Today has been… interesting so far. It started badly, but Oma and Opa dropping in made it better. Karlos can’t give me the afternoon today though, as much as he might want to.
There just had to be something today. Sometime late yesterday, the Sienna government was informed of two leaked action reports involving the misdreavus. And since all the reports are by me so far, they effectively forced the Union to send a Top Ranger to interview me. Not that the Union thinks it was me, but politics are politics.
Our running theory here at the base is that it was a researcher who sold copies in either Kanto or Sinnoh. No one thinks Rowan would do it, he’s very prominent, not stupid, and he has a reputation to protect. Now, Hikori might have given just how bad Kanto’s general situation is right now, except that the first signs of a leak came from Sinnoh. They even shut the trains to Sinnoh down late this morning. Not that it will stop the information leak, things like that are done through computer inter-networking these days.
My problem now is that the big shot is late.
Karlos already took my testimony and I’ve finished a written report of everything I’ve done over the last week. And more frustratingly, if whoever was sent had been here on time I could be out there with my family right now.
Just- they’re here to stay! Disregarding a—singular—phone call, the last time I’d seen them was before I entered the academy. I missed them more than I thought I would, especially after what dad said, the bast-
…I’m making myself angry.
Karlos obviously notices, “I’m sorry-” he starts again before I wave him off.
“It’s not you, it’s just this situation and my grandparents showing up at the same time," I tell him.
We’re in his office, ‘patiently’ waiting. Karlos has even started scanning more papers into the computer it’s been so long, the man was supposed to be here more than an hour ago.
Weaver’s vanished somewhere now as well, she’s never been the patient type though.
I’ve actually grabbed my deck of cards, and I’m halfway through a game of Nickit before the phone rings.
“Karlos Monte, Vien-Forest West Ranger base, to whom am I speaking?” The man himself says in a perfect customer service voice after picking up the phone. “Ah, yes sir. Yes, I have an account and transcript of her testimony. I see, should I assume the situation has been resolved then, sir? Yes, thank you for letting me know. I should be able to send copies in by tonight, yes. Understood sir.” He speaks into the phone before hanging up. Then he gives a long suffering sigh, running a hand down his face, “You want the stupid news or the regular news first?”
Just from his half of the conversation, I can guess what one of those is. "The news," I say, making him sigh again.
"So, as soon as Rowan heard there had been a leak he essentially tore the entire Sinnoh Research Institute apart. He found the man who did it too, not even a researcher, just an administrator who wanted some extra cash." Karlos says, cracking his knuckles. "The stupid news is that the higher-ups just got around to calling the ‘interview’ off, but the Top Ranger wasn’t even going to get here for another hour.” He shakes his head, “They didn’t say why of course, but I have my guesses.
Karlos sighs again before getting to what I want to know, “With us having been sitting on our asses the last two-and-a-half hours I can’t give you the afternoon. What I can do is put you on duty in the city for the rest of the day, and if you happen to run into your grandparents then that’s just a happy coincidence.” He stops, grinding the palm of his hand into the bridge of his nose for a moment. “I think we both know you’ll be pretty busy if I do that though. Do you still want me to?”
Emil and Maya are both already in the field, and I’d be out there with them if it wasn’t for the order to remain at base. Which means, “Everyone’s going to be in the field today.” I observe.
He nods, “One of those days.” He says sagely.
“You’ll be handling the extra load up north then?” I ask the hefty man.
He snorts, “I will. It’s a great excuse to stop doing paperwork and get back to my actual job.” He says. Cracking his neck and leaning back in his chair, he levels his gaze at me, “You’re taking the city today, then.” He states.
"Obviously," I say.
“Finally!” He almost leaps out of his chair. “Let’s get going. I bet Francios’ got quite the list for each of us, and we’re going to be at it all day.” Karlos ‘complains’ happily as he opens the office door.
Stretching, I make my way out of his office, down the central corridor, out through the lobby, and finally make my way outside.
