15: ???

"..." Darius stared at the trio, his eyebrows raised comically high as he just... "You're expecting me to believe you?"

Well, their story was very ridiculous. Darius just crossed his arms as he stared at them, looking very intimidating. I mean, he was tall, muscular, clearly had a lot of tattoos, and there were about 15 Pokemon surrounding him, all of which looked like they could easily kill the trio. "Please, you have to believe us." The trio were named Azzaro, Johnny, and Lavazza. They apparently were a trio from the Pokemon Ranger school who took a quest from their school to investigate the area due to the suspicious activity from a group known as Team Plague, which he has never heard of before. They are a team of Pokemon researchers looking into developing Pokemon diseases and cures for Pokemon diseases, or that is what their original plan was, because they were taken by someone, and now they are a known Evil Team in the large Hoenn-Sinnoh-Unova region.

In case you were confused as Darius was, a few decades ago, Regigigas woke up after a fight between Kyogre and Groundon. That fight was very destructive, creating tsunamis and new land, new land that Regigigas used to make these connections between a few continents, creating new continents in the process. The bridges were made between the Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova region as well as the Alolan Archipelago and the Johto region in the form of small islands that like stepping stones, reached out from content to archipelago. There was also a pseudo bridge of land that connected the Paldea region and Galarian continent.

These changes caused a lot of problems in the Pokemon world, but also a lot of new events, like the mass migration of various species into various territories, causing a large variation of Pokemon species around the world. The Pokemon Rangers were an organization that was born out of necessity. Due to the new landmass that connected the regions, there was a new need for keeping an eye out in these crossings, which were called Regibridges. Due to the movement of the continents, thanks to Regigigas, there were new Regis that were around now! Besides the ones we already knew of, Regirock, Regice, and Registeel. There were Regieleki, Regidrago, Regifae, Regidark, Regifight, Regihive, Regipsy, Regisky, Regiwater, Regiroot, Regifire, Regitox, and Regiground were the new known Regis made by Regigigas.

"So, you came here to check up on this region because of this Team Plague?" Darius had already connected the dots. He knew very well that this Team Plague might as well be the ones who spread out the disease towards the poor Leavannys and might also be the ones who attacked or damaged the Torterra herd. They were heavily poisoned, which could not have been done naturally by a Pokemon unless there were various Pokemon of the same species working together. "Yes, sir, we came here to check up on the region because there were some suspicious activities here, the large herd of Torterras that was meant to pass by this region had been greatly reduced too, which essentially was a red alarm in the Pokemon Ranger headquarters." Azzaro said, looking nervously at Darius as he puffed out the cigarettes he stole from him. What? It's been a while since he smoked. He was starting to miss it.

"Ah..." Darius let out this sigh. The smoke from his mouth traveled and entered the youngsters lungs, making Azzaro sigh softly for a moment. "So, you three? Alone in the wilderness? Where even are your Pokemon?" Darius asked, looking at them up and down - he did not feel any Pokemon with them, not even in their shadow, which was extremely foolish. "Ah..." Johnny awkwardly scratched the back of his head, looking sheepishly at the ground: "We kinda, uhm, aren't really allowed to get our own Pokemon until we pass the exam... which was this quest." Darius had to look at the sky for a moment. He almost begged Arceus to use Judgment on him to finish him then and there, but he relented and sighed.

"Did you piss some rich guy off, and he made you three come here, to your certain death or something?" Darius flickered his cigarette, making the ashes fall on the ground, where Cerberus stepped on them to make sure they were put out. Darius scratched his good boy's ear as he kept relentless eye contact with the three idiots. "Uh, no...?" Lavazza looked over at her friend Azzaro, who just looked as confused as she was: "I don't think we did." Johnny also nodded, but then he turned to look at Darius and looked him up and down. After this weird guy stole his brother's cigarettes, they seemed to have some kind of a not spoken non-aggression agreement between them because the other Pokemon around them simply relaxed a little bit. He looked old, older than them at least, and also pretty powerful! He had the respect of even the large wild Mega Gyarados said to live here after the cleansing of this region, done by Suicune. After the whole thing where Regigigas created this continental mass, there were some problems...

