Mission Rank: D

Reward: $50

Location: District Seven, Public Park B

Summary: Fiore College of Art is looking to hire a trainer to watch over a class of painters who wish to paint in a natural setting. Trainer must report to the park fountain by 11AM. Client safety is first priority. Mission will last a maximum of four hours.

***

I headed over to the train station and took a magnet train over to District Seven. After disembarking at the station nearest to my destination I began walking to Park B. I got there with time to spare so I decided to head to the guard station to talk to the trainers there before heading to the fountain.

There was one trainer in the station manning the radio. He was a C-rank trainer who oversaw the morning shift. He was very friendly to me after I introduced myself. He let me sit in the station with him until it was time for my mission to start. We talked about different things when he wasn't on the radio. He mentioned how one of his subordinates was a serious D-rank trainer and the other was also a C-rank who hasn't been in the rank long. When I got up to leave for the fountain, he promised that he would have one of them check on me and my clients every so often to make sure there were no problems.

'I guess word of Carlos' approval got around,' I thought as I was walking to the park's fountain.

I made it to the fountain and found a small group of young adults and one middle-aged woman. Except for the woman, they were all carrying easels and canvas panels and other supplies. When the woman saw me walking over to them, she stalked over to meet me halfway.

"You're late!" she snapped.

I stopped and stared at her for a moment.

"The mission doesn't start until 11AM," I finally said. "There's still 10 minutes left. I'm early."

"Don't talk back to me trainer!" she yelled. "You should have been here long before us to inspect the area first! I should file a complaint with the mission office and dock your pay!"

"Ma'am," I said professionally with a neutral expression. "My mission summary was very specific. I'm being paid to be in at this location by 11AM and watch over your class while you paint. You can file a complaint if you want but know that I will file a counter-complaint on you. If my complaint goes through you will be blacklisted and the mission office will never accept a request from you again."

The woman used Mean Look. It was ineffective.

"Just do your job and don't bother me or my students!" she snapped.

"No problem Ma'am. " I retorted.

She stalked back to her students. I moved over to a park bench that was close enough that I could watch over them but not close enough to bother them. As I was watching them set up their easels, I couldn't help but notice how most of them threw me cautious glances and set theirs up away from me. Only one student set himself up near me. He stood his easel a couple of feet in front of me while facing the fountain. Once he had the angle right, he placed a canvas panel on the easel and began unpacking his supplies.

"Sorry about her," he said without looking at me. "She really doesn't like Pokémon trainers."

"Really?" I rolled my eyes, "I didn't notice."

He gave a short laugh and began using a pencil to sketch the fountain on the panel.

"I've noticed that you're the only student that set up your panel near me," I remarked. "Aren't you afraid of me too?"

"Not really," he said. "If you did anything to us you would be declared a rogue trainer. I doubt you want to have other trainers come after you to put you down."

"True," I said.

I sat there watching over my clients. The teacher kept walking among her students examining their panel and giving advice. Once in a while she would glare in my direction and throw me and the student in front of me a glare.

"She doesn't seem so happy that you're too close to me," I told him. "I should move away from you."

He shrugged. "She doesn't really like me anyway," he said. "She hasn't since day one. On my first day of class, she started badmouthing trainers and I defended you. She's been trying to fail me since. Good thing I'm the best artist in class."

"You defended us?" I asked.

He shrugged again. "I never wanted to be a trainer myself, but I really respect what it is you do," he said. "You risk your lives on a daily basis to protect us civilians and our way of life. How can I not respect that?"

"Not many civilians think like you do," I said.

"That's because most civilians are ignorant," he said.

I agreed with him but did not say anything else. For the next couple of hours, I sat there watching over the clients, letting my thoughts drift over the rocky relationship between trainers and civilians.

I could understand the fear towards the Pokémon, but not towards the trainers themselves as by all rights, they should be treated as pariahs of this post-apocalypse society.

I can only guess that a hundred years was not enough to wipe away the prejudice towards trainers pre- and post-Cataclysm combined. If the history accounts were said to be true, then perhaps those times were indeed really dark times, and not just rumours and hearsays.

Occasionally the student in front of me would strike up a conversation and ask me questions. I always responded to him but tried not to distract him too much. I did give him some advice from time to time though. In both life’s, I was talented in art and unlike my first, did not give it up. Every time we spoke to each other I could see the teacher fuming and looking like she wanted to come over and separate us. It was mildly amusing, to say the least.

Several times I was sitting there one of the trainers guarding the park would walk by and stop to speak to me for a few minutes. Apparently, it was a slow morning and no wild Pokémon had been sighted yet in the morning shift. It wasn't until the patrolling trainers were heading back to the station for a shift change that we had any wild Pokémon sightings.

