Chapter 15: Exeter Forest

In hindsight, trusting a trainer who very clearly was not too fond of me or my family to guide me in the right direction may not have been the smartest move. However, between being confronted by overdramatic teenagers at Celmont Motel and being randomly attacked by wild Unfezants on a bus toward Wintervale, I had reached my limit with taking my time getting to where I needed to go. I just wanted to know the fastest direct route from Celmont Motel to Wintervale City, and Jacob happened to know just that information.

Rather than going down the sloping U-shaped road that was Routes 15 through 5 by way of the Greyhoundoom bus which had to arch downward in order to go around the vast ocean of dense woods that was Exeter Forest, Jacob informed me that just cutting directly through Exeter Forest was a far more direct route, with going straight from one of the U-shaped road to the other rather than going all the way around and up again. Exeter Forest was apparently twice the size of the Gord Woods, and I don't think I had explored even half of that mess. Not only was Exeter bigger, but the pokemon that thrived there were far more diverse and naturally stronger and more resilient than the bug 'mons back at the Gord since the living climate of the Exeter was much harsher.

Jacob and Mikey (begrudgingly) led me from the parking lot of the motel, a quick jog passed the hauntingly empty Route 15, and after a few short minutes Jacob pointed out an opening in the forest that I had not noticed when first passing.

With only the instructions of following the opening into the woods, I returned half the cash back to the brothers for upholding their end of the bargain, and did as instructed, following along the path that would save me so much time getting to Wintervale and taking in my surroundings.

It was nighttime, very dark, and so I used my pokedex which had a built-in flashlight to light up the path ahead of me as I walked. There were some interesting sights as I ventured, such as a starved-looking Murkrow perched on a tree branch, sharing a meal with a squat Vullaby, both of them digging into a dead Weedle, both of them pecking wildly at its innards and at times snapping at each other over the best tasting parts, I imagined. The sight was a little much after a while, and I had both a dark type in Drapion and a flying type in Tropius so catching either of them felt redundant. Also, catching baby pokemon felt like a step backward in some ways. Having to bother with evolving a pokemon all over again after going through it with Skorupi for so long was not an appealing thought.

I had a momentary fright while walking with the flashlight beaming ahead of me when, out of nowhere, a large figure took up most of the light, just standing right in the middle of the road. Momentarily worried, my free hand darted for the closest pokeball on my belt but my panic quickly faded: it was simply a Stantler, standing in the middle of the road, eyes glazed over in wonder as it seemed captivated by the flashlight. While never bumping into one before, I was aware from my many nights of reading through the pokedex that it was a relatively underwhelming pokemon with a standard normal typing and not much in the way of offensive or defensive presence. I shooed it away, as it was unworthy of having to call upon one of my mons to deal with., and the Stantler eventually ran off into the woods, swallowed up by the dark shrubbery and menacing trees.

At a further point in the road, it split off into a fork - no, not even a fork. It split into five, I repeat, five different paths into the woods, all veering in completely different directions and seemingly with no direct path forward. And I was pretty sure that the road I had walked on so far hadn't been a complete straight line so even going with the road that most seemed to come directly off of the one I was currently on could be a complete misstep. It was at this point I realized that Jacob had set me up for failure: I must have been walking for hours, because the sun was beginning to rise and cast a hopeful glow over the road, so turning back and going all the way back would just be a total waste, and to be honest, I didn't want to give Jacob or Mikey the satisfaction of seeing me back in Celmont, even if that makes me petty.

I went with the road furthest left so that if it ended up being a dead end, I could just turn back and start along the second option, although this idea seemed dangerous and could cost me a lot of time. I didn't have that much supplies on me in terms of food; I hadn't even stocked up on any kind of healing items for my mons incase I bump into any trouble in the woods, and there were no pokemon centers around, either. If any of my mons got knocked out in this unfamiliar setting, they were out for the count until I get out of here. While that may have been cause for concern for a lot of other trainers, I wasn't too worried.

