MATURE: Project Toaster: Decolonized (Pokemon)

[jasonwolf]

@diamondpearl876

I've maybe sat here an hour trying to put together thoughts that aren't "wait til chapter X" and really they aren't coming together without being contrived and roundabout. What I can say is a lot of these things are things I have thought about and are developed more later. A lot of the first arc is all Jaklo developing his confidence so then he can be a leader in arc 2. I have a bunch of abridged versions of characters here that are meant to show their surface details maybe drop a hint or two of possible future things and then let Jaklo move on. Arc 2 is gonna be way more constant dynamics with a lot of issues happening one after the other instead of a lot of separate down times.

As for other things I'd never say there was a strain on Jaklo and Alice's relationship so much as a strain on them. Both characters have been relying on each other, it just happens that Alice has been able to handle her stress better and faster than Jaklo. TBH just as an author I never wanted that to be a part of this story. If anything they're gonna end up with a Romeo and Juliet ending rather than their relationship breaking apart (but what sick and twisted author would kill their leads at the end of a story? I wouldn't. or would I? No, I wouldn't.)

And Jaklo's the cook. Alice is like physically capable of cooking, but she hates it which is related to story stuff that hasn't managed to get in to the actual writing in any direct way, but there's a hint to why in chapter 6.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Here for the awards.

Firstly, the prologue was pretty stellar. It had me gripped and terrified and by the end of those few brief sentences, I was really intrigued to see what happened next. I rarely see something so unique and hooking in a prologue, certainly not of that length.

The first chapter was a slower pace, but we got to get to grips with Jaklo and his reactions to the dragon attack. We also got the basics of the town, got introduced to everyone on the ranger team, and got to know the set up of the unit. It was a little clunky, but first chapters, especially ones introducing that much exposition, usually are.

The next three chapters follow a general theme of Jaklo questioning his purpose in doing this, being a bit scared and taken aback by the spate of attacks, and then working towards his goals. I like the commitment to training the Pokémon, and to see him be urged on in Isaac at the start of the third chapter, examining his Pokémon later on and then actually training them in the fourth is a real rarity, one I applaud you for. The story is at its best when it focuses on the ranger aspects and the overall storyline rather than attacks such as the Fearow and the evolution machine. The latest chapter is probably one of the most solid and consistent throughout.

However, for all the good points, there are some things that have earned my stern judgement. As this is an awards reviews, things are more critical than normal, so apologies if this sounds harsh – all the criticisms below are to help you improve rather than belittle or attack you.

A lot of importance is given to the dragon attack, but not until the second chapter. Something so major and apparently afflicting was semi-forgotten until the plot needed into happen. It made Jaklo’s crisis that cames to a head in the fourth chapter less believable when the story initially starts quite pleasantly. It also seems to have been put on the backburner in the most recent chapters; there is some mention when he is getting the technology, but he seems to have accepted his trauma fairly quickly.

Some of the chapters can be rather long, and I would suggest splitting some up. It would allow more room for the events to build up and get the attention they deserve, rather than being lumped together with travelogue and exposition. Fr example, I would have divided up Chapter Two between the meeting and the Fearow battle. Both things get the attention they need, and the flow is just generally a lot smoother.

Despite the large cast, most of the focus is on Jaklo. He has some nice quirks and embodies the canonical ranger by being helpful and friendly and determined to work. The self doubt he feels after the accident is a good layer to his personality, and allows the other characters to have a voice as they share their views of what he should do. It does mean the many supporting characters are really just mouth pieces to offer advice and then disappear and do nothing with their lives until Jaklo needs them again. A few less characters would make the story less cluttered and allow for more of these characters to stand out.

I would like to see more investment in the setting. There is little focus of the main town, with no description outside of some fields and the main building. Each individual location we visit is painted in great detail, but anything that is not a focus is left to our imaginations. I have no image in my head of what the town should look like, and things that could greatly shape and add colour to this world such as the frequent mention of storms are not included in highlighting the landscape.

There is also not much mention of the time period or the people who are not part of the Rangers. We get to see some travellers in the sixth chapter, as well as a bit on the Sound of Music which implies the present and discusses some past cataclysmic event which makes movies a rarity. We have a sense of industry which shows a nomadic lifestyle, there are mentions of different sub sections and groups within society, and there are hints of some great destruction having occurred in the past. I feel like there is a backstory missing here though, and it might help to add those details in.

You have a decent style, but there are a few things you could do to make it flourish. Firstly, there is limited description of anything. The description that does come in is usually either setting a scene (ie a new location) or describing something important, like a table. Outside of that, descriptions about character looks and such are forced in and there is little colour and imagination outside of that.

Secondly, there is not a lot of variety between sentences. Almost every instance of dialogue is ‘ Blah said whilst feeling this way and doing this’. There is little change on the formula. It feels a little unnatural, and the recurrence of it makes the problem even more noticeable. Lines like ‘Paul asked with a bit of concern and confusion’ and ‘I asked concerned about the sudden expansionist idea’ are not smooth or active enough to hold your attention.

There is also an issue with the action scenes. A lot of the time, these scenes are written and presented in huge chunks, with a lot of action and various Pokémon playing their part.
A huge block of text that wavers incomprehensively from one scene to the next is not a pleasant read, making one easily lose focus during some of the most climatic of scenes. Including more than two Pokémon in a single paragraph is also hugely confusing as to what is actually going on. The battle against Atlas worked because of the smaller scale and the grounded focus of the dialogue, and it might be worth editing the fifth chapter’s training session to reflect that type of scale. On a personal note, some more reference to the Pokémon’s species name as well as their nicknames would help the information stick.

With specific regards to the plot, there is a huge amount of stuff happening that just really doesn't need to be shown. In the more recent chapters, we see Jaklo visit the doctor's and get a report on his Kabutops which ultimately shows he is fine. We see him go shopping in the next chapter and buys a few things, has some interactions. The thing is, these things are just really not interesting to read. Kabutops getting a pass on the medical report could have been about two sentences - if the dent is going to come up later, a few more, but it didn't need to be the length that it was. The shopping added more to the world but it lacked the colour to make it actually interesting and enlightening. We didn't learn anything about Jaklo except for minor things such as he isn't a fan of clothes shopping. Good to know, but how does that help the story or the character? Things like the Sound of Music scene as well just really puts a stop to everything that is happening before and after. Little scenes like that should be short and snappy, not going on for about 100 words too many.

As Alice was entered as a character, she was judged separately. However, there was little for me to comment on in my judgement. Alice is not much of a character yet, she is really just a character type. Giving Jaklo a girlfriend is nice for the story, but a girlfriend not doing anything on her own is a little unexciting. In the earlier chapters, we see her get annoyed during the meeting, she has some banter with Jaklo and stands up to his teasing, but that's really it. If I was judging the story based on the most recent chapters, I would not have much more to say. Her shopping is all well and good, and being in on Tyler's training gives her more to do, but it would not be worth entering her again if all she is going to do is make Jaklo cook and sleep with him from time to time.

Technical aspects were a big thing as well. The mistakes were recurring and obvious enough that the flow of the story was disrupted. They were mostly minor things that a quick read over or even throwing through Grammarly or a similar product would solve in a jiffy, such as weird spaces in the middle of sentences, huge gaps between sentences, no gaps between words and commas, odd things like that which I could go through in more detail if you want, but it would probably be easier for everyone to get a beta reader or a better spell checker. I also noticed a recurring habit of names not being spelt with capital letters.

Those things are little accidents which anyone could make. The one thing that should be fixed is the lack of commas at the end of quotes. You do a lot of ' "blah blah blah." I said ', when it should be ' "blah blah blah," I said... '. This is a surprisingly common mistake, one I used to make for a few years before it was finally beaten out of me, and one I in turn try to beat out of others.

So this is probably a lot to take in. I truly hope it was not too overwhelming and does not come across as too harsh. To simplify things down, when the story focuses on Jaklo, the dragon attack and his hopes for being a ranger, it works really well. Things like a full chapter set with him out shopping really detracts from the positive parts. I would shorten your chapters in half, cut out a few characters who aren't really needed, and focus on the ranger aspects you do so well. There is an excellent story you've got on your hands, but a tighter focus and more emphasis on the PTSD would help things significantly.

 

[diamondpearl876]

@diamondpearl876

I've maybe sat here an hour trying to put together thoughts that aren't "wait til chapter X" and really they aren't coming together without being contrived and roundabout. What I can say is a lot of these things are things I have thought about and are developed more later. A lot of the first arc is all Jaklo developing his confidence so then he can be a leader in arc 2. I have a bunch of abridged versions of characters here that are meant to show their surface details maybe drop a hint or two of possible future things and then let Jaklo move on. Arc 2 is gonna be way more constant dynamics with a lot of issues happening one after the other instead of a lot of separate down times.

Well, that's all right. It shows you're aware of these things and being addressed later rather than never is always good. I just had to base my awards judging off of what's there, not based on potential. Everything has potential and can be improved in some way, after all. ^^

As for other things I'd never say there was a strain on Jaklo and Alice's relationship so much as a strain on them. Both characters have been relying on each other, it just happens that Alice has been able to handle her stress better and faster than Jaklo. TBH just as an author I never wanted that to be a part of this story. If anything they're gonna end up with a Romeo and Juliet ending rather than their relationship breaking apart (but what sick and twisted author would kill their leads at the end of a story? I wouldn't. or would I? No, I wouldn't.)

And Jaklo's the cook. Alice is like physically capable of cooking, but she hates it which is related to story stuff that hasn't managed to get in to the actual writing in any direct way, but there's a hint to why in chapter 6.

Hmm, seems I misinterpreted the strain thing, then (and more obviously, the cook thing lol forgive me). And hey, if that's not what you want the story to have, that's fine. Not every character has to have massive importance or the same amount of screentime.

 

[jasonwolf]

@AceTrainer14 @diamondpearl876

So I appreciate you guys taking the time to take a look at my stuff, but I'm starting to notice some different expectations from people. Namely in what people are looking for and find entertaining. While I hope people are enjoying the story, I am writing what I want to write about. Some of that may seem mundane or dull to others, but its what I genuinely enjoy. In short, scenes like at the doctors or the entirety of chapter 6 will continue to show up. No, they aren't big groundbreaking scenes, but they are the story. Yes, the pace changes greatly, but I like having the story mellow out and just have time for the normal day to day. As well the big multi Pokemon fights will continue. I will work on improving their clarity, but it's not something I'm going to just stop doing. I don't have anyone to give me opinions and thoughts until after I've posted so improvements do come slowly.

The simplest way I can say this is, I am writing what I enjoy. Mechanics and details and how its written can change and improve, but the content is what I want, and that is not going anywhere.

 

[AceTrainer14]

@jasonwolf I appreciate your honesty and your commitment to your work. I sometimes feel a lot of people are too willing to change stuff based on reviews, so I respect you standing your ground.

I think you perhaps misunderstood what was ultimately a small part of my review. There is nothing wrong with having big battle scenes, in theory; it is just that at the moment, they are incredibly difficult to read as they are just big blocks of text. If they were written more clearly and perhaps more slowly. Similarly, the mundane scenes are a very good idea. It is a rare for a Pokemon story to show the down time like you have, and showing Jaklo and Alice shopping and stuff is quite sweet and a good way to grow characters. But the thing is, the scenes don't. They exist for the point of existing rather than furthering the story or characters in any way. That may be what you want, and that's fine, but the sheer length versus the amount of actually important stuff makes the sweetness of these scenes drastically fade away. The reason why I suggested putting your focus on the ranger stuff was because you are doing that stuff really well; it is intriguing, there is a clear attempt at an arc and character development, and it is a fairly realistic take on what that life would be. It's just the good qualities of the story are buried under scenes that are simply boring with multiple missed opportunities to add some spark and excitement and simply some purpose to them. Even the slowest stories and television shows and movies have a point to each scene.

If you are writing purely for yourself and for fun, that is all good. I understand if you have a story you want to tell. My advice was purely with the intention of helping you improve, but if you want to carry on as is, then you are entirely free to do so.

 

[jasonwolf]

So this is gonna be a bit of a filler update. I've been trying to get a bunch of major plot things the way I want them, and its meant number of things have to be set up and executed just how I like. I've also been jumping ahead more often and working on chapters that aren't anywhere close to what needs to be published next, but it's been keeping my attention, and the fun in the story for me so that's what really matters. I will go back and finish up the next to post chapters soon, but they're mostly waiting on connective portions to smoothly transition them. Since I didn't want to just post an update and not have anything I did have a few concept art/sprite art things that I decided to share.

Here we have the Letchworth flag. The blue represents the river that runs through Letchworth gorge and the power to push through the hardest of times. The green represents the forest and the vow to nature that all rangers have taken. The gray represents the shale of the gorge and the way the people of letchworth have been shaped by the land.

