The pink flash took me once more.
All of a sudden we appeared on top of a tree branch. The oak branch was thick, with easily enough room for me to comfortably stand.
Gallade's eyes lit up and in another flash of light the green bladed Pokemon disappeared.
I was about to ask Tristan where he went when I realized where I was standing. I reflexively bent my knees and shot out my arms for better balance, but the tree branch was incredibly thick. It wouldn't budge even if I jumped on it.
After a couple moments of panicking, I took in where we were. A couple hundred feet below us was the forest floor. There were pokemon milling about. The tree we were in had massive branches, but much of the shrubbery had been trimmed down. There was clear visibility of the forest all around.
And then I saw what we came for.
The otherworldly oak tree was over four hundred feet tall. It's thick branches seemed to stick out multiple lengths of a football field. Some branches were thicker than a blue whale. The tree's roots were massive. They began nearly a hundred feet in the air and burrowed their way into the ground down below. They looked like miniature mountains that were attached to the side of the gargantuan tree.
Right in front of us was an inlet. The tree had been carved into, with room for an entire village in the trunk. It didn't go all the way through to the other side. Instead roots on both sides reached up into the tree, like a massive frame, which almost looked like the mouth of a cave.
But there were no people in this village.
I saw a ring of Pokémon below. In the middle was a Lucario brawling with a Hariyama. Lucario kept blitzing in, it's hands coated in silver energy, unleashing a flurry of blows, and then quickly jumping back before Hariyama could grab it. Hariyama had to be at least twice the height of the Lucario, and was multiple weight classes above it.
Hariyama roared as Lucario shot a blue ball of energy from afar. Lucario used the opportunity of the Hariyama flinching to try and attack with a bone rush. A plume of dust rose from the impact.
But when the dust cleared, the Hariyama wasn't on the ground. Instead, it was grinning. In one hand was the blue condensed energy of the Lucario's bone rush. It's right foot was clamped down on Lucario's. The flinch had been a bluff. There would be no escape now.
The Lucario's eyes were filled with fear. It dissipated the bone rush, but couldn't get its leg out from under Hariyama's crushing weight. Hariyama quickly grabbed both of Lucario's shoulders, and slammed its head down into Lucario's.
There was a metallic clang, and Lucario fell
Hariyama took its foot off of Lucario's, letting the blue furred Pokémon collapse to the ground.
Hariyama stomped both feet onto the ground, one foot at a time. It's roar of triumph shook my eardrums, even though I was hundreds of feet away.
Cool.
Machoke carried piles of lumber. There was a Medicham juggling a couple Machop above its head. The small fighters were surrounded by pink energy, and took swings at each other whenever they got close to each other in the air.
But there weren't just fighters. There were dragons too.
There were two Druddigon trading powerful punches. A Hitmonchan was on the sidelines, coaching them by miming punching techniques.
A Chestnaught and a Serperior were growing fruit near an empty area, where the ground had been carved up for farming.
Nearby a Dratini slithered along the ground, chasing a Treeko.
A Tyrogue riding a Trapinch chased that same Dratini. Both Trapinch and Tyrogue looked like they were having the time of their lives.
Tristan had left me alone to admire the view. He knew that this was a place like no other. He nudged me in the ribs.
He nodded towards the sky.
"Look up."
And I did. My eyes crept up the tree, and started noticing more and more.
There were Sceptile and Grovyle jumping from branch to branch. A Greninja whipped its tongue around a branch, swinging like Spiderman, and released a Water Shuriken in mid air. But its target, a Toxicroak, coated its claws with brown orange energy and shattered it.
I saw a large nest of thick branches with a cloud sitting inside. There were smaller puffs of white and blue floating above it.
A small burst of green dragon fire came from one of the clouds. It was a Swablu! That meant the bigger fluff was an Altaria.
Two Dragonites circled each other in a mating ritual far above the tree, sending out weak pulses of blue and green at each other. The water pulses and dragon pulses splattered harmlessly against the thick yellow scales.
There were a half dozen black and purple figures hanging upside down near one of the top branches, where there was enough leafage to create a thick shade. The Noivern were fast asleep.
I finally remembered that I could speak. "What is this place?"
Tristan's eyes continued to track the two Dragonites above.
"This is the Tree of Iron Scales. Where one of the Kings lives. Kommo-o brought together the scales and the fighters, making the biggest organized clan of Pokemon seen to man. You now number as one of the few humans that have ever seen it. They don't let Rangers get anywhere close. And any bandit that's stumbled anywhere near usually finds themself reduced to fertilizer."
