"Hey!" Daniel and Ninetales watched as the ranger stopped just before them, and he was panting. "Are you good, my guy?" Daniel asked, checking in on the ranger. It only took the newcomer a couple seconds to catch his breath. "I won't blame you for not seeing the news, but we gotta shut down the camp," the ranger said. "As in this one specifically, or all of them?" Daniel asked. "Everywhere's closing down their national parks, campsites, everything that has wildlife in it…" The ranger gestured a thumb down the road. "I was coming out here to find campers and escort them to the campsite entrance. There's some weird creatures popping up, with some people saying they look like pokemon…" The ranger stopped when he looked at Ninetales.
"In fact, that looks like one of the things that showed up out of nowhere…" The ranger took note of the nine tails and the red eyes. He quickly drew out his dart gun. "What the hell are you doing with one of those things? You know it can very easily maul you right?" Daniel looked down to see Ninetales hide behind his legs. The fox clearly didn't know what was going on, but didn't like what was going on either. "Oh, you mean Nineales," Daniel folded his arms. "Listen man, Ninetales isn't so bad. So far, all he's done is sleep in my lap and eat a couple sandwiches," the boy placed a hand on his Pokemon. "Ninetales?" The fox looked up at his trainer with uncertain eyes. The ranger didn't seem convinced by Daniel's words. "Ninetales c'mere," Daniel patted the side of his legs, beckoning the fox to stand beside him.
Ninetales obliged, not without taking Daniel's hand in his mouth, and simply holding it. As gently as a dog handling a baby, Ninetales gently maneuvered the limp hand onto his head, and let out a bark. Daniel looked at the ranger. "If Ninetales wanted to, he coulda ate my hand and he didn't," Daniel said. Ninetales happily leaned into his trainer's hand as it scratched his head. "Look man, I'd like to let you both go, I really would, but that thing is dangerous," the ranger said. "Dogs are dangerous but we keep them as pets," Daniel argued. The ranger sighed before lowering his dart gun. "If you end up in jail for owning one of those things then it's not my problem," the ranger jumped when he noticed how quickly Ninetales had gotten close to him.
"Ninetales," the fox didn't look too threatening. Without warning, Ninetales nudged the ranger's hand, and licked it. "Ninetales!"
What the fox knew now, was that he had to make a good impression, otherwise people will think that all he does is burn things. His human smiled as the ranger petted his Pokemon. "See? Not too shabby," the ranger nodded. "Let me just escort you and your dog to the lodge. Then I'll let you guys go," the ranger said, pretending like he hadn't just petted an alien fox.
While the three walked along, a big bear came rushing out of the treeline. It wasn't an Ursurang, it was just a normal bear. "Shit!" The ranger pulled out his dart gun and got ready to shoot. Ninetales stepped forward and immediately started staring down the bear. Before anybody could react, the bear tried running at Daniel, who completely ignored Ninetales. With the grace of a dancer, Ninetales jumped on top of the bear and used his telekinesis to hold the thing in place. "Nine!" Within minutes, the bear was downed, but it wasn't dead. In fact, it was fast asleep, like it hadn't just tried to kill somebody. Ninetales sat in front of the unconscious bear, his tails fanned behind him, with a confident little smile on his face. "God damn," Daniel approached, before being stopped by the ranger. "I get that that thing won't hurt you, but a sleeping bear's still dangerous," he stood up and approached the bear.
"I've got an unconscious bear at 10 west and 10 south from base here. I'm going to need somebody to move him off the path later," the ranger said into his radio. Ninetales got up, while the ranger made extra checks to make sure it wasn't rabid, and sat in front of Daniel. "Nine!" He barked. "You got pretty lucky," the ranger said. "If that creature hadn't met you, you'd be bear food right now," he added. "I'm well aware," Daniel patted Ninetales on the head. "Thanks buddy," the boy said. He wouldn't have expected his Pokemon to be so willing to take on a bear, given how hard he was on himself for not being able to do a trick. Ninetales tilted his head, weren't pokemon only supposed to do tricks and protect their trainers? Why would Daniel be thanking him for something that would've been common practice?
Daniel pulled his fox into a big hug, showering the fox with love. Ninetales almost pulled back immediately at the sudden hug, but stopped himself when he figured out what it was. "Hey, I get you two are best friends, but there's a sleeping bear, and I'm not going to wait for it to wale up," the ranger said. Daniel and Ninetales looked at each other for a second, and separated. They knew they should probably keep following the park ranger. "So, you mind telling me how you managed to tame that thing?" The ranger asked, hoping to fill in the silence. "You mean Ninetales?" The boy asked. "No, I mean the bear," the ranger said sarcastically. Daniel shrugged. "I didn't really do anything to 'tame' Ninetales. He just stuck his head into my tent and asked for a sandwich," Daniel said.
