Chương 47: 4.11 Fish

Aaron's Pokemon - Artoria (Kirlia) - Jeanne (Flaaffy) - Durvasa (Mankey) - Hard-Boiled (Egg) Fish 4. 11 Aaron Fulan Petalburg Woods I'd missed out on the evacuation notice. Now that I opened it up, I could see through a series of white lines in the glass that there was indeed a white, bell-shaped indicator in the top right corner of my screen. The speakers died so I hadn't known to check the alerts.

"Well, fuck," I swore. I turned to Ranger Wheldon. He led me to the healing machine so I could have my team treated.

"So, wanna catch me up? What kinda clusterfuck did I stumble into this time?"

"Alright, sure, Aaron. I've got a bit of time before the rest of my squad comes back. You obviously know about the rampaging scizor."

"Yup."

"Well, scizor and scyther often swarm this time of year. They lay their eggs over the winter and stick around together to raise their young together, teach them how to hunt, establish the pecking order, divide up territory, that sort of thing."

"I understand." Scyther did have the Swarm ability in-game. I typically didn't think of them as pack hunters, but I clearly knew fuck-all about Petalburg's bug types.

"So this is just a bad time to be traveling? Can't be, right? I mean, people travel through the woods this time of year pretty frequently."

"RIght. Scyther are aggressive, but not that aggressive. Like a lot of pokemon, they're omnivores, but they know to stay away from the main roads. You occasionally get a few young ones that stray away and want to prove themselves, but they're not too bad. Usually, it's seen as a good thing by the locals because it's a chance to catch a rare bug type without any fuss from the rest of the swarm."

"So what changed then?"

"Poachers, and not just one or two idiots either. They were organized, a full gang of eight as far as we could tell. We're still trying to figure out just what the hell they did, but they were spotted in the area and the group of scizor that like to oversee the swarm around this time of year got really agitated."

"You think they started poaching baby scyther?"

"Maybe. Or killed a few. Either way, the swarm's not in any mood to be pacified." I thought about what could have happened with the ursaring. I wasn't Steve Irwin,, or whatever the poke-world equivalent of him was. I hadn't been the one to pacify the ursaring; her cub had done the job for me. It sounded as though the swarm didn't mind a few stragglers leaving the forest. That said, their attitude obviously changed a great deal when people started poaching from the swarm directly.

And now they were tearing up the forest looking for poachers, and damn whoever else gets in the way.

"So what happens now?" I asked as my pokemon were handed back to me. They fought well. They obeyed orders quickly, made good snap decisions, and had it just been three scyther, I would have felt comfortable betting money on them coming out on top. However, with several scizor running round, and those were quite experienced, I had no trouble admitting how outgunned my team was here. Another ranger, her name tag identified her as Kylie Gable, strolled over.

She was a brunette with a heavily freckled face, slightly younger than Wheldon. At her side flew two swellow and an altaria.

"Now you get the hell out of dodge, kid. The poachers scattered into smaller teams of two to try and lose us," she said with a frown. She shoved a map in my hand.

"See this? This is the cordon we're working with. We're going to fly you out of the area. If you're smart, you'll walk around the perimeter to Rustboro, or back to Petalburg."

"Gable's a grump, but she's not wrong," Wheldon said.

"Sorry, Aaron, I wish I could escort you completely out of the forest myself, but we're a bit short-staffed as it is." I waved him off.

"That's fine, Ranger Wheldon. I should be able to steer clear of trouble."

"Paul, kid. You're not in the corps so it's just Paul. Just make sure to keep an eye on your pokenav in case the situation changes. I still have your number from last time we met."

"Thanks, Paul. Good luck with the poachers."

"Yeah, I'm not looking forward to this. Looks like a few all-nighters are in our future," he said with a huff.

"They'll be going away for a long time when we're through with them." After that, Ranger Gable flew me off on her altaria, about half a mile away from the cordon. The cordon was a loosely established perimeter patrolled by various rangers and their pokemon, allowing them to slowly choke inward to find the poachers who were thought to still be in the area. Or, if that failed, to subdue the rampaging pokemon before they got loose. Ranger Gable flew off with a final warning to keep a weather eye out.

Rather than train on the road, I decided that having Durvasa up ahead, climbing the treetops to subtly scout the forest was a good move. With Jeanne at my side sniffing the air and Artoria and I expanding our senses, we were as attentive as we could possibly be as we made our way towards Rustboro City. And yet, I couldn't quite shake the ominous feeling that Paul was right. Maybe I was the cacturne bait this year. X Two days later, I had my confirmation.

