Chapter 25: Cool guy

'Once I got some well deserved sleep, I woke up bright and early and headed down to the scrap yard for the day's work. Me and my crew-'

-"Karp..."

*sigh* 'Me and The Cooler Crew, spend the next couple days working together with the ranger guy, who I am told is named Riley, on sorting out human owned things vs what we are allowed to take. As a rule, most of whatever was fully destroyed, we got to keep. Sentimental stuff or junk like working ships we could borrow, but had to give back once the original owners came back. We also couldn't take any housing materials that were still standing and could be rebuilt, as much as we wanted to.'

'We did however push back on a few items. The boat we were using to give Chansey a place to rest functioned as a makeshift poke-center. For us water-dwelling pokemon, this was something we absolutely could not do without! In the end, Riley agreed to leave it as is until the actual poke-center could be rebuilt and Chansey had to go back to work. That said, they would see if they could get someone to build us a real aquatic poke-center once things had settled down. Additionally, they would send out nurses to check on us down by the shore regularly.'

'But in all the excitement, Riley got to wondering what we were using all this stuff for, which Chatty was more than happy to explain...'

'Results were mixed on how much of that spiel actually got through to the guy. Look, I know he's a miracle worker and all, but Chatty isn't one for waiting to make sure his message is understood before launching into the next topic.'

'Pushing the overly eager Tentacool to one side, I was able to summarize that there was another group of bad pokemon coming our way and we wanted to be prepared for anything.'

Riley looks over the name I drew in the sand, THE WARBAND.

-"I... I don't know what that is. Is this the name of those pokemon who want to battle your group? Like a turf-war thing?"

"No guy, from what Emperor tells me, they want to pillage this area and leave once they've gotten every resource they can grab. At least that's what they've done to the last two areas they've been to." Jessie points out to a small, injured Quilfish.

"See that? That's a survivor Emperor was able to bring back. He told us all about The Warband and how they operate. It's not good."
The ranger's face turns to horror as Pichu helps translate.

-"That's not good!"

"Yeah, I just said that."

-"And here I thought Tentacruel was the worst of the lot out here... I'm so sorry, Jessie. If we rangers were more aware of what was going on in nature, you wouldn't be burdened with all these attacks. But if what you're saying is true, then I need to contact the association to let them know about what's going on. I hate to ask, but do you think you could hold down the fort until I get back?"

*tentacle thumbs up*

-"Thank you. Truly, meeting you was a blessing in disguise. And don't worry, I plan to tell them everything I can about you and your predicament. We'll get you help, I promise!"

"Take your time, guy."

-"Pi?"

"Er, I mean, take your time Riley!"

-"Chu."

-"Right then, I'll need to write up a report and take witness statements... a bit short on those... Say, would it be too much trouble if-"

-"Tentacool! Tenta-Tentacool. Cool cool cool, ten-ten cool." A tentacle is wrapped around Chatty's squishy head.

"Please! Take this 'volunteer' with you! He's wordy as hell, but he knows just about everything around here! If you want an informant, nobody could be better!"

-"Ack! Okay okay, I get the idea! Stop hitting me with a rolled up jellyfish!"

-"Chu chu chu!" The little mouse can't contain it's laughter watching this dumb play of ours.

-"Alright then, I'll be away for a little over a week. Just keep things moving as you were before I got here. I'll try to bring back some useful information and a bit of manpower. Maybe the nurse to if I can swing it!"

"I'll hold you to that, friend. Good luck."

Riley calls on the aid of a Pidgeotto and, after capturing it with his ranger-issued styler, flies off for the north at high speeds. Dexter the Pidgey lands at Jessie's side as he watches the pair leave, squirming Tentacool gripped in claw.

-"...Pidgey pidge."

"Of course I let him take Chatty instead of you. Do you understand how much time I save when my daily reports are under 35,000 words?!"

-"Pid-gey!" Dexter's face flushes and they give a proud salute, taking off to complete their work.

'About two days later, we had another near miss.'

'The body of a robber lies on the ground. He probably came in hopes of stealing from the ruined houses or looting the abandoned market, but he made the mistake of trying to take from the pile of supplies we had gathered and was immediately set upon by wild pokemon.'

'Chansey confirmed it for us, he's not dead. Thankfully. But we would need a place to keep him tied up for the time being. At least until the ranger gets back and can properly take him into custody. That's not the difficult part though. The real hard part is that red mark on his chest. A blazing red "R" denoting this robber as a member of the vicious gang, Team Rocket.'