An updated collection of my main cast Rangers with all of them in standard uniform and standard Letchworth colors. I've recently decided to slightly overhaul the uniforms by adding in a ranking system as well as having specialty uniforms for different jobs. The standouts in this image are Kip (far left) and Mike (center right). Kip is wearing a silver ranger uniform which has the colors flipped and uses a lighter version of the gray. Mike is wearing a platinum ranger uniform as he was technically promoted, more so as an honor, after the dragon incident.

This is the new progression of ranger uniforms using the Letchworth standard colors. The order is Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond. All ranks above Diamond wear Diamond uniforms as the ranks are honorary and too rare for their own uniform. The reason for the color changes between the lower two and upper three ranks is because gold onward are commanding ranks, while the other two can't command ranks under them. Technically there are also rookies, but they just wear a completely plain green shirt.

This is the same progression, but using the colors of the Nada Rangers

I also have Kip's team who you'll get to meet more in chapter 8. Raizer the Quillava, Eli the Absol, Kakle and Chortle the Nuzleafs.

I also made a sprite for Swifi from chapter 6.


​

 

[jasonwolf]

Chap 8: Damnation​

Yanso, Lucas, Pierce, Rath, Tex, Plasum
Baroness and Nort will remain at town.​

“Pokemon are creatures of immense rage. Pokemon are creatures of wild beauty. Pokemon are intelligent partners to humanity. Three states that are intertwined no matter how much we try and separate them. A master trainer knows how to bring out all three in perfect balance," -The Journey of Life by Jason Wolf.

Four AM I was up and out the door. Uniform on, bag packed, and a fire roaring in me that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Everyone was stowed away in their pokeballs save for Yanso who was walking along with me. The sun wasn’t even close to rising, but we went along the road under the moonlight. We headed for HQ which was shining like a beacon in the middle of town. It didn’t matter the hour Rangers were always on duty.

When I reached the armory Kip was already there sitting on a bench with a cup of coffee.

“What took you so long?” Kip chuckled giving me a sideway half away grin.

“Not all of us live at command. I don’t know why you don’t put in a request for a home," I rolled my eyes putting my bag down.

“Work is home. It’s all mom and dad could leave me," Kip sighed but changed tone and topic quickly, “So you’ve gotten in the armory requests I assume?”

“Yeah, lockers four and five. You’re five," I said pulling out a couple of keys and throwing one to him.

We went to the lockers and found them stocked with the equipment I had requested for the mission. Heavy packs already stocked with the base necessities for long term camping, steel balls for troublesome wild pokemon, firearms: a shotgun for myself and a scoped rifle for kip, and by special request directional explosive charges for clearing rubble. With everything collected I headed over to the restricted section and donned my armor. I had put the coolsuit on under my clothes, but left it turned off until after I had the armor on. When the coolant started pumping the temperature change was drastic. I shivered at first as my body was shocked by it, but adapted to it soon enough.

“Chilly?” Kip asked looking me over.

“Paul said it’ll-ll even o-out over time," I shivered through my words, “You all set?”

“Yeah, gonna be a long hike.”

“Eh, I’ll take it. Harder to be nervous when you’re up and moving," I sighed, “Let’s grab rations and then we’ll head out.”

We headed out with a simple plan. We’d travel in the cooler morning and set up a camp at noon before heading into the dam. With what we’d been able to dig up about the place there was a small control building attached to the top of the dam that we could likely secure and then use to get down to the lower levels from. After that we had conflicting reports about the interior with varying numbers of floors and no clue what each one was for. We knew one was supposed to be a turbine level that was set up for minimal energy production. Essentially acting as a backup power to the dam itself. Being that the place was maintained right up to the exodus and its nature as a large self contained structure we were hopeful the interiors would be largely intact.

The sun barely poked up over the horizon as we left town. We had some lightly maintained dirt roads that headed out north-east towards Rushing. Tyler usually just ended up sending Atlas to stomp around and trample the earth into these cleared routes. He couldn’t divert his time to missions as much, so his pokemon were on call for a lot of tasks. I had once commented on how sad it was, but Tyler considered it a great option. After years of dangerous combat work he and his pokemon were often relieved to be helping in simpler ways. I wasn’t sure he was completely telling the truth, but the work had to be done somehow and it’s not like Atlas would have an issue handling himself.

Reaching the forest's edge we turned on lanterns and headed into the woods. I sent out Rath for guard duty while Kip sent out a Quilava. My Houndour sized up the new pokemon, and let out a short low growl. The Quilava sat still and stoic as his master. Rath looked to Kip and nodded before walking out ahead of us. We fell in and started hiking again.

“Didn’t know you had a Quilava," I mentioned as we were heading along.

“I caught him just before winter. Good timing, if you ask me, three months of cold to keep us focused on training," Kip replied keeping his eyes locked on the distance.

“I haven’t caught a new pokemon in a good couple years. Nort was the last one. Good boy, but a bit timid. Trying to work on that. Hard to build his confidence though when mine’s been shot," I huffed defeating myself once again.

“Well, if we’re clearing out the dam it might be possible that a pokemon might rather go with us than try and find a new place to live. Free meal or free game," Kip suggested.

“If paperwork is the biggest worry I have when I get home, I’ll take it," I let out a short laugh.

“Is there something bothering you?” Kip asked finally looking over to me.

I looked at him as if he didn’t know, but soon realized he probably didn’t. We were work associates, so there was no reason he’d know about my troubles. With how much it had affected my life I almost forgot it wasn’t the center of everyone else’s life.

“Yeah, it’s called a giant dragon that's been haunting me for a year,” I scoffed, “You were lucky to not be out there for that thing. The way it tore through us…”

I shivered envisioning the battle again, but took a deep breath and tried to purge the thought.

“Well we’re all glad you guys were there," Kip said.

“Pfft, all we did was get our asses handed to us and call for help too late.”

“Around the barracks that fight’s already become its own myth.”

“You mean when Tyler got there? Yeah, him and Atlas could make a legendary shudder.”

“No, what you, GR. Slate, and Gr. Maez did. Three gold rangers holding a dragon back from town. Maybe you did need help in the end, but if I can speak openly, you guys were badass. I think every ranger wishes they were that brave.”

“It didn’t feel badass. It was the most terrifying time in my life.”

“I think it was terrifying for everybody. But, because of you guys, we didn’t stay scared. It’s already a story we’ve been telling the new recruits. Maybe it has gotten embellished, but I don’t think it changes the meaning. Ranger’s don’t run.”

“It’s easy to say it. Ever since then I’ve been fighting on two fronts. Trying to fight ferals and fighting myself to not quit. But I’m here. I’m here because people need me. Because I need to protect them. I’ve realized that much. I need to know I’m saving lives. I’m making a difference. After the dragon all I could focus on was the harm that came with my failure. All the lives we saved that day were nothing because all I saw were Mike’s wounds. I took this mission for myself, but I’m ending it for everyone else.”

“Trust me, I get that.”

“Yeah, but your parents died before you were old enough to do anything. Heck if you hadn’t been sound asleep you’d probably have died too.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t feel guilty. But you can’t just dwell on that. We don’t fight for the past. We fight for the future.”

“I’ll stick to fighting for the present. I have enough people here I care about.”

“Then you’re already doing better than me," Kip grinned.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you grin, Gander” I raised an eyebrow to him.

“I don’t really have many good excuses to do it.”

“Well we’ll have to give you one by the end of this mission.”

We kept hiking throughout the morning, and arrived just after noon at the dam site. The forest was growing fairly well even though multiple buildings remained around the area. Being a federal site they were probably maintained right up to the end. That being said, they weren’t in perfect condition just standing to varying degrees. Rath kept his ears high and nose low as we moved through the area. Going up to the edge of the gorge we could see the actual dam about a quarter of the way down. There was a worn winding path that lead down to it. Tracing it back up we found it tucked away behind the buildings.

Once we were on top of the dam its scale was far more apparent. It was the largest man-made thing I had ever seen in my life, in person at least. Looking down into the gorge from the top made me queasy. It was a sheer drop into a brown fetid swamp. I had lived around the gorge all my life, but further up river the gorge walls were covered in trees and bushes, or at least had them lining the rim. Here I was exposed to the distance. I stepped back and refocused.

There was a small structure attached to the top of the dam that likely housed the entrance, but the door into the building was welded shut likely as part of the shut down procedures. It was hard to say what would be inside.

“Ok we’ll get in and set up a camp. Everything lower is considered hostile territory. Even if this seal is still intact it's impossible to know if the others are,” I explained.

I pulled out Pierce’s pokeball and released my Kabutops. He stretched for a moment and took in his surroundings before looking to me for orders. I told him to slice into the door drawing a horizontal line along the middle with my finger. Lining up one of his claws he focused his energy into it and slashed right through the metal. With two more cuts Pierce freed the lower half of the door giving up a three foot or so opening. Taking out my flashlight I knelt down and looked inside. The space had some glass walls dividing off another room and the elevator doors on the far side. The place had a layer of dust, but was otherwise empty.

“I can clean it out. Kakle, Chortle, sweeping wind," Kip said throwing two pokeballs into the room.

Both burst open revealing two nuzleaf dark brown one with a yellow leaf, and a paler one with an orange leaf. The nuzleafs looked at each other and grinned deviously. They swung their heads around in circles until little cyclones formed around them. Sending them around the room first and then out the door they blasted all the dust out of the room and off the dam.

“Damn, Can I borrow those two to clean the barn when we get home?” I chuckled before ducking into the room.

We dropped our bags, then put the lower half of the door back up for security.

“Pierce, put some air holes in the top corners and then towards the center," I said realizing just how stale the air was in here.

Pierce complied stabbing his claws into the door four times to make slits for air to pass through. The rest of us set about making a camp. We’d want to be traveling light while in the dam propper. With that settled, we broke for a quick lunch and rest.

“Nothing like good ol’ rations," I grumbled taking a sealed tin can out of my bag.

I stabbed my pocket knife’s can opener into the top and tore it open. The can was supposed to contain pork and beans, but when I had it open all I could smell were the preservatives. I understood the necessity, but it didn’t smell like food it smelled like the hospital. Even then, like a good little soldier, I scrunched up my nose and started to shovel down the mixture. For the most part, it tasted as it should, but there was a metallic tang to the gravy that made it clear this wasn’t fresh homemade. Thankfully the mush was easy to swallow and filled an empty belly fast.

With breaths caught and bellies full we set proceeded to the next part of the mission. We pried open the elevator doors to reveal a long drop into complete darkness. We had some pretty damn good flashlights, but the bottom was so far down that I just saw a vague brownish square at the bottom. There were at least three floors below us based on the doors.

“I’ll go down first. If I give the all clear you follow me up," I decided

“Understood," Kip nodded.

“Semper Vigilus!” I said doing the ranger salute.

I tied off a rope and started to rappel down. It was a solid fifty feet down to the next door. I slowly walked down the wall each step making a quiet echo fall into the depths. The door was rusted and bent inward. I pushed myself off the wall and swung out over the pit. Coming back I slammed both of my feet into the door knocking it into the hall beyond it. The metal crashed onto the floor and echoed through the whole area.

“You ok?” Kip yelled down the shaft.

“Just clearing the way. I’ll touch down in a second.”

I swung into the hall and undid the rope. Back on solid ground I tugged the rope to signal Kip who started to descend. Kip and Kakle made it down without issue and we started moving down the hall. We were in some sort of upper maintenance tunnel. It was extremely claustrophobic. I only had a few inches headway and could touch the walls with my elbows out. I pulled out my shotgun and flicked on the mounted flashlight. Anything in front of us was gonna be in a lot of pain. I sent out Pierce behind me. Because of his thin frame he’d be able to easily go over me if I crouched.

It had been fairly warm outside, yet down here it was like winter. I didn’t relish anyone who would have worked down in here. Darkness, cold, and very little room, a recipe for misery. The hallway eventually came to an end and a hatch on the floor.

“Pierce, open it," I ordered aiming my shotgun at the hatch.

My Kabutops stepped to the side and punched right through it. He wrenched it off and a Joltik jumped out of the hole. I fired my shotgun off instantly. A spray of pellets showered on the pokemon. It whined and fell where it was.

“It’s a really young one," I said kneeling down to examine the unconscious pokemon.

“Howya know?”

“Ranger passing through letchworth some years back had some. He had a whole bunch of them. They start developing lines on the back as they age. Adults have two big Vs on their backs.”

I pulled out a pokeball and tapped it to the young joltik. It disappeared inside and remained there.

“Being so young they’re going only off the simplest instincts. We should be able to get them into pokeballs easily. I’d prefer we get them out in the best condition.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

I looked down the hatch to see an access ladder covered in webs. I had everyone back up a bit and brought our Rath. Producing a gout of fire he burned away all the webs. The ladder glowed red heated by the flames, so Pierce cooled it back down with a water blast to make sure it was safe.

“We should keep this as a backup route in case. Anything down there knows we’re on this side. We’ll be better off continuing down the elevator shaft.”

