A semi-organized line of Pokemon made their way down the mountain. Their feet crunched through the snow and ice that lined their path, their vague forms wavering blending into their surroundings as the illusion disguising them did their work.
“Why do I have to come all the way out to this dump?” Kogane whined, “She could’ve sent any other Noble to take care of these chumps.”
Haast just sighed as he was forced to endure another round of complaining from the Lord of Fire. More like Lord of Entitlement.
“And Lord Sloth does nothing!” Kogane stomped her paw in a puddle of mud, “He sleeps through everything! Why not send him to do something once in a while?”
“Yet he’s more productive than you are in a year the few times a year he is awake.” Haast replied matter of factly.
“I AM productive!” Kogane snapped, “I just take the time to take care of my appearance as well.” The golden Arcanine lifted one of her hind paws and grumpily shook the muddy water off it as she pouted. “Now I’m going to have to spend hours cleaning myself. Just look at my fur! It’s all soggy and dirty!”
One of the Arcanine directly behind Kogane glanced down at its own muddy coat and rolled its eyes, the Houndoom beside it stifled a scoff.
Haast shared an annoyed glance with Kogane’s advisor, “You are soggy because you keep melting all the snow, and you are out here because our liege thinks you need a change in attitude.”
The two kept bickering until they arrived at the edge of the forest leading onto where the ranger base was located.
The collection of low roofed buildings looked mostly deserted except for the few heavily armed guards that stood near a few of the entrances alongside a Houndoom or Magneton.
“This should be far away enough right Haast?” One of the Hisuan Zoroarks accompanying the group asked.
Haast nodded. The expedition team had been very helpful in providing information on what sort of weapons and tools the poachers had access to. The Noble had taken all that into account during his plans.
“I heard there was a flying den, where is it?” Kogane asked as she peered at the human settlement.
The Advisor gestured to the sky, “The human named Tim told us it that it can cloak itself in invisibility. It is probably hovering above the ranger base.”
A Kadabra came up to the front with the leaders, and as Haast’s instruction, it raised its glowing spoon and began to provide cover any psychic messages between their psychics.
Once the filter was in place, Haast sent a telepathic message to the Infiltration squad. We are in place. Report in.
He waited for a few seconds before the shadows underneath him swirled. Mismagius floated out from the ground, followed by a Sableye, who grunted and angrily swiped at the witch ghost’s dress because it repeatedly hit the gem gremlin in the face.
After shooting Mismagius a glare, Sableye cleared its throat and spoke, “Reporting in, there are just under a hundred humans inside the base not including the Pokemon with them. Most of them are heavily armed. Their leader is not inside the ground dens, but their second in command is there. There is also a guarded room with nine humans from a separate group tied up inside. ”
“Most of the poacher’s forces are on the ground.” Mismagius reported, “Their leader is on the ship, with a few of her soldiers. One of my ghosts also found a holding area at the back of the ship with a lot of Pokemon they have snatched from the surrounding area.”
Kogane growled furiously, “Those scumbags!” The freezing air began to warm up, and the falling snow began to melt mid-air.
The Advisor pat Kogane’s shoulder, “Patience, they will be rescued, and we will destroy the poachers in time.”
The temperature went back down, but Kogane kept growling.
“Begin retrieving prisoners from the ship,” Haast ordered, “and bring along an illusionist to cover your escape.” With a nod, Mismagius disappeared into the shadows.
The Noble eagle turned to Sableye, “Are the imprisoned humans in any shape to fight?”
Sableye nodded, “Yes.”
“Good, find where the Pokeballs for their Pokemon are contained, as well as any medical supplies they might need and give it to them.” Haast ordered, “They should be able to retake the main building while most of the poachers are distracted by us.”
“Yessir.” Sableye saluted and scuttled away.
As soon as he was finished with the ghosts, Haast sent out another telepathic message to his correspondent in the Sky squad. Are you in place?
There was a delay before he got a message back from the Hisuan Braviary leading the Sky Squad. Yes sir. We are waiting for your word to go.
Good. Begin the operation. Haast ordered.
As soon as he sent the last word, the sky darkened and the wind began to pick up. The temperature plummeted as a full-blown blizzard began to sweep in. The Cryogonal swarm did their work well.
Shaking the excess water from melted snow off her pelt, Kogane began to gather energy, her coat shone brighter and brighter,
“Time to melt those bastards.” Kogane growled. Her golden coat shone brighter and brighter as she gathered energy, the air around her freezing as she sucked away all excess heat into her body. A small and condensed ball of pure heat like a miniature sun began to swirl to life in her jaws.