To this day, my Drapion has still not lost a match. For fucks sake, my Skorupi beat a gym leader's Diggersby. How many trainers can claim that? My Kabutops had some of the best agility and reflexes I'd ever seen from a pokemon, and had only lost one battle against a trainer - a rather impressive battle against a young girl right outside the Vendor's Market whose Gogoat held its own, eventually getting a Horn Leech off and beating Kabutops with one blow. But Drapion had proceeded to tear apart her Gogat, as well as make short work of her Bibarel, which had an embarrassing performance of attempting to set up right in Drapion's face as Drapion proceeded to Poison Jab it right in the face and knock it unconscious. And Tropius - meh. He was okay. Had his moments. I could see myself upgrading to a better grass or flying type altogether down the line, since Tropius was rather situational in terms of usefulness.

In the distance, I could make out a lone mountain peak in the middle of Exeter Woods, and I knew it was the legendary Mt Roland, the place my brother had mentioned so often to my parents where he had caught his Skarmory that he still never used. That place was bound to house some strong pokemon. Alas, I wasn't even sure I was on the right path toward Wintervale, so my focus should remain on figuring out which was to go.

"Fuck this," I said out loud, and then I released Tropius from his pokeball. He stretched out his leafy wings gratefully while yawning. "Hey, wake up. Fly straight up, survey the area, and tell me which which direction the city is in. Not Celmont, not the place we just came from. Celmont is a town, with a motel at the edge, and I think it's that way-" I pointed toward where I think I had come from. "So look for Wintervale, that's the big one, it's the only city near the edge of Exeter. The one with skyscrapers. You got it?"

Because I had explained myself beautifully, Tropius nodded confidently and rose to the sky in order to give me a general direction. While he did that, I sat on a small boulder that was sitting precisely between two tall trees that cast a large shade down upon the area, and it looked like the most comfortable spot I would find around here. Not three seconds after I sat down, the boulder shifted, rolled, and knocked me right off, falling hard on the grass of Exeter in shock at the rock moving on its own.

An upset roar emanated from the boulder, and I then realized that I had just sat on a Rhyhorn that had been sleeping, and it was now extremely pissed at me. Still on my hands and knees, caught off guard, I locked eyes with the Rhyhorn for a split second as it pawed one of its front legs at the ground, as if charging up to attack me, and then the Rhyhorn released a powerful Roar, echoing around the surrounding area and causing several bird pokemon to take off into the air in terror. The Roar sent me flying, rolling mid-air, and landing with a painful oomph in the middle of the road. Kabutops or Drapion could take care of this. I reached for the pokeball containing Kabutops as the Rhyhorn quickly pawed its way into the soil with ease. It was using Dig to come at from under the ground, I realized with horror.

Before I could even summon Kabutops, Tropius appeared from above, grabbing onto my shoulders with its front legs, and lifting me up into the air just as Rhyhorn smashed his way from the ground beneath me, creating a gaping hole in the middle of the road. The Rhyhorn was not intimidated by this act of bravery from Tropius, and instead the Rhyhorn leaped into the air, its body spinning dangerously as it aimed a powerful Rollout straight at us. Without batting an eye, Tropius fired an Energy Ball with the flap of one of its wings, sending out a glowing green ball of energy that smelled like wet lawns in the morning straight toward the Rhyhorn. The Energy Ball, upon contact with Rhyhorn, exploded into a lightshow of bright green, and Rhyhorn was sent ricocheting back into Exeter Woods with lightning-speed, knocking over several trees as its unconscious body went flying.

"Could've been a little faster," I said to Tropius, irritated at him cutting it so close to rescue me. Tropius simply smiled and licked my face, which made me even madder and so I cussed him out and demanded he bring me back down to earth. He of course did as ordered, gently landing us back in the middle of the road.

"Alright, so, which way is Wintervale? Did you find out?" I asked. Tropius did not respond, but he instead turned around and began venturing directly into Exeter Forest, leaving the road. My instincts told me to stick with the road, but Tropius was fairly reliable when it comes to navigating, so I followed him in silence. Tropius, being a bigger pokemon, had to tuck his wings against his body as he maneuvered through the web of trees. His larger size might possibly steer smaller pokemon away from attacking us, so letting him lead the way seemed fine.

