with their pokemon.
It would almost be like having a wave of priests trying to convert a heathen group. I finished my rice balls and dusted off my hands. Would that be realistic now however? It held a certain potential to be possible perhaps and might be something to keep an eye out for.
It could just as much be me jumping at shadows or thinking too much on an issue. Still, it was an interesting consideration.
Sylvie stood and I realised that with my slipping into introspection she and Andrew had endured a somewhat awkward silence after she'd shouted over Andrew.
Whoops.
"Hey Brock, sorry for saying you shouldn't know. I'm sure you'll be one of the first people to be told but everything is still in the early days on this development alright?" she said carefully.
I waved a hand and shook my head. "Sylvie. It's perfectly understandable and I don't think I need to be read in if you're not comfortable." I'd honestly just ask Karen when I saw her next and she'd tell me if my suspicions were true. The perks of joining a secret society I suppose.
Still, it made Sylvie visibly relax as she accepted the reasoning. She gestured to Andrew and he packed his lunch case away into a silph co bag. Then it was time to mount up once more.
When we took to land and air we spotted a few other ranger patrols floating about. One pair of rangers dropped low.
"Ranger team six on intercept," chimed the radio from their group. They had apparently spotted something or someone worth investigating.
I could tell what they'd found a moment later when an explosion bloomed up from the region.
"Contact! Ranger team in battle! Poachers are located in zone seven-gee! I repeat! Seven-Gee!"
"HQ this is Team Two, we're close enough to move to intercept! No need for fast responders!" chimed Sylvie into her radio.
"Roger, Team Two, you're good to assist! Team Five holding pattern for any stragglers or sneak attempts," said the radio.
Sylvie's Fearow turned and I didn't need to see the arm rising and falling in the direction of the explosion for Zephyr to already be beating his wings furiously to get moving. Unlike Fearow, who flew in a straight line Zephyr instead rose up only to tuck his wings. I leaned in to reduce our drag as much as possible as we rocketed through the air.
The wind stung my cheeks as we hurtled downwards. The smoke from the explosion was causing visibility to be an issue and when I arrived with Sylvie we directed our pokemon to clear the field.
"Gust!" "Whirlwind!" we both shouted. Our pokemon flapped their wings and a wall of wind swept the area clean of dust to reveal a battlefield with two rangers fighting against two trainers that each had pidgeot and were half in their saddles while behind them a Scyther, Machoke, Raticate and Beedril attacked the Rangers pokemon.
The Blastoise of one ranger seemed to be holding out well enough now that he had visibility and the other trainer's choice of Victribell helped to control the area.
"What do you wanna do Sylvie?" I said into my radio as the two poachers took off. This was going to become a much bigger hassle than I wanted it to be due to it becoming either an aerial race or aerial battle.
When the poachers didn't pause to return their pokemon and instead ordered them to keep fighting Sylvie grunted her order into her radio. "Get in there Andrew! Take those pokemon down!"
Andrew, who'd only been a little behind us, blasted out of the woods with his Rapidash charging into the fray as Andrew jumped off and rolled to a stop. He righted himself and another pokeball was hurled forwards as he reached into his bag for something else.
I lost track of that as the poacher's pidgeot came straight at us.
"Hypnosis!" I ordered. Zephyr's head snapped at them and I could see the air in front of us filled with psionic energy. Both pidgeot faltered only for the Poachers to prod them with electric batons. They shrieked and flew up and over us.
"Shit! Poachers are furreting on us! They've dumped some fighting pokemon and Andrew should have them but the pidgeot are going to give us trouble! Are they worth pursuing?" Sylvie barked into her radio.
A trumpet from behind us had me looking back to see a herd of Donphan emerging looking enraged. The team on the ground were quick to fill us in on just how bad this situation was about to turn. "HQ! The poachers got some baby Phanpy! The herd is going to rampage if we don't get them back or get the hell out!"
"Zephyr! Tailwind on us! We need to catch up!" Zephyr beat his wings and I could feel the winds pushing us along. Ahead of us Sylvie was slowly catching up with her Fearow. It looked like she'd be able to soon do something to slow them down.
Sadly the poachers were not only morally bankrupt in their actions but also paranoid as they looked over their shoulders and saw Sylvie coming for them. Two more pokeballs were hurled over their shoulders and a second later a pair of golbat were charging towards Sylvie.
"Damn it! They've got more aerial delays! HQ I need a fast response unit to help us clean up the Donphan that we're going to have to knock around!" Sylvie shouted into the radio.
"You can't get through!?" as they said this Sylvie began her aerial dogfight with the golbat. I could see they were specifically using supersonics and delaying moves. It was already letting the poachers pull ahead.