A bright, slightly cloudy day greets me, a breeze moving the world as it passes. I’m still in uniform, I made the mistake of taking it off before dinner once, never again. Now I just need to find two energetic old people with red-ish hair while on the job. Shouldn’t be too hard.
Setting off at a light jog, I start heading for Vientown.
Oma and Opa are moving here… I think the weight of that just hit me. I was wholly expecting to never see any of my family again and now I’ll at least have them. I mean, I would like to see my brother at some point, and Uncle Finn, but it's hard enough to find personal time as a ranger. Let alone enough vacation time to head back to Kanto. Although if I wanted to see Kouta again I'd need to deal with Dad…
Continuing to move at pace, I can see the edge of the industrial district. All the civil services—including the civilian police—are closer to the south end of the city, so I maintain my pace to reach them as quickly as possible.
Nine times out of ten, any missions that happen in Vientown involve the police, firefighters, or medical services as they lack the training—and to be honest, the trust—to deal with pokemon the way we do. So it’s best to head there first.
It’s why we all hope for quests instead.
Three chimes sound from my radio. Well, Karlos did say there was probably a list of things to do.
Honestly, it's been a while since the last big emergency. Season’s grace, please don’t let that be today.
Stopping and looking around before I grab my radio, I’m happy to see Weaver being her usual self. She stops mid-motion, comical pose and all as she looks as though she were a cartoon villain attempting to sneak up on me.
Smiling, I Switch the radio from idle to operator, and acknowledge the hail, “Onaga Ryuko, responding.” I say into it.
“Th- This is student o- operator Francios Lumio, Vien-Forest West, transmitting.” Fran still sounds nervous, as he has since he started doing real work as an operator. "We’ve got a few requests for aid from local services pending, none are emergency requests, thankfully. The first is at four-fourteen Alto Street, talk to Officer Kent when you get there, he should be waiting.” The line goes silent, and I Start jogging again, waiting for him to remember the required line for something like this. “R- Right, This is an o- official mission. Do your best! Ending transmission.” He says, and the line dies.
I mean, the ‘official mission’ statement was required, but I don’t think I’ve heard the end transmission line from an operator since I made rank. Katie might be messing with him.
I continue my pace, Alto is pretty close to the center of the city, so it won’t take me long to get there. I get the normal amount of waves and stares in passing as I blitz down the wide path past a few food packing facilities.
It takes a surprising amount of work to ready food for transit, though I can see quite a few ‘bored’ grass-types next to their actually bored partners. Rounding a corner, I can see why. Surprise! It’s construction. Looks like Vien-Greens is rebuilding something.
…I haven’t taken a good look around in almost two months, again. I hate this time of year sometimes.
Doing my best to ignore the horrors spring always brings with it, it takes me only a few minutes to reach Alto, and seconds from there to find the address, though I have to move through a small crowd to get to it.
Oh. Yeah, that would do it.
“Hey! I’m Glad you finally made it Ranger…” He pauses, probably to glance at my badge, “Onaga. We… need a little help. Clearly.” Says a man wearing a police uniform. He must be Kent, but I’m not looking at him. No, I’m looking at the mafia of murkrow coating the building at four-fourteen.
“Weav…” Whispers Weaver. Yeah, whatever that was, that was my thought too.
They're all over the roof, on every windowsill, on every balcony, and even in the building. A mass of black feathers, red eyes, and yellow beaks.
They only gather like this for two reasons- well, five, but three of those shouldn’t happen both in the middle of the day and inside the city.
So, the first: Someone did something incredibly stupid and made the whole mafia angry. And if that’s the case, I hope whoever it was wasn’t in there when they all got here.
The second: One of them just evolved into a honchkrow and they’re all making an appearance at the new leader's nest.
I hope it's the second. Honchkrow tend to be smart and reclusive. Although, if someone made the whole mafia mad… things get a bit harder.
“How long have they been here?” I ask Kent, finally taking a good look at him. He's clearly a native Almian, with fair skin and blue eyes. His uniform says C. Kent on the left breast.
