Cassie cursed, jumped up, and started to dash after the murkow. "LANCER, RUSH, FOLLOW THAT BIRD!"
The two pokemon rose from their dozing, took a few seconds to orient themselves before they joined the pursuit of their trainer. Meanwhile, Lyn had let the cup fall on the ground.
What a dive.
Shaking that thought, she hurried up as well. Thinking for a second what to do now, she immediately returned Jolt into its pokeball, rushed to her backpack and pulled out a flashlight.
"Empy, Carrie. Stay here with Medusa and protect the camp." With that said, she sprinted after her sister and her pokemon. She was sure Empy had heard at least, since it was rather likely that Carrie was already asleep.
Murkrows were known to lure people into places they couldn't navigate in or get hurt in order to shake them off but right now, she couldn't afford to slow down and leave her sister alone. She just had to hope that trying to lose them in a dark forest was all it had planned and wasn't leading them into something really dangerous.
By now, things had gotten rather dark, the cone of light from her flashlight firmly pointed to the ground to prevent her from stumbling over root or stone. Shadows and dark shapes surrounded her as the cool night her was brushing through her as she rushed through the woods.
"CASSIE!" she yelled, hoping her sister would hear her. Cassie had most of her pokemon with her and could find the camp with them if she got lost. Lyn on the other hand had only Jolt, who wasn't exactly a tracker, so she made sure to mark a tree with her pocket knife every ten meters or so. Her running had slowed to a light jog.
Think, think. How am I supposed to orient myself in a forest after dark? Don't, I think, was the advice given by Florence unless you really have to. In which case, go slow and steady. Unless you can't, in which case you're probably fucked and need to depend on luck.
As far as advice went, that wasn't particularly helpful for the situation at hand.
Of course, stumbling wasn't the only dangerous thing that could happen. Far worse would be to run into a pokemon that wished you harm. One could deal with a rattata or two unless one was particularly unfortunate, but you could just as well step on an oddish or disturb a beedrill and that could be fatal. It's not like that wasn't something a murkrow wouldn't do. They were infamous for it and one of the reasons most people really didn't like them.
I could call Jolt right now, might be safer, but it isn't that fast.
She called for her sister again and listened for a few seconds before she heard a voice. She changed directions to the left and sped up a bit, trying to reach it. One more time she yelled for her and this time, she got a response she could understand and clearly make out as Cassie
Thank the gods. Don't think neither mother nor Amy would have forgiven me if I had let Cassie die on our first night in the wilds.
After a minute, she finally reached her sister, who was standing next to a fallen tree, breathing hard, her arms crossed, with Rush right next to her.
"That was pretty reckless to run off like that."
"That little shit has my pokecom. Do you know how expensive that was?"
"I can guess," Lyn replied, feeling her heart beat faster from the running. Walking for so long and now the sprint hadn't done her legs any favors. "Still, breaking your leg wouldn't have improved things. Or if you had run into something dangerous."
Cassie didn't reply, focused on something.
"Did you lose it?"
"No, don't think so. Think it should be up that tree somewhere. Lancer was able to follow it."
"Nice. Dibs by the way."
Cassie whirled around, glaring at Lyn. "What?"
"Dibs. I'm calling dibs on the murkrow."
"You want this thief?"
"Showed it was ambitious, cunning, precise and greedy. A pretty good combination of traits for a combat pokemon, I'd say."
Besides, flying dark type is a pretty good one and I need some utility as soon as possible.
Cassie held the stare for a few seconds before she sighed and turned away. "Fine, you can take point. I don't really care as long as I get my pokecom back safe and sound."
"Thank you." Lyn took out Jolt's pokeball.
"Can you even see it?"
"I don't need to, Jolt will detect it."
Jolt joined them, hovering between them, letting out a small mechanical sigh. Lyn took out her pokedex and pointed at the trees, roughly at the spot Cassie had just a minute ago.
Waiting for the pokedex to do its job, she glanced at her sister. "Where is Lancer?"
"Snacking on bugs on one of these trees while keeping an eye on it. Up there, a bit to the left."
Before Lyn could answer, the pokedex let out the sound that it had finished scanning the murkrow.
Huh, stronger than I expected, but not too much, still within our means of fighting it.
"Okay, Jolt will engage and try to move her away from her nest. Lancer can either then grab your pokecom or sit on top of it to at least prevent the murkrow from grabbing it again. Then Jolt will beat her down, and I'll catch her."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Jolt, go, try to spook her away from her nest, but no attacks that can harm the pokecom."
