Safari Zone Pt. 1 with a catch

"So the gym also acts as a ninja academy?" Steven asked as they left the gym.

Vali nodded as she marked the date of her battle against Koga in her pokedex, "Yup and a good portion of those that graduate end up becoming ACEs, Policemen, or join the international police. It's one of the things that have been around for generations," She put her pokedex away, "The Rangers have a similar training program apparently only its a lot tougher,"

"It makes a lot of sense," Steven looked around them as they began heading towards the road that led towards the Safari-zone, "I'm surprised that the League don't have some kind of gate set up to prevent non-trainers from going near the Safari-zone,"

"There's a barrier around it, a group of Alakazam and a few other psychic-types fool the non-trainers into thinking the road doesn't exist," Vali explained as they passed an ACE trainer, "If someone accidentally ends up passing through the barrier, the ACE trainers will be alerted and the nearest one will direct them away," She gestured to a Ranger that was leaning against one of the lamp posts, "A group of Rangers also patrols the area though they stay more towards the Safari-zone. Given that the Safari-zone also acts as a sanctuary for rare/endangered pokemon, they have to keep those with bad intentions away,"

"It seems like its one of the more boring jobs," Steven commented as they began to see the main building of the Safari-zone.

"You'd think that, but not really. According to Sirius, it's actually one of the more exciting ones since you have to deal with poachers, idiotic trainers that can't take a hint, wild pokemon that doesn't exactly like humans, and things like that," Vali grinned a bit, "Sure there are times when it's pretty dull, but the times when it isn't more than make up for it,"

Soon enough, they reached the doors of the Safari-zone and head inside. A ranger stood at the front desk looking bored though it changed into an expression of surprise and joy the moment they caught sight of Vali, "If it ain't little Vali! I wasn't expectin' you of all people ta come in here for a little while given that ya started a bit late."

"Hey, Gus," Vali greeted the bright green haired Ranger with a light grin, "I wasn't expecting to see you here either since Sirius said you'd gotten pulled for Mount Moon duty,"

"Got that bit o'Taros shit done not long before that fire by the Lieutenant's city," Gus' bright orange eyes narrowed, "Ya got involved with that bit o'shit, didn' ya?"

Vali nodded as she walked up to the front desk, "Yeah, but I ended up getting a Vulpix egg out of it."

Gus let out a roar of laughter, "Tha' was you? Damn girl, ya sure know how ta git inta weird situations."

Vali shrugged, "My lucks fucked up sometimes," She looked at Steven, "Steven, this is Gus Whitlock. He's one of the rangers that work with Sirius fairly often. Gus, this is Steven Stone. He's my traveling partner."

"Ah, the boy tha' got Siri inta a big ol' tizzy afore ya left on yer journey," Gus grinned brightly revealing a missing tooth, "Nice ta meetcha, Steven. Call me Gus,"

"Nice to meet you as well," Steven offered Gus a polite smile.

Gus snorted before looking at Vali, "So ya here ta go inta the zones?"

"Yup," Vali nodded as she showed Gus her camera, "Going to take as many pictures as I can to send home and maybe find a few new members of my family along the way. I'll probably be taking a few trips before we leave Fuchsia,"

Gus shook his head with a fond smile, "Right. You can take two pokemon inta the zones wit ya. The rest gotta be put into the storage area. Ya can't attack the pokemon, but yer pokemon can protect ya if yer attacked. Ya'll get thirty safari balls, a pound of bait, and a map. Ya'll have 4 hours and thirty minutes to catch any pokemon."

They sat through the thirty minute safety discussion and given a list of zones that they could go through. They also ended up signing a waiver explaining that they understood the risks of the Safari-zone and that the league wasn't responsible for them if something happened. After some discussion, Steven and Vali chose to go through the Mountain-zone. Safety in numbers and the fact that Steven didn't really have any pokemon he wanted to catch at the moment were the biggest reason they were going together. He would also have an easier time finding problems with the zone than Vali would since he'd grown up around mountains. While he didn't know the mountains they were going into, he did have some idea of what things should be like since some of the zone was made to resembled some of the mountains found in Hoenn.

