The next morning I walked through Dewford towards the Ranger station with Absol by my side. After I got directions from a few people that where already up I found the station quickly.

It was a two story building with a front yard and a low fence surrounded the property. As I walked up to the front door, I saw a few rangers milling around in the front yard, that were tending to their Pokemon.

The lobby was nothing special, a few seats to the side for visitors and a front desk. At which a ranger sat that was looking bored out of his mind. Absol looked around with an unimpressed look and groomed herself when I arrived at the front desk. I coughed once to get the attention of the ranger.

“Hello, I’m here for the job offer regarding the patrols.” I said, the ranger did not look away from his desk when he answered in a monotone voice.

“Do you have experience with patrols and how many badges do you got?”

“One badge and three years of unsupervised patrols around Littleroot town with the lab Pokemon.” I answered easily. The ranger asked his next question in the same monotone voice.

“What Pokemon do have on you?”

I started to get a bit annoyed, so I answered with a heated undertone. “Absol, Poochyena, Seedot and a Murkrow.”

The ranger finally looked up at that. “An Absol huh? Well at least you are interesting if nothing else. Come on I will get you to the boss.” this time his voice was normal and even a bit jovial. He stood up and gestured for me to follow, I fell in step with him and asked curious.

“What was up with that monotone voice? The questions I get but not the delivery.” The ranger scratched his head.

“We got a few too many greenhorns that think they are the biggest trainer around you know? Those types of trainers get really angry at that interview style, so we can filter them out immediately.” I nodded in understanding, along with Absol.

After a short while we arrived at a door with a plaque ‘H. Fainsworth’. He ranger knocked and a deep voice came from inside “Enter.” We and Absol entered the small office where a heavyset man sat behind a desk. To the side was a big Persian lounging in, what I would describe as, a dog bed. The ranger who led me here spoke up.

“Sir, I got a trainer here for the patrol job. I have his details here.” he handed Fainsworth a clipboard. He looked at it and then back at the ranger.

“That will be all, you are excused.” the ranger saluted. “Sir.” with a nod to me he left the office. That’s when I noticed Absol’s defensive stance and that she locked eyes with the Persian. Who just ignored my Absol. Fainsworth noticed my look and snorted.

“Yeah, better not start anything with my Persian. He was a league runner up in my league run. So you worked at Birch’s lab for three years and did patrols there?” he asked me.

I nodded. “That’s correct.” he nodded and continued “And what Pokemon did you have at your side? As I understand you have only one badge.”

“Members of the lab’s Mightyena pack patrolled with me, often times their alpha was included in that group.” I answered. He raised an eyebrow at that.

“The lab uses Mightyena for patrols and let you lead your own patrols with them?” he asked for confirmation. I do not know where he was going with this so I just nodded.

“I will have to call the lab to confirm that. Nothing against you, but if you are as long at this job as me you hear many tall stories.” he explained. I shrugged.

“I can give you the in lab number if you want, you probably won’t reach anyone otherwise. Those three manage to exclude everything when they in their research.”

He nodded. “That would be good. Please give me the number and wait outside while I call them. I will call you back in.” he pushed a pencil and a note block towards me on the desk.

I wrote down the number and left the office with Absol. There was a single chair outside, that I took a seat in. Absol sat beside me and I idly scratched her.

“You can enter now.” came from the door after a while. After I entered and took a seat on the other side of the table Fainsworth spoke up.

“I spoke with Professor Birch about you, he did confirm what you said. Here is the deal I can give you. You only have one badge, that’s way lower than the trainers we usually get with those kind of jobs.” I nodded at that. I knew it was true because there are requirements to be met if you want to help the rangers on patrol. You have to be 14 years old and you need to have completed a seminar that lasts two weeks. In there you learn all the regulations and so on.

Since trainers usually start at 11 or 12 years old, they naturally have more badges than me who started at 17. So I was not surprised that he would bring that up.

“Naturally that means we will need to partner you with a more experienced ranger, resulting in a lower pay for you. But to be fair some of those will like a few easy patrols compared to their usual shifts. Do you accept?” I thought it over for a moment and then spoke up.

“It depends a bit on the pay cut but I doubt that will be a problem, so yes I accept.” We shook hands after that and he explained that I will have the morning shift for the next two weeks, which is the minimum time for the job. That in of itself was another reason why these jobs are not often picked, you have to stay put for two weeks. He than lead me outside to meet the ranger that would patrol with me.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Candis! I got a new patrol partner for you! Come in later for the details. This is Iruni, one badge trainer. I will leave you to it.”

Candis, a woman that looked like 20, saluted. “Yes, Sir.” Fainsworth nodded at both of us and walked of. The tension visibly drained out of Candis after he left.

“So I’m Candis and this are my partners: Manectric, Swellow and Linoone.” she introduced herself and her team. I nodded and released all my Pokemon.

“I’m Iruni. This is Absol, my starter. Then we have the energy bundle Poochyena, the glutton Seedot and the mischief maker Murkrow.” Absol and Murkrow smirked at my introduction while Poochyena and Seedot looked annoyed at me. I just looked back at them with a deadpan. “Don’t deny the truth.”

Candis chuckled. “Alright I see you have a good team dynamic. But what happened that you only have one Badge? You look like 18?” She asked with a tilted head.

I just laughed. “Ah yes, I needed to wait for Absol to grow up. I got her when I was 14, but had to wait three years until she was able to be trained. As to why I’m here for the job, I patrolled for three years with the Mightyena at Birch’s lab, where I worked in that time.” I gave her a brief history.

Candis nodded. “Good, that will probably preserve a lot of nerves on my end. The seminar alone is rarely enough to prepare trainers for the patrol duties.” She said and shook her head.

