Riven and Kai walked into the house around sundown, carrying various things. Setting some grocery bags down on the table, Riven whipped his head around to see Isole and Cormac playing some chess in the living room.

"You didn't get the longcoat? Should have gotten the longcoat," Cormac remarked, moving a rook to take out a pawn. "Gives you more of an effect. Also makes for one incredibly badass silhouette. Might certainly help our rep here in Kalos, because let me tell you, it's severely lacking. You could be our poster boy, showing up and saving the day from an evil pokemon, then mysteriously vanishing. Very dramatic. Very romanticized. Kalosians eat that stuff up, you know."

"Good for them, because it isn't happening." Riven rolled his eyes. "Yes, the coat looked insanely cool, but I want to be a ghost, remember? Get in, do the job, get out. Not wear something extremely attention grabbing while saving the day. You know very well how it turned out for me the last time I decided to be a good samaritan."

"Alright, fine. Didn't mean to disrupt the stick you have shoved up your ass…" Cormac muttered, frowning at the loss of his bishop.

"At least it isn't my head," Riven coughed into a fist.

"Oh? You want me to shove my foot in there too-"

"I tried to convince him to get the coat!" Kai piped up. He nodded at Isole, trying to cool down tempers before the punches started flying. It worked, seeing as how the other two broke eye contact and focused their attention elsewhere."He insisted that he would only wear one if it wasn't so, erm, 'god damned fucking hot'." He coughed into a fist. "His words, not mine."

"It was somewhat in the thirties today," Isole mentioned. "I almost melted it was so hot."

"Thirties? What do you mean hot? That's nearly freezing!" Cormac said incredulously. "You're just an ice queen that lives in a freezer, that's why. Can't handle the heat."

"Thirties as in Celsius, idiot."

"Bah. Celsius. Who even uses that?"

"Every region, except one." Isole smiled smugly back at him. "So so backward."

"Which one?" Riven asked.

They all stared at Cormac.

"I was, uh, born in Unova. We use the other scale there..."

"Wait, the F symbol on the signboards? I saw that in Slateport too."

"See, I told you they used Fahrenheit somewhere else." Cormac grinned. "You're full of shit, Ice Queen! It's not just Unova then, hah."

Isole snorted. "Maybe they use it because Hoenn gets so many Unovan immigrants seemingly unable to grasp the idea of what Celsius is? In case you didn't notice, they use both there. Your region is the only one that uses the other one almost exclusively. Let's not even get started with metric, that almost started a war once."

"Do you always kill my moment, Ice Queen?"Cormac frowned.

"You set yourself up."

"God," Riven interrupted. "Enough flirting with each other, makes me want to stab myself just watching."

"Please do. I have a perfectly good spork here," Cormac suggested. He waved it in the air.

Riven ignored him.

"I need to know what I'm going to do tomorrow when I head over to Santalune. That's the place, right? Kai told me you went to get me a Nav device so I don't get lost getting there. Wouldn't want to be late and ruin your 'rep' now. I'm sure that'd be just dandy for your boss, the red headed devil incarnate."

Isole blew out an exasperated breath, using her queen to violently knock out an enemy knight. "I'm going to ignore your comment at the beginning there, but yes, we did get you this." She took out a phone sized object out of her bag and all but flung it at him. Riven caught it with a slight oomph, flipping it open. "It's a holo caster. You'll only be able to contact us and any number within Kalos, but no interregional calls, in case you get any ideas."

"Oh, I have plenty of ideas."

"Good, because I don't trust you enough to let you carry them out," she smiled sweetly, watching him open up the phone. "You're familiar with one right?"

He stared at it for a few seconds."How do I turn it on again?"

"My god. Green button. Push it. It has a power sign. Two years here and you still can't operate a holo caster even though you owned one?"

"That was a joke," Riven deadpanned, pushing the on button. "Wanted to see how you'd react."

"If that's your sense of humor, I'd rather take someone who makes lame puns." Her expression twisted into mild horror. "Actually no, I take that back. I'll take dead and dry."

"We're similar then. Ice is as cold as death," Riven shrugged. The caster lit up, showing the home screen."Phones. I hardly ever used mine anyway."

"Not even for pictures? I hear taking pictures of your food is a thing."

"That's a stupid habit. Why do people do that? Last time I tried looking at my pictures I ended up changing the language settings to something ending with an -ese?" Riven explained, "Bunch of unintelligible symbols. Nothing but nonsense, who even uses that?"

