Mission Rank: D

Reward: $50

Location: District 11, Section A

Summary: Trainer needed for the morning shift to patrol section A in District Eleven. Must be ready to deal with any wild Pokémon that enter the district and protect the farmers and crops. Farmers’ safety is top priority. Keeping wild Pokémon away from the crops is secondary priority. Shift begins at 8AM and ends at 2PM.

***

I asked the first trainer I came across how to get Section A. She gave me some simple directions to get to the primary guard station for Section A. I made my way there with roughly 10 mins to spare before my mission started, and came to a fairly large group of civilians, obviously farmers, waiting near the guard station. As I made my way to the other trainers, I heard a vaguely familiar voice speak up.

"Dexter?"

I turned to the sound of the voice and saw an older female trainer walking towards me. I smiled when I recognised her.

"Jessica?"

She smiled. "Glad you remember your first supervisor," she said. "I guess we'll be working together again for this mission."

"Are you my supervisor this time around too?"

She shook her head. "No," she said. "I'm only C-rank. This district is divided into three sections and each section has its own shifts of at least ten trainers. The shift supervisor for each section is usually a B-rank trainer unless there's none available. Most of the trainers are C or B-rank. The mission office just requests D-rank trainers for missions in this district to shore up the numbers."

"I guessed as much."

She checked the time. "You only have a couple of minutes to report in before you're late," she said. "Come on, Carlos is this way."

'Carlos,' I thought. There was only one Carlos that I knew of.

Sure enough, Jessica led me to another familiar face. It was Carlos, the B-rank trainer who helped us prepare for our Ordeals. He was staring at a clipboard in his hand occasionally marking on it.

"Carl!" Jessica called. "Here's the last member of our shift."

He turned to look at me then looked at his watch. "Cutting it close there, rookie." he said.

"Sorry, sir." I replied respectfully.

He grunted. "The night shift is just about done with their last walk through the fields. Once they're done, you and the others will go to your assigned fields while the farmers begin their work day."

"Hey Carl," Jessica began. "I've worked with Dexter before. We have enough today to assign two trainers to each field. Why don't you assign us together? I can show him the ropes."

He grunted again. "Fine," he said. He crossed something out and wrote something else down. "I was going to put him in the cabbage patch, but I'll switch him to the corn field with you. Keep an eye on him."

He checked his watch again. "Listen up!" He called. All the trainers stood at attention. "Our shift is about to start! Come up for your assignments and head to your fields! Don't forget your radios!"

The other trainers walked up to him for their assignments. I also noticed the farmers make their way to the fields. Jessica grabbed two radios and handed one to me.

"We have our assignment already," she told me. "Let's head over to the corn field."

I followed her through Section A, taking note of the different fields we passed through, each field growing one kind of vegetable or a group of similar vegetables. Eventually, we reached a large corn field where some farmers had already begun to start working on.

Jessica reached into her pocket and pulled out 3 pokeballs. She dropped them releasing the 3 Pokémon within. I recognised the Pachirisu from my first mission. She also had a Sunflora and a Palpitoad.

I did the same and called out Zatanna and Synin. I understood somewhat why we had to release our Pokémon. Otherwise, it might as well be a five-star Michelin 'Free buffet – All Pokémon Welcome' open field restaurant.

I told them that we were going to patrol the corn field and that Jessica's Pokémon were 'friends'. I told Zatanna to bark and Synin to chirp to alert us if they found a wild Pokémon, finishing it off with, "If it tries to escape then I want you to attack it. Aim to kill."

"You learn fast, rookie," She said approvingly. She then turned to her Pokémon, "You know the drill," she told them. "Get to it."

All three of her Pokémon immediately turned and moved into the corn field. Zatanna followed them on foot while Synin patrolled the air for short bursts of time. It wasn't long before the long stalks shaded Zatanna from my view. Synin could still be made out if I squint my eyes a little though.

"Come on," Jessica said, "Let's patrol together for a bit while we talk."

We moved through a path in the corn field, watching the farmers and occasionally saw one of our Pokémon move through the stalks.

Jessica then filled me in about District 11 as except for farmers, civilians were not allowed to enter the Agriculture District.

