章 52: Pokemon Smuggler

As I departed the locker room to let Jessie get ready, as she needed to completely fix her disguise, I was in deep thought as I made my way through the halls of the Pokemon Center.

Other than Giovanni I don't recall much about the other executives of Team Rocket from the games. But according to her Petrel was the newest, and lowest ranking of the executives, which was why he's been put in charge of excavation duty by their mysterious 'Boss'.

Apparently Petrel had been assigned several dozen of the newer recruits to search the interior of Mt. Moon for fossils, moon stones, and rare Pokemon. Namely Clefairy since they could be sold to collectors for a decent price.

Of course I needed to enter the mountain myself tonight, otherwise I might miss them if they decided to pull out early.

So, before following the girls auras to find our room, I started browsing the front of the numerous shops in the Pokemon Center to see if there was any last minute supplies I needed. After all, I just got a nice chunk of change after beating the little rich boy.

The only thing I ended up getting though was a stack of zip ties big enough to wrap around a person's wrists and ankles.

With those safely stored away in my bag, I began making my way to where the girls auras were, when suddenly a suspicious looking man hopped out in front of me.

"Hey kid! You ah, looking for a new Pokemon?" The man asked me shadily.

After the initial shock of his sudden appearance, I was suddenly hit with a wave of dejavu as I realized I knew this man.

If I was right, this was the same guy from the Fire Red and Leaf Green games who'd sell you a Magikarp at this same Pokemon Center. It was a scam of course, as Magikarp themselves were literally useless, but I still bought one every time to add to my Pokedex, and to start training to evolve into a Gyarados without having to wait until I got the fishing rod.

However a video game was one thing, and real life was another.

"Whatcha got?" I asked while keeping my expression as neutral as possible.

The man smirked as he opened his trench coat to show me a dozen or so Pokeballs on one side of it.

"Whatcha need? I got me some Magikarp, Feebas, Tangela, a Lickitung, and even a Buizel all the way from Sinnoh."

Flashing me a yellow-toothed grin as he listed off all the Pokemon he currently had on him, I felt my mind go numb. It didn't help that I could see his aura was infused with all manner of sickly and nauseating colors, making plain his greed and complete disregard for the Pokemon he possessed.

"Yeah, I'll take one. Do you trade?" I asked while lowering my bag from my shoulder and rummaging through it real quick.

"Well of course I do!" The man exclaimed, seemingly eager to get his hands on a more valuable Pokemon.

"How's about dat Exeggutor or Wartortle you used earlier in the battle? Or that little blue and black thing that was following you around before? Ain't never seen one of them before!" The man said, his greed intensifying by the second as he imagined what sort of rarer and more valuable Pokemon he'd get from me.

"Well let's see.... How about this?" I asked while pulling what I was after from my bag, and holding it up for him to see.

Ace Ketchum

Honorary Ranger

For a moment nothing happened as the man read my Ranger identification badge, before he promptly turned and fled.

"Dumbass." I uttered without even bothering giving chase, instead creating a wall in front of him made of aura.

I shook my head as the guy crashed into the wall and fell, hard.

Ignoring his groans, I casually walked to his side and pulled out one of the zip ties I just purchased. A second later they were tight around his wrists, and I was dragging the guy along to the officer's counter.

"Hold it! What are you doing to that man!?!" A shrill voice suddenly cried out, coming from the Officer Jenny stationed here.

"Ranger Ketchum with an illegal Pokemon smuggler." I said while flashing my badge. I was definitely not in a hurry to repeat my jail experience in Pewter.

Immediately the Officer Jenny loosened up as she looked between the smuggler and I.

"Bring him in here." She ordered as I followed her into the little station, which had a single holding cell.

I quickly stripped the smuggler of every one of the two dozen Pokeballs in his possession, and then gave him a quick check for any weapons before tossing him into the cell.

"I'll leave the rest to you, but I need to go Officer." I told her while trying to leave.

"Wait! I need you to give me your report on what happened first!" Officer Jenny stated as she tried to stop me.

I held in an exasperated sigh as I turned to the Officer, and said in a low voice,

"Ma'am, currently there are a few DOZEN Team Rocket agents inside Mt. Moon. This joker already took some of my time, but imagine all the trainers and Pokemon currently in there that they could hurt."

Though I could tell she didn't want to, Jenny stood down as she said, "very well. But I'll also be radioing the Pewter city station for backup if what you said is true."

"You do that." I said with a small smile before turning to leave.

First, I had to find the girls and let them know what was going on. So I followed their aura to find the room we had received for the night, though it was looking like I wasn't going to be spending much time in it.

