Reports of a strange makeshift village in the forest flooded the news. The strangest part was the absence of people, meaning that the police had gotten there after they had fled. People were fixated on their television trying to learn what they could about this threat in the forest, but either they weren't releasing anything or they didn't know.
I had thought they were crazy and maybe they were just that, but they seemed to possess some intelligence despite their demented states of minds. They might have collected their things and fled to somewhere deeper in the forest or who knew where. I just hoped that I never crossed paths with them again and they didn't continue their piqued interest in me.
We had traveled through the bike path with little issue, hearing rumors from the other trainers who decided to keep up with the news. Our next feat was Mt. Coronet, but after what I had just gone through in Eterna Forest I wasn't quite smiling upon another endeavor through a wild area that was likely to take a good while.
"It shouldn't take a long time to make it through," Jack promised me as I glanced upon the tunnel skeptically. "Perhaps just the better part of the day, this tunnel was meant to go straight through the underneath of the mountain."
Mt. Coronet was the largest summit in a chain of mountains that criss-crossed Sinnoh. It was a spectacular sight and was always covered in a dusting of snow. It would have been fun to climb to the summit if my near death experience wasn't so soon in the past.
Sirius brushed against me, sensing my discomfort. I buried my hand into his plush fur before glancing up at the mountain that loomed down over me. There was no way around it, we had to go under.
My mind was preoccupied, a buzz of confusion and thought. I didn't speak much because I desperately wanted to know about the strangers who had abducted me. I had been so weak, unable to defend myself despite proving myself time and time again as a good trainer. What if I became one of the best and it still didn't help me when it came to people who meant harm?
I wanted to save pokemon and perhaps people too. Was a trainer what I wanted to be? I loved the community, but my mind was consumed by what I had been involved with. How many people had fallen prey to them? What were they doing with those people? Why had they done that with the pokemon?
This was taking too long. Perhaps if I were younger and worried by less it would have been easier to complete this journey, but I wanted to help now. I wanted to be able to defend myself and my pokemon in every way possible. I had been so helpless that I needed to be rescued yet again. No more with this damsel in distress. It was the reason I became a pokemon trainer and even now it wasn't enough.
Jack noticed that I was brooding. "What's on your mind?" he asked.
"Just…" I started, considering what I should say. "What happened."
"The police are taking care of it," he assured me.
I gave him a sidelong glance, pursing my lips. "They didn't find anything. I'm not even certain they're capable of handling what we found."
"And what does thinking about it all day with a frown on your face do to help?"
"I'm wondering what I can do to help," I informed him.
"Why are you obsessing over it, they tried to kill you. I'd say just leave it behind you," Jack told me.
"And if they come back after me? Do you expect me to accept my fate? I don't want to be victim again," I snapped before I realized how sharp I was being with a friend. He had witnessed it all too and probably didn't want to be reminded about the ordeal. But unlike him, I wanted to do something about it.
"Perhaps…" Jack started. "Being a pokemon trainer isn't right for you."
I thought he was calling me a poor trainer and was about to give a glib remark when I saw the expression on his face. It had softened.
"In Hearthome City there is an organization called the Peace Corps. It's a militant agency that is international. If I had to bet, your friend Liam is likely an investigator for them. If you want to help so badly, you should probably try speaking to recruiters there," he informed me with a gentle voice. "You've proven yourself to be an exceptional trainer so far, but I can see it in your eyes. Perhaps you were always meant to tread that path. Now you have even more reason to."
I was at a loss for words, there was no trying to talk me out of it. Joining a military organization? If you had asked me back in my years in college I would have laughed my liberal ass off. But after seeing all the terrible things in the world, if I could put my skills to use that would help both people and pokemon… It would be worth it. No one should have to suffer as I did and might have had I not reliable friends and pokemon.
"It's a lot to consider," I muttered to him.
"Of course, it's a big sacrifice, but you seem like you've made your mind up."
"I haven't yet," I told him, but a voice whispered in the back of my head that I had. I didn't want to be the bystander or the victim, I wanted to be one of the heroes. People weren't going to willingly fight pokemon battles when they could use weapons or subterfuge to their advantage.
The rest of the trek under the mountain was just as tense. My mind was wandering over the possibilities and what I could do with my life. There only seemed so few possible options and one loomed so much greater than the others. Join the Peace Corp.
The decision was made, but my day in Hearthome City was going to enjoyed with my friends before I started signing paperwork and figuring out where I would fit within the Corp. I could see that Arthur was a bit hesitant to support my choice, but he didn't actively try and talk me out of it. There were only the slightest of hints that he didn't think it was a great idea.
He said he'd be working on the line he intended for me originally and if I were released from training I could continue to debut the line. I appreciated the notion, but seeing that I was going to no longer be a pokemon trainer I thought it would be more suitable to give it to someone else. Arthur was obstinate and thought I still represented the female trainer that he had in mind.