Eternatus caused some trouble, parts of its body were destroyed and scattered across the world, and its poisonous energy was too pure! It infected and contaminated the surrounding areas which they fell unto, making life hard for any Pokemon other than Steel or Poison types. There was also a rather powerful Pokemon with that type somewhere. No one truly knows if it even exists!

Back to the present.

'He doesn't look like a good person.' Johnny thought for a moment as he looked at their captor, but soon his thoughts were proven wrong when their captor just sighed: "Just go back the way you came kids, or call whatever instructor that should've been watching you, because your quest or test or whatever it is you're doing is done." He turned and looked at the Pokemon on their back, nodding once, making the Leavanny cut the ropes that were holding them. "Now, let's go back to your parents..." He looked down at the small Turtwigs and smiled. He looked like a completely different person then, which was weird! "Hey, sir, who are you?" Azzaro asked, curious.

"You better not know, kid." The strange guy just walked away, and as they looked at where he was walking, they saw the largest Pokemon they've ever seen before - Torterras, lying down, their shell carrying shades of purple and dark green. It was clear that they were being taken care of, but they couldn't help but wonder... Who was that guy?

-Scene Cut-

Darius: *puffs smoke* Nothing personal, kid.

Johnny: What?

Darius: *absolutely destroys him*

-Scene Cut-

Unknown to the trio, the moment they were released by Darius, there was an extra Pokemon in their shadow, a little mischievous gremlin that was sent by his 'Bro' to just follow these kids until they show where they are going. He kept his pace after them, hiding beneath their shadow was easy, but he also would be noticed if a stronger Pokemon appeared to come and get them, which was why he was following them in the shadows around them as well, just to make sure.

"That guy was hot." Lavazza sighed softly, looking at her own hands for a moment before she sighed again, dreamily: "He isn't going to fuck you, Lavazza." Azzaro grumbled, still looking sadly at his hands, missing his cigarettes that were taken by that weird attractive guy! "Like you didn't melt when he picked those cigarettes from your back pocket and lit them in front of you with your lighter, looked into your eyes, and asked 'So, why are you here, boy?' in a sexy voice." She had this huge grin in her face as she said that, making Azzaro blush brightly as his brother simply sighed: "You weren't being subtle about that, calling him sir... You're pretty desperate, Azz."

"Shut up!" Placing both hands on his face, Azzaro sighed: "We're almost at the point we were dropped at. Instructor Dan will come with his Hypno to pick us up in a few minutes." A psychic Pokemon... Although Jasper didn't know much about other Pokemon, he did grow up around his previous trainer. She had told him a lot about other Pokemon, mostly Psychich and Fighting Pokemon. Sarah was a very excited kid, and although she wasn't able to survive the disease she caught in the forest, he was at least able to help her spirit become the little Phantum that now is in good hands with Bro. What did he know about Hypnos? Well, they are Psychic type Pokemon. That's it.

And like any Psychic type, they'd be able to detect him, mostly because he isn't strong enough to hide himself from their detection abilities with his Dark type energy.

He stayed a little ways away and observed the trio. Soon, he felt this presence appear, and he felt like he was being watched. Thankfully, Dark type Pokemon can easily resist whenever a Psychic type Pokemon tries to enter their mind, so when Jasper felt the strong Psychic energy try and enter his mind, he used his own Dark energy and pushed the Psychic energy away, diving into the shadows and running away as fast as he could. He did feel like the Psychic energy was trying to pin him down, but as a Ghost and Dark type Pokemon, the Psychic type Pokemon would naturally have a hard time picking him, so he used his natural ability to fade into darkness and shadow and fled.

When he got back to his bro, making sure he wasn't being followed (He also did not feel himself being watched), he soon went to his Bro's shadow, talking to him: "Bro, you won't believe it, the weird people think you're hot!" Cerberus just looked at him weirdly: "Also, they had a powerful Hypnos there, I couldn't really spy on them for long, sorry, Bro... I didn't get good information besides them thinking you were hot. Why did they even think you're a Fire type? You're clearly a Dark Type like me!"

Meanwhile, Darius could only understand: "Bro, Sableye, Sable, Sableye, eye, Hot!" and "Sableye, Sableye, Eye Sab, Sableye, ~Hypnos~, Sable, Eye, Sableye, Bro... Sableye Sableye Sableye! Sableye eye eye hot. Sable Sableye Fire? Sableye Dark Sableye!"

Darius: *??????*