After getting the Safari balls, bait, and map, they headed out with the other trainers going to the mountains few as there were. They got onto these jeeps that would take them to the base of the mountains. Some of those with them were heading into the caves to look for pokemon while others were just going to be climbing. One of their traveling partners was a painter that was hoping to get some inspiration for his newest painting. One was a scientist hoping to gather some rock samples to hopefully find out how pokemon from other regions managed to survive without much human interference.

Once the jeep arrived at the sight, they all filed out and the rangers gave them a warning final warning along with a tracking band that would ensure that they could be found if they didn't return after the time limit had been reached. Vali fiddled with the band for a few moments before looking up at the mountain, "So how do you want to do this?"

"Let's just pick a direction and go with it," Steven suggested as he released Metagross.

"Sounds good," Vali gestured to the slight incline not far from them that went north into the mountains, "That way sound good?"

"Sure," Steven shrugged and they started walking after she released Balto.

Vali had chosen Balto because he would be able to smell if something was wrong. She'd chosen Celina after debating about it as her second pokemon. Celina could fly and would give them an aerial view if they needed it. She would have chosen Smaug, but he was still a bit too shaky on his flying and she wouldn't be able to rid on his back for another four months while he finished growing into his full size. If they tried, it would be detrimental to his growth and general health.

Vali took a picture of a few Geodude while making note of the fact that there were a few Alolan ones in the batch which probably came from a fairly recent transfer between regions. She glanced towards Steven when she finished and found him studying what looked like a hoof print embedded into the stone. She walked over and took a closer look at it, "That looks like a Camerupt hoof print, the depth and the burn on the stone means its a pretty young one. Must've evolved within the last couple of weeks if not sooner."

"How do you know that?" Steven asked as she bent down to feel if there was any heat coming off of the stone.

"About four months before my journey, one of the older trainers ended up catching a Camerupt for Professor Oak to study," Vali's fingers felt like they'd been dipped into a steaming hot bath only without the water, "It was foul tempered and constantly tired to run away. I got pretty good at tracking it down with some of Professor Oak's aids and Balto. Based on the heat coming off of this print, I'd say it left about thirty minutes ago give or take a few. Given that they only travel quickly when they need to, I'd say it's about half a mine away," She took a picture of the print and looked around for a few second before spotting another one, "It's heading East. Likely heading for a natural hot-spot like a hot-springs or something. Due to the fact they literally have magma boiling inside of them, they have fur that expels heat alongside the hole on top of their humps. Because of this, they'll have a hard time surviving a Kanto winter though thankfully it'll be easier than a Johto one. Thankfully, they can sense natural heat sources and are able to find them pretty quick which means they'll likely survive,"

"Do you want to try and catch this one?" Steven asked her curiously as she stood up.

Vali shook her head, "I'd prefer catching a Numel. They are far less temperamental than a Camerupt and less set in their ways. They're also easier to work with than a Camerupt who'll be more likely to use a Flamethrower on you if you're doing something they don't like. And even if I have my inner fire, I'd prefer not to see if I'd get burned or not if a pokemon using a fire-type move can hurt me."

Vali would prefer to put that off as much as possible if given half a chance. Steven grimaced at her words, "That would be a better idea."

"Though I do want to go take a few pictures of the Camerupt, we might end up finding some Numel and I can see if one wants to come with me," Vali said as Steven stood up and dusted himself off.

Following the Camerupt was easy, they moved slowly when there wasn't a need for speed and they tended to let off steam fairly often. They managed to find the Camerupt after a forty-five minutes of walking and ended up find a hot-spring with multiple pokemon around it. Other than the Camerupt they were following, a handful of Numel, Torkal, Aipom, Machop, and a few other pokemon were settled around the hot-springs. Vali immediately began taking pictures as Steven muttered, "So many pokemon of various species."

"Based on the fact they're gathering food, I think this is where they're planning on spending the winter which is fairly smart especially since the Whooper and other water-types in the water can provide fresh drinking water," Vali took a picture of one Aipom getting sprayed in the face by a Whopper and giggled a bit, "So cute,"

Taking out her journal once she got enough pictures, Vali began to take notes on what was occurring below them. It was always interesting to see pokemon of various species from diffrent regions acting in harmony with one another. It was moments like this that people truly saw that many pokemon were more than the animal-like creatures they resemble. It was especially exciting to see wild pokemon act like this. Eventually, one of the pokemon noticed their presence and alerted the others. They got hostile until Balto and Metagross quickly explained that the two weren't really interested in catching any of the pokemon there. From what Metagross translated the wild pokemon settled down, they made it known that she wanted a Numel, but wouldn't be catching any without their consent.