“About an hour, no one’s inside, or at least no one is responding, and we haven’t tried to move them beyond asking.” He informs me. Good, never attempt to escalate with a group like this. The time frame is also good, one hour is still within the expected window for a family gathering for the honchkrow.
“Did you try to ask them anything? Try to figure out why they’re here?” I continue. I need more information before I decide to walk into that.
“They’re not responding at all, they’ve been creepily silent, really. I called the station to try and figure out who owns the building but I haven’t gotten an answer yet.” The man says. And that’s probably about the point they called us in.
Silent could be good or bad. If it’s reasons one or two they could be silent as respect for the new boss or as an intimidation tactic. The fact that it seems no one is here to be intimidated makes me feel more confident about there being a new honchkrow in there.
Do I use my RED? There are a lot of pokemon in and around the building, and getting through to them quickly would be a massive help. But, the empathy device is also exhausting to use, to the point that it’s more of an only-when-needed measure. Though, counterpoint, there might be a body inside.
Before doing anything else I need to make sure base knows, and then ask why they didn’t tell me.
Flipping a switch and raising a hand, I begin, “Francios, Are you aware of the situation at my location?” I ask the trainee.
The line is silent for five seconds before I get a response. “No, no information was given. Is it bad?” Says the nervous voice.
I need to turn to Kent here, “Did you call us, or did the station?” I ask the officer.
“The station.” He says. “I told them what the situation was, if they didn’t tell you anything then I don’t know why.”
Right. “Okay Francios, the police should have said something. There’s an entire mafia of murkrow here. They’re remaining silent and only observing people, I’m about to approach. Going radio silent.” I tell him.
And I do just that, silencing the radio so that it doesn’t disturb the pokemon. I approach, relying on the general respect pokemon that live near humans have for the rangers here to let me get closer. And they do let me, still silently watching.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Murkrow are uncooperative at the best of times, so I’m surprised when, before anything else can happen, there’s a shrill cry of “Krow!” from deep inside the building and all the murkrow stiffen. Question answered, and with the better outcome too. Not wanting to be any more impolite, I wait for the pokemon to make their appearance.
After a few seconds, the murkrow begin to part, admitting a form twice the size of the largest of their number. Both Officer Kent and I groan at seeing that. Never mind, This may be a more complicated situation than I’d thought. They have a pokeball in their beak, and even at this distance I can see that it’s brand new.
“I’m going to assume you stole that from a visiting human, right?” I ask the large avian. To my surprise they- actually he, based on his plumage, turns his head back and forth twice before turning around and gesturing with a wing to follow. I don’t think I like where this is going, and even less the fact that he was probably waiting for a ranger to show up.
Well, let's see just how bad it is then. Stepping after him, I need to stop for a moment as Weaver puts herself in front of me. Unlike with Opa earlier, I can understand her wariness. As we enter I can tell that while this is an expensive home it’s not been recently lived in, either by humans or pokemon. Though murkrow are everywhere, there's no furniture, and dust sits where the birds haven't stirred it up. I also don’t like the way the murkrow are watching everything, even in here. They’re all on edge and only being kept in line by the presence of their honchkrow.
Honchkrow leads us from the entryway through a living room and into a back hall, where he gestures into a door.
It’s a bit too dark without the lights on so I unhook my flashlight before entering the room, it’s empty apart from two unconscious men and a rather shaky espeon.
So, reason number four that murkrow gather like this then: Guarding vital assets. That… that means there has to be more. And as if to confirm that, the honchkrow caws to bring my attention to the next door down before he enters it himself.
Following him, I enter another mostly empty room. This one however contains the most concerning items yet, even beyond what may be hostages, or more likely, prisoners. Three shipping crates, one of which has been pried open to reveal pokeballs.
“Did you just find these today?” I ask Honchkrow, trying to keep my emotions in check. He bobs his head once. “I assume you want something for taking care of this?” Another bob of the head. He knows he and his mafia will be rewarded for bringing this to our attention then. “Thank you for helping with this then, genuinely," I tell the poofy pokemon.
