"So you found them hurt last night?" Poppy asks as you and the rest of Group 1 head to the Pokemon Center you left your respective Pokemon at. Your class had picked up Poppy first thing in the morning as per Miss Rika's instructions. Apparently she'll be busy the whole day, and with the rumors you've been hearing all morning, you have a pretty good idea why.
Looking around, you see shops and stalls closed for the day. Sometime last night, a state of low emergency was declared for Friday and Saturday by the Gym Leader Katie under suggestion from the Governing Council. Surprisingly, there hasn't been a declaration from the Count countermanding it. Even the Gym is closed for the next two days. Though there are still some businesses open, they're usually the larger and major ones and are few and far between.
"Yeah, they were pretty banged up. Thankfully, the Nurse Joys said that they'll likely survive." Elise's relief is palpable just from her voice.
"They would be the only Charcadet we've encountered the whole week, right, Elise?" Theodora asks.
"That is kinda weird, now that you mention it, Thea," Elise says with a frown.
From everything you've learned this week, you don't believe for even a second that such a thing could just be happenstance. Involuntarily, you clench your fist in anger, indignation at what's transpired.
'Do not squish me, human.' Right, you're carrying Renne with you to go and see the rest of your team. You whisper an apology to her. Somehow, you can tell that she's rolling her eyes while accepting it even as she turns her head away from you.
"You okay, Miss Mary?" Ostia asks. They're walking alongside your right, whereas the rest of Group 1 and Poppy are to your left. Apparently they're in another feud with Poppy about something you really don't understand.
You smile at them to reassure your friend. "Oh, nothing. Just have a weird feeling about today, that's all."
'Hm, there seems to be less Pokemon out today.' Renne notes while looking around. Now that she mentions it, there does seem to be less Pokemon around the settlement. Not Trainer Pokemon, like a Herdier accompanying a family or their Trainer but Wild City Pokemon. Tandamaus rifling through alleys and dumpsters, the occasional Ghost-Type peeking through cracks and from behind the more decrepit buildings, and various bird Pokemon resting on telephone wires and rooftops, their chirping and cries forming background noise you've grown used to while in Mesagoza and Cortondo.
That weird feeling is getting worse.
You and Theodora share a look with one another. You two encourage the rest of the group to head to the Pokemon Center a little bit quicker.
When you finally reach the place, it's crowded, Trainers of all shapes and sizes going about their business. Checking up on their Pokemon, making calls, discussing with other Trainers or just scrolling through their phones with worried and or irritated expressions. Right, since the Gym is closed, a lot of battles must've gotten canceled.
Your group's entrance into the rather sizable building went unremarked upon, though some of the Trainers did briefly glance at you before they quickly went back to their business. A lot of them head to one of the hallways in the building leading to the quarters within after finishing up at the front desk. Poppy pulls down the hat she's wearing, likely not wanting to be recognized.
A lot of trainers stay at Centers during their journey, since lodging and basic meals are guaranteed for any participants of the Circuit. It's something Kali used to talk to you about in the past months. Looking back on it, she might've realized that she wasn't gonna pass the Entrance Exam and was looking into how to prepare for her Journey. You wonder what starter she could've bonded with.
You haven't really talked much with her in the past month. Whenever you message her, she seems oddly evasive and distant. Though your mom does say that she's doing well so she might just be busy. Hopefully she's having fun, you wonder how her Journey is—
"Hello, Mary? Can you hear me?" You're snapped out of your reminiscing about old friends by one of your new ones. Elise is staring right at you, a little too close for comfort.
"Uh, what is it, Elise?" you ask, to which she responds by presenting you with two Pokeballs- Roland and Drilbur's. "Oh, thanks!"
You grab the two from her before taking stock of your surroundings. You're seated in the lobby along with the other members of the group. Renne is seated next to you while reading a magazine, all cuddled up with her Mishy doll, while Ostia and Poppy are conversing again, something about a cartoon the two of them watch.
"Wow, I must've been really out of it." You haven't zoned out like that in a while.
'Yes, you didn't even notice putting me down next to you.' Renne snarks telepathically.
Theodora briefly stares at you before turning to Elise and speaking. "Well, aside from the Charcadet you've mentioned, I believe everything is in order?"
Elise nods in response. "Yup. If you guys wanna talk to your Pokemon, go on ahead. I'll wait here until the Nurse Joys finish up with Charcadet."