Kip led the way back and was the first to go down this time. This area was much larger. The elevator shaft opened on both sides into large hallways. Every ten fifteen feet were pits that went down into darkness. We found many more webs strung up around the area. It even felt warmer and drier here. We slowed down placing our steps carefully. The wrong one would alert who knows how many pokemon.

Not every pokemon was hiding though. We got the drop on a few more Joltik who were skittering around the webbing. I caught two of them while Kip grabbed one. Pierce and Kakle managed to knock out a few more of them, but many more started to show up from the corners and nooks and crannies. I thought we were in for a fight, but they were fleeing heading further down the hallway, possibly towards the ladder we had cleaned.

Out of the darkness ahead I saw electricity sparking. It began to move along the webs that were all around us. Webs made entirely of electricity began to shoot out from the ones on the walls. Slowly the hallway behind us became entirely blocked off. A galvantula skittered forward from the darkness displaying its fangs. I loaded a new cartridge into my shotgun.

“You looking for an easy meal?Eat lead," I growled.

Fire and metal erupted from the barrel of my shotgun. It tore into the Galvantula’s skin opening wounds all over. It hissed skittering down into one of the many holes. I shined the flashlight towards the pit, and joltiks began pouring out. I fired again stopping a few of the young, but there were too many for just my gun. Pierce slid past me and started spraying water down the hallway flushing the joltik back down their holes.

“Wait! water! bad!” I tried to warn him.

The electrified webs came in contact with the flood of water sending the current right up into Pierce. He began to shake violently before collapsing in the water. I returned him quickly and sent out Tex who stood indifferent to the electricity.

The Joltik were pouring out quickly again. Tex rushed at them throwing up rubble and trampling everything in front of him. Even as he tore through them more kept showing up. Tex was wading through them like a ship through a storm. There was no way we’d be able to capture and remove all the pokemon ourselves.

Tex was able to tear his way through most of the Joltik. They simply weren’t strong enough to put up a real fight and fled as soon as they were hit. Any that got through were taken down by Kip, Kakle, or I. When they finally stopped Kakle walked up to the pit and looked in. The galvantula jumped out grabbing Kakle and smashed the nuzleaf into the ceiling before dropping him back to the floor.

“Tex take him out!” I ordered loading another shot for myself.

Tex ran up ramming into the Galvantula. He pinned it up against the wall. It cried out in pain and tried to get free. I raised my shotgun and moved in closer. Tex outweighed the other pokemon massively. There was no way he’d be moved.

“I’ll make this as quick as I can," I said quietly bringing the shotgun up against the pokemon’s head.

All eight of its eyes looked at me holding its breath, and I looked into them. It was a familiar look. I saw it very often in Rath. I lowered the shotgun and the galvantula started to breath again. I raised my stylus and launched the little top. Slowly I made it spin in little circles before the Galvantula’s eyes.

“Look you don’t have to like me, but we have to get the Joltik out of here. I can do that with force, or you can help get them out safely.”

The galvantula looked at me briefly before making a really loud hiss and sending electricity down all of the webs. All the capable Joltik began to follow the electricity heading up to the elevator shaft and the hatch we opened earlier.

“This will sting a little, but it’ll feel better after," I said pulling out a potion as a sign of goodwill and using it on the few scratches and bruises we had caused.

Tex let the Galvantula go and came back to my side.

“We’ll let you take care of the others so they can all get out," I told the galvantula.

It watched me warily before going back down into the pit. Obviously this would be a good time to double cross us, but pokemon weren’t stupid. Unnecessary injury and exertion were how you died in the wilderness. There were some fights you just gave up on.

Kip retrieved Kakle who had been dazed by the hit he had taken. Kakle came around and was ready to go again.

“Don’t push yourself Kakle. This is no place for risks," Kip warned him.

“Nu Nuz," He brushed the comment off.

“Don’t get tough on us. We don’t know how far this will go.”

We went back to the elevator shaft. The rope didn’t reach all the way to the bottom. We used Kip’s to go the rest of the way down. We came across the elevator finally. It was barely intact covered in rush and collapsing in on itself This far down it shou’ve been protected from the outside elements. We wrenched open the hatch on its top and saw below us had fared even worse. There was dirt and muck everywhere. Dropping down into it made a nasty splat sound.

“There’s gotta be a breach somewhere around here.”

“But we didn’t see anything from the outside…”

“I know. I’m thinking there might be ground or rock types burrowing inside. Since its much wider down here want to send out more pokemon and split up?”

“Your call sir.”

“We’ll separate. I’m gonna send Plasum with you to boost your numbers..”

“Understood.”

Kip set out his entire team: Chortle, Raizer, and Eli an absol. I did as well with Yanso, Tex, Rath, and Lucas left. Kip took the left path while I headed right. I put Tex and Yanso in the lead while Rath and Lucas stayed behind me. We trudged along the only sound being the squidge of the mud.

Eventually the dam hallway came to an T. Taking a good look at the walls it was clear the area had been burrowed through. The walls were torn and worn into a large rounded shape. I shined my flashlight both ways, but only saw more tunnel.

“This is gonna be hell to fix," I huffed, “Which way guys? It’s gotta open up somewhere.”

Rath sniffed the air before sniffing along the ground. Lucas also used his psychic senses to try and suss out if there was anything either way. Both pointed right. We headed down the tunnel. It was much more spacious than the hallways we had been through which I both liked and hated. It gave us more room to move, but it also gave me bad ideas of what might have made them.

I stuck close to the wall one hand gliding along its smoothed face. The tunnel was well worn. It was as if it had been ground down with sander. What was stranger was that every few feet there was a slight divot. Just a three or four inch rut. I'd never heard of it as a natural occurrence, but I couldn’t give a cause. If that wasn't unnerving enough every once in awhile we'd hear a rumble and the ground would shake if only a little. I wanted to check in with Kip, but we were so deep down our radios wouldn't reach each other through the solid stone.

A good while later we started to see a light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel must have very gently sloped upwards. We stepped out into the light to see a massive stretch of swampland and some small ruins. We had come out well over four hundred yards from the dam. No wonder we hadn't seen the breach.

I took a deep breath of the fresh air before I turned us around to go and check the other way. We all headed back to the tunnel, but Lucas hopped in front of us spreading his wings. He stared down the tunnel his eyes glowing.

“Noc!” He shouted whipping his wings back.

We all scattered rushing the entrance. The rumbling had started again. It was much louder and moving towards us. Being a sound based predator Lucas must have heard it first. Within seconds a massive metal pokemon erupted from the hole. It launched from the tunnel before turning back and looking down on all of us. The monster was a metal snake easily twenty feet tall even while it sat coiled up. I recognized it from my time with Prof. Slate. It was a Steelix a fully evolved pokemon with near impenetrable metal armor. Combat could end in a blood bath.

“You don’t wanna do this. Just get out of here," I muttered launching my styler towards the Steelix.

Halfway there the top stopped mid air before bouncing back towards me. A force blasted back at me like I had suddenly felt the pain of punching a brick wall. Rage, hardly a unfamiliar feeling but this intensity was new to me. I caught the top as it flew back to me, but I held it up trying to focus everything I could into it.

“Leave. It’s ours now," I growled trying to match its determination.

“Ste Reeeeeeeeeee!” It roared making a sound like twisting metal in a rockslide.

It’s rage seemed to only grow. It would not back down. The only thing I could imagine feeling like this was a feral. I locked the top away and whistled for my team to form up.

“I gave you a chance. Now I’ll try to give you a quick end," I solemnly swore.

 

[jasonwolf]

CHAP: 9 Why

Yanso, Lucas, Pierce, Rath, Tex, Plasum
Baroness and Nort will remain at town.​

“To kill is immoral, and any who do that are lowered to the level of beasts. That which you fight for may redeem you, but it will never raise you higher. What you would die for that is the truest test of character," Tyler Cedranupon taking the position of Ranger Head and insisting on a plan for peace with the nomads.

“Alright, Tex front line. Yanso, Rath with me. Lucas stay high," I shouted to my pokemon.

Yanso and Rath rushed to my side while Tex went charging forward. Lucas stayed overhead circling. The massive snake saw Tex incoming and launched its head forward. Tex kept sprinting just barely getting inside the strike. The Steelix’s head stabbed into the ground making everything shake. Its shovel-like head was half buried in the mud leaving it immobile for the moment.

“Rath, melt it down. Tex, keep striking close. Lucas, Air support. Yanso, you’re with me," I shouted my orders before we all split from formation.

Rath went running in unleashing a blast of fire from his mouth. The flames hit right on top of the Steelix’s head making the metal heat up to a glowing red, but there were no signs of damage. In the distance, I could hear Tex slamming against the Steelix. The clash of metal echoed through the open air. Yanso and I were making our way around to the Steelix’s flank when it tore its head free from the swampy mud sending dirt and rocks everywhere. It uncoiled its tail sending Tex flying away. I couldn’t divide my attention to go help him now. Yanso and I were far enough that we had reached the monster’s blind spot.

“Steelix and Onix have weak spots between the scales. You gotta get up higher on it and find some weak points by its neck. I’m gonna target the weak points down here.”

“Gro!” He growled at me not approving of the plan.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be out of here in a minute," I pulled a few small directional mining explosives out of my bag, “Brought these in case of a cave in. Now go so I can get to work.”

Yanso looked at me one last time with concern, but grinned then nodded and started to climb up the Steelix’s boulder shaped scales. I started placing the explosives between the scales. At most I must have felt like an insect to this thing. Looking away from my work I saw Yanso making his way up the back of the Steelix. Its attention was being given to Rath’s fireballs and Lucas who kept flying around its head probably using his psychic attacks. The Steelix swept its head low along the ground. I could hear Rath howl in pain. Yanso managed to hold onto one of the spikes on Steelix’s body. I needed to hurry up. I lit the fuses on the explosives and ran as fast as I ever had. I found Rath on the way and returned him to his pokeball. I headed for a collection of boulders to use as cover, but as I got around to the other side I saw the empty rusted skull plate of another Steelix. Probably another victim of the feral one in the dam now. I was violently taken from my thoughts as the explosives went off in quick succession. BOOM. BOOOM. BOOOOOOOOM! I turned back to see the Steelix falling over not being able to support itself on its coiled body anymore. Yanso was still holding on as the Steelix crashed to the ground. I ran up shouting to Yanso,

“Yanso, hit and run.”

Yanso raised an arm and the leaves gained a razor-sharp edge. He sprinted the rest of the distance to the base of the Steelix’s skull.

“Goooooroooooo!” Yanso roared

He brought his blades down, but the Steelix twisted its entire body rolling around in the mud. Yanso grabbed on not so easily thrown. It writhed doing anything to throw Yanso. Nothing could remove Yanso though. He clung tightly to the back of Steelix’s head. One hand at a time Yanso crawled forward until he was in the space between the two ridges on its head.

“Yanso, get back here!” I yelled for him, “We can regroup!”

I called for Lucas to get closer so Yanso could jump onto his back. Instead, Yanso remained clinging to the Steelix. When the steel serpent saw Lucas so close it knocked my Noctowl out of the air with a swing of its head. I was astounded that it was still fighting. I thought the explosives would do much more, but this thing was astoundingly resilient. There were marks around where the explosives had gone off, but hell if I knew if it had really done anything. The Steelix was fighting as hard as it could to throw Yanso off, but being a Grovyle he could hold onto almost any surface. He hung on tight just burying his head into his arm as he endured the Steelix’s thrashing.

There wasn’t time to go get help. I ran ahead of the Steelix loading my shotgun with dragon's breath rounds as I went. Fire and molten metal erupted from the muzzle of my shotgun as I unloaded all five of the rounds into the Steelix’s face. It glared down at me with seething rage. My most powerful ammunition had only managed to grab the beast’s attention.

“Come on, hit me!” I shouted.

The Steelix tried to rear up again to strike down at me, but it seized up in pain when it tried to put weight on its lower tail. It collapsed into the mud, but it was far from done. It looked over at me roaring again and again.

“I’m not scared of you. I’m taking you out, and then I’m clearing the rest of that damn… dam,” I tried to sound tough, but I starting to get pretty winded, “Heck by the time I’m done with you Kip’ll probably have the tunnel cleared,"

The Steelix’s eyes widened. For a second it looked scared. No more… concerned. I knit my brows confused over the sudden look. It snapped its head towards the cave entrance. The Steelix stopped wriggling around, roared, and rushed towards its tunnel. Yanso kept clinging to the Steelix not knowing where it was heading. Inside the tunnel, he’d be ground to bits.

“Yanso get out of there! It’s going under!” I yelled straining my lungs so Yanso could hear me.

Yanso slowly raised his head and saw where they were headed. Quickly he jumped for safety, but at the speed, the Steelix was going faltered the landing and crashed into the ground. The Steelix vanished into the depths. I gathered up my other pokemon before I ran up to Yanso who was covered in mud, blood, and bruises. I pulled off my helmet to get a better look at him.