One female student was painting a sketch of a flowering bush that was in front of her when the bush started shaking. She didn't notice at first, but I spotted it right away. I stood up and began making my way to her. Before I was even halfway there though, a Pokémon jumped out of the bush and moved quickly towards the student. I started running.

"Move!" I yelled.

The students all turned to look in the direction I was running and began to panic. The student nearest to the Pokémon tried to run but tripped over her supplies. The Pokémon was almost on top of her. I did not have time to reach her. I pulled out a pokeball and stopped to throw it as hard as I could. The ball sailed over the student and opened in mid-air. Synin appeared in mid-air between the Pokémon and the student and let out a shrill war cry.

"Synin," I yelled as I continued to run towards them. "Defog!"

His eyes locked onto his target; Synin flapped his wings. A strong wind blew clearing away any obstacles in-between them. The Pokémon was knocked back, disoriented in the process. I could recognise the creature even from afar.

'Stunky, no stench, probably why the civilian noticed too late.' I thought quickly. 'A Dark/ Poison type Pokémon. No type advantages. Needs to be taken down quick. '

"Taunt!" I told him. "Sand-Attack then Swift, on repeat!" I commanded.

The Stunky was taunted before it could do anything and then blinded to prevent the release of its foul-smelling fluids. Small stars shot out targeting the baby Pokémon without pause. I thought to release Zatanna as well, however, it must have been quite weak as it did not take long for the Stunky to stop moving.

Once I'd made sure that it was deader than dead, I turned back to my clients and saw that most of them were huddled up together behind their teacher. The student I was talking to earlier hadn't moved from his spot. He just stood behind his easel watching me as I made my way to the other students.

"Are you alright?" I asked the female student when I reached the group. She nodded shakily, fear apparent.

"Y-yes," she said. "Th-thank you."

I heard the sound of people running and turned to see four trainers quickly making their way to us. The first thing they noticed was Synin and I saw them getting their pokeballs ready.

"Stop!" I yelled. "He's my Pokémon!"

"We received an alert about a wild Pokémon near the fountain," one trainer said. "Where is it?"

I pointed to the Stunky's corpse. "Over there," I told them.

Two of the trainers walked over to the body while the other two made their way to us. I recognised one as one of the morning shift guards. The other trainer was unfamiliar to me.

"Is everyone alright?" the familiar trainer asked.

"Everyone's fine," I said. "The Stunky didn't get a chance to hurt anyone. The student who was the target might have some bruises from the fall she took though."

The other two trainers were done examining the body and joined us.

"Good job rookie," one congratulated me. "That's one mean Rookidee, you got there."

"Thanks," I muttered.

"Why is that creature still outside its ball!" a shrill voice screeched.

We all turned to the 'bitch' in question. Her face was red as she pointed at Synin angrily.

"That 'creature' just protected you and your students, ma'am," the trainer that congratulated me told her. "You should be thanking him and his trainer."

"What took you so long!" she continued. "We could have been killed by the time you made it here!"

"We were in the middle of our shift change ma'am," another said. "We headed over here as soon as we received the alert."

"You didn't get here fast enough!" she yelled. "Is that the level of protection we can expect from you monster lovers?"

That was the last straw. All the trainers present here were now openly glaring at the teacher. Even some of her students were frowning at her. Synin, however, couldn’t care less and began preening himself in a nearby fountain.

"You all just went through a traumatic experience," the first trainer told her coldly. "So, we're going to ignore that monster lover remark. But if I hear anything like that coming out of your mouth again, I'll make sure that you and your college are blacklisted from making any mission requests in the future. Understand?"

She fumed silently for a moment as the rest of us waited for her to respond. Finally, she returned to her students.

"We're leaving," she snapped at them. "Pack your things now!"

Her students quickly moved to obey her. Once they had gathered all their supplies, they all followed her as she stalked away from us. The student I was talking to earlier moved at a more leisurely pace. As he passed by the group of trainers, he stopped in front of me for a moment.

"Thanks for saving her," he said. "And sorry for the banshee. I'll contact the mission office and tell them how you kept us safe from harm just in case she tries to file a complaint against you."

"Thank," I said. "I appreciate it."

"I'm Claude," he said and offered his hand.

"Dexter," I responded as I shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you," he said. "I'll remember you if I ever need to hire a trainer for anything. I should go before they leave me behind. See you later."

We watched him leave the area, lagging slightly behind the group.

"Good job, rookie," the same trainer said again. "I'll also inform the mission office about this incident in case she does decide to file a complaint. Don't worry about it. We take care of our own."

"Thanks," I responded, still slightly irked about the 'rookie' part.

Now that my clients had left the park safely, the same trainer told me that there was no point in sticking around, unless I wanted to do so. He told me to go receive my pay from the mission office and take the rest of the day off while they cleaned up the area.