"Well done Piplup!" I heard a girl exclaim, as I reached the Pokemon Center's training grounds. "Now try to put more power into your Peck!"
There I found a girl about my age with black hair and a pink dress, training with her pokemon. She had a Buneary, Oddish, and Aipom by her side as her Piplup demonstrated the beauty of his beak. Piplup's beak grew in size as he put more power into his attack.
She's clearly a coordinator, I thought, pleased.
As I was about to approach, her Aipom suddenly took a defensive position her tail raised and ready to attack. Glameow jumped in front of me to defend me. But I did not even notice that, I was too deep in thought. That Aipom was different from the rest of her team. She is much more aware of her surroundings, unlike the rest of the team and their trainer that were too engrossed by the training, she noticed me approaching and rapidly took a practiced defensive position.
Was the Aipom part of the girls' team? She was too battle-ready for having been trained by a coordinator. I mussed to myself.
"Ah! Hi!" The girl's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. She had finally noticed me and turned around to greet me with a beaming smile. I blushed slightly, she's very pretty. "Do you want to use the training ground too?" She asked, crouching down to pat the Aipom- the monkey pokemon finally relaxing. "Do you mind sharing?"
"N-no. We can divide it into two," I answered. "Are you entering the Contest? I'm Zoey Nozomi, by the way."
"My name is Dawn Berlitz. Yes! It will be my… our first Contest." She rapidly corrected herself, smiling at her pokemon who smiled back. There was a familiarity around them that did not speak about a newbie trainer, but she clearly was one- where did it come from? And from where have I heard the last name Berlitz before? "Are you entering as well?"
"Yes, I am. It will be my third Contest," I answered.
"Do you have a ribbon already?" She asked, her eyes shining with excitement.
"Yeah, I do." I chuckled, showing her my ribbon case- she's so cute!
"That's so cool!" she exclaimed, her pokemon cooing in admiration as well.
All except for Aipom. She did not look impressed by it. She was clearly not a newly caught pokemon.
"Is this your team?" I asked, very curious about the origin of the monkey pokemon.
"Yes!" She said, clearly proud. "This is my starter Piplup!"
"Pip-Piplup!" He exclaimed, puffing his chest in pride.
I heard Glameow snickering and I barely could hold on to my own laughter. They are all so adorable!
So, I just said: "Nice to meet you Piplup."
"This is Buneary, the first pokemon I caught." She continued, rubbing the bunny pokemon's head. "This one is Oddish, she decided to join us a couple of days ago."
"Nice to meet you," I smiled at the young pokemon, who smiled back.
"This one is the newest member Aipom," she simply said, sharing a secret smile with the monkey pokemon.
"Well, these are my oldest partner and starter Glameow and my mischievous Misdreavus." I presented, laughing when Misdreavus decided to jump out of my shadow and scare Dawn and her team. Once more it was Aipom the one who rapidly jumped and attacked, but as she's a Normal Type none of them got hurt. "Not used to Ghost Pokemon?" I asked seeing the reaction.
"Nah, Ash has a Ghost Type but Honedge is quite the calm pokemon with a nobility aura around her." She answered, holding Aipom back with a hug. "Sorry about her, she used to be part of Ash's team and she's used to jumping into a fight at any given moment."
"Gym trainer?" I asked trying to hide my disdain, not liking the idea of a coordinator being so closed to a gym trainer. We shouldn't mix, we each should stay at our respective sides.
"Yes, but she's mostly sensitive because Ash is also an Ace Ranger." She answered, taking me by surprise.
A Ranger's pokemon was given to a coordinator? It did calm me down a little bit. I could not be angry at a Ranger, especially an Ace one, who is constantly risking his life for pokemon and to keep the rest of us safe. No wonder Aipom is so high strung, she is used to being constantly on the lookout for danger.
"May I ask how a Ranger's pokemon ended up with a coordinator?" I inquired.
"Ash is my mentor and traveling partner!" She replied, happily. "All his pokemon love w good fight but Aipom seemed to prefer performances, so he gave her to me."
"A gym trainer is your mentor?" I asked with disdain, this time not bothering to hide it.
"Oh, no. Don't tell me you are one of those." She sighed, clearly disappointed. I stepped back as if had slapped me, at her clearly frustrated expression. "Look, Ash is teaching me how to travel, how to catch pokemon, about Pokemon Type and their advantages, about abilities… he is teaching me the bases of being a trainer. Which both gym trainers and coordinators need. Not how to be a coordinator. If anything, I hoped he would teach me more!" She huffed. "Even if he did, I just don't understand what's the issue with it! Why does this rivalry cause so much resentment? Gym trainers can be coordinators too, or are you saying Wallace should stick to battles just because he is a Gym Leader?"
