Hey Howdy! Sorry about the delay but once more life is going sideways for me but alas Im still standing and still writing so without further wait, I present to you Ch. 12
Cindy Pracket Roster
Mankey (Kong)
Poliwhirl (Polli)
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I found myself in the classic crime show scene of a plain nondescript room with a grey steel table and a pair of folded-out chairs. I was sitting in one with another that lay empty before me. A large mirror spanned the wall in front of me and next to it on the following wall was a door that led to who knows where.
I slouched down into my seat and once more crossed my arms above my chest in annoyance. After teleporting into the Viridian Police Station, Jace and I was immediately separated and dragged off into what I could only assume to be a matching pair of investigative rooms. There was neither time to rest nor even think, just a minute of hustle and bustle followed by the longest three hours of my life sitting in the most uncomfortable chair I've ever sat in. I know that we had stumbled onto something serious but I had never thought I'd be treated like this for it! As the thought of sitting on the floor for a change of pace crossed my mind, the door to my left opened.
I almost choked on my spit.
What the fuck is Looker doing here?! There's no way that a simple poacher in the forest could have elicited a response from the government to mean LOOKER of all people would be investigating. He strode in with his famous eternal frown and sat down in the chair opposite mine. He placed a folder down on the table to his right, on his left he placed a sleek brown briefcase. After setting down the briefcase he raised his elbows upon the table and laced his fingers before speaking.
"So…Cindy Pracket is it?"
"Yes sir, that's me.", my mouth suddenly went dry from nerves and I resisted the urge to smack them. It seemed that not all habits from my past life had gone away. "If you don't mind me asking, who are you, sir?"
He stared for a moment before nodding to himself and reaching down to the folder he had placed on the table. He slid it in front of him and opened it before continuing, "I, Miss Prackett, am the one people call when things are a bit too fishy. I'm called by many names but for now, you can address me as Looker. And believe me, Miss Pracket what you stumbled upon today is indeed…fishy." He pulled out a piece of paper and slid it across the table towards me, "I do believe that this was the poacher that you and Mister Jace engaged in combat, correct?" I looked down at the paper and saw a few pictures clipped to a page detailing the description of the man and the team that he was found using. A glance at the photo to recognize the getup that the poacher was wearing followed by the list of Pokemon that he had with him confirmed it and I nodded my ascent towards Looker.
"Did you happen to know that there were four other poachers within the western edge of the forest?" I pulled back slightly and my eyes widened. Four? There were four more poachers? Fuck…we got lucky that none of them joined the battle against us. If they had I would guarantee that I wouldn't be sitting in this chair right now. I shook my head slowly and mumbled out a quiet "No sir." He nodded and once more looked down at the folder before him. He sighed and grabbed the file about the poacher that I had fave and placed it back into the folder.
"Before anything else, I want to emphasize that while this time you managed to hold out against a very dangerous foe for so long you were very stupid in doing so." I lowered my head as the heat flushed across my cheeks. A slight prickling feeling found its way to my eyes as tears began to form. Looker continued.
"You charged headlong into a situation against an unknown combatant with unknown firepower with only two Pokemon to your name. I must advise you from finding yourself in a situation like that again Miss Pracket. You got lucky this time. That is not a common occurrence in my line of work I'm afraid." I squeezed my eyes shut and felt my hands clench into tight fists. I nodded sharply and tried with all of my might to keep the tears that were in my eyes from spilling over. I somehow managed to keep from breaking dawn then and there but my eyes continued to water as I replaued the situation in my head.
I was such a fucking idiot. I waltzed into that battle expecting a classic breeze of a few Ekans or Houndour and then handing him over to the Ranger when they got there. I was expecting this to go as the games did.
The games…
I was still treating this world like the games.
But this world wasn't the games. Gym leaders didn't have their regular rosters. The cities were so much more than a few buildings and a gym. This world was living and breathing. With as many similarities to the games that I had adored in my past life, there were still differences that made this world its own.
That Rocket was tough. Tough. If I hadn't had Jace there with me helping to take him down, I would have been dead or worse. I got incredibly lucky.
