Summary: With pokémon involved, nothing ever goes quite as planned...
Warning! Chapters 13-17 were all published back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!
Chapter 17 – Troubled Forest
The group made it back to the path unmolested, splitting up quickly. The trainers, whose names they'd finally gotten as Cam and Rita, were both thankfully still largely uninjured. A bit of Sitrus Berry, less effective on humans than pokémon, but still able to restore a bit of stamina, and they'd been able to half-jog, half-power-walk down the path which Zoey and 2B had come from. Technically it was taking them farther from their home, given that they were both Pewter residents, but it was the quickest path they knew at least should be safe. Not to mention that the Ranger station at the south of the Forest was much closer than the one to the north, which was still at least a day and a half of solid travel away. At best.
Zoey and 2B, now with Jigglypuff and Purugly actively out and on watch, had turned their own feet to the path that led deeper into the Forest. With the League Circuit having started around two and a half weeks ago now, there was virtually certain to be other Trainers traveling both ways through Viridian Forest. Those Trainers needed to be warned, and 2B and Zoey felt secure in their ability to do so.
Swarms were dangerous, yes. But so far there didn't seem to be a true swarm. Just a lot of agitated pokémon who were normally far more insular. So long as it was only the Pinsir that were disturbed, they would likely stick to small groups. It was only if either the Pinsir or the Onix disrupted one of the Beedrill territories that things might be dicey. Something that they hoped wouldn't happen, at least until the Rangers were alerted.
Thankfully for 2B's peace of mind, Zoey was in excellent shape. While 2B could have moved more quickly on her own, she also recognized that it was better to stick together, and Zoey was in well above average shape. Despite the rough terrain, her companion was able to keep up a light jog for the next hour, which is when they found their first additional trainer. The individual in question was a Bug Catcher, who grimaced at their description of events.
"Damn it. That's going to set the whole Forest off kilter if it lasts long. Pinsir are only found in those numbers during summer, when they are ready to breed, and having that disrupted will make them extremely aggressive with all of the other pokémon. Worse, they are tough enough that if a group of them already struck a Beedrill group…the Pinsir probably won. Which will agitate whichever Hive those Beedrill belonged to."
The Bug Catcher, who was in his early twenties rather than a newbie trainer, shook his head.
"The Rangers are going to have to shut the whole Forest, at least until they can clear the Onix out, possibly longer. You're right we need to warn people, too. Thankfully, I can help a bit there."
The man had a full belt of six pokéballs, and he withdrew three of them as he said that. A Butterfree, Ledian, and a Dustox appeared from their beams.
"Alright, you three! We've got an emergency! Move along the path back toward Pewter and warn off any Trainers you can find. Talk to their pokémon if they won't pay attention to you, but try to get them to either leave the area, or head to Diglett cave. We passed that…maybe two hours ago. So it and the Ranger stationed there are the best bet for immediate safety."
The pokémon all called out their names firmly…then took off at speeds faster than even 2B could have run. The bug catcher turned back to them.
"Right. They'll gather up Trainers, but you two should continue on to talk to the Ranger at Diglett Cave. She'll need more information than my pokémon can pass on. I'm going to head farther into the forest to see how bad it is."
When he saw them about to protest, he held up his hand and smirked and patted his remaining three pokéballs.
"I might only be a Bug-type trainer, but I did manage to beat all eight major Gyms during my Journey. I kept my two most powerful pokémon, Scizor and Heracross, with me."
He winked and tapped a specific pokéball.
"More to the point, while she's not much of a battler, I taught me Venomoth teleport via TM. She'll get me out of trouble and back to Pewter if I run into something I can't handle. One way or another, I'll teleport back there anyway once I figure out how bad this is. My pokémon will be able to find me there easily enough."
2B and Zoey both relaxed, realizing abruptly that they'd stumbled into a genuinely veteran trainer who clearly knew what he was doing. Breathing a sigh of relief, they both nodded, with Zoey being the one to speak up for them.
"Thanks. We'll head on to the cave and let the Ranger know. I'm sure she'll report it back to Pewter and Viridian even if we don't pick up a signal on our pokégear before then."
The older trainer nodded.
"You will once you get closer to the cave. The area we're in now is a known dead zone. Normally, they try not to put paths out this way, but two of the Hives shifted last season and there wasn't a better place to reroute the main path. The new path meets an older one another 2 kilometers along from here, though. You should get reception there."
They nodded, thanked the man again, and then separated from him in a hurry. He moved off into the Forest, even as they picked back up to a light jog, Zoey having caught her breath fully as they stopped to talk to the Bug Catcher…
... ... ...