Opening the door, I found the girls all walking around in various states of dress after their shower. May in a silk top with only panties to cover her lower half, while Misty was in a different pair of booty shorts than what she wore during the day in another crop top. The one that immediately drew my eyes though was Dawn, who was laying on the bed in the buff, with her creamy and lovely looking butt on display.

Damn. I wanted nothing more than bury my face between those lovely cheeks and eat to my hearts content.

But I couldn't.

"Ace? What's up? Where have you been?" May asked as all three turned to look at me, though Dawn noticed my gaze and flashed me a seductive smirk.

The little succubus then proceeded to reach back, spread her cheeks open so that I could see her wrinkled little hole, which she flexed to make it pucker and twitch invitingly.

Fuck. I REALLY wanted nothing more than to stay.

Fighting the urge dive face first into Dawn's ass, I told the girls, "I heard from my contact. Team Rocket is moving on Mt. Moon tonight, and is more than likely already inside it."

Immediately all three girls became serious as they started towards their day clothes.

"Give us a minute and we'll be ready!" Misty stated.

"No." I told them seriously, making all three look at me incredulously.

"But Ace-"

"But nothing." I said, cutting Dawn off before continuing, "I agreed that you three could help if we got here fast enough to scout the mountain ahead of time. But we didn't. It's dangerous enough for me by myself, and I'm not going to march you all in there in the dark to battle opponents that are better prepared than we are."

For a moment no one said anything as the girls stared at me and I stared back at them, neither side backing down from the standoff.

*knock knock!*

A knock at the door ended the moment as I turned to open it, only enough so they couldn't see the girls inside, and saw a Nurse Joy on the other side.

"Good evening mr. Ranger. I know you're in hurry, but can you come with me for a moment? It's about the Pokemon we obtained from the smuggler."

"Lead the way." I told her while biting back my growing irritation.

Nurse Joy bowed her head respectfully as she turned to do as I asked, and I looked back at the girls one last time before following her with Riolu at my side.

Our destination wasn't far, just to the nurses station of the Center. But when we got there I was stunned by what I saw.

"POOCH!"

"Please! We are trying to help you!"

"POOCH!" Roared out the agitated Poochyena, right before it lunged at the Nurse Joy trying to calm it down.

"Down boy!" I ordered as I quickly stepped between the two, and caught his lower jaw in my hand, cladding it in aura to protect it as the rampaging Poochyena used Bite on it.

"That's enough." I told it in a deathly calm voice, while looking it directly in the eye.

As I did so I channeled my aura at it as much as I could to communicate that none of us were a threat to it. Seconds passed as I did that, before the hold on my hand slowly loosened up before the Poochyena released it, and began licking my hand apologetically.

"It's ok." I said to it in a much gentler tone, caressing its head as I did that before setting it back down on the table it had been on before.

As the Poochyena calmed down, and Riolu released the tension in his body beside me, I looked around to see that the situation was pretty much the same everywhere else in the nurses station.

Along with the Poochyena, I counted three Magikarp, Rattata, and Meowth, two Mareep, Feebas, and Magnemite, a Sneasel, Lickitung, Tangela, Houndour, Nidorina, Buizel, Geodude, Tauros, and finally even a Turtwig. Twenty five Pokemon in total.

Though not as aggressive as Poochyena had been, nearly every single one was in some state of malnourishment while sporting signs of abuse of some kind. The only exception was the Nidorina, who appeared to be on the verge of crying.

Not that I couldn't blame her, as I recognized her as the very same Nidorina that Exeggutor had fought earlier.

Putting what her being there meant aside for the moment, I looked over the numerous other Pokemon with growing rage and sympathy in my heart.

The Tauros was one of the tan normal type ones that could be found in Kanto, but had been spray painted black to appear to be one of the fighting type found on Paldea. Not only that, I could hear from the Nurses Joy that it had been given numerous tranquilizers to keep it docile, while also sporting numerous signs of physical abuse.

It wasn't the only one though, as the Meowth, Rattata and Geodude had all been altered in some way to appear similar to their Alolan counterparts, while the two Magnemite had been dressed up to look like Beldum.

"This is terrible..." Misty uttered as she and the other two appeared behind me, having apparently dressed and followed Nurse Joy and I here to see what was going on.

All three of them appeared horrified at the scene, as nearly all the Pokemon were recoiling and trying to get away from the Nurses Joy trying to help them, and those that weren't appeared too weak to do so.

"If you can offer us any aid..." The Nurse Joy who had come to get me said urgently, before rushing forward to try and help treat one of the Meowth.

"Ri...."

