The Capture Specialist
Chapter Five: Monotony in Mount Moon
"We fight what we see. We fear what we cannot."
The trek up the hilly path towards the entrance to Mount Moon was relatively short. Although Dana had a few battles with the Trainers along the hill, her Pokemon were still healthy and prepared for battle.
Dana did stop by for a quick check-up, and after her Pokemon checked out, she slung her bag over her shoulder, and prepared to walk out of the door, before her PokeGear started ringing. Recognizing the number as Anna's, she quickly answered.
"Hello?", Dana answered. Anna was furiously tapping away on the other end, moving a stray strand of her red hair out of her face.
"Dana, the CSU wanted me to contact you for a mission in the area, your near Mt. Moon, correct?"
"A mission? Well, yeah, I'm at the Pokemon Center at the foot of the mountain, in case your wondering…" Dana murmured.
"Excellent! A new agent should be arriving there soon. Her name is Emily, she just joined the CSU. She has little experience, and I'm sure you could use some company!" Anna giggled.
"Wait, Anna, I don't think—" Dana began. Anna's giggling stopped on the other end.
"Sorry…hrrk…Can't hear you…hrrrk….losing signal…" Anna said, creating static with her mouth. There was an audible click as she hung up.
"I'll get her for this!!" Dana thought to herself, clenching the PokeGear tightly in her hand. As she was seething, the Pokemon Center doors opened silently, and a young girl walked into the facility. She looked around a moment with soft brown eyes, adjusting her blue jacket that she wore over a black top, matching her dark grey khaki pants. The girl wore a black beanie on her head, which slightly covered tufts of light brown hair that poked out from underneath it.
"Excuse me, I'm supposed to be meeting someone named Dana?" the girl called into the Pokemon Center. None of the other patrons appeared to notice her, but Dana turned to greet the girl.
"That would be me. And you must be Emily." Dana snorted. Emily gulped at Dana's initial attitude, rubbing the back of her neck nervously.
"A-ah yes, that would be me. I-I'm sure the CSU must have contacted you by now with the details of the mission?" Emily asked.
"Well, they did contact me, but they didn't exactly give me the details…" Dana muttered, recalling Anna's cheap trick over the phone. Anna knew Dana preferred to work alone. She wasn't so good with people, especially people close to her age.
"I-I see." Emily stammered, adjusting her jacket once more. Dana noticed that her jacket had slots on the inside for Poke Balls, so instead of holding the Poke Balls on her waist with a belt of some sort like Dana, Emily could reach into her jacket for a Poke Ball instead.
"What exactly is this mission?" Dana prompted when Emily didn't elaborate. Emily was startled, then chuckled nervously when she realized she had forgotten to explain.
"S-sorry about that! I'm just nervous in the presence of a superior officer!!" Emily said. At these words, Dana was stunned. She was this new agent's superior officer?
"I could make her do all sorts of things for me! She could do my laundry when I'm too lazy, or cook for me…This arrangement might not be so bad!!" Dana thought to herself. She didn't realize she was silently chuckling to herself, and rather creepily at that.
"U-um…Miss Dana? Uhh, the mission?" Emily asked. Dana was snapped from her stupor, and waved her hand.
"I'm listening! And don't call me 'miss', it makes me feel old!!" Dana said. Emily nodded.
"Compared to me, you are kinda old…" Emily thought, glancing at Dana's bosom, which was of ample size considering the girl was only fifteen. Emily duly noted that she was pretty much flat compared to the older girl, but wasn't disappointed by the fact.
"Recently, reports have occurred that suspicious figures have been coming in and out of Mt. Moon through both entrances. Due to the larges amounts of caverns and unexplored areas in the mountain, it is believed by the CSU that it may be an area of Hunter activity."
"What does the CSU want us to do about the Hunters, if they're even there?" Dana asked. Emily racked her brain for the information, tapping her finger against her chin, before recalling the information.
