Unknown Month, Unknown Year
The sun hadn't even risen yet by the time Burr was out of her bed, switching on the lights throughout her flat. She nearly tripped over Jester who was half-on, half-off the bed, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as the Zoroark dozed. She half wished she could sleep like that.
She switched on her Xtransceiver, skimming the weather report for the day as she began putting on her work uniform. She had been a pokémon ranger for a long while now, and while Burr was a morning person, that's not to say that she never felt fatigued; especially after a night like last one.
"I think the headaches are finally starting to wear off," she rambled cheerfully to herself, careful not to trip over her partner pokémon as she tossed her nightwear into the laundry basket and pulled on her pack and steel-toed boots.
It was Monday. On any other day of the week- or the year for that matter- she'd be starting her commute to the ranger station in about five minutes' time. But things had changed, and she was just about to take off when she realized to her dismay that she had, as a matter of fact, donned her ranger uniform. It was Monday and Mondays meant that she would be helping out at Gear Station in Nimbasa which meant that she couldn't wear her usual uniform. Of course.
With a heavy sigh, she quickly slipped out of her uniform and changed into a different one; one that had been specifically tailored for her new job. She quickly donned a black cotton t-shirt and creased dark green dress pants. She slipped on a pair of black socks and dress shoes before grabbing a similarly dyed dark green jacket from a nearby coat rack. She grabbed the matching hat too.
Where there should've been a badge at the top denoting the signature icon of Gear Station was instead a green, black and blue badge with the symbol for a hurricane pinned neatly to the sash of the hat: a pokémon ranger badge. Anybody who wasn't in the know wouldn't be able to tell that she wasn't a depot agent despite the fact that she was certainly dressed to look the part.
She still didn't know the situation herself, but after her supposed 'near-death experience' a few months ago, she had been moved from active duty to reserves. That meant that instead of helping contractors and companies build infrastructure or regrow forests or something of actual use, she'd be watching fuzzy camera feed playbacks and patrolling dark tunnels the whole day. Just sitting around doing absolutely nothing worthwhile.
There'd been one singular extra task to her new station and it always took precedence over watching the cameras: serving as Subway Boss Emmet's personal battle assistant. And based on how confused the other depot agents were when she came in on the first day, she did some research.
Apparently, that position was one often kept empty by the big boss himself and it was allegedly impossible to earn the credentials for.
For starters, you had to have over four years of battling experience, at least one Elite Four or League victory under your belt, Emergency Ranger clearance, current year certifications in both BLS and CPR, a bachelor's degree for Information Analytics and then some, and finally, you had to have a recommendation letter from a battle facility alumni.
She found it to be both hilarious and somewhat terrifying that she only had four of those qualifications.
What confused her the most was when she had found out that she had been specifically requested by Subway Boss Emmet himself. There wasn't any given reason in the file. None at all. Some of the depot agents had even asked in her stead: nothing. And frankly, that unnerved her.
Boss Emmet was usually portrayed as the happy-go-lucky, often mischievous one of the former Subway Boss Twins. After his brother went missing and the whole scandal when the press suspected him of murdering his brother? He was definitely not the same man as before. If anything, he came off more like how his twin brother used to be: pensive, reclusive, and cold. She rarely heard anything in his voice that wasn't exhaustion or if not his actual voice that contemplative silence. Some days, the man didn't even talk at he needed something, it would be a quick command with little to no room for questions.
She knew she had it relatively easy when it came to her job. All she had to do was heal up his pokémon, equip them with the items the boss chose, and then sit back and watch as her new boss blew through each trainer like it was nothing but a joke to him. That kind of strength was both intimidating as hell and just full-on exciting. It never got old. Besides, she was picking pointers for what tactics to use when she eventually got the chance to challenge the Elite Four in the region.
He was a fair and easy boss to work for, but still…
Just before she left, Burr grabbed her belt containing her stylus and strapped it on, feeling much more confident and protected. Jester gathered himself off of the floor and stretched, taking his place at her side as they exited the small apartment complex and locked up behind them.
She gave the ranger station a fond glance as she passed it by. Soon, she assured herself. Soon, she'd be back to doing her usual work of helping out the people of the Unova region. That or taking up scouting duty in the northern or western forests. Hopefully, they wouldn't send her to scout the seas. But it had been half a year since her new change of station and Burr was beginning to wonder when it would change.
Despite the fact that her traveling expenses were paid for by her job, Burr still found it a massive headache to travel all the way to Undella Town just to hop on the subway line just to get to Nimbasa City. And that wasn't even accounting for the thirty-minute trek through Reversal Mountain which was practically crawling with pokémon this time of year.