“H'krow," He says, tipping his head at me.
I need to keep my frustration down, but it’s been boiling up since this morning. Being told your government suspects you of spying is not a good way to start things.
And I explicitly asked for there not to be something like this today. Okay, how about Kimetsune? Great spirit of fire, Please let this be the worst of it today. I silently pray to the nine-tailed deity, hoping that even without a shrine or offering she’ll hear me.
At least I now know enough about the situation to call it in. Sighing, I un-silence my radio, “Francios, I need you to put Barry on duty. That’s an order.” I tell him. I can feel my anger rising again.
“Um… Yes ma’am.” He responds. “But, if it’s okay to ask, why?”
“Because you're still a student and you don't have the clearance to make certain calls yet," I inform him, attempting to maintain a steady tone.
Not waiting for him to grab his senior operator, I take a better look at the crates. Originally shipped from Kanto to Sinnoh judging by the labels, but a line on one of them makes me stop. ‘SLP-PKB-BLN lot #0090471.’
Well, I guess this is still part of ‘the worst of it’ then.
I don’t bother looking further and rip the top off the crate. Blank pokeballs, they don’t even have shells yet, the complicated engineering inside plainly visible. That alone implies some serious smuggling.
“Okay Onaga, Fran just told me you said he doesn’t have clearance for something. How bad is it?” Barry asks through the radio, his tone all business.
“Three crates of pokeballs. One of them is a crate of blanks.” I tell him. I can’t quite keep my anger out of my voice now.
It takes him a second to absorb that. “…Okay, I’m getting on the line with the Union. Standby.” He says, and the radio goes to static instead of silence.
Why here though… The only reason I can think of would be to get them to Orre through The Haruba without dealing with the current Indigo blockade. But why blanks of all things?
Blanks are a problem for several reasons. From what I understand, they don’t have any safeties, extra functions, or checks installed yet, not even a resonator for re-capture prevention. They aren't even as good as most handmade balls at the moment, so why?
“Vile.” I hear from behind me. Weaver is standing back in the hallway and pointing to the makeshift prison’s door. Right, there’s an espeon in the building that’s probably not a sanctioned capture.
Turning around, I make my way back into the room with the presumed smugglers and take a closer look at the feline pokemon. They're male and not yet mature, which is concerning for an evolved member of the eevee line. Their gem is dark, fur matted, flanks a bit thinner than they should be, pupils a dim gray instead of glowing white, and he’s still shaking, even harder now, unfortunately.
Moving out of the doorway and to the side of the room, I crouch down and try to put my anger at whoever brought all this here aside. Worryingly, the espeon’s eyes aren’t tracking me.
“Can you communicate at all?” I ask gently. No response, not even any eye movement. “Can you even hear me?” I ask louder, though remaining gentle. Still no reaction, no eye or ear movement whatsoever. What could it be? Shaking, clearly tired, likely hungry, unresponsive, and it’s getting worse…
Espeons are natural empaths, so a negative emotional feedback loop seems likely. Trying to touch him is out of the question until I can gauge his state of mind. Looking around the room, I see what I both hoped I would and wouldn’t resting between the men. A pokeball, powered on.
I hold in my sigh as I rise to pick it up, practically stalking over to the unconscious men. As I reach for it, however, one of the men suddenly moves, trying to grab me and pull me down. He doesn’t budge me, but my fist impacting his face knocks him down again.
Bad reaction, should have grappled, deal with consequences later, handle hostile.
“Place your hands behind your head," I order as he scrambles to his feet, giving me plenty of time to un-holster something.
“What the hells is wrong with this country?” He mutters in perfect kantonian, interesting.
I reply in kind, “Stand down, hands behind your head, this is your final warning.” I say as calmly as I can.
His eyes dart around for an instant before landing on the shivering pokemon. “Espeon, disa-”
My blow lands lightning fast as he’s calling for the pokemon, the shock-rod delivering enough charge to knock him out. He goes down hard, but I just can’t bring myself to care. If he’s hurt… Well, I did warn him.