Eventually, it was time for me to make my way through the city and to the sleek white building that labeled as the Peace Corp. Inside I was direction to a liaison officer and recruiter. I felt out of place and strange around so many sharply dressed people who wore uniforms. I sat down before being called up.
"Good afternoon, my name is Sergeant Witter, what can I help you with today?"
"Joining or enlisting or whatever you call it," I said albeit nervous.
"Did you have a job in mind?" Witter asked.
"I want to investigate or be on the scene of active sites. I want to be one of the people who fights, gets in the grit, or even goes undercover. I don't know what kind of job that is, but I have skills. I have a degree in photography and I've got pokemon-"
"You have a degree?" the sergeant asked.
I gave a vigorous nod.
"Having a degree puts you in for officer candidacy off the bat. Do you have any student debt?"
Another simple nod.
"We can also help with that…" he clicked away. "If you have an ID I can start inputting your information."
I pulled out both my trainer ID and my normal one.
"Huh," Witter said after a moment. "We already have your chart in our system."
"What do you mean?" I asked, brows furrowed.
"Your skills, chart, pokemon team… We've got it all… Amelia?"
"I did travel here to Sinnoh with an international investigator, perhaps he obtained my information then and has been keeping it updated?" I suggested.
"Yes, a… Oh, dear."
"What is it?"
The sergeant glanced up at me with a long stare as if he were sizing me up. "If you want to join you're going to have to speak with someone who has a higher clearance than I. Your file has been flagged."
"Flagged?"
"One moment, I'll get someone here," he told me before he picked up the phone beside him. "Yes I have a candidate for your program," he moved back to the computer. "File number… 681435." He listened for a few moments longer, nodding his head occasionally. "Yes… Yes… Ok, I will do sir."
Sergeant Witter hung up the phone and then gave me an apologetic look. "You're going to have to go to floor B13 to speak with someone about joining. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do for you on this end." He filled out a slip of paper and then handed it to me. "This will give you the authority to go to that floor. Good luck."
"Thanks?..." I drawled, taking the paper and exchanging glances with Sirius. We left the office and headed for the elevator. We stepped inside and clicked one of the various buttons. The anticipation was intoxicating and when we reached the floor, the calm, clean militaristic air vanished and two men stood outside the elevators in black suits.
"Can we help you?" one asked, glaring down at me.
"I have this," I told them in a small voice, handing them the paper.
The man who took it scrutinized the paper and then handed it back to me. "Down the hall, first door on the left," he told me. "Don't poke around, go straight there. And no funny business with your pokemon."
I gave a furious nod before scurrying down the hall to the door I had been directed to. I knocked, but upon no answer I simply turned the knob and entered.
The office was dimly lit and sitting behind a desk was a man so finely combed and cleaned that I felt my skin prickle with discomfort.
"Miss Amelia Barnheart, please, take a seat," he told me.
I shut the door behind me and was too intimidated to do anything other than requested.
"I'm interested in what I can do for you today. I've been keeping an eye on you, but I hadn't hoped in my wildest dreams that you would actually be interested in joining our ranks."
"I'm sorry…" I started uncomfortably. "Who are you?"
The man gave a smile that could have curdled milk. He reached forward and shifted a plaque that glinted in the light; Michael Rodgers.
"You've already supplied us with documentation of behind the scenes in pokemon contests and I think that your skills could be of further use… if you had the proper training. Unfortunately, due to our interest with you in the past and your recent encounter with a mysterious cult we're now looking into, you're no longer qualified for joining the military sector of the Peace Corp."
"Then what am I qualified for, sir?"
"Please, Michael. We're not military down here," he flashed me another smile. "You are qualified to be a special agent. Your photography skills are actually an asset. Of course, we would teach you more… How to disguise your tech, how to pretend to be someone you are not, how to defend yourself, and how to work with your pokemon to complete practical applications. I do warn you, that if you embark on this training there is no turning back or leaving."
This sounded similar to what I wanted. I would be trained more than the average soldier, I would be one of the elites. However, with this training came with knowledge I could not betray. I wouldn't be able to tell Jack or Arthur and my work could possibly endanger them.
"This is what I want," I insisted finally.
"Wonderful, we have a few computer tests that you will need to complete while we undergo setting up your training. I do warn that it will take months to complete your training."
"As expected," I shrugged, skill didn't come together overnight.
"If you come with me I'll set you up with the programs I need you to work with."
Michael led me into a computer lab and typed in a certain username and password. He directed me to the tests I needed to complete.
One was a competency test, just overall knowledge. The second was more specialized, it was about memorization and recognition. There were faces I had to recall, details I had to pick out from large images of a busy city square and other scenes. I found that despite being complicated, it was among my favorite test. The one after was a critical thinking test in which you answered the prompts by writing. There were prompts of various things such as battle tactics, defusing situations between people, etc.
Once I finished Sirius and I were escorted into a bright white room where we sat for what was possibly hours, alone.
Finally, a woman entered with a file.
She sat across from me and opened the file. Her hair was immaculately pinned and bunned. She wore a fine tailored black suit with a pencil skirt.
