The ringing of my phone was what woke me up.

“Buh.” I mumbled into my pillow. “Muh. Five more minutes.”

Unfortunately, the phone kept chirping annoyingly until I fumbled at my side, pulling it out and jabbing at it with my fingers.

It didn’t stop ringing, and I groaned into my pillow. Of all the things I hadn’t sprung for, I had decided that a Rotom Phone was too much for me to spend.

Struggling more than I liked to admit, I flipped open the top of the phone and stared blankly at the message.

LEAGUE EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM: GHOST-TYPE OUTBREAK REPORTED ON ROUTE 204. RANGERS, LAB TRAINERS, ACE TRAINERS, AND ANY TRAINERS EXPERIENCED WITH GHOST-TYPES ARE TO REPORT TO RANGER O’ROURKE AT RANGER STATION 204b.

ALL OTHER TRAINERS ARE TO AVOID ROUTE 204. IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY ON ROUTE 204, MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE NEAREST INHABITED LOCATION AND SHELTER THERE UNTIL THE ALL-CLEAR. IF YOU CANNOT MAKE YOUR WAY TO AN INHABITED LOCATION, SHELTER IN PLACE UNTIL THE ALL-CLEAR.

I groaned again and tossed the phone back down. It was just a Ranger Alert. I had gotten one or two of them while I was camping, and they’d never applied to me before.

Closing my eyes, I relaxed into the pillow again, sinking back into sleep as the soft purrs of Venus sleeping filled the tent.

Then I shot upright, causing Venus to yowl in surprise.

“Wait! I’m on Route 204!”

My backpack was opened in a hurry, and everything that was in arm’s reach was thrown into the nearly-endless void. Despite living in this world for almost three months, I’d never actually even seen a Ghost-type before. They were rare, and there was a lot of superstition around them. The PokéDex entries in the games also tended to emphasize just how creepy they were.

Even if those were games and most of the superstitions were just folk tales, I didn’t want to figure out if they were true in the middle of the night.

I stopped shoving my sleeping bag into my pack, and picked up my phone again, reading the message much more closely.

In the midst of my sleepy panic, I had forgotten a very important fact - I had a job now, a job with very real responsibilities.

I just hadn’t thought that they would show up this early.

Sighing, I took a little bit more time in getting ready, making sure that I looked as presentable as I could at three in the morning.

With the rest of the camp packed up, Venus pawed at my leg sleepily and I picked her up.

“Do you want to ride on my shoulder, or in your Ball?”

She considered the options, then huffed and batted at my hand twice.

“Really?”

Venus looked up at the still-dark sky and sighed.

“Okay, I didn’t know you were that tired.”

She vanished back into the ball, and I looked at it with concern for a second before putting it back on my belt. Venus didn’t seem to like the night, always preferring to curl up with me when possible. I hoped she was feeling okay.

There was a link attached to the emergency message with a location. If I had a Rotom Phone, I could have opened it directly in the map app with a single click. Instead, it took me nearly five minutes to access the map card function and find the ranger station.

In the end I managed to pull up a location that was only a few miles away and started walking.

It took almost an hour to reach the spot, and I was thoroughly miserable by the end of it. My flashlight still wasn’t very good, and I’d tripped over a root or a rock more times than I could count.

The meeting place was a small cabin with a hand painted sign reading “Ranger Station 204b,” and a small crowd of people were gathered outside. Two exhausted looking Rangers in their black and orange clothes stood at the front, with three other people standing before them.

One was a vaguely familiar blond man, another was a tall black woman wearing a massive witch’s hat and a dark purple dress, while the third was another Ranger who looked as exhausted as I felt.

They all looked up as I approached, their eyes carefully evaluating me.

One of the Rangers at the front of the crowd, an older looking man with hard eyes, stepped forward.

“Name, occupation, specialty, and number of badges.”

I was taken aback at his clipped words, but judging by the bags under his eyes he’d had a long night.

“Alina, Lab Trainer, no speciality, and uh, no badges. Yet.”

The Ranger grimaced, then gestured for me to get in the crowd of people.

“Alright, there’s less of us than I would like, but we can’t really wait around any longer. I’m Ranger O’Rourke, the Ranger in charge of this little operation. The situation is this: about a week ago a particularly strong Gallade passed away in this part of the woods. We’ve been monitoring the area just in case, and it’s a good thing we did since a large outbreak of Duskull has broken out. They’re on their way to the site of the Gallade’s death to absorb as much of the psychic residue as they can.”

All of the other Trainers were nodding, but I was completely lost. What was psychic residue?

“Now we,” O’Rourke gestured to the other Ranger, a woman with vibrant red hair, beside him. “Were hoping that the outbreak would disperse yesterday morning, but they didn’t. Instead, even more Duskull arrived. That means that there’s a Dusclops leading them, or if we’re very unlucky, a Dusknoir.

