(23/11/07)
I haven't written a Pokemon fanfiction in a while. Nostalgia took over me and I started playing Ranger again, and I've always wanted to be a Ranger. w Er…I mean, I've always wanted a character that is a Ranger. ;;
On with the show.
Speaking of shows, I haven't watched the D/P anime yet, so if people seem…a bit out of character, I'm sorry. vv
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Well, I own like, half the games, but not the actual company. TT
PS: It's a weird intro, but bear with it. I couldn't think of a better way to start it.
Icy
"You…are…an…idiot," I typed, still wondering how I had taken so quickly to typing on the numbered keypad on the capture styler. Before he had started messaging me, I'd never bothered to use it. I smiled, knowing almost exactly what his response would be.
"No one asked you."
Laughing, I shut the green and blue device, shoving it into the pouch around my waist along with my other things. "Hiro…you don't know how to be a Ranger. I don't know why you're our leader, anyway," I said aloud, knowing very well that he would not be able to hear me.
"Hey! Gen!"
"I told you guys not to call me that," I said coolly, turning to see who it was. I found Maya coming to a halt just in front of me, breathing heavily from the run from the base.
"Well, the leader has two things for me to tell you," she said, holding up a finger. "One, don't use the styler's text messaging for insulting people. Two, he has a mission for you that he needs to tell you in person. In other words, he wants you back at the base."
I sighed. "Fine." Starting the long walk back, I heard my styler ring, though ignored it. I knew it wasn't worth it. Above me, there was the sound of the wind blowing, signaling the approach of my partner, Skarmory. Instead of landing, however, she continued on to the base, landing on the roof. It turned to me, seemingly taunting, and, even though she was far away, I could feel that she was telling me to hurry. I broke into a sprint, the other Ranger, exhausted from the run to find me, quickly falling behind.
Inside the base, I found relief from the warm summer air, the fans blasting cooled air in my face as I entered. "You called?" I said, my voice unintentionally slightly sarcastic and annoyed.
"Yeah, I called. You didn't pick up the second time though," Hiro said, stepping out from behind his desk.
"Sorry," I said, rolling my eyes. He sighed.
"Gen, this is serious."
"I'll take it serious if you can call me by my real name, not some nickname you decided on." I shot him a glare.
"Well, it's already caught on. You'll have to live with it."
"My name is Genesis." I crossed my arms across my chest, still glaring.
"Fine,Genesis. You have a mission as of now. I've been receiving reports from the Sinnoh region, and they need your help."
My eyes immediately lit up. "Sinnoh?" I asked excitedly. My perky demeanor, however, quickly faded as I came back to earth. "What's the catch?"
"Have you heard of Poketopia?"
I nodded. "That fancy vacation place where all people do is battle?"
"That's the one." Hiro sat back down at his desk, motioning for me to sit opposite him in a chair. "Apparently there's been trouble there."
"What kind of trouble?"
"If you'd let me finish, I could tell you."
I rolled my eyes again, but remained silent.
"There are always reports of cheating, and those people are caught, but this time there seems to be something bigger going on, and nobody knows what. Something's not right down in Poketopia, and some of the Leaders in Sinnoh feel that there is corruption in the works of the company that runs it. Thing is, it's affecting all of the regions, not just Sinnoh. Productions of other coliseum-like battle areas are in their construction phases, and they're worried about what is going to happen. They wanted a Ranger for the job."
"Why, exactly? Why not send a trainer in?" I sat back in the chair, glancing around the room in pretend disinterest.
"Trainers don't think like Rangers do. They focus solely on battling, while Rangers have to remember what their goal is."
"To protect pokemon and serve the community, I know, I know."
Hiro nodded. "Seeing as you're such a prime example of a good Ranger, we've nominated you to go check out Poketopia."
I bolted upright in my chair. "What?" I said, shocked. I wondered if I'd heard wrong. "But…why?!" I was only a level six Ranger—there were plenty of better-qualified ones out there in the other towns…So why did they pick me?
He smiled, apparently knowing this would be my reaction. "Gen—"
"Get it right!"
"Genesis," he said, sarcasm as much as mine had been earlier, "I really need you to do this." He stood up, motioning me toward the elevator that took us to the roof of the building. Outside, I headed toward Skarmory, who was standing perfectly still on the landing circle, as if waiting for me.
"Skarmory will take you to Sinnoh, where you'll meet Gym Leaders—all from the regions that are being affected, and all of whom are worried about this matter. They will lend you pokemon for the challenges."
"Challenges?" I froze in the middle of climbing onto Skarmory's steely back.
"You'll be participating in the games, Gen." He winked at me when I had finally clambered onto the pokemon, a panicky look filling my eyes. "Don't worry. You'll be fine."
"But—I don't know how to battle!" I cried. "I'm a Ranger, not a Trainer! I'm not fit for this!"
But Skarmory had already taken off, with me clutching fearfully to its back. Not out of fear of heights, but what was to come. In the sky, I felt the temperature drop, rain soon beginning to fall in light droplets that covered my jacket. I pulled off my glasses, tucking them in the case in my pouch and pulling out the goggles that I had gotten made for this, prescription ones that rain rolled right off of. They protected my eyes from the dry air and allowed me a certain level of visibility.
After flying in the sky for a while, Skarmory began to lose altitude, heading toward a brightly-lit city that was nearly adjacent to the island where Poketopia was—I could tell it was there because its lights outshone the city's, which was considerably larger than the popular center.
Since there was no Ranger base for me to land on, I ended up coming down in front of the Pokemon Center, where there were a group of people who seemed to be waiting for someone.
"Are you Genesis?" one of them asked, a girl a bit older than me with light auburn hair.
I slid off Skarmory's smooth back. "Yes. Are you the Gym Leaders that I'm supposed to meet?"
"Gardenia," the girl said, holding out her hand for me to shake. I took it, removing my goggles after and shaking my hair out, droplets of water hitting the others.
"Sorry," I muttered, sliding my glasses on. "It's a bit damp up there."
"It's alright."
I looked at the group standing in front of me. I knew some of their faces as Gym Leaders in the Sinnoh league, but some were unfamiliar—probably from the other three regions I'd never been to.
"We were all sent a message to give you pokemon to use while conducting your investigation. There are nine Leaders in all from the Sinnoh, Hoenn, and Johto regions, each with one pokemon to give you. Kanto decided to sit this one out." Gardenia held out a capture disk. I looked at it, puzzled. How did she have one? She smiled. "I thought you might be confused. You're a Ranger, right? Hiro said we should use these instead. They allow you to communicate with the pokemon better, since you're just borrowing them. Got it?"
I nodded slowly, the pieces sliding into place. "I think so. But how am I supposed to tell what they are?"
"I have a Roselia," Gardenia said, handing me the disk, which I slid into the pouch on my belt. I was glad I hadn't brought any unnecessary items with me, since I'd need room for nine disks. Plus Skarmory's.
"Wait, isn't there a rule about the number of pokemon you can use in a battle?" I said, holding up a hand. "Six, isn't it?"
"There aren't any rules in Poketopia regarding the number of pokemon you can take with you. There are rules for battles, but nothing about having ten with you." Another girl spoke, this a girl I didn't know. "I'm Clair," she said, introducing herself by almost literally shoving the capture disk into my hand, the pointed bottom nearly scratching my skin through the gloves I wore.
"Dragonair," was her answer to my questioning expression.
"You'll be escorted to Poketopia by a couple of us, since it'd be odd for you to travel alone. Most people come in groups," Gardenia said as a girl with flaming red hair stepped forward to hand me her disk.
"Flannery. I got a special Ninetales for you. Just so you know." She smiled at me.
As the Leaders introduced themselves, I found myself remembering seeing some of them on TV, watching them battle as they faced a challenger. I remembered how thrilling it was, how excited I had been to see their pokemon as I imagined myself as a Trainer one day. That dream, however, had come crashing down when I realized the cruelty of battles after my sister began to teach me how to use pokemon "effectively."
I quickly learned their names, and their respective regions, each with a totally different pokemon.
From the Johto region, there were two, Clair and Morty. Clair had given me the Dragonair, Morty a Xatu.
Hoenn Leaders gave me a Lapras, Tropius, Kingdra, and Ninetales, from Brawly, Winona, Wallace, and Flannery, respectively.
And from Sinnoh—my favorite region—Gardenia's Roselia, Volkner's Luxray, and Roark's Gastrodon, the Eastern variety.
My pouch was rather difficult to close after I received the last disk, the extending strap the only thing saving it from being open and prone to losing its contents. I thanked all of the Leaders profusely, turning back to Gardenia, hoping she'd let me go now. I didn't do well with large crowds, and the fact that I didn't know any of them made it a bit awkward for me.
"Are…you going with me?" I asked her, glancing out over the water toward the glowing island outlined by the setting sun's rays.
Gardenia shook her head. "Nah. I've got a Gym to tend to."
"Doesn't everyone else?"
"Gardenia prefers…other activities to going out to do things like this," Roark said, laughing a bit.
"You mean like the Rotom incident?" Volkner added, smiling as well.
Gardenia turned slightly pink. "I wasn't scared!"
"Then why did you make those kids go in for you?"
"I have a Gym to run!" she said irritably. She turned away from us. "I need to leave. I'm sure there are people waiting for me."
With Gardenia gone, I had no one that I had talked to before then, and silence began to fill the air.
"Well, I'm not going. I'll be leaving as well." I had the feeling Clair didn't like me very well…and I'm not sure why. She disappeared in the same direction as Gardenia, looking back at me once with a slight glare.
"So…who's going with me, then?" I said, realizing after I said it that I had sounded impatient and rude.
"There's me, Winona, Volkner, and Flannery," Roark said, counting everyone off on his fingers. "That's four; five, including you."
I nodded. "How are we going to get over there?"
"We fly." It was Winona. She held up two pokeballs. "I've got a Swellow and my own Skarmory. We can double, and you can use your Skarmory. Just follow us."
I gave a slight nod, indicating my understanding. Climbing up on Skarmory's back, I saw the other Gym Leaders had also left the area. They had finished what had been requested of them. Now I had to do what I had been requested as well. I slid my goggles back on, realizing I shouldn't have removed them in the first place when I had arrived, knowing I would have to fly again.
In the air, I stayed close to Winona's Skarmory, making sure not to lose them in the clouds or in the rain's curtain-like waves that were now pouring down from the sky.
"Just my luck," I muttered, glad that our uniforms were waterproof, as the base was located in an area that got a lot of rain and was near a series of lakes and rivers. That didn't stop me from disliking the rain. It was the fact it rained so much that I didn't like, not the rain itself.
Taking a deep breath, I followed Winona in the descent to Poketopia's landing site, noting that many of the buildings were shaped like pokemon, which I hadn't noticed before. All…except one. It struck me as odd, seeing a single, simple building that was conspicuously placed between all of these pokemon. I shook my head, waving the matter out of my head. Right now, I had bigger things to worry about.