614 CH87 (609), Rangers (9)

The rest of my break after Vendrak/Salandit's good news went by calmly and before long I once more left Rose City together with Ranger Elisabeth. This would be my/our last trip. Once the 4-week long patrol was over, my ranger phase would end, concluding my practical year, though the official start of my journey would have to wait until the end of the 17th month, or rather the start of the 18th month due to bureaucracy stuff on the alliance side.

Regardless, this was going to be my last patrol trip with Elisabeth, and I was hoping that I'd be able to recruit some more elders for my guardian project. So far I had managed to gather 7 "goldies" during my ranger phase, and I was aiming to increase that number to 9 if possible. Together with Raticate that would be 10 gold stage guardians. Adding Toedscruel and Vileplume to the mix to lead/supervise them and we had 2 dark gold head guardians along with 10 gold guardians, which should theoretically be more than enough to ensure the safety of my Pokemon reserve.

In fact, I did not really have to bother with the security since I could always make use of my privilege as a Junior Professor to hire alliance personnel to take care of the security of my reserve. However, in my opinion, that would make me too dependent on the alliance. Not to mention that handing such a vital matter to someone else, even if it was the alliance, would have an impact on my sense of control.

I preferred having total control over my own place/project, so a significant outside influence was a no-go, which was why I was showing such interest in Project Guardian. Once the ranger phase was over, I would make use of the final month I had to wait until I could officially start my journey to finalize the matter of the reserve. Well, at least the parts that could be dealt with already since some species still had not reached the quota.

Anyway, Elisabeth and I began our patrol as soon as we made it to "our" stretch of the wild. Maybe it was because she knew that this was our last trip/patrol together but Elisabeth initiated a conversation involving our future plans. She asked me what I was planning on doing once I was registered as an "official" trainer, and I told her about my plan to take part in the Hoenn circuit.

She was briefly surprised when I mentioned taking part in a senior circuit but then she remembered the strength of my Pokemon and just laughed a bit. She actually teased me and said that I was probably the first person in history to be so strong that he missed out on an easy championship trophy. She even mentioned Weiss, not knowing that she was a good friend of mine, and teased me by saying even top-notch geniuses like her with gold-stage Pokemon were allowed to dominate junior leagues, but anomalies like me weren't.

I only gave her a dry look at that before adding a "ha ha ha, very funny" in a very dry tone on top, and maybe it was because she felt that she might have gone a bit too far with the teasing, but she quickly changed the topic to her own plans for the future. She shared that she would finally be promoted to an Ace Ranger once my "training" was complete.

Apparently training/taking care of an aspiring trainer during his or her practical year was one of the requirements for Senior Rangers to advance to the Ace Ranger rank, which according to Elisabeth was when the really impressive assignments would be handed out. Missions such as having to patrol high-risk zones or exploring/scouting out unexplored areas/islands as well as the wilderness past the border.

It seemed that Elisabeth managed to fulfill all the other requirements for her promotion, except for the "mentorship" one, and she revealed that she was really looking forward to checking out some unexplored places. The Ranger Corps like any other organization of this type had a hierarchy among its members to differentiate the prowess and authority of its members.

I had naturally learned about the ranks among the Rangers before, but I had not known that "babysitting" was one of the advancement requirements for Senior Rangers. It honestly seemed a bit like a waste of resources since I was certain that regular Rangers could have taught the required knowledge as well. I mean, I understood why they did not use Junior Rangers since those were practically "newbie" Rangers, but regular Rangers should have been able to do it without any problems.

Nonetheless, I was sure that there was a perfectly reasonable reason behind this decision that I could just not think of right now. Still, I could not help but wonder if there was a similar curious promotion condition when an Ace Ranger wanted to become a Top Ranger. I doubted there was one when a Top Ranger wanted to become a Head/Zenith Ranger, but at this point, nothing seemed impossible.

Regardless, I wished Elisabeth good luck in advance before we changed the topic to our current patrol route, which brought up my recruiting efforts. Elisabeth asked me if I had any "targets" we'd come across this week, and I nodded since there was one, though I was not confident that the Fearow would agree.

The fact that it was a loner instead of being part of a flock was not a good sign as far as its readiness to fit in and take care of others was concerned. I doubted Fearow would have been ousted from the flock if that had not been the case, or in case Fearow left willingly, it wouldn't have done so if it had been willing to work with/for the flock.

Still, maybe I was too pessimistic and there was another reason why Fearow became a loner. Maybe its flock got eliminated, and it ended up being alone after they disbanded, or it could have been the line survivor. Okay, that may not have been the best/nicest scenario, but it was one of the many possible reasons why it was alone.

Regardless of the real reason it ended up alone, I ended up being right since Fearow declined the offer I gave him when we met on Giratiday. I even mentioned that there was a flock of Spearow/Fearow present that Fearow could join if it wanted to, but to no avail. Farrow actually ended up losing his patience and simply flew away. Elisabeth just patted me on the back when I got that unmistakable rejection, and we resumed our patrol.