Looker gave me some time to let his slight scolding have its effect before continuing, "Now while what you may have done wasn't exactly a smart decision…I applaud you for bringing it to the notice of the authorities. The Rangers on station had been trying to track a singular poacher in the area but with five that could teleport out on short notice, It's no wonder that they had given the slip for so long. After your poacher had tried to escape, a saturation of Dark Energy was created to block any more escape attempts. It seems that this poaching team had been at it for a while for Team Rocket." He flipped through a few more pages, "Even managed to shift the territory patterns of a few types of species. Including those Heracross that you managed to stumble across were impacted by it."
At the mention of Heracross, my head jerked up and my eyes snapped open. The Heracross! What had happened to the two that me and Jace had captured?! Did the Pokeballs get destroyed in the fighting? I had to know.
"Mr. Looker sir! I apologize for interrupting, but me and Jace had captured two Heracross to try and keep them from the crossfire of our battle. Did they survive? They were very injured so they'll need medical attention immediately!!" The words rushed from my mouth like an ocean wave. Now that the shock of the incident had fully worn off, I remembered why we had started the fight in the first place. We were trying to protect those two Heracross that were left to the whims of the poacher.
Looker stopped his reading and glanced up at me. For a moment…I could have sworn I saw the slightest twitch at the edge of his lip before he ruffled through the file again until resting upon one of the latter pages.
"Ah. It seems that the two Heracross that you caught were recovered and sent back to the Pokemon Center for treatment with your other Pokemon. It's currently registered to you so it is yours once you retrieve it." He looked back up to me with a serious glint in his eyes. "However Miss Pracket, do take note that there are several problems that can arise from a Pokemon that has been tied up in poaching. There can be risks of mental changes as well as physical aggression in humans. If you do decide to retrieve this Heracross and bind with it, I highly suggest showing great care in your preparations of meeting it. You have no idea how the Pokemon will react to the trauma." I nodded back to him and he closed the folder up on the table before grabbing the bookcase that he had laid on the ground to his side.
Lifting it onto the table, he swiftly entered a combination lock and it sprang open. He spun it around and passed it to me.
"While it may have been a less than stellar decision, PWG still recognizes the boon that your discovery has brought to our fight against Team Rocket. A payment of 10,000 Pokedollars will be wired to your account as well as two free item vouchers to any Pokemart or licensed item store in Kanto. You truly helped deal a blow to the Rocket's poaching and helped point out a glaring oversight in our Ranger posting. There will be a second Ranger's Station built in the western section of the forest as well as another built on the transition area between the western section and the center of the forest. We will now have more eyes and resources on the lookout for anyone who trespasses into the nature reserves of Kanto." I gingerly retrieved the briefcase pulled the two item vouchers from it and held them in my hands as they trembled slightly. This solved the issue of having to acquire a Water Stone for Polli for her evolution into a Poliwath. As soon as she was ready, I just had to go to a department store, and voila, a free evolutionary stone was ours.
Looker stood from the table and grabbed the file once more he turned to the door and moved to walk out of it before pausing. He turned and looked at me over his shoulder. "And Miss Pracket? Do exercise due caution and judgment if ever faced with a situation like this again. You have the making of a very impressive trainer. It would be a waste for your potential to be lost." And with that, he turned forward once more and walked out the doorway.
He was quickly replaced by a slightly younger officer who asked me to follow him to the lobby of the station. I rose out of my seat and followed him through a series of hallways and office rooms before finally reaching the front of the office.
"You are free to go, Miss Pracket. We only have a couple of questions for you regarding the case. And for the record…even if it might have been a stupid thing to rush in like that, I believe that protecting those Heracross was still the right thing to do." I could feel the prickle of tears gather in my eyes once more as he said those words. He gave me a pat on the shoulder and pointed over towards some seats. "Your friend there wanted to wait for you once you got out and make sure you were okay." I looked over and saw Jace hunched over in his seat with eyes glued to a TV that had the story of the poacher capture being run. I nodded and uttered a quiet "thank you" before taking my leave and walking slowly towards Jace. I sat myself down in the seat next to him and neither of us said a word for a few minutes. We watched the tv as pictures of Viridian Forest were shown and statements from some Rangers were taken by the press. They gave no details besides a poacher ring had been taken down swiftly by the Rangers and the casualties were kept to a minimum. As the news report ended and it shifted to the talk hosts discussing the increasing levels of poaching that was happening in Kanto I spoke.
