Disclaimer: Pokemon is owned by the Nintendo, Hakunon/Fate is owned by the all-powerful Mushroom(Nasu), and all that stuff.
"We need to move."
Hakuno tilted her head at Ren's statement. The younger girl was already packing her tent, and Tops was keeping an eye on their surroundings while having an annoyed expression.
"Why?"
Ren paused before her eyes flicked to her Father's Hitmontop, "Tops says so, and besides, it's a smart idea to not spend too long at once spot."
Hakuno wasn't sure that it was, but as long as they stayed in the designated area of the Safari Zone it should be fine. But Hakuno did notice that a few Zubats were lying around their camp knocked out.
Maybe migration? What did Zubat eat anyway?
"Should we have dinner first?" Hakuno held up the small bucket containing the few Ayus she captured.
Ren paused, her tent already fully down and mostly folded, "Tops?"
The Hitmontop glanced at the contents of the bucket before nodding.
"Alright sweet, I'll show you how to prepare this. I love fish."
Ren was nervous.
She couldn't show it to Hakuno, but the longer they stayed at their spot the higher chance that something could happen.
She planned to page the Rangers when they made camp again. She isn't like one of those Ninjas from Mahogany Town, but she liked to think she was decent enough at figuring out footprints for the most part, so when she saw fresh human tracks near the river she got concerned. More so when they were so fresh and obviously too large to be either her own or Hakuno's. Any human footprints can easily be said to be the Rangers, except...
Her dad and the Rangers swept the area before they arrived. And part of their little trip was to make sure they could handle some more stressful stuff. And all of their old tracks would've been covered by Pokemon by now, and a flock of Zubat coincidentally going towards their camp?
Yeah, she doesn't think it's a coincidence.
From Tops' description, they were a tad too coordinated to be wild, possibly remnants of Team Rocket's Pokemon. However, she had doubts that they would go after a Pokemon so much stronger than them for a petty reason like hunger, and it was Twilight, not nighttime. Those darned bats hated any form of daylight.
But, she wasn't about to drag someone with no badge to go after Poachers, it's best to leave that to the professionals. If she was alone with Tops it would be a whole separate matter, at least she would wait for the Rangers as a backup before charging in.
But, then again Hakuno was protected by a Celebi… so she would be safe regardless.
But she recalls the conversation with Dad before she left and he insisted that she make sure they don't do anything reckless.
Would working with the Rangers to stop the Poachers be reckless? To her knowledge, most of the Rangers were currently tied down in other activities they didn't have many to spare to do more than some basic checking on things... There might only be three or four Rangers in the Safari Zone for the night...
Probably.
No absolutely dangerous.
"Ren."
But, at the same time…
Could she even not do this? This was the whole reason she was training, to protect Pokemon and People from each other, to try and become a pillar of Johto. It was her duty as a Gym Trainer to help in these situations.
Maybe she should call her d-...
No, if she did that he would probably drag her back to the Gym, she loved the Gym, but she couldn't help but feel that that place was stifling her. Not being able to go on a journey and hardly get the chance to leave the isle, the last time she left was when she was barely there for half a year while Ethan and Lance stamped out a large splinter of Team Rocket.
Besides, he did mention that he was going to the League to talk to Lance and them and he hated teleporting so he most likely flew, he probably could make it but there might be a bit too much damage or the Poachers could run away or…
Why did this have to happen during this training camp?
"Ren."
"Tink!"
Ren was startled and almost dropped the skewer, the fish on the skewer was completely enveloped in fire and black smoke eeking off of it with the smell of burnt sadness.
"Alright, the best tip for trying to find a place at night? Don't. You want to find one well before night falls."
Hakuno could barely make out Ren's form in the night, the night being a new moon meant they only had the stars to work with.
Currently, they were nearly at the base of the mountain following the small stream as Ren was fairly sure the stream led up there. If they could find a cave that doesn't have Pokemon, or barter with the owner of a cave, it would mean they wouldn't have to worry about setting up their tents late in the night.
"Why not use flashlights?" Hakuno kept her voice low, she felt a tug as Nomia's hands gripped a part of her head, she glanced at what Nomia was pointing to but it was just a Hoothoot fluttering away.
"That would spook every Nocturnal Pokemon, and a lot of them wouldn't take too kindly to it. Your natural night vision should be fine, if you can't hear me use your light and I'll find ya in a moment."
Ah, that makes sense, but this is honestly the first time she has traveled at night, she usually set up camp before twilight occurred. Hakuno kept her eyes peeled, and she knew Parcae was also analyzing their surroundings for some sort of shelter.
