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Prologue - The Ranger

“Extreme Speed!” The Ace Trainer in front of her cried out, Arcanine bolted forward with a burst of supernatural speed. Lena didn't need to speak as Lucario, or Arthur, leaped over the fire canine with a practiced grace to his movements with enhanced senses from Detect and drew a bone staff made of Aura in midair. Arthur then swung down, landing a clean blow in the middle of the canine’s spine, which sent the Arcanine tumbling to the ground in pain. The Trainer cried out in shock — no Pokémon had ever intercepted Arcanine mid-Extreme Speed! Yet, there he was, down and out cold on the dirt.

To Ranger Lena, though, Arthur was just showing off. He didn't need Detect to avoid the attack.

“Arthur, if you’d please.” The Aura Pokémon gave a resolute nod and walked over to the fallen Arcanine and moved his paw forward. His tassels gently waved as a blue and pink Aura flowed into Arcanine.

“Sorry about that… Arthur can be a bit of a showman.” Lena apologized. Arthur scoffed at her in mock offense but then smiled faintly.

“Well, I don’t know what I was expecting… I thought for sure though that Scolipede and Arcanine would have been able to beat you with their new moves today…” the Ace Trainer said with a slight sigh. “Just means we’ll have to train harder….” 

Arcanine stirred a bit, then blinked away the dizziness from his eyes. While not fit for another battle, he was well enough to make it to the Pokémon Center; he turned to face the Ace Trainer wearing a defeated expression but perked up once she gave him a scratch behind the ear.

Lena moved to give her a Sitrus Berry, but the Ace Trainer recalled Arcanine to his ball before running off, a quick thank you being yelled out by them as their form retreated into the distance. Lena just sighed and turned to Arthur with an inquisitive expression on her face.

“What do you think? Top 16? Top 32?” Lena asked. Arthur crossed his arms and glanced in the vanishing Ace Trainer’s direction, a soft rumbling left his throat that Lena knew as a hum before he spoke.

“ Her bond with her team is strong, but she needs to work on more than just raw power. ” He mused; Lena nodded and hummed back as she started to think back to the battle. The Ace Trainer’s (what was her name … Miki … ?) Scolipede had almost gotten a knockout on her other partner — speaking of which, she needed to be looked over before anything else.

Lena gently pressed the button on the Dive Ball at her side; a blue light flashed as her other partner appeared. However, Lena was more focused on the bruise, however, and kneeled down to look at it better. The injury was almost bigger than an adult fist at the Floatzel’s side and seemed to spread slowly still.

The Water Type’s expression was embarrassed as she glanced down at her chest and saw the full impact of what she did in the battle had on her, which prompted her to glance away with a blush on her orange fur. 

Though no amusement came from either of them, Arthur hissed and winced as he spotted the purple splotch darkening and growing on the Floatzel’s body. And Lena, having already grabbed a Super Potion from her pack, reached forward and felt the injury with a gentle touch to make sure there was nothing critically injured, careful not to make the Floatzel more uncomfortable than she looked, physically at least.

‘Hm… nothing broken … A night of rest and a visit to the Pokémon Center should take care of it.’ She said to herself as she started to spray the Super Potion. Floatzel's posture relaxed a tad as the medicine started taking effect quickly, the purple bruising started to fade already thanks to the fast-acting medicine. The purple area on her body faded into a yellow and dissipated slightly at the edges… the Floatzel’s tense shoulders finally relaxed fully as she also let out a breath she didn’t know she held either.

Meanwhile, Arthur stepped up to his teammate with a teasing look now that she was being healed and knew it wasn’t serious…

“ Leaving me to handle the Fire Type all by myself wasn’t nice, Rina. ” He spoke with an attempted flat tone, even if it held a bit of a teasing edge, Rina turned to him and let out her own scoff. 

“Float-Floatzel…Float-Zelel” (Please, I knew you could have handled it. Don’t think I missed hearing Lena say you were showing off.) Rina said and crossed her arms slightly. Lena couldn’t help but chuckle at her team and family bantering like this. Meanwhile, both Arthur and Rina shot each other a smile at making their Trainer laugh.

It had taken some time, but while Lena could understand Arthur easily thanks to his Aura translating his speech into his thoughts easily, using that Aura to translate others fluidly was still something they were practicing. The main issue was that as of right now a Pokémon’s Aura basically had to go through Arthur’s before reaching Lena, meaning there was still some ‘noise’ in the signal.

