//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: A New World, a New Ranger // by ed2481 //------------------------------// Abby gave Kasai a nuzzle as they overlooked the report before them. “Hmm, this shouldn’t be too hard,” she murmured as she looked over the information that the casino had provided. “I mean yeah there are four of them, but one is an Abra and the Scyther is weak to fire types, not to mention that the Riolu probably won’t be much of a threat, being a child and all. The only one that’s giving me any worries is the ‘Minotaur’ guy.” “I’ll take him down, he looks like a normal type so I’ll hit him with a few Rock Smashes and hopefully he’ll go down. And that’s only assuming my fire doesn’t do anything,” the Arcanine replied before glancing at the rest of the Team who were still eating. “And besides, it’s not like we don’t have backup if we really need it.” “Yeah,” Abby agreed before chuckling. “You know Kasai, you can’t hog every mission with me.” “I know, but you know just as well as I do that I’m your ‘normal’ partner,” he replied, giving her cheek a lick. “Lex is for dragons, Rill is for deserts, Axel is for when you need a brawler or a wall caved in. Justice is for air battles and easy transport and lastly, Luke is for psychics and fighting types who are out of control. I’m there to help you track down perps.” “True,” Abby said, nudging him. “Still, I don’t want any of them to feel neglected,” she added as two of her tails intertwined themselves around his. Kasai snorted faintly. “I think they’re kind of used to it Abby,” he said blandly before getting up from the table and giving her tails a slight flick. “Come on, let’s get to this casino so that we can track these four down.” “Right,” Abby agreed, getting up from the table. “Bye guys, we’ll be back later,” she told her Team as she slipped her badge around her shoulder. Ace had told her that she’d added an extra enchantment to the metal so that their translation spell wouldn’t have to be refreshed for the next forty eight hours so that was a big plus. As she and Kasai walked out onto the street and began to walk down them, retracing the steps they’d taken the day before, Kasai let out a happy sigh. “Ah, you know, I really like this place,” he said with a smile. “Oh?” Abby asked as she glanced up at him. “Is it just because that I can be here with you like this?” she added, rubbing against him very slightly. “No, well yes that’s a big portion of it, but I mean I just like this place,” Kasai answered with a small chuckle. “It just... smells cleaner. Even in a big city like this, I don’t smell much if any pollution and there aren’t any planes whizzing overhead... I guess what I’m saying is that this place just feels more natural.” “I noticed that too actually,” Abby agreed, smiling. The pair continued on in content silence for a while until they reached the casino they’d seen yesterday. It wasn’t a very big place, more of a hole-in-the-wall kind of place then the towering gambling buildings that the pair had seen along the way. “This is the place,” Kasai said with a small nod as he casually lead the way into the building. The inside looked much like the outside in terms of grandeur, a few dozen slot machines, four of five blackjack tables, and several roulette tables littered the floor and a mare was minding the entryway. Curiously, all the lights seemed to be smashed as well... “Huh, the report didn’t mention that,” Abby mused as she walked up to the mare at the desk. “Excuse me Miss, my Partner and I are part of a new branch of the Las Pegasus Guard. We received a report of a robbery yesterday?” The doormare sighed as she looked at the two monsters in front of her. “Great. The last creatures we had rob the place, and what does the guard do? Send more! Of bucking course.” She pushed a button, and a buzzing noise came from nearby. “Corporal, Punishment, apparently the guards are here to talk to you two!” Abby frowned at the names and exchanged a look with Kasai. “This should be interesting,” she whispered. “Or painful,” Kasai replied, cracking his neck slightly. “If they attack us.” “Let’s try and not have that,” Abby replied, swatting him lightly with one of her tails. At that point, the unicorn bouncer duo walked out from a side room. The red-on-blue and blue-on-red colts caught sight of the Pokemon and started to brace themselves. “Yes?” the red-on-blue one said. “Can we help you?” his brother rejoined. “Actually, we’re here