"I know buddy... I know..." I told my partner solemnly, as the urge to kill radiated from his small body.

While I was also feeling the same urge, I smothered it while stepping forward to try and help the Nurses treat the Pokemon. I couldn't stay long, so I did the best thing I could do with the limited time I had.

I first approached the Houndour as it watched me warily, feeling slightly hesitant as the scars on my back, arm, leg, and cheek began to itch slightly. I ignored the feeling though as I channeled my good intent to the Houndour, and began to pat it reassuringly.

Thankfully I could feel the tension leave its body a second later, and it began to relax as it understood we were just trying to help it.

When one of the Nurses Joy stepped up to treat it, I moved on to the next Pokemon, the Sneasel.

One by one I approached all of the Pokemon that were being treated and used my aura to assure them that we meant no harm, and only wanted to help them. Some accepted me easily, while others were harder to communicate with.

Eventually however I got all of them to calm down somewhat, and the nurses were able to treat them without risking injury to themselves, and the Pokemon.

"See see!" One of the Chansey present chimed.

"Yes, thank you so much." One of the Nurses Joy told me after Chansey.

"Don't worry about it." I replied while scribbling down a number really quick.

"What's this?" The Joy asked as she read the phone number I gave her.

"It's professor Oak's personal number. Go ahead and give him a call, and he'll see that these Pokemon are given the care they need from now on."

"Really!?! Thank you!" Nurse Joy exclaimed in awe as she looked upon the number in a different light, before hurrying away to probably give the professor a call like I said.

With my work here done, I turned to leave when the girls approached me.

"You leaving?" May asked hesitantly.

"Yep, I just hope they haven't left yet." I replied tiredly.

"We'll stay here to help keep an eye on all these Pokemon." Dawn stated firmly, while the other two nodded in agreement.

"Thank you." I said to all three of them with genuine gratitude. Not necessarily from them helping to take care of the Pokemon, but for staying and not arguing like earlier.

"Let's go partner." I said to Riolu, who fell into step beside me as we made to leave the Pokemon Center.

Before I could though,

"Mr. Ranger!" Someone called out suddenly as I was about to open the front doors, making me hold in a groan as I turned to see another Nurse Joy hurrying towards me.

"Mr. Ranger! I just wanted to warn you to be careful in the mountain!" The Joy said urgently, before adding in a lower voice as she got closer, "Jenny told me that you were headed to the mountain, and I wanted to warn you about the Pokemon in it."

"I'll watch out for the Zubat." I said while still trying to hurry outside.

"No! Not the Zubat! The Paras!" Nurse Joy exclaimed hurriedly, making my brain literally stall for a second.

"The Paras?" I asked confusedly.

"Yes, the Paras." Nurse Joy confirmed, before explaining, "all Paras release spores from their bodies constantly due to the Effect Spore ability. When they live underground like within Mt. Moon, then they could end up filling entire passages with spores that could induce sleep, paralysis, or poisoning on those who enter them unawares. Paralysis and sleep are the two biggest ones to watch out for, since you'll be unable to move and make an easy meal for the Paras!"

"Huh. How about that?" I uttered in contemplation from what Nurse Joy had just told me. Never in a million years would I have TRULY considered Paras and Parasect to be a potentially dangerous Pokemon.

"My recommendation would be to keep a Pokemon readily available who knows Gust, as they could quickly clear the passage of the spores before you go in." Nurse Joy advised helpfully.

"That's good. I have a Combee with me so she can clear them out. And if anything does happen, I also have a Happiny that knows Heal Bell with me as well." Nurse Joy blinked at that as she asked,

"You have a Happiny?"

"Yep." I said while calling her out.

"Piny piny!" Happiny chimed happily.

"I got her as an egg from the Nurse Joy in charge of the Viridian city Pokemon Center." I quickly explained, making the Nurse Joy look at me in a new light.

I then returned Happiny to her Pokeball and turned to leave once again. This time no one else stopped me as I exited the Pokemon Center and turned towards the entrance to Mt. Moon.

I ran the distance from the building to the cave entrance, which was lit up with numerous lights to guide any trainers that might be lost inside when it was dark. Riolu easily kept pace beside me as we entered the cave, and I immediately spread my aura out to locate any signs of life.

Immediately I received feedback from hundreds of Paras, THOUSANDS of Zubat, and numerous Geodude. I even picked up what I was sure was a couple Clefairy and Onix. But aside from the Pokemon, I also picked up numerous auras that definitely belong to people, and were sinister enough that I knew they belonged to Team Rocket.

"Let's go bud." I said to Riolu, who nodded resolutely beside me, before the two of us entered the cave.