"Jace?… I'm sorry that I dragged you into this mess." He rose slightly from his hunched position and turned to look at me. "I was so inexperienced and was riding off of the high from my first gym battle that I didn't think of all of the dangers. I dragged you into a dangerous zone and into a fight that we were very lucky to stalemate in." At this point, the tears began to fall on my cheeks and I paused to gather my thoughts. Jace was staring at me intently, listening to each word that left my mouth carefully. "It wasn't right for me to drag you into that fight and I'm sorry if you felt pressured by me to do so. While I still think saving those Heracross was right…I also know that I don't currently have the strength to be able to play a hero like that. The thought that this was all just a fun and merry journey was stuck in my head and I've realized now that it's not. This world is amazing and fun but there's always a shadowed side to something bright. I know that now and I promise that I'll never drag someone into a fight like that when I'm so inexperienced." Jace turned away to look at the screen in silence for a few moments. I slumped in my chair as the silence stretched waiting for him to explode into anger at me for dragging him into this mess.
"Cindy…I wanted to apologize as well." My head shot up to look at him in amazed confusion. He was sorry? What on earth could he possibly be sorry for? I was the one that dragged him into this mess. This whole endeavor was my fault. "I let my fear control my actions whenever we came across those poachers. As soon as we saw them, I should have notified the Rangers. We sat there for three minutes before doing anything and that was precious time we could have saved from the battle. Your Pokemon might not have gotten so injured if I had just made the call earlier. But I was scared. I had never come face to face with Team Rocket before but I have seen what they can do. They do horrible things, Cindy. What that poacher was doing to those Heracross was just the icing on the cake. But while I was frozen from my fear…you were planning. Even though you were misguided about your abilities, you were still moving in the right direction. We saved those Heracross Cindy. At the end of the day…that's the only thing I want to remember from this incident. So don't apologize for not being strong enough to help more. Just get out there and get stronger, okay?" I looked at him incredibly as he stood and turned towards me with his hand held out in front of him.
"It was an honor to meet you and to fight with you, Cindy Prackett. I can't wait to hear about the things that you are going to achieve, but to get there you have to stop beating yourself up for making a bad call for the right reasons. True, we barely had the firepower to hold that Rocket off but we still did it. There's no use thinking about it now except to push ourselves forward so next time it won't happen the same way." I stood shakily and wiped the tears from my eyes before extending my hand to shake his. After we both moved towards the entrance of the Pokemon Center to gather our teams and newly acquired Heracross.
We made some slight small talk along the way. Mostly just about the hustle and bustle of Viridian City around us and thoughts on what our next plans were going to be.
"I think I'm going to take a trip to Unova to go see my cousins in Striaton City. Spend some time traveling around there. I heard the Castelia City Gym Leader is a Bug Specialist so I may try my hand at becoming a gym trainer there for some training." He pulled out his phone and showed me a match between Burgh and a random challenger. Burgh's Leavanny was lightning fast and was dancing circles around his opponent's Herdier.
"I think I'm going to spend some time in Viridian training. I want to see how good Heracross is as well as get Polli used to her new body before trying to take on the gym here. After that? Probably head south into Pallet Town and wait for the ferry to Cinnabar Island to come around. Take some time to relax and maybe attend one of Professor Oak's lectures that he likes to hold for travelers." Plus I needed to start putting my team through the beginnings of learning martial arts. Kong had started integrating some Boxing into his style but he had only just started. And Polli is now able to start learning some for herself after her evolution. The trick was going to be which martial art I would want to integrate into her style. She had been a long-range mage-type fighter due to the lack of her close combat skills but now that she had arms it was time to start adapting her to something else. I wasn't going to ignore her distance fighting ability as she still was the only member who had the capability of doing so. But once she evolves into a Poliwrath she's going to be able to brawl up close more effectively. I wanted to lay the groundwork now so that when that time came she could do so efficiently.
