Hard Enough

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. There 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.