Pokemon: Warpath

I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.

#11: The Johto Rangers

Sorry about the last one. Worked on it in several different times with long spaces in between updates. Plus, just wanted to get to here.

I was sitting in my throne, overlooking what I liked to call the Parade Ground. What can I say, even with the shitty state of the world, men just like soldiering stuff. After we bailed from Cherrygrove, we scuttled through the woods until we hit a mountain. There we camped at the foot of range of small hills. I don't want to go into the details, but we managed to secure the assistance of a pack of ground type pokemon led by a released Excadrill. With their help, we hollowed out one of the hills and built our own little fortress inside. It's pretty amazing, watching the Excadrill, it could cut through solid rock like it was nothing. It carved me this seat, and we had a living arrangement worked out well. We protect them from outside influence and grow enough food for both of us; they build us caves and allow us to live in their mountains.

Our compound had this big room, with a cafeteria, an open air garden near the top of the mountain, but still underground, male and female dormitory (although mixing was incouraged, officers quarters (six total rooms, with one for me, Vinn, and Snow, as were all that was needed with a group this small,) and we had even managed to install some basic plumbing. Oh, and a holding area with two cells, both with crude barred doors. The entrance was in the back of a cave that a particularly surly Venasuar made it's home in, so we did not have to worry about accidently being discovered. I had managed to catch and gain the friendship of a Chickorita pretty quickly, so I am kind of stoked about that. We had recruited about 2 dozen members, and I had even gotten ratification to for a sister branch of the Rangers here in Johto. I choose the badge to represent the region, with a Meganium, Feraligator, and Typhlosion. We finally got a semi permanent lighting grid installed just a few days prior, when one of the prize teams managed to lift an electric generator that could be recharged by electric types. I had Jolteon blast it for about 15 minutes, and we had power for around six hours. Rotating a team of 4, we could charge it for up to 24 hours at a time.

So, to brag a bit, in just three months we have created an efficient, hidden, completely secure, self sufficient Ranger stronghold with electricity and enough pluming for toiletry and, if you had a fire type, a hot shower.

I breathed the smell of the dark earth deep soil and sighed contentedly.

"I know what you're thinking, Vinn." He looked up from the tablet he was holding, the data flowing over it lighting his… effeminate face from below. He arched an eyebrow. "And I have to say that I am sorry, but it's just not going to work between us. I know how bad you want me, but I just can see it, I'm going to be stuck liking the broads, it seems."

"Ass." He said, his tone bitchy, but playfully so. "Better get your head out of your ass, Snow just got back with the next batch.

"Aw…" I said, sighing sadly, "but it's so warm up there. Oh well, by your leave, sir. And send the little wench up here; I want her read on them." He stood of the padded chair we had lifted from… somewhere. With prize teams going out at every opportunity due to the bonuses offered for certain high desirability items, like mattresses and insulated wiring, it was hard to remember where a lot of it came from. Europa, laying in a patch of carpeting I had tore up from some house that was clearly occupied by a prominent Perish Guard Officer, looked up from her post in the recessed space directly behind my chair. I killed a majority of the lights, leaving the ones above me and pointed outward on, so that my raised section of room was dark to anyone down bellow. I returned to the chair and waited. The group would come in near the opposite wall, on the left, form the labyrinth and entrance. The benefit of having allied with a pack of wild diglett is that they dig for the sheer joy of it, and changed the maze of passages daily. One was always on hand to lead a ranger through, though. Across the room from this hall was the hall that led to the commissary and dormitories, while one on the same wall but opening on the raised floor behind the line of my chair led to the cells and out rooms.

A minute later, Snow entered, walked briskly up, hopped over the step, grabbed the ass pad from the chair, placed it on the flat armrest on the right side of my chair, and settled herself in that perch. He drew her right leg up and laid the left one across my lap.

"Comfy?" I asked, trying to lace my voice with disdain. Funny note. You can't bluff against an Empath. They can see right through it, and Snow didn't even need to read body cues, she could literally feel the emotions coming from others.

"Quite." She said in a dead monotone. Whether it was a response to the increased sensitivity to emotion, or a byproduct of her time spent a captive, Snow showed almost no emotion herself. She cleaned up well, but was merely pretty, except in the exceptionally rare times when a smile lit her face. The she was straight beautiful. She did have a peculiarity, as she had a scar, shaped like a giant upside down question mark, starting the hook between her shoulder blades, curving all the way around her side, and ending in a straight line, her navel looking like the point at the base. She was a capable fighter, on par with that bi… ahem. On par with Catherine Chambers, in my opinion, with the added benefit of being able to read the opponent.

Once this haven had been made so that I could, with the help of the wild pokemon, secure it, I turned both Vinn and Snow loose, paying them for their time spent (stolen money, of course) and releasing any obligations they had to me. I gave them the option of leaving, or joining me, voluntarily and as equals, in founding the Johto chapter of the Rangers. Both agreed, and we formed it. They forced me to retain the role of Commandant, even though I tried to ditch the responsibility. Vinn, who really is the perfect secretary, handles most things involving supplies, watches, assignments, that administrative crap. Snow is officially my chief advisor, and by that I mean that anything I do has to go by her before it is enacted, and that I don't make a decision without her. It works well so far, and Vinn only tried to harm me once, but in his defense, I did eat all of his beef jerky. It's like crack to him.