"So it knows how to open zippers?" The ranger said. Ninetales telekinetically unzipped Daniel's backpack, and pulled a sandwich out of it. He quickly zipped the bag back up, Ninetales grinned as his trainer quickly caught on. "Oh yeah, he had telekinesis!" Daniel laughed as the poor park ranger just scratched his head. Ninetales took a bite of his stolen food, which was seemingly floating before him. "Nine!" The fox barked. "What the fuck is this thing…?" The ranger scratched his head. "It's a Ninetales, or a fire breathing, nine tailed, psychic fox," Daniel joked. He then shot a glare at Ninetales. "If you wanted food you could've asked," he said. Ninetales just gave him a smug look, before rubbing up against his human. "And… you just decided it would be fine to keep it, like it's some kind of stray dog," the ranger sighed.
The three of them stopped once they reached camp. "Well, you two best stay out of trouble," the ranger waved. Without a word, the ranger walked back into the lodge, while Daniel led his Pokemon to his car. The boy opened his trunk and put his backpack inside. He walked over to the passenger side and beckoned Ninetales to get inside. "Alright…" Daniel reached in the glove box and grabbed his smartphone. He then strapped his fox into the chair with the seatbelt. Ninetales kept his eyes on his trainer as he walked around the other side to the drivers side. Daniel buckled himself in and checked his phone. He quickly pulled up a news site and stared at the screen for a while.
Ninetales pawed at his human, trying to get some attention. Daniel looked up from his phone and patted him. "Looks like a lot of Pokemon are showing up around the world," Daniel angled the phone screen towards Ninetales. It didn't look too odd, just a Mightyena holding some weird thing Ninetales didn't recognize, but almost looked like a Wooloo, but less round. "Creatures resembling monsters from the Pokemon games are wreaking havoc" as the header read. Ninetales tilted his head. Pokemon Games? That sounded odd to him. Daniel then quickly read the rest of the article. "The Pokemon Company claims to have nothing to do with this phenomenon," Daniel read. "Looks like Pokemon are a thing now," he said. Daniel placed his phone in one of the cup holders and got the car started.
Ninetales simply sat and stared out the window while his human focused on the road. Even with his lack of experience with humans, he knew messing with them while they were driving usually never ended well. As the two sat in silence, Ninetales caught sight of what looked like a Ponyta, who was eating grass under the watch of a bunch of Rapidash. Daniel quickly hit the breaks and made Ninetales jerk in his seat. "Ninetales!" The fox yelled, before looking at the road in front of him. A little, snow white Vulpix was standing in the road, just staring into the vehicle. Ninetales unbuckled his seat belt and got the car door open. Every instinct told him to simply retrieve the Vulpix.
"Ninetales!" Daniel tried to get out of his car, but by the time he got his seatbelt off, Ninetales walked back into the car. Vulpix was hanging from a piece of loose skin, in his mouth, similarly to a cat carrying its young. The little fox was alive and well, but seemed terrified of Daniel. Ninetales managed to somehow open a car door despite likely never being in a car… Ninetales was definitely quicker at picking up on things than he was. Daniel sighed, and drove his car off to the side of the road to stay out of the way of possible oncoming traffic. "Ninetales, why the fuck did you grab that Vulpix?" The fox didn't answer, as he was too busy reworking the seatbelt around his body, while keeping Vulpix from slipping out of his grasp.
Ninetales finally got the seat belt buckled, and then looked at Daniel. "Ninetales, give me that Vulpix," the fox obliged. "I don't even know if I can properly take care of you, or keep you and a Vulpix properly…" Daniel got ready to open the door, but first decided to get a good look at Vulpix. He had heard about Gamefreak messing around with "Regional Variants" so he assumed this was likely a product of that. Vulpix just resembles a small, white fox with six tails, and a tuft of fur in between the ears. Daniel was ready to make the little fox leave, but sighed. The look on Vulpix's face was a look of terror, it didn't know what would happen, and was likely scared to death.
"Hey buddy," Daniel rubbed the poor fox's back. Ninetales looked at him with pleading eyes, and Vulpix was still just scared to death. "Hey Vulpix, sorry about almost running you over," Daniel held the fox close to him, and then looked at Ninetales. "You're lucky that I'd feel bad about leaving a Pokemon out on the road," the boy said. Ninetales barked in glee as Daniel patted Vulpix's head. The golden fox quickly took the Alolan Vulpix from his human, and retreated to the back of the car. He slipped right out of his seat belt too.
Ninetales laid himself and Vulpix on the floor. "Hello!" The fox greeted his new buddy. "Hi," Vulpix started to relax when he realized Ninetales wasn't going to hurt him. "My trainer didn't mean to nearly kill you," the Ninetales said. "I know… I'm just not over almost getting hit by a car," Vulpix laid into Ninetales and sighed. "So you got swept up into that weird light too?" Ninetales asked. Vulpix nodded. "Now I see Vulpix with only one tail running away from me, I don't get why since we usually live in packs," Vulpix said. "Trust me, this place is just as strange to me as it is to you. For now, let's just stick with this human. He's not too shabby. I think you'll get to like him sooner or later," Ninetales said. Vulpix nodded as he went to sleep.
Daniel stopped when he reached a 7-Eleven and pulled in. He figured might as well see if Vulpix and Ninetales can eat a hotdog. Daniel turned off the car and stepped out.