She stopped spraying the now-used Super Potion and put the empty bottle into her back pocket, moving her hand around for a moment before it exited instead with two berries for her team.

“Here, for both of you,” Lena said while handing both Arthur and Rina the Sitrus Berries she had meant to give to the Ace Trainer; both Pokémon perked up and started eating them with gusto. Lena chuckled again at both of them as she pulled out her Styler, checking the clock.

‘ 4:30 PM… might as well check in and get these two in a Pokémon Center. I should probably check to see what Quests came in; we’ve done enough battling for today. ’ She hummed as she navigated the menu to reach the radio setting, selecting the ‘Unova Operator Frequency‘, and moved her arm closer to her mouth to speak. “This is Ranger Lena, calling in to signify intent to leave Route 23 and head back to heal my team and to check in on any open Quests, over,” she said, waiting for an Operator to respond.

“Ranger Lena, Operator Axel receives your intent, marking you off Route 23… acknowledge?” Lena smiled slightly at hearing his voice, being the first Operator she interacted with after coming to Unova.

“Acknowledged. Anything to be aware of on the way back?”

“Not much, though if you’re flying back we’ve gotten some reports of some Flying Types migrating back for spring, so be aware of congested air traffic.”

Lena hummed before she turned her gaze towards the sky. An Unfezant followed by a flock of Pidove flew towards their breeding grounds in the south, if she squinted she could just barely notice the faint blue underbelly of some Swanna as well. “Thanks for the heads-up, I didn’t even realize it was that time of year already…”

“Yeah, with how things have been going down, I’m not surprised, had a couple others say the same too…” Axel said with a light sigh, suddenly sounding a bit tired through the radio.

Lena groaned. “Oh Arceus, what happened now…?” She could imagine Axel leaning back in his chair and running his hands over his face before putting them behind his head with a deep breath.

“Oh, nothing big, just a few hardliners from the League calling the Ranger Union a bunch of Plasma sympathizers just ‘cause we dare to advocate for Pokémon rights…. Trainers releasing Pokémon in habitats where they shouldn’t — some moron released a Larvitar in a forest out by the lab on ‘15, Twins know how long a search mission is going to go in that area… calls for budget cuts in retaliation for our support for the Unova Diversity Act… Y’know, standard operating procedure.”

Lena groaned loud enough to make both Rina and Arthur look up from eating.

“Are you kidding? I mean, after everything with Team Plasma I can understand some resistance, but—” Lena cut herself off before she went on a tirade, shaking her head and regaining control of herself. “We can discuss it off frequency later, sorry. Ranger Lena, signing out.”

“Understood, have a safe trip back. Operator Axel signing out.”

Lena sighed before she turned and realized Rina and Arthur were looking at her with expressions of concern. She gave a faint smile, trying her best to placate the two. “Don’t worry, it’s just more humans being stupid.”

“Floatzeel… Zel-Float…Float-Float.” (You’ve been saying that a lot since we’ve been in Unova… are you… sure you don’t mind being here instead of Almia? Or Sinnoh?) Rina asked gently, clasping Lena's hand soothingly. Arthur had a similar look of concern, but Lena moved before either could speak again, kneeling down and wrapping them both in a gentle hug.

“Listen to me, I know you two always want more. Don’t lie, I know how much you two enjoy battling, getting stronger… as well as making sure you can protect me....” Her voice quivered before trailing off a bit. “I’m more than happy to handle the human bureaucracy for you two if it means you're happy but… we all need to heal after Team Plasma.” Her tone softened as she thought back to more than a year ago...the emergency sirens, the deafening noise, the panic…, the fear….

“ Lena, you’re here, the siege is over… you have us… we don’t need to stay in Unova if you aren’t happy here. ” Arthur’s grounding voice shot through her thoughts, making her blink as she realized both he and Rina had put their paws around her back now and were leaning into the hug.

Taking a breath, Lena shook her head before speaking again. “I am happy, I have my partners, my family here, we’re helping people both in Towns and Routes, life is good.” She responded with a gentle squeeze and breathed… simply just… being, enjoying the embrace of her family.

After a minute she broke the hug and smiled back at the two before she moved her hands to each of their Poké Balls and held them out. “Come on, let’s get you both healed up, you did great today.”