“Gro. Goro vy," He groaned trying to stand up.

“You’re not going anywhere. You are in no condition to fight again. Besides, I think… I think there’s more to this. We were losing. There’s no reason it should have ran," I frowned stroking my chin.

“Grov go!” He Yanso demanded we get going forcing himself to stand.

He leaned forward putting his hands on his knees to hold himself up. Yanso was growling biting down hard as he started shifting his weight toward the right leg. I could see a bulge on the side of his left hip, so I knelt down to check it. Up close it was obvious that his femur has dislocated in the fall.

“Goddamn Yanso, Are you just trying to get yourself killed now? Think you’re gonna fight a Steelix on one leg?” I groaned.

“Go gro- GROOOO!” He started telling me off and then howled in pain.

In the middle of his retort, I had grabbed his leg and popped it back into place. Yanso toppled over grabbing at his leg and hissing in pain.

“It’s your own fault. Now, in your pokeball," I said grabbing it off my belt.

“Gro. Go grov go," Yanso refused, insisting he’d fight the Steelix again.

“And how are you gonna do that on a bum leg? Don’t be stubborn,” I scoffed.

“Grovyle gro," Yanso assured it would be different this time as he looked towards the tunnel.

“You had your chance Yanso. If you listened sooner maybe you’d have this one too," I shook my head as I spoke.

“Gorvyle gor gro," In spite of me and the pain he stood up again and started shuffling off towards the Steelix’s lair

“Goddamnit Yanso. Did you land on your head? I said you’re done.”

“Ro," He refused.

I grabbed his shoulder pulling him back.

“What are you trying to prove? This isn’t courage Yanso it’s suicide. Rest up. I’ll find Kip and we’ll regroup.”

“Gro gogor Grovyle," He shouted looking at me like I was the crazy one.

“I know there’s still the Steelix down there. If you got listened I’d have you and Lucas to help me with that. Now get in your pokeball.”

“Gro Grovyle," He refused to let me go alone supposedly because a partner wouldn’t do that.

“If you didn’t want me alone you should have listened to my orders. I mean it Yanso, get in your pokeball. So help me I’ll put you in a steel ball instead.”

“Gro,” Yanso shrugged off what I said.

“Why are you being so stubborn? We’re here to do a mission," I roared in frustration.

“Ro, gro Grovyle gro go grov," He shook his head claiming he was here to kill ferals.

I was taken aback for a moment and had to actually let the words sink in. It was like when my computer would blue screen everything just stopped working. That didn’t make any sense. Yanso was my partner. He was a ranger pokemon. We weren’t killers. We killed sure, but it was only in full necessity. He had said it so brazenly, as though the kill was the mission. Where had he gotten this from? Was it me? I know I had become a bit harsher since the dragon incident. I had seen what was really out there, and it scared me. It made me tense and quicker to jump to the worst possibility, but I didn’t want to kill. I pulled a steel ball out of my bag and looked down at it. We only used them on dangerous pokemon for the greater good.

“I’m sorry," I whispered winding up and throwing the steel ball.

It bounced off Yanso drawing him inside. The steel ball rolled and shook furiously, but it managed to hold. Picking it up, I could feel Yanso’s energy as he fought to break free.

“I don’t know why you didn’t listen before, but I just hope you listen now. I don’t know why you think this is ok. I can handle losing a fight, or you making some decisions for yourself, but why did you decide to hurt me like this? You’ve been brash, taking on challenges far beyond you alone, and you refuse to let me be involved. I thought maybe it was because you were afraid for me, that you just wanted to keep me safe, but now I don’t think you care at all.”

The pokeball shook again. Yanso was fighting to get out. I was forced to throw it before it broke in my hands. Yanso appeared on his hands and knees gasping for breath.

“Ro… grov... vyle," He denied everything.

“Then why? Why would you risk everything for nothing?” I demanded an answer

“Grovyle. Gro gorogo," His eyes were furious as he called for vengeance, for me, for Mike, for the pain feral pokemon caused, “Gro Vyle, gro vy, go vy vy vy.”

He swore it on his father, his mother, his brothers, his sisters. A family he had refused to ever talk about. A family he now claimed was taken from him. Yanso went on about how he found me and a new family, but after all these years the ferals were here again tearing it apart. Ever since the dragon he’d been taking his revenge.

“So that's what you’ve been sneaking off to do. Murder.”

“Ro, Grovy," Justice he claimed.

“How can you even think like that? I don’t know why a feral crossed paths with your family, but you can’t just kill them for what they are. Feral pokemon have as much a right to live as any of us. They’re desperate and twisted by their environment, but they’re pokemon just like you. When they cross the lines and put everyone in danger then we step in. Never before that. What you want isn’t peace it's slaughter," I shouted furiously.

“Gro! Grovyle!” He swore they would pay that he’d kill them all.

“Then how are you any different?”

He was silent. He looked at me ready to reply, but he couldn’t sat a thing.

“Maybe it’s my fault. We joined together just as the Roamers were being run out. I wished we could wipe them all out, but Tyler taught me better, and I didn’t think I’d have to teach you that lesson. There is a time that we have to act, but we don’t start those fights. The rangers are guardians, not crusaders. We may do what we must, but you’ve crossed a line. You want to be a killer. That’s why you kept going out on your own. You wanted to go beyond what the Ranger’s allow," I buried my face in my hands

“I know we were trying to take this thing out, but that hate blinds you. If you stepped back you’d have seen there was more to this. That Steelix chose to stop fighting. Tell me one feral that does that? But you can’t see it. Because you don’t want to. You don’t want to be a ranger. You want to be an executioner. If I knew you’d come to act like this, I’d have never let you onto my team, because it’s changed you. You cared more for your vendetta than for your friends, your family. You are not my partner anymore. I don’t know who you are," I was crying at my final words.

Yanso stared wide-eyed into the mud. I started walking towards the tunnel again, while Yanso remained as he was. Had he always been like this? Was it just the dragon? Against the Fearow he trusted us. Was that just because we were absolutely going for the kill? Maybe he really did care, but if he thought I wanted revenge then he didn’t care enough to know me. I put my helmet back on and headed for the dam.

I hiked down into the tunnel staring down into the darkness. Being alone I just switched the helmet to night vision instead of turning on my flashlight. I had to find Kip, and get us all to safety. We didn’t stand a chance anymore. That Steelix tore through all of my pokemon. Maybe if we hadn’t split up we could’ve overpowered it. But it's not like winning mattered anymore. I just lost my best friend. Nothing mattered anymore.

I don’t think we’d ever been separated since the day we met. Not like this at least. I had trained and prepared and fought so hard, but this is where I ended up. Alone. I slowly trudged down the now seemingly endless tunnel. As I finally neared the “T” I could hear footsteps echoing down the cavern.

“Kip?” I whispered.

I pressed myself against the cave wall and waited still as the stone around me. Light steadily began to fill the tunnel as Kip came up from the tunnel that I hadn’t gone down yet with Raizer and Eli in tow. I came out of hiding careful to not spook them.

“Jaklo,” Kip said waving when he spotted me, “It looks like the tunnel has a loop here.”

“Other way was an exit to the surface…” I muttered not ready to really speak.

“We found a baby Onix down our way. He did some serious damage, knocked out plasum and Chortle, but I managed to capture him," Kip went on, “How’d you do?”

I couldn’t look him in the eye. I didn’t want to admit what happened, but there was no way to undo it now. I took a staggered breath before trying to force out the words, but I was interrupted by a growing rumbling noise.

“Onix... Steelix. Run. Now!” I shouted finally connecting the dots.

We all started sprinting for the elevator shaft, but as the sounds grew louder and the tremors grew stronger it was clear we wouldn’t make it. I turned around and ran back to the exit tunnel. Kip saw me started to follow, but I shouted back to him,

“Get clear. That’s an order.”

“Sir, there’s no room to fight in here. It’ll flatten you," Kip yelled back

“I know, but we don’t have a choice now, “ I pulled off all the pokeballs on my belt and threw them to him, “You get everyone to safety. Tell everybody back home I’m sorry.”

I sprinted as fast as I could into the exit tunnel. The Steelix’s head was just peering up from the lower tunnel as I rounded the corner I raised my shotgun and fired it sending gouts of fire into the air. It glared at me with unbridled hatred, but I understood.

“Come and get me. You want your baby? Come and get me!” I shouted before sprinting up the tunnel.

When It roared the whole tunnel shook. I looked back over my shoulder to see it launch towards me. I’m sure it was going full speed, but it felt like everything had slowed down. I may have failed, but I wasn’t going to let anyone else gets hurt for my mistakes. I was finally ready to accept it. I shut my eyes and said goodbye.

“Grovyle! GROVYLE!” a roar came echoing from ahead me; Yanso was shouting for me.

No. What was he doing here? He was going to get himself killed. He should have given up on fighting the Steelix. But he wasn’t shouting for the Steelix. He was coming for me. For everything, he’d done, as much as I was furious at him, for how hurt he’d left me I couldn’t hate him. But there wasn’t anything I could do now though. Yanso came into view running on all fours. His leaf blades glowing with energy. He passed by me and summoned up a barricade of brambles one after the other trying to slow down the Steelix. All of them were torn through as the Steelix barreled forward. Any second it would be on top of Yanso. I already thought I lost him, I wasn’t going to ever let that happen again. I turned back, set one hand on his shoulder, and raised the other towards the Steelix.

“I can’t abandon you," I whispered to my partner.

A black aura began to cover us until our forms melted away into the shadows of the cave. The Steelix kept going charging through where we once were and straight out of the cave. I saw and felt the Steelix pass right through me and head straight out the tunnel. I shuddered like a freezing wind had just blown over me, and the aura faded.

“Yanso?” I looked to him for an answer.

“Ro,” He shook his head and then put his hand on my shoulder, “Gro.”

“I still don’t know what happened,” I sighed, “and I don’t know how we’re beating that Steelix. It was just guarding its nest. That’s why it ran when I mentioned Kip was down in there. And the Steelix remains I spotted outside probably the mate.”

“Gro, grovy," Yanso insisted we’d do it together.

A brilliant light surrounded Yanso as his form began to grow. When the energy dissipated and he was revealed as a fully evolved Sceptile. He was at least seven feet tall now and had developed all the distinct traits of an adult: the ridged brows, the long leaf tail, the double leaf blades, and the row of seeds on his back.

“I’m sorry I left you," I sniffed holding back some tears.

“Scep, scepti ti le ti," He shook his head admitting that he’d lost sight of what it meant to be a ranger.

“Alright. Let’s finish this. Partner," I smiled up at him.

He pulled a yellow seed off his back and handed it to me.

“Scep ti ti ti. Tile scep sce," Yanso gave the briefest explanation of what the seeds could do.

“Massive roots, really strong attack. Gotcha. You draw attention I’ll plant some," I nodded.

We ran for the exit and saw the Steelix slithering back and forth trying to figure out where we had gone. I snuck off into the brush while Yanso ran out into the open. The Steelix spotted Yanso and started heading for him.

“Scep, tile!” Yanso demanded a rematch

“Steerreeeel!” the Steelix roared ready to go again.

Again the Steelix rushed forward trying to simply run down its prey. Instead of running, Yanso charged forward jumping towards the Steelix. His arm leaves lengthened into rows of glowing green blades. He slid them along the Steelix’s side leaving a clean cut in its metal scales. The Steelix tried to strike him by rotating its many spikes, but Yanso deftly jumped along them like tree branches until he was back on the ground.

“Scep ti li!” Yanso taunted sliding his blades along each other to make a stinging hiss.

The Steelix took the bait slamming its head down. Yanso dodged back and started running around to draw the Steelix away. Now I started my job. Using the land that Steelix had overturned I began to plant the seeds. When I had all of my seeds buried I fired my shotgun to alert Yanso. He got the Steelix to start coming back towards where the seeds were planted. Yanso went into a full sprint getting far ahead of the Steelix then stopped dead in his tracks.

The Steelix kept going. It was like staring down a road train as an oddish. Yanso stabbed his hands into the mud and light began to pour into the seeds on his back. The ground shook before massive vines erupted from the ground entangling the Steelix. It tore through the first few but they kept growing blocking the way and wrapping around its body.

Yanso pulled his hands free and looked at the Steelix exhausted. It struggled against the vines, but it couldn't build up the force it needed to break free. Yanso slowly stepped forward his leaf blades sharpened and ready. The Steelix’s head was mostly wrapped up in the vines, but one orange eye still peered through the thicket. Yanso appeared calm as he approached the Steelix’s eye, though I saw his fists clenching the closer her got.

“Sce e tile," Yanso said anger still seething out in his voice as he threatened the Steelix essentially saying surrender or die.

The Steelix tried to roar in reply, but its mouth was being forced shut so the sound was muffled. Yanso attempted to punch it in the eye, but its metal scaled eyelid closed in time.

“Scep! Sce e tile," He cursed nursing his hand.

“Yanso," I let his name stand as its own order.

