CHAPTER 17: FATEFUL ENCOUNTER

Due to the study of ultra wormhole and ultra beast in Alola, the Aether foundation established different branches throughout Alola for the study and documentation of these, with Mount Lanakila being one of the main places in Alola, it was not going to remain without study.

This is why, while conducting their investigations, they occasionally found injured pokemon or abandoned pokemon eggs for different reasons, so they took care of them until the pokemon recovered or one of those who made the island tour took them in.

For this reason, Professor Kukui placed his expectations on the Mount Lanakila branch, also knowing that Alec was interested in an alola vulpix, he called early to pay a visit, after all, unlike the pokemon nursery, the Aether Foundation is a private organization founded by Lusamine.

Since Mount Lanakila was a bit far from where they landed, it took a couple of hours to get there, but Alec wasn't upset about this, albeit a bit rushed, it was a good tour of some of Alola's highlights, plus he was able to observe the relationship of the inhabitants of Alola along with their customs and relationship with the pokemon.

Alec also took advantage of this to tell the rotomdex to scan all the information of all the pokemon they saw, so, by the time they reached the branch in Mount Lanakila, the rotomdex was quite exhausted.

When Alec and Professor Kukui arrived at the branch, they noticed something quite strange, many of the Aether Foundation workers dressed in white clothes were very busy coming and going from the place, even the entrance of the branch was quite crowded.

Seeing this, Professor Kukui frowned, but he didn't interrupt the workers who were moving food and clothes, but instead entered the branch and asked a young woman who seemed to be in charge.

She "Sorry for the inconvenience, but... what's going on here?"

The young woman seemed somewhat annoyed at being interrupted, and to Alec, it seemed that she was about to shout her truths at the person who interrupted her, or at least she was until she saw who the person in front of her was, to which her expression made a radical change before saying:

"Professor Kukui, what are you doing here? or not, wait, now that I remember, they warned you would come, I'm sorry professor, as you can see, we are quite busy here."

Hearing this, Professor Kukui nodded and looked at her seriously, waiting for her to continue.

The lady did not let Alec and the professor wait long, who, with a worried look, said:

"During the last 3 days our team has found several injured pokemon in the vicinity of Mount Lanakila, at first we did not give it much importance, finding the occasional injured pokemon was not so unusual, so we brought them here with the intention that they be recover, but this morning we found many seriously injured pokemon, between adults and young, they also seem to be terrified, many of our staff were injured trying to help them."

This only made the professor's frown only deepen, so in a deep voice he asked:

"Haven't you tried to find out what the source of this mess is?"

Hearing this, a helpless smile appeared on the woman's face.

"We sent out an investigation team, but before they delved in, they ran into a bunch of extremely strong and quite aggressive wounded pokemon, so we couldn't dig any deeper."

Hearing this, Professor Kukui placed a hand on her chin as he pondered deeply, then turned to Alec and with a serious look said:

"Looks like we'll have to postpone your search for the time being Alec, as the Alolan pokemon professor, I can't sit idly by in this situation, so I'll go investigate."

Hearing this, Alec nodded seriously and replied:

"Don't worry professor and be careful, I'll stay here to help treat the injured pokemon."

Hearing this, the professor nodded, said a few words to the head lady in charge of the place before leaving the branch.

On the other hand, the boss gave Alec a strange look before throwing a few towels at him and said:

"Take these to room 211, they need them over there."

And without giving Alec another glance, the boss continued with her work.

At this, Alec could only sigh as he thought:

"How quickly some people's faces change."

But Alec didn't dwell long on this and quickly went to room 211 to deliver the towels, after all, it wasn't time to fight, the pokemon were very hurt and needed help.

It was so that when he entered room 211, he was in a worse state than he expected.

In the room there was a large group of Yungoos and Gumshoos very badly injured and unconscious, where different people were changing the pokemon's bandages or taking their pulses, even some who carefully fed the pokemon, since they could not eat for their own sake. bill.

Although somewhat dazed, Alec quickly awoke from this scene and moved as fast as he could, carrying towels or transporting food from one room to another, and even afterward took it upon himself to help calm the awakening pokemon, as they were very aggressive.

This made the head of the branch look at Alec with better eyes, telling him that he better be in charge of reassuring the pokemon that arrived and those that woke up, since it was a headache for them to see that every time a pokemon or wake up make a mess on the spot.