Reporting in, the prisoners on the ship have been escorted to safety.
Roger that. Haast replied. Alright, freeze em.
There was a loud, high-pitched ringing of thousands of ice crystals clanging against each other as a massive swarm of Cryogonal appeared out of thin air and swirled around the invisible airship as one. There was a loud crackle as the poacher’s airship was immediately encased in ice and began to sink from all the extra weight.
Their work done, the Cryogonal scattered.
“Now it’s my turn!” Kogane roared as she fired an Overheat. The condensed beam of pure heat energy arced out and pierced straight through the metal airship like it was melted butter.
There was a delay as the ship started to steam, followed by a ground shaking explosion as the ship blew up, the blast sending burning bits of shrapnel everywhere.
Sky Corps move in! Haast ordered.
A flock of Bombirdier dove down from the clouds and began dropping loads of Foongus and Paras as mercenary soldiers began pouring out of the Ranger Base. The little spore Pokemon landed with a soft POOMF! Followed by an explosion of spores from their mushrooms before they were spirited away to somewhere safe by waiting ghost types. Within seconds, the area was completely covered in paralyzing and poisonous spores.
The enemy began to cough and sputter as they frantically put on protection gear and ordered the Zubat and Golbat accompanying them to clear out the spores with gusts of wind.
Melee, wait until the area is clear of spores before moving in. Ranged attackers, begin picking off any enemy commanders and anyone who has any dangerous looking weapons.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Kogane continued shooting blasts of fire at any mercenary who even attempted to organize a counterattack. The fire from her attacks quickly burned up any remaining spores as the poachers and their Pokemon scrambled to get away from the explosions that seemed to be coming out of nowhere.
Any other mercenary who seemed to have Pokemon capturing equipment or any remotely powerful looking weapons were sniped by a well-placed Dark Pulse or an Icicle Spear from one of the many Houndoom and Weavile in the vanguard.
Sky squad reporting in, the leader was able to escape the ship, should we pursue?
Where is she heading?
Toward’s Lake Acuity sir.
I will pursue her, you stay behind and help the ground forces finish taking out the trash.
Roger that.
Haast turned to Kogane and the rest of the vanguard as he spread his wings, “Go get em. I’ve got something to take care of. Take out their hands or heads first.”
There was a chorus of roars and howling from the vanguard, led by Kogane as they charged while Haast took to the skies and flew for Lake Acuity. He wasn’t in any hurry, all he had to do was make sure the poacher went into Lord Uxie’s domain.
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Ranger Dwayne jolted awake as he heard an explosion overhead, the building rattled from the shockwave. There were murmurs of surprise from the others as they looked to the ceiling. The little room they had been imprisoned in had no windows so they had no idea what was going on outside.
The mercenary watching over them snorted and grunted as he was also awoken by the explosion. He grabbed his radio and groggily asked what was going on, but got nothing but static noises. Everyone could hear the frantic patter of boots as the other mercenaries rushed outside to assess the threat.
“You guys stay quiet.” The mercenary ordered, hoisting his rifle before running out of the room and locking the door behind him.
“What’s going on?” Allison asked, “Did the league send someone to rescue us?”
“Fuck if I know.” Felicia replied, wriggling in her restraints as she tried to loosen the rope. The ranger let out a gasp of surprise as something icy cold touched her hand and her restraints suddenly came loose.
Felicia instantly grabbed her sore wrists and rubbed them to help restore blood flow to her hands.
The others let out murmurs of surprise and a few thanks as they were also cut free by someone. They fell silent as they heard the doorknob jiggling. There was a click and the door hinges squeaked as the door swung open.
A small purple gremlin with blue jeweled eyes grunted as it pushed a small stack of boxes into the room and shut the door behind it with a soft click.
The rangers all flinched as a few more explosions sounded outside, followed by a few muffled bursts of gunfire, and the shouts and screams of the mercenaries.
Sableye awkwardly stood next to the boxes and waved at the rangers before gesturing at the box.
Jeff was the first to get to his feet and quickly opened the top box, letting out a gleeful laugh as he saw everyone’s Pokeballs and ranger equipment. The other quickly swarmed the boxes and soon all nine rangers were equipped with their gear and Pokeballs.
“Are you one of Fantina’s ghosts? Or with someone from ACE or Interpol?” One of the rangers asked the gem gremlin.
Sableye tilted its head in confusion and stared at them while making frog-croaking sounds.
“I guess not.” Felicia shrugged.
“That doesn’t matter, come on! Let’s get out, I swear if I spend another second in here I’ll go crazy!” Allison shouted as she threw open the door, ready for a fight. The others followed.