He stepped back taking a deep breath. I looked at the Steelix as its eye began to open again. I stared into it looking deep for even the tiniest hint of remorse of thought. There was hatred, a deep burning hatred there, but I couldn’t know if it could see past that.

I stepped back and fired off the styler. Just trying to get the top close was difficult. I may as well have tried to trudge up a mudslide. I didn’t want it to have to end this way. Especially after how it started. I shut everything else out as I tried to make the top spin. But I couldn’t just think about the top. I rooted myself in something deeper. Mercy. We weren’t here to kill. We were here to save. If this Steelix was more than feral it was doing the same thing. Then it went to sympathy. The pain of loss being something we both could understand. Yanso stepped next to me and rested his hand on the styler letting his own experience be known.

Staring into the Steelix’s eye I saw it begin to change, its glare becoming a saddened remorse. I could feel it deeper inside me as the aura became different. It was still strong, but not forceful. It felt more like I was orbiting the power, pulled and pushed away in equal measure. There was a vague image coming to my mind. It was like a stone, but smooth and round surrounded by broken chunks of rock. I put away the styler and stepped back up to the Steelix. I wasn’t sure how but I just sort of understood. All it had and all it cared about was its baby.

“We need this place, but I know somewhere you and your baby can go, and it’ll be safe," I said pulling out a pokeball, “You don’t have to protect them alone.”

The Steelix looked down at my hand. It let out a low solemn groan, and closed its eye, the only exposed spot on its body. I pressed the pokeball against its eyelid and the Steelix gradually vanished inside.

I tried out the radio hoping Kip was topside by now.

“Kip? Do you read me?”

“Jaklo! Fucking hell! I thought you were dead!” Kip shouted his composure having gone entirely out the window.

“I thought I would be too, but turns out Yanso and I had… well I don’t even know what I had, but we’re here, and we have the Steelix," I said while basically shaking myself apart from the adrenaline rush.

“You’re lucky I didn’t get the long-range transmitter setup," Kip was laughing relieved by the news.

“Yeah trying to apologize to Alice for not actually dying. I’d probably just want to die instead," I huffed, “We’ll be up as soon as we can. I think we’ll take an external route.”

“Yanso? Up for the climb?” I asked turning to my partner

“Scep sce," Yanso waved off the challenge as a piece of cake.

I hopped on Yanso’s back and we headed for the base of the dam. With the special pads on his hands, Yanso was able to crawl up the side of the dam with as easily as walking. Once we reached the top I looked back over the side at the battlefield. The whole area was torn up with massive ruts dug into the ground. Taking care of this Steelix was going to be interesting back home. Which reminded me of my promise. I banged on the Steel door to get Kip’s attention.

“Kip, you have that Onix in a pokeball right?” I asked into one of the air holes.

“Yes, right here,” Kip replied.

“Can I see that?” I said.

The lower half of the steel door was pulled away and Raizer popped his head out with the pokeball in his mouth. I took the ball and patted Raizer on his head.

“I’m just gonna give these guys a bit of a checkup. You can just rest up," I told Kip as I walked off towards the upper ruins.

Back up by the dilapidated buildings, I released the Steelix first since she was familiar with me. She appeared before us coiled up to sleep. With a low growl and a long sigh, she opened one of her eyes to see what was going on.

“Sorry to interrupt your nap, but there’s someone here you probably want to see," I grinned grabbing the Onix’s pokeball.

Tossing it into the air the Onix was released next to its mother. The rock snake was big but next to its mother was tiny. At best the baby was ten feet head to tail. The Steelix roared with joy seeing her baby. She dug her nose under the infant Onix lifting it up and putting it in the center of her coil. The baby was crying out happily nuzzling again its mother. The Steelix took a moment to look back over to me. She was smiling, but there were tears at the edges of her eyes.

“Promise was a promise. Heck, it still is. You’ve got the full support of the NARU.”

The Steelix tilted its head not quite understanding.

“Oh yea, orientation. Uhm uh, there’s a lot to unpack with that. Yanso, do you wanna start and I’ll go get us dinner?” I looked at my partner begging for him to take over.

“Sce ce,” He waved me off and turned to the Steelix.

I ran back down the path to the dam and saw Kip leaning on the wall outside of the entrance. He had his rifle in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. When I got close he deftly folded it up and slid it into his pocket.

“Whatcha looking at?” I asked letting curiosity come before courtesy.

“Nothing. Not important," Kip replied pulling his gun up into a ready position.

“Paper ain’t nothing. The only things we put to paper are treaties and laws. What’s on it?”

Kip slid the paper out and unfolded it for me to see. It was a letter. The print was faded and the paper had crinkles and four distinct creases from where it had been folded many times. The letter went on praising two platinum rangers, Kevin and Josephine Gander, killed in action during the peak of the Roamer raids. At the very bottom, it was signed by Tyler

“Tyler gave me this when I received my badge. He had always kept things quiet about my parents and who they were. Didn’t want me rushing off to follow in their footsteps just because of them. He wanted it to be my choice. Nights like this I’m glad I made it," Kip sighed putting the letter back away and looking up at the setting sun.

The sun’s brilliant orange light was reaching out into a cold purple sky. It had been a hard day but a good one. My question was finally answered. I may not be the strongest, maybe I can be one day, but I won’t give up. Not while people need me. I’ll give everything for my friends, my family, my town. For the first time in far too long, I smiled looking to the future undaunted.

My growling stomach brought me back to the present. I ducked into the building and started going through my bag to get out rations. In the process of getting them out, I found Isaac’s shield buried under my bedroll. I hadn’t meant to not use it, but honestly, I’m not sure it’d had done much considering the pokemon we faced. Maybe sometime during the week we’d find some wild pokemon to battle.

I gathered all the food up and headed back up. The sooner we ate the sooner we slept, and all I wanted right now was one nice long rest.

 

[jasonwolf]

Chap 10:
Night we Stand

Yanso, Lucas, Pierce, Rath, Tex, Plasum​

“A ranger is always willing to die for his people. Shame I was always too busy to get around to that. I guess old age is a close second," -RH. Fred Casstil, 3rd RH of Letchworth on his deathbed

The roar of a siren instantly woke me. I scrambled in the dark to grab my radio. I switched to the emergency comms channel. Kip rushed to over to listen in as well.

“Code seven! I repeat code seven. All rangers to combat stations, all auxiliaries prep emergency protocols. This is not a drill. Forces approaching from the eastern forest. Heavily armed and extremely aggressive. We have reports of Molotovs and civilian casualties. Commanding officers are heading to the south gate. Lethal force has been authorized. This message will be repeated and be updated. Switch to combat channel to report in.”

I switched the radio over and dropped it so I could listen while getting my gear on.

“This is SR. Hane, we have lost visual on the enemy. They’re moving through the orchards. We are trying to get lights on them. We’ve lost contact with the east outpost. South thinks they have some visuals”

Gunfire erupted over the radio.

“Goddamn, they’re definitely out there. We can hold the gates, but there are still civilians on the outer ring.”

A new voice cut in,

“Hold your position! I’m coming overhead. Airdrop, three, two, one!” Paul called in orders over the radio

There was a cacophony of roars and pokemon calls followed up by a rushing wind and then more gunfire. Paul must have unleashed his whole squad. With all my armor on, I grabbed the radio.

“This is Gr. Wight, Kip and I are a good ways out, but I’m heading in as quickly as possible. I’m already armed and ready for combat. I’ll report in when in closer. We have no way to get Kip there in usable time.”

“Good to hear from your boys. Syan, sludge bomb! Galent, shadow claw! Get me spotlights! Cath, cover Bravo!” Paul snapped between shouting orders to his pokemon and the Rangers, “With luck, this will be over before you get here.”

“Spotlights online! Medics and Militia have been mobilized. Tyler and Maria en route. Alice, Hal, and Hayley are moving to lead evacuation," PR. Maez reported in.

“Do we know who it is attacking?” Kip asked over his radio.

“We have no ID on the hostiles. I assume it’s a band of roamers that decided twenty years was enough peace," Paul grumbled with an almost inhuman level of hatred, “Shane, start shipping heavy weaponry to the walls. We gave them peace, but they’ve asked for war!”

“I’m heading out now!” I reported in before strapping my radio back onto my belt.

I ran outside and released Lucas. He spread his wings letting me jump onto his back.

“Lucas, home, fast as you can," I said with a cold seriousness.

He launched himself into the air with a single strong push and soared into the midnight sky. Letchworth was miles off, but I could see spotlights and firelight. Even over the rushing wind, I could hear the gunfire as we approached.

“Lucas, take me into the woods. I’m gonna position to flank.”

Lucas flew low and I jumped off his back into the canopy. He went back up and kept an eye out on the area. I dropped down swinging along the branches. Once I was on the ground, I grabbed Plasum’s pokeball and sent him out. The inky blue pokemon was basically invisible in the darkness, but his vibrant purple eyes gave off an off-putting light. Even after working with him for years, the light felt cold and unnatural. It would set something off in the back of my head: a primal sense of fear that had no explanation. Plasum chortled happy to be outside of his ball, but I quickly silenced him with a dire look.

“Plasum, you go door to door make sure everyone is evacuated. You escort anyone who isn’t inside the walls. Lucas, go do aerial recon and cover him," I ordered them before getting the others’ pokeballs.

I sent out Tex, Rath, Pierce, and Yanso next. I beckoned my pokemon to get close so we could keep quieter.

“You four are with me. We have hostiles at the east and south gate heading around to the west. Lethal force is cleared. Reports say firearms, Molotovs, and some explosives. We can’t do our jobs by getting hurt, so stealth is gonna be priority one.”

Yanso snapped his wrists elongating his four leaf blades. He examined the blades and took a deep breath. There was a grim look on his face. Remorse perhaps?

“I know… I’m not keen on it either, but they came to us, they came to fight. If they live, they’re still a risk. We do what we have to," I shuddered realizing the weight of the situation.

“Hourrrr," Rath growled reminding us that there was no time to dawdle.

“Right, Yanso and I will scout first. All of you are on standby, pokeballs are unlocked," I directed them before getting them back in their pokeballs

I radioed in my position, “I’m about thirty meters from the Hegerd granary. Currently, we’re hidden in the forest.”

“Jaklo, we have a large group at the south gate. We think there are still other hostiles hiding in the orchards.”

“Understood. My pokemon and I are ready to engage.”

“We have the spotlights on a search pattern for the orchard righ- grenade!”

An explosion went off in the distance. I could see the cloud of dust it made flying up into the spotlights.

“Paul?” I asked terrified by what the answer might be.

“I’m here. Atlas just blocked the explosive.”

Tyler joined the conversation, “Jaklo, trust us to do our job. You have to focus on yours. Clear the orchard. Make sure they can’t reach any more civilians.”

“Yes, sir. Going to radio silence. Semper vigilis," I turned off my radio.

Now it was just me and my pokemon. Yanso took lead while I was on point. We were silent. Nothing but shadows in the midnight hour. Even this close to home we were alone. Yanso and I scaled the granary to get a better sight on the area. We could largely see the main firefight. There were large spotlights shining down on the open ground outside the gate. The hostiles were back further hidden in the orchard’s trees. The occasional muzzle flash giving them away. The other gates were also on alert, but I couldn’t see the land around them.

“These hostiles are either looking for a way in or more targets outside the walls," I guessed trying to think ahead of their plans.

Occasionally I saw a bit of light coming from the trees that were ahead. There were people out here, but I had no clue if they were hostiles or civilians trying to get away unnoticed. Yanso and I dropped down and started to stalk through the orchard. I was aiming for stealth over speed now. I’d be no help to any civilians if I got myself killed or caught. We did not need a hostage situation either. I was ducking from tree to tree careful to stay out of the searchlights. As much as they could give away the hostiles the light could also reveal me to them.

While I was in cover, my back against a big apricorn tree, I started to hear footsteps on my five. I barely moved my head around the tree to spot two men about ten feet away with rifles stalking through the orchard. I whirled around with my shotgun and fired four times. The blasts destroyed the silence around me, but both men dropped to the ground. Yanso was a blur as he dashed over to where they are. He stomped hard on their heads to make sure they were done then vanished into the canopy. At the same time, I was making a getaway. I sprinted towards the woods but tried to keep the lit area in sight. I clambered up a tree about seventy feet away and waited.

Someone was shouting. My guess was orders. Lights were moving in on the two we knocked out. Another two men ran up on them before hiding back away. I grabbed Tex’s pokeball and pitched it. He erupted into the area and roared drawing their attention. Yanso dropped behind one of the men slamming his hands into the man's head making him drop instantly. The other opened fire on Tex, but the bullets simply glanced off his metal body. Tex charged towards the light. I heard a scream and saw a rifle and light go skidding away.

Yanso grabbed Tex’s pokeball and returned him before joining me in the tree.

“Do you think there are more?” I asked really hoping this was done.

Yanso nodded.