“Since things have escalated to this point, we’ve been authorized to deal with the outbreak directly instead of letting it disperse naturally. This should be a simple operation, so Ranger Vicky and I-”

Once again he gestured at the Ranger next to him. “Will take care of the Dusclops leading the swarm. Ranger Crespin and Trainer Grace will help disperse the Duskull. Grace, your specialty is Ghost-types, correct?”

The woman in the witch’s hat shrugged. “Ghost- and Psychic-types.”

“Use your best judgment then.”

She nodded, and her eyes briefly flashed purple.

Oh, she was a Hex Maniac. I really wanted to sit down with her and ask her about what it was like to have psychic powers.

“And you two, the Lab Trainers.” O’Rourke pointed at the blond man and myself. “You don’t have the best Pokémon to go up against a Dusclops, so you’ll be in the back, making sure nobody wanders in, okay?”

I hesitated, then nodded. It wasn’t like I knew anything about what was going on, so being in the back was probably the best option.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Great. Everybody has their supplies?”

All of the other Trainers nodded, and I hurriedly joined in.

“Let's go.”

/^\

It was a quiet walk through the woods by design. O’Rourke had warned us that the Duskull might be able to sense us coming, but it was better to be as silent as possible anyways.

Once we reached a small clearing along the small game trail, O’Rourke pointed at the blond man and myself. “Here’s where you two stop. Remember; make sure no Trainers come through here. I’m deputizing you as law enforcement officials just in case. If any Duskull flee down the trail don’t bother trying to stop them, just let them go. Understand?”

I nodded, and the blond man flashed a toothy smile.

“The rest of you, let’s go.”

The other four Trainers disappeared deeper into the woods, leaving me alone with the strangely familiar man.

My impromptu companion pulled out a flashlight and flicked it on, and I followed soon after. The lights weren’t really bright enough to see much of anything, but it was better than standing there in the pitch blackness of the clearing.

After an awkward minute of silence he looked down at me, which wasn’t particularly hard for him considering he must have been at least six feet tall.

“So, you work for Professor Rowan?” He asked, in an unfamiliar accent.

I jumped a little at the sudden break in atmosphere, but nervously chuckled and looked up at him.

“Yeah, just started actually. Um, no offense, but how did you know that?”

“Well you said that you were a Lab Trainer, and considering I saw you with Professor Rowan back in Jubilife City it wasn’t a hard conclusion to reach.”

I stared blankly at him for a long moment as my sleep-deprived brain tried to catch up with what was going on, then I finally realized where I recognized him from.

“Oh! You’re the Trainer that Rowan was meeting with! The one from, uh, Hoenn, wasn’t it?”

He got a strange, faraway look in his eyes as I said that, but shook it off a second later.

“Yeah, that’s me.Theodore Sering, but you can call Ted.”

“Alina.”

We shook hands, his almost completely enveloping mine.

“So, what do you study?”

Ted hummed quietly. “A bit of this, and a bit of that. Professor Birch is mostly focused on different Pokémon habitats and environments. Recently he’s been really focused on different regional forms of Pokémon, and how Pokémon change and adapt to their environment.”

“Oh, like the different Alolan forms, or Galarian Pokémon?”

“Yes, exactly. What about you?”

“Rowan focuses on evolution, so I guess I’m kinda in the same boat?” I chuckled. “If I’m being honest I accepted the job about a week ago, so I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing.”

He nodded. “Trust me, I get that. It took me, well, it took me a long time to get accustomed to everything.”

That was… not really reassuring.

“Anyways, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing in Sinnoh?”

“Hm? Oh, right. There’s been some interesting reports of different Pokémon forms coming from Sinnoh recently, and Professor Birch managed to secure a grant to send me here to investigate. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to come himself, responsibilities of the job and everything, so I came in his place.”

“What, like the Hisuian forms?”

He blinked slowly as he stared at me.

“Hisuian forms?”

“Yeah you know, from like, two hundred years ago? Anyways they used to have a bunch of different regional forms of Pokémon, but I don’t actually know if any of them are still around.” I frowned. “I haven’t heard anything about them, but I also wasn’t looking that hard, I should really fix that…”

“Professor Rowan mentioned having notes and sketches of Pokémon from back then, but a lot of them were damaged over the years.”

Ted rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“He even gave me some copies. At first I thought that they were just stylized drawings, but now if what you’re saying is true they might not be.”

“Oh I can identify them!” I said.

He hesitated, looking in the direction of the Rangers. “Maybe after this is all over with?”

“Ah, right.”

I chastised myself. Pokémon Legends: Arceus was one of my favorite Pokémon games, mostly because of the change-up to the formula and being able to see Sinnoh in the past. In all the excitement to see the actual pages of that game’s PokéDex, or at least copies of it, I had forgotten that we still had a job to do.