"Well, the CSU wants us to engage if the numbers are low. Due to the twisted caverns and different paths, it will be difficult for other agents to back us up quickly. However, if they are dangerous to either of us, we should wait for back-up." Emily recalled.
"So, they want us to explore Mt. Moon, huh? Well, I was planning on doing that anyway! Let's go, Emily!!" Dana said, preparing to walk out the door.
"Wait!!" Emily called. Dana turned, angrily facing her young companion.
"What is it?!" Dana roared. Emily let out a small yelp in fear of the teenage girl, before pointing inside her jacket.
"My Pokemon were injured on the way up here…" Emily replied meekly. Dana sighed, as she pointed to the receptionist counter.
"Go." Dana waved, sitting in the same chair she had been waiting in before as her Pokemon were healed, growing more impatient with each passing second.
After healing Emily's Pokemon, the pair walked outside and through the towering entrance of Mt. Moon into the musky cave, Dana releasing Wartortle to walk with her. She felt as if she hadn't really gotten to know Wartortle as a Squirtle, and thought it best to make up for the lost time after the sudden evolution. Several screeches of the wild Zubat could be heard, and if you didn't watch your step, you could easily trip over a wild Geodude.
As the pair walked, Dana opted to ask her new companion a few questions. Scratching her shoulder, Dana looked at her young companion in the dim light, her sharp green eyes eerily recognizable.
"So, Emily, what kinds of Pokemon do you have?" Dana asked, trying to not sound to interested, yet failing. Even with the simple gesture of Emily pointing inside her jacket to show her Poke Balls to Dana back in the Pokemon Center, Dana had counted at least three Poke Balls with the simple gesture.
"Well, I think my Pokemon are pretty special, so I'll let them introduce themselves! Come on out, you guys!!" Emily called. She tossed a total of four Poke Balls into the air, releasing four bright flashes of light into the dimly lit cave. The flashes of light settled into the shapes of four Pokemon—Two of the Pokemon were small, rat-like creatures. One was a light pink color with a small horn on it's forehead. The other looked like it's pink counterpart, except it was a dark blue with several whisker-like barbs on it's cheeks, and two pairs of buck teeth, and sharp claws. Dana easily recognized them as the male and female of the Nidoran species. The male of the species seemed to stand defensively in front of the female as soon as he noticed Dana standing there, watching them. She had never seen either of them up close, and determined they must be pretty rare.
The third Pokemon shaped into a small monkey Pokemon with beige fur, and brown colored paws and tail. The monkey was pretty mad, hollering at Emily in Pokemon language. The two Nidorans distanced themselves from the Mankey as it seemed angry specifically at Emily.
"Is that supposed to happen?" Dana asked indifferently. Emily rubbed the back of her head nervously, pulling out the Mankey's Poke Ball.
"Eh heh…I just caught this one on the way up here, and so it probably isn't too happy with me. Return, Keekee!" Emily said.
"-First you let me out, and now I can't even choose my own name?! Why I oughtta—" Keekee could not finish as it was dragged back into it's Poke Ball by a red beam of light.
The last beam of light had materialized into a small, round pink figure that had a small pink tuft of hair on it's head, small pink stubby arms and legs, and big, bright blue eyes. Dana recognized it as the Singing Pokemon, Jigglypuff.
"So, are these all of your Pokemon?" Dana asked, smirking to herself in her mind when she noted that she had far more Pokemon.
"No, these are Pokemon that live near my home in Viridian. I have more Pokemon at the CSU, though." Emily said, smiling despite herself. "Meet Nidara, Nidaro, and Jiggy." Emily said, gesturing to the Nidoran female, male, and then Jigglypuff in succession.
"So, they came with you when you left?" Dana asked. Emily shrugged slightly.
"Actually, I've been a Trainer for a well now, but I just recently decided to become an agent and work for the CSU. I thought I would be able to use the job for training, and understand my Pokemon better. What about you? Why'd you become an agent?" Emily asked. Dana pondered for a moment, not facing her young companion.