I gulped. "So, uh, why are we here then? What will they do if they catch us?"
"Catch us? Red, there have been eyes on us since we arrived." Tristan pointed towards a branch behind us, where green scales could barely be seen among the leaves. Yellow bulbs looked exactly like fruit, and the blades on its arms were the same green as the leaves.
The Sceptiles yellow eyes were watching us with keen intensity.
Tristan pointed to a lower branch, where a Hawlucha hung upside down by its feet, hiding itself behind the branch. Only it's beak could be seen from above.
"But you don't have to worry. They would have already attacked if they wanted to. They know me. I grew up here. Well, mostly. This is where I lived before I joined the Ranger Corps."
Tristan looked to me with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't you ever wonder why all the other Rangers are called by their last name, and I'm called by my first?"
Well I felt pretty stupid now. That seemed like a really obvious thing that I should have noticed. Ranger Norton. Ranger Siba. Ranger Jeffords. And Ranger Tristan. Very clear dichotomy there. In my defense, that sort of thing is pretty irrelevant compared to all the dangerous shit about this world. And I'd been trying to wrap my brain around aura.
Regardless, what would that mean?
"Is that a preference thing? Or do you not have a last name?"
Tristan sat down. His legs swung off into empty air.
"Nope. Back when I'm from, we didn't have last names. Apparently I was born during the Unovan Civil Wars, sometime between 700 and 800 years ago. So when I got here, they just gave me the last name Zekrom."
What the fuck? That was a really cool last name. It was like Snow or Sand in Game of Thrones. But with the Legendaries from that region. Awesome.
And also what? I guess he did mention Gallade wasn't from Starfall. And Gallade was his starter. So I guess I should have picked up that Tristan wasn't from Starfall either.
"And you decided not to go with the badass Ranger Zekrom moniker, why?" I totally would have taken Ranger Zekrom over Ranger Tristan. No offense to that name, but Zekrom is badass.
"Because that's not who I am. I only took the last name because they said I have to have one. But I don't deserve it anyway. I failed my country. My brother. I never got to finish my fight. Instead I got stuck here." Tristan picked up a twig and threw it off into the wind.
Woah. That's new. So apparently people from other times can travel through the warp gates by accident and end up here. Although knowing what I do of the wild pokemon, survivors are likely incredibly rare. I guess Nurse Joy mentioned that.
"Do you want to go back?" I asked. I tried to keep a calm and level tone.
Tristan looked back at me. His eyes had a hint of moisture. "I can't. The Ranger's psychics can find you a warp gate, and tell you what's on the other side, but warp gates through time are rare. Really rare. And the psychics can't tell you when it'll spit you out. They can only really tell if the warp gate is through space, or both space and time. So even if I find a gate that'll bring me back to Unova, the chance it'll put me back to exactly when I got pulled from is so small I'd have a better chance of the twig I just threw riding the wind all the way to Champion's Hold and hitting Taimu himself."
I sat down next to him. It was admittedly terrifying getting so close to the edge, and then dangling my feet off of it. The ground a couple hundred feet below felt like it was pulling me in. And not just in a gravity kind of way.
"So you're stuck here."
Tristan shrugged. "Guess so. Norton's been trying to train his Alakazam to figure out where time distortions are, but they're few and far between. And even when they are found, he's still unsure of how to find out what time they'll spit you out. It's too dangerous to just go through and see. And it's not like they just have a calendar on the other side."
I wonder how you could tell what year it was. Maybe charting the stars? I wonder how advanced their astronomy was here.
This was a very delicate topic. How do you ask somebody about how they feel for this kind of thing? This was a pretty shitty unique situation. Although given the chaos of the region, I wasn't sure how rare it was.
"Are there any others like you in the Ranger Corps? From another time I mean."
Tristan nodded. "Just one. Ranger Zacian. He's from even earlier than me. Back when Hoenn and Unova were united under the Hydreigon Dynasty. They conquered half the world before the other nations rose up to stop them. He's really cagey about his past though. We haven't talked as much as I would have liked. Nobody understands what its like. To be torn from your life. Leaving everything behind is hard. But I never even got to say goodbye."
Gallade appeared on the branch in a flash of pink.
Tristan blinked the beginnings of a tear from his eye. "Alright, enough sappy talk. You ready?"