Jace nodded at that and before long we found ourselves at the PokeCenter. We waited anxiously to get to the counter and I allowed Jace to go first whenever we got to the front. He talked with Nurse Joy for a few moments before retrieving his Pokeballs and stepping to the side for me to approach the counter.
"Hello, Miss! Are you here to drop off or to pick up?" Nurse Joy smiled from behind the counter as I stepped closer.
"I'm here for a pick up I believe ma'am. I'm Cindy Pracket and I believe my team was dropped off a few hours ago." Her eyes widened slightly and she hummed in remembrance.
"Ah yes, well Cindy I can assure you that your Mankey and Polliwhirl are doing just fine and I can release both into your care immediately. There were no issues with your Poliwhirl post evolution and they have both healed quite nicely! However, your Heracross will still need some time to continue resting before I can allow you to take him. Unlike the gentleman from earlier, yours was a bit more injured and will need to spend the night to ensure a full recovery. We will also make sure to put it through a psychological test to make sure that its psyche was damaged irreparably by the incident making it a danger for you to have. If that is the case it will be sent to a reserve to spend the rest of its life in peace." I nodded to her before retrieving Kong and Polli's Pokeballs and attaching them to my bag strap. I moved from the counter with a thank you and went to rejoin Jace over to the side.
"So? How's your team looking?"
"Kong and Polli made full recoveries but the Heracross will be staying another night and undergoing a psych evaluation for trainer usage." He nodded in understanding before crossing his arms.
"Mine seemed to have been hit with the sleep powder first so it missed most of the incident. It passed the eval with flying colors so I'm glad I don't have to teach it not to hate humans. Hopefully, yours will pass and will make a full recovery." I nodded back in thanks before pulling out my phone.
"Would you like to exchange numbers? I have a friend who I plan to travel with for a while who specializes in Grass and Poison types. With how much those two interlap with Bug types could I ask you for some pointers on his behalf?" He laughed slightly before pulling out his phone and exchanging numbers. "It's no problem at all. I might not know much but I'll try to be as helpful as I can! And I'll make sure to keep my eyes and ears out for any Fighting types that I might come across. While we may have been in a dangerous situation, you did still help me get a Heracross and I repaid my debts." He winked before holding his hand out to me once more.
"Well Cindy, I think it's time that I start getting a move on. I have to get myself to Fuchsia or Vermillion for a boat to Alola and then Unova. The quicker I get a move on, the quicker that I can get there. Best of luck Cindy. I hope by the time I come back that I'm hearing about your exploits on the news." I shook his hand and he gave me a wink before turning and leaving the PokeCenter. I moved my way over to the lounge area and sank into one of the comfy chairs that were spread about in the space.
Sighing from the exhaustion of a long day, I pulled out my phone and decided to do a quick scan of Kong and Polli to check where we were in terms of training. I wanted to get some battles in the Battle Club with Heracross if he passed the evaluation but I needed to prepare for the possibility that he didn't. I pulled out Kong's Pokeball first and scanned it with the Pokedex feature.
Mankey (Kong)
Gender: M
Type: Fighting
Prowess: B
(HP, Attack, Sp. Def and Speed)
Ability: Defiant
Moves: Scratch, Leer, Focus Energy, Encore, Spite, Fury Swipes, Low Kick, Seismic Toss, Swagger, Protect, Rock Tomb, Ice Punch and Cross Chop
Type Energy Proficiency
Normal: C
Fighting: C]
Ghost: D]
Rock: F
Ice: F]
Kong has shown some serious improvement from our venture through Viridian Forest. His Fighting proficiency had finally overtaken his Normal proficiency after all of this time. It seemed that learning Cross Chop during the fight against the Rocket had been the push he needed to cross that threshold. I was a little disheartened by his Ice-type proficiency though. We had been trying to get a solid grasp of Ice Punch while in the forest but had struggled to get it down. If we wanted Ice Punch to be our ace in the whole for the Viridian Gym we would need to put our nose to the grindstone.