"Wait." Ren paused and practically threw herself on the ground. "I know these tracks." Weaver pushed Ren off the tracks before looking at the ground.
"Ren?"
"They're Lucario and Riolu tracks and the ones next to them are…." Hakuno couldn't make out the details of Ren's face but the yearning in her voice was fairly easy to hear. Hakuno knew that the other girl was extremely hoping to get a Riolu, the Steel/Fighting type was one of the Pokemon she gushed about at night.
She had a whole Pokemon Team planned out, but her not being able to go on a journey hampered her ability to look and the Riolu in the Safari Zone were rare enough that she hadn't encountered one, nor did she manage to bond with any of her Father's Lucario's children.
Hakuno had a feeling that Ren wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to go after the Pokemon or continue their search, while they were only skirting the base of the mountain from what little she could make of the tracks they were heading up the mountain a far cry from them staying at the base.
"Hakuno. I'm going to say a few things that might be true and might not be, but I have a strong belief it is true ok? Be serious about this."
Hakuno tilted her head, Ren was still facing forward so Hakuno couldn't get a grasp on the girl's expression. But her voice teemed with nerves and hesitancy.
"Other Human Life detected, possible Ranger's nearby. Picking up a strong magnetic field estimated at ten kilometers away." Parcae pinged low enough that Hakuno could barely hear them, so was that what Ren was nervous about?
"I think there are some poachers in the area, I only went this way because I um… thought they were heading the other way." Ren paused, "We have a choice, I already plan to call up the Rangers but they are most likely short-handed, a few should be able to respond, but we could help them. My Dad's probably at Indigo Plateau talking to the League about your…situation. He might not get here in time if they are doing a raid today."
"Hitmontop." Tops poked at Ren slightly pushing the other girl causing her to stumble, "Tops."
"I know it's kind of stupid Tops but…"
"Extremely reckless." Hakuno corrected.
"Yes. That too, but isn't this what I'm training for? To be the next pillar of Cianwood? Or to just run my tail between my legs at the first sight of conflict?! There is a Lucario that way! With one of those and even just two Rangers, we should be able to stop some Poachers. But…" Ren turned around to face Hakuno, she could barely make out the girl's face "My first duty is to help you. So… if you don't want to go and investigate we won't."
Hakuno mulled it over, she wasn't sure why but she knew Elpis wouldn't be able to help much in this situation, she wanted her to experience a bit of danger but did she do that knowing that Poachers were in the area?
Probably, the Mythical Pokemon was a lot smarter than she pretended.
Quickly she typed in a query to Parcae.
"Chance of Victory with currently unknown variables, the possibility of one to three Rangers posted in this area aiding the attack," Parcae's voice was louder now and caused Ren to flinch back, "Unknown. However, scaling the team of Pokemon the believed Poachers have to the Magnetic Fluctuations detected near the summit of the mountain, as current Rangers posted in this area do not have any registered Pokemon that would be able to cause such disturbance, and comparing them to the three known scheduled Rangers in this area the chance of victor is… Seventy Percent. Magnetic Fluctuations moving at a measured speed which indicates it to to be a Pokemon of either of the Magnezone or Probopass evolutionary line."
"Without Rangers or Elpis?"
"Chance of Victory… 20%, Severe chance of death for user and allies without Pseudo-Divinity Elpis' intervention. Highly recommend against said actions."
Hakuno mulled it over, their chance of survival was low, but…
Could she live with herself knowing that she was both handicapping Ren's future and allowing people to continue their poaching of Pokemon sent here for conservation efforts?
Hakuno sighed, "We need help, call them."
"No." Even a suggestion of their being Poachers in the area was able to call the two Rangers to Ren, although it might have also been her being the daughter of the local Gym Leader that helped…
"We want to help," Hakuno said while frowning, they wanted to help so why shouldn't they? She understands that they are… weak but still wouldn't they want all the help they could get?
"You." Ranger Ken pointed at Hakuno, "Have no Gym Badges and only one young Pokemon, and you," He pointed at Ren, "Have only one Badge, from Hoenn. Specifically a student of your Father's. While we would welcome your Dad's Pokemon to help us…" He glanced at his partner.
"It would be stupid to leave you girls alone at night without some protection." Ranger Maiko said, "If there even are Poachers, Ranger Andrew's been keeping an eye on that mountain the last few days and has reported in on time."