Well, you did wanna tell your two Pokemon the good news. You excuse yourself from the group as you go off to find a place to chat with your team.
'Hopefully this meeting won't be in a bathroom.' Renne says as you pick her up to have another team talk.
"No promises." You tease the Espurr.
"So you're okay with Ruby?" you confirm with Drilbur, who nods enthusiastically.
Workshopping a nickname with your Pokemon is surprisingly hard, it was either between Ruby or Millium, the Old Pasio word meaning "to crush". She was leaning towards the latter until you showed her what a ruby was. Now you're trying to think of a way to buy gemstones for her to eat. According to what Renne translated for you, it's Ruby's favorite snack.
Hmm, maybe you could ask Erika for some help.
You pat Ruby on the head as you lift her up to sit next to Roland, who's watching the upload of the Gym Fight from your phone. It's kind of awkward and the screen is too small for all four of you to watch. Maybe you should get a personal laptop for yourself sooner or later. There's a limit to how long you can get away with doing schoolwork on your phone.
Finding a private place in the average Pokemon Center is surprisingly difficult. Since it's still the first week of the Circuit, there are a lot of Trainers- mostly from out of town- making use of the various rooms and lobbies of the building.
But you did manage to find one. It's a small break area with a handful of people in it. Your team is currently situated in one of the couches, spending some time to yourselves.
"Thanks for translating for me, Renne," you say to the Espurr.
'You can thank me by buying me something to stimulate my mind. That or Mishy. Either works.' You should probably try and get your Pokemon into hobbies of their own. Chimu loves sewing and your brother taught all of his Pokemon to read.
You notice that the video of your battle is coming to a close, Roland's eyes still glued onto the small screen. Seeing it after the fact, what stands out most to you (besides your expressions, Miss Leaf is right, you do need to work on that) is kind of how boring the later half is to watch. Despite that, Roland is completely engrossed in the battle. Thinking about it, this is the first time he's seen himself fight.
You scratch Roland on the side of his horns as the video comes to a close, the little Ghost leaning into your touch as he curls up onto your lap. Well, little can be done about the lack of entertainment value your battle has. A win is a win.
Ruby cries out, arms outstretched, as she seemingly wants you to lift into your lap as well. With a sigh, you scoop up the Drilbur and place her right next to where Roland is curled up. The small drake glares up at the Ground type as he tries to wiggle out more space from her, prompting a raspberry from Ruby as Roland hisses at her petulantly.
Not wanting Renne to feel left out, you turn your upper body towards her to lift her up and place her much closer to you and the rest of the team. You take great care to lift the magazine she's reading along with her, the Espurr's only response being to roll her eyes.
Here you are, just sitting and enjoying a calm moment with your Pokemon.
This is nice.
The moment is interrupted by a message on your phone from Elise. By the looks of it, she needs your help for something. With a short message informing her that you're on your way, you tell your team that it's time to go.
Ruby hops off your lap to waddle on the floor, while Roland goes off to wrap himself around your neck. Scooping up Renne, you carry her in your arms as you put the magazine she was reading back onto the break room's coffee table.
Another message from Elise, and this one is starting to make the queasy feeling in your gut worse. 'Please hurry, bring Espurr with you'.
Apologizing to Ruby for a bit, you return her to her Pokeball, as you rush over to where Elise says she's currently at. According to a third message, she's currently in the Pokemon Center's courtyard outside with Theodora and the kids.
Making your way out of the Pokemon Center, unease fully morphs into shock and worry as you see your friend. Part of Elise's clothes are burned, but with the lack of any obvious burns, it seems your friend is somehow unharmed. Theodora next to her looks distinctly unhappy, her typical smirk nowhere to be found. Poppy and Ostia both look worried, their gazes on Elise.
"What happened? Are you okay?" You go up to your friend to check up on her. Aside from the edges of her uniform being burned, she seems to be fine. Rin is attached to her hip through a loop on her belt, the Honedge looking up at you with their sole eye.
"I'm fine. Just had some difficulty with Charcadet. It's why I called you here." Did she get attacked?
"If I had known you'd have gotten yourself into this kind of trouble, I wouldn't have let you wander off! At least you could've released them with more precaution, so you wouldn't have gotten attacked!" Theadora scolds Elise, the worry clear in her voice.
Elise shakes her head. "I don't think Charcadet was trying to attack me, Rin says they're too confused for that." Confused?
Theodora sighs while pinching the bridge of her nose. "Just get to the point, Elise."