"Your test results are in and from out conclusion in the data collected, it seems that you have an eidetic memory, a photographic memory. You've scored perfectly on the second test for super recognizer and recalling small details in busy images. You scored above average on the intelligence test. As for the tactics exam, you showed ingenuity and knowledge, but also recklessness. However, our superiors liked your unpredictability.
"You make a fine candidate. I have brought the paperwork that will start you in your training as well as your payment, since joining us is a full time job."
"And what exactly is my job? No one has exactly specified."
"You will be a special agent, this encompasses a very broad field, but that shall be your title. Where our superiors choose to put you is their choice, but you shall be versed in all of the required training. One of the biggest jobs as a special agent is subterfuge and investigation. You may be deployed on missions for weeks to months at a time or short events for just an evening."
"I suppose it's more of 'you'll figure it out as you go' kind of job, then?"
The woman chuckled. "If that's how you'd like to think of it. Should we begin?"
We started the paperwork, by the time we were finished my vision was growing bleary and my head began to hurt. I could have used dinner, but no one had offered and to be honest I wasn't even certain what time it was since there were no windows.
Once I had signed my soul away they gave me a reservation in a nearby hotel when I retired to. They informed me that they would be in contact in the morning about where they would be sending me for my training.
My orders were underneath my door in the morning. I was to report to the local airport and catch a flight to the island just northeast of Sinnoh. I was supposed to be training somewhere around Stark Mountain, whatever that meant.
The training began just as soon as I landed. It started with military training and I was subjected to a test of my mental strength. Drill Sergeant Mason made certain that she made my life a living hell. Whether it be by pushups or running a mile, she always seemed to have something ready for me. During this time I learned the ranks of the military and the customs. I got few hours of sleep along with Sirius, my partner. My other pokemon were taken for the first weeks of my training and both of us had to rely on each other.
Eventually Drill Sergeant Mason was replaced by Master Sergeant Amsterdam. He started working battle drills and pokemon co-op. I had to learn how to work alongside of all of my pokemon now, not just Sirius. I had to know their strengths and weaknesses and what they each could do for me in the wild or in a battle scenario. He wasn't as hard on me mentally as the drill sergeant had been, but my body gave out a few times despite the weeks of training prior. In those cases, it was up to the conditioning my pokemon had to make up for what I couldn't supply.
Amsterdam also introduced hand to hand combat and thinking like the enemy. Despite how hard he worked my body, I found that he was among one of my favorite trainers because of how strong he was and unified he was with his pokemon. I was sad to see him go to be replaced with yet another trainer.
I was surprised to meet a ranger as my next mentor. Ranger Sanchez taught me about the wilderness, different herbs and how to read a map and navigate. We went over survival tactics and how to make tools and shelters from things that could be found out in the woods. Yet again, working with my pokemon in these primal conditions was key. It seemed that an agent's best tool and partner was their pokemon. Without them, we could fight, but we were hindered.
A few trainers came and went such as a doctor, a tactician, and a psychologist.
It was the trainers who used a combination of the skills these people had that made life more difficult for the weeks they were around.
My final trainer was Commander Florina. She was an agent and demanded the most of me, recapping on everything. She expected perfection from me and when I did not present it there was punishment to come with it. It seemed as if I would never catch up to her, whether it be running, fighting, or shooting. Florina was always ahead of me and while I knew it was probably just because of her superior experience, it was aggravating as hell.
She briefed me in handling secret information and warned me that people would even try and use my pokemon as a means of torturing me into betraying knowledge. Out of everything I had been through, the hardest wasn't the physical aspect. I could always grow stronger over time. It was the thought that someone would hurt my pokemon to get to me. I wouldn't allow it, I couldn't afford to.
There was so much you could lose that was worse than death. I had never even considered half of it until now.
Did I think the world was more terrible now after all of my training and what I had learned? No, I knew that there were always secrets hidden within the world that were not kind. Now I could deal with it rather than be a bystander. But the whole purpose of this training also was to know my limitations and what I could accomplish on my own. I was not immortal or perfect and there were battles that my pokemon and I could not win. There were people who were trained better than I for striking enemies, I was a data collector, disengaging at every possible moment only left to fight when I had to. Even then, more than a single opponent would be a challenge for me. My photography skills became a focus and the main tool for collection would be normal cameras and the new tech they had outfitted me with.
Every now and again my mind would linger on my friends and what they were up to. Had Jack finished gaining all of his badges for Sinnoh? Had Arthur decided on using another woman for his fashion line? How were they doing?
Author Note: Thank you all so much for reading this far. I realize that this is a huge shift, but to me there were really only two ways this story could go and I felt as if the plot would be more interesting if we chose to follow the dynamic line with the cult. Of course, being just a pokemon trainer would have presented many issues and thus I chose this route, which wasn't a light decision. However, do not worry because we certainly have not seen the last of Jack or Arthur or less. They'll certainly be around just as much as before.