Still, my week did end on a good note after all, when Nyx/Umbreon advanced to the (high) dark gold stage on Grouday. It took her a bit less than 12 months to raise the two Es to Ds to facilitate this, and I had seen how hard Nyx had worked to make it possible. Seeing the others advance before/in front of her had stimulated her quite a bit, and with this step, she had caught up with the leading group once more, which was important to her. We naturally celebrated her advancement, though I had to join using an Earth Clone.

On Mewday of the following week, a pie fell into my lap out of nowhere. During our patrol that day we passed by a small channel and ended up coming across a Pidgeot trying to crack open the shell of a Shellder. Yet, despite Pidgeot's best efforts, it failed to do so. It reluctantly gave up and flew away after a few more minutes of useless effort.

I had to admit that I could not help but wonder why the Shellder did not defend itself and simply let the Pidgeot do whatever it wanted. I mean, from the strength of its shells, it was clear that the Shellder was likely not weaker than the (low) silver-stage Pidgeot that left. In fact, shortly after Pidgeot left, the Shellder's shell cracked open, and (low) gold-stage undulations spread.

Elisabeth and I saw the Shelder look around itself confusedly. When it noticed us Shellder actually asked how it had ended up on land since it had still been at the bottom of the river/channel when it went to sleep. We explained to Shellder what happened just moments and I had to snort when it complained "So that was what caused the noise that woke me up".

When Elisabeth asked if it had not noticed anything, Shellder complained about its age. It mentioned needing to sleep more and more as well as being increasingly tired. This puzzled me a bit since it could have easily added decades or even centuries to its lifespan by simply evolving to Cloyster, and considering its strength, I did not believe it would be impossible for Shellder to find a Wtaer Stone for its evolution.

When I raised that question it gave me a bitter look before lamenting its incredibly bad luck. Apparently, it had been trying to get ahold of a Water Stone for the last few years but failed to acquire a single one. Every time it came across one someone stronger ended up taking it away before Shellder could touch the d*mn stone. I found it unbelievable that some could be that unlucky but it seemed that it happened 14 times to Shellder within the last three decades.

After the 14th time, Shellder simply gave up and allowed the current to drag it away, which was how it ended up here instead of staying/living at the sea. Elisabeth was openly gaping after she heard that, and I was wondering if that kind of bad luck would cause problems if I ended up recruiting Shellder. Yes, as soon as I heard Shellder complain about its age, I had the idea of recruiting it, but hearing about its luck I wavered a bit.

Having Fortuna/Togekiss in the family I knew what kind of impact luck could have, so I had to admit that such potent bad luck was a bit intimidating. While I was ruminating about the consequences of recruiting Shellder, Elisabeth asked Shellder why it had not tried to join a trainer in exchange for a Water Stone, and Shellder actually had tears in its eyes when it asked if she believed that it had not actually tried that.

Each time Shellder tried to approach a human it believed to be qualified, the person turned out to be scum that tried to capture it to sell it or worse. One time one of the people even wanted to use it to make soup. I saw Elisabeth subconsciously take a step back while Shellder shared some of his encounters that went poorly. I honestly understood her reaction.

Still, Elisabeth's reaction aside, I decided to consult the luck specialist first before making any decisions. Hence, I brought Fortuna out, and as soon as she appeared, her crown feathers stood up, and her attention was directly drawn to Shellder. Seeing her reaction, I immediately opened our mental link and asked her what happened. She told me that Shellder gave her an uncomfortable feeling, but at the same time, she felt an almost instinctive urge to help Shellder.

According to Fortuna, she got a feeling that something good would happen to whoever helped Shellder. I thanked her for the information before turning to Shellder. I offered to give him a Water Stone and help him evolve, as long as he agreed to work for me afterward. Shellder seemed stunned by my offer, but before it could say anything Elisabeth pulled me aside and asked me if I was crazy.

Knowing what she was worried about I told her that I knew what I was doing, and when she appeared unconvinced, I pulled the "I'm a Junior Professor" card. That matter settled, I turned back to Shellder who had been watching our exchange, and repeated my offer. Shellder gave me a serious look before asking if I was not worried that something bad would happen to me if it stayed with me, but I shrugged and told it that I was confident in my own luck.

After staring at me for a few more moments, Shellder agreed to my offer. It promised that it would work for me as long as I helped it evolve to Cloyster, and I could feel that Shellder meant it, so under the astounded gaze of Shellder as well as Elisabeth, I pulled out a Water Crystal. I moved towards Shellder with the crystal in my hand, and Shellder nervously checked the surroundings while I came closer.

I stopped in front of Shellder and asked if it was ready. Shellder seemed surprised by the lack of any attack or other catastrophe that would/could stop its evolution, but put that aside and nodded expectantly. I placed the Water Crystal on top of Shellder's shell before swiftly taking a step back as Shellder erupted in a bright light.

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