What an idiot. Did he think he could win there? What would he even have done if he took me out, try to take Weaver out with Espeon? Fought the murkrow with him?
He probably would have tried to use me as leverage, except at that point Weaver would have attacked him, enforcer registration or not. I’m not entirely sure what she would have done to him, but she’s a dark-type so… odds are good there would have been one less criminal in the building.
Reaching down to pick up the pokeball again, I watch the other man the whole time. I think that one’s actually out cold though.
Now with the ball in hand, I move closer to the espeon and crouch again. This next part won’t be pleasant for me, but that doesn’t matter, it's a sure way to break a negative spiral without risking any further harm. Once more trying to put my rage away, I instead focus on how I feel towards the shaky pokemon, then place one hand on the central inductor crystal of my RED and the other on the trigger of the circular device. I ready myself, then pull.
There are no words that can describe how utterly enervating using an empathy device is. There’s even an old story about how the original creator dropped dead when he first made one, though, given that Professor Hastings is alive and well, and has apparently taken students, I’m fairly certain it’s just a story. But anyone who’s ever used one will tell you they don’t doubt it can kill the user.
I don’t use it for long, about a second, but it still leaves me feeling drained. I can see Weaver has a warm grin on her face, more importantly, however, Espeon’s shaking a bit less and his eyes are focusing on me now.
Important questions first, “Do you need sunlight?” I ask him. I already know the answer, but I need to know how aware he is right now. He starts to shake his head before seeming to actually parse the question, then nods. Okay, that’s a good answer. “Did those two hurt you in any way” I continue. Another nod. “Are you originally from Almia?” An unsurprising shake of the head. “Were they the ones that caught you?” That question gets a bobble, so I’m assuming it’s a bit complicated. “Can you communicate once you have sunlight?” Again, a nod. “Okay, I'm going to carry you outside then," I tell him, opening my arms so he can climb in.
He does, and I can tell how underweight he is now, still shaking in my arms. I start moving, slowly and calmly, back out to the entryway. Weaver is following me, as is Honchkrow while the two seem to chat away. I don’t need to worry about the two prisoners in there right now, as there are more than a hundred murkrow guarding the building at the moment.
As I exit the home, Officer Kent notices me. “Station finally got back to me about…” He stops, looking at the pokemon I’m carrying, then back at me. “Sorry, about who owns this building. It’s some man named Allister Arlow. It’ll take longer to get more than that.” He says, then takes a better look at my passenger, “Are they okay? Is that why all the murkrow are here?” He asks.
"No, and no," I say as I gently place Espeon on the ground. “It looks like smuggling, so this is going to be sent up the chain on both our ends. The honchkrow has two prisoners. One of them even tried to over-power me.” I inform him.
He winces, then rolls his eyes, “Yeah, bet that worked out for him real well.” Sighing he continues, "So we're both on standby now, then?” He asks.
"Pretty much," I reply. He just nods and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. He offers me one, but I just shake my head. Shrugging, he lights it and starts looking across the small crowd that’s still surrounding this building.
An alien feeling worms its way into my head. Gods, psychic communication always feels weird.
_ra_itu*e. Joy. L_*e. Ang_r Co*fus__n.
They all flood in at once, but I’m not so inexperienced as to stagger from it. Don't fight, let them in, and feel them for what they are.
Crouching down again I idly stroke Espeon behind the ears, “I’m happy I could help, but don’t use energy you don’t have right now. Okay?” I tell them.
Und*_stan*ing. Gr_ti*u*_. Harmony.
Trying to make much sense of an exhausted psychic is not going to get me anywhere, though from what I know of espeons specifically, that last feeling means they’ve probably bonded to me. I suppose I did give an empath a big dose of positive, directed emotions they likely hadn’t felt in a while. It… was a known possibility, so I just keep petting him while waiting for base to get back to me.
Three minutes go by, and Kent is now talking on his own radio.