to help you,” Abby said with a practiced, calming smile. “We understand that you were robbed yesterday and we’re here to help track down those responsible.” The duo exchanged a look before nodding. “Well,” the red one started, “It wasn’t... exactly a robbery…” “More of them blatantly cheating and management not wanting to lose so many bits,” the blue one added on. “After all, nobody can be that good at cards, it’s just unnatural,” the red one said while nodding. “So we confronted them and told them of our intentions to keep them here until they’d lost a bit...or, really, until we understood how they were doing it,” the blue one finished. “So... you were being beaten and wanted a little bit of a return investment, one way or the other,” Abby summarized, raising an eyebrow at them. “Makes sense, though I do hope you weren’t planning on hurting them.” “Yeah, that would have been a mistake,” Kasai agreed, glancing down at the two unicorns from his impressive height. The unicorns cringed at the tone before replying. “Management...may have told us to do a few things, but we were going to be very gentle in our persuasion,” the red one stated. “Aaaand once we started, that’s when things went to Tartarus,” the blue one finished. “I see, what exactly happened?” Abby asked, glancing at the lights. “Our report didn’t mention that they’d killed the lights.” “Well, first, we picked up the little blue one and the bag of bits she was holding,” the red one started. “And then the little yellow one on top of the green one opened his eyes and started to glow blue,” the blue one continued. “After that, he pushed us aside, and from what the others tell us, caused mass chaos on the floor before his weird magic swept up and killed the lights,” the red one rejoined. “And then they fled, all four of them,” the blue one finished. Abby closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded her head. “Okay, I’m going to lay a few things out for you guys, hopefully keep this kind of thing from happening again, and pass it on to any other casinos you know. The small yellow one was a Pokemon called an Abra, they’re Psychic types, meaning that they can read your mind,” she explained. “There are several dozen other Pokemon who have roughly the same abilities and where we come from, the only games they’re allowed to play are slots, I’d recommend you instate a similar policy.” The duo nodded. “Makes sense,” the red one said. “Can’t read the mind of a machine...but…” the blue one trailed off as a thought occurred to him and his brother. “What about the others? Could they work with him to manipulate machines?” The red one questioned. “Yeah, if there are any, we’re going to have to pass word up to the management,” the blue one finished. Abby frowned but then nodded. “Yeah, there are a few Pokemon who can do that, none of the ones that came in with the Abra yesterday, but there are definitely a few,” she let out a small sigh before continuing. “One of the things that I’m going to have to work on after this case is getting a comprehensive guide of all the Pokemon out there who could cheat the system into the hands of you ponies.” The two unicorn bouncers nodded in thanks at the Pokemon. “So what now?” they both asked. “Well, my Partner Kasai here has an amazing nose and he already has their scents so we’re going to get to tracking them down,” Abby explained. “I’d offer to pay for some new lights, but I don’t know how the Guard does things here yet, heh, just started you know? Just be glad you didn’t lose a wall or two like our building did.” The two unicorns looked at each other and gulped at the thought. “That would have cost us our paychecks,” the red one started. “Or our jobs,” the blue one finished. “Out of curiosity,” the red one turned back to the Pokemon. “When you do catch them, what then? Will they have to pay back anyone? Management wants to know,” the blue one concluded. “I’m not sure, I’ll take them to the station and let Captain Ace worry about it,” Abby said before a thought occurred to her. “Oh right, I just remembered, I’m Officer Abby and this is my partner Officer Kasai, I never got your names.” The duo smiled at that. “I’m Corporal,” the red one said. “And I’m Punishment. Let’s just say, we come from a line of...incredibly durable and tough ponies,” the blue one finished. “With names like that, I believe it,” Abby said with a small chuckle. “Anyways, it was nice talking with you two, I or someone else from the Guard might