Normally, the area around Mount Chimney would be handled by Sénon Game and his division of the Rangers, however since the other man was currently preoccupied with being a father the closest that they could contact was Lars himself.

And luckily for them, it just so happened that the other Head Ranger was a bit of a night owl himself, so…

“Not that often, however we have to be ready to go at anytime—even now,” he remarked quietly as he tested the heft of the rope before peering down into the darkness. Ah, shit, it was too dark to see.

“And I can hear Zubat screeching too. Possibly Golbats, even. Now let’s hope that this is a rescue operation.”

And not a retrieval… he ended the sentence to himself in the back of his head.

A chill ran down Callan's spine as he heard about the retrieval aspect of the job. He pursed his lips, "Yeah, same here." He replied, as he continued to descend on the rope. By the time he had found steady footing at the ground floor, he could see the damage done.

Gravelers, dozens of them, lining on the floor, alongside a gigantic crack in the cavern, with multiple massive stalagmites fallen onto the floor causing the collapse. "Oh Arceus..." He paused, momentarily, before tossing out a Pokeball. "Come out Lady..." What came out of his ball was a Yamper, shaking off its slumber obediently as it grunted in brief protest. She was going to bark at Callan, before realizing an odd smell in the air, and it barked in fear, whimpering at the smell of dead Pokemon. "Sorry sweetie, we need your nose for this... can you track if there's anyone down here? And light up the place it you can."

The Yamper barked affirmatively, as it charged up electricity in its body, the yellow floof on its neck glowed an iridescent yelow, as it began to sniff around for the culprit. Callan himself took out his torch, shining its light on the otherwise pitch black cavern, staring at the dead Graveler. "There's no way a cave-in killed these Graveler." He paused, curiosity burning inside him. "I'm thinking of following my Yamper to see if there's anyone alive, do you have any suggestions?"

Asides from the fact that they were going to be descending into a fucking dark cave, Lars had forgotten to tell the other man something.

But maybe, it wasn’t his place to reveal this at such an inconvenient location.

The rank stench of death hit his nostrils the moment they landed, and one bright flash later, he knew he had to get some light going. Otherwise…

(Otherwise someone was going to see him crack under pressure. Oh no, no no no no, we don’t talk about that right now.)

Two flashes of red light from his direction—one the man was already familiar with, having met this particular Pokémon of his just recently. The other, not yet.

“Alph, let us know if you pick up on any other auras.”

The jackal Pokémon made a face at the stench that hit his nostrils, but nodded. The Chandelure, on the other hand, was there to provide illumination as they moved forward.

“Let’s go.”

The Chandelure's Flame Body immediately lit up the darkenss of the room, far better than the Yamper did. And it seemed that Alpha immediately picked up on an aura immediately. "H-hey, over here!"

The sound of a man's voice further down. "We're on our way!" Callan yelled over, as he began to dash over to the source of the sound. The tunnel was a straight path inwards, until it divoted to the side, in front... a gigantic cave in, underneath a pool of blood. Shit. Callan though, as he moved to the sound of the voice to the tunnel on the right. A brief moment later, he found it, a man in a tattered scientist's coat, with a bloodied leg, losing blood quickly. "Come out Nora."

Callan tossed out a pokeball, summoning his Audino, who immediately set to work with healing the man with its Heal Pulse. "Oh, thank goodness you two are here, those Graveler... they went insane I..." The scientist paused, "There were three of us, the other two... they died, collapsed over there." Callan pursed his lips grimly, then turned towards Lars. Since he was the senior in this situation.


"I can report to HQ on the deaths, but..." But something doesn't add up. Callan's eyes finished the sentence for him. Either way, he'd wait for the directions given to him by the Head Ranger first, before giving his thoughts on the matter.

Laurence Anderson

For some strange reason Lucius suddenly shuddered—it was like the Chandelure was picking up on the stench of death… never mind if the Pokémon’s ability, Flame Body, brought some warmth to the suffocating gloom.

He didn’t blink, or even balk, at the sight (and stench) of the blood. Thankfully, Callan had gone to work, calling out an Audino and beginning first aid…

Clearly that leg wasn’t going to grow back. How macabre can you get, Lars.

However, there were telltale signs that the accident… didn’t look natural. It took one to know one, considering how… off this all felt to him.

He then turned to Callan and whispered to the other.