Kai choked on his tea.

"I think it's a good idea that thing's untraceable," Cormac remarked to Isole."Captain tech-savvy here might find that useful, considering his tech skills are the equivalent of a six year old's. Actually, I think a six year old's are better."

"I will punch you," Riven warned.

"Try it," Cormac sneered.

"ENOUGH," Isole ordered. "Stop flaunting testosterone everywhere. It's sickening. You're going to be stuck together for a good year, so strap in and shut the hell up. Why do I have to live with three guys again?"

Cormac smiled lecherously. "Heh, look at the silver-lining, you can get attacked on all-"

"Finish that and die," she hissed, smiling icily. Riven and Kai both took a step back as frost bloomed on the floor.

"Mercy?" He pleaded, giving her his best baby Furfrou look.

"Keep your perverted comments to yourself." She looked at Riven. "As for your assignment, I'm pretty sure Kai gave you most of the details already. It's fairly simple; go to Santalune, meet up with Viola, and check the place out. Assist them with taking down the pokemon, get paid, and leave. Easy."

"Yeah," Riven nodded. "Why do I have a sinking feeling of dread, despair, and rapidly approaching physical pain or trauma? I don't want to get hospitalized again. Getting impaled hurts just a bit, second to stubbing your toe."

"You'll be fine." She waved a hand. "It's probably just a wild Yanmega or something."

Just a Yanmega? Right… Does she realize how fast those things are? Easy. I'm sure it would be if I had some damn pokemon with me, Riven grumbled, en route to Santalune City. He'd left the Lumiose gate two hours ago, making it about halfway towards the city, according to his holo caster.

Cursing his situation, he looked up at the sky, a beautiful blue stained with wisps of white below an admittedly much too warm afternoon sun. He wiped the sweat off his brow, taking in the scenery of route 4.

Fairly strange layout, considering he hadn't expected a hedge maze to be spread out across its entirety. It almost looked too clean to be a route. Gardeners trimmed hedges and ferns, battling occasionally when on their breaks. Beginner trainers scurried up and down the road, challenging practically anything that moved to a battle. They somewhat seemed to know what they were doing, so Riven guessed they had all beaten Viola, or were coming down from Lumiose like him.

The more fearless trainers kept staring at him, eyes issuing unspoken challenges as he walked past. Some of the braver ones came up to him asking to battle, but were disappointed to find out that he had no pokemon to battle with, so his trip went largely undisturbed. The hedge maze was fairly impressive, but since he was on a task, and didn't feel like sticking around longer than he should, he went straight through to Santalune. Traversing routes took substantially less time when avoiding battles and having no pokemon to battle with.

Arriving in Santalune some time later, he checked in at a nearby hotel Isole and Cormac had arranged for him and changed clothes. Putting on his facemask, he headed down to the gym. One peek into the gym convinced him that traversing the spider web of shit Viola had going on in there was a complete waste of time, so he informed the doorman about the "urgent" business, and to contact the leader immediately.

She came out of the gym shortly after trouncing a poor boy and looked up at Riven, slightly intimidated by the all black attire and facemask. Her look only deepened as she saw the rather large case behind his back.

"Ummmm. Hi? Are you the, uh, guy? That they were going to send, I-I mean…" She stammered, watching his hands as well as his waist for any signs of weapons or pokeballs. "They said you'd come soon but I didn't know when so-"

"Calm down, Viola," Riven said, gesturing with his hand. Sell it. Pretend to know what I'm doing and it should be enough. "I know mercenaries have certain reputations, but a ruthless merc wouldn't be taking a job helping rangers now would he? But that isn't important. Where are they?"

"They're in the ranger outpost near the Santalune Forest." Viola swallowed. "...That facemask makes you look really ominous."

"Is that not the point?"

"Ummm… should I answer that?" Viola asked, shifting her feet. Her eyes were fixated on anything but Riven's. It was kind of funny actually, seeing how uncomfortable people got when faced with an ominously dressed individual with a mean look and imposing presence.

"Probably not." Riven shrugged. "Fill me in on the way, my partners didn't tell me much, I'm afraid. They said to ask you. So, care to show me the way, Viola?"

"Y-yes!" She agreed, leading him toward the forest after she changed her clothes and geared up. For the first gym leader, she had an awful lot of spare reserve pokemon. Probably her "real" team, not the ones she used for gym battles, just like most of the beginner leaders.