After nearly an hour more of walking, with the sun rising higher and higher as dawn approached, the sound of voices caused Tropius and I to take pause, and we piqued our ears in interest. The sounds were definitely two people talking. Two boys, two teenagers? Nah, they were definitely grown men. They were coming from straight ahead, right behind the chain of healthy green bushes, each containing dozens of different types of berries. Tropius was eyeballing the berries with hunger, lacking its lips, but I lightly smacked its nose and mouthed "shut up" so that he wouldn't give away that we were spying on these two.

"I don't know, man. What are you going to do with the money?" one of the men was asking the other in a playful manner, not accusatory. They seemed friendly with each other, like they'd known each other a while. And what's this about money?

"Get a nice house in Wintervale, maybe. Finally get to move out of the crappy apartment I got now. Maybe buy the old lady her own pokemon so that she can stop bothering me to get one for her." the second voice replied confidently, as if this all sounded so readily a possibility.

This sounded interesting. I was on my hands and knees, crawling closer toward the bushes so that I wouldn't miss a word. I wasn't even paying attention to Tropius anymore. As long as he wasn't trying to eat while these two were talking.

"Well, soon, right? How many more we need today?" the first voice continued.

"Uhh, I think just 1 more. We got the Zoroark - we caught that Rampardos in the first hour, got lucky with that one - what else? Oh, and the Sableye. Yeah, all we need left is one more A or B tier and we are done, thank Arceus."

Sounded like they were catching pokemon all night and that they were going to sell them. Poachers. And the mention of A or B tier made me think they were selling them to people who valued powerful pokemon - was the world small enough to where these two poachers could possibly be selling these pokemon to members of Team Anonymous? If that Chief Rex guy was right that there was only 1 organization actively operating on Ilragorn, and that it was Anonymous, who else would these two poachers be selling strong pokemon to? I was making a lot of assumptions here, but my intuition was telling me to trust my gut.

"Alright, time to track," one of the men said. I heard the sound of a pokemon being released, followed by the sound of the pokemon sniffing at the air for some unknown scent. Tropius was still sitting beside me, watching the berries with the same hungry interest.

"What is it?" one of the men was asking his pokemon as the sniffing stopped. I pressed my ear as close to the bush as I could, so that the men were mere feet away from me, but I was still well obscured from their view. "You got something, girl?"

There was a moment of silent panic as I realized what was about to happen, and then two scythes slashed their way through the bushes just a few inches to my left, stabbing wildly. I had recoiled reflexively in panic and shouted, which Tropius took as a sign to attack the lime green Scyther that had just tried to kill us.

Tropius used his wings to propel him from his sitting position into a quick cannonball of motion, slamming a solid Heabutt right in Scyther's neck, catching the insectoid pokemon off guard and making it reel back in pain, covering its neck protectively.

"Hey, what the fuck are you doing, kid?" one of the men, the taller one, asked. By his demeanor, I'd guess this was the owner of the Scyther. He was tan and rugged looking, like a farmer, but he donned a brown leather jacket made of Miltank hide, crisp blue jeans, and a ridiculous looking hat that had once been a happy Furret that looked slightly stuffed, with the tail poking out the back of his head like a real ponytail would.

The second man was much shorter, shorter than me, but around the same age as his friend. This guy's leather jacket, a beige one, was donned from a skinned Tauros, with some of the familiar patchy brown fur of one visible in multiple areas, but more jarring about his appearance were the two dead Bunnelby's pinned to the left lapel of his Tauros coat, and a still-twitching, upside down, half-dead Noctowl pinned by the ankle to the right.

"I was passing by. Back your Scyther off." I said, rising to my feet and walking out into the clearing the two men were standing in, surprising myself with how calm I sounded.