“Something’s off. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the cave-in doesn’t… look natural. Because how do you explain the dead Pokémon? There shouldn’t be any dead Pokémon around here, if at all—you know how Graveler and Golem behave around their territory. They don’t just suddenly die off,” he said very quietly—so quietly that only the other could hear.

Callan nodded in response to Lars' words, "I'll go look around, maybe do a tally in the meantime." A pit in his stomach opened up, as he pursed his lips and moved to look around. His Yamper scurried close to him, allowing for its light to glow, but she was clearly terrified. "Sorry Lady," He said, scratching between her ears, "I'll give you lots of treats after."

Callan began taking inventory fo the Graveler, starting from the tunnel upwards as he marked down the dead. As he got to the large rock mass that crushed the scientists however, Callan noticed something other than the odor. Flecks of blood still fresh on debris. Shifting the rock underneath, he found it, a radio device.

"Lars," He voiced out, grimly, as he walked back towards the pair. "It's Rocket technology." His eyes turned cold red as he swapped over to the scientist. "This is a device tuned to a Team Rocket radio frequency that was used on the Lake of Rage to force Pokemon to evolve." He began, "This is highly illicit contraband. I'm afraid we'll have to take you in."

"W-wait..." The scientist replied, clearly stricken with a sudden sense of fear. "We... we didn't know, we were just paid a lot of money. And told to use it here." Callan grit his teeth, mustering what remained of his willpower to not deck the liar in the face. "Whatever you say, you can say it in our wards." The most comforting thought he could muster right now was that he'd never do it again, either being behind bars, or being crippled in one leg.

Ten minutes later, backup arrived. A squad of medics, rangers and officers came in to arrest and take care of the rest of the body recovery procedures. Callan unfurled a pouch in his front pocket, offering a cigarette to Lars before taking one himself. "Fucking animals." Callan whispered, referring to Team Rocket. "And they have the gall to say they're doing it for a better future."

Since he only had time to grab a couple of Pokémon after being summoned on such short notice, the best he could do was wait for Callan to return, since the other had decided to take a look further into the cave just in case there was something else they may have missed.

It didn’t take too long for the other to return with an object—a decidedly man-made object that drew much suspicion.

He had something to say about the entire situation, but decided not to; as the Lucario was now glaring down at the human with the decapitated leg.

Brought down by their own hubris.

Once everything had been settled (and the guilty parties taken away) he was grateful for the offered cigarette.

Ah, shit, due to rushing he’d forgotten to grab his vape. Talk about bad timing.

“The nerve, really,” he continued with a sigh. “You know what happened over at Sootopolis, right?”

There really were… things that were best left unsaid.

Callan lit the end of his cigarette with a cheap plastic lighter, before passing it to Lars. "No I haven't, what happened in Sootopolis?" There was a brief period of his life, for about two years, where his memory was entirely blank. "If it's within the last few years, can't say I was in a state to be paying much attention." Yes, drowning in a neurotoxin of 40 proof alcohol in a car.

"You don't tell me if you don't want to though, if it drags up bad memories." Callan quikcly added, realizing it might have been a personal thing. For him, the reality of the ranger situation was just sinking in, that this was going to be an occurrence. Day after day, having to deal with tragedy and loss, sometimes moreso than saving others. "Does it ever get better?" Callan watched as they put the scientist on a stretcher into the back of the League transport vehicle. "Does anything we actually do on the ground ever put a dent in stopping trafficking, or murders, or arson, or terrorism?"

Laurence Anderson

He wondered just how out of touch the other had been with the current climate.

Still speaking in the same quiet undertone as he took the lighter and flicked it open, he dawdled a few moments to light the cigarette before returning said lighter to the other man.

“There’s a reason why a lot of people have left Sootopolis—it’s under Rocket control.”

And the way he’d spat the words out was very acerbic. Because he was there. To personally witness the insanity going down.

At the mention of things getting better, he let out a bark of laughter.

“Not to be a pessimist here, I’m just saying things how they are as a realist. It’s like… the more you try to help… more trouble always comes along.”

He then let out a thin trail of smoke. While it wasn’t his favored vanilla-flavored vapor, it would do in the meantime.

“But we always fight back the tide. No matter how high it gets. Because even one small act of good, even in this entire fucking ocean of crap, means that you bring hope to someone out there.”