"Um, right. I need your guys' help to keep Charcadet calm while I try to communicate with them. Your psychic types could prevent them from doing too much damage once I send them out again." Elise says, a strange but serious look on her face.
"Are you sure about this, Elise?" you ask, worried for her doing something reckless. Renne is oddly silent in your arms.
"Yes, Charcadet looked like they were panicking when I first sent them out. I want to know what happened to them. If they want to leave, I'll honor their wishes." When Elise says it like that, you don't have it in you to say no.
"Well, I doubt I can deter you from this course of action. Very well, Sharon can minimize the damage the flames do to the surrounding." Theodora sounds exasperated. Right, you're still on Pokemon Center's property, even if you're outside.
"I wanna help Miss Elise, but Argy would just be mean to them and he's not good at barriers yet." Ostia says apologetically.
"Renne, is it okay with you?" you ask the Espurr you're carrying in your arms.
'Very well, I'm curious about this Charcadet. I have my suspicions as well. A small barrier would not be too much of a request.' Renne answers telepathically, which you relay to the others.
"I'm sorry, I don't have Bellamy with me. They could really help, but stupid rules means I have to leave them back at home because of—" Poppy covers her mouth, stopping herself from telling us any more state secrets. Sometimes you forget that she's an Elite Four member.
"Thanks guys. We can start soon if you want." Elise says a bemused and fond smile on her face.
You have Renne set up two barriers, one separating your little gathering from the rest of the courtyard and one across from your group, but beneath the first barrier for Elise to release Charcadet in. For their parts, Theodora and Ostia release Sharon and Poly respectively. Having the two Pokemon on standby to put out any fires is a good precaution.
"Ready?" you ask Elise, to which she nods in response. Pulling out a Pokeball from her belt, a red beam is shot at an opening in the smaller barrier that Renne had made, releasing the Charcadet within it.
Their entire body was aflame. Its eyes were wide with confusion and panic, almost hazy with the emotions. As soon as it realizes that it can move once again, the Charcadet lashes out sending gouts of fire, which splash harmlessly against the barrier and scorch the grass around them. They do look healthier than when Elise first saw them. She didn't get a good look earlier, having recalled the Pokemon
'That sword understated it. I'm not sure this one even knows where they are or what's going on right now.' Renne telepathically says, to which Rin scoffs through his link with her.
'Sorry Rin, Espurr's right, you do kind of do that at times.' Elise thinks through her connection to her Pokemon, before focusing on the task at hand.
Elise gulps, unsheathing Rin halfway before taking a step closer to the Fire-Type. Rin's ribbon tightens its grip around her arm, and the ARCUS on her hip lightly glows. It wouldn't be a fluent understanding, shameful as it is to admit, her bond with Rin is far from what her Master would say is acceptable, but it'll have to do.
A harsh noise erupts from the Honedge, the sound of a knife scraping against another metallic surface. The Charcadet snaps their head to face her, the cloudy look in its eyes slowly fading. A low rumbling noise emanates from the small Pokemon.
'Thieves! Where!? What!?' The Charcadet all but snarls, prompting a response from Renne.
The Espurr meows at the Chacadet in response. Whatever it was she said causes the Fire Type to relax slightly.
Her master's technique only allows to understand a single Pokemon at a time, so trying for more is difficult. Something about how her—
'Focus, child.' Rin chastises her. She mumbles an apology for allowing her mind to wander.
'I have cleared up a misunderstanding, she had believed us to be Thieves.' Renne's words flash into her mind again. Those must be the poachers then. A picture is starting to form in her mind about what happened to the Pokemon.
"Thank you, Renne, that helps a lot. I can handle it from here." Elise says, flashing a look of gratitude to Mariana and her Pokemon before turning to face the Fire-type.
Now facing the Charcadet, Elise wears a more serious expression, one that would hopefully get across her sincerity to the other Pokemon. "We're not poachers. I had found you stumbling into town, badly injured." Elise's face then softens a little, unable to stop her concern for the Pokemon from seeping through. "Could you tell us what happened?"
The Charcadet stares at her for a moment before turning away, the Pokemon's eyes downcast. The Fire-Type cries out, the sound reminding her of pots and pans clanging together.
'Thieves…took…family…friends…everyone. Found den…too weak…to free. Gone soon…hear Thieves say.' Despair rolled off of the Chacadet, her connection with Rin letting her see what the Fire-Type is feeling.
As Renne translates what Charcadet has said to the rest of the group, Elise thinks.