Viola trailed ahead of him, taking pictures for god knows what reason. Riven admired how similar the Santalune forest looked to the Petalburg Woods. From the sun obstructing canopy of the trees to the rays of light shining through the dimly lit shadows, it very much reminded him of where that pack of Ariados nearly murdered him. Although… it was a bit troubling that was the strongest memory he had of the place.

"Erm, what's your name?" Viola asked abruptly, putting down her camera. "If you don't mind me asking? I just, you know…"

Riven shook his head, distracted by a Spewpa that was eyeing him with curious intensity. "Pardon me, I was a little distracted. What did you say?"

"I asked what your name was," Viola repeated, uneasy. "If you don't mind, that is."

"As far as you know, my name is Maximus Prime, Bob, or Fluffykins. I don't really care." The blonde looked downcast, her eyebrows furrowing. Riven walked up next to her, waving a hand. "Look, it's nothing personal. I'm not trying to be an antisocial dick here, but the anonymity comes with the job. Just safety, that's all."

"Y-yeah, I get it," she said quietly.

They walked absently, the only sound able to be heard was the sound of wild pokemon scampering about and fletchlings chirping in the trees.

"How much further?" Riven started, feeling a bit bored. "These are fairly large woods, you could easily get lost here. Bit nostalgic, actually."

"Really? This reminds you of a place? Where?"

"Petalburg Woods."

"Oh! You're from Hoenn? I've never been there myself, but my sister has. Are the woods as beautiful as they are here?"

"Sure. Best part was the pack of Ariados that tried biting my face," he chuckled. Amusing to him, but not to Viola, who looked like she got blindsided by a brick.

"Ummm…" She trailed off.

"I have a bad sense of humor."

"T-the outpost is an hour's walk straight ahead. I'm just going to go… over there." She stuttered, speedwalking ahead and fiddling with her camera lens. She pretended to snap photos, probably to ease up the discomfort.

Riven noticed her unease and the way she kept sneaking suspicious looks at him. He held back snickers, this was so fun."Viola."

"Yes?"

"You're not used to dealing with my kind, are you?"

She stopped to look at him, then grimaced, shaking her head. "No. We- the league- has only turned to mercenaries recently because of the increasing pokemon attacks and the rangers being spread thin. Beginner trainers getting killed scared the league, and that it happened in the Santalune forest…"

I wasn't expecting cheery rainbows to fly out of her mouth but damn, that turned grim really quick. "Increasing pokemon attacks?"

Green eyes held faint surprise. "You haven't heard? Increasingly strong pokemon have been ending up in places far from where they should be, and we don't know why. The rangers have been trying to fight them, but these pokemon are much much stronger than the regular kind, and very aggressive. So now the gym leaders have to help, especially after… that."

Explains why a group of Scyther wanted to make me into a carving figurine."But even the gym leaders aren't enough, so they turned to the best worst thing," Riven concluded. "Not sure if that's a wise decision, but desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. Can't complain though, it's money."

Still, it bothered him considerably. How could the League expect the gym leaders to handle someone else's job? That was like asking someone to be a scout and a frontline fighter simultaneously. It just couldn't be gym leaders couldn't be everywhere at once, they had duties in their respective towns. They weren't respected for no reason, after all.

However, it spoke volumes about the state of unpreparedness the League both in Hoenn and in Kalos were experiencing. No contingency plans or backups- practically a recipe for disaster. There were many things wrong with the system at the moment, and the glaring weaknesses of it worried him greatly.

And if they let things go as they were…

Sinnoh. The definition of spiraling straight into shitstorm.

As for not having enough rangers, it was a by-product of the absolutely horrid volunteer based system of recruiting. Living in secluded outposts in the wild and patrolling routes while holding back in battles must have been counter-intuitive to the trainers that made up their recruit majority. The danger involved in fighting those aggressive pokemon must have turned off many potential rangers too, further dwindling the pool of would be recruits. Running the risk of dying did that to people. At least ones that weren't used to getting killed on a regular basis.

Can't be helped."This is one of those monster pokemon, isn't it?" Riven asked, tone bleak.

"Yeah."

"Fun. You said they normally aren't that strong. How strong is this one? Like a trained pokemon?"

The blonde breathed out again, shoulders drooping. "Worse… Victory road level, maybe high gym circuit level at the least? It's still way above anything the rangers can handle. Or me by myself. And it's already repelled attacks against it. So many hospitalized people and pokemon… That's why we called you."