Jolt hummed in understanding and levitated upwards slowly rotating to let its eye wander over all the branches in order to spot the nest. After a few seconds, Jolt saw the nest and sped up towards it, letting out a high-pitched sound. It wasn't quite a supersonic attack, it wouldn't do any damage or affect the murkrow in any way, but it did surprise and scare her enough that she took off from her nest. She crowed, fluttered to a branch a few meters away, and shot Jolt a heated glare. Electricity cackled from Jolt's screws and arced towards the murkrow too fast for it to dodge and made it screech in pain. She tried to fly away, but being hit with the electric attack made her muscles spasm and even though she tried to flap her wings, she was losing height and was half gliding half falling faster to the ground.
That was the reason why electric attacks were so effective against flying type pokemon. Electricity tended to mess with the nervous system and muscles, making them spasm and mess up their coordination for a while. It made it harder to walk and move for a bit. Some pokemon could endure it better than others, of course. For many pokemon, that made fighting after being hit difficult. Lesser speed, reduced coordination and spasms tended to affect their performance. For flying types, however this meant losing their ability to fly and plummet to the ground or at the very least made flying a lot harder and cost them their agility.
What was annoying for pokemon on the ground was crippling and devastating for pokemon in the air.
Well, unless you had Zapdos, of course.
I would kill for one.
A satisfied look found its way onto Lyn's face as she saw murkrow coming nearer to her and she grabbed and enlarged an empty poke ball to be ready when it was both, in range and sufficiently weakened. Flying types were harder to catch than most types, since they could simply fly away if a fight didn't go the way they liked or if they simply weren't in the mood to fight and few people had the aim to hit a flying bird twenty meters in the air with a poke ball.
Lyn knew for a fact that she wasn't that type of crack-shot and she was rather certain that it would be an extraordinary feat for even athletes.
Murkrow, meanwhile, was trying to fight back but she had been caught completely off guard. No doubt, she had never encountered a magnemite before and just hadn't known what to expect.
But that's just lack of experience, not capability. That's something I can still work with.
"Bring her down, Jolt," she ordered her magnemite and it hummed in acceptance, and burst forward to slam its body in murkrow, making her lose whatever flight it had.
Thankfully, she was only a few meters above the ground, so the fall wasn't that bad and had been unlikely to damage anything.
It was, however, sufficient for her purposes and she lobbed the pokeball on the now crashed pokemon. It hit the murkrow, it dissolved in red light and disappeared into the pokeball. After twitching three times, it came to a standstill, signaling that Lyn was now one pokemon richer than she had been a few minutes ago.
Satisfaction and pride filled her, as she felt that she now had made a tangible first step on her journey, had added to her team and was on the road to prove herself to Sabrina.
"Well done," said Cassie, walking to the tree that had murkrow's nest on one of its branches.
"But now I have to climb this thing, so be a dear and give your big sister a boost."
There was definitely room for improvement though.
xxxxx
It took Cassie roughly ten minutes to climb up the tree, reclaim her pokecom and climb back down. She also showed Lyn something else she found in the nest.
"This is a premier ball, isn't it?" Cassie asked when she examined the shiny, white ball with the orange-brownish line in the middle.
"Yeah, I think so. Never saw a real one before, only as a picture a few times but this should be one, I think."
Cassie nodded, as she pressed the button to enlarge it. She then took out her pokedex, and pointed the scanner on it.
"It's registered to a trainer named Aaron Vittel."
"Don't know the guy. What's in it?"
"A staraptor." At Lyn's questioning look, she elaborated. "A normal flying type from Sinnoh."
"Ooh, that one." She remembered that it was grayish-brown with a red tipped black crest over its head and a black spot on the tip of its orange beak. "Never wanted one."
"Same," Cassie agreed. "Think we should release it to check on it? Give it some food?"
Lyn hesitated. "I don't know, what if it was injured and being in the ball is what is keeping it alive? We don't know how long it was in there, without food or anything. We don't have the supplies or training to do something about that."
"Good point," she bit her pink lower lip in thought, "Well, how long do you think it'll take for us to reach Celadon City?"
"A day or two? If all goes well, I mean."
"I guess we'll wait then. Too bad there is no number or anything to contact them with."
"Whatever we do, we should think about it back at our campsite. We shouldn't leave it alone for too long and it is already dark enough."
"Yeah," Cassie said, then looked around, as if now realizing the situation she was in. "I really hope you know the way back because I don't."
"Rush can help us find back and I did mark trees every few meters, so hopefully that will be enough to find the way back. We didn't get that far away but please, the next time, don't do this. We were really lucky we didn't walk into a poison type or a pokemon nest or anything. Or even broke something by tripping over a root."