Fire is passionate. It burns in accordance with its desires. From life giving sun to warm hearth to destructive inferno, Fire is Life. Thus, it corresponds with the Third Form of the Eight Leaves. Her worst form, though she at least remembers its lessons. The world moves in accordance to the wills and desires of all who inhabit it.
Taking another quick look at Charcadet, the Pokemon's flames are now much weaker than they were when she was released. The reality of its situation is setting in and despondency is the result.
Charcadets are one of many Pokemon that are functionally immortal outside of combat. As long as they wish to live and can access enough fuel to keep their flames burning, they can live for centuries. From how strong the Pokemon's flames were earlier, she doubts that the issue is the latter.
Elise tightens her grip on Rin's hilt and before she can stop herself, the words have already left her mouth. "We can't let that stand. Tell us where the poacher's are hiding and we'll help you free them."
Everyone in the group turns towards her, a wide range of reactions to her declaration.
Thea looks at her with a mix of bafflement and approval, almost as if she was expecting this from her. Is she really that predictable? Marianna seems angry, not at her but at what Renne had described. Hesitation warring with a clear desire to agree. Ostia is quiet, a nervous look on their face. Are they scared of what could happen? And finally Poppy, she almost looks excited. The little girl is looking at her in awe.
"Elise is right! Rika said that those meanies have been all over the province for months and they're the ones who took the Tinkatuffs of Pinky's guild!" Poppy says, striking a pose to make herself look bigger. "We can take those bad guys out! Skaro can help!"
"While I do agree with the sentiment, we can't just jump into something like this unprepared. I doubt these poachers would hesitate to have their Pokemon target us specifically." Theodora speaks while staring straight at her, almost as if she's challenging her conviction. Her friend's hand hovers over Leo's pokeball. Right, she mentioned that his father is missing. The poachers are likely responsible for that as well.
Elise maintains her gaze, refusing to look away first. It's Theodora that breaks eye contact first. Her friend shakes her head, a small on her lips.
"We do have Missy just in case." Oh, this entire conversation is probably reaching Instructor Leaf. "But it's irresponsible to bring Poppy with us after Miss Rika told us to keep her safe," Mariana provides, patting Renne on the head all the while. At that statement, Poppy pouts before responding.
"I'm an Elite Four! Miss Rika will understand, this is super-important! Besides, I have my own ghostie to keep me safe." Poppy stomps on the ground, and a nearly overwhelming presence makes itself known before vanishing. The sound of crumbling stone and shifting gears fills your ears before suddenly stopping.
"How about you, Ostia? Are you okay with this?" Mariana asks Ostia, to which they respond with fervent nodding.
"I have to keep Mary safe after all! Miss Erika made me promise to!...Don't tell her I said that." Mariana smiles and pats the youngest member of Class VII on the head while Theodora chuckles to herself as if she finds something funny.
Turning back towards Charcadet, the Fire-type looks at the class with a mix of skepticism and befuddlement. But beneath all that, Elise can see the hope that the Pokemon is so desperately trying to suppress.
"Renne, could you lower the shields?" she asks, to which the Espurr raises an eyebrow at her before complying.
Stepping closer to the Charcadet, Elise gets on one knee to reach eye-level with the Fire-type. "I promise, we'll help you rescue the ones you care for. No matter what."
The Charcadet looks, truly looks at her, almost right into her soul, before responding.
'...Oath." The Pokemon asks.
Nodding, she runs her palm on Rin's blade, drawing blood. It's only a shallow cut. Ignoring the cries of shock and alarm behind her, Elise presents her hand for Charcadet to shake.
Staring at it, the Fire-Types looks her in the eye one last time before taking her hand. The burning heat is painful, but she bites her lip and with Rin's help is able to get through it. Finally the Charcadet lets go, their pact sealed.
Once Theodora finishes scolding and bandaging Elise, the group begins to discuss logistics. According to Chacadet, the main base of the poachers is deep within the ruins of Old Badajoz, a series of caverns and caves connecting the oldest parts of the abandoned settlement with the Heights. Apparently parts of Badajoz go back as far as 2500 years ago.
To prepare for it, your group will split into two. You, Elise and Poppy will go to Miss Leaf and try to convince her to support your cause, or at least allow your class to go help Charcadet, while Theodora and Ostia will buy and gather supplies for not just the trek to the ruins, but also for the battles to come. Theodora is also supposed to try and find anything she can about the ongoing Wild Hunt. Hopefully its target are the poachers themselves.