After a whole hour of walking, figuring out the Unovan subway system for the umpteenth time, and then riding the reverse rail, Burr stepped off of the B-Line train into Gear Station.
She made her way through the busy halls and into the center station, stepping past a concession stand and into a well-lit hall toward an 'employees only' sign which she knew to be the door heading into the central office. Thankfully, somebody had had the common sense to put a key code on the door so that random joe-schmoes couldn't just waltz in thinking they were heading into the bathroom.
"What that- hey, are you new here?"
Burr stopped as one of the depot agents on duty came and gave her a serious once-over.
"Oi, that's just our undercover ranger. Let her be, Frasier."
"Thanks, Noah," Burr waved at the friendly depot agent, a buddy that she had met during her first days learning the ropes around the station. "You're not opening, are you Richter?"
"Nope. I was on the night shift, so I get to go home in about an hour."
"I don't envy you. I could never work a graveyard shift."
"Not a night person?"
"Not really."
She found her little space in one of the offices in the back room and set down her travel pack. She made sure her stylus was still on her person and then counted the pokéballs at her belt. "One, two, three, four, five, six-" her fingers went to the second belt below the first- "seven, eight, nine! Yup! The gang's all here."
One of the things she liked best about being a ranger was the fact that she could carry as many pokémon with her as she wanted, so long as she was on duty or if she had a qualifying reason to. The most she had ever carried at a time was almost twenty-three and that was after being assigned to re-catch a professor's lost research group. Now, she carried only nine. Six of them were her primary team that she had caught in Unova. The other three were extras, only in case of emergencies: an Onix, an Audino, and a Beartic. Just in case.
She knew the moment one of the Subway Bosses came in by the loud clicking of shoes on polished linoleum. Like metal on metal. Has to be Boss Emmet, she assumed. Cilan didn't wear dress shoes.
The hall outside slowly came to life as quiet but pleasant greetings echoed across the main office. The door creaked open and a new cacophony of noise flooded in as the morning wave of depot agents arrived.
Burr sighed. So much for a chance to relax or even charge her Xtrans for that matter. She reached into her locker on the far side of the room and pulled out her id badge and her administrative access card. She clipped a ring of keys to her belt and stuffed them into her pockets before making sure that every item she could need for a search was on her person.
Once she was sure that everything was where it was supposed to be, she checked her uniform over. Jester gave her a snicker of approval from where he sat on the bench, snidely running a paw through its mane as though making sure he looked tidy too. Burr ruffled her partner's fur.
"That's enough out of you." With a quick snap of her fingers, Jester was back in his pokéball. With that settled, Burr bowed herself out of the room to start the day.
"Good morning. Yup. You're right on time as per usual," Boss Emmet's voice spoke from his position near the main auxiliary screens. He hadn't yet donned his signature white-and-red coat, taking a long drink from a cup of what she presumed to be coffee as he scanned the camera feeds from the eastern subway tunnels, his eyes not leaving the screens.
"Good morning, Boss Emmet," Burr replied carefully. "Are we doing regular doubles or super doubles first thing today?"
"I am Emmet. Super doubles will be our first arrival this morning, A challenger postponed his challenge yesterday... He'll be sure to come through soon. Please get the crate of status orbs and herbs from the storage room and bring them to me. Once you do that, place Durant and Garbodor into the recovery machine."
"Yes, sir. I'll be right back."
"Verrry good. Please do that."
Burr knew the schedule well enough by then. She would work with Boss Emmet for two hours on one line and then take a fifteen-minute break. From there, she would look through all of the camera feed clips sent her way and then survey the tunnels with the most occurrences. After that would be her hour lunch and then after that, she would work with Boss Emmet for the remaining hours of the shift depending on the number of registered challengers.
The day seemed to pass in a slow slog until midday when one of the depot agents had met her the moment her and Boss Emmet had gotten off the E-Line train on the return line, fresh after the Subway Boss had utterly obliterated his awaiting challenger scheduled for that hour.
Apparently, the line to Anville Town had been blocked halfway through due to a warp in the tunnel. That was factually impossible. A warp? The walls were made out of concrete. You couldn't just warp concrete. Not after it had hardened, anyway.
Burr immediately dropped off her extra bag in the office and made her way to the gates of the H-Line, hardly noticing that somebody else was tailing her. She quickly pulled out her administrative card and skipped past the ticket gate, hurrying over to the conducting depot agent who was awaiting her arrival.
