“Alright, let me just make sure that I got the order of events right….” Ranger Dilan spoke slowly. “The orphanage in Crown City is attacked for as of yet unknown reasons, leading to a disrupted teleport of you, Daniel Earnhart.” I nodded as he paused, “You then wind up in Mt. Coronet and encounter a pokémon trainer named Nathan. He shoves his bag into your arms and tells you to run when something that you did not see but that he recognized attacks,” Again, I just nodded.

Glancing over for a second, I could see Anna restraining a grin at how Dilan was going over the events. Dilan took a deep breath before continuing, “You decide to start trying to make your way down and out of the mountain. Along the way, a King Deino hatches for you, giving you a pokémon to help you.” Slowly, I felt a smile form on my own face at how ridiculous the events sound when summarized all together.

“You eventually help a Beldum with a bullying problem. You run into and defeat the Bronzong of a Bronzor colony, which causes the Beldum to decide to go with you, giving you two pokémon now.” Dilan rubbed his face tiredly for a moment, “Then, after some more hiking, Anna here enters the picture. And after that, the two of you made your way here?”

Hearing the question in his tone, I agreed, “Yeah, that sounds about right….” I looked over to see Anna nodding as I spoke.

Dilan let out a long breath, “Well, that’s… I don’t know if that’s impressive or just a string of huge heaping amounts of luck.”

I shrugged, “I’d like to think it was a combination.”

Dilan was opening his mouth to continue speaking when the door to the small lounge room opened. A young woman with dark hair and dressed in the Ranger uniform came through. She nodded to Anna and me before handing Dilan a small folder and leaving again.

Seeing Anna’s raised eyebrow, Dilan answered the unasked question, “That was Irene. She’s pretty quiet, just was bringing this though, or she would have said otherwise.” He flipped the folder open and read quickly. I barely picked up on the slight wince that flashed across his face before he placed the folder on the table.

Looking up at us, he explained, “We managed to track down Nathan. Full name, Nathan Allbright, he’s an A-Rank trainer that’s looking to advance to Ace.” He grimaced, “As of right now, we have a potential missing person report on him….”

I felt my mouth open as I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. Dilan must have noticed as he hurriedly continued, “That’s nothing definite. We get plenty of missing person reports for trainers who show up later and just got stuck in one area or another for some reason.”

I nodded absently, staring at the bag resting at my feet. The bag given to me by a missing trainer, a missing trainer that might have saved my life at the expense of his own.

I heard Dilan clear his throat at the same time as Anna patted my shoulder gently, “In any case, should he show back up anywhere, we will be sure to let him know all that’s happened in regards to his former belongings and will inform you as quickly as possible,” His words sounded pre-rehearsed like they were just going through the motions. I only really snapped out of it when I registered something he had said.

“Former belongings?”

Dilan glanced at Anna before explaining, “In the event of a trainer going missing, any belongings they may have owned are put into the care of the Rangers of the city they were in. But if the belongings were… ‘found’ by another trainer outside a city, then they may keep them.”

Anna spoke up once she saw my confused expression, “If I remember right, it was a law passed mostly about pokéballs and such, but it does extend to everything else. It was to keep trainers from trying to take pokéballs that contained another trainer’s pokémon or from taking a hatched pokémon because the egg or pokéball was theirs first.” She shrugged gently, “The League wanted to give trainers willing to do that no ground to stand on, so they simply made it any belonging that was found can be claimed.”

My eyes drifted back to the bag at my feet. It was Nathan’s; that was not in doubt. But if he was missing, could I really give it up to the Rangers? He had given it to me, trusted it with me in the middle of Mt. Coronet; that meant something to me if not to anyone else.

“I’ll keep them,” I spoke quietly. “And if Nathan comes back, I’ll offer them back then. But until then, I’ll keep them.”

Dilan smiled gently, “That’s absolutely fair.” He waited a few moments before clearing his throat again, “In any case, Ms. Sinclair?” He said, getting Anna’s attention and making me realize I hadn’t known her last name before. “Because of your role in the situation, the Rangers have no more need to keep you, there is probably some paperwork that you will have sent to you, but that should be all.” He held his hand out, and Anna shook it firmly, “Thank you for taking swift and responsible action. I’ll put a notation in your file for it.”

Anna smiled at that, knowing that such a note could help with trainer rank assessments. “No problem, just doing the right thing.” She then turned to me, “I’m gonna go ahead and head out. Still gotta get through to Hearthome. But before I do,” She drew the last word out as she quickly typed into her pokégear, and I felt the buzz of her information registering on my own. “Find me at some point, alright? I think it’ll be interesting to catch up at some point in the future, if nothing else.” She shrugged, “And don’t be afraid to just say hi every once in a while.”

I smiled and laughed softly, “That’s fair,” I shook her hand as well. “And thank you for the help, Anna.”

She shook her head, “No problem. Stay outta trouble. With how your team is shaping up, I have no doubt you’re gonna go far.” She hesitated before snorting, “Alright, I’m gonna stop delaying. See ya later.”

“See you later.” I watched for a few moments as she left, turning back towards Dilan once the door had shut behind her. Taking a moment, I asked, “So, what now?”

He nodded, “Now I’m gonna show you to one of our larger rooms where you can let out your pokémon. We’ll get you officially registered as a trainer and get your pokémon put down as yours. I’m also fairly sure you’ll be given a higher rank than you would have gotten before,” He said the last part consideringly, seemingly just having thought of it.

“Alright, sounds good. Let’s do this then,” I said, resigning myself to potential paperwork.

The next few hours passed in a blur. There was indeed a not-so-small amount of paperwork involved in getting me my official trainer’s license. Beyond that, the Rangers were excited to see a King pokémon when I released Ladon. They scanned both Ladon and Adamant and registered them under my name. Eventually, though, I was present with my license card by Dilan.