Without another word, the nine rangers split up into a group of five and four and began clearing the building they were currently in. Thankfully it was empty except for one mercenary who was frantically trying to contact someone on a comms device. The merc thankfully had the brains to know he was outnumbered and instantly surrendered, muttering something like how he wasn’t paid enough to deal with this bullshit.
All the while, the sounds of warfare continued outside. Once the building was cleared, the rangers reconvened at the main entrance and peered outside.
“Uhhh. It doesn’t look like they need any help.” Someone quietly commented.
The scene outside was a bloodbath. Hunter J’s mercenaries were being obliterated by shining golden Hisuan Arcanine. One of the rangers gasped and looked a bit sick as the Arcanine created a barrage of boulders with Rock Slide before melting the rock into magma and flinging it over the enemy mercenaries and badly burning them before vaporizing them with a Fire Blast.
The faint smell of burning flesh wafted into the building and a few people gagged at the scent.
A group of Garchomp and Druddigon carved a path through mercs with guns, relying on their tough scales to deflect bullets before chopping or biting off the arms of the mercenary shooting at them.
There was a chorus of howls as a pack of Houndoom swarmed a bunch of the mercenaries and tore them to bits. The Houndoom and Mightyena who were previously on the same side of the poachers turning on their oppressors with glee, they weren’t going to pass up this opportunity to take revenge on the humans who casually treated them like disposable tools.
A few mercenaries were quick witted enough to grab armor piercing guns, leaving a few wild Pokemon injured or dead, but they were swiftly dragged into the shadows by a chattering swarm of ghost Pokemon or pecked apart by one of the many Skarmory or Braviary hovering above the battlefield.
Seeing the injured Pokemon and wanting to at least help out their rescuers, the rangers didn’t hesitate to run out of the shelter and begin dragging the injured Pokemon away to safety.
Meanwhile, the golden Arcanine howled. Its call was echoed by the other Pokemon around it as the dozen or so mercenaries were herded into a tight knot by a massive pack of assorted canine Pokemon.
Knowing that they were defeated, a few of the mercenaries dropped their weapons and raised their hands in surrender. The golden Pokemon paused for a second before laughing scornfully at the poachers.
Sicc em. The fire type snarled.
The rangers looked away as a swarm of Houndoom, Mightyena, and Weavile closed in on the remaining poachers. The ring closed into a black dot and a red stain began leaking out from the writhing mass of bodies and dyeing the area around them crimson.
Kogane sat down and watched with glee before realizing that she forgot something and smacked her face with her paw, “Oh shit, we needed to leave a few alive.”
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Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit! Hunter J gritted her teeth, nearly cracking a molar in anger. Her ship was destroyed, her cargo was gone, and she had no soldiers. It was going to be painfully expensive to replace everything. Dammit! I’m going to find whoever did this and make them pay!
She glanced back at the trio of Skarmory chasing after her and her Salamence.
“Go faster! We need to go to the base in Snowpoint.” The poacher growled, digging her nails into Salamence’s scales as she let out her Aradios. “Electroweb!”
The poisonous spider clattered its pincers and threw a salvo of well aimed webs of electricity at the birds, who dropped back and dodged the attack. One of them was clipped in the wing by a web and shocked, making it fall back even further.
Hunter J followed up the web attack with a series of gunshots from her armor piercer, hitting one of the Skarmory square in the chest. There was a pained squawk as the metal bird’s armor was pierced through by a bullet and it began to fall.
The poacher aimed again at the other Skarmory in the front, but flinched as her gun was suddenly torn away from her grip and thrown into the forest below. Hunter J glared at the massive golden Hisuan Braviary that had just joined her pursuers and was keeping the injured Skarmory afloat with Psychic.
The golden Pokemon screeched to two other Skarmory in the front before placing the injured bird onto the back one of its uninjured companions.
The metal birds glared at the hunter as they turned around and headed back.
“Tch.” Well, one Pokemon was going to be a lot easier to handle than three.
The poacher smiled to herself, eyeing the golden Pokemon casually flying after them as she estimated its worth and which client would buy it.
“You’ll make a great reparation for the destruction of my airship.”
Hunter J tapped Salamence’s back, signaling for it to fly lower. Ariados began prepping a web as the Hunter aimed her petrifying cannon at the cash cow.
The arm cannon whirred as it fired a petrifying beam at Braviary, but before the attack could hit, the eagle Pokemon disappeared.