"As pokemon bait?" Riven snorted sardonically.

"Huh? Of course not!" Viola blurted out, waving her hands as if apologizing. "The woman I spoke to said you had years of experience fighting extremely aggressive and deadly pokemon. She said you were a professional and that you've done this before, so we didn't have to worry about you."

Don't have to…? Riven's eyelid twitched. He laughed darkly to himself. Expendable. I missed being expendable. Who doesn't? Damn it, Ice Queen. Just because I fought war trained pokemon doesn't mean I'm looking to get myself actively murdered. Definitely going to suck.

When they got to a compound further into the forest, they were greeted by rangers wearing red berets emblazoned with the Kalos ranger emblem and matching red uniforms. Riven got some uneasy looks and suspicious stares, but they let him pass, probably as uncomfortable with letting a mercenary walk into the building as Viola was.

Coming to a planning room, six rangers were standing around a circular table, drawing plans. They noticed Riven and Viola walk in, giving them pause. An older ranger with a graying beard saluted her with a curt hand gesture, followed by the other five.

"Viola," said head ranger Sargos. "We were waiting for you."

The gym leader gave him a small smile and introduced herself to the others. She saw them watching Riven and swallowed. He looks so… out of place. I better do something before one of them says something to get him angry. I don't know what he's carrying in that case. "Ummm, this is… erm…"

"Prime," Riven said plainly. "Just call me Prime."

"Well then, Prime, I suppose you're the specialist the League sent over?" Sargos said, sizing him up. "Must be hot in those clothes, with how humid it is today."

"In hindsight, bringing black was probably not a wise decision," Riven admitted. Look menacing, they said. Sure, if the air didn't feel like hot soup.

"I'm sure it wasn't. But where are my manners? I'm the head ranger, Sargos. These are my enforcers; Targis, Pierre, Aline, Volma, and Andre."

Riven nodded at them.

"We will be the ones taking on the aberrant," Sargos continued. "You will assist us in quelling this beast, correct?

"Aberrant… Is that what the rangers call these monster pokemon?" Riven asked, eyebrow raised. "Interesting term."

"Yes. Since the attacks started, they've started to be referred to as aberrants, due to their deviance from usual behavior. Is that an issue?" Sargos asked, still analyzing him with those aged eyes.

The two men stared at each other for a few seconds. Riven closed his eyes, chuckling silently. "No. It's just- haven't you ever wondered if this is what pokemon are truly like?"

"Of course not!" Volma refuted, appalled. "Pokemon are friendly creatures!"

"She's right. Pokemon aren't like this, that's why these are deviants and have to be stopped," Aline agreed. The others nodded, determined. "They're just angry."

"Because they're different from what you perceive to be normal, you think they're deviants?" Riven glossed over them, steely eyed. "You keep saying 'quelling' and 'stopping'. But when I look at you all, I can't help but feel that you think these aberrants can be trained, and reformed. Well let me tell you why that's wrong. And why you've failed at stopping it so far."

"And why's that?" Targis asked carefully. He was holding just a little tighter onto his rope coil.

"You think pokemon are friendly creatures?" Riven grinned viciously beneath the facemask. "You can't be more wrong. Domesticated pokemon are friendly. But wild ones? There are no rules in the wild, and if these aberrants come from the deep wilderness where trainers don't dare venture, then you have to abandon that train of thought right now. I've seen what some of them can do to people. Flamethrowers that melt skin and bone, reducing them to nothing but black ash. Fangs that rip and tear muscle and flesh apart, and the messes they create. It's not a pretty place, no matter what you believe. These things are out there, and they're vicious."

The rangers looked positively horrified, enough to remain in astonished silence.

But Pokemon bred for warfare are far worse. And judging by the state of this world, no one has seen them for three thousand years. They're lucky."Tell me, rangers, how many pokemon have you killed?"

"None. My rangers don't kill pokemon," Sargos said sternly. "Hmph. I should've known better than to have trusted this malicious cretin for this line of work. All of you want to solve everything with as much violence as possible, just because it's easy. We believe in mercy. Unlike you."

"Viola," Riven called, flexing his fingers.

"Yes?"

"Remember how I told you that I felt nostalgic about the woods?"

"Y-yeah?"

