The beginning of a new road {Path of the Aura Ranger: Book II}

I N's P.O.V

I know I should have been more careful and not break my cover, but I could not stay still and do nothing as they experimented on that Braviary!

So, when the two henchmen, Schwarz and Weiss, who were holding a Braviary captive as they made their way back to headquarters, I decided to activate my plan! They soon encounter a roadblock—set up by me! I used the distraction to break into their truck and free Braviary, and the two of us escaped—but we were both hurt by the grunts.

Luckily, I found Ash soon and his friends helped me. They even discovered the hidden tracking device attached to Braviary's neck and took it out. Aura is awesome!

Ash later sent some of his Unova Ghost Team to take care of the grunts. Unfortunately, now that my cover was up there was nothing for me to do. Ash did not seem mad about it, even invited me to joing his group while they journeyed.

Even after everything, I still do not understand him. I thought confused. Ash is such a complex character. I prefer dealing with pokemon than with humans ten times over! Like that situation in Virbank Ciity!

On our way to the White Ruins, after we had just arrived in Virbank City we saw smoke and rushed to investigate. But as Ash recruits Samurott to put out the fire, we were stopped by an insistent Watchog wearing a red scarf. It turned out the fire was part of a drill conducted by the Pokemon Harbor Patrol, a team dedicated to dealing with any disasters that happen around Virbank City's extensive harbor. Under the direction of Captain Halsey, Dewott and two Frillish ran the rescue operations and put out fires, while Watchog served as lookout.

But Watchog seemed upset, it was not hard for me to figure out why: he wanted to be involved in the rescues as well. Unfortunately, he had failed the firefighting section of the aptitude tests, so Halsey had asked him to stay as lookout for now. I tried to defend poor Watchog's feelings and try to get the captain to understand. Of course, that resulted in a huge fight that was only interrupted when the captain gets a call about a real emergency. There was a fire at the Virbank Complex, where a local kindergarten class was visiting!

The fight was rapidly forgotten and we all rushed to help.

As Ash, Iris, Cilan, Max, Riley, and I guided the children and workers to safety, Watchog stood guard, while Halsey, Dewott, and the Frillish headed into the complex to put out the fire. But the fire spread our outside, while inside, the fire doors slammed shut automatically, trapping Halsey and his team. Ash and Samurott tried to fight the fire, but they couldn't do it alone. Iris asked Excadrill to dig a tunnel to reach Halsey, but when Excadrill runs up against hard bedrock, I had an idea. I asked Watchog to use his remarkable sensing skills to detect the rocky places in the ground. With some teamwork, Watchog, Iris, Excadrill, and I managed to get Halsey and the others out of the building.

They quickly put out the fire outside, with Halsey admitting that it was time to rethink his decision about keeping Watchog off the rescue team. I wanted to say more and scold the captain for being insensitive about Watchog's feelings, but shut up after seeing how happy the pokemon was. Relationship between trainers and pokemon could be so hard to decipher sometimes.

Was I the only one who never truly understood the bonds between pokemon and their trainers? I wondered sadly.

It kept bothering me until we came across the Kanto Fair: a festival celebrating the sights and sounds of the Kanto region. Of course, since Ash is from Kanto originally, this took him right back to memories of his home. Especially, after we saw Professor Oak's presentation on the three Kanto Pokemon Starters: Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Feeling nostalgic Ash told us the story of how he had first met his beloved Charmander. Just like Tepig, Charmander had been abandoned by its original Trainer.