"What's this I hear about the wall being warped?" she asked the moment she was close enough.
"I- wait, who are you?"
"I'm the survey ranger assigned to Gear Station," Burr elaborated, pulling out her badge. "Now what's going on here?"
"Sorry. Uh- I'm not too sure myself," the agent admitted. He pulled out a smaller portable holographic auxiliary screen and tabbed over to an active map of the H-Line. "The agents in Anville are saying that their arriving train never came but we're still receiving active reports from the conductor. And here- midway through- see that weird spur in the tunnel wall? If you flip back to ten seconds before the camera started its third recording, it's not there at all."
"Huh." Burr supposed it could be the work of some ground or perhaps steel-type pokémon. Maybe a ghost-type. There was only one way to find out. "I'll head in through the ground tunnel and see what's going on. I'm deploying my ground-assist pokémon." She turned to realize that Boss Emmet had followed along and had been listening in on the ongoing situation.
"I am Emmet. How large is the spur in comparison to the tunnel?" he inquired.
"It's blocking half of the tunnel widthwise, boss. The tracks are completely undisturbed, though."
"Let me see the last communication with the H-Line."
Burr technically didn't have to wait for Boss Emmet to give her the go-ahead, but she stayed and waited. It would be stupid to waltz into an active subway tunnel to look for a rock spur, Arceus knows how far away it was.
Boss Emmet's emotions were quite easy to read and from the way his eyes narrowed and how his exhausted frown turned to a tight-lipped grimace, she could tell that whatever it was he had picked up on was anything but good.
"Page the main office," he commanded coldly. "Tell them to shut down all battle rails until we figure out what's going on. Take the H-Line off completely. Message the conductor of the train to apply the emergency brakes and lock the boarding doors. Keep all other passenger rails running at full speed." Boss Emmet looked up from the screen, his eyes still tracking something invisible back-and-forth across the projection. He then glanced up at the depot agent before him. "That is all."
So she had the go-ahead to continue? Great. She was just about to unlock the railings keeping the under-platform inaccessible to the commuters when someone cleared their throat loudly from behind her.
"You."
Burr turned. It was just her and Boss Emmet on the platform. She didn't like where this was heading. "Me?" she replied, faintly confused.
"You are responsible for documenting the disturbance. I know the tunnels best between us. I am Emmet and I will lead the way."
"Of course, sir," Burr nodded, ignoring how rangers weren't supposed to be accompanied by non-ranger escorts on survey missions. "Right behind you, boss."
Though a bit unorthodox, Burr called on her Onix to get both her and Boss Emmet to the scene faster than would be possible, the stone serpent sliding along the tunnel like a speeding bullet train. Boss Emmet called a halt as they arrived at the middle point where the train had initially disappeared and flicked on his flashlight. Burr recalled her Onix.
"Here we are," she mumbled to herself. She drew out her stylus and with a snap, she threw out the extended piece which lit up the length of the stylus line. "I'll take it from here, sir." She reached toward her belt and released two of her safeguard pokémon, Lilith, her Arcanine, and Scout, her Stoutland. "Lilith, you take the front, Scout, you take the rear. Ten paces, both of you."
Both of her partners gave an affirmative huff before taking their places and with each piece in their respective place (Burr made sure to keep Boss Emmet in her sights), they set off, their footsteps echoing like stones on water as they walked further down the dark tunnel.
"I am Emmet. Remind me what exactly a ranger is supposed to do in this situation."
Burr blinked at her boss, noting the sarcastic, almost acidic tone that overpowered his usual monotonous drawl. It was better than nothing.
"My job here is to make sure that if it's a pokémon causing this disturbance, to calm the pokémon down, direct them to somewhere safer, and try to figure out why the disturbance happened in the first place."
"And if it's not a pokémon?" Boss Emmet replied.
This wasn't the first time her boss had pried into what her work actually was. Little passive-aggressive questions here and there about what went into her reports and why his depot agents couldn't do them for her. Quite confusing when she considered the fact that he had quite literally endorsed her to take the position to do that job.
"If it's not a pokémon, then it's either a person- which is highly unlikely- or it's the work of a deity figure." Burr paused. "What legendaries does Unova have again? I know about the legendary dragons already. There's the swords of…?"
"-Justice," Emmet cut in, his voice laced with irritation and a hint of fear. "Cobalion, Verizion, and Terakion. Keldeo is not considered a member of the trio in central Unova."