I'd have to have a chat with mom whenever I made it out of the forest about potential premonitions because I found the poachers. Or, one of their teams. The area the rangers were operating in was over a hundred square miles. Having flying types helped, but I had to assume these men had at least a few pokemon geared towards stealth. The scyther swarm causing a ruckus, probably didn't help matters either. In the end, how they got past the cordon wasn't as important as the fact that they were here now.

On the plus side, they hadn't noticed us. Durvasa found their camp purely by luck while he swung from tree to tree. Artoria and I almost stumbled on them before my mankey captured Artoria's attention to warn us away. I'd been correct to assume some kind of stealth. The camp was a basic setup with a firepit, and two tents occupied by a man each. They had a pair of hammerspace backpacks and a duffel bag. They sat around the fire, casually chatting over dinner. They were doing a great job of blending into the scenery.

By all appearances, they looked no different from a pair of regular backpackers. Except, the camp itself was surrounded by a shroud of dark type energy let off by two of their pokemon, a liepard and skuntank. It wasn't enough to create a "void" in mine or Artoria's senses, but our perceptions were muffled. Without Durvasa telling us explicitly where the camp was, we would not have noticed them at all. That stealth field was enough to make me suspicious.

Durvasa stuck around above the treetops and relayed the conversation these men were having. They were indeed poachers. None of them had access to wide-area teleporters, which was the main reason they were reliant on dark types. That, and it was possible to track psychic residue; a poacher using a powerful psychic was exactly the kind of scenario that would bring mom down personally, something they obviously didn't want.

From what I could gather, they seemed like an organized operation, with a clear plan to meet up at an unknown rendezvous point in four days' time. Until then, these junior members of the gang had orders to make like typical travelers and wander through the forest at a leisurely pace to throw off pursuit.

Since the hammerspace bags didn't react well with pokeballs that already had pokemon inside, I could assume the captured pokemon, some scyther but many other denizens of the forest, were held inside the duffel bag next to the men. Alongside the aforementioned liepard and skuntank, these men also had a nuzleaf out, though I didn't know if there might be more in reserve. I gathered my team and withdrew a few hundred yards away before I could really push my luck.

We made sure to remain downwind from them so as to not alert their pokemon and avoided lighting a fire.

"So, poachers," I began in a somber voice.

"I really hadn't expected to run into them. What are the odds?"

"Man-mankey," Durvasa growled. I didn't need to be an empath to know he was itching for a fight. It wasn't lost on anyone that our most recent near-death experience had been the fault of the poachers. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.' These cowards provoke opponents they fear to face, only to leave good men to clean up their messes,' Artoria whispered darkly.

"It's a smokescreen. The poachers stir up as much chaos as they can because that leaves the rangers short-handed to pursue them."

"Mankey? Mankey-man."' He believes we should arrest them, my lord.'' Somehow, I doubt he said "arrest,"' I replied dryly.' His exact words were "Let's go use the plant-thing to club the others silly," but I fail to see the distinction.'' I take it you want to fight too?'' I admit I wish to bring these knaves to justice.' I'd expected as much. I passed out some jerky, dried berries, and granola to my non-grass-eating teammates. No fire meant we'd just have to settle.

"Durvasa wants to feed them their teeth. Artoria's the same. How about you, Jeanne? What do you think we should do?"

"Flaaa…" she bleated, head tilted to the side. Shecontinued to chew her cud slowly.

"Flaaffy?"

"Kir-lia. Kirlia," Artoria trilled. The two went back and forth, until finally, Jeanne looked at me and shrugged. Rather than getting up in arms, she did the opposite: She flopped onto her belly and snuggled into my sleeping bag.

"I take it she doesn't care?"' She is livid. She does not appreciate being forced to fight scyther,' Artoria said. She frowned in distaste.' And yet… My sister is of the opinion that the past is past. Entering yet another life or death battle today will not right their wrongs. She suggests that we simply go to sleep for now.'' She's not wrong, you know. We ought to just go to sleep for now. Hell, we could even leave tomorrow and part ways, never having to fight them at all.''

But that would mean abandoning the pokemon they'd captured already.'' Who said anything about abandoning them? I do have Paul's number, you know.'' I…

I had not considered that, my lord. Even so, such a course of action feels unsatisfying. I understand that they are the lawful authorities, but…'

"But you want to do your part," I finished for her, voicing aloud her desire for my team to hear.

