“Yeah, it’s weird,” Memo agrees, helping the startled hiker to his feet. He wants to ask the guy if he’s sure it was an Absol but it feels improper to grill a victim of a traumatic event, so he leaves it at the acknowledgement that it sure is strange, huh.

He hefts the guy up, wedging himself under his arm to help him walk; the hiker has a limp on the scratched up leg but nothing falls out or off of him, so Memo will take that as a victory. “If we can get you out of the woods, emergency services can pick you up,” he tells the guy, hoping his frankness is comforting, as they start hop-limp-stepping in the direction indicated by Tam-- the exit to Petalburg proper.

They make it about ten feet before there’s a horrible yowl, like tearing flesh and nails on a chalkboard and two cats staring at each other from opposite sides of a window. The hiker makes a whimpering noise and stops moving. “No, we have to keep going,” Memo says, grunting under the weight of the much heavier man.

There’s the snap-crackle of branches breaking around them in the woods, and a low, stomach-curdling growl.

Tam Fawley

☉

He shoots Tam a thankful look when the other Ranger helps to lift the hiker, now quaking in his boots and refusing to go a step further. The presence of the Snorlax seems to be encouraging, because the hiker begins to walk again, albeit slowly and shakily.

“It’s really strange that the Absol is still kicking around out here,” Memo says, pausing briefly to push a rather large limb out of his way. He wonders if he should release his own Pokemon but between the Snorlax and the Yamper, they seem well covered; he could, he supposed bring out his supports, but the hiker seemed more affected by fear than actual injury, judging by how much faster they were moving once the exit to the forest came into view.

It was enough for Memo to gently release the man and let him continue on his own, with Tam’s help, and before long the Hiker was running for the exit of the forest.

Memo stepped back, turning back the way they came and looking for any signs of the angry Disaster Pokemon, or maybe what caused it to go AWOL in the first place. Well, the meteor, obviously, but it couldn’t just be that, could it?

Tam Fawley

☉

Being a Ranger means learning about the signs in the world around you: when the birds stop singing, something’s up; when your voice echoes more than normal, there’s rain on the way; and when an Absol’s about, shit is about to go down.

Memo turns a slow circle, eyes scanning the treeline. He doesn’t see anything, but then, his eyes are just human.

“Yeah, I’m not particularly fond of fire,” Memo says, slowly lowering his hackles and relaxing, if just a bit.

“Do you think it could be the Meteor?”

Tam Fawley

☉

Ugh. By winter? They were running out of time, and that was terrifying-- but there was still a string of optimistic hope running through him, moving his body like a propitous marionette. It kept him getting up in the morning, doing his job, and going to bed at night without succumbing to the corrosive, sucking mire of depression that usually accompanied lingering end of the world events.

Still, Tam’s assessment makes him snort.

“Yep,” he said, straightening his spine, hands on his hips, “that sounds like Hoenn.” He's only been here for, like, half a year, and he already knows that much.

He’s about ready to call it a day and go back to HQ for food and a nap when Tam’s Yamper starts yapping at the treeline. Instantly, his anxiety spikes, and he’s back in fight or flight mode, hand on Bazelgeuse’s Pokeball.

There’s a rustling in the underbrush, the sound of a thud and--

--a Seedot toddles out from the hedgegrowth, running in panicked circles. The little acorn tumbles over with a cry, rolls a bit, then picks itself off and runs off, frightened-- by Tam’s Yamper or the human’s proximity, or both.

Things are quiet for a minute and then Guillermo bursts out laughing.

Tam Fawley

☉