"No! I'm in a fight right now! Brock! I need some help!" Sylvie screamed into her radio.
"Hold on! We're coming!" I channelled my dark energy into Zephyr. This wasn't a move we could do often from my practice and he couldn't handle much but his normal typing made him much more capable of absorbing the energy and using it. The next beat of his wings saw him accelerating.
He tilted his body just in time to slam into one of the golbat and stop the pressure on Sylvie. Sylvie performed a loop-de-loop and as she was upside down just above the other golbat she opened her bag and tossed a net at the pokemon. It missed but it did force the golbat to break off its flight path. Now Sylvie was on its tail. In a few more moments she'd have it.
I turned towards the now very distant pair of poachers. My stomach churned. They must have gotten a good number of Phanpy to both enrage the Donphan herd so much and to make it worth ditching so many pokemon. It irked me to see them simply write those pokemon off as losses like a business would a bad investment. It spoke of a ruthlessness that I could only wish didn't belong in the pokemon world.
Worse, they were obviously going to get away with it.
Just as I thought that the radios crackled to life. "Hello Ranger team, this is Dragon-one, I'm passing by and I can see your scuffle, would you like me to nab them?" came a voice that anyone in the region would know instantly. I could recognise it from having to fight him. I grinned as relief swept through me.
"Champion!? You're cleared to assist! Please and thank you!" gushed the radio handler back at Ranger HQ. I chuckled, glancing around for wherever Lance was. If I was him I'd be—
Two black shapes materialised from the sun and like perfect dive bombers intercepted the fleeing poachers. I whistled and judged the distances involved.
That had been fast. But then again Dragonite were considered some of the fastest pokemon around.
I turned back to find Sylvie taking out her golbat. In Zephyr's claws the other golbat had gone limp, not willing to struggle against my pokemon. Sylvie levelled out and glanced around.
"Bro- I mean, Nightwing! What happened?"
" Dragon-one just intercepted our criminals," I said in response. "Think we can return to try and settle things down."
"Hmmm, I missed that, but rightio. We'll trust in Drag… Oh… oh!" she said as her mind connected the dots as to who Dragon-one had to be.
I grinned as I turned around to the area we'd left. We returned as fast as we could but things were still tense.
Off to one side the Rangers had the poachers pokemon. All of them looked thoroughly trampled and more than a few now had bruises, cuts and dents to their bodies that didn't belong. None of them were in any way conscious despite this. One Ranger, who looked like a Student Ranger on their first tour judging by the nervous looks they were giving the herd, —and the blank sleeve where the badges of duty were placed— was in front of them with a Blastoise by his side protecting them.
Andrew was standing slightly in front of them with his hand slightly raised. In front of him was another girl with aqua hair and what looked like a baton. She waved it back and forth with a series of clicks and whistles while occasionally speaking in low careful tones.
"Heeeeeey, heeeeeey, caaaaalm down now," she said.
Andrew spotted us. "Guys unless you have the baby pokemon do not land they'll take it as aggression. It's all Ginny can do to keep them from killing the poacher's pokemon and then going on a rampage. Give her time," he said.
"We've got good news on that front, a fast response team got them." Sylvie made her fearow turn. "Uhmmm E.T.A is… Holy shit! ten—" whatever Sylvie had been able to say was disrupted when a wind swept through us and Zephyr cried out in shock as he had to work to stay in the air. I glared up as the Dragonite that had blown past us rose into the air before coming down into a landing. In its arms a struggling poacher and limp pidgeot were deposited to the ground.
From that Dragonite's back Claire dismounted onto the suddenly much quieter field.
I glanced over to see another dragon pokemon coming in, only this one had the pidgeot clamped in its jaws. The bird was alive but staying as still as possible. The blue dragon passed me and for half a heartbeat I locked eyes with Lance. He nodded with a tight smile, then he was gone.
When he landed, all the Donphan took some steps back, suddenly unsure of themselves. Lance, still standing on his pokemon's back instead of being strapped in like a normal pokemon rider, swept his hand out. His cape flapped wide and caught everyone's attention.
"Donphan! There is no need to rampage! The Rangers and I have captured the poachers that attempted to steal from you! On my honour your kin will be returned to you!" he said with a clear carrying tone.
Sylvie's fearow flapped over to me. "Crazy how his words mean nothing to those pokemon but that doesn't matter cause of the way he said them."
"Are you referring to his calming, sure tone or how he came in with two Pseudo-legendaries?" I said with a cheeky grin.
Sylvie snorted. "More of the second I should think."
The Donphan didn't try anything as Claire and Lance assisted the Rangers in divesting the poachers of their stolen pokemon. When they were releasing them, the pokeballs that had been used to capture the pokemon were destroyed while the pokemon that were injured were returned for emergency treatment. Those got handed over to Sylvie.