And with that, both Pokémon pressed their paws at their Poké Ball, both turned red and vanished into an identical light into the capsules. Lena held her smile as she pressed the button on the Dive and Great Ball to shrink them before putting them on her belt. She stood up and stretched for a moment, her mind debating if she should ride the Subway… if Lena did, her team would be upset they didn’t do any battles despite having just fought a couple ones that day. So Lena pulled her Styler out as she started looking for an Unfezant to fly back…

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“Welcome to the Nimbasa City Ranger Depot… oh! Hello, Ranger Lena!” The front desk clerk, Ivan, greeted them with a cheerful expression; his Swoobat hung upside down next to him from a pole suspended from the ceiling, chirping happily and giving a wave with his wing. Lena chuckled a bit and waved as well as she walked up to the desk.

“Good afternoon Ivan and Bruce, I hope today hasn’t been too busy.”

Ivan just shrugged in response. “Nothing major , but with everything happening with the Unova Diversity Act, we keep getting emails and calls about every minor Pokémon, you know how it is. Been running myself ragged sending out the same generic email response for every single Growlithe or even ‘supposed’ sightings of Weedle which turns out to just be Venipede. Have to document it all anyways.” He said with a slight chuckle; Lena shot him a slight look of pity.

“Yeah, glad I’m in the field rather than at a desk… left my Team to get checked up at the Pokémon Center after some battles, but wondering if any new Quests come in?”

Ivan leaned forward in response and quickly started to type on his computer. “Let me see… ah, yes. We have some of the finest ‘show me this Pokémon today only’, or ‘please remove this single rock that bothers me’ Quests today.” Ivan chuckled but shook his head as he ended his theatrics, and started selecting some of the ‘real’ Quests to send. “Besides those, we have a couple; but none that’ll satisfy your battle-hungry team.” He replied with a slight teasing smirk that made Lena snort. Pressing a button on the keyboard, Lena’s Styler beeped as it received the new information. “Man, it’s so much easier to get Quests to everyone with this…”

Lena didn’t disagree, but she felt there was something lost… like it was disconnected from the personal relationship that Rangers should have with the community. Granted, she supposed with places with a higher population than Almia or Oblivia, it made sense to a degree…

She didn't voice her thoughts, however, and simply gave Ivan a smile and a slight nod. “Thank you. Is anyone else in the common room?”

“I think Axel and Lois are there now — ah, sorry, it's Ampere with Louis, not Lois. It’s odd that there are three Rangers in Unova all with similar sounding names, Lewis, Lois, and Louis…” Ivan said with a slight hum at the end, Lena chuckled though as she thought about it, it was a bit odd.

“We’ll need to figure out nicknames eventually. I’ll go in and say hi, you’ll make sure that Ivan takes a break, won’t you Bruce?” She asked playfully, with Bruce chirping and giving his best impression of a salute. Ivan rolled his eyes but waved Lena off as she walked towards the common area.

Moving her Styler to the electronic lock, the door beeped and slid open to reveal a rather cozy room with couches around a TV mounted on a wall. In Lena’s opinion, they were the best damn couches in all of Unova, based on how often she would find herself falling asleep in minutes after a long day. Against another wall was a table, fridge, sink, microwave and stove, a dishwasher… all the modern amenities one could need.

The TV gently blared as two people and Ampere the Ampharos sat on the couch and a backwards chair looking at the TV. Lena walked over and sat down on an unoccupied couch with a breath and glanced at the two; Axel was on the chair, arms crossed over the top and resting his head with his dark sandy blonde hair. He was listening intently to the TV before perking up as Lena sat down. On the couch next to him was Louis, short black hair with a bit of a tan on his skin, with Ampere lying across his lap asleep.

“Lena! Welcome back. Hope the air traffic wasn’t bad?” Axel asked; Lena shook her head in response as Louis turned to her with a smile as well.

“Nothing major, but thanks for the heads up. I went at a lower altitude to be safe.” She said, giving a nod to Louis as well, who returned it and shifted slightly to face Lena without disturbing Ampere.

“Yeah, the air traffic was bothering Mistralton City’s airspace. Had to help guide some Duckletts and their Swanna parents away while planes were incoming. At least we didn’t have to deal with the passengers on the flights who got delayed.” Louis said with a chuckle, which Lena and Axel mimicked in agreement. Lena started to look over the Quest list while the TV was on in the background.