"Right. Well, in case it's something like a deity pokémon or something of that ilk, I have to report it to the Ranger's Investigations Bureau, or RIB for short. They're licensed to capture legendary pokémon which more often than not possess abilities outside of what we as humans can understand. Much safer than, I don't know, asking some eleven-year-old to do it," she joked to herself.
"Abilities like what?" Emmet retorted, having completely ignored her quip.
Burr paused. Was it safe to actually answer that question? She risked a glance at her boss, almost immediately regretting her decision when she realized that his cold silver eyes were trained on her. How long has he been looking at me? She swallowed. "Think of abilities like… distorting time or warping space. I couldn't tell you much else; we lower rangers don't deal with legendaries all that frequently. All I do is make the reports and repel pokémon."
"I see…"
Burr risked another glance at her boss. He stared straight ahead, his eyes dull as he white-knuckled his flashlight. Right. Subway Boss Ingo had disappeared in these tunnels all that time ago. Well, not on the H-Line; he went missing in the A-Line. Was Boss Emmet thinking something along those lines too? …Maybe she should play it safe and stick closer to the man.
Lilith gave a warning growl as the tunnel began to hit its curve and Burr instinctively extended the length of her stylus line. Not good.
"Ranger Arc to Gear Station, do you read me? Over," Burr spoke into her Xtrans.
The tunnel certainly didn't look all too different apart from the very noticeable spur in the tunnel wall. It didn't look right in the slightest. The edges were smooth, almost like the tunnel had been built that way. It was a wedge and from the way that the depot agents had described it before, it had apparently grown to obscure a good chunk of the tunnel heading forward. It was almost like somebody had tried to section off the other half of the tunnel.
"Gear Station to Ranger Arc, I read you loud and clear. What's your location? Over."
"Gear Station, this is Ranger Arc. I've reached the spur with Subway Boss Emmet. We are actively observing the anomaly," she reported, flashing her light through the cracks in the spur. "The distortion seems to have grown larger from your last report and it now stretches further down the corridor. Will check for any definitive moment. Over."
She heard Boss Emmet stiffen behind her as his eyes landed on a spot on the floor, his eyes widening as he took a nervous step back. She followed his gaze, her eyes landing on what looked to be a small white crack in the wall radiating a strange ethereal light. The edges wavered, constantly fluxing as if about to widen or close up.
"It's the same. The very same," Boss Emmet observed, his hands moving to the pokéballs on his belt. Boss Emmet was trembling.
"You've seen it before?" The words came out of her mouth before she could correct herself and she winced at the expression of grief and hurt that overcame her boss. "Apologies, sir. You… you don't have to answer that question." She moved closer to the distortion, trying to ignore the sudden heat that radiated from the anomaly. "Now I'm no expert, but that doesn't look like the effects of a pokémon move."
"Don't get any closer," Boss Emmet commanded. "Step away from the yellow line. Hands and feet inside the vehicle, please and thank you. Safety checks-"
"I can understand your discomfort as being so close to this… thing," she acknowledged his concerns "-but I still have to do my job. I will take your warnings into consideration, though. May I take pictures? As soon as I'm done, we can leave."
"I am Emmet. Do as you must. The faster, the better."
As she moved to document the strange rip, she heard Boss Emmet release one of his pokémon behind her. Electricity crackled furiously and footsteps shuffled further away from her position. "Boss Emmet to Gear Station, what are the current coordinates of the H-Line car? Over."
"Gear Station to Boss Emmet. The current coordinates are E7, J10. Over."
"The car's not too far then?" Burr quipped. "We should be approaching K1 in a minute or two if we start walking. We could take the repair tunnels to get around… whatever is going on here."
"I am Emmet. The further we get away from that thing, the happier I'll be. Can we depart from this station? Now preferably?"
"Sure, sure. Hold your horses. Just let me send another report back to the station and we'll be on our way. Trust me, I don't like being down here either, sir." She tucked away her camera and motioned Lilith and Scout to come closer. "Ranger Arc to Gear Station, please notify the Nimbasa Ranger Station and the Lentimas Ranger Station of this anomaly. It appears to be stable but that cannot be confirmed. I am sending over my collected data now. Boss Emmet and I are making our way to the H-Line car to-"
"Gear Station to Ranger Arc, Code Yellow." The once-calm voice of the operator on the other side had suddenly become panicked. "I repeat, Code Yellow. We do not have visuals on the H-Line car or its twenty-three passengers as of now. We have lost contact with the H-Line car and are attempting to relink with the train's conductor. We advise you not to progress any further. Please make your way to Exit M and wait until we regain contact. Over."