I took a deep breath, “Ok, catch a breather.”

Yanso reentered his pokeball. I tried to run along the tree branches to stay up higher, but with my armor on I was far too heavy and had to drop to the ground. While taking a moment to catch my breath Rath released himself from his pokeball and started sniffing around the area. He didn’t pick up on anyone nearby, but something in the forest was concerning him. While I had pretty good vision even at night between the moon and the ambient light diffused from the spotlights the forest was too dark for me to make out anything. The layers of trees blocked out more and more light until I was staring into pitch black darkness. If Rath was concerned it’d be worth checking though. I returned Yanso for now as we headed into the darkness.

When we got further out I switched the visor to night vision since we were away enough from the spotlights that I wouldn’t be blinded at random. At the very edge of the forest, there were two more men slowly feeling their way through the darkness. They’d move stumbling from tree to tree trying to keep moving forward without light. I motioned for Rath to go around with two fingers pointed and a flick of my wrist. While he rushed them from behind I’d stalk around ahead. I moved a little further up and dropped prone. My armor kept me from being entirely flat to the ground, but hopefully, these guys would instinctively shoot for hip height at least. I took aim and fired off a couple of shots at the men. One toppled to the side grabbing at his gut, but the other ran out of sight as quickly as he could.

With the gunfire for cover, Rath may as well have gone silent. It seemed as though he had just appeared behind them, Rath pounced on the one crippled one and smashed his head into the roamer’s. The other roamer began to open fire from wherever he was hiding. He seemed to just be spraying bullets into the darkness. When the gunfire stopped for a moment I returned Rath giving away my position in the process. I rolled to the side getting behind a tree before the roamer could start firing again. I lied there holding my breath to remain as silent as possible. The bullets ceased, but I didn’t move an inch. With luck, he’d think he got me.

“Max? Max!” The roamer shouted after a moment or two, “Damnit. Fuckin Ranger. That’s it I’m dropping it now!”

A massive red flash of light lit up the night. I rolled over to see a shackled Exploud next to the roamer. The thing was about twice the height of a man and looked like someone had taken a hammer to its face. It had four jagged tusks sticking out of its lips and its forehead seemed to have a dent in it. At first, it just stood there. Each breath it took was ragged and slow. Then in an instant, It turned and bashed the roamer with the back of its arm throwing him into a nearby tree. It chased after the roamer and grabbed him by the arms. With one quick pull, it tore both of them off. The man screamed in pure agony but was silent just a moment later. My stomach tied in knots as I watched the scene. Even with the filter of the night vision, it was beyond nightmarish. The Exploud roared a terrible noise that sounded like a herd of gogoats getting strangled.

Without even firing the styler I could feel the rage pouring off this thing. I could also feel the pain. Likely the Roamers had tormented in for ages until it would lash out at everything in sight. I had made bad calls before, but this, this was different. I loaded the dragons breath rounds into my shotgun and swiped a hand over all my pokeballs releasing my full team.

“Rath, light it up. Everyone, lethal force," I ordered with a cold voice, “We end ‘em fast. No need to draw this out.

Rath set a column of fire into the sky lighting up the whole area. With normal vision restored I got a good look at the Exploud. He was disfigured and scarred all over. It’s right eye completely gone and the other was bruised all around. It lumbered towards us slowly, but each step shook the ground. Yanso stepped up in front of me with Pierce and Tex flanking the monster.

“It’s got poor sight but hunts by sound," I warned my pokemon.

In a single subtle motion, the Exploud unhinged its jaw and dropped it to the ground revealing a mouth larger than I was tall. The sound that erupted from it was less noise and more force. I completely lost hearing in the moment. It felt like a crushing force on my ears even with my helmet on. Everyone did what they could to dampen the sound and suffered through the pain. Yanso resisting his reflex pulled his hands away and grabbed two seeds off his back. He chucked them into the Exploud’s mouth where they exploded into masses of roots. For a moment the Exploud gagged and was silent, but when it realized what had happened it slammed its jaws shut splintering all the roots before spitting them out. It went to open its mouth again, but my team’s front line rushed in.

Yanso kept throwing uppercuts to the jaw forcing it closed. Tex went a for a blunt force approach just ramming as hard as he could into the Exploud’s leg. Meanwhile on the other flank Pierce channeled a constant blast of water at it. Even while getting hit from three sides it seemed to be unaffected. By this point, pain meant nothing to it.

Despite keeping its mouth shut it was able to release another sonic attack. The pipes on its back slowly began let out a piercing cacophony of noise that grew louder and then blasted outward like a bomb. We were all thrown back, trees were torn from the ground, and the fire column Rath had made was scattered to the night.

I rolled to a stop against a building and picked myself up. The world continued to spin around me even after, but the armor took the actual hits for me. I switched back to thermal and saw the Exploud lumbering towards the village. He couldn’t see me in the darkness, but he saw the lights. He was clumsy in his gait, but he wasn’t slow. He staggered along crashing into trees but continuing forward. I looked for my shotgun and found it bent around a tree. My team had to be somewhere around lost in the darkness. The only way I could call them now would put me back in the Exploud’s sights. There was no time to go find them. There might not even be time for them to get here. Slowly I got up swallowing the blood in my mouth and took a deep breath. I could get them time, it seemed like I had a knack for being bait. Digging into my bag, I pulled out Isaac’s shield and slid it onto my arm. Then like the insane person I was, I ran up behind the Exploud.

I lifted the visor on my helmet and whistled as loud as I could. A single piercing sound to cut through the night. I dropped my visor and saw the Exploud turning to face me. I pulled at the inner panel of Isaac’s shield and it jolted into place. The four segments folded out and I realigned them so the shield was centered on my forearm. Full-sized it covered from my head to my knees. I trusted Isaac, but I doubt it was meant to handle something like this.

I watched the Exploud slowly lower its jaw to reveal its gaping mouth. The Exploud began to growl. The sound steadily built up to a roar and then it erupted outward in a sonic explosion. There was so much energy behind it I could see the air rippling as it was pushed by the sound. Everything felt slow as the wave came towards me. I dropped to a knee, stabbed the shield into the dirt and braced it with my other arm. The blast slammed into me, but it broke on the shield. The force was being diverted around me. Even then what hit hammered against me. I felt myself being pushed back digging a rut in the dirt. When it passed I saw the shield had bent curving the edges inward. With uneasy feet, I stood up and stared down the monster who looked on confused.

“You’re all talk," I grinned despite my whole body wanting to shake itself apart.

“Rawn Rawn!” A metallic roar came from the darkness behind me.

Tex came barreling out of the darkness tearing up the ground as he charged the Exploud. Just before impact he reared up and dug his claws into the Explouds upper lip. Dropping his body weight he pulled the feral pokemon to the ground. With its face in easy reach, Tex jabbed one of his lower canines into the Exploud’s one good eye. Tex’s jaw snapped shut like a bear trap crushing the Explouds skull plate. Tex ripped himself free pulling skin and flesh away from bone. Even with all the trauma the Exploud pushed itself up and began to roar sending wave after wave of force out in all directions, but these were all distinctly weaker. From where I was standing it was like a strong wind rather than the explosive force from before. Tex just dug in his feet and let the blasts wash over him. When the Exploud had to stop and catch its breath I made my call.

“Tex, finish him, Stone edge!”

Tex roared rising up on his hind legs. An aura built up around his body, a rough brown cloud that seemed to shake and pulse in harsh rigid patterns.

“Ron ron!” Tex roared slamming his front feet down.

The aura dispersed into the ground and rushed out in all directions making cracks appear in the ground. One massive fissure was heading straight for the Exploud. Its ears perked up at the sound. It opened its mouth to roar at whatever was approaching, but as soon as its jaw dropped a stone spike erupted from the ground piercing through the back of its mouth and out its back. The monster lied limp gradually sliding lower on the spike.

“Finally…” I gasped feeling the adrenaline start to wear off.

Yanso came running up with Pierce and Rath in tow. They were all a bit battered, but standing, so that was good enough for now.

“Scep ti?” Yanso put a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

“Yanso, we need to get inside the wall. I… I just…” I muttered trying to keep my thoughts straight.

Yanso nodded running ahead to make sure everything was still clear. I returned all my other pokemon and dashed for the wall. On the way, I called back in on the radio.

“This is Jaklo Wight. Open the west gate. I need to get in.”

“Where are you?” The operator replied.

“Just outside. Open it now I’ll sprint in.”

“Ok. Gate will open in five.”

Five. Four. Three. Two. One. The gates lurched open just a foot, barely enough space for a man to squeeze through. I sprinted like a madman and scrambled between the gates. Right after I passed through they lurched shut. I fell to my knees and started to gasp for breath. A bronze ranger girl ran down from the wall to my side. Yanso scaled the wall and walked up to me.

“You okay sir?” She asked.

“I’ll be fine. I need to report in to Tyler," I told her breathing ragged

“Tyler, Paul, and the squad they put together engaged the forces at the south gate," She quickly warned me

“Then who’s on rear command?” I asked finally getting my breath back

“Plr. Maez stepped in," She said

“Ok. I’ll head there then. Keep an eye out for my Noctowl and Haunter. Lucas and Plasum. They were looking for civilians out there," I told her while starting to run off

“I’ll make sure the rangers know," She nodded and ran to the wall guards to spread the information

I ran towards the south gate. It took a solid ten minutes to get there at full sprint. When I arrived it was all silent. The medics had set up in one of the nearby houses. The less injured people were sitting around outside being tended by rangers and civilians who knew what they were doing. There didn’t seem to be anyone around I was too familiar with injured or otherwise. I asked one of the silvers what the current situation was. Apparently, Tyler, Paul, Maria and a few silvers were out doing a final sweep. With that team out there my worries greatly decreased. Just a few minutes later the gates opened wide and the rangers were coming back inside.

“Medics here!” I could hear Paul shouting.

He was sprinting through the crowd of rangers. He had something in his arms. Somone. I ran up trying to figure out who it was. Paul was carrying ranger, both of them were covered in blood, but the man just lied limp over his shoulder. It wasn’t until the medics arrived and Paul let the man down on a stretcher, that I realized it was Tyler. He had multiple bullet wounds in his chest. Why wasn’t he in armor? Who shot him? How? HOW? I just couldn’t understand. I turned to Paul looking for answers.

“Paul! What the hell happened?” I asked furious and afraid and lost.

Paul kept staring at the blood on his arms. Paul had seen war, seen the worst parts of it before, but this wasn’t something I’d seen from him.

“Answer me, Paul!” I demanded, but I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know.

“Tyler went out ahead. When we heard gunfire a minute later we converged on his location and found Tyler bleeding out.”

“If he was on duty shouldn’t he be wearing his doom suit?”

“He was when he split from our group. I don’t know what happened. Tyler always tried to settle roamer disputes with peace, but I don’t think he’d be stupid enough to take his armor off. He’d start with diplomacy, but he wasn’t adverse to combat as needed," Paul sighed pulling off his helmet, the entire back of which was covered in blood.

“So we have no clue who did it?”

“No, Tyler was already in shock when we arrived. We did what we could out there…” Paul’s always confident demeanor had faded leaving his face pale and tired.

“Is he gonna make it?” I asked despite knowing the odds.

“Tyler’s the best of us, but he’s only human," Paul solemnly admitted.

“Not to me he isn’t,” I mumbled thinking of everything Tyler had done for me and this town.


===================

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Sorry about how long it been, I got a new job that sends me out into the backcountry wilderness so I'm not always able to get to the internet. I've had this chapter ready for a while, but I really needed to make some big decisions with the story around this chapter too, so I didn't want to post it until I knew fully all the repercussions of these events.

 

[jasonwolf]

Hey look, on the thread! Is it a post? A Chapter!? No it's an update because life keeps making me go away from my writing to do things like work and eat and keep a roof over my head.

The good news is that Chapter 11 is done. The bad news is that I made chapter 11 into chapter 12 and am writing a new chapter 11 that is about half done.

I have gotten a lot of work done and have done a lot of updating to older chapters because critiques are valid and some flaws were easier to fix than others. When I finally realized I never even mentioned how the characters looked I felt real stupid. So there have been some changes mostly simple little things. I have also been trying to clear up grammar issues, but I also know I've had to switch through a couple versions after losing some files so some errors have probably snuck back in. I am working on getting those fixed again, but it'll take some time.

Oh and one hilarious error that I hadn't even realized had gone on this long, Tyler's last name Apel was a placeholder name and was never intended to be a published one, but as it turns out I'm and idiot and forgot how much I hated that name and kept using it. IDK why or how, but I did. It's now been changed to Tyler Cedran.

Also because I want to feel like I posted things of worth here are some arts and some quotes that I've had stored away.



“We were made imperfect. We are raised flawed. We live misguided. We die unknowing. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Paul Reicher

“This may come as a shock to you, but I am in fact a woman. Most days when I get home all I want is to put on something nice, eat chocolate, and snuggle with my bidoof, though you usually make a good stand in.” Alice Maez

“If there’s one thing I want in life, it’s knowing that I’ve done something. Anything. I’d even take being a cautionary tale that the kids get told when they do something stupid.” Jaklo Wight.

