The next morning saw Ken up with sunrise as he prepared for the day ahead. Sandra had gone back to her accommodations so it was just him and his team this morning. After a quick breakfast, and Absol looking over the truck to give it the go-ahead to roll out, Ken went into the convenience store at the truck stop and stocked up on about a week's worth of supplies; there was no telling what could happen on ice road run and he wanted to be ready for anything.
With the truck stop bathed in the orange glow of the new dawn Ken and Fennekin took their positions at the front of the truck. Ken checked the day's weather forecasts on his cell phone, programmed the GPS, and started up Truck #653.
"What do you say we take the coast road once we get through the tunnel this morning?" Ken asked his Pokémon. "It should be pretty."
"Fen fen," Fennekin barked in agreement.
Ken shifted into gear and slowly pulled out of the truck stop. The first stop was the Janko Mining Equipment factory where a GS Transport container had been packed with the equipment for the mega stone mine. The equipment was a mix of everything but most of it was drills, cutting heads, and roof supports for underground operations. The container was quickly attached to Ken's truck and after a little paperwork the journey began properly. As the glow of sunrise gave way to the bright start of a new day Truck #653 was already headed out of town over a bridge with Oreburgh City's many smokestacks fading into the rearview mirror.
Ken's journey today would start out on I-Route 207. He planned to drive up toward Mount Coronet, Sinnoh's highest peak, and traverse under it via its long road tunnel before enjoying a nice scenic drive up the coastline to Snowpoint City. He hoped to make the drive north in one day then make his delivery over the ice to Glacier Peak Island tomorrow.
The Mount Coronet Road Tunnel is a man-made wonder. While the walking path for trainers that winds through the mountain is tricky, with multiple levels, the road tunnel is a straight seven mile/11.27 kilometer shot right under the heart of the mountain. It was longer, deeper, and went through much harder rock than the Pallet Road Tunnel back in Kanto. The tunnel took three years to dig and another two to build it up into the transportation marvel it is today. There was a toll to use the tunnel, paid at a toll booth on its northern end, but it was such a time saver compared to the winding mountain roads it largely obsoleted that it was still hugely popular with almost all truckers. For safety, trucks hauling dangerous goods, like fuel tankers or rigs carrying explosives, were banned from the tunnel.
The road toward the tunnel was busy with big rig traffic even at this early hour. Ken had a nice chat on the CB radio with a Petro Sinnoh tanker driver before she peeled off onto an alternative route. The roads were smooth and traffic was moving briskly. Ken thought it was almost too good to be true, a nice moment to relax before the tougher parts of this assignment later on, but quickly that illusion was shattered as the red brake lights of the trucks in front of him came on. Ken also braked as traffic backed up. Fennekin looked puzzled as to what the stoppage could be. Then the radio buzzed to life.
"May as well put it in park boys, the road is trashed," came another trucker's voice. "It's some Team Rocket Tauros crap again, they came rolling through here looking for something, trouble most likely I reckon, and provoked a wild Tyranitar in the process. The big green troublemaker rampaged right across the highway and tore the whole thing up, but at least it drove off the grunts."
"Anyone hurt?" came another driver on the radio.
"Negative," said the first trucker. "It thankfully didn't get any vehicles or heavy infrastructure. They've got some Hot Patchers on it with a road roller and repaving equipment. We'll be rolling here again in an hour, maybe two."
"10-4," came the second driver.
Ken knew about the Hot Patchers, that was the nickname given to the emergency infrastructure rebuilding crews that every region employed to quickly execute repairs or reroute traffic when Pokémon-related issues damaged roads, bicycle paths, trainer routes, train tracks, or other transportation corridors. Their name came from the hot patch asphalt that they often used to patch potholes and other road surface damage. With hundreds of years of experience dealing with issues like this even total devastation could be rebuilt in a few weeks. The damage today wasn't too severe and the crew had already releveled the land with a bulldozer and were laying fresh asphalt with a paver. They even already had a paint convoy on hand to reline the road. Ken was confident he'd be back moving soon but for now he could only wait.
Traffic, including both big rigs and regular cars, was now jamming up on I-Route 207 with many drivers further back exiting off to seek alternate routes. Ken was nowhere near an exit through so he would have to stay put. He was sandwiched between a butter yellow box truck with big purple logos for Hisui Foods, a newer Sinnoh brand capitalizing on a recent fad of harkening back to the region's distant history when it was called Hisui, and a plain white sleeper cab big rig. Ken looked in his mirror and got a little nervous when he noted the white semi belonged to NQA Trucking.
Both the trucks sandwiching Ken's rig were variants on the 750 Eeveeliner, the big rig was a standard hydrogen-powered one but the smaller box truck had features that looked more like a diesel-powered model. Ken and Fennekin both took note of its chrome exhaust stacks, their hydrogen 750 Unova Special truck had a set too but it was just a feature that was retained as a mostly a stylistic choice. He wondered if that was the case with the box truck or if it was running on diesel. With little else to do Ken turned to the CB, reaching up for the microphone.
"This is Vulpix 3 in a GS Unova Special and I'm looking up the back door of a Hisui Foods box truck," Ken said. "You got your ears on driver?"
"Yeah, this is Trent Moroun in the box truck, what do you need?" replied the driver.
"I was just curious, you running diesel or hydrogen in that thing?" Ken said.
"She's all old school diesel," Trent replied. "This bad buy is a glider with a big old Marowako motor chugging it down the road."