"Like I said," she began, "all this food draws many Pokémon from the wilds into the city state. And not all Pokémon are small or weak. We sometimes get larger or stronger wild Pokémon that manage to make it in here. Last time I took one of these missions we had to deal with a Fearow."

That did not sound very pleasant at all. Fearow had very violent reputations, their sharp beaks perfect for skewering opponents like kebabs.

"The district is divided into three sections," she continued. "Section A is where the city state grows its vegetables and herbs. Section B is where we have our fruit orchards and vineyards. Finally, Section C is where we keep our livestock."

She went into further details about what sort of livestock we kept.

There were two large herds of Tauros and Miltank for beef and milk respectively. Another herd of Gogoat for the equivalent of goat's milk and cheese. A large flock of Mareep for lamb and wool, several flocks of Torchic for chicken, and a drove of Tepig for pork. We also had several artificial lakes each filled with schools of Magikarp for fish.

And as they were 'semi-tamed' at best, the farmers in Section C gave them feed that has been dosed with a drug every day, made from Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, and several other substances.

Jessica said that it kept all Pokémon very sluggish and docile without affecting the quality of the produce we get from them. Instead of drugs, as they are very expensive to make, everstones fill up the lakes. The radiation is enough to keep Magikarp from evolving into rampaging Gyarados.

"If they are given the same drugs each day," I said slowly. "Wouldn't they eventually develop immunity to it?" I asked.

"You are right," she said. "Sometimes one of the Pokémon in that section develops an immunity to the drug and go on the aforementioned rampage. The trainers patrolling there will then have to put it down."

Soon after that nugget of information was dropped, Jessica separated from me to patrol the field elsewhere. She was correct when she told me that Flying Pokémon and small ones like Rattata and Greedent were a big problem. Several times Zatanna barked, or Synin chirped, and I came running to their location.

Most of those times I arrived to see them attacking a Rattata or two. A couple of times Jessica and I had to work together with our Pokémon to deal with a flock of Flying Pokémon. Each time we encountered some wild Pokémon Jessica would whistle loudly and all the farmers in our field would evacuate until the danger had passed.

We each took breaks halfway through the shifts while the other watched the field by themselves. Afterwards we continued with the occasional wild Pokémon encounters. This went on for most of the shift until we were nearing our final hour. That's when we heard Carlos's voice from our radios.

"Attention all trainers patrolling Section B!" he said. "There is an unidentified wild Pokémon in the Apple Orchard that the trainers assigned to that field are having trouble with! One trainer from each field is to make their way there to help them immediately!"

Jessica and I turned to look at each other.

"Go," she said. "I'll watch over the corn field. Go see what the problem is."

I nodded and called for Zatanna. I told Synin to stay here just in case, and if I were to whistle, to fly straight to me. I took off running towards the apple orchard, Zatanna on my tail. I saw farmers running away from that field looking terrified. I managed to stop one of them as he ran past me.

"What is it?" I asked him. "What's wrong?"

"Ghost," he yelled in terror. "Ghost!"

He managed to shake off my hand before running in the direction he was going. We continued to strive towards the apple orchard patch.

***

Ghost type Pokémon are the third most feared type of Pokémon in the world. The only two types that are more feared are the Dragon and Psychic types. Dragon types are the most feared for their destructive power. Psychic types are feared for their ability to attack the minds of humans leaving them mindless vegetables. Ghost types are feared due to their cruelty. They are known to torment and torture humans to either feed off their negative emotions or just for fun.

All these thoughts ran through my head as I made it to edge of the apple orchard. When I got there, I saw a half of a dozen trainers and their Pokémon spread out through the field looking for the Pokémon. Carlos and the rest of the trainers were standing with a terrified farmer questioning him.

"Now tell me slowly," he said. "What did you see?"

The farmer took a deep breath. "We were getting rid of a couple of tree stumps near the edge of the apple orchard when one of the other farmers saw one of the smaller tree stumps glow. We didn't know what it was at first so we all went to check. Once most of us were standing around the tree stump, it started floating and the glow increased. Some of the others began to panic and ran off at that point. I called over the trainers watching over the field, but by the time they made it over, the tree stump had already changed into a Pokémon."

Carlos turned to one trainer standing next to him. "It was a Phantump," the trainer said. "It must have been a new-born."

"A new-born?" I asked, getting everyone's attention.