“So which shift did we get?” she asked interested.

“He said we have the morning one.” I answered.

“Ugh, ok then be here at 7 am sharp. See you tomorrow then, I will need to talk to Fainsworth.” She nodded at me and walked back inside. I recalled my Pokemon, except Absol and waved goodbye to her Pokemon. They did look strong, at least stronger than mine.

After a quick bite to eat I was off to Brawly’s gym, although I will probably regret it later when my muscles scream at me. I entered the lobby of the gym and walked to the front desk.

“Hello, I’m Iruni and I’m here for Brawly’s gym class? Gym hour? He never tell me what it is called.” I said the woman at the desk awkwardly.

She just chuckled. “Ah yes that is Brawly. You go through the door on the far left, there will be the lockers and changing rooms. The gym is just beyond.” I nodded and walked of with Absol in tow.

After changing in my newly bought workout clothes I entered the gym with Absol. I spotted a few non fighting types lounging on the side. They were watching the trainers and fighting type Pokemon going about their training. Absol abandoned me immediately and struck up a conversation with a Delcatty.

I just shook my head and walked over where I saw Brawly. “Hey Brawly, I’m here. Now how will this be going to work?” I called out to him with a wave. He looked up and shook my hand.

“Well, look what the tide dragged in. ‘Sup Iruni, this here is Takeshi. He will get you started, I usually deal with the more advanced stuff. Takeshi and his Machoke are dealing with wimps like you.” He laughed good naturally and handed me over to a buff looking karate guy. Basically a black belt from the games.

“Hello there, as Brawly said I’m Takeshi and I will be handling your training with Machoke.”

“Choke” the muscle Pokemon nodded.

“Well I will be in your caring, gristled hands.” I joked, causing both Takeshi and Machoke to grin.

“Oh we will have fun, I already know it.”

Two hours later saw me limping out of the locker room with a snickering Absol by my side. “Yeah laugh it up, you guys have training next.” I grumbled. Entering the lobby I saw Brawly jogging into the backstage area, he apparently saw me too because he shouted. “Don’t forget your laps later Iruni, see ya!”

That caused Absol to smirk up at me and I just grumbled. I walked with Absol until I could walk without a weird gait, now searching for a secluded area where we could train in peace. It took half an hour to find an obscured clearing, it even had a river flowing on one side. Nodding I released my Pokemon. “Come on out guys!”

My Pokemon looked around for a moment and then lined up in front of me. I cleared my throat.

“Let’s get the easy things out of the way first. That stuff you can also do in your free time or when I train in Brawly’s gym, though I have to ask for the last one.” I started.

“First up, Absol and Poochyena. You two will help Murkrow learn Taunt, Murkrow in turn will help you learn Torment. In addition to that Absol will help Murkrow learn Feint attack, all of you will learn Knock off from Absol. I’m not sure that you can learn it Poochyena but I don’t see a reason why not.” My three Pokemon nodded at that.

“Now Seedot, you don’t have moves to share. At least not yet, so listen in when they discuss the moves. When you evolve you should be able to learn all of those.” Seedot nodded bit down.

“Don’t worry I think you will be the first to learn Dark Pulse. One of the iconic dark type attacks, so those three will need to learn from you later on.” Seedot perked up and nodded.

“Now for the fun stuff.” I grinned at them. “Let’s start with Seedot. You will practise your known moves in between your new one. The same goes for all of you. Now you should start by learning Absorb and after that Mega Drain. Honestly I don’t know why you don’t know Absorb yet, but it should not be hard to learn. Mega Drain is just a stronger Absorb.

You use your grass type energy to drain the life from a foe. Sadly the range for Absorb is only 10m, but I’m confident you will master it in no time.” Seedot nodded motivated and walked off to train.

“Use a leech seed first and memorize the feeling, it should be something similar with Absorb.” I called after him.

“Now Poochyena. I want you to learn Take Down, you already saw the attack before. It was what the Nosepass used to take you out. You are in a similar situation as Seedot, as in we need to wait for your evolution to branch out. I hope that Take Down will take you a big step closer as it utilises your whole body. Just remember to take breaks.” Poochyena nodded rapidly and ran off. ‘May he never change’ I thought amused.

“Now Murkrow. How far have you trained your Thunder Wave?” Murkrow cawed and quickly shot out a burst of electricity at my feet.

“Ok, message received. I just had to ask. I want you to try to learn Icy Wind to slow down the foe. This will be more long term one though as you have to harness the same energy as you do for haze. For the rest of the time I want you to learn Feather Dance, this one will also be hard but I have videos for that one that should help you.” I explained to Murkrow who apparently took the two moves as a challenge and flew up on a tree and started training.

“Last but not least Absol. We will focus on your slash attacks, those that utilise your Horn. Maybe you even can activate them with your claws for a surprise attack. The first one for would be Night Slash. It pools dark type energy at claws or in your case your horn and deliver a devastating slash upon your enemy.” Absol just nodded with determination.

I nodded back and started running laps around the clearing, as I won’t doubt that my Pokemon will ‘motivate’ to do so otherwise. Now why bother with the supporting moves on Murkrow? Simple put at the moment the only one with any real power behind the moves is Absol. The rest mostly need their evolutions to be able to stand on the same footing as Absol, maybe not Murkrow. But Murkrow is a supporting Pokemon anyway, Honchrow is another thing entirely though.

The day continued on and at the evening we all fell asleep as soon we were watered and fed at the Pokemon Center. ‘Ugh, three more weeks of this? What have I subscribed myself to?’ were the last thoughts floating through my mind before I was asleep.