Claire approached the Donphan with bottles of potion outstretched to the pokemon. For a moment the Donphan looked like they wanted to object to her assisting their Phanpy but Claire's dragonite trilled something and waved his antennae. The Donphan listened and relaxed.
I landed, giving Lance a nod in greeting but otherwise kept my eyes on Claire as she slowly saw to the Donphan herd. Soon all the injured pokemon had been treated and Claire walked out with a few of the small elephant-like pokemon trumpeting at her and nudging her in thanks. She had a rather nice smile as she pet a few of them but didn't let them waylay her for long. When her eyes turned to me there was a pause as her eyes narrowed for half a second. I waved and she grimaced before jerking her head in a tight greeting.
Hmmm might I detect some annoyance directed my way?
"Well done Rangers," Lance said as the herd began to fade back into the forest. The rangers all straightened up at his praise, with the Student even adopting an at-attention pose, their chest puffing out so much I thought they were about to lift off the ground for a moment.
Sylvie glanced over to Ginny and I could see a silent conversation happen between them with Ginny stepping forward a second later as Sylvie ducked her head. "Thank you for your words Champion Lance, and for the assistance. We didn't have the speed to catch up with them."
I nodded in agreement at that. Claire perked up and smiled at Lance who accepted the praise with a rather stoic nod. "Of course, I'm glad we were able to help. This is rather fortuitous for us all." He then looked at me and his smile grew slightly.
"Well met Brock! I've been meaning to get in contact with you but sadly the role of a Champion is rather busy," he said with a grimace.
I offered a shrug, "I can only imagine. Good to see you though!" I said approaching and offering a handshake.
He accepted it happily and then got a thoughtful look on his face. "Say, are you almost finished your patrol?"
I looked over to Sylvie who stiffened when everyone turned to her. "We could finish early!" she said shrilly.
I snorted. "What she means is we still have like… an hour or two before we're done."
Sylvie, and indeed most of the people in the clearing snapped their heads towards me as they blanched. Lance merely rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, if you're amenable I wouldn't mind sticking around and assisting you Rangers?"
"We'd be delighted to have you!" said Ginny with a smile only to turn to me and mouth 'what the hell? He's the champion!'
I rolled my eyes at her. When Lance glanced around, obviously aware of the undercurrent of nervous energy but not sure how to address it, I decided to drag it into the light. "They're intimidated and don't want to say no to you despite needing to finish things off. Think they're a bit annoyed with me for seeing it through."
Sylvie whirled on me. "Brock! You can't act like that to the Champion!"
I chuckled and smiled at Lance. "I dunno, I think I've done worse than just act unruly around you, no?"
Claire inhaled with a hissed breath at the joke, only for Lance to laugh loudly. "Ha! I should agree with that Brock!" He then grinned and showed some fang. "If you're interested I'd like to test out one of my pokemon and having you here is wonderful timing!" he gestured to the Salamance that was inspecting me.
"Ho?" I said as my blood began to stir at the chance of a friendly, but very challenging match..
"Holy Ho-oh! They're gonna fight!" whispered Sylvie out loud.
I felt my hand creeping down to my belt. I had just the pokemon to put Lance in his place. Selene hadn't gotten her chance to shine and—
A chorus of roars coming from the peaks had us all breaking out of the battlelust. Ginny stiffened. "We should probably get out of here if we don't want to have some alpha pokemon coming to defend their territory! No fighting right now boys!" she said as she tossed out a Fearow.
Lance and I both clicked our tongues before sharing a smile. I nodded, "When we're done."
"When we're done," he agreed.
The riders took to the sky and land respectively. Sylvie keyed her radio "Damn it Brock you're bold! You're just gonna fight him? Just like that?"
"Yup!" I said.
Andrew snorted over the radio. "Maintain radio discipline Fearow-two… also Dragon-one is on the line."
"Indeed," said Ginny. I chuckled as Sylvie drifted away from me with a furious blush. I glanced over to the side and found Claire easily keeping pace with me. Her gaze was very assessing as we flew, I offered a wave but she merely shook her head as though exasperated.
I looked at Lance and felt a surge of anticipation. Things were looking much more interesting than I had been planning for a simple patrol with the Rangers. But then again, random events occurring outside of the norm seemed like a pretty common event in the pokemon world.
Claire and Lance began to perform some aerial acrobatics with each other as our patrol continued. They tested each other with speed and agility in the air and I found it half distracting, but not distracting enough to not spot something.
A flash of light off to the side caught my attention and I ducked away. "Got a pokemon battle over here." As the first person to see it, I got to confront the trainer.