2B jerked as her pokégear buzzed, with Zoey's own starting up a moment after hers. Both of them pulled them out, quickly noticing an alert…or rather a series of alerts. It had taken them only twenty minutes to cover the distance to the old path, but it appeared something had happened either during that time or while they were out of contact. Quickly reading the alerts, they noted that it was an increase of danger warning to yellow…for both Viridian Forest in general and Diglett Cave.
"Crap. Looks like something alerted them things were off, but not any details. The Diglett Cave warning might be bad."
Zoey was already dialing the emergency Ranger number for Viridian Forest even as she said that, beating 2B to it by dint of having run into similar situations before. 2B thought for a moment, then decided to shoot off a direct text-only message to Professor Oak. He might be able to contact the Gym faster than the Rangers, and if there was anyone that could deal with the Onix situation, it was the Rock Type Gym Leader. Particularly as he was already aware of, and unhappy with, the mining. Hopefully, he'd been keeping an eye on it. Meanwhile, she listened in as Zoey reported the situation clearly and concisely to the Rangers.
Zoey hung up just as 2B got a response from the Professor, saying he'd get in touch with the Pewter Gym immediately. Zoey spoke up with her update first, even as another alert came in over their pokégear, issuing an 'evacuate to your nearest Ranger Station' order for all of Viridian Forest.
"The Rangers are mobilizing, but there's more issues than just the Pinsirs. Apparently, the Onix movements have stirred up the Diglett and Dugtrio in the cave, too. Which makes sense, if they can sense the Onix moving into their territory. It does mean that there's a full Ranger team already on their way to the small post by the cave, though, so they said that's where we should head."
2B nodded, before adding what she'd been up to.
"I contacted Professor Oak. He said he'll get in touch with the Pewter Gym. With the information coming from the Professor, Flint will act quickly to shut down the mining, at least."
Zoey nodded appreciatively.
"Good thinking, now we should—"
Zoey was cut off as the ground heaved, several trees being ripped out of the ground as a huge furrow of earth cut through the ground, heading straight east. They were close enough to the disruption to stumble, though 2B kept her feet and quickly reached out to stabilize Zoey. They both stared at the furrow as it vanished as quick as it had appeared. Zoey, half-stunned, blurted out what they were both thinking.
"Wait! Isn't that heading straight for Diglett Cave?!"
Not bothering to respond, 2B took action, causing Zoey to yelp as she was scooped up in a princess carry. Pumping aura into her legs, 2B shot off at a full sprint, easily hitting 20 mph (33 kph) despite the extra weight of a passenger. Following the damaged ground took them away from the path, but 2B's tactical visor had an active mapping function and was telling her exactly what Zoey had blurted out. Whatever was making the furrow was heading straight for Diglett's Cave. Mentally putting the pieces together, the only reason 2B didn't curse was that her entirely-to-human-at-the-moment body needed to save its breath for running.
Mining meant metals. Metals meant that there were Steelix among the Onix. A Steelix big enough to leave a nearly 10-foot-wide furrow of overturned earth just from swimming through the ground below it? That had to be an Alpha Pokemon. Which meant that, if it was headed for Diglett's Cave, it was likely aiming to assert its dominance over the strongest pokémon that shared underground space with it. Almost certainly one of the older Dugtrio that lived in the Cave System. With the speed it was moving, there was no time to warn the Ranger or Rangers already there. The best they could do was get there as fast as possible to try and render assistance.
2B just hoped they wouldn't be too late, and they they'd be able to help when they arrived! So focused was she on navigating the terrain, that she never noticed a large flying pokémon taking off from the Forest behind her…
... ... ...
They'd heard the clashing of powerful blows before they arrived, but as 2B skidded to a stop and Zoey staggered dizzily out of her arms, they were still surprised by what they found. The Steelix that 2B had predicted and managed to gasp out a warning to Zoey about between breaths was present. But it was clashing with a large Slowking of all things, while a Kadabra stood between both of the powerful and clashing pokémon and a group of Trainers, holding a protective wall of psychic energy. The overall scene would, perhaps, have made some sort of sense, if it had been someone in a Ranger uniform that was commanding them.
It wasn't.
Instead, a disreputable looking fellow riding a Fearow was calling out orders and commands as he circled about the fight. There was a Ranger in sight, but she was busy using a Sandslash and two Donphans to contain a large Dugtrio that was likely the pokémon the Steelix had come here to fight. Both of the larger fights seemed to be somewhat in hand, though the Ranger was obviously struggling far more than the unknown man and his team were.
