"Okay, I will do it."
"Great!! I knew that you would agree."
"How many of us are going?"
"There would be 4 of us. You, me, the guy would ran, and one senior from the league."
"Where should I meet you guys?"
"Meet us at XXXXX location."
"Alright, I would be there in 4 hours."
"That fast?"
"Yes, I am in the Kanto league right now."
"Ok, that would save us some time. Come fast. See ya.", said Lorelai and hung up the phone.
There were 2 reasons for Axel to go on this mission. First of all, Lance was his friend. He had committed himself to making new connections and friends. He could not let Lance die in vain. The second reason was the most obvious one. He had nothing to do at the moment. Though his Pokemons had just ranked up to elemental rank, they were more powerful than any normal wild Pokemons. So he was confident.
He gathered all these belongings, asked the hotel manager for a mask and took off. He didn't want others to know of his identity. Though it came as suspicious, most of the young trainers loved to wear these types of mask as fashion. The location that Lorelai had sent was in the Kanto league but it was far away. It would take him more than 3 hours to reach there.
Interestingly, Lorelai had called him in a restaurant. He entered the place. The restaurant looked high-class. The interiors were unique and eye catching. The receptionist helped him to find Lorelai and he finally reached there.
"Hey, Lorelai."
"Oh hey, Axel. What's up with that mask?"
"You know. Why don't you introduce me to our friends", said Axel.
"Oh yeah. Axel, this is Raze. She is the one who survived and told us about Axel." The girl had black long hair up to her back. She seemed to be a bit older than Axel. Axel and Raze shook hand.
"And this is Mr. Lucious. He is an advanced rank trainer. He would be the one leading the team." Axel shook his hand with Lucious too.
Both of the trainers were gazing at Axel like a hawk. It was no surprise that Axel had become the successor of Pro. Oak. They were interested in Axel. Axel and the new team were in a private cabin.
"We called you here cause we don't want the news of Lance to spread. Why don't we talk for some time? We have decided to leave tomorrow to rescue Lance."
"Why are we going tomorrow? Why not today?", asked Axel.
"Cause it is already late afternoon. By the time we reach there, it would already be evening. We don't want to go to the forest in the evening.", replied Lucious. Lucious was much older than Axel. He was in his 20s.
"Let me reintroduce ourselves. I have 3 Pokemons who are in elemental rank. I have knowledge about the part of the forest that we are going. So, I would be taking the leadership. Raze has 4 rare-ranked Pokemons and Lorelai has 3 rare-ranked Pokemons. We want to devise a strategy for tomorrow.", said Lucious.
"That is a good way to go. I have 2 elemental rank Pokemons. They had just ranked up. I also have 2 rare ranked Pokemons and the rest are in lower ranks."
Lucious and Raze gasped in surprise when they heard that Axel already had 2 elemental rank Pokemons. Raze considered her to be a genius trainer. She was 17 yrs old. She may not be as recognized as Lorelai and Lance but she was respected for her talent. But hearing Axel's Pokemon ranks made her rethink it again.
"So, you are already an advanced rank trainer?", asked Lucious.
"Yes, that is the reason I came to the league."
"No wonder you are the successor of Prof. Oak. You are a different beast.", commented Lucious. Axel just gave a sweet smile at the remark.
They started to discuss the strategy and finally, all of them separated. Lorelai booked a hotel room for Axel and went home. The team was to gather near the city entrance at 6 a.m in the morning.
Axel was tired so he went to bed and slept immediately. A lot of things happened today. The news, talk with Oak, reporters on his house, kidnapping of Lance, and the meeting with new people. He decided to get enough sleep for tomorrow.
Axel wanted Nidorino to rank up before this mission as it was already very close to doing so. It was developing the Rasengan version of Poison. It was not an easy job as it was a new concept and hard to master. But he can't delay this mission. He didn't want Lance to be in any trouble.
Imagining going to his home after a long time, he fell asleep.
###
Next day,
Axel had the habit of waking up early, so there was no problem to reach the designation at the current time. He had half expected others to be late but they were also right on time.
"All of you follow me. There we would ride on our Pokemons. We can reach the place in 4 hours. We would then search the place for Lance. His communication has been down as there is no good network in the forest. If there is a need, we may have to camp in the forest for a couple of days.", said Lucious.
Axel and Lorelai didn't have much problem with it as they had stayed in the forest for 2 months. But Raze was not so happy about it. But it made her resolve strong and followed Lucious.