Finding Miss Leaf would normally be a difficult prospect since she's likely with Group 2, but something tells you that Missy has probably already told her what your group is planning.
Going back to Pirotin Inn, that hunch is proven correct as sitting right near the entrance to the establishment is a thoroughly unamused Instructor Leaf staring right at Elise, eyebrow raised and with an expression all but demanding an explanation.
"Well?" Miss Leaf asks, prompting Elise to step forward. Your friend is clearly nervous, so you give her a look to try and get across your support for her. Elise looks at you and nods, standing up a little bit straighter.
Elise explains Charcadet's situation to Instructor Leaf; the Poacher's base, how the Pokemon of East Cortondo have been taken by them and the info regarding them leaving soon. As your friend finishes, Miss Leaf leans back on her chair, sighing and rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"And if I say no to you kids going out, you're just gonna ignore me aren't you?" your instructor says, prompting you and Elise to share a look with each other. Well…
"Ugghh, you kids are gonna be the death of me." Leaf throws her hands up in exasperation. "Fine, but if you kids are gonna do this, I'm coming with and we're gonna do this right."
Leaf fixes the beret that's part of her Ranger Uniform before standing up from where she was seated. She then turns to the two of you, her face deadly serious, all traces of your easy-going Instructor vanished.
"For the next, I wanna say twelve hours, I'm neither your teacher nor your instructor. I will be your commanding officer. Deputy Rangers Montenix and Ganzorig, am I clear?" The two of you respond with a 'Yes, Ma'am!" while standing at attention.
"Um, what about Group 2, Ins—Commander Leaf?" you ask, worried for the well-being of the rest of Class VII.
"First off, don't call me Commander, we're not going that far. Second," Leaf pulls her vest back , revealing that she only has three Pokeballs attached to her belt. "I left Ditzy with Atticus, they should be enough for anything they might stumble onto while—nevermind. You said Theodora and Ostia are going out for supplies? Message them, I have a shopping list for the two. Don't worry, I'll pay for it."
Leaf instructs Elise on the items the other half of your Group needs to buy; ranging from the mundane, like ropes, flares and such; to the ludicrously expensive, like Hyper Potions, a single of which cost nearly as much as all the cash you had with you.
As the two continue, you see Poppy nod at you and sneak off into your group's room. Right, she still has to convince Rika to let her join. Hopefully it goes as smoothly as yours did.
The Cortondo Railway Military Police Headquarters is located in the west of the agricultural province. From it, the vital rail lines connecting Mesagoza to the west of the Paldea are patrolled and maintained.
It is also currently serving as the base of the Cortondo Anti-Poachers Operation.
The eggheads in the SIL need to think up better names. First-Lieutenant Cassandra thinks as she sifts through reports and updates from the operatives. All across western and parts of eastern Cortondo, a little under one-hundred RMP Trainers are busting down warehouses, conducting arrests and battling the cretins infesting her home province.
Well, most of the cretins. The nobility have kept Bragg's little operation at an arm's length after all.
Cassandra sighs as she finishes double checking a report on a successful raid of a poacher base in the south west. She notes an observation from the commanding operative about how most of the stolen Pokemon they had recovered seemed to be trainer owned. She earmarks the one who made the report for a promotion to pass to Rika's desk. And finally she pulls up a list on her laptop of missing Pokemon reports from the past few months or so, and will you look at that, it's a match.
She'll need to confirm it later, but the sort of things you can do when the garrison looks the other way and half the Trainer Associations are in on it.
"Nasty little scheme Bragg set up, huh?" Cassandra peers over to look at the person who just entered her commandeered office. Messa Watterson, despite how annoying he is, falls squarely on the side of the loyal Trainer Associates. She doesn't envy Leila at all, neither for the work cut out for her nor her spouse.
"One wonders how he managed to slip by your attention, with how thoroughly he'd implicated the Trainer Associations in Cortondo," she grumbles. A pointless barb, she already knows how. Cortondo, despite Katie's best efforts, still remains thoroughly in the nobility's camp. Cassandra pulls up their current estimates of compromised Trainer Associates and blanches.
A third of the Uno Association, a fifth of the Deux Association, over half of the Sei Association and finally a fourth of the Qi Association. Administration, Public Safety, Patrols and Information respectively.