The greater problem was that neither the Dugtrio nor Steelix had been alone.
A half dozen Trainers had pokémon out and were fighting to shield still other Trainers. Ones who were looking after what looked painfully like a collection of first-stage starter pokémon that had likely attempted to fight but gotten easily bodied. It was obvious that this third fight, which was more of a free-for-all in which the handful of more experienced Trainers were really just trying to keep the various fighting Onix and Diglett/Dugtrio away from the humans, wasn't going well.
It was thus this fight that 2B turned her attention to almost immediately, releasing Jigglypuff and Vulpix while launching herself personally into the fray as well. Zoey, dizzy and a bit bruised from being carried on a wild ride by 2B-Expressway, took a few moments longer to assess the situation. Once she did, she pursed her lips as she saw one of the Ranger's Donphan get slammed out of her battle, obviously unconscious. Seeing that, she took a different approach than 2B.
"Purugly! Take out that Alpha Dugtrio! Aerial Ace into Water Pulse!"
Purugly, despite being primarily a Contest pokémon, was by far and away Zoey's strongest partner. Two Contest circuits and a serious attempt at the Johto Gyms meant he was legitimately on par with the sort of pokémon you might find on an Ace Trainer's team. Not an Ace Trainer's ace pokémon, maybe, but still in the same legitimate ballpark as a Division 2 battler. He was also, owing to the countless hours of finesse training for Contests, extremely precise.
He reacted to Zoey's commands on an almost unconscious level, reading her aura as much as her words, using Aerial Ace not as an attack but as a move to position himself high up above the Alpha Dugtrio. The Dugtrio who, still distracted with the Ranger's two remaining pokémon, didn't have a chance to react before it was hammered by an extremely potent and tightly focused Water Pulse. Without even needing to be told, knowing what his partner wanted, Purugly followed through with a powerful Night Slash, a move she'd taught him to upgrade his combat potential during their Johto Gym challenge attempt.
The Dugtrio had already been hurt when Purugly had entered the fray, even if it was clearly winning the fight with the Ranger. Getting hammered out of nowhere with a Super Effective attack, followed up by a high-level Dark move, staggered it badly. It didn't quite go down from the combination, but it had been left wide open, and the Ranger didn't miss the chance provided. Her remaining Donphan hit the staggered Alpha pokémon hard with a Slam, then faded away just in time for her Sandslash to hammer it with an Earthquake.
The Earthquake was finally too much for the tough Dugtrio, the pokémon slumping into unconsciousness. The Ranger cheered, but didn't hesitate to shift targets, with Zoey doing the same almost as quickly. 2B and her little monsters had already hit the free-for-all like a wrecking ball, knocking out a powerful looking Onix and the trio of Digletts it had been fighting. Now, with their Alpha out of the fight, the rest of the Ground Types were clearly hesitating, and the Ranger and Zoey both took advantage of that fact to hit two of the remaining three Dugtrios. They went down fast, as did a trio of Onix. One to a pair of the defending Trainers and the other two to 2B and Jigglypuff respectively. Vulpix hammered the last Dugtrio, with an unknown Trainer's pokémon following up to finish it off, leaving none of the fully evolved Ground-types conscious.
That was too much for both sides. There was just one Onix left, already battered, and it retreated with a frustrated sounding cry, even as the Digletts all scattered, diving underground and heading back to their caves. A cheer went up from the defending Trainers, followed by another cheer as the Steelix was finally brought down by the unknown man whose team had been fighting it. Unlike the Dugtrio, the Steelix was hit with a pokéball quickly, easily captured in its unconscious state. The man landed and dismounted his Fearow to grab the ball…which oddly didn't vanish despite his pokéball belt being full. He looked around for a moment before hesitating for a moment and heading toward the Ranger.
2B and Zoey shared a look before carefully angling to back the Ranger up. Whoever this guy was, he might have helped…but he looked more than a little disreputable. He'd also caught the Steelix, which could be either a good or bad sign. Doubly so with the ball not instantly teleporting off. Thankfully, he'd recalled his pokémon and, as he got close to the Ranger, presented both his Trainer ID and the Steelix's new ball. She glanced at it, did a double take, then sighed and relaxed. She took the pokéball and fiddled with it, before placing it with her own balls. The explanation for that was forthcoming as the man grinned and introduced himself.
"Howdy folks! My name is Ace Trainer Frank. I saw the trouble brewing here in Viridian Forest and moved to lend a hand. That particular ball is one certain Trainers are authorized to use for relocating pokémon. Usually, those are rangers, but…"
The Ranger, a woman in her mid-twenties, had still been examining his ID. More accurately, she'd been verifying it, and seemed surprised at what she found.