"Oh, you don't call the shots here, kid," the shorter man responded, pulling a pokeball of his own out, and summoning a Weavile instantly beside him. The Weavile was charcoal gray, with bright red feathers layering around his neck like a scarf. The pokemon has a mean look in the eyes, a crafty look, as if it would steal from you the moment you turned your back on it. "You are so dead, you don't even know how stupid you are for trying us right now."

I didn't hesitate to summon Kabutops by my side. It felt smart and reassuring to reserve Drapion for later. Kabutops and Tropius aggressively stood in front of me like guards, the three of us standing together opposite the two poachers and their Scyther and Weavile. All 4 pokemon looked ready to attack at any moment, each of them hunched threateningly, waiting for further orders. While the shorter one had a bloodthirsty edge to him, the taller one still seemed more than hesitant to let things escalate so fast.

"We really about to kill some kid?" the man who owned Scyther asked the shorter one.

"He's seen our faces!" the shorter one exclaimed as if that was the most obvious answer in the world. "He knows what we're doing! I don't need the cops finding out I'm back to this shit, man! I'm not about to go back to prison over some kid." His Weavile hissed at Tropius, who just kept eye contact unbroken with the opposing mons.

These two were really going to try to kill me right now. I couldn't even have an honest, legal pokemon battle in as dangerous a place as Exeter Forest without it turning into a fight for my life.

"Tropius, Fly! Kabutops, into the woods for camouflage!" I started, and the two of them jumped to obey, Kabutops noticeably quicker to react. While Kabutops made one giant leap from the clearing back to the treeline, darting effortlessly back into the forest, Tropius flew straight upward to escape the reach of the deadly Weavile who could probably knock it out with one ice move.

"Fake Out!" the short man told Weavile.

"Quick Attack!" the tall one told Scyther.

Weavile darted into the woods with a speed surpassing my own Kabutops in the same general area where it had just hidden, where beyond my scope of vision, behind a few old cherry trees way to the left of the clearing, I could hear a slapping sound as Weavile located Kabutops and got in his first hit. The Scyther used the speed of Quick Attack to launch an upward assault right at Tropius before Tropius even knew Scyther was following him. It was not a particularly strong blow, but Scyther managed to catch Tropius off guard, getting a good slash with his deadly scythe that resembled my own Kabutops' right in the stomach area, and Tropius went tumbling mid-air, almost crash landing back down to the woodland floor, but Tropius recovered his balance nicely.

Before either me or the poachers could declare our second wave of attacks, the instincts of the pokemon involved kicked in, and their natural fighting reactions momentarily took place while waiting for the trainers to give them guidance. Tropius had charged mid-air at the Scyther as both of them flew a few feet over the tops of the trees in Exeter, but Scyther dodged it with ease, flying straight over him, even elbowing Tropius in the sensitive area between his wings as revenge, making Tropius cry out in pain. Weavile came barreling out from the treeline of the forest, using his sharp claws to drag at the grass as he came skidding back toward the poachers and I, as if Kabutops had just tossed him. Weavile came to a stop, one of his hands dug into the earth from his attempts to regain balance after being thrown, but Kabutops burst from a nearby bush of blueberries, one arm raised, scythe poised to come down on the Weavile's small body.

"Slash!"

"Power-Up Punch!

Kabutops brought his hand down, the scythe jamming hard into the ground like Excalibur's sword upon Weavile, who had managed to wrench his hand from the ground and side-step the Kabutops by inches. In the momentary confusion Kabutops felt when his scythe stabbed into the ground that had been a Weavile just a second before hand, Weavile got a solid punch right in Kabutop's face, the connection landing immediately boosting Weavile's attack.

"Scyther, Slash its wings off!" the tall man barked toward the aerial pokemon. He really was going all in now; his partner had convinced this guy like that to just help him kill a kid and his pokemon. Well I wasn't going to let it be easy.

"Energy Ball! Keep it at bay!" I tried. Scyther had been getting closer and closer, flying in circles to keep Tropius guessing where to attack. Tropius succeeded in firing off not just 1, but about 4 or 5 Energy Balls, each one glowing with that same vivid green power of nature, and each one headed in a completely different direction.