"You want to make sure they return the pokemon and see them brought to justice with your own two hands, even if I could just report the sighting to the rangers."

"Mankey," Durvasa nodded with conviction even as his aura blazed to life.

"Mankey-man. Key."' He notes that they will not be here tomorrow, my lord. They escaped the rangers before.' My pokemon had a point. And yet, I felt that they were not thinking correctly. Perhaps, with some luck, this could be a teachable moment.

"You bring up some valid points," I acknowledged.

"Let me ask you both one important question then: What is the objective?" The two most battle-hungry members of my team looked at each other in confusion. Meanwhile, Jeanne looked up briefly from my lap and bleated out her encouragement before promptly going back to dozing. For all that she seemed lazy, perhaps even stupid, Jeanne was anything but. Sometimes, I felt that she understood the way my brain worked best, even better than Artoria in some ways.

"Well?" I asked.

"What is the goal here? Fighting without an objective is no good, eh? So tell me what you want out of this. Do you want to get some payback on the poachers for siccing the scyther on us? Or do you want to arrest them so they never do this again?"' The latter of course,' Artoria said in my mind. At the same time, Durvasa let out his own grunt of agreement.

"Right. If our priority is to get these men arrested, who do you think will have a better chance at accomplishing this objective successfully? Us or the rangers?" They looked at me with pinched faces, like children who had discovered sour candy for the first time.

"Don't be like that. You're not entirely wrong either. For a start, like you pointed out, they've escaped the rangers before."

"Man! Mankey!"

"Yup. It could be a good idea to keep an eye on them ourselves. But, we also don't know how many pokemon they have so taking them head on isn't a good idea either, especially since we can't count on Ranger Acosta's pidgeot coming in to save the day again. I believe in us, but that doesn't mean I want to do something stupid for shits and giggles.

"So here's what we'll do: Tonight, we're going to sleep," I said. I held out a hand to forestall their protests." Tomorrow, we're going to track them. Every hour, on the hour, I'm going to shoot Ranger Wheldon a text, describing our location. I don't know how short-staffed they are or how many resources they can dedicate to backing us up, especially since they've got to calm down the wild pokemon, but it shouldn't be long before we have help on the way. Then and only then will we engage. Are we clear?"

It wasn't well-received, but that was to be expected. A good compromise left all parties dissatisfied.

Even so, I wasn't budging. I could recognize that this was a part of my duty as a trainer. Hell, had I more badges, there was a real possibility the rangers would have deputized me then and there. But though I wasn't heartless, I wasn't in any rush to risk my team against opponents I had barely any intelligence on. X Morning came and we were ready to keep an eye on the men. I wasn't an expert tracker, but I didn't need to be.

Durvasa stuck to them like glue, and as one of Petalburg Wood's natural denizens, he went entirely overlooked in his place in the treetops. Though we couldn't grab an empathic hold on the men thanks to their dark types, Durvasa himself acted like a piece of mental reflective tape; both Artoria and I were quite familiar with his emotional signature after all. As we moved, I texted Paul Wheldon, hoping to gauge what the rangers were up to. Aaron: Paul? Good morning. I found one of the camps.

From what the my mankey overheard, they're two of the poachers you're looking for. Paul: You speak pokemon now? Aaron: Artoria does and she's telepathic. Paul: Ah, I see. Where? You didn't sneak back through the cordon, did you? Aaron: I did not. We're off northeast of the cordon, from where Ranger Gable dropped us off. Is there a way to track this pokenav? I don't have internet service at the moment. Paul: I don't have a porygon anyway. That made me pause. What did a porygon have to do with anything?

I asked and got my answer: They could, by following the network, track my pokenav. It wasn't very helpful for a ranger in the wilderness, but it was an option in areas closer to urban centers. Apparently, a global positioning system (GPS) didn't exist in the pokemon world. It wasn't for a lack of technological advancement or background knowledge either; these guys had teleport pads and hammerspace bags. Rather, they never saw the need for a GPS. And why would they? They had pokemon for that sort of thing.

In theory, a GPS could track someone just as well if not better than a mightyena, but that would involve a comprehensive space program and a network of satellites that constantly transmitted radio waves in the background. It would also depend on the lack of interference, such as weather or just an ornery pokemon in the area.