I looked at her shocked but could not say anything in return. She was right, why do we make such a big issue about this rivalry? Wallace is a Gym Leader and a Top Coordinator that even has a Cup on his name here in Sinnoh. Why do I degrade gym trainers when that's what I hate about them when the roles are reversed?
"I'm sorry," I finally said. "You are right… it's just that most gym trainers think of themselves as stronger and better than us. It makes me really mad" I confessed, smiling to my pokemon- who got closer to comfort me "It became a simple annoyance but turned into an unhealthy rivalry."
"I think I understand," she replied, I sighed relieved when her smile returned. "Ash tried to explain it to me, why some coordinators wouldn't be fine with him being my mentor. I thought he was exaggerating, but it seems that he was right… also, they are stronger." I looked at her shocked. "Don't get me wrong! Being a coordinator is as good as being a gym trainer, we work as hard if not more to show the best sides of our pokemon. We need to think about our attacks and try to take advantage of our opponents' attacks but make them look good at the same time. It's hard… Ash himself told me about how much work coordinators put not only on their appeals but fighting. He confessed that it was something he could never manage." She continued.
Her words were making me start to like that Ace Ranger. At least, he understood the work and effort our teams put in our performances.
"Then what do you mean by, 'they are stronger'?" I asked her confused.
"Because they are," she simply replied. "I don't mean that simply because of Ash, he is an Ace Ranger after all." I nodded, agreeing with her. Ace Trainers, especially, Rangers are some of the strongest trainers out there, they gained their ranks somehow. "The issue is that we focus more on control and appeal. Gym trainers don't care much about that, they focus more on strength. Even those who prefer speed like Ash, have many pokemon that can take out any coordinator's team on their own… even when attacked by all six of them." I blinked at her surprised. "They strive to defeat the Elite Four, to become a Champion… can you really say you can match them on that? That you are or even want, to be that strong? Unless you are both a gym trainer and coordinator, like Wallace, you can't say you can match them on strength." I looked away, not wanting to face the truth she had laid down in front of me. "But, we can defeat them on control. On being too awesome! And show them what coordinators are made off!"
I looked at her and saw her eyes shining with passion. Not the unhealthy hate I felt… used to feel, but a glow showing off her desire to become better and show everyone what she was made of.
"Then let's show them all how great we are!" I held out my hand for her.
"Agreed!" She answered, shaking back my hand.
We then decided to train together until our pokemon could no longer continue. It was incredible. I just have never trained with someone else and it was so much fun. Being with Dawn is too much fun…
However, things did go south again when we re-entered the Pokemon Center. The place was filled with Rangers and the nurses had their hands full going from one Ranger to the other. Rapidly Dawn's face lost all of its colors.
She rushed towards the front desk and desperately tried to get a nurse's attention. I followed her after a minute of shock. The bandages and blood of some of the Rangers had me stunned. Normally you would see the pokemon hurt… not the trainer.
"Miss! Miss! Anyone, please! Is Ash Ketchum here? Is he hurt?!" Hearing Dawn shout like that really hit me, this was happening. It was no T.V drama or news, my friend's friend might be hurt in duty…
"Dawn," a female Ranger called out from our left. "Is that you?"
"Sarah?! Oh, Arceus! Are you ok?" Dawn asked her worriedly.
The blonde Ranger had bandages wrapped tightly around her right arm, her Monferno staying very close to her.
"I am ok. Just a little burnt from the fire," she assured her kindly. "You're looking for Ace Ranger Ketchum, right? He is ok, he simply dislocated his shoulder. But his Charizard was hurt pretty bad, he needed surgery. Come with me, I'll take you in. Your friend can come as well."
"Thank you," Dawn sighed, tension bleeding out. She then turned to me with a hopeful look in her eyes, and I knew I had to go with her. "Fire? Ash told me he simply had to give out his report to the Head Ranger. What happened?"
"I would normally say it's confidential, but the reporters got a hold of the news and it's everywhere." Sarah sighed. "Ace Ranger Ketchum was supposed to come to give out his report about the Onix issue and corroborate about the Ariados incident… not to mention check in about one of the secret missions he came to Sinnoh for." I looked at the Ranger stunned that she would reveal something like that. I felt like I should not be hearing this. "But then a call came in from one of Ace Ranger Ketchum's contacts, Hunter J had been spotted flying to Jubilifie City and she was planning to poach a pack of Luxray."
