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The mountain range surrounding Mount Cornet held no shortage of Pokemon. Despite its rugged and largely barren nature, if someone knew where to look they’d find no shortage of Machokes and Lucarios training their bodies and minds, Bronzong and Probopasses sustaining themselves on the ambient magnetic fields, and nests made by the numerous Flying-types capable of sustaining themselves in such an inhospitable environment. With several mountains being cordoned off in their entirety as Pokemon reserves, there was little to disturb those living there outside of a few rangers permitted to patrol the area.
The Pokemon Hunter known only as J was making herself a rare exception to this rule.
She pressed herself against a boulder atop a deep crevice, hiding herself from a pair of rangers as they walked along the natural path below. She didn’t worry about being detected, even if they weren’t distracting themselves with their conversation any noise she made or part of the environment she dislodged was more likely to be brushed off as a Noctowl taking off than anything else, but she much preferred to avoid any possible complications.
As the voices faded into the distance, she set off again. Mount Cornet’s magnetic field disrupted the positioning systems in her visor that she would normally use on such a mission. This caused progress to be slower than she’d like as she clambered up and around rock faces, deliberately staying as far from any well-trodden path as possible while still maintaining her bearings. Eventually she made it to the location her informant had tipped her off to, a section of the mountain near the tip that held a drop of at least three meters on all sides. Despite being almost certainly carved out by Pokemon, the depth and sheer edges made it appear more akin to a giant crater than anything else. On one end of this arena was a cave, its mouth covered in shadows to give the illusion of it burrowing deep into the mountain despite allegedly only stretching a short distance.
J scouted around the cliffs until she was directly opposite this cave. With a tap to the side of her visor, her view of the world turned into one of blue hues, the only exception being a single bright heat signature within the cave and the duller tones of a clutch of eggs nested around them. She smiled.
She had no misunderstandings that a newcomer such as herself wouldn’t have been her client’s first choice. The mission, to provide a breeding pair of Salamances with a bonus per Bagon egg obtained in the process, was both exceedingly dangerous and far more fitting for a poacher rather than a hunter like her (unless she tried to take advantage of Hoenn’s Drake’s recent visit to the region, something even she would have considered a suicide mission). Either he had been refused by every more established poacher he knew of, or their upfront costs were much higher than he was willing to part with.
The reason didn’t matter to her. Nothing did, outside of fulfilling the contract.
She raised her left arm, deactivating her thermal vision to perform a last minute check on the device strapped to it. Unlike her visor this device was clearly a prototype, constructed of several sheets of steel bolted together to cover a tube that stopped just short of the back of her hand. One panel was removed to reveal a mess of wires, power sources, and energy converters far more akin to a high schooler’s personal project than the tool of a professional. As with the rest of her skills and equipment, J was fully confident that it would work just as it had in her litany of tests, though she was not too proud to favour aesthetics over quick access to the inner workings of something that had yet to receive thorough field testing.
Satisfied everything was in order, she sealed the panel back into place, hearing a soft hum as the cannon primed. She pointed her arm towards the cave as she swapped back to thermal vision, shifting her aim a few times when her visor warned her the shot was going to be wide, before squeezing the trigger within her sleeve. A beam of white energy erupted out, flying straight through the air towards her target. While J couldn’t see the beam land herself, the Salamence’s heat signature quickly fading away to match the ambient temperature told her the shot landed.
Sliding down the side of the crater, J strode towards the cave, swapping back to regular visuals as she did so. While dark, she could still clearly see the petrified Salamence, head pointed towards its side as it had spent its final second of freedom wondering what just struck it. Surrounding it were eggs, at least eight, all given only the slightest amount of protection from the cave floor with whatever nesting material their parents had located from the mountain. J picked one up, finding it oddly warm with the occasional shift of weight inside. Her client would definitely be pleased with these.
Placing it back down, she reached into a coat pocket, pulling out a small device from her coat pocket. She stuck it to the inside of the Pokemon’s wing. With a tap, the tracker both activated and synced with her visor. She’d have to keep an eye on it on her way back, but according to her measurements, it should be strong enough to provide a direct point for her airship to home in on under the cover of darkness. All she had to do now was return to a vantage point and wait for her other target to return.
The cave illuminated with a subtle orange glow.
J launched herself to the side, narrowly avoiding the incoming Flamethrower. As she crashed into the cave wall, she turned to see the second Salamence at the mouth of the cave, the dead Staraptor it had just been hunting lying at its feet. Clearly, a second ambush wasn’t going to happen.