be back later to ask additional questions or the like, but for now you two can get back to work.” With that, the two unicorns nodded and trotted back into the room they’d come from. The doormare, who’d been watching the exchange, hummed softly. “Well. Guess not every monster is out to cause trouble. Maybe you are just like ponies after all.” “Pokemon Ma’am, Pokemon,” Abby corrected with a small shrug. “And yeah, we’re just like everyone else, some are good, some are bad, and like most of us yesterday and the day before, some are just confused.” The doormare chuckled. “Tell you what: catch that fox that got glass in my mane, I’ll start calling you Pokemon.” “Fair enough,” Abby said, chuckling as well before glancing at Kasai. “You got their scent Kasai?” “Mhm, it’s stronger in here and I should be able to pick it out of the air,” Kasai agreed. “Let’s get going Abby.” “Right,” the Ninetales said, giving the mare a nod. “Like I told Corporal and Punishment, we might be back later.” With that said, the pair walked out the door. It took Kasai about an hour to track down the foursome, apparently they’d been doing a lot of shopping and had spread their scents out all over the city. Luckily, Kasai’s nose was just that good and they ended up walking into a much larger casino. A doorstallion glanced at them but Abby turned her shoulders slightly so that he could see the Guard Badge and he frowned but let them through. Kasai’s ears flicked back as the sound of slot machines and talking ponies hit him but he shook his head. “Argh, I hate casinos,” he muttered as he looked around the room full of happy, gambling ponies. Or rather, some were happy, some looked to be on the edge of tears. “They’re alright, though I’ve never been a gambler,” Abby agreed, glancing at him. “I gambled enough every day with my personal life to risk gambling with real money.” “True,” Kasai agreed before his sharp eyes caught sight of a large blue minotaur accompanied by a Riolu moving about the floor. “And there are two of them, though I’m guessing that the real brains of this thing are the Abra and the Scyther.” “Yeah...” Abby frowned and glanced around the floor, catching sight of the Abra and the Scyther, both wearing clothes for some reason, walking towards the slots section. “Found them, odd place for someone with an Abra’s skills but that doesn’t really matter. Let’s go and see if we can’t get this done without any fighting alright? “Of course, and if there is any, you can count on me,” Kasai stated with a soft chuckle as the pair started through the crowd, in pursuit of the clueless Abra and Scyther. They had just been about to close in on the twosome when the Porygon-Z appeared from one of the machines, giving them both pause. “I... hadn’t been expecting that,” Abby said with a frown. “What’s a Porygon-Z doing inside of a slot machine?” “Cheating,” Kasai said blandly. However, as the Porygon-Z talked, it became evident it was... even more erratic than the species had been famed for, and then it dropped a name. “Kasai... did it just say something about a Doctor and Vincent?” Abby asked, her eyes widening. “The kid who’s been missing for years!” “Yes, yes he did,” Kasai said, his eyes widening as well. “His mother said that her husband stole him from the crib... must have been fifteen years ago!” “Yeah, Doctor Nurem...” Abby’s voice trailed off as she thought back to the literally hundreds of reports that the man had created in the name of ‘science’ and ‘curiosity’, every single one getting him another warrant for his arrest. He was one of, if not the, top person on the Ranger’s most wanted list, other than Gene... but that was another story. It was then that they were snapped out of their memories by the Porygon-Z taking an offensive stance to the ponies that had closed ranks around the Scyther, Abra, and Porygon-Z. "Act-act-activating preLIMinary defeeeeeeenses of master Vincent! Tri-tri-TRI-ATTACK!" The colored orbs began to circle the Porygon-Z’s form then, and the Scyther said one thing. “Oh, this REALLY won’t end well!” “Shit! Kasai! Protect!” Abby commanded before shouting. “POKEMON RANGERS! FREEZE!” Kasai leapt into the circle of ponies, scattering them as a mystic barrier appeared around him and absorbed all three ‘attacks’ into its surface. Just then, the Abra turned its head to them and tilted it. A ‘voice’ rang out then, though he hadn’t opened his mouth. Pokemon rangers? Never heard of you. But I will try to help. Bit, calm