‘Let’s see… ‘I wanna see a Minccino’s evolved form’, might be interesting… I’d need to find a Cinccino or a Trainer with a Minccino looking to evolve and be open to evolving in front of someone … . Though it could take a couple days to find a high-grade Shiny Stone’ Lena considered before deciding against it. She continued scrolling as Axel started to speak with a casual tone.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Yeah, tourists are the worst… even here, where catching Pokémon and Battles are allowed. I can’t even imagine how it is in Fiore or Almia.”

“Oh, don’t even get me started. I can’t even begin to explain how many times I’ve had to confiscate illegal Poké Balls or explain to someone that just because they have Badges, that doesn’t mean they’re allowed to train in the forest either.” Lena groaned aloud while throwing her head back. The sight made Louis blow out an amused breath and Axel moved his hands in Lena’s direction as if to say ‘See? Exactly!’. Lena just shook her head with a faint smile before looking back at the Quest list.

Her ears tuned out Louis and Axel’s conversation following conversation as she scrolled through idly, the reporter on the TV moving onto the next topic.

“...and following reports of the International Police stopping yet another illegal smuggling operation, the League has shared a message showing they are grateful for their assistance in the matter —”

Lena’s focus snapped up to the TV at the mention of smuggling as Louis groaned at the anchor calling the League ‘grateful’. “Give me a break… If you were more grateful, you’d let the Rangers help with gathering information on the origins of the Pokémon instead of relying on the International Police.”

Lena and Axel turned to him both with a pinched expression, their distaste for the International Police clear. Lena rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed, almost regretting what she was about to ask. “What’s the damage this time?”

“From what I’ve seen on the report internally, illegal shipment of Pokémon heading to Orre, most likely was going there before heading overseas.” Lena cursed under her breath as he nodded in agreement. “Pokémon are going to be checked over before they decide what to do next… tsk.” A scowl formed on his face, and Lena couldn’t help but feel a similar expression forming. The International Police were good with human crimes, especially with the rise in Teams the last couple years, but they still struggled with handling Pokémon related crimes compared to the Ranger Union.

“Does the Ranger Union have no say in it?” Lena asked, with Axel answering with a shake of his head.

“Nope. Because it was within Unova’s borders, and it’s mostly related to ‘illicit human affairs’ as they put it, they’re claiming jurisdiction. They only want Ranger’s assistance in the handling of the Pokémon involved, but not the final decision. It’s something, I guess.” He sighed with a tilt of his head as he leaned back, lightly holding onto the back of the chair. Axel shot a glance at Lena’s belt for a moment before he hummed. “Arthur and Rina getting checked out?”

“Yeah, Nurse said it’d be an hour or two. Arthur’s fine, but I’m going to have to have a word with him about sportsmanship — using Detect for a critical strike in an exhibition match isn’t cool. Rina though... She grazed a point-blank Solar Beam—.” Axel and Louis winced in sympathy. “Yeah, wasn’t pretty. Thankfully, it was either a new move or wasn’t fully charged, as she still won with an Ice Punch.”

Axel chuckled softly and shook his head, with an almost disbelieving expression. “Man, I don’t understand how you can keep up with either of them. I know you came to Unova so they can battle more, but at this rate, you’ll be able to sweep the League with just those two.”

Lena just shrugged slightly, moving over to the counter and reaching for an apple. “I mean… I’ve considered doing that maybe when I retire, but… the image of a former Ranger turned ‘career battler’ might be… counterintuitive if the Union wants to press for Pokémon Citizenship in regions.” She said with a sudden scowl as she thought about how most Regions with a Pokémon League struggled with legal citizenship for Pokémon because of how prevalent Pokémon Battles are. Most of the ‘reasons’ given by politicians are that “they’re too stupid to be citizens” or that “the language barrier between Pokémon and humans would make that too complex.”

The thought alone made her bite into her apple with a burning hatred. Even without Lucario’s Aura, the language barrier didn’t stop Lena from understanding her team. Sure, it was a slow process and difficult at times, but they were her family. That time and effort and work is what they deserved! But... she did concede it made the learning process much easier, and it certainly helped get some nuance in conversations that wasn’t possible otherwise.