I placed Kong's Pokeball bag in its place and grabbed Polli's for a scan.
Poliwhirl (Polli)
Gender: F
Type: Water
Prowess: B
(HP, Sp. Att, Sp. Def and Speed)
Ability: Water Absorb
Moves: Bubble, Hypnosis, Water Gun, Pound, Haze, Mud Shot, Encore, Protect, BubbleBeam and Rain Dance.
Type Energy Proficiencies
Water: C]
Psychic: [D
Normal: D]
Ice: [E
Ground: D]
I sat for a second before rereading Polli's scan. And then again. And one more time for good measure to confirm what I was seeing. Polli's Prowess rating had increased. How in the world did that happen? I hadn't used a Rare Candy on her or anything of the like so how did it happen?
Not only that but Polli's Proficiencies had grown a lot across the board. The only one that hadn't improved was her Psychic proficiency which was understandable. We had been ignoring the use of Hypnosis for a while in favor of training other moves. I made a mental note to increase our training in that regard. It would be handy to have a status move to be well-trained for our gauntlet battles. A status could change the course of a battle immensely and it was an important skill to train.
Still, though, my eyes wandered back to Polli's Prowess rating. I was completely baffled at how it could have increased. The only known ways of increasing a Pokémon's prowess like that was to use a Rare Candy or having a held item as a catalyst of energy for their evolution. Something like a Miracle Seed for Grass types or a Charcoal for Fire Types. And to my knowledge, neither I nor Polli had a Mystic Water lying around.
My mind went back to the weird experience during the final moments of the encounter with the poacher. For a moment there I felt…connected to Kong and Polli. I had seen the battle through Kong's eyes in the final moments. I had felt their frustrations and pains in their struggle to survive the fight. I had felt their emotions. Their angered at the Rocket for daring to try and attack their trainer.
Could that have possibly impacted Polli's Prowess? I would have to ask Uncle and check the Net for any other factors that could impact it. That would have to wait for the morning though because I was exhausted. The adrenaline and nerves had finally worn off leaving behind the soreness of my muscles and the heaviness of my body. I quickly went back up to the counter to secure a room before making my way towards it.
I made mental notes to check the Net about Prowess factors and to call my Uncle in the morning. That was a phone call I was not looking forward to making. I could almost hear the sound of his disappointment at my ignorance and that wasn't something I wanted to tackle before a good night's sleep.
Opening the door to my room, I plopped my bag on the ground and laid Kong and Polli's Pokeballs on the nightstand before throwing myself onto the bed. It wasn't even a minute later before my eyes sealed shut and sleep claimed my body
And that's that! For those of you wondering about an earlier notification, I was editing some older chapters because it seems that does not like the plus sign and won't let me use it for indication proficiency strength. As such I had to go back and swap them over to brackets in order to have a workable system of indicating a proficiency on the verge of upgrading or having been recently upgraded.
As such I'd like to give a shout out to LadyDoragon for noticing this as I hadn't caught that mistake in my rereading of my earlier chapters!
Life has been wonky again as I had another schedule change with different days and different hours. I really hate my job but unfortunately it is one of the better paying in my area so I don't want to ditch it until I manage to find something better. On the bright side, the days off are better suited for me to write during them so hopefully that means I can crank out chapters for y'all a bit quicker!
In other news! I've been playing through the Teal Mask lately and that's been pretty fun. Sinistcha seems like a really cool Pokemon and seems to have a bit of merit for a VGC support appearance so I'm playing around with my friend on how to incorporate it into his team.
And lastly a question for you dear readers! Where do you think Kitakami is located in the Pokemon world? As far as my best goes, I'd place it between Sinnoh and Kanto/Johto. There's so many Pokemon from those regions that were brought back and if you look at the real world geography it would roughly fit that area. Let me know your thoughts on it as Im genuinely looking into using Kitakami as a possible setting for this story.
As always Hydrate as much as you can! Until next time!