Not that it stopped Sylvie from accelerating her Fearow away from the group, likely trying to put distance between her previous embarrassment.
Sylvie landed and shouted her challenge. "Team Rocket! On the ground now!"
I perked up and had Zephyr fly a bit faster to catch up with her. I landed on a small hill much like the first confrontation of the day, only this time I was behind the team Rocket grunt; he was easily identifiable in his black uniform with the red R. You could almost consider him 'card carrying'; he looked that cliche.
"You ain't taking me out Ranger!" he said with a snarl as he tossed out an Arbok.
The Arbok emerged and hissed at Sylvie only to stiffen and look behind itself. Arbok lowered its head as Zephyr twitched his head back and forth in a threat display, his wings rising up to the side to make him look even bigger and more menacing.
The grunt turned and blanched when he saw me standing next to my pokemon.
He took one look at me and put his hands behind his head. "Alright! Nope! Screw that! No fight from me! I'll get on my knees!"
I nodded at his wise decision.
Claire landed next to me and peeked around her Draongite's shoulder. "What have you got?"
The Rocket grunt stared at Claire. "Alright! Alright, I'm getting on the ground!" he said as he lowered himself to his stomach. His hands stayed laced behind his head.
Lance then dropped in with his Salamance. The Grunt looked up and gaped "Uhhhhh?!" He gaped at the three of us watching him before wailing, "What do you want from me!? I can't get any lower?!" he said.
I snorted while the Dragonmaster and Mistress tilted their heads in confusion.
Was it wrong to feel a little bad for any poachers we encountered for the rest of the patrol? It really seemed like overkill to have two gym leaders and the Indigo Champion sweeping a portion of Mt Silver.
I grinned, it was looking to be a very good day.
A.N. Thanks to all my patreons for your support as always!
Special thanks to Raikor, Ab9999, and Elnoorz who're acting as Betas and editors.
- Location
- Miami
A great chapter, and the coming friendly battle sounds exciting.
Perhaps Brock's Pokemon could be added to the Dramatis Personae informational threadmark.
Perhaps Brock's Pokemon could be added to the Dramatis Personae informational threadmark.
Hope we get a Selene battle next chapter. Really wanna see what she can do
- Location
- Canada
Titan = Tyranitar
Sanchez = Alolan Golem
Don = Aerodactyl
Selene = Lunatone
Bertha = Rhyperior
Shin = Kabutops
Knight = Aggron
Zephyr = Noctowl
Tide = Lapras
Shelly = Omastar
Shrek = ???
I continue to love Brock and Lance's relationship, sure it started off rough but over the battle they had they earned each other's respect and punched out all the bad blood and became friends. Sure others may think they dislike each other and there is still tension but no its just two dudes being bros and shooting the shit while everyone else freaks out. They are also something very rare if not unique for each other actual equals, they both have either dependents or minions who need them, "superiors" who they can't really bond with that well, or people who they have an intimate relationship either family or an ex. But they are probably the only peer they have that isn't out and out antagonistic to them and that is priceless both as a rival, friend and someone who gets it.
- Pronouns
- Mrpinkfrosteddonut
I'm guessing shrek is a quagsire
If we're betting I'd say a shiny seismitoad. Shrek, so big and green. Brock said he was rare enough to get Giovanni's attention, we saw it use water moves and he is there chilling in a swamp.
Shiny sismeitoad for me
Shrek has got to be a swampert (potentially with gigantism, to satisfy the rare component), both a nod to the mudkip brock found in Hoenn during the anime and the greatest muddy ground boi.
Also if brock has mega evolution in a back pocket, it has rocket fists.
I think that while a shiny seismitoad has the proportion and the coloration. Shrek seems to be named for his temperament, since he seems solitary and likely fairly territorial given that his swamp is acting as a barrier between brocks estate and the outer wilds and he does this without any form of visible guidance or encouragement.
Also if brock has mega evolution in a back pocket, it has rocket fists.
I think that while a shiny seismitoad has the proportion and the coloration. Shrek seems to be named for his temperament, since he seems solitary and likely fairly territorial given that his swamp is acting as a barrier between brocks estate and the outer wilds and he does this without any form of visible guidance or encouragement.
- Location
- Scotland
Personally I think the author is trolling us and Shrek will be something completely out of left field. Then again, I may have been reading a little too much of CmptrWiz's stories and he absolutely loves trolling his readers so I may be ascribing mischief where there isn't any. Still, with the way the author is dangling the info in front of us like a juicy piece of low hanging fruit makes me suspicious of trolling author syndrome. Oh well, guess we'll just have to wait and see, eh boys and girls.