It was things like that which made Pokémon rights so prevalent in places like Fiore, Almia, and Oblivia, where Pokémon are able to hold jobs, become full citizens, and get the same benefits as a human under the Ranger Union’s eye.

'Shame that the Pokémon League can feel like a decade behind sometimes…' She mused to herself with a bitter tone. Axel glanced at her expression and asked what she was thinking about, causing her to relay her thoughts again. Axel winced at the frankly aggressive tone she had but nodded in agreement. Louis however, hummed, thinking back to the conversation beforehand as Lena glanced at her Styler to cool her thoughts down.

“Twins, Lena, you look like you’re going to murder that apple. Is being a Trainer really that unappealing to you?” Axel quipped, breaking her out of her brooding.

Lena steeled herself for a second, trying to temper her anger. “It’s not an issue with being a Trainer and battling, not at all, it’s everything next to it tied to the League.” 

With another breath, she gathered her thoughts before continuing. “It’s just... for all the League claims to care about Pokémon rights, they treat Pokémon like they’ve got the intelligence of a brick and are utterly incapable of functioning without a Trainer, and expand cities into habitats with no effort for relocation. Remember Castelia Sewers breaking directly into the Relic Passage?” She said with a pointed tone. Louis in particular nodded at that, the two of them having been on the Mission themselves when the company contracted to construct the sewers revealed that information to the League. “Ugh. It’s no wonder you-know-who rose to power so quickly with their false message; they’re evil, and they co-opt a necessary topic and sent it back years...” Lena looked back down at her Styler again, trying to cool off a bit.

Axel looked down with his brows furrowed in thought, but Louis just gave a big harrumph.

“I say go for it — the League, I mean. Who knows, maybe you’ll even become the Champion and press for that change.”

‘’I need training tips for my Timburr’, that one is actually tempting… I’ll need to check to see if Arthur would be up for it…’ Lena's face then shifted into a pinched expression as she processed what Louis said.

She shifted and gave Louis an icy stare. “And have to deal with politics? I’ll pass. It’s bad enough for Iris, and she was a Gym Leader. Granted, Drayden was assisting her, but....” Lena resolutely shook her head; she had absolutely no desire to get involved with that.

“Well, Alder is assisting her now with politics which… okay, that’s a bad example.” Louis grimaced, realizing what he just said. Alder hadn’t been hugely supported, but he was an ally for the Ranger Union pre-Team Plasma, despite not battling much because of the loss of his partner. He was at least respected as a man of the people with how he traveled across the Region among Rangers and Trainers giving advice, wisdom, and mentoring.

Then Team Plasma shattered that image into a million pieces. The true leader, Ghetsis, had kidnapped a young child, isolated him in solitary confinement for years, changed his name, groomed him to be 'king' of a terrorist organization, and manipulated him into gaining the trust of the legendary Pokémon Reshiram. After demolishing the Elite Four, Alder might as well have conceded defeat without even fighting, his attempt was so poor due to him wandering the region instead all those years. During the ceremony where the new Champion ‘N’ was to be crowned, Team Plasma’s castle rose from the ground and pierced the Pokémon League for all to see. It was only thanks to the efforts of an actual child named Hilbert, the awakening of the legendary Zekrom, and N’s betrayal of Ghetsis at the last minute that Team Plasma was thwarted.

Alder’s support within the political sphere evaporated after the events, and he retired shortly after a battle with Hilbert, who refused to take the spot and… vanished, much like Red did all those years ago.

Alder was at least mentoring Iris into the position with a transitionary period. However, despite being stronger in battle, she hadn’t mustered up enough political strength yet to push back against the reactionaries that had sprouted up, pushing more and more support to the International Police because of their actions in rounding up the Seven Sages of Team Plasma after the attack.

“Gonna be a bit of time before she gets settled in, we’re still feeling the after-effects of Team Plasma, probably for years to come…” Axel murmured. Lena nodded slightly and sighed, sitting down on an empty couch as she bit into her apple and opened her Styler to the list of Quests.

After scrolling through the list of minor jobs she wasn’t interested in, Lena's face hardened as she noticed one at the bottom just recently submitted an hour ago. ‘Accumula Town - Assistance needed concerning sensitive topics ‘.

The subject line gave little information, and the description was equally vague. Intrigued, Lena opened the Quest.