down! No need for violence! The Porygon-Z ticked a few times before letting out a dinging noise and hovering near the Abra. “Un-Un-Understood, master Vincent. Staaaaandby mode initiated.” Abby smiled, good, ‘Vincent’ didn’t seem to be the type to hurt innocents, that was good. She stepped forward and barked. “Okay everyone, nothing to see here, please leave this portion of the casino on order of the Las Pegasus guard.” The ponies grumbled but slowly moved off, and the Scyther seemed to be looking at both of them interchangeably. “So...now that we’re nowhere near the ‘good doctor’, we meet authorities? Great. Just great.” Sam, you still haven’t explained. Just who are the Pokemon Rangers? “I can answer that,” Abby said with a small smile as she stepped forward, keeping her posture as nonthreatening as possible. “The Pokemon Rangers are, or rather were I suppose, an organization devoted to helping find and stop Pokemon abuse in all it’s forms. I’m Ranger Abby and this is my mate, Ranger Kasai.” Silence reigned for a minute, but anyone who looked at the Abra would notice one thing. He was shaking for some reason. “Are you okay kid?” Kasai asked the Abra, his eyes widening in concern, he knew from Luke that Psychic Pokemon were prone to horrible migraines, or in the Gallade’s case, traumatic flashbacks. “Do you need an aspirin?” ...Where were you? With those words, the Abra jumped off the Scyther’s head and floated an inch off the floor. When my father cut Lucy open and altered her skeleton so much that she might NEVER get her marks of adulthood and made me WATCH, where were you? The Abra’s arms were glowing an eerie blue at that statement. Abby was silent for a moment. This was bad. This was very bad and had to be taken very carefully. “We were looking for you, Vincent, your mother informed us of your kidnapping and we’ve had teams looking for you your entire life. I’m sorry that we didn’t get to you in time but-” He cut her off. When he strapped Sam to a table and prepared a cocktail of drugs to see what would happen to a bug-type’s exoskeleton and put my damn hand on the plunger and made me push it, where were you?! Now the Abra’s legs were glowing blue and he was hovering a good half-foot off the floor. Abby and Kasai began to back away, neither stupid enough to remain too close, though really, they knew from experience that backing up a foot wouldn't do anything to protect them from the Psychic Pokemon’s powers. “We weren’t there,” Abby said, knowing that apologies wouldn’t mean anything to him. “We were looking, but we weren’t there when you needed us.” “Understatement of the century,” the Scyther muttered. “I was the only one who knew there was an outside world out of the three of us.” The Abra hadn’t finished. When he subjected me to tests and experiments and injections every day of my life and stopped giving me anesthetic for it...when I kept getting headaches and heard voices in my head...when what little staff he had also thought of me as a freak just because I could understand Pokemon because of HIS EXPERIMENTS, WHERE THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU?! At this, the entire Abra’s form was coated in that blue aura and he’d done something Abra weren’t known for doing: He opened his eyes, which were now glowing white. The feedback snapped the communication links instantly, but he was still up, still angry, and now hovering a good foot off the ground. “Kasai... get ready to Protect again,” Abby muttered to the Arcanine. “And then, see if you can get an opening to Crunch, it’s a Dark Type move so it might snap him out of this.” “Right,” Kasai said, lowering his body. The Porygon-Z looked at the Arcanine and its eyes flashed. “Would-would-would not adviiiiise that. Master Vincent has fif-fif-fifteen years of RAGE to work ooooooout...and as my new masTER, I must now de-de-defend him…” Thus saying, the Porygon-Z took up place next to the angry Abra. “Right... I did not think we’d need backup for this,” Abby grunted as the pair began to retreat, never taking their eyes from the pair. “Get Axel and come back?” Kasai grunted in reply. Just...Go...AWAY! I dealt with him for FIFTEEN YEARS without you, I don’t need you NOW! The Abra pointed his arms at the pair of fire types, and the sensation of something terrible about to happen increased. “Run!” Abby barked, turning tail, Kasai right beside her. They didn’t make it very far. A wave of blue erupted from the Abra, knocking over every