"I know what I saw, the amount of Zubat at twilight was not normal, and a Lucario in the area? The Pokemon that is known to help protect other Pokemon?" Ren's face lit up in the dim light of the two Ranger's lanterns.
Ken shrugged, "Maybe we should give Andrew a call, wouldn't hurt."
"How long has Ranger Andrew been here and why didn't he come?" Hakuno innocently asked, or at least tried to, she had made sure to check the status and teams of the three Rangers in the area already.
And Ranger Andrew doesn't exist.
At least not fully.
Sure there were Rangers named Andrew, but the one that was recorded being here was MIA for a year before suddenly de-aging twenty years and the transfer documentation according to Parcae was falsified. Honestly, Hakuno was slightly terrified of the information Parcae could dig up when she gave them full rein to dig.
Sure, his information tied to the fake Ranger's Pokedex was very well done, and Parcae even somewhat praised whoever managed to hack into his Pokedex to show the current fake identity. They still didn't know who the person masquerading as the Ranger was, but either he had intensive technological knowledge, knew someone who had that knowledge, or possibly had a Porygon on the verge of evolution or plain out a Porygon 2 made Hakuno more wary of the individual.
However, she knew Parcae could neutralize the Porygon if it tried to enter her Terminal, so at least that's one possible Pokemon down if it went that path, which hopefully it would try.
"Ranger Andrew?" Maiko frowned, "About two months? He might not have gotten the alert, he should be up stationed in the mountain that has one of the smaller Clefairy enclaves. They don't need protection really but a few of them like to bargain for stuff, it's been a while sense they've asked for anything though, although the mountain does mess with our Pokedexes a bit…"
"Yeah, I met the kid once, probably one of the younger Rangers we have…" Ken mentioned, "Bit weird, but he wanted to…" His eyes narrowed, "Why are you asking about him?"
Hakuno debated on how to approach this, but ripping the bandaid off would be best in her opinion.
"He's the poacher. Or working for them." Ren was the one who spoke, before the Rangers had arrived Parcae floated in front of the pair and explained its findings. It was also the reason he wasn't pinged to come down, she wasn't sure if the Ranger had arrived where he planned but this conversation was taking too long if they planned to stop him, unless he was innocent but even then he would be guilty of infiltrating the Pokemon Rangers with false information.
"Yeah no." Hakuno nodded as the male Ranger shook his head, "The kid was weird but not stupid enough to betray the Union, and his …"
Hakuno brought up the Ranger's information and the correct picture of 'Ranger Andrew' the fifty-year-old man that was MIA. "Is this the man you met?"
The look of absolute dread on the two Rangers' faces made Hakuno absolutely certain that it was not the man they knew.
"Believe us now?" Ren folded her arms while her Father's Hitmontop rolled his eyes.
Hakuno still had doubts that they would let them join and investigate but… at least something will be done now.
The male Ranger was the first to act with a sharp whistle, "Noctowl provide cover and see if you can't find his Alolan Raticate! Honchkrow rile up some of the local Murkrow and get us some more eyes!"
Hakuno didn't even notice the two giant birds until they tore off from the nearby trees, aiming toward the mountain.
"Spatial Anomaly Detected Threat Level-" Parcae barely flashed red as a tiny sliver of space distorted with a loud and high-pitched distortion barely three meters away as a tiny pink creature appeared alongside a larger blue Pokemon. Once Hakuno's eyes landed on the Pokemon it vomited.
"Zero."
Author's Notes: Well! Stuff happened! Also! 10 kilometers is just over 6 miles. And 3 meters is just shy of 10 feet.
Hakuno won't always be dealing with Poachers and the like, I know it kind of seems sudden for the stuff to happen after the many chapters of nice and easy life it's been but ya know.
Even in the Pokemon world stuff ain't all roses and sunshine.
Poachers and bullies are going to be some of the more common 'mooks' that she might encounter, although Poachers won't be too common. Currently, I have plans for around 1~3 more interactions with poachers other than this, not counting _ _ _, and will say there is a 50/50 chance this might be the only actual one that's fully explored other than mentioned that other characters handle it.
Everyone knows that ten-year-olds should fight crime bosses, it's a fact written into Pokemon's concept and story. Although Hakuno's crime-fighting isn't a whole lot compared to Red or any other Player Characters and won't really be either the actual act of vigilantism will be kept pretty low until much later in the story, (and even then will be a larger more important motivation for her to do actions and probably would count more as an accompanying trainer in the situation) she will have to deal much more with exploration and annoying people like Yoko and other dicks.
Anyway always wanted to ask this soooooo.
Who's that Pokemon!?