A majority of the wild pokemon chose to ignore them while the more friendly ones got closer. Two of the Numel wandered over and began investigating Vali. She smiled while offering them some of the bait she'd been given and slowly they got comfortable with her. By the time they had to leave, one of the Numel managed to get into her bag and capture itself in one of the Safari balls much to her surprise. Both humans stared at the pokeball as it shook with Steven commenting, "Well that isn't something you see every day."

"Yeah," Vali shook her head and bent down to pick up the pokeball, "Welcome to the family, Numel,"

Granted, Numel wouldn't officially be her pokemon until Vali brought it to the front desk back in the welcome center and had it registered as hers. She let Numel out to say its goodbyes then returned it when it was time to go. Steven spoke as they made their way down the mountain, "I've heard of things like that happening, but it's never happened to me."

"I'm just happy I've got a new family member to train and raise," Vali grinned brightly, "And one of the pokemon I've been wanting for awhile,"

"At the very least, we won't have to worry too much once it starts to snow seeing as your fire-types will probably put off enough heat to keep us warm without a camp fire," Steven commented with a snicker.

Vali snorted at that, "Probably."

Vali was about to say something else when Balto began barking in alarm seconds before the ground beneath them gave out plunging them into darkness as a roar echoed through the air. She recalled Balto not wanting him to get hurt by the fall. The sensation of falling slowly died down as Metagross' psychic power curled around her just as it did around Steven. Rather than float them upwards, Metagross took them deeper into the darkness as Steven asked, "Metagross, what is going on?"

"A rock-snake is battling a group of iron tunnelers," Metagross replied as they entered a cave coated in what looked like glowing bluish green crystals, "It is too dangerous to go near them,"

Iron tunnelers? Vali ran that through her mind before coming up with a possible pokemon, "You mean an Onix got into a fight with some Durant?"

"Yes," Metagross floated them onto the floor of the cavern and released them.

"What are Durant doing in Kanto? I mean this is the Safari-zone, but still," Steven asked as with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not sure, but it'll be something I'm going to talk to Professor Oak about since Durant aren't allowed in Kanto unless they're a trainers pokemon due to the fact that can ruin the ecosystem," Vali looked around them, "How far down are we?"

"Thirty-five feet below the surface," Metagross answered as Vali took out her camera to take pictures of the cavern.

"And where is the nearest exit other than the one above us?" Steven asked as she moved to take a closer look at the crystals on the wall.

"Twenty feet south, we do not sense any hostiles in that direction," Metagross settled on their legs.

"So that means we'll be heading south," Steven looked at the crystals, "What are those? I've never seen crystals like this before,"

Vali looked at him in surprise before focusing back on the crystals feeling her magic buzz underneath her skin. It wasn't a painful buzz, but it caused her some discomfort. She reached the nearest crystal and placed her gloved hand on it which immediately caused the excited buzzing of her magic to increase into a fever pitch. The crystal underneath her hand began to turn a bright fiery red lined with orange, bright green, white, and bright blue. Fawkes' feather warmed against her skin and began to glow beneath her shirt. It was when fire began to gather around her fingers and start going up her arm that she pulled away causing everything to return to almost normal. She said almost normal because her magic continued to buzz beneath her skin though it was thankfully far less energetic. She looked at her hand as she murmured, "Definitely not touching those with my bare hands," She looked back at the crystal than at Steven, "Got any spare vials? I think Professor Oak needs to be made aware of this."

Vali let Steven start collecting the samples while she wrote as many notes about the cavern as possible since it was definitely something Professor Oak needed to know about. After she was done, she began helping Steven collect more samples. It was due to an impulse that Vali couldn't really control that she pocketed a decent sized chunk of the crystal which would be stored in her storage device the moment she could. When she looked at Steven, she froze only to relax when he showed her a decent sized chunk of his own which he pocketed moments later. They placed the vials of crystal they'd gathered into one of Steven's storage devices and followed Metagross to the exit. She looked back at the cave once they left and wondered over just what those crystals were. Why had they made her magic buzz?