"Well I feel nostalgic about something else." Riven took off the case, setting it down on the floor. He unzipped his jacket, removing it and also setting on the floor. The other rangers warily clutched pokeballs and their rope coils, waiting for him to do something drastic.

But he didn't take out a knife, or a gun, or even a pokeball. His hands grasped the lower hem of the shirt and lifted it upwards, taking it off completely. Riven stood in the room, bare-chested.

Instead of surprise, both Viola and the gym leaders stared in shock. The mercenary that had just took off his shirt stood in the center of the room, showing the worst scars they'd ever seen on a person. A jagged vertical scar ran from clavicle to waist, with various other jagged scars from similar cuts and gashes. They were treated, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the wounds must have been severe, possibly life-threatening.

"My first day of being a trainer, I was walking to Oldale, watching the surroundings with my team behind me. Sun was nice out. Blue sky, white clouds. Pokemon running up and down, just like any beginner trainer route would be. And then-" He shook his head, admiring the irony. "Then I heard this buzzing. And where this buzzing went, parts of the forest got shredded to pieces. And all at once, things went to shit." Traced a finger along the largest scar. "Scyther. An entire swarm. The same swarm that killed three other trainers two months before that. The one that almost killed me and my Absol. I spent ten days in the hospital glued to a bed."

Viola paled. Ten days? So little... Is he lying?

"I barely survived. And so did my pokemon. I was lucky. I had weapons. I could defend myself." Riven looked at Sargos in the eyes, gaze piercing. "I had swords. Those other three trainers? Those trainers that your aberrant killed? They're the same. They didn't have swords. They didn't have any weapons at all. Their pokemon couldn't protect them, so they died. And you know what the rangers did about that swarm? Absolutely nothing. If I hadn't come along and ended them before they did me in, they would have killed someone else. And the cycle would have continued, turning on and on and on."

The rangers looked at each other, swallowing.

"So be their swords."

They looked up at Riven, unexpected surprise in their eyes.

"Be the swords that slay the monsters that prey on the weak. But remember." He unzipped the case on the floor, brandishing his own, its razor edge shining in the light of the room, pointing at Sargos.

"What a sword strikes, it cuts. It hurts. It is not a tool of mercy. It's made to kill, nothing else. A sword without an edge is not a sword, but a useless piece of metal. No better than a metal stick." He put the blade away. "If you let this aberrant live, it will kill again, and on whose hands will that blood be? On the monster? Or the ones who let it live?"

Riven turned around, swinging the case on his back.

"We don't want another Sinnoh on our hands. It wouldn't be good for anyone. Don't let the cycle continue. Break it. We shouldn't waste any time." For a split second, Viola swore she saw a flash of red in his eyes. "Let's go hunt us a monster."

Rather short. But I will have another chapter up sooner this time. You might have expected action this time, but you'll get your due next time, I think. Maybe.

Dzk: Yes, it was fairly obvious. I was aware a long time ago. Dramatic irony is a thing. The readers know, but the characters don't. However, the full story isn't there. Isn't that infuriating? Heh. Heh.

Seas: Keep up! Loads and Loads of Characters. A protagonist doesn't make up the story himself, and since most of the canon characters are pretty much rooted in place most of the time, I can't have them pop out at will. Only happenstance, so OCs it is. Hopefully, they don't end up static characters, even though sometimes that isn't a bad thing.

Vera: Thank you!

About battles and type weaknesses

The problem with translating gameplay elements into a story is factoring in logistics and how these attacks would play out in a supposed real battle. As with all battles and fights, how something does depends on a large host of factors. If a rock type were to be chucking rocks at a dragon type, the pokemon throwing the rocks would have to know how fast to throw the rock, where to lead the shot, how fast the dragon is flying, is it being attacked, and how high it is. In a non controlled environment(which is more or less standard in this story), many things fly out of the god damn window. No pun intended.

The dragon isn't confined to a specific area, or to any rules for that matter. It'd be like shooting a bebe gun at a flying sparrow. It's possible to hit it, but it'd be damn hard. Unless the trainer is a seriously intelligent mathematician that can calculate trajectories like lightning, or the pokemon is a god damn genius, those rocks aren't going to hit anything. Unless of course, it's rock spam, but that's just hit or miss tactics. So, while in theory a certain type is more effective than another, in a logical perspective, speed and tactics are far more important. And to quote Erwin Rommel, "Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success."

After all, what good is hitting like a truck if you can't hit anything?