"Hunter J?!" I asked her shocked.
The most feared pokemon hunter in Sinnoh had been so close?! I screamed in my head, my hands going to Glameow and Misdreavus Poke Ball.
"Yes, her." Sarah sighed. "Hunter J was one of the missions Ace Ranger Ketchum had been assigned."
Who was this guy? And how good was he for Sinnoh to assigned him such a mission? I thought, not being able to process all of this information. It's something an Elite Four should have been handling. Is Dawn really safe traveling with such a trainer?
"Was this what Josh had wanted to say last time we met?" Dawn asked.
"No… that was another mission," Sarah replied, secretively. "When this tip came, we just knew we had to take it. Hunter J is well known for vanishing and finding her again would have proven close to impossible. So, we rapidly gathered a team under Ace Ranger Ketchum's command and took off. The mission itself went smoothly, the Healing Team took care of pokemon so well that Nurse Joy and her team had almost nothing to do other than a checkup. And the Rangers hurt were mostly in the Rescue Team, we had to go through falling trees and fires to get the wild pokemon out of the battle zone."
"That doesn't explain how Ash got hurt or why his Charizard is in surgery?" Dawn asked, confused- then again, so was I.
"Ace Ranger Ketchum's duty was for his pokemon to lead the teams and for him to apprehend Hunter J. He fulfilled both spectacularly, but Hunter J tried to escape by blowing a hole into her airship." We both gasped at the Ranger's words. "Ace Ranger Ketchum managed to still apprehend her… but he fell off the hole. He was rapidly saved by his Feraligatr!" She added rapidly when she noticed Dawn was close to tears. "He is truly fine Dawn, just a nasty dislocated shoulder," she tried to reassure her.
"One that hurts like a Tauros' stampede," a dry but amused voice said from in front of us.
There stood a boy a few years older than us, he had a Pikachu and Jolteon by his side and a sword-like pokemon hanging off his belt. He was wearing his Ranger's outfit and he was quite handsome with a lean body, black hair, and brown-reddish eyes. What really caught my attention was his arm…
"Ash!" Dawn exclaimed and it looked like she was about to rush towards him when suddenly a Primeape and Espeon appeared in front of him. The quick answer and defensive practiced stance, just like Aipom had reacted. He did train the monkey pokemon. "Em…"
"Calm down, she is a friend," Ash chuckled. "Sorry, after the mission everyone's quite tense."
"What about the rest of your team?" Sarah asked.
"Feraligatr and Pidgeot are in their Poke Balls, they are too big to move inside." He answered. "Especially with everyone going from one place to the other. Sceptile is with Meganium and… we are all waiting for Charizard to wake up," he looked sadly through the mirror on his right.
And there laid a battered and bandaged Charizard. You can see he was a powerful pokemon even when unconscious.
"H-how is he?" Dawn asked him softly.
"Luckily no organ was damaged, but he did lose a lot of blood," Ash answered, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Nurse Joy got to him on time and he'll make a full recovery. Let's just hope he follows her instructions and not fight for a month, or his stitches will rip." That got a laugh out of all his pokemon. "Have you heard of Josh?"
"Yeah, Head Ranger, and he met up with Lucian and Champion Cynthia. Hunter J is being safely transferred to a holding facility and without her Salamence there's no way she'll be able to escape." Sarah's response had us all sighing in relief. "What happened to Meganium? She was perfectly fine the last time I saw her."
"Oh, she is. She just overworked herself and my pokemon seem not to tell me a thing!" He huffed. "She's pregnant. Hence why Sceptile is with her and not with us."
"Oh, my," Sarah said, looking rattled for the first time since I met her.
"Congratulations Ash!" Dawn exclaimed, beaming with happiness.
"Congratulation Ace Ranger Ketchum," I finally spoke up, feeling that this event should be celebrated.
"Thank you…" he replied.
"Zoey Nozomi," I informed him. "I'm a coordinator friend of Dawn's."
"Look at you, already making coordinator friends. They grow up so fast." Ash hummed, eyes glittering with mischief, when Dawn started shouting at him. They brought out a smile on everyone's faces, they acted just like siblings. "Nice to meet you."
I looked at this Ranger, this gym trainer, who had risked his life to catch the poacher that had all of Sinnoh terrorized for over a decade and all my anger and resentment simply vanished.
So, I smiled back and sincerely said: "It's nice to meet you too."