One of the Energy Balls clashed into the oncoming Scyther, who Slashed away the excess green energy that lingered upon the ball exploding. Even though it was a direct hit, Scyther hadn't even blinked, let alone looked at all damaged. Then I realized - duh, it's a bug and flying type - that quad-resists grass type moves. And I'm supposed to be good.

The Scyther continued its attempts to remove Tropius' wings from his body with several vicious Slashes directed at his back as Scyther managed to almost ride the Tropius as they both flew wildly in the air as Tropius tried to buck the Scyther off. I was sure Tropius was getting some pretty deep scars up there.

"Tropius, come down!" I shouted. Maybe getting him with Kabutops would even the score, because so far this battle I was in the back. Tropius was trying to obey, going from making deadly spiraling swoops downward for a few seconds to knock the Scyther off of his back, to even slamming his own back against one of the old cherry trees trunks, but Scyther would not release his grip. "Headbutt backwards!"

Using his flexible neck, Tropius at first reeled his head downward in a defeated way, but then - like a bored student being told school is ending early - his head shot back up, back around, over his own back, and finally connecting with a solid crack against Scyther's open mouth, slamming his teeth down over his tongue, severing a small portion of it and causing a blood rush to ooze from Scyther's mouth. This panic was enough for Tropius to finally shake the Scyther off, who crashed back down to the floor, heavily bruised and shaken.

Every time I got too invested in one battle, I saw my other pokemon would begin to waver, unsure of how to proceed without my input after too long. And so it was with Kabutops, who had taken it upon himself to engage in straight hand-to-hand combat with Weavile, or so to speak. While Kabutops was making hard, angry Slashes at Weavile with every stroke, Weavile was giving it right back to Kabutops with his own Night Slash, long sharp scythe clashing upon short black clawed hand, both pokemon in a sort of dance with each other, stabbing and slashing at the other, neither of them budging. Though Weavile seemed to have more control, which was something I had often wished Kabutops had more of, and more focused on the fight. For every blow that wasn't landing on Weavile, Kabutops was attacking harder, yes, but also sloppier, more frantic. More apt to let his guard down.

"Weavile, forget that piece of shit! Ice Shard the Tropius so Scyther can help you finish this off!" the short man said. So I wasn't the only one who saw Tropius' glaring disadvantage against Weavile.

"Aqua Jet!" I shouted, thinking of my own priority move, unsure even of what Kabutops should do specifically with his attack, only hoping that for just this one crucial moment in battle, Kabutops just might be able to act faster than Weavile.

Both pokemon kind of shoved each other away at around the same time, and both of them finally looked away from each other, turning their attention to the Tropius hovering in the air above them, breathing heavily from just throwing Scyther off. Weavile summoned a small, jagged pick of ice in his hand, while Kabutops propelled himself into a small burst of moving, lifelike water that darted toward Tropius as Weavile hurled the Ice Shard at Tropius with speed faster than almost any Pokemon I had ever seen. Except my Kabutops.

Kabutops' Aqua Jet stopped just short of Tropus, not attacking him, and Kabutops materialized back into his solid, intimidating form as Weavile's Ice Shard ended up stabbing right into Kabutops back, comically jutting out but not appearing to have hurt too much.

Tropius allowed Kabutops to ride on his back as the two pokemon merged into one single unit that was determined to beat these powerful poacher's pokemon. The Weavile approached Scyther, and appearing to mimic the Kabutops, hopped aboard the Scyther like he was something to ride, the same way Scyther had tried to ride Kabutops. Insulted, Scyther shook the Weavile off and even Slashed at it in warning, to which the Weavile hissed and, acting on primal instinct, slashed at the Scyther's face with his sharp claws.

"Rock Tomb away!"

While the Scyther and Weavile fought over their egos, Tropius had flown Kabutops directly over them and at this point, the barrage of large rocks falling in a storm of super effective blows was too overwhelming, and after a few seconds, Tropius and Kabutops knew to return back to the ground because the fight was over.