"When you've seen as many injustices against Pokemon as I have, you feel like it's the only choice you really have." Dana said. Emily looked puzzled.
"What do you mean?" Emily asked. As soon as she had asked, Dana regretted telling her.
"Forget it, it's nothing." Dana replied flatly, attempting to walk off and leave her. Emily shrieked as she realized she was being left behind, and quickly recalled all of her Pokemon except Jiggy the Jigglypuff, which hobbled after her on her small feet, as her Trainer ran to catch up with Dana.
"You can…trust me…I can keep a secret." Emily huffed, as she ran after Dana and slowed to a stop when she caught up with her. Dana sighed, before turning to the younger girl.
"It's not so much a secret as it is a traumatizing event." Dana replied flatly, continuing to walk.
But, wait!! I mean, if it's traumatizing, talking about it can help…" Emily encouraged. She was curious, and it was starting to show. Dana turned to the girl angrily.
"When I was five, I watched a group of people brutally murder a Pokemon, and steal it's family after it was killed. After searching on my own all this time, trying to find the people who hurt that Pokemon, I am finally able to put a name with the people who did this, and ruined my peace of mind as a child!!" Dana roared, her voice echoing through the cave.
"Ohh…I see…" Emily murmured, shocked at the older girl's reaction. Dana turned, about to walk off, when she heard a noise behind her. The sound of sobs.
"T-that…must have been so hard, growing up…like that…" Emily muttered between sobs. She held her hands to her face, muffling the sounds of her sobs with her sleeves. Jiggy looked sad on the ground next to her, upset about Dana's story.
"H-hey, look…What happened to me…Isn't important…" Dana said, struggling to comfort the girl. Dana walked over nervously, hugging Emily in an akward hug.
"But you were so young!!" Emily wailed, as she continued to sob. Dana grabbed Emily's hands, and pulled them away from her face, as Emily continued to sob.
"Which is why I'm trying to catch these people and make them pay. Which is why I'm hoping the CSU and the other agents are going to help me. After bearing personal witness to the evil acts they've committed, I won't let this continue!!" Dana said, her voice kind, yet firm. Emily stopped sobbing.
"D-Dana…I-I…Want to help you…" Emily said. Her face stained with tears, Dana thought about how she should tell Emily that this was a mission that she knew she wanted to accomplish alone, yet was impossible. She didn't want Emily to be exposed to unnecessary danger, either. Dana wanted to be the only one to stop the Hunters, and end their evil reign.
"Emily...You don't want to help someone like me, I'll get in lots of trouble…Just, stay with the CSU, complete your missions, but don't get involved with the Hunters. They won't blame you if you don't want to accept this mission." Dana said.
"B-but…After hearing your story…I want to help!! What they're doing is…just too cruel to those Pokemon! And how are we as humans going to be able to help them if evil people like that are in the world?!" Emily wailed. Dana smiled.
"Oh, Emily. Looks like I'll have to deal with you for a while after all." Dana snorted in her mind, but chuckled at the thought. How long had it been since a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders? Too long, she realized.
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A/N: This chapter will HAVE to be in two parts, since I wanted a good chapter with lots of character development. Emily is introduced as a new, D-Rank agent assigned to help Dana with a mission in Mt. Moon. Dana initially believes her to be dead weight, but changes her mind when Emily herself reassures Dana she doesn't have to bear the weight of her mission alone. Emily's Pokemon were also briefly introduced, although we've yet to see their battling potential.
I wanted to make a young nerdy type character to off-set Dana's aggressive demeanor and her way of speaking her mind, and thus the timid and shy Emily was born. I was originally going to have Emily wear glasses, but I felt that was too much, and decided to leave it out.
Emily and Dana may eventually part ways in later chapters, but it won't be for too long, as work sometimes comes before friendship when the fate of the world hangs in the balance! Anyways, thanks for reading, and as always, R&R, please and thank you!