By the end of the day, the Cortondo Trainer Associations are going to be utterly gutted. Even if Leila were to only slap a demotion on those only tangentially related, those who looked the other way or fibbed reports whenever their coworkers were doing something weird, that still only leaves them with sixty percent of their original strength.
Messa takes her little jab in stride, that annoying smirk on his face not even budging. "Oh, cheer up, you. I'm here to send a message from Rika. She's calling for you, apparently you're heading out. I'm taking over your task as chief pencil pusher."
Her head snaps towards Messa as she tries her best to hide her excitement. She fails.
"C'mon, get going, You look like you're gonna rocket out of your chair." She grabs her RMP coat and rushes past Messa, shouting a thank you behind her as she goes. She's been cooped up in a desk since last night and she feels like she's gonna go insane soon.
Double checking the Ultra Balls on her belt, she continues to make her way through the hallways of the building, past the various clerks and bureaucrats attached to Lady Rika's division.
Volcarona, check; Araquanid, check; Orbeetle, check; Numel, check.
Finally reaching the Commander's office, she tries to make herself as presentable as possible, smoothing over any wrinkles on her uniform. Once she's confident enough, Cassandra knocks on the door. "You called for me ma'am?"
"I did, come in." Stepping inside, the office is barebones, mostly holding the personalized belongings of the actual commanding officer of the Cortondo RMP regiments. But she's out on the field today, so Lady Rika has taken over the office for the day.
"That was pretty fast, did you rush over after I sent Messa?" Lady Rika says in an amused tone, and it takes every ounce of Cassandra's willpower to not stutter like a schoolgirl.
She knows she doesn't have a chance, but please, Xerneas. If you're listening, please.
"Messa mentioned something about heading out, commander?" She tries to divert and thankfully, Lady Rika humors her. Her commanding officer pulls out a Poly 11, its marking signifying it as one of the brand new Porygon Phone variants modified for League use.
"Poppy called me a few minutes ago. According to her, she and Class VII have identified the primary poacher's base in East Cortondo via the help of a Charcadet."
Cassandra raises an eyebrow. Charcadet population across Southern Paldea have been on the decline for the year or so. Local populations in Artazon and Cascaraffa have both diminished to the point of being considered no longer present in the wild.
Normally worrying, but especially in consideration that it was those two provinces specifically. The SIL has been screaming about it for months now to no avail as the situation in Area Zero and noble intransigence hinder any sort of action. This might be the lead the League has been looking for.
"You wish for me to accompany Poppy and investigate, commander?"
Rika nods at her before continuing. "According to the Charcadet, a large number of their species and other local populations are held captive somewhere within the ruins of Old Badajoz. This matches up with the activity heat maps gathered by Messa. However, there are complications."
When are there not? Cassandra thinks.
"First, aerial scouts have confirmed that what we're calling the Spidops Wild Hunt is on the move towards the ruins. If my suspicion is correct, that's where Bragg is hiding out. We need him and his co conspirators alive for interrogation." And Wild Hunts don't take prisoners.
She's almost thankful that a Wild Hunt kicked up in her home. Everything the RMP is doing would be so much harder without the State of Emergency the Wild Hunt brought with it.
"Second, you and Poppy are going to be accompanied by the students of Class VII that you met yesterday. Group 1 specifically. Poppy's taken a liking to them, so try to keep them safe. They're around 2nd-Badge in strength according to her." Cassandra has to stop herself from grimacing.
The entire point of hiring Carlos' little pet project was foisting off babysitting to someone else. Now she's having to babysit four more kids as well!? Maybe she can foist it off to Orbeetle, though that'll only leave her with three Pokemon. Two conference-level and one at the seventh badge.
"Lastly, you're going to have company." Rika shows her a picture of a middle aged woman dressed in a ranger uniform. That's…the woman that was with Furuwada's group yesterday.
"Leaf Midorikawa is the Instructor for Class VII, and Poppy said that she'll be coming along to make sure the kids don't get into too much trouble. I'll pass over the dossier SIL has on her, but know that she's around Elite Four level and has four Pokemon with her." Rika finishes as the file is sent to her own phone.
Pulling it up, Cassandra takes a good look at the picture of the Instructor before giving a quick read of the details SIL knows about the woman. A commendation from Lorelei dating over a decade ago, a Ranger with the rank of Color and a suspected Interpol agent, all while being under Carlos' payroll.
Oh, she's dangerous-dangerous.
Maybe this won't be so bad after all.
Decided to split this and the next chapter up due to length
Thanks to Tempera for proofreading this update.
