The wall had seemed so small. It was merely a backdrop from the view in Oak's lab. It was high enough in Champion's Hold that the wall just seemed like a small fence at the edge of the city.
When I had flown over it on Piper the Salamance's back, sure it seemed pretty big, but being so far above it really hadn't spoken to its size.
Now it loomed in front of me. It seemed to reach up into the sky. The walls could have housed wall titans for all I knew. I was merely an ant before the majesty of peak human cooperation.
Around me were a dozen rangers, and a handful of teenagers. I didn't know what age I was before, of the person who had acquired all these memories. But looking in the mirror, in this world I was about 18.
The other rookies were what I'd guess to be between 16 and 20. Some had as many as six pokeballs, while others had 3 or 4. I had the least with a mere two pokeballs.
One kid had a scar running down his face, with two ultra balls on his belt next to a pokeball. His eye had a splotch of red whenever he looked to the left. It was intimidating, to say the least. He also had a large hunting knife on his belt.
Barry was talking to some other kid around his age, but his head perked up when he caught sight of me.
Through some brilliant forethought on my part, I had rattled off some excuse as to why I couldn't give him my contact details, and had just gotten the time and place we would be meeting. That way, I could just catch up with him here, and not have to worry about him bugging me in the two weeks I used to train.
But before he could fully make his way over, the head Ranger cleared his throat, silencing everyone.
"Alright, looks like we're all sorted. For some of you, this is your first time outside the walls. Let me get one thing clear, if a Ranger tells you to do something, you do it. They tell you to hide, you hide. They tell you to run, you run. No hesitation. No arguing. Just do it. That sort of thing can cost not just your life, but also the life of one of my rangers. Don't do anything stupid. Sit tight, listen to orders, and don't stray from the group. Understood?"
The assembled rookies all nodded their heads.
"Now, let's go over our itinerary. In groups of three, the rangers will take you to the site in the Endless Forest. Your groups are assigned, and each of you will have a Ranger designated to protect you. Get to know your Ranger. They own you now. Anything they say, you follow. We will spend three days in the Endless Forest. Your groups will have small expeditions to introduce you to the wild. Then you will return here. Any questions?"
The group shook their heads. A couple of the rangers had seemingly dozed off. I couldn't blame them. If I was a ranger, I would be annoyed at being stuck with babysitting. Especially during the parts where their CO has to explain basic concepts to the babies.
The Head Ranger began rattling off names and instructions. Several kids began to circle with their assigned Rangers and began to chat. After six people were named I noticed that there were ten of us. Would there be a group of four? The group of unassigned kept getting smaller and smaller, until I was the only one left. The Head Ranger walked up to me and pointed to one of the other rangers.
"You. Red. A couple of the higher ups are trying to get more chummy with Professor Oak, so you get special treatment. There's an air about you anyway. You seem different than the rest."
I narrowed my eyes at him.
The Head Ranger laughed. "Ha! They told me to tell you that too. Well, anyway, you're paired with Lieutenant Tristan. He's one of our more decorated Rangers. He's pissed he's been given such a trivial task, so try not to piss him off. He might gut you."
I eyed the swords on the Rangers back.
"Sure thing boss." I waved off the Head Ranger and walked to my assigned ranger.
Lieutenant Tristan, even though the Head Ranger said he was decorated, had no medals anywhere on his uniform. His belt had three standard pokeballs. He had no knife, like the rest of the rangers. Instead there were two swords clinging to his back. They were crisscrossed, with the handles sticking out over his shoulders.
He spit on the ground as he saw me walking up to him.
"Alright brat. Let's keep this simple. I'll take you to the site, let you do the things, and then take you back here. This doesn't need to be any more complicated than that."
I nodded slowly. "Counter offer. You tell me everything you know about this shitty world, and then I'll rattle off to Oak how good you were so your higher ups will be happy with you. Granted I'd say it's about half and half whether that would mean you get more jobs like this, or never have to do one again." I looked him in the eye. "Well, I think I might be a special case anyhow. I doubt any big names like Oak are common around here." Yes, I was using this as an opportunity to fish for more information about Oak. I would use any opportunity to do that. The old man was an enigma. And yeah, my offer was horse shit. I hadn't been in contact with Oak since day one. I just had the shiny researcher license with his name on it. But Ranger Tristan didn't need to know that.