“Yeah, definitely after this is all done then.”

It was an awkward couple of minutes as we stood there in the dark with only our flashlights, waiting for something to happen.

“So do you know anything about a Sne-”

An explosion ripped through the night, a warm wind blowing down the path just a moment later.

“Arceus!”

“Jesus!”

Ted and I both swore as lights danced in the sky.

“What was that?”

“I guess they found the Dusclops.” Ted pulled out an incredibly battered looking Poké Ball from his belt.

“Rakkyo!”

In a flash of light, a massive Pokémon, easily ten feet tall, stretched and cried out into the night.

I took a step back as a Flygon appeared in front of me, its pale green scales almost iridescent in the dark night. The red coverings on its eyes seemed to glow as it looked around, obviously confused at what was going on.

“Hey there pal.” Ted smiled, warmth clear in his voice. “There’s some Rangers down that path, they’re fighting a Dusclops and probably need some help. Go and support them, okay?”

The Flygon trilled, and set itself in a strange stance, tail out straight while its head was parallel with the ground.

For a brief moment I wondered what it was doing, until its wings started to beat. They were slow at first, carefully feeling the air as its antennae twitched. Then the wings sped up, faster and faster until they were only a blur, and the Flygon was jittering in place, only remaining on the ground thanks to his feet digging into the earth beneath him.

Striding up to the side, where the Flygon could see him, Ted pointed forwards.

“Rakkyo! Launch!”

Like a jet fighter roaring off of an aircraft carrier, the Flygon, Rakkyo, kicked off of the ground, and disappeared into the night sky with a roar. Its wings beat at the air, and like a dragonfly I swore I could hear a strange humming noise coming off of them, almost like a song.

No, exactly like a song, and in the quickly disappearing vibrations I could hear what sounded like the soul of the desert, wind rushing over soft sand, at once both joyous and lonely.

Shortly afterwards, a second, slightly quieter roar from Flygon echoed out from beyond the trees, along with some more muted explosions as it joined in the battle.

“Rakkyo isn’t the best Pokémon to go up against Ghost-types,” Ted said offhandedly. “But he’s strong enough that it should swing any fight in our direction.”

I gave him a suspicious side eye. A Vibrava evolved into Flygon at level 45, at least they did in the games. If that was any indication of strength, even if highly abstracted…

“Just how strong of a Trainer are you?”

He smiled. “Oh, I have a few badges under my belt.”

A flurry of movement interrupted my next statement, and Ted and I both tensed as a group of Duskull emerged from the woods, their red eyes glowing in the dark.

Fortunately for us, they didn’t seem all that interested in hanging around and fighting, instead scattering deeper into the trees, disappearing from view just as quickly as they had arrived.

“Well, it looks like the outbreak is starting to disperse.”

“Hm,” Ted hummed thoughtfully. “Hopefully the leader doesn’t pose too many problems. Despite their reputation as not being aggressive battlers, Dusclops still shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

“It’s better to be safe than sorry.” I said, and pulled Venus’ Poké Ball off my new belt.

She appeared in a flash of light and a yawn, looking around in confusion.

“Hey girl, there’s a bunch of Duskull around, do you mind keeping an eye out for anything dangerous?”

Her ears stood up at attention, and she nodded, looking serious as she stared out into the darkness.

“Oh you have an Eevee, how rare… although, do you have any other Pokémon who are better suited to fighting Ghosts?”

“She won’t be affected by any of the Ghost-type moves.” I said, and he nodded. “Besides, if everything goes according to plan, we’re not supposed to be fighting at all.”

“Very true.”

As he said that, Ted pulled off another Poké Ball, and released a surprising form.

It was a Sneasel, but it didn’t have the same black fur that most did. Instead it was almost a light gray, with purple paws and tufts of fur.

“Wait.” I said, staring at the Pokémon. “Where did you find that?”

“Who, Switchback? I got him as an egg. He’s a Dark-type, so they’ll be able to do some damage if you’re willing to take a hit or two.”

I eyed Ted incredulously. “What? No, that’s a Hisuian Sneasel, they’re not-”

Cold washed over the clearing, cutting me off mid-sentence. Frost formed over a couple of the leaves as a presence made itself known to us.

A thickly-set form emerged from the darkness, standing taller than I did, with a baleful red eye burning bright with fury. Large white hands clutched a strange cloth, while faint wisps of some kind of smoke or haze drifted slowly around it.

The darkness seemed more oppressive as the Dusclops stomped to a halt in front of us, glaring with alien rage as we stood in its way, and I realized that it wouldn’t turn and run like the Duskull had.

We would either have to flee and leave the other Rangers to their fate, or fight.