I had no idea what I was supposed to be ready for. Today was supposed to be a day for the rookies to learn how to identify certain pokemon in the wild. Ranger Layton was going to lead it, so I had actually been excited about it. Granted, I did know basically every pokemon. It would have been useful to learn how different pokemon mark their territory though. And maybe I could have learned if there were any other pokemon like Kleavor that I didn't know.
But then Tristan had pulled me aside, and asked if I wanted to see something cool instead. Which if I ever say no to that, shoot me. Clearly a clone.
We teleported down to the ground. But we were in the shade. Where were we?
I looked around to see pokemon everywhere. There was light pouring in from outside, as well as large fires on top of rock structures, acting as massive torches. There was a Combusken with a pile of wood strapped to its back climbing one of the structures with a waning fire on top.
We were inside the tree.
The oak inside was carved, making small dens all over. There were multiple levels, even some outcroppings where flying types had made nests.
The tree was so big that even with this large area carved out, it likely didn't even cut a third of the way through. It still easily had the structural integrity to remain upright and strong, likely easily weathering any damage without falling.
Gallade walked up to a pack of other Gallade. One of them walked up and slammed its elbow forward, their two forearms crashing together in greeting.
Some of the Gallade looked at me weird, but they didn't make any moves. They were clearly comfortable with Tristan.
I continued to look around the area, when a hulking shape started approaching from behind. The Pangoro shook the ground with each step. Its massive figure was rippling with muscles, and its face had a menacing scowl.
It didn't seem to be happy that I was here.
Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.
The Pangoro had to be at least 9 feet tall. Each of its biceps were bigger than my head. Its hands looked like it could crush boulders with ease.
Should I release Zuko? Or would that just escalate things even more? Was this a test? Should I puff up my chest and try to scare it off? No. This wasn't just an animal. These pokemon were smart.
Before I could decide whether to run or run, as releasing a pokemon seemed like a death sentence, Gallade teleported in front of me.
My savior adopted a defensive stance, bending its knees and raising its arms. Gallade shifted his right leg back, bringing his left hand in front of his face.
Tristan also walked forward in front of me, eyeing the hulking figure. The Pangoro spit on the ground, and gestured towards me, as if asking what the fuck is the runt doing here?
Tristan brought his arms out palms down and moved them slowly. It looked like he was patting down a mattress. But slower. As if gesturing for the Pangoro to calm down.
Pangoro's scowl somehow grew deeper.
It looked to both Gallade and Tristan, and made its decision.
With a terrifying roar, the Pangoro sprinted forward. It's trajectory was right between Gallade and Tristan, straight towards me.
But right as it passed Gallade, there was a flash of pink light. A fist coated in brown energy burrowed into the Pangoro's skull from the other side, knocking it off balance. Gallade had teleported into the air, right next to where Pangoro's head would be, with an attack already prepared.
Tristan swept his leg out, tripping the Pangoro.
The Pangoro tipped forward, trying to catch its balance, when another pink flash above it brought down a powerful punch right into the middle of its back.
The Pangoro crashed into the ground face first, skidding along the dirt. Gallade stayed on its back, riding the Pangoro like a surfboard. Gallades fist leaked brown and orange energy like smoke.
When the Pangoro finally skid to a stop, only a couple feet in front of me, Gallade's fist had returned to normal and he casually stepped off the figure.
I whipped my head back and forth between Tristan and Gallade.
That was efficient. Brutally efficient.
These two were on a different level.
Then a roar sounded through the tree. A primordial roar. Hariyama's victorious bellow from before had been a mouse's squeak compared to this.
The ground shook. My skull reverberated in my head.
The pack of Gallade immediately dropped to one knee. Gallade and Tristan followed suit.
My head was still too dizzy from the roar to realize what was going on. I slowly stumbled around for a second before I realized there was a shadow looming over me.
I turned around.
Scaled feet the size of a small car were in front of me. I slowly craned my neck to see what the giant feet were attached to. The golden scales softly chimed together as they moved. They weren't like the scales on a standard dragon. Most dragons had scales where their skin would be. This creature had leathery black skin which attached to its countless scales, hanging off like chain mail. They were the size of plates. Some looked durable, with worn scratches and dents. Others were razor sharp.
Its entire physique was built. This creature had been in many battles.
I finally reached its head. I was looking straight up. The monster of a Kommo-o was over twenty feet tall.
The King Kommo-o looked down at me from above. It's arms looked like they could tear Steelix apart with ease.
I gulped.