The Ranger looked at me with renewed interest. "You're damn right about that. Oak's the first Professor to be crazy enough to make it through one of the warp gates. His Alakazam is crazy smart to be able to sniff one out without special training. The league appointed psychics still struggle with that after years of training."
Interesting. Oak had an Alakazam. And it was damn competent too. That seemed right. Well, one pokemon down. I still had no clue what was in that Masterball.
I cocked my head towards the pokeballs on his belt. "So, what's our transport?"
The Ranger grinned. He tapped one of the pokeballs on his belt. "Hurricane. My Arcanine. One of the fastest in the entire corps. He'll breeze through the valley with ease. Not even a Garchomp could catch him when he's going full speed."
Hurricane? I feel like that's what a rookie would name their shitty Starly. Why would somebody name a fire type Hurricane?
The Head Ranger started talking again, prompting us to both turn our heads.
"Alright. You're all acquainted. Rangers, I expect to see you at the designated site within three hours. No delays. Radio in anything out of the ordinary. Standard procedure. And don't hold back. These kids need to know how dangerous this world is. Scare the shit out of them. But if you get one killed, I'm giving you city patrol for two months. Understood?"
A couple rangers visibly shook at the idea of being put on city patrol. I guess Will was not alone in hating it. I idly noted that it seemed a very mellow punishment for failing in a protection detail, but maybe it was just meant to scare us?
Ranger Tristan tossed a ball to the ground. The energy coalesced into a sleek figure with green blades at its elbows.
"You ready?"
I didn't even get the chance to nod my head before the Gallade teleported us. Before I knew it, I was staring up again at the wall. But this time, I was on the outside. I could see giant gashes and scratches from something big carved into the wall. There were areas with burn marks and water damage. Some problem areas had patches of new cement.
The only wild pokemon nearby was a lone Rockruff, sniffing at a tuft of grass.
Tristan returned his Gallade and released his Arcanine. The orange fur was incredibly fine and well groomed. The white mane looked impossibly soft and plush. I barely rose to its shoulder. The majestic beast looked down at me with kind eyes.
He pulled a saddle out of his pack and began preparing Arcanine. After fitting the leather, Tristan motioned towards the ground with his head, making the Arcanine plop down onto its belly.
He quickly hopped up onto its back with one jump. He looked down at me expectantly.
How should I do this? If I tried to jump up in one, and missed, falling to the ground, I would be incredibly embarrassed. But I didn't want to anger Arcanine by using one of its knees as a foothold. Man, my legs were still aching from the sled pulling yesterday.
Deciding that being seen hesitating could be just as bad, I took a couple brisk steps forwards and leapt. I barely reached onto its back, and almost slipped before grabbing the saddle as a lifeline. I hastily pulled myself up.
Tristan turned back to me. "Alright, Red. Have you ever ridden an Arcanine before?"
"Nope."
Ranger Tristan turned back to me with a maniacal grin. "If you have to yak, aim to the side. YA!" He lightly tapped Arcanine's sides.
The entire world blurred. The world seemed to warp around me. I felt like I was in the Millenium Falcon, turning to light speed. But instead of stars bending around me, it was the world.
Sand dunes came and went in the blink of an eye. Rock formations that were barely visible in the distance were already far behind us now.
The wake sent dust spiraling up, as if a Flygon had summoned a sandstorm.
Oh. I guess this is why he named his fire type Hurricane. Even behind the cover of Arcanine's massive head, as well as Ranger Tristan, I struggled to hold on against the whipping winds.
Space slowly went back to normal as Arcanine slowed down, eventually coming to a stop.
"Wow! What a rush!" Tristan hollered into the nearly empty valley. A Sandslash perked its head up before burrowing into the ground.
I gasped for air. I hadn't realized I was holding my breath. Wow. That was incredible. I don't think I've ever moved that fast before. Even Piper couldn't hold a candle to an Arcanine at its top speed.
Tristan turned back to me. "Well kid, how was that?"
I laughed. "Not bad. I might have to try to catch a Growlithe for myself. I.." Oops. Almost mentioned a fire stone.
"How did you evolve your Growlithe into Arcanine anyway?" Saved it.
Tristan turned to me. "What do you mean? Same as evolving any other mon. Time, effort, and blood and sweat and tears and all that." There was a hidden glint in his eye like he was hiding something, but I decided not to push it.
I looked around, noting the absence of trees around me. "So, are you lost? I'm noticing a very obvious absence of any kind of forest."