Vinn entered, speaking, and a line of about ten people entered followed by another two of my people, crossbows drawn, but aim relaxed. All ten of the people being led were linked together with a light rope attached to the waist of their pants, and had a black cloth bag over their heads. We had no great fear of being made, but it never did ant harm to err on the side of caution. Vinn stood with his back to me, and facing the line of people. Behind me, Europa made a snuffling sound, and then began to sniff in deep, searching breaths.

"Remove the bags, please." The two men raised their bows and covered the people as they reached up, pulled loose the draw string, and removed their coverings. Europa growled a deep, threatening note that piqued my interest. Snow gave me a raised eyebrow, for while she did not understand the sound for what it was like I did, she could catch the feeling of menace she was feeling.

Let me digress here for a minute. No one, not even the guy who invented them, truly understands how and why a pokeball works. I mean, theory's have been proposed, and one that seems to make sense is that the pokemon are enveloped in an packet of energy and stored in a different dimensional plane, and that the ball itself just works as kind of a gate. But something that no one can even begin to guess at, is why this same pokemon is not completely unaware of it surroundings while encased. A pokemon, somehow, is able to know what is going on around it while it is inside. This is proved by how during a battle, it comes out fully ready to fight, or when you are just letting it out because you want to see it, it is calm and tame.

Europa's growl rose. Not in volume or pitch, but in height. She had stood up, and a feew seconds later her head appeared out of the gloom by Snows head, and as her eyes moved around the room, she began to hiss. I was still looking at her quizzically, when Snow moved in her liquid speed drawing and aiming small, hand sized bow and aiming it at the left end of the line.

"What's with you women today?" I asked. Snow did not look down, but answered. While Europa's head was in the light, we were still bathed in shadows, no more that a blob to those below.

"While all of those below showed a general increase in nervousness, but the lady on the left showed full alarm, mixed with recognition and shame." I looked over at this person, and then Snow's head snapped to look at me.

"What is it?" She asked, as a cold rage had ignited inside me at the sight of this woman. It was Catherine. Europa's hiss grew louder, more reptilian.

"Give me the files."

"Who is this? Why do you and Europa react so strongly?"

"Give me, the files."

"I don't have them." Vinn continued giving his speech while this was going on, telling the newcomers what they were in for, that a ranger must be able to rely on his or her own skill, that the days of on relying on the strength of their partner pokemon to do everything were over. Europa's hissing was audible, but our conversation was not.

"Damn it Snow." I pulled, with effort, away form the rage, and focused on calming my heart rate. "I ought to trade you in for a dog, and then shoot the dog. Why don't you have the files?"

"Because I want you to answer me." I saw something dart through her eyes, but it was to small and fast for me to guess at what it was. "that surge of feeling you just had was isentical to the one she," she hooked her thumb at Europa, who was rooted to the spot only because I had not released her to butcher the offending presence, "is feeling right now. I have never seen that before. Only difference is that hers is a magnitude stronger than yours was."

"That is because she does not have the constraints of a rationalizing mind with which to filter and dilute her emotions and motivations." I sighed, back under control, and scratched with my free hand. "That woman down there, is one Catherine Elizabeth Chambers, and if I were to take my guess, is a… oh, lets just say intelligence agent for the Perish Guard, her assignment most likely to infiltrate and disseminate information on our illicit activities." She gave a dry chuckle, but her body stiffened slightly.

"Yeah, and how could you possibly have worked that out." I sighed again.

"Remember when we met?" All trace of joviality, what litte there was, anyway, wiped instantly, and she nodded somberly. Truth is, I think she has a bit of the Nightingale syndrome going for me, so I never made a move. I will not have a woman for anything less that her wanting me legitimately. My self-respect won't stand for it otherwise. "That's the butch that put me there, in order to get back into the Guards good books." She stiffened more.

"Can you prove it's her?"

"Yeah, she's got a Feraligator, named Rugen, because it's got six fingers on it's right hand."

"Vinn!" She called sharply, and he broke of in mid sentence and stepped back to us. She whispered something in his ear and he nodded and returned to his place in front of those arrayed.

"You, on the end." He pointed at Casey.

"Yes?" He voice was worried, but not shakey.

"Do you have a pokemon partner?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"A male Feraligator."

"Does he have a special name?"

"Yes, I call him Rugen."

"Pray tell, why?"

"Because he has six fingers on his right hand."

"Let me have her." It was a command, rather that a question, and Snow sta rigidly, eyes locked on Casey. I thought about it.

"Ok, I think I could enjoy that."

"Oh," There was a note of relish in her voice, "I am going to gut that bitch like a Magikarp." She jumped up and drew her knife while still in the air.

"No." it was my bemusement that paused her, rather than the word. "Non leathal only. I want to simply beat her down. We'll write it off as a initiation test, let her in, then see what we can get out of her. Hit the lights. Vinn!" He sighed and came back up.

"We are gonna have a little contest of skill. Snow is going to be fighting miss Chambers down there.

"You mean Snow is going to kill Miss Chambers down there, don't you?" I clapped him on the shoulder.

"Nope, non-leathal. Although I would not place bets on it. Grabe a pair of rubber batons, and fetch me this groups files." The house lights came up and showed me, shaking my head and sighing, Europa hissing and, don't ask me how, bristling. Casey looked up, saw me, and I didn't need Snow to tell me she realized she was in deep shit.

End Eight

Making it a two parter because… I can?