The tall poacher, the one I associate with the fucked up Furret hat, was immediately apologetic and insistent that it was all his partner's idea and was willing to give up the poached pokemon to me to show mercy to him.

The short poacher, the one with dead bunnies and an owl on his jacket, cursed me in every language there was and even a few languages that didn't exist. He threatened that if any harm come to them, they were affiliated with powerful people, and that's when I started being interested.

"What, you mean like Team Anonymous?" I baited him, seeing if he would reveal anything in the heat of his emotions.

"If you do anything to us, they will come down on you with too much force for your monkey brain to even fucking imagine, you stupid fucking little kid!" the short man spat at me. "We give them the pokemon they need. Hurting us will fuck with his business. You fuck with his business - he will fuck with you."

"Who's he?" I asked.

The two men remained silent, both of them on their knees while Kabutops stood like a mediator between them, arms raised in a way to let them know he would cut them if they tried to escape.

"Sir," the tall one revealed at last.

"Sir?" I repeated.

He nodded, tears beginning to arrive. "That's all he's known as. That's all we know. We don't sell to him, we sell to his underlings. Little guys. That's all we know. I swear to Arceus, that's all we know."

I had never really thought too hard about my thoughts on Team Anonymous. But the fact that one of their members had attacked me in my novice months, trying to kill me over a couple hundred bucks, and killing half my team at the time definitely added fuel to the burning fire I had against these pathetic pokemon gangs on Ilragorn. While these poachers weren't exactly the same devils as Anonymous members, they were no saints. That they had been so willing to dispose of me made me think I was not their first guest in these woods.

I did not think it was my place to murder them, or their pokemon - I left that to chance. I had Kabutops slice open the three pokeballs the poachers had hidden in one of their knapsacks. Upon releasing the three pokemon, Sableye immediately ran for the treeline, headed into the freedom of the vastness of Exeter Forest. Rampardos apparently had a grudge against the pokemon that had caught him, since he tackled the unconscious Weavile and Scyther head on and seemed to be tearing their bodies apart with some incredibly powerful rock moves that I had never seen before and far outgunned my Kabutops own Rock Tomb. At one point Scyther's separated leg was seen flying into the air from the chaos caused by Rampardos, so I didn't think I'd be seeing either of those two pokemon bothering me or any other mon in Exeter again.

The Zoroark had been still as a statue when freed from the pokeball, eyes darting between the two poachers who had previously snatched it from its home to the Kabutops standing guard over them, to the Tropius pitifully licking at its wounds in the corner, to me. It resembled a larger, more Rapunzel-esque Weavile, both of them sharing shades of black mixed with red, a dark type trait.

"You're free," I said to the Zoroark. Its slowly loosening body movement made me think it understood me, if not at least was getting comfortable enough to move. It seemed most interested in the short poacher, who was looking at the Zoroark with hatred. "You can do with these two as you wish."

"If you put your fucking paws on-" the short one started, but Zoroark fired a blast of pure energy from his hands, like a coiling black snake shooting out and engulfing the mans entire face. A powerful Dark Pulse. The Zoroark proceeded to begin eating the smaller poacher's face while the larger one cried and screamed and asked himself why on earth he only had one pokemon with him.

I left before I had that scene seared into my memory. I recalled Tropius and Kabutops to their balls as they were both definitely wore out from the long morning and needed a little rest for when I undoubtedly needed them later. My all night venture was catching up with me, and exhaustion was taking over. I needed sleep soon or I would just pass out.

I wasn't even on any of the 5 roads that veered off from the main road anymore, I was just curled up into a fetal position under an oak tree a couple hundred meters away from where I had just battled those scumbags. Eyelids heavy and sleep fast approaching, I released Drapion from his ball and mumbled at him to keep guard while I slept to make sure we don't get robbed or attacked so I could sleep peacefully. Then, somehow, I managed to fall asleep and briefly escape all this hectic insanity.