"Phantump are Ghost/ Grass type Pokémon," Schmidt began. "A Phantump is born when a malevolent or mischievous spirit takes possession of a tree stump. If we are dealing with a new-born then it is hungry. Since they are Ghost/ Grass type Pokémon they can photosynthesize food the way that most Grass types do."

We all split up to help the trainers already looking. I turned to Zatanna and told her that we had a Ghost Pokémon to find. However, Zatanna did not know Odour Sleuth so I was unsure if we were able to find it. Fortunately for us, there were a couple of Pokémon that did.

A trainer's Linoone began to sniff the air before moving forward slowly. Several times as it was searching, it stopped before turning abruptly in another direction. After a few more times, it stopped and began to snarl.

Carlos, the other trainers, and I ran over to see what the Linoone had found. When we got there, even Zatanna was growling and barking at the air in front of her. The air in front of us became distorted for a second and the Phantump became visible. It was a small Pokémon, only a little bigger than Synin when I had first captured him.

Some of the trainers began to laugh. Even Carlos began to chuckle. The Phantump frowned at them.

"Look at that thing!" one exclaimed. "It can fit in the palm of my hand!"

"It must have been a very weak spirit if it could only possess such a small tree stump," Carlos said as he continued to chuckle.

The Pokémon was continuously fed up with the fact that the trainers were laughing at it instead of feeling any fear. It suddenly vanished and a couple of seconds later it appeared right in front of us and let out a shrill scream. It released visible airwaves infused with Ghost energy. Everyone flinched.

"Little bastard!" one trainer yelled. "You're going down!"

He was about to order his Pokémon to attack before Carlos stopped him.

"Wait," he said. "Let the rookie handle it." He turned towards me. "I want to see how far you've advanced since the last time I saw you," he continued. "Deal with this Pokémon quickly. It's almost time for the shift change. Don't worry, it most likely only knows how to vanish, turn intangible and use Astonish attack. You should be able to handle it."

I grinned and whistled loudly in the air before turning to Zatanna.

"Zatanna, Taunt!"

Zatanna goaded the Phantump successfully. Infuriated the new-born immediately dived after her.

"Snarl," I ordered.

Dark sound waves were released in the direction Zatanna was facing. We all winced as we heard a pain filled screech and the Phantump appeared again. It struggled to stay afloat. Glowing purple liquid seeped out of the cracks of its wood-carved face.

"Ectoplasm," Carlos explained. "Liquified Ghost energy. It's basically their lifeblood. That Snarl attack did a lot of damage. One more should vanquish it."

It was good to know that Ghosts could be vanquished, but that wasn't my end goal. I took out a spare pokeball and tossed it to the Phantump. The Pokémon was sucked inside immediately and the pokeball landed on the ground where it began to shake. The button flashed between white and red, until it finally stopped, the button now stark white, indicating a successful capture.

I heard a chirp knowing that Synin arrived just in time. Carlos had just warned me about Ghost Pokémon being hard to tame though he was seemingly satisfied with my response.

"Congratulation’s rookie," Carlos said, "It looks like to me that you have what it takes to be a serious trainer. I'll look forward to the day when you reach the middle ranks."

The other trainers moved forward to congratulate me and pat me on the back. After a couple of minutes, Carlos yelled at us that we were still on a mission and to return to our fields. Zatanna and I made it back to the corn field a few minutes before the shift change.

"What happened?" Jessica asked.

I briefly summarize what had happened. She congratulated me for getting Carlos' approval.

"Carlos is one of the oldest B-rank trainers that still actively takes missions," she said. "He's well respected by the trainers in the lower and middle ranks. Even Schneider and the other higher rank trainers respect him. Don't be surprised if some of the C-rank trainers ask you to team up with them to go on C-rank missions now."

I thought about that as we started walking back to the guard station. There certainly would be many advantages of taking a C-rank mission with a C-rank trainer. More practical experience being one of them. Once we returned to the guard station, we handed back the radios as the next shift supervisor was handing out assignments. As most of the trainers on my shift were heading straight over to the mission office to collect their pay, I overheard trainers regaling my capture of the Phantump to others while garnishing it with unnecessary details.

Suffice to say, I was glad that we went our separate ways afterwards.