Hello,

I apologize if this is the wrong channel to send such a request, however, I would like to request a Ranger’s help with a sensitive matter that can’t be discussed over email due to the privacy of an individual. Please reach out via email or call.

I hope to hear back soon,

Clare Ranton - Coordinator, Unova Child Welfare Services

Xtransceiver: (xxxx)-xxxx-xxxx

Email: [email protected]

Lena sat back as her eyes skimmed the message again. She hummed absentmindedly trying to put together possible ideas, biting into her apple as she sat in silence. ‘Alright… so, a child social worker wants help with… what I assume is a kid in the system, possibly one without parents or a role model to look up to... There’s no Gym Leader in Accumula Town, so that makes sense, but there’s no information here to confirm that idea… ‘’  

Lena took another bite of her apple before an unexpected hard crunch followed by a bitter taste distracted her as she bit down right on the inner seeds. She glared at her apple as if it had offended her. Realizing she had eaten the apple down to the core, she stood up and moved to throw it out as she pondered the message once more… the Xtransceiver number at the end of the message was like a beacon for her eyes…

Her Styler rang, jolting her from her thoughts. She picked up the incoming call without checking the ID.

“R-Ranger Lena speaking.”

“Ranger Lena? This is the resident nurse at the Nimbasa Pokémon Center. Arthur and Rina are both ready to be picked up.” The nurse’s caring tone brought Lena out of her stupor for a moment as she quickly refocused.

“Ah-ah thank you, how is Rina…? She took a point-blank Solar Beam to the chest...”

“So that’s what it was… she will be fine, Ranger Lena. The bruise suggests the Grass Type Energy wasn’t fully stable, so it wasn’t at full strength when it hit, however, she may still feel a little tender when sleeping tonight. I can go into more detail if you’d like when you arrive.” The nurse responded kindly, her tone gentle as if she sensed the faint bit of background worry that Lena had.

“That would be great, actually. Thank you, I’ll be right over.” Lena replied before she hung up the call and stood up, stretching for a moment as Axel and Louis looked over at her; even Ampere blinked slowly from his apparent nap and looked around as if hit by a Confuse Ray, making her turn to them real quick. “Have to grab Rina and Arthur. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Ampere chirped and the guys waved goodbye as she headed out, her mind forgetting the odd Quest for a moment…

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After Lena grabbed her partners out of the Pokémon Center, she let them out as they leisurely strolled by the attraction section of Nimbasa City. Lena glanced up at the Ferris wheel as the sun was slowly turning the sky an auburn color. Lena pulled her coat closer to herself; Lena was thankful she had grabbed it from her Ranger-Union-and-League-provided room at the Pokémon Center. She kept it over her Ranger uniform since she was too lazy to take it off.

…Though, if she stopped to think about it, a lot of Rangers she noticed kept their uniform on off-duty since the Siege of the Pokémon League.

‘Stop, don’t go down that Buneary hole.’ She chided herself as she focused on Arthur and Rina. Rina was waving to a child riding the Ferris Wheel up above, and Arthur…

‘Ah, damn, he noticed.’ Lena winced internally as Arthur stared at her with a troubled expression. She gently reached forward and scratched behind his ears, making him blink in surprise for a moment before subtly leaning towards Lena, maintaining his concerned expression.

“Lena… are you thinking of that time again?” He asked softly, just quiet enough for Rina to not hear. Lena shook her head in an attempt to refuse his concern, but a slight narrowing of his eyes along with the barely visible blue wisps told her he had seen right through it with his Aura. Forcing her to slump her shoulders and admit it.

Taking a breath, she couldn’t help but nod barely, shifting over to a nearby bench to sit for a moment as she could already feel the impending conversation. “...Yeah.”

Arthur moved in front of her to meet her gaze, as her own couldn’t quite meet his look without flicking for just a moment away, but she managed to focus back onto him. His expression was a mix of concern, worry, but also firm as his paws gently took one of Lena’s hands and gently squeezed as if to ground her. “ Lena… please don’t lie to me, we both know you can’t… but do you need a break? You know that the Ranger Union would more than happily grant a leave to visit Almia or Sinnoh for a vacation… ” 

At this point, Rina had noticed her partners had stopped walking behind her and quickly went over next to Lena, her own expression mirroring Arthur’s as Lena could only shake her head.