Cassie looked chastised as she looked on the ground. "You're right, that was stupid of me. I'm sorry, Lyn. It's just that, it's really important to me. It took me quite a while to save for the pokecom and I really need it for my streaming and online career. Without it, I would be fucked. There is no way I can afford another one and insurance takes ages to process this kinda stuff. If I am offline for a month or so, I'll be done."
Lyn was close to saying that it would be bad for her career if she got seriously injured as well but she swallowed the words, knowing that there was no point in speaking them out loud.
Cassie knew she had screwed up, and harping on it wouldn't do anything.
This better not become a habit.
"I understand," she said after a few seconds.
"And I am glad your pokecom is okay. Let's just go back."
Rush, meanwhile, was looking as if none of this was bothering him.
Cassie looked like she wanted to say something, but let out a sigh, and turned to her small vicious rat. "Come on, sweetie, can you show us the way back to camp?"
Rush squeaked as if it was an insult to his person to even consider the possibility that he couldn't do something and started trotting along.
We walked in silence, my flashlight aimed at the ground, occasionally aiming the cone of light around to see if we spotted any wild pokemon. Oddish were night active pokemon, for example and while they weren't really common around these parts, one couldn't discount pokemon who found themselves here one way or another, whether it be migration or just being released by their trainers.
Rush was walking ahead, letting his nose and ears guide them, while Lyn tried to look out for the marked trees and was satisfied to see that they were on the right path as she was seeing them.
"So, a murkrow," Cassie said after a minute of silence. "You said you wanted one earlier, so you happy about this?"
Lyn grimaced and wobbled with her hand, "Well, it's more like, for this phase we are at, and for the SYT, I wouldn't mind having one. In the short term, a murkrow is a pretty good pick for my team and will do good for a while. And the route we are planning to go, it's one of the better pokemon to catch. However, I don't really see myself keeping her for eventual gym badges."
"Why's that? Flying dark type is nothing to sneeze at."
Lyn took care not to step on the root right in front of her. "Sure, the type is good, the problem is that in the upper echelons of pokebattling, you rarely see murkrows and hunchkrows. There is only one and that is Karen's and hers is a bit of a freak. She has a theme going on, anyways."
"So, what's the reason?"
"It's that murkrows lack firepower and durability later on, compared to other pokemon, and while the hunchkrow evolution improves its parameters generally, it does drastically reduce its speed. Basically, it becomes a bit better in areas it wasn't that great to begin with and still isn't and loses the one aspect that made it worthwhile. Which is fine in the lower tiers, such as the SYT, but can be a problem later on. I wouldn't want to field a big and slow target against electric types with good aim."
Cassie frowned, "It's also a problem to blindly follow what everyone else is doing. Sure, sometimes there is a good reason for that, but sometimes, you've got to do your own thing. I told you, just going for the general meta can be boring and what's the point of doing your thing if you are going to do the same as everyone else? Honestly, there have been so many trainers running basically identical hybrid teams with barely any variation and it's become boring to watch."
"Is that why you want pokemon like muk?"
"Nah, they're cute. Just saying, go with pokemon you like, not only pokemon you see that are already successful. I mean, use those too if you want, of course, if you can but be open for other possibilities."
"It doesn't change the fact that some pokémon are simply better suited for fighting than others and you aren't doing anyone a favor by ignoring that." Lyn let the cone of light wander over the ground and shine briefly on their pokémon.
Cassie shrugged and put her hands in her pockets. "It's never as absolute as that, though. With the right training and strategy, everything is possible. Besides, no one is going to be impressed by the girl who won with a dragonite and relaxo."
It was then that Lyn understood. "But they will be by the girl who goes far with a ragtag team of all kinds of pokémon."
Cassie snorted in a way that made Rush look up. "I'm not that cynical and calculating. It's more the fact that I want to be myself and have my pokémon reflect that. I don't want anyone to tell my what to do and what pokémon to choose for that. I couldn't imagine anything more boring than becoming a champion by following some kind of recipe."
"What's wrong with a plan?"
"Nothing, as long it is your plan. I mean, I also have ideas for which pokémon I want. A muk is one of them," Cassie said, and Lyn saw how she had a concerned expression on her face. "I hadn't planned for a growlithe, since it's unlikely to stumble upon one but it was a good piece of luck that we did." She paused for a second. "Is there a specific pokémon you want?"
"Did you wonder why I planned for this exact route?"