“Here you go. ID, bank card, and trainer license all wrapped up in one,” He said while holding out the relatively small green plastic card, “It should also be able to slot into your pokédex and register any caught pokémon under your name as well, so you don’t have to keep coming in to get them on record.”

I nodded slowly as I read over the information. I saw my name, my age, what pokémon I had, all the usual things. It was the last two that threw me for a loop. “How do I have 2,500 pokédollars?! And why does it say A-Rank?!”

Dilan grinned when my voice went an octave higher for a moment, “In order, the money is something that was deposited into your account on your sixteenth birthday from the orphanage’s account. Most likely, it’s their standard starting allowance for trainers. As for the A-Rank,” He chuckled, “You do realize you survived some crazy shit, right? Not only that, but you have some pokémon that aren’t exactly low-ranked. So, due to special circumstances and proven capability, you were made an A-Rank.”

He just laughed at my dumbfounded expression. A moment later, he sobered up, “It’s not all bonuses, though. The only way for you to increase your rank is to become an Ace, and that’s pretty out of reach for you at the moment. Not to mention that your gym battles are gonna be harder….” His voice trailed off, making me focus a bit more on the moment.

“Why would that be?”

He sighed, “It’s not really said to new trainers, but gym leaders have a team that they use to battle for each rank. Since you’re an A-Rank, you’ll be facing pretty hard fights, and without the usual amount of training an A-Rank would have.” He shrugged, “On the other hand, you’ll never have to worry about the badge debate.”

I felt my face scrunch up in confusion, “Badge debate? What?”

Dilan cocked an eyebrow at me before exclaiming in realization, “I forgot that they tell trainers about that when they go to their first gym!” Seeing my still confused expression, Dilan explained. “There are two badges you can get from a gym. There are the regular badges that you get from battles C-Rank and below, or there are the true badges that you get from battles B-Rank and above.” I nodded slowly, “If you get all eight true badges, then you are guaranteed a position in the League tournament, instead of having to compete for one. Some people argue that someone hasn’t completed their journey if they don’t have a set of eight true badges. It’s a whole thing; you can mostly just ignore it.”

I sighed, “Okay, sure. I guess I won’t have to worry about that… Whatever, at least I know now.” I cursed under my breath, “Thanks for letting me know about the gym battle thing. At least now I know I need a lot more training first….”

Dilan waved it away, “No problem. Giving you A-Rank was both a blessing and a curse. You have a much wider range of pokémon you can catch, but you also are gonna have harder gym battles and a tough time advancing, which can sometimes discourage people. Just do your best.”

I nodded as I put my license away safely into my bag. The two of us stood in silence for a moment before I let out a loud curse. “Do you have any idea of how I might be able to contact the orphanage? I need to let them know I’m alright!”

Dilan’s eyes widened, “Oh, oh shit! I should have thought of that,” He looked around us for a moment before waving me after him, “Follow me, I’ll get you to a call room, and we’ll figure it out! Come on!”

The two of us hurried through the building before winding up in a small private call booth, flipping through a list of addresses to call before finally finding it. Dilan excused himself just as the screen began to play a ringing noise, leaving me waiting in anxious silence. Finally, after a minute or two, the call was answered.

Sitting before the call was Housemother Scintel, her dark eyes tired looking and her hair drawn back into a severe bun. Her usual rugged, utilitarian clothes showed signs of wear and tear. I didn’t have long to look her over before her eyes widened, and she whispered softly, “Daniel?”

I resisted the urge to reach up and rub the back on my neck like I was in trouble, “Hey, Housemother….”

She slumped back in her chair, letting me see what I recognized as the inside of her office. “You’re okay?! Where are you, are you alright?! What happened?!”

I held my hands up defensively, “I’m alright! I promise! I’m calling to let you know exactly that!” I smiled weakly, “As for what happened… It’s hard to explain….”

Her eyes narrowed at me in that oh so familiar way, “You better explain real quick! Kadabra came back in almost a panic, telling us about a disrupted teleport! We have all been so worried that we’d never,” Her voice broke for a moment, “That we might never hear from you again.”

I smiled sadly, “Well, I did get teleported just… Not to the right place.” I saw her expression demanding the story, and so I gave it. Her expression varied between worried, disbelief, and joy as I told her about the past month.

After the half-hour it took to give her the general overview, we sat in silence for a while as she digested everything I told her. “Well, I can comfortably say that you have been having a harder time of the past month than even we have, what with handling repairs while wrangling the children.”

I frowned suddenly, “Yeah, speaking of that, why was the orphanage attacked in the first place? There’s nothing there to take; I just don’t understand it….”

Scintel shook her head sadly, “I’m afraid we don’t know either. So far, it appears to be a random act of violence, but it was too coordinated for that. The Rangers are still investigating, though, so we’re hopeful something will turn up to explain it….”

I shook my head slowly, realizing I had little else to really say. Housemother Scintel seemed to notice as she smiled gently, “Daniel, I want you to know that we’re all very proud that you not only survived but thrived. We might have expected your journey to begin on this side of Sinnoh, but we don’t mind.” She laughed softly, “If anything, this means that when you visit,” She emphasized the word ‘when’ while glaring at me, making me nod rapidly, “You will have a bigger and stronger team to show off to the kids here. I’m sure they’ll love that.”

She paused for a moment, “We’ll, of course, have to see what pokémon you have first, just to make sure, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

I chuckled, imagining the kids climbing on Ladon as he looks around confused and Adamant zips around looking at everything. “Yeah, I think that’s fair.” I paused before speaking softly, “And thank you for everything. I’ll stop by first thing when I get back to Crown City, I promise.”

She smiled softly, “Good. Now go on, go have your adventure.”