Five more minutes and a second police officer shows up, a boyish-looking man whose uniform reads M. Hamill.
Another five minutes go by before my radio finally sounds out something other than static, “This is Union Operator Kory Meyer contacting fifth-rank Area-Ranger Onaga Ryuko, requesting an update on your current status and any necessary information.” Says the unfamiliar voice.
I stand. “Status is nominal, situation is stable. RED and stun-stick deployed, I have likely been bonded by an espeon in the process of deploying my RED. Two humans, likely smugglers, at least one from Kanto, are currently being held prisoner by a honchkrow and his mafia. Three crates of pokeballs were found at the location. It seems Honchkrow discovered the situation earlier today and would like a reward for the aid rendered. Local police are at the scene.” I quickly rattle off the most important information.
“Understood, a ninth rank Union-Ranger is en-route. Please continue your standby until they arrive.” The line goes completely silent after that. Ninth-rank and Union, so they’re sending someone from way, way high up then. At least that means we won’t have to deal with all this ourselves, because this is a huge problem.
“Eifirr.”–Gratitude. Purrs Espeon, standing and stretching. I inspect him again now that he’s gotten some more sunlight. His gem is now a bit more red than black and his eyes have brightened a bit. His fur is still patchy and matted, and he’s still a bit thin, but that’s going to be fixed in time.
“Vile weavile.” Says Weaver, speaking to Espeon.
Espeon cocks his head before replying, “Eispur.” Weaver just shrugs and they descend into silence again, Espeon knocking his head into me so I’ll keep petting him.
“You two think you can get along?” I ask them. Weaver shrugs again.
“Eisp…”–Uncertainty. Says the dark-lilac pokemon.
“As long as you try," I tell them.
Crouching again, both my hands become occupied by the two pokemon. Both of them trying to help with my mood as much as I’m trying to comfort Espeon.
“Did you have a trainer or partner before… that group?” I ask Espeon. Mostly because, well, espeon.
He nods. Affirmation.
Hmm, that’s going to complicate things. “Do you want to go back to them?”
He takes some time to think, then shakes his head.–Negation.
I want to know more, but I also don’t want to stress him too much right now, so I drop it for the moment. Even if that pause has me concerned.
…I’ve done too much waiting for my liking today, but sometimes that’s the job. Just actively making sure things don’t happen. Though the top ranger doesn’t take long to arrive, only eight more minutes before I can see a staraptor carrying someone flying in from the north. The large bird is obviously a ranger mount, with a high-visibility streamer trailing behind them.
I get Kent and Hamill’s attention and we quickly make a clearing in the watching crowd for the incoming ranger to land. Standing inside the new clearing, I start flagging the big shot down. Once they're close enough I back up to the edge and wait for them to dismount. A violet-haired woman in her late thirties, wearing ranger attire and a rather large bag steps out of the saddle, and after patting the staraptor and removing her goggles, she starts walking towards me.
“Onaga, I presume.” She says. “Ninth-rank Ranger, Marianne Holt,” She continues, holding out a hand to shake, which I do. “And this is Blake.” She introduces, gesturing to the staraptor. “Nice to meet you. Has the situation changed from your last call-in?”
“Nothing, though the prisoners may have woken up by now," I inform her.
“Understood. I assume there’s no point trying to separate the espeon from you at this time?” She asks me.
I look down at the near-purple feline and they match my gaze.–Harmony.
“No, probably not," I admit.
She nods, giving me a knowing smile. “Then you are relieved to resume normal duties.” She orders me, then moves to the two police officers.
Kneeling, I focus on Espeon. "As much as I know you'll want to follow me today, you need rest and food," I tell him, making his ears go down a bit. “So I’m going to carry you back to base and have one of our operators feed you, give you a warm bath, and find you a bed. Understood?” I ask.
“Eispon.”–Understanding. He says.
“Good," I say, scooping him up. “Everyone at base is going to love you.” And I’ve got to do some reading up on the latest psychic research.