slot machine and hurling it five feet away from their resting place, bowling Abby and Kasai over. A yell erupted from the blackjack tables, and the minotaur and Riolu came running in the opposite direction. “What did you two do?!” the Riolu barked at them. The sunhat she was wearing utterly failed to defuse the situation. “Nothing!” Abby barked back, dodging a slot machine as it slammed into the ground where she’d been only a second earlier as the Abra’s power swirled through the room, picking up all sorts of things and sending them spinning chaotically around the room. “Fuck, he’s going to kill someone!” Kasai added, a chair slamming into his side and getting a yelp of pain out of him as he stumbled to the side. “Ow!” “Iron Will does not know what to do, little fighter! And Iron Will cannot understand you anymore! Any ideas are welcome!” The Riolu looked to the minotaur and grumbled before looking at the pair of fire-types. “Vincent either opened his eyes, snapped the connections, and caused himself a lot of pain, or something set him off. Which one is it?” “We didn’t mean to set him off,” Abby explained rapidly, dodging a blackjack table. “We just said that we were Rangers and he started screaming in our heads about all the awful things that had happened to him.” At that, the Riolu blinked, looked to the both of them, and snarled. “And well he should have. Where were you?! We’ve had a terrible life, and you show up when we’re trying to make a better one...yeah, that was going to happen.” “Look, we can discuss the failings of the Rangers, and there were many, believe me, I know, later,” Kasai shouted before he unleashed a jet of flame and reduced a chair to cinders. “But at the moment I’m more concerned about your friend over there leveling the building and killing everyone!” The Riolu thought for a moment. “I think I can get him to stop. He always listened to me before…” With that, the Riolu tugged on Iron Will’s arm and led the minotaur into the heart of the chaos, calling out along the way. “Vincent! Vincent, I’m coming in, and I’m bringing Iron Will with me!” With that, the storm lessened a bit, before dying down entirely. Lucy? Lucy, are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I? Abby and Kasai let out matching sighs of relief. It looked like the storm was over, they had jobs to do and hopefully the Abra had tired himself out. “This isn’t going to be fun,” Kasai mused to her as the pair started forwards. “No, not it’s not, but hopefully we can find this kid some help,” Abby replied, following Lucy as she approached the Abra. Just then, they realized that the little Riolu wasn’t entirely on their side. “Vincent, there’s more than one way to get away from them. Why don’t you try that move?” ...You’re right… The Abra looked at the Rangers, an expression of rage on his face still. If I never see you two again, it’ll be too soon. Sam, Bit, Iron, Lucy, form up, let’s try this. Abby blinked. He was going to teleport. “Stop, we just need to talk with y-” Sam laid a claw on one shoulder, while Iron Will laid a hand on the other. The Porygon-Z grabbed a hold of the Abra from behind, and Lucy hugged the Abra’s front. And I REALLY don’t want to see or hear from you again. Not now, not EVER. Hell, I’d rather Arceus damn me himself than I end up talking to any authorities from there ever again. Goodbye. TELEPORT! Arceus blinked and looked at the ceiling, which caused Mew a bit of concern. She hovered in front of her father’s face and waved her tail back and forth. Dad? You okay? Arceus blinked again and looked at his daughter. Oh, sorry, yes, I’m fine. I just had the strangest sensation of wanting to banish someone to the Shadow Real- I mean, Distortion World… The five blinked out of existence in a flash of light, leaving the Rangers in the middle of a wrecked casino floor, alone. “Well... that failed miserably,” Kasai muttered with a sigh as he glanced over at Abby. “Are you alright Abby?” “Yes, I’m more worried about you,” Abby replied, glancing at a few drops of blood that were trailing down Kasai’s face. Without asking permission, she licked them up and looked at the wound. Thankfully, it was a very shallow cut. “Thanks,” Kasai said letting out a sigh. “Looks like we’re bringing the whole team out for a change eh?” “Yeah. You and I aren’t going to be enough,” Abby agreed before closing her eyes for a moment and then glancing around the wrecked casino floor. “And Ace is going to kill us for this.”