“I don’t fear death, I’m terrified by living. The dead can move on, they have certainly changed, but the living? In life we are stubborn and aggressive.” -Isaac Wight

“Nature is my bastion, the trees are my turrets, the bushes are barbed wire. I dare you to try and breach my fortress.” -Tyler Cedran

Spoiler: The main trio in their civies

Spoiler: The 5 man band

Spoiler: The pokemon roster minus all the possible spoilery bits

Spoiler: and two trainer and two pokemon with zero context and SPOILERS I GUESS

 

[jasonwolf]

Chap 11:
Dawn We Ready

“It's a strange feeling when you’re part of the old guard at twenty-six, it’s a stranger feeling when the recruits are less than half that.” -Plr. Tyler Cedran discussing the year's new recruits

Author's Note: A most gracious thank you to any who had the patience to put up with my life. As well, I'd like to dedicate this chapter to the heroes who made us who we are: parents, guardians, teachers. Those who stepped up to stand with us through the hardest parts of our lives and made us better for it. Let's all live to do right by them.​

"Funny how the years fly by one day, and drag the next." -Me​

“Attention!” The drill instructor barked quickly silencing all the recruits.

I froze in place, but everyone else started grabbing seats on the benches, so I clambered over to one of the open end spots. There were about twenty of us mostly boys I knew from the farms, but there were some girls from out there too. The rest of the kids must’ve been artisan’s children. The only one I really knew was Mike Slate, the Professor’s son. He stood out a lot with his grayish black hair. He looked super serious and grim compared to all the other kids. At the front of the room stood the Drill instructor, a man with buzzed blonde hair and a stare that seemed to cut right through you. He was dressed in a Letchworth Naval uniform which had the forest green replaced with river blue. He towered over us, but his Blastoise, which was sat in the corner resting, towered over him barely fitting into the room.

“First things first, roll call.” The ranger said taking a tablet of the podium.

He rattled off names in alphabetical order meaning I got to hear plenty before it was my turn. He didn’t name anyone I knew that I hadn’t seen yet nor were there any names that stuck out. Then he got to the Wights.

“Here.” Four of us called as we raised our hands.

It was always a pain having such a common last name. Sure you get to say you’re related to the founders, but so is everyone. That’d just be another thing to get used to here. Hopefully, they’d be able to get us split up sooner or later.

“I hope you all slept well last night because that’ll soon be a distant memory. You have all volunteered to join the Rangers, and thus to dedicate the rest of your lives to our principles.” The drill instructor announced.

“Don’t be so grim about it Shane,” A familiar voice called from the back of the room.

I turned myself around and saw Tyler standing in the doorway arms crossed and a cocky grin on his face. He sauntered up to the front of the room and looked over all the recruits. There was a devious gleam in his eye as his gaze fell on me.

“Heck some of these kids have already seen combat, I think congratulations are more appropriate,” Tyler chuckled leaning against the wall.

“It's not about fear. It's about discipline. These kids are gonna learn some hard truths about life in training. They need to be prepared.”

“The sentiment is valid, but hope is more useful than anxiety. Take my word boys and girls, it’s all an act. He’s a softy when he’s not on duty.” Tyler held up a hand between him and Shane as though it would actually block what he said

“Tyler, can you not… just not? Training is my department. I don’t mess with yours, so please leave me and my recruits be,” Shane groaned motioning Tyler towards the door.

“My department covers all Rangers, and today I felt like checking in on our newest ones. Shockingly enough Matthew agrees,” Tyler sighed starting to lose his jovial tone.

Shane grumbled something under his breath. Tyler silently nodded to whatever it was.

“But we shouldn’t be talkin like that in front of the kids.” Tyler recollected himself before continuing, “So, who knows the Ranger Motto?”

A blonde girl in the front row threw her hand up.

“Alice,” Tyler pointed.

“Semper Vigilis, Forever Vigilant.” She said while standing to give the ranger salute.

“Wow, she is a chip off your block Shane,” Tyler let out an impish laugh, “She’s also correct. Semper Vigilis was the motto chosen by Isaac Wight when he founded the NARU. The Rangers do a lot of jobs, but our mission is, above all else, to protect. Protect people, pokemon, nature, everything. We are the first and last line of defense.”

“Dispatch to Plr. Cedran. Please report to dispatch. Over.” Tyler’s Radio went off.

“Really? Now?” Tyler grumbled, “So maybe Shane wasn’t too wrong to mention that you’re always busy as a ranger. I’ll try and stop by when you guys are finishing up.”

Tyler headed out, and Shane rapped on the wall to grab our attention again.

“Well, barring any more interruptions we’ll be heading out to tour the perimeter. Most of you have worked outside the walls, but it's necessary for all Rangers to be knowledgeable about our territory.” Shane explained before organizing us into two lines.

We left the HQ and marched through the streets. I couldn’t help but whistle a marching tune I had heard many times over from rangers on patrol. I think they called it “Route 1” or something like that. I whistled happily as we went from the center to the edge of town. There was a simple dirt path that circled the whole town. It was often used as a borderline, especially by parents trying to tell us where not to go. With Plr. Maez leading us we went right on past it.

“Weren’t we seeing the perimeter?” One of the boys piped up as we headed on into the woods.

“Indeed we are.” Plr. Maez replied.

“Wasn’t that it?” The boy asked again sounding more concerned and confused.

“No,” Plr. Maez almost sounded like he was chuckling, “That’s the outer farm patrol path. The perimeter goes through the forest. The scouts go even farther. These woods are wild, but they’re still ranger territory.”

There were no more questions, but some of the kids did start exchanging worried looks. The boy next to me in line was looking really panicked. He was a bit shorter than me, probably a bit younger too. His yellowish hazel eyes darted back and forth trying to spot something in the treeline. I meanwhile was growing giddy with excitement. The forest was completely off-limits to anyone without a ranger escort. Sometimes kids, myself included, would try and sneak out there for a bit of exploring, but rangers would always show up and escort us back to town. This time one was taking us out farther!

My excitement did dip a little as we went, as I should have expected the forest was really just a forest. Trees, moss, rocks, and shrubs. There wasn’t any special magic out here. Of course, it was still beautiful, but it wasn’t as weird or foreign as it seemed from the outside. The occasional pokemon did certainly catch my attention, but even that was less special as I had my very own partner pokemon at my side. I even began to notice we were on a trail. It was very subtle, but the patrol route definitely had been marked and cleared.

Plr. Maez lectured as we walked. He went on about patrols and the way that rangers work together to take care of the town every day. It wasn’t exactly a tale of glorious battles, but it still beat out picking apples. I let myself get lost in it all. I listened to the ranger, but I also couldn’t help but stare off into the woods thinking about what it would soon be like to patrol them with Yanso by my side. The fantasies began to take more and more of my attention and soon I was daydreaming of grand adventures.

“Shane!” A new voice broke my distracted concentration.

How long had it been? It seemed like a minute at most, but we were somewhere completely different now. I looked around trying to figure out where we had gotten to, but I still had no clue how this forest was navigated. I had just followed the person in front of me and managed to keep up. Tyler had just shown up through the brush rather than taking the trail. He was sweating and panting. Had he just sprinted here? What was happening?

“Tyler, what are you doing out here?” Shane broke his gruff facade to address the other Ranger

“Radios are down. We’ve got a thunderstorm incoming, and its b-lining for town.” Tyler managed while catching his breath.

“Boys and girls pair up. We’re going back inside the walls. Everyone keep track of your partner.” Shane snapped right back to his commanding air.

All the other rookies rushed to grab a buddy leaving me confused and alone. I grabbed the shoulder of the skinny fidgety kid who had walked next to me claiming him as my buddy. He jumped flailing about. When he came back down he bit his lip and his face bright red. We held hands getting in line with the other rookies then Shane got us hiking back for town. Tyler followed behind us warily watching the sky. Even with his eyes locked on the encroaching clouds, he was able to listlessly weave between the trees avoiding every trunk, root, and branch. Thunderheads were pushing forward blocking out the sky faster than we could move away. Tyler stopped suddenly and rested his right hand against a nearby oak.

“It’s caught wind of us… Shane, keep the children safe,” Tyler’s voice became a commanding roar.

Shane gathered us up and had us crouch down against the trees. Resisting my better judgment I poked my head out to keep watching. Tyler shifted to a combat pose keeping himself hunched low and hands straight. He slowly began to turn scanning the forest. The wind was picking up making the tree shake rattling their branches. Tyler faced directly into the wind and instantly spread his fingers hooking them like claws. The brush around the base of the trees bent down and swept aside like curtains revealing a canine pokemon with blue fur on most of its body, a yellow spiky mane, and tufts of yellow near its paws and hips. The pokemon jumped back surprised by its cover suddenly being torn away.

“You don’t want this,” Tyler growled.

The pokemon took a moment to size up the new events, but undeterred by Tyler’s warning it slinked closer keeping its eyes on him. Tyler bolted straight up and threw his hands into the air. The ground shook as roots tore free of the ground and rushed the pokemon. It jumped over the mass and began to run along them. Getting close the pokemon pounced aiming its jaws for Tyler’s throat, but mere inches from Tyler's face it stopped and fell. Its ankles had been wrapped in roots. The pokemon dangled awkwardly barely able to touch the ground with its front paws. The canine barked and snarled as it struggled against its bonds. Something in the air began to feel off. What little hair on the back of my neck stood on edge. The confused worry on the other rookies' faces confirmed that everyone felt it.

Tyler tensed up making a wall of roots up shoot up between us and the pokemon. A second later a bolt of lightning slammed down on the canine splintering the roots holding it into a million splinters. Taking the brunt of the attack Tyler slammed back against the wall slumping to the ground. One of the rookies began to snivel before bursting into panicked tears. The pokemon, electricity still sparking off its yellow mane and fur, looked over towards us and snarled. It sprinted around the wall Tyler made. Just as it turned the corner more roots shot up walling it out. Tyler had pulled himself up using the two trees we were hidden behind to support himself. Their bark began to flow onto Tyler taking the form of gauntlets. He punched one of the trees and the roots grew massive spikes to force the pokemon to back off.

“Fine, you do want a fight,” Tyler grumbled flicking his wrists to make the bark gauntlets grow thorns.

The canine pokemon raised its head and howled forming a sphere of electricity over its mouth. It threw the electric ball at Tyler but using the gauntlets he caught and redirected it into the ground. Tyler charged and threw an overhand punch hitting the pokemon on the forehead. It crumpled to the ground whining in pain. Roots grew up tying it down.

“You asked, I delivered.” Tyler sighed standing over the bloodied creature.

“Maaaaa.” The pokemon snarled squeezing its eyes shut.

The air once again began to charge with energy. Tyler let out a breath right as a lightning bolt crashed down on him. He threw one hand up to the air and pointed the other at the ground. Roots shot up to grab his lower hand. The electricity surged through him and down into the earth. The bark gauntlets were singed, but Tyler seemed to be fine. He threw them aside before kneeling down to the pokemon and pressing a hand against its head pinning it to the ground.

“Bad dog!” I shouted thinking myself clever.

Tyler looked back at all of us asking Shane if we were all good. A quick head count assured our health. Tyler dropped the gloves and sat down. He grinned running a hand through his sweat soaked hair.

“And that, kids is how you detain a wild manectric using elemental grass moves.” Tyler yawned.

It was also how I knew I wanted to be just like Tyler.

====


“No,” My father said plainly while crossing his arms, “I’m sorry, but I can’t make it.”

“What? You can’t say no! It’s my promotion ceremony. I’m gonna get my badge. You can’t not come!” I shouted completely thrown off by his answer.

“I can and I did. The orchard’s got a serious infestation of burmy, and my attention has to go to that first.”

“I’m your son! How does a bunch of fucking trees-”

“Shut your mouth. We do not talk like that in this house.” My father growled.

“Grandpa would’ve come,” I muttered.

The room fell silent. My father and I glared at each other across the table. Grandpa was always a sore subject. He was a fully-fledged Diamond Ranger, but there must have been a falling out with him and dad. He never seemed interested in my training as a Ranger, but he never acted against it. I never thought he’d turn his back on me like this though. I was finally gonna become a real ranger. I had worked for well over two years to get where I was. I was second in my class. He should have been proud. I thought he’d finally care. He never cared.

I pushed back my seat and grabbed my coat off it. Clearly, he didn’t want me here. He didn’t want me at all. I stormed out the door into the night. I’d go to the HQ and stay in the barracks. I was always welcome there. There people appreciated me. There I was Ranger.

I stomped down the trail grumbling to myself. The fall air was frigid tonight and only worsened my mood. By the time I reached the HQ I was muttering obscenities about basically everything. I made my way over to the wing that housed the barracks. It basically was a bunch of medium to large rooms with bunks and lockers. Rangers could stay or go as they please. In emergencies, they could act as shelters for civilians.