As embers began to flicker around its mouth, J lunged again, this time using the petrified Salamence as a shield from the attack. Fire washed over the cave, striking J with a wave of intense heat as the exposed edge of her coat smoked and smoldered. When it died down, she poked around the stone wing, taking quick aim with her cannon and squeezing the trigger.
It let out nothing but a high pitched whine.
She tried again, only to be met with the same result as the Dragon-type began walking towards her. Using the petrified Pokemon as cover, she ducked around to the opposite side of the cave, only able to do so as her attacker took care to harm neither egg nor mate in its approach. While she took the opening to rush towards the exit, she knew there would be no such obstacles in its path, and even at such a short distance there wouldn’t be time to escape.
J scowled. It was always a pain when she had to provide damaged goods.
She threw a Pokeball directly at her feet as she fled. “Go!”
With a flash of light her Drapion appeared within the cave, having only just enough time to brace himself before the Salamence barreled into him with a Take Down. Unable to drive his claws into the stone below, it was all Drapion could do to remain upright as he was sent skidding out of the cave from the impact, slamming into J as he did so. The hunter was winded, continuing to roll across the mountain floor even as Drapion regained his footing, though the bruises she received were far better than what the Salamence would’ve left her with.
Finally stopping, J forced herself to her knees despite the world continuing to spin around her. “Poison Sting!”
With a cry, Drapion released a barrage of purple spikes from his mouth, chipping away stone and throwing up clouds of dust as it trailed behind the Salamence, who had taken flight in order to avoid the attack. As J’s vision began to stabilize, she saw energy building in the Salamence’s mouth as it dove sharply.
“Cross Poison the ground!”
On J’s order, Drapion’s arm claws began to glow, driving into the mountain beneath it before swinging them in an X shape just as the Salamence launched its Dragon Breath. Large chunks of stone were thrown up in front of the Poison-type, providing both shelter from the Dragon Breath as it struck into the impromptu barrier, as well as some much-needed cover as the resulting explosion covered the immediate area with thick smoke. Another volley of Poison Sting barbs shot out, these ones striking the dragon head-on, though this only caused a roar of pain as it once again took to the skies.
“You’re proving to be a real pain,” J said to herself as she took out a second Pokeball, letting it open in her hand. “Spinarak, bring it down and stop it from attacking.”
The green spider only took a second after emerging to take aim and launch a string of silk skywards. Unlike Drapion, she had the foresight to aim ahead of the target as it continued to fly through the air, landing the String Shot as Poison Stings continued to go wide. However, she did not have the strength to physically contend with a Pokemon of Salamence’s side as Drapion did. No sooner had the silk attached to the Salamence’s leg than she was whisked away, dragged through the air.
“Spin! Rak!” Spinarak cried as she unwillingly flew towards Drapion.
The Poison-type stuck a claw out, grasping onto the silk rope as they passed. While there was enough momentum to shift him along the ground slightly, the sudden change of weight was enough to stall the Salamence in the air, which itself provided the opportunity for Drapion to heave his arm down, throwing Salamence groundwards with enough force that it was forced to land.
Spinarak got to work immediately, throwing out further String Shots and attaching them to the ground to restrict the target’s movement, preventing an attempted Double Edge as Drapion snipped his hand free of the silk with the claws of the other. Energy began to build up in the Salamence’s mouth, only for it to be unceremoniously sealed up with a glob of silk. The muzzle’s cobalt glow turned crimson as it swapped to Flamethrower in hopes to burn it away, only for Drapion to dart in, crunching down on its neck with frost-imbued fangs. The energy faded away entirely as the Salamence gave out a muffled roar of pain, wildly swinging to shake Drapion off.
While her Pokemon kept the target distracted, J removed one of the cannon’s plates as she tried to diagnose the fault. She didn’t have to search for long, with several cables having disconnected themselves and yet more being far looser in their sockets than they should be. She frowned. This had most likely occurred through the impact of slamming into the wall earlier, and made worse when the Double Edge had sent her along the ground. Still, nothing she couldn’t fix now, nor negate in the future with some extra solder-
“GROOOOOOOH!”