Ken was mildly impressed. While hydrogen trucks were the industry standard now, they weren't universal and there were some roles where the diesel trucks were still preferred. Devon offered a factory diesel version of the 750 for customers who wanted them with several engine options including those from the well-known Unova company Virbank Diesel and Kanto's Marowako Motors. Even with something like engines there was some brand rivalry for truckers, with Fennekin noting a smirk on Ken's face as he put on his "Pure MC Power" trucker cap in support of MerrillChu Engines.
The important detail that Trent mention though was that his truck was a "glider," glider kits were the name given to brand new trucks that manufacturers built and sold without an engine or transmission. These trucks are generally sold to buyers who then install an engine and transmission of their choice. They were a bit controversial though because generally the engines they choose to install were older diesels that were not equipped with computerized emission control systems, these motors have a bit more power and better mileage than the newer diesels but at the tradeoff of spewing more pollution out the stacks. There were gliders that used the hydrogen motors too but older diesels were the most common, almost always as a cost savings measure in a business where the expenses can pile up quickly.
"Now, I got a question for you GS, what are you hauling?" Trent asked. "I got a big load of a margarine and flour bound for a bakery in Beach Rose Town. A nice short haul, there and back in one day."
"I've got mining equipment for Glacier Point Island," Ken said, his cargo not being one he needed to conceal. "Ice road here I come."
"Good luck," Trent said. "You'll need it on that deathtrap route."
"Aren't you boys going to ask me what I'm hauling?" came another voice.
"And who are you?" Ken asked.
"The name is Andy Austin and I'm running for NQA," replied the driver. "I'm right behind you with a full load of fertilizer headed up to Snowpoint City."
"Oh, well I best let you pass then," Ken replied. "I'll let you get up the road a ways so I don't have to smell all those Miltank pies all the way north."
"Relax, it's one of those artificial chemical ones so it's odorless," Andy replied. "They trust us with all kinds of stuff. I've only been with them about a week but with NQA it's already on the way."
Ken recognized that as NQA's marketing catchphrase. He shrugged at them having apparently yet another inexperienced driver.
"Yeah, well when you ship with GS we always try our very best," Ken replied with GS's slogan.
Fennekin chuckled at the joking. The conversion on the CBs remained light between the many truckers in the traffic jam but those in regular cars stuck alongside them found other ways to pass the time. Some checked their phones or listened to the radio. Unfortunately, one motorist just in front of Ken's truck in a convertible decided to pass the time with a cigarette. He casually smoked it down then flicked the butt away into the air paying no attention to where it went. The butt flew into the air and went right into the standard air induction snorkel on top of Trent's truck. It landed on a paper air filter and there was still enough heat in the butt that the filter started just ever so slightly to burn. Ken and Fennekin were looking over some paperwork at that moment and didn't see it and what happened next assured they weren't paying attention as the brake lights came off and traffic began to move again. The road was reopening.
Ken shifted into gear and off they went. He and Fennekin had no idea the situation they were about to find themselves in and that their trip through the Mount Coronet Road Tunnel might push them both harder than the Pallet Road Tunnel did. But even with danger simmering in front of them at least the situation couldn't get worse…or could it. A cell phone rung in the cab of Andy Austin's NQA truck.
"Hello," said Andy.
"Andy, this is Robert with Blast-Off Farm Supply," came an all-too familiar Team Rocket voice on the phone. "We're on our way north and wanted to check in on you and that load of ammonium nitrate you're hauling for us. Are you on schedule?"
"Eh, I'm a little behind," Andy said. "There's a traffic backup from some Team Rocket thing."
"That's alright," Robert said. "Don't worry, the time saved in the Mount Coronet tunnel will likely make up for any delays. We'll see you when you reach Snowpoint City. Stay safe out there."
The conversion ended. Robert, Ellee, and their Purrloin were already on the other side of the tunnel and headed north in their red sports car. The Latias had made it to Sinnoh but escaped Team Rocket again with its speed so they were redirected to return to their original plan of hijacking a load of mega stones coming out of the Glacier Point Island mine.
"Why did you buy a whole load of ammonium nitrate for the job ahead?" Ellee said. "We don't need a semi full to blast out that little bridge for the hijacking."
"Ammonium nitrate is both a fertilizer and an explosive, it was easier to disguise the load by making the purchase look like the latter," Robert said. "Besides we can take what we need and flip the rest to a real fertilizer distributor for a little profit on the side."
"Should what is essentially a bomb on wheels really be using that tunnel?" Ellee asked.
"No, but that rookie at the wheel doesn't know that and it will shave half a day off his travel time," Roger said. "He gets to Snowpoint quicker and we'll have more time to get out to the island and set the trap. NQA drivers aren't paid to ask questions and hiring rookies means they don't have the knowhow to smell a Rattata when they aren't told a load is dangerous. He sneaks through undetected and we get our stuff quicker. This is going to be a fun one."
Their sports car drove off into the distance.
AUTHOR NOTES
I just realized that I've been misspelling the Pokemon Marill as Merrill. Thankfully that's mostly just in the name of the engine company for Ken's trucks so we'll handwave that as MerrillChu being founded by, err, Merrill Jacobson of Johto and Chuck Harada of Kanto. They were two engineers who had a Marill and a Pikachu as their partner Pokémon respectively, named the company after themselves, and used their partners as the basis for the branding because of the similar names.
I thought about making the smoker Butch from Team Rocket but ultimately its too small a role to matter and while he's rumored to smoke there isn't enough evidence to justify it beyond the voice.