I threw myself into an empty bunk, not that it was hard to find one. The hall had seemed entirely empty tonight. That was fine. People had things to do. I pulled off my coat and let out a heavy sigh. Even without it there I felt a weight on my shoulders. How could my dad be so stupid? The orchard? He chose the fucking orchard over me. It wasn’t even that he chose them. It’s that he didn’t even consider it. It wasn’t some choice of duty. He was spiting me. He hated me for doing this. I knew he did.

“Jaklo? What’re you doing here?” Tyler said ducking his head into the room, “It’s almost ten, head home.” Tyler waved me on.

“I am home. More home here than… back home… you know what I mean.” I grumbled sitting off.

“Somethin happen?” Tyler stepped into the room and leaned against the doorframe.

“My dad’s being an ass. He’s refusing to come to the badge ceremony. He’s choosing to skip one of the most important days in my life for that goddamn orchard.” I half shouted, not too loud, but probably louder than I should have.

“You shouldn’t talk about your dad that way. I’m sure he’s got a good reason.” Tyler folded his arms looking down at me disapprovingly.

“He says there's a burmy infestation. Me and Lucas could clear that out in a couple minutes if he just asked. But nooooo. He just ignores me. Doesn’t want anything to do with me since I started ranger training.” I grumbled looking away.

“Sometimes parents get a bit distant when their kids start ranger training. They’re trying to let you grow up.”

“That’s sure as hell not it. If he was trying to let me grow up he’d be proud. Grandpa was proud.”

“Oh, I’m sure your dad is real proud. Back when he’d always stop by HQ and bring your grandad lunch. He was always so excited to talk to the Rangers. I’m sure he would’ve been one if your grandpa hadn’t stopped him.”

“Wait, what? Grandpa stopped dad from joining the Rangers?”

“Mhmm, wasn’t even that strange. Lot’s of parents didn’t want their children signing up. You gotta remember things were only worse earlier. It was war. Sure we skirmish now and then, but this is nothing. At the worst of it every other ranger wasn’t making it back.,” Tyler slipped off his cap and held it gingerly in his hands, “How do you let your kid go into that? Especially when you know exactly how bad it is.”

“You joined, my grandpa joined, people have to be rangers. We need rangers. One more orchard keeper isn’t gonna change anything.” I pointed out scoffing at the idea, we’d always need more Rangers.

“It does when they’re the last one.” Tyler shook his head.

I glanced back up at him.

“Mhmm, your dad may not have been a Ranger, but he sure as hell had the dedication of one. All those raids, all those battles, and he would still go out there every day and work that field. Even when it was burned to the ground he tilled the ashes and started again. Now maybe your father is pouring a lot of time into that orchard, but that’s because its what he knows. He watched his father slowly die from decades of war. He’s probably terrified he’ll watch the same happen to you.” Tyler put his cap back on and went quiet.

I looked back away.

“You’re mad, fine, but don’t stay that way. You and your dad might have issues, but at least you have yours. I’d have given anything growing up to have even met my dad. Don’t miss your chance to be with yours.”

“If my dad wanted to be with me then he should be here now. He shouldn’t be brushing me off. I know what I’ve signed up for. I know there’s risks. If he’s worried about losing me then he shouldn’t be pushing me away.”

“Are you sure he’s the one pushing?”

I gritted my teeth. I wanted to yell, but I couldn’t, not at Tyler. I respected him too much, even if I was mad.

“Well if you aren’t gonna talk to me, I think you should talk to your old man. I have a feeling he’s worried by now.”

“What makes you think he wants to talk now?”

“Instincts, and the fact that he’s walking down the hall.”

As Tyler mentioned it I noticed the faintest footfalls coming from outside.

“Axel.” Tyler nodded down the hall.

“Tyler.” My father replied stepping into the doorway.

Sure I was only thirteen, but now I felt like a child. What, was he here to check on me? He couldn’t care less before. I glanced sidelong at my dad but looked away right after.

“Jaklo, there’s no need for all of this, let’s go home.” My father said plainly.

“I am home,” I grumbled.

“He mentioned that earlier. Something happen?”

“I’m sorry for all of this Tyler. I was trying to tell Jaklo that I can’t go to the ceremony.”

“Well, that’s a shame. To be fair it's mostly a bunch of hot air and posturing, but for some people, it's very important.”

I huffed rolling my eyes, “Of course it's important. I spent the last five years working for this. Working so I can be more than a farm hand.”

“I don’t mind that you chose to be a ranger, but there’s nothing wrong with being a farmer.” My father said, “Everyone has to eat to live.”

“And everyone has to live to live. I want to do something I can be proud of. Something people will remember me for.”

“Pride isn’t only found in battle,” Tyler said.

“But legacies are. Have you ever noticed how many Wights there are? Now add on how many other farmers there are. People remember grandpa because he fought.”

“People remember your grandfather because he was a good man. How many rangers do you think there are? How many do you think share our name?”

“Current count in Letchworth? Twenty-seven.” Tyler Chimed in.

My father looked at him surprised, but Tyler just nodded looking quite certain.

“So why are you really doing this son?”

“Because I thought you’d finally care.”

My father looked incredulous like I had just told him the world is flat or the sun orbits the earth.

“When I worked in the fields you treated me like every other worker. The first time I felt like I mattered was when I met Tyler. It was the first time I knew someone was proud of me. When I told grandpa he was the happiest I ever saw him. I thought that if I was a ranger, then you would be proud too.” I glared at my father, but the anger faded to pain, “But you only seemed to care less.”

“I…I never realized.”

“Of course you didn’t, you were always too busy with the orchard.”

“I wasn’t too busy. I was too worried. Worried I’d lose you. So I tried to get you used to the farm. Your grandfather agreed… right up until you met Yanso.”

My father sighed, his shoulders drooping, but he took a deep breath and stood up straight before continuing.

“When he heard, he knew you had a chance to do great things. He told me right away that we couldn’t hold you back anymore. So I agreed even if I didn’t like it. I’ve spent my whole life doing two things farming and worrying. First with my father and then for you.”

I swore I saw a smirk flash across Tyler’s face, but when I looked towards him he was stoic as stone.

“I didn’t really mean what I said about you not caring. Of course, I know you care, but there’s something different in how I feel when I’m a ranger. I feel… appreciated? I don’t know the words. You always took care of me, but I don’t think I ever felt like I was important, like I had any real worth.”

“You’re my son. You’re worth the world to me. That was the problem though. I traded away your world to try and keep you safe.”

“But I guess that doesn’t change that you won’t come to the ceremony.” I looked back at my dad with a weak smile. I still hurt, but less.

“I wasn’t lying about that infestation, even if I was acting like it was a worthy excuse.” My father sighed

“I might have a solution to this. Jaklo, raise your right hand.” Tyler grinned holding a book under his arm.

When had he grabbed that? I suppose Tyler had always liked being surprising. Still, I did as I was told.

“And left hand on this.” Tyler held out the book.

The Sacrifice. Isaac’s treatise on how humanity could reverse the damage we had done. It acted as the base of all our laws and sense of morality. It was almost religion, but without any gods and we were the repentant devils.

“Do you, Jaklo Leif Wight, swear to uphold the ideals, morals, and laws of the NARU?” Tyler lost any tone of humor. His voice was as cold and sharp as a knife.

“I swear, by the blood spilled by our ancestors.” The words flowed easily after weeks of memorization.

“Do you swear to put the world and its balance before yourself and your needs?”

“I swear, by the breath I take.”

“Do you swear to make The Sacrifice should it be required of you?”

“I swear, by my soul, I will live for this people, I will fight for our world, and I will die for its balance,” I had always faltered at this part, but under Tyler’s gaze I was entirely certain.

“I, Tyler Cedran, Ranger Head of Letchworth, promote you, Jaklo Leif Wight, to bronze rank. Serve well. Semper Vigilis.” Tyler’s smile returned as he announced it.

I looked to my dad to see him wiping away tears from his eyes. I really had made something of myself, first a fool, but now I suppose I was wiser for it. Tyler pulled a bronze badge from his pocket and handed it over. I pinned it on my jacket and saluted.

====

One last memory flooded back to me, one I had long ago lost.


Tyler’s office always felt warm, but then again, Mike was always unstoppable. I sat curled into the armchair, but I still felt exposed. The glass wall gave me a view out over the snow-covered town. Its streets were empty in the wake of a late fall blizzard. Wisps of smoke curled from the chimneys as everyone else nestled in around their fires.

“Ah, what a lovely day.” Tyler chuckled as he slid through the door to his office.

I turned my head just enough to see him out the corner of my eye. He brushed a light powdering of snow off his shoulders before hanging up his coat, knit hat, and scarf. He shuffled around my seat. But instead of sitting behind his desk, he sat on it putting him only a couple of feet away from me.

“I’ll be honest, I half expected you not to come.” Tyler leaned forward resting his left elbow on one knee and his right hand on the other.

“Y-you did say it was important,” I said through my shaking.

“It is, but you’re no good to use sick. Where’s your coat?” Tyler asked bringing his left hand to his beard.

“I musta forgot it.” I shuddered.

“Hmm, well that’s just not gonna cut it. Before you head home, grab one from the armory.”

“Yes sir,” I nodded.

“This dragon really does have you shook up wrong.”

My eyes widened just at the mention of it. I tightened up reflexively waiting for the next hit. Blades, Claws, Fire, Yanso, Mike. I began shivering uncontrollably.

“Hey now,” Tyler set a hand on my shoulder trying to steady me, “You’re alright, you’re alright.”

“I’m not,” I broke down and shouted, “I’m not!”

Frigid tears ran down my face. I shut my eyes trying to stem them, but images of the dragon flashed in the darkness. That bloody maw hung in my mind even as I opened my eyes.

“Well, then we’ll make it alright.” Tyler pressed his hand harder against me.

“Nothing can make this right! Mike’s gonna die because of me! Because I failed as a Ranger. There’s no undoing this.” I roared swatting his hand aside.

“You gave that fight everything you had. It’s not your fault.” Tyler tried to remain firm.

“My everything was nothing. It’s my fault for thinking I could be a ranger. If I was never here, maybe Mike woulda had a better teammate.” I stared at him in desperate pain.

“Maybe. Maybe means nothing. All that matters is what did happen, and what you will do.” Tyler pointed to me for an answer.

“I’m going to quit. I’m not going to get anyone else hurt.” I lowered my head admitting defeat.

The room fell silent and seemed to grow colder.

“You’d hurt me,” Tyler said softly.

I remained curled into my ball drained. I started to fade in and out of consciousness, pain from my lingering injuries flooding back.

“You’ve been one of the brightest rangers I’ve ever taught. Not the strongest, not the smartest, not the most talented, but by god Jaklo, until these last few weeks I never saw you without a smile and look of determination. You always pushed for your best trying to do right by your team and your pokemon. Don’t you dare let that fire go out. I need it to burn even brighter when the time comes.”

=====


I was so caught up in my grief that I almost didn’t notice as Tyler shook and gasped for breath. He writhed on the stretcher his eyes open wide. The medics held him down. Paul gently held his head looking him right in the eyes.

“Tyler… Tyler… you gotta calm down. Get him a sedative. How the hell are you awake?” Paul asked furiously, but there were tears in his eyes and the faintest smile on his face.

Tyler continued to gasp for air, but he managed just a few words, “Old..trick…”

He opened his left hand to reveal a clear diamond shaped crystal. A used “Revive”. They were aura crystals that could quickly bring a pokemon back from the brink, but not people. Tyler held a pained grin as he looked towards the sun rising in the east. He took a long slow breath and a green glow surrounded him. He shuddered violently, but it soon reduced to a weak shiver.

“Figures,” Tyler grabbed at his chest sighing, “Paul, I’m sorry, but I need… need you to fill in for me,” Tyler wasn’t gasping, but his voice was weak and raspy.

“I’ll take care of things til you’re back on your feet.”

“I don’t think that’s happening Paul, gods, it hurts… I’m just stalling it now…They knew, fire crystals, it burns.” Tyler’s eyes filled with tears.

“Medics, we have to act. Get him under so we can operate.”

“No!” Tyler shouted causing him to deteriorate to coughing, “No…there’s no time. Paul, promise me. Take care of the town. Find peace.”

“I… I will.” Paul lowered his head unable to look Tyler in the eye anymore.

Tyler slowly turned his head to look at me.

“Jaklo…I’m sorry you have to see me this way.”

I looked at Tyler my heart sinking as my last ember of hope was being put out by his words.

“Tyler… don’t go… I’m not ready. Damnit all! I just started figuring this all out. I’m not ready! I can’t hurt like that again!”

“Just remember…” Tyler took a long harsh breath, “Pain is a sign of life. It means you’re still here. Fight for those still here. Live for them. Pain’s a sign of life, it’s time to live.”