And with Hoenn being the only league with a nationally subsidized space program, there was simply no practical way to launch a network of GPS satellites to even get it all running in the first place. Aaron: What do we do then? I'm following them. My mankey's got eyes on them. Should I wait for night and take their pokeballs? Paul: NO! Do NOT engage! You have two badges, Aaron. For fucks sake, please wait for us. Aaron: You can't track me though. Paul: We can!

We have bird pokemon who can keep up from where we dropped you off. Are you in danger right now? Aaron: No, or I wouldn't be texting. Paul: Alright, fine. Keep an eye on them. Their leader's got a strong ninetales and we're trying to keep it from setting fire to the forest. We'll dispatch someone your way as soon as we can. Until then, don't engage. If you're discovered, run. Aaron: I'll try. So that was the end of that.

I continued to report back every half hour, leaving behind bright, sky-blue trail markers with little imprints in the shape of pink and yellow Mind Badges taped to tree trunks. We followed the two men for hours, fully aware that we were getting a bit off-road and away from Rustboro. We occasionally allowed them to head out further, so long as they were within Durasa's line of sight and Durvasa remained within Artoria's mental field of awareness.

All told, they maintained an average of a half a mile of distance ahead of us. At about two or three in the afternoon, Durvasa reported via Artoria that the men had stopped. That struck me as odd; they'd even taken their lunches on the move, no doubt in a hurry to escape the rangers. Them being poachers, I had a sinking suspicion as to the cause. As we approached, more information trickled in. I was right: They'd encountered a small family of rare pokemon that they considered worth stopping for.

They'd intentionally ignored all pokemon they encountered in favor of maintaining a good pace out of the forest but seemed willing to make a delay if the prize was worthwhile.' Any clue what species the pokemon are?' I asked Artoria. We immediately began to pick up our pace.' One moment, my lord,' she said. Then a hazy impression filtered through our bond. It was like a hazy photograph, taken from above and behind the poachers, as if the viewer stood hidden beneath the canopy.

The image wasn't perfect, translated as it was from Durvasa's perspective, but I could see clearly enough. Four, quadrupedal pokemon stood against the poachers. They were easy to recognize: Pale, creamy skin, sauropod body shapes, and most tellingly, bright, green leaves that sprouted from their heads. These men had managed to stumble on a family of chikorita, and one that lacked a bayleef or meganium to watch over their juniors.

In their rush to get a move on, the poachers had released their liepard, skuntank, and nuzleaf, as well as a kecleon and a bird pokemon I was certain was not native to the region. I hoped those five were all they had. The battle, if it could be called that, began and I could feel Artoria's need to get there faster.' We cannot stand idly by, my lord,' Artoria urged. I could guess what Durvsaa thought of the matter. He'd only stay back for so long. Durvasa had his excuse to jump in and I didn't think he'd be swayed.

In the end, I had no choice: A good leader didn't give commands he knew wouldn't be followed. Well, we were a team. For better or worse, I swore we'd face things together. If one of us dove in, we'd all be right behind him. I balled Jeanne and handed the pokeball to my starter. She still didn't have a handle on teleporting more than herself, something about mass, but a pokeball? That was a little trick Artoria and I workshopped.

"Go. Teleport to Durvasa and coordinate together. Your mission is to draw out the battle as long as possible until the rangers arrive. Keep them from catching the chikorita and work with them if you can. I'll be right behind you," I promised.

"Kirlia!" she shouted. With a flash of light, she was gone. Half a mile, a bit less maybe. It wasn't a long distance to sprint, but the forest didn't make things easy. I gauged that I could be there in four minutes, maybe six. As I ran, I pulled out my pokenav and dialed Paul's number. I said I'd watch and wait, but circumstances changed. Hopefully, backup wouldn't be far behind me. Author's Note For those in the know, a GPS does not in fact work off of your wifi. Or your mobile network.

Aaron is wrong, even while he's complaining that the pokemon world never bothered to innovate. I thought it'd be a funny nod because god knows I didn't know how a GPS worked until I had to write this. Aaron has trail marking tape with Mind Badge patterns. Would letting the poachers capture the chikorita have been smarter? Sure. They could have watched and waited. But that's a very un-protagonist-y thing to do. Aaron might be caturne bait, but he's sure as hell running head first into it when he can.

Thank you for reading. To reach a wider audience, and because I enjoy a more forum-like setup to facilitate discussion, I like to crosspost to a wide variety of websites. You can find them all on my Link Tree: https: //linktr. ee/fabled. webs.