She looked up at the thunderous roar just in time to see the Salamence’s eyes turn a vibrant red, its body becoming covered in a crimson aura. Instantly, the webs securing it to the ground snapped, with the following Outrage-empowered tail swipe sending Spinarak flying out of the crater it tried to re-secure the lines. Drapion went in for another Ice Fang, but the webs binding the Salamence’s mouth snapped just as easily as the rest, allowing it to swing its neck around and grab the Ogre Scorpion’s body with a painful bite. Then, with frantic, savage movements, it swung its head from side to side, repeatedly slamming Drapion into the ground hard enough to crack the stone, all the while the Poison-type bashed against his foe with futile strikes. Eventually, the dragon threw him across the arena. He landed hard. He tried to get up, but every slow movement caused the Pokemon a gasp of pain.
The Salamence turned to J.
She slammed a final cable into its port, tried to bring the cannon around to her target, but it was too late. The Salamence charged forwards with incredible speed, and even as its aura dissipated as the effects of the Outrage wore off, the headstrike she received was still blindingly painful. J flew several meters through the air before crashing back down to Earth, rolling painfully along the ground before stopping suddenly by colliding with the arena’s walls.
Her vision swam, tinged red from the blood of several cuts on her face getting into her eyes. Half of what she could have seen was obscured with flickers of static, her visor having partially shattered from the impact. Every breath ached, and her muscles actively fought against her as she tried to command them to stand her back up, only for the effort to all be for naught as the Salamence stepped on her torso. The sudden, sharp pain and pressure helped bring everything back into focus. The Dragon-type stared down at her, mouth once again spilling embers as a Flamethrower built up.
The Salamence’s eyes grew wide, fire dying out, as it felt the coldness of stone spread across its body until its head, too, was petrified.
J’s arm dropped, just raising her arm and pulling the trigger taking what little energy she still had. Her breathing stopped entirely, the additional weight of the stone causing what was previously a painful pressure into a crushing one.
“Dra-”
She started to gasp out a command, but there was no need. Her Pokemon, himself struggling with wounds from the fight, managed to bring himself to J and shoulder checked the Salamance, causing the statue to tip over. He lowered a claw, providing extra support to J as she sat herself up. She prodded at her chest, relieved to find that somehow the cuts and bruises were the worst of her injuries. She listened intently over the sound of their laboured breathing. Thankfully, the isolation of the nest seemed to have allowed them to evade any notice from the rangers. They were in no position to fend them off if they had come calling..
“Can you climb?” She asked, to which Drapion responded in the affirmative. “Find Spinarak. She was hit in that direction.”
Drapion did just that, using his claws to create holds in the sheer stone before skittering around the edge of the crater and out of sight. This left J time to think as strength slowly returned to her body. She had undoubtedly gotten lucky to have made it out of such an encounter with everything she needed, though while she wasn’t sure if they could have played their cards any better given the situation, that just meant they needed to improve themselves on every front. Drapion needed extra training to deal with fast flying foes. Spinarak likely needed to evolve soon to both make her snares stronger and reduce the likelihood of her going flying again. And J, herself, needed to finalize her arm cannon and not bring a prototype into the field. After all, if had simply remained functional after that first impact, the rest of the encounter wouldn’t have played out as it did. And conversely, if the right cables hadn’t remained in place after taking that last hit, then-
“BAAAAAAAAA!”
J was snapped out of her thoughts by a high pitched cry. A small Bagon was rushing out of the cave, directly towards her. She straightened herself up where she sat, and even with her tired muscles, was able to slap it away with the cannon as it lunged in for a headbutt. There was never going to be much strength in a newborn, after all.
Yet, there was tenacity, as while she pulled herself to her feet the Bagon tried to do the same, never breaking its glare at J as it did so. She couldn’t help but respect it, capable of such determination and fury so soon after hatching. The Bagon charged again, but this time J lifted her leg and simply stomped on it, eliciting a cry from the baby dragon as it attempted to pull itself free.
“My client only said he wanted two Salamence and any eggs I could provide,” J said to the Pokemon as she pulled a Pokeball out of a pocket. “Consider yourself lucky I’m not going to find a buyer for you just yet.”
She let the ball drop. It struck the Bagon’s head, pulling it inside before shaking once, twice, thrice, and clicking.
Work needed to be done. The rebellion which would surely happen would have to be stamped out fast, and its training would have to be intense to bring it anywhere close to the level of strength that it would need to earn its keep. But when it did reach that level?
J smiled as Drapion reappeared at the cliff’s edge with a still-dazed Spinarak on its shoulder, witnessing her picking up the ball containing their new ally.
This was proving to be a very profitable mission.