Tristan turned to me and grinned. "Captain gave us three hours. Arcanine could make the trip in less than twenty minutes. Figured you'd enjoy the sight seeing." He hopped off Arcanine. The sand puffed up as his heavy duty boots hit the ground.
He cocked his head over to the valley. "Well come on now. We don't have all day."
I couldn't help but notice that his mood had changed significantly from earlier. "I thought you wanted to keep things simple, Lieutenant. What happened to dropping me off at the site and pretending I don't exist."
The Ranger turned back to me. "Call me Tristan. And turns out you're more entertaining than I thought you'd be. You remind me of my little brother. Besides, I'm stuck here for four days. I might as well try to get some enjoyment out of it." Tristan started walking off deeper into the valley.
I didn't know how to respond to that. I hastily tried to catch up to Tristan as I realized he was walking away.
He walked up to a bulging pile of sand. "Alright Red. What do you make of this?"
Huh. It sure was a big pile of dirt. "Uh. Well I feel like you're messing with me. But I don't know how much you like fucking with people. Is there a pokemon under there?"
"Bingo!" Tristan stomped on the dirt pile.
The ground shifted as the entire pile moved. The sand pile sprouted massive jaws and clamped down on where Tristan was standing. But Tristan had jumped onto the pile right after stomping on it, getting thrown up into the air when the jaw launched open. The jaws closed down on nothing but empty air, and Tristan flipped in the air before landing a couple feet behind me.
The Hippowdon was not done, however. It was awake now. Being the closest to it now, its eyes closed in on me.
Shit.
The Hippowdon leapt forward towards me. I hastily crouched, preparing to dive to the side, when a big clang sounded in front of me. The Hippowdon was slammed into the ground, immediately knocked out.
Above it, I saw Tristan, holding onto one of the swords from his back. The gray steel was leaking brown and orange energy. He hopped off the top of the Hippowdon, slinging the sword back onto his back.
I whipped my head back to where he had been a moment before. What? How did he move so fast?
I turned back to Tristan. "I'm guessing that's not a regular sword?"
He laughed. "Good eye. Doublade. Real nasty mon. Or at least they are usually. Oblivion here isn't like the rest of his kind."
I cocked my head. "What do you mean?"
"Well most chaos types are pretty malicious. They possess people. Contort em. Some even pretend to be balloons and kill kids. Real nasty stuff. But Oblivion is kind of empty. When I found him, he was just floating in an empty field, unmoving. If he were anything other than chaos, he wouldn't have made it. I've heard that people think chaos mons are just ghosts of dead people. Or dead pokemon. Oblivion really makes me wonder. I've seen Rangers get frozen out there when they see something awful. Their eyes get this glazed look. They just stand there, unreactive, even when there's a wild mon charging at them. I've seen some men lose their lives getting trapped in that trance. That's what Oblivion feels like. A blank slate. A ghost that's dead inside. That's why I'm the one swinging the swords myself."
Woah. Info dump. Okay so ghost types are called chaos types. I guess that makes sense. Not all of them look like ghosts. Maybe there's another reason for the classification? I wonder how they differentiate between ghost and dark types. Is there a difference between chaos and the void? Maybe the distortion realm has something to do with one of them?
And also apparently this Doublade can't swing itself. Interesting. I looked at the Hippowdon. Its eyes were glazed over, and its tongue was hanging out of its mouth. I would have thought it was dead if it didn't have the rhythmic breathing with its chest rising and falling.
"Hey wait. How did you get over to the Hippowdon so fast?"
Tristan smirked at me. "Trade secret. Figure it out yourself."
Asshole. I turned back to the ground where he had landed. There were footprints where he had impacted, but there weren't footprints leading up to the Hippowdon. Besides the ones he made earlier when walking up to the mound. Huh.
"Anyway, that's it for our field trip in the sand. Just a little introduction to the beasties we deal with in the valley. We're off to the Endless Forest now." Tristan began making his way back to Hurricane, who had been waiting patiently. The giant puppy leapt up to its feet when Tristan got close. He scratched under the giant pokemon's chin, eliciting a happy bark.
I followed behind him, continuing to ponder what had happened. I had only been staring at the gaping jaw of the Hippowdon and started panicking. Maybe there had been a flash of light above it? Oak had mentioned aura being a thing, but I don't think it gave people superspeed. And I would have seen footprints if it was just speed. Teleportation? Tristan hadn't released his Gallade. And Doublade shouldn't have been able to shadow sneak in the middle of the afternoon.
How many more questions was this world going to give me?