“No, I don’t need a vacation… I don’t think I could right now.” Lena said with an empty chuckle, but took another breath as she started to think and speak at the same time. 

“I just don’t think that… I can do that right now, I just need to see what else I can do to help Unova heal right now, you know?” 

“FloatZeeeel. Float… oatzel…” (Unova will still be here if we take a break… we could even be reassigned if you wanted to go to another Region… maybe Hoenn or Fiore?)

Lena tilted her head back and forth, before shaking her head. “Maybe… but just… I feel like I need to do a bit more in Unova to help, then we can take a break… unless you two want a break?”

Arthur and Rina shot each other a brief glance, with Rina frowning and shaking her head. “FloatZEeeel-Float.” (I’m not taking a break until you do, I can keep going.)

Arthur sighed, most likely debating internally about something, but similarly nodded at Rina’s words. “ I do not require a break, both Rina and I will stand by your side for whatever you choose. ” 

Lena could feel her chest ache, pulling both of them into the second hug for the day and taking another deep breath as a gentle smile formed on her face. “And what did I do to deserve such amazing Partner Pokémon as a Ranger?”

Feeling them hug back for a moment at her gooey, warm tone, Lena was reminded of Arthur’s strength as he applied a tad more pressure than normal and leaned closer into the hug with Rina. It always surprised her, but this came with the territory of having a Fighting Type partner… 

‘ One of these days, Arthur’s gonna teach Rina how to use Strength to hug me, I won’t be able to escape Fighting Type level hugs then… ’ Lena thought for a moment… laughing before pausing as something nagged at her about teaching and Fighting Types…

After a moment, she was able to dislodge the mental reminder she had. “Oh! Right, that reminds me…” She started as she shifted out of the hug despite wanting to stay in it. Arthur moved to leaning against a tree next to the bench while Rina got onto the bench next to Lena as she pulled out her Styler to pull up the current Quests.

“There’s a Quest I thought you might have been interested in — ah, damn.” She said as she looked at the list, the one labeled ’I need training tips for my Timburr’ marked as ‘taken’ now. “Sorry Arthur, someone else snagged it before me. It was a Quest to help someone train their Timburr. I thought you may have been interested as a Fighting Type.”

At that, Arthur shrugged, but Lena could tell he was a tad disappointed. These things happen unfortunately; they were used to it as a part of being Rangers. “A shame. It may have proved enjoyable to guide another.”

“Floatzell-ZelFloat-Float.” (We’ll get the chance to do that eventually… though, I am rather sore honestly, I wouldn’t have wanted to be a training dummy for a Fighting Type shorter than me.) Rina complained with a faint huff, rubbing her paw against her lower stomach where the bruising had mostly faded but still felt tender.

“I’ll keep that in mind… maybe we’ll need to get you a Rindo Berry to hold in battle?” Arthur suggested gently after thinking for a moment. The idea of held items came up often with the three of them, but nothing ever seemed to stick. Rina seemed to mull the idea over before she turned to Lena. “Zelll… Floatzel-Zel?” (Maybe… what is the taste of it again?)

“Bitter, with a hint of spice.” Lena recited from memory, her Berry class back at the Ranger School burned into her. Rina contemplated it for a moment before wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“ I suppose we’ll have to strike out a lot of consumable berries then, won’t we Lena… Lena? ” Arthur asked as he turned to their mutual partner, her eyes fixated on her Styler with a puzzled expression on her face. Arthur gently nudged her with his Aura, and she snapped and blinked in surprise.

“A-Ah-! I’m fine — sorry… There's just this odd Quest that’s been on my mind, from a CWS worker in Accumula Town.” Lena explained as she tilted her Styler screen to show Rina and Arthur, who peered over with curious expressions. “It doesn’t have a lot of details, which… I suppose if it’s concerning a kid in the system, they wouldn’t want it to be on a public record if it’s concerning enough to request a Ranger,” she explained. Arthur and Rina looked annoyed at the ‘under-the-table’ method some feel like they need to take.

“Floatzel-Floatzel! GRrrrr…” (Why do stuffy humans need all this paperwork just to have someone get help? For Pokémon, it’s as simple as doing! Faster too! We try to help our young before serious things happen, unlike those fat Purugly!) She growled out. Arthur said nothing else but nodded in agreement, with Lena noting that his Aura felt a little heavier.

“No objections there, Rina… but