"Wait, you're one of the League Troubleshooters! What on earth were you doing here?"
The man looked sheepish and waved toward Zoey and 2B.
"Uh…this might sound bad…but I was technically following those two?"
The Ranger blinked, looking at them. 2B cocked her head in curiosity, while Zoey looked a little unhappy. The scruffy looking man rubbed the back of his neck.
"Look, I promise it's not as bad as it sounds! It's just the League, well…there can only be so many lab-sponsored pokédex holders that get into massive trouble before sanity says to keep an eye on the new ones each year, right? It's not a formal thing, and I wasn't specifically looking for miss 2B there. But when she triggered like, all the flags for 'oh, no, another one of them' back in Viridian…"
Zoey snorted at that, seeming to relax slightly as her lips twitched into a grin.
"Wait, so it's not just Ketchum? Between him and 2B I was starting to think maybe it was a Kanto thing, or maybe a Professor Oak thing…"
The man grinned, the expression making him look far more like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar than a threat.
"No ma'am, it's sort of a running gag in the Ace Trainer communities. Not just here in Kanto, but other regions too, from what I've heard. Mind you, it isn't their fault, and it makes proper sense if you stop and consider the whys. Lab-sponsored trainers are lab-sponsored. As in, they get their high-stipend precisely because they go poke around places and things that normal people don't, on behalf of the regional Professors. So, if anyone is going to run into trouble…?"
Zoey and the Ranger both made 'ah-ha' noises as the man trailed off, the dots connecting for them. It was the Ranger who, voice full of good cheer now that the trouble was over for the moment, spoke their mutual thought.
"Obviously, the people poking weird obscure places and pokémon have strange things happen to them! That totally explains a few things I've heard from some of the other Rangers, about lab-sponsored trainers accidentally waking up Legendries or stumbling over poachers and criminal or terrorist Teams!"
Frank laughed and nodded.
"Yep. Like I said, not really their fault. But keeping an eye on them is sort of a 'best practice' thing for the League, especially for the Trouble Shooters like me. Even if we generally don't normally follow them. I was only doing so to try and find out if she was going to be another case like that. Even then, it was only because she made a bit of a splash in Viridian that made me take notice."
Zoey sighed and reached over to pat 2B on the head. 2B didn't hate it, even if she wasn't quite sure she understood why they were all making a big deal out of this. Wasn't running into Legendries on Journeys normal? Professor Oak, Mr. Ketchum, and even Daisy had told a few stories about that happening…
"Well, from what I've seen in the three days I've known her for, I think it's likely she is 'one of those' types, Mr. Frank. But I'll do my best to keep her out of trouble."
The Ace Trainer snorted, even as 2B felt like maybe she was supposed to be offended? Honestly, it just sounded like Zoey wasn't put off by her technically carrying her into danger, which 2B might not have fully thought through, come to think of it. Her new travelling companion not being put off by that was a good result as far as 2B was concerned! Best not to question their odd point of view that she was somehow going to be trouble…
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: Mwahahahaha, I bet I had you all thinking that the mystery man following them was a bad guy, huh? Maybe even Team Rocket given their history in Viridian? Nope! I personally think the Teams are a bit...over played. They also represent a poor element to pit 2B against, as she would agonize over fighting with humans. Since I'm intentionally keeping this story to a somewhat more upbeat exploration of what it 'means to be human' rather than dragging it down into the desolation and pain common to the same question in Nier, that's not a way I wanted to go. Oh, she may eventually run into Team Rocket or poachers or something, but I'm aiming for MOST of 2B's conflicts to be more pokémon based, like this one was. Dealing with swarms, or an angry ex-trainer pokémon that is causing trouble, or other such things. Adventures that can be serious and even deadly, while still keeping the relatively light tone of the overall story.
A/N 2: Yeah, you probably know this bit by now. Once per release, I point out that I have a Page with Early Access content. In example, I just released chapters 18-22 of A Very Confused Pokémon Adventure there, adding just shy of another 15,000 words which will remain in Early Access until the next time the story updates. Similarly, there are at least a few Early Access chapters there for ALL of my stories, though NONE of them are ever permanently paywalled. All fanfiction content I make ends up here (or on Fanfiction.net and Questionable Questing) eventually, as new content for each story is released. Typically, there are around 45,000-60,000 words of additional early access content for patrons. As well as chances to vote in polls that influence which stories are updated, pairings, and other such things.