In a blink of an eye, Hunter J’s outstretched arm was gone and the golden Braviary was flying just above the Pokemon poacher with her dismembered arm hanging in one of its claws. The poacher watched for a moment in disbelief as the eagle crushed her dismembered arm and the cannon attached to it in its bloody claws and dropped it into the forest below.
Salamence growled in surprise and sped up to try to lose Braviary, shooting a Flamethrower at the eagle Pokemon, who easily blocked the burst of fire with Protect.
Then Hunter J’s body registered her missing arm and she screamed, keeling over. Ariados clicked its pincers at its trainer in worry and quickly began applying webs to the poacher’s arm stump to stop the bleeding.
Still doubled over and groaning in pain, Hunter J pressed the buttons on one of the Pokeballs on her belt, a Malamar appeared in a flash. Braviary fell back, cautiously eyeing the unfamiliar Pokemon.
Hmmm, what a pickle you have gotten us into. You should’ve sent me out earlier. The squid Pokemon haughtily sighed, raising its tentacles as it began sending out mind controlling waves at the Noble Pokemon while Hunter J applied a full restore to her arm.
The squid Pokemon was unpleasantly surprised to find that its mind control power did not work on the bird as it dove back down and grabbed Malamar, easily shredding the squid into noodles and ignoring the single shriek of pain from Malamar before it went silent.
“Hmph, as if a low quality psychic would be able to best me.” Haast commented as he dropped what remained of Malamar into the forest below.
By now Hunter J was able to stop the bleeding, her remaining hand hovered over her Drapion’s Pokeball but her pursuer stopped midair, glaring at her one last time before it turned and flew back to where it came from.
“It must’ve gotten bored of me.” Hunter J muttered. “A foolish move to let me get away.” The poacher snarled even more viciously than a Mightyena. She’d take revenge on those bastard Pokemon. Now that she had information, she knew quite a few clients who would pay a large fortune to obtain those golden Pokemon and previously extinct Hisuan variants.
I will come back prepared with an army and personally see to it that–
Hunter J’s thoughts were cut off as Salamence unexpectedly dipped down and she nearly fell over. Regaining her balance, the mercenary looked around, she had been preoccupied with their pursuers and then her arm getting cut off to pay much attention to where they were but she could recognize this lake anywhere. Lake Acuity, it was where she regularly caught Bronzong and Bronzor to sell to Team Galactic.
Salamence slowed down as they approached an island in the middle of the lake, hovering over the island with a bit of hesitation before it landed.
Hunter J’s simmering anger exploded at the disobedience. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to–” Salamence reared onto its hind legs and dumped the mercenary onto the ground.
The poacher grunted as a jolt of pain went through her arm stump. “You bastard!” Hunter J grabbed for Salamence’s ultra ball on her belt, then stopped and felt for it again. It wasn’t there. In fact, all of her tools and Pokeballs were gone. How did I not notice!?
Salamence growled and glared at the poacher, looking her right in the eye. Hunter J was lost for words, the stupid lizard should’ve lost the ability to even slightly oppose her when it was a puny Bagon. She had broken its spirit years ago, how in the world did it have the courage to stand up to her now?
Salamence said something to Ariados, who was still perched on the dragon’s back. The spider looked hesitantly between Hunter J and the dragon before clicking something in reply to the dragon.
The dragon nodded and snorted an insult at Hunter J before turning and flying away with Ariados, leaving her stranded all alone on this island in the middle of a lake.
“Damn you! How dare you betray me! I- I’ll!” The poacher screamed, she was at a loss for words, nothing could describe how she felt in that moment. Her ship was gone, the mercenaries she had hired were probably dead–
It seems that your parents never taught you the basics on how life works, but I can teach you the rules now.
Hunter J whipped around, glaring eyes searching for whoever just spoke.
Firstly, what goes around comes around. Betray others and they will betray you without hesitation.
“Who are you! Show yourself you bastard! Are you the one who planned this?!”
A psychic force grabbed Hunter J’s face and turned her face a pale blue Pokemon with a yellow head and a red gem on its forehead. Despite having closed eyes, Hunter J still felt as if it could see into her soul. The Lake Guardian gave the Hunter J an unsettling smile as the poacher found herself unable to move her limbs but she could still slightly move her mouth.
“Fuck– You–” The poacher managed to choke out.
How rude of you, but don’t worry. I am not capable of teaching compassion and empathy like Mesprit, but I can certainly teach you some morals–something you seem to have to never had the opportunity to learn.
There was a clatter, and Hunter J glanced to the side as she saw the broken pieces of Salamence’s Pokeball fall to the ground. Her face was jerked again to look right into Uxie’s wide open eyes.
In return, you will give me everything you know. It is only fair.