This is where Alec's affinity towards the pokemon played a very important role, who, upon seeing him, came out of their alert and furious state, allowing the workers to treat them better and quickly.

It should be noted that Alec's affinity acted more like an excellent first impression, which made the pokemon unconsciously not repel him and feel more comfortable, but for them to decide to change their lives by following him..., it was a bit more complicated.

Of course, during all this time, Alec also took advantage while he was calming down the pokemon to ask the rotomdex to collect detailed data on all the different types of pokemon there were, like raticates, sandshrew, vanillish and snorunt.

So it was that he realized that so far, he hadn't found any Alolan vulpix or ninetales, which made an ominous foreboding rise up in his heart.

"As far as I know, Alolan vulpix and ninetales live in the middle regions of Mt. Lanakila, an area where Alolan sandshrews also live, but I haven't seen any so far."

Although Alec didn't know why he felt so bad about this, he didn't have time to think about it in detail, the number of injured pokemon that woke up or arrived kept increasing, and it was only at night that they could rest, but not because they haven't already found more pokemon, but because the nights on Mount Lanakila were cold and dangerous, so the boss could only order the rescue efforts to stop.

Soon after, the boss gave a little speech thanking everyone for their help as she organized people in shifts so they could keep an eye on the pokemon situation at night.

After she finished, the boss approached Alec in a black hooded coat which she handed to him before sincerely thanking her for her help:

"Sorry for my attitude earlier, although Professor Kukui said it would be helpful, you're just a child, and I wasn't sure if a child would be helpful in this situation, hence my attitude."

Hearing this, Alec just smiled before shaking his head, after so much work, he was quite exhausted, also he never thought that Mount Lanakila would be so cold, so he thanked him for the jacket while he put it on.

After seeing that Alec didn't seem bothered by this, he sighed and then went to rest, after all, perhaps the most exhausted of all the people present was her.

Thus, Alec in a black coat hugged his black backpack in a corner of the room while the rotomdex had snuggled inside Alec's coat.

"So this is another side of the pokemon world, of course, where there's joy and happiness, there's also sadness and pain and despair."

Without Alec realizing it, today he had witnessed the 2 most extreme sides of the pokemon world, where on the one hand the pokemon were happy and lived their lives calmly and relaxed, while on the other side the desperation in the eyes of the others. pokemon that Alec attended left a great impression on him.

"I hope Professor Kukui is well, it's already quite late, but he hasn't returned yet."

Although Alec knew from the games and the anime that Professor Kukui, in addition to being a pokemon researcher, was also an excellent trainer, if we compare the time until the events of the game or the anime, there are still years to go, so he did not know if the professor could deal with a situation where a large group of pokemon were injured.

"*sigh*, there's no use worrying about this, after all, I don't even have a pokemon."

Thinking so, albeit with mixed feelings, Alec decided to go to sleep, clearing his mind of any thoughts.

It was in the middle of the night that a strange feeling woke Alec up, causing feelings of helplessness, despair, and hatred to fill him.

This quite alarmed Alec, who before he could think what was going on, heard a rather sad cry from somewhere not far from him.

This only made his emotions even more out of control, so, without giving it a second thought, he ran in the direction of the sound he heard, followed by a rather sleepy and confused Rotomdex.

The light of the full moon illuminated the valley in which they were, the sky was quite clear and the imposing Mount Lanakila could be seen excellently.

But this was not in Alec's mind who found himself running faster and faster in the direction of the howl, or as Alec had heard it, a cry of imploration and sadness.

Not knowing how long he ran, he reached a flat area, when what he saw in him brought tears to his eyes.

In the shimmer of moonlight, Alec caught a glimpse of a figure, its snow-white fur was stained with scarlet blood, of the 9 tails it should have, only 4 remained, with blood oozing from the wounds, but, even so, 3 tails were in charge of carefully protecting an object that was precious to her.

Obviously, the pokemon that was in front of Alec was on the verge of death, but his eyes refused to let go of the precious object he was guarding.

Alec approached slowly, he made no effort to hide his footsteps, in his mind, he only wanted to comfort the creature in front of him, since, at that moment, he understood that the feelings he felt were from the pokemon in front of him. he.

Thus, although on the verge of death, the alolan ninetales gaze was still fierce, as if anyone who dared to harm her or her egg would take them with her to the grave if necessary.