"I figured it was so that we wouldn't be gone for too long for our first trip in case I turned out to be too annoying to endure 24/7."
Where did that come from?
Lyn didn't know how serious her sister was at that moment, so she ignored that for the moment. "I want a staryu. And on this route we will have two opportunities to catch one."
Cassie's eyes widened, and a faint smile curved on her lips. "You know, I can see that. What's so special about that pokémon for you?"
How far is this camp?
Lyn shrugged. "I wanted one ever since I saw Omar, one of Sabrina's core teammates, demolish some elite trainer with his starmie. It was… something amazing. The way it floats and moves. Its eerie but at the same time awe-inspiring. It's an ethereal pokemon that is strong and fascinating, but also calming, does that make sense?"
Cassie by now had a wide grin. "And what about the fact that very few high-level trainers have one in their main teams? On the fly, I would just say Misty has one, well and that lackey of Sabrina you just mentioned."
Lyn shot her sister a dirty look. "I never said I would follow any particular plan but my own. It's just that there are pokémon I want for combat and some that I wouldn't mind owning regardless of that and since my main goal is to reach the top, I will focus on those that are also efficient in battle. A staryu happens to fill both criteria."
"There is that, I suppose. I'm just happy that you're going for your own thing." She glanced quickly on her pokecom, before continuing. "So, that's why you said you wanted to go to route 19 and the islands there. I did figure you wanted one of the water pokemon there but didn't think it was one in particular."
Lyn tucked one strand of her hair back with her free hand. "There are several good pokemon in those parts and I realize that with the time limit we have right now, we might not get a staryu. I doubt we will have more than a few days to stay there whereas initially I hadn't really considered the SYT at all. Is there anything you would want?"
"Don't really have a preference. Shellders are adorable and I wouldn't mind one. Same with a chinchou or krabby. Hard to go wrong there."
"Shellder was my second choice," Lyn said, walking slowly. The darkness had now set in fully. "Which is not to say that I would insist on the first one."
"Nah, I get it, I haven't set my heart onto anything, really. We'll see, I guess."
Lyn didn't reply verbally and just nodded, so they went the rest of the way in silence. It took around ten minutes of slow walking, with their electric pokemon out as guards for them to make it back to their campsite, only for them to hear human voices. Immediately, they crouched down and stopped.
"What the hell, what do we do?"
Lyn's mind was racing, who were they? Just a few fellow trainers looking for a place to camp? Rangers on a patrol? Unsavory characters, like thieves? Worse?
"I don't know," she whispered back. "Tempted to go in, attack first and sort things out afterwards."
"We can't do that," Cassie put a hand on Rush's back who was tense, ready to jump and blast whoever was there with lightning. "What if it's someone we could get in trouble for?"
The decision, however, was taken from their hands as a voice interrupted their discussion.
"Hey, we can hear you out there, don't worry, we're Rangers." It was the voice of an older man.
Cassie and Lyn exchanged glances. "You guys have any way to prove that before we do anything?" Cassie yelled back.
He didn't reply but instead they heard a whooshing sound that made them flinch when something landed near them. The two sisters whirled around only to see the copper coin of a Ranger lying there. Sharing an uneasy glance, Cassy picked it up and examined it. Seeing that she had lived with their Poke-Ranger mother, she was far more suited to check for its authenticity.
The only thing dad taught me was to find a good wife, while Cassie got the ranger and pokemon stuff.
"It looks real," she murmured to Lyn and stood up. Seeing her sister walk forwards now, calling her pikachu to her. It swiftly climbed on her shoulder, but it was still tense, coiled and ready to leap off his position to attack the strangers. "Feels and looks exactly like a real one, like mom's."
Lyn breathed out in relief and followed suit and in a few seconds, they were back in their campsite.
"This is your camp, right?" asked the older of the two, a man with a big, red beard with broad shoulders clad in the typical garb of the rangers. Black, sturdy trousers and shirt with orange shoes and an orange vest, with a rope tied to his belt. His partner, a dark-skinned man who seemed to be either in his late twenties or early thirties, was cleanshaven, had short, black hair which was nearly hidden by his orange cap. He was crouched down by the fire, apparently looking over Cassie's ekans.
Next to Empy was a grotle, two bushes sticking out of its yellow shell as it was munching on some grass and a tangela, which was resting with its eyes closed on its shell, between those bushes.
"Yes, is something wrong?" Lyn asked, crossing her arms, while Jolt hovered right to her side.
"You mean besides you not being here in the middle of the night and leaving a fire unattended?" he asked, his voice rough and raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, besides that," joked Cassie, handing the badge back to the red bearded man who let out a snort as he attached it back on his vest.
"At least, you have a sense of humor." His expression became sterner. "I'm Senior-Ranger Jackson, this is Ranger Omar. Do I have to say anything about how stupid this was?"
"Nah, my sister already lectured me not ten minutes ago."
"Good, I hate lecturing." He sighed, running a hand through his short hair. "What was it that made you two run out in the middle of the night, and leaving your camp and pokemon like this?"
"And what happened to your ekans?" asked the other one.
"Was injured in a fight at poke tech yesterday." She then turned to the older man. "Murkrow stole my pokecom and I chased it. Lyn followed me to make sure I was okay, so my mistake and I know I fucked up."
"You ran after a murkrow in the dark?" he asked incredulously, "are you daft? Murkrows can be vicious fuckers."
"I know, I know, but it turned out alright. Heck, my sister caught her."
The other ranger's mouth opened in shock before he let out a short bark of laughter. "You actually caught Gundel?"
"She has a name?" Lyn asked.
"Yeah, has been a thorn for travelers here for a few weeks now, and we named her, so it would be easier to file reports on her," Omar said, amusement clear on his face, and shook his head. "Well done on that front, glad to be rid of her."
"There wasn't much in her nest though."
The ranger shrugged. "Who knows, sometimes they bury or break stuff. Or just throw it away. Could have dropped it on the way."
"We did find this though," Cassie said and pulled out the premium ball. "In her nest, I mean. It was there next to my pokecom."
Jackson frowned as took the premium ball and pulled out a pokedex and Lyn could see that it was green and a bit bigger than the ones given to trainers. He scanned the premium ball and after a few seconds, the device finished the scan with a beep.
"A staraptor belonging to one Aaron Vittel from Celadon. Reported missing just two days ago, apparently snatched by our friend Gundel."
I think I'm going to keep that name.
"We won't be going to Celadon for at least a week though, we're still on patrol and have to go to Saffron afterwards anyway." Omar stood up and brushed the dirt and grass from his knees with a gloved hand. "But I guess it can't be helped, we should get a message to the pokecenter in Celadon though, so they can notify that Vittel guy."
Jackson hummed, in thought as he looked at the premium ball in his ball. "What are your names?" he asked the two sisters.
"Lyn and Cassie Raine," said Cassie.
"Which way are you going?"
"Celadon is next."
"Well, seems to me that this works for everyone involved. You two drop the staraptor at the pokecenter of Celadon and we forget the whole leaving an unattended fire in the middle of a forest thing." He was grinning, which Cassie returned.
"Why not, not exactly a lot of extra work."
Jackson handed the premium ball back to her. "We will be calling the pokecenter so that they will know who to expect. There will probably be a small reward, there usually is but don't hope for too much. Should be a bit of money or a useful item or anything."
Of course, that also means that they will know who we are and that we kept a pokemon belonging to another trainer if we don't show up there in the next few days.
"Yeah, sorry for the fire."
"Nothing bad happened, but it could have. I know pokecoms are expensive but show more caution. That said, good luck to you two."
"Thanks," Cassie said, just as Rush jumped from her shoulder to the ground and took his place next to the fire, right after shooting a disdainful look at the two pokemon of the rangers. "You take care as well."
Jackson snorted and walked away, his tangela opening its eyes, jumping down from the bigger pokemon and waddling after him. Omar recalled his grotle and following his with a short wave which Lyn returned with a nod.
"Well, that happened," Cassie said after a minute of silence.
"You think he'll tell mother?"
Cassie laughed, "Gods, I hope not, don't think he got the connection though. Rangers are huge, can't know everyone."
Lyn was glad about, she didn't have that much contact with her mother anyway and she would hate one of those few times being a lecture or frustration at showing such idiocy.
"Anyway, this was enough excitement for me tonight," Lyn said, as she grabbed a flask and took a few deep gulps of water. "I'm going to turn in, are you okay with putting out the fire before going to sleep?"
"Sure thing, you knock yourself out, I'm going to write an update and take care of the remaining chores."
Just as Lyn had gotten comfortable in her sleeping bag, Cassie spoke up again.
"I'm sorry Lyn, for today, but I'm really, really happy to be able to do this thing with you."
Lyn didn't know what to say to that so she was silent for a few seconds, furiously thinking how to reply without sounding like an idiot. "Yeah, me too. Good night."
And failed.
"Good night," came the muted reply, just as Empy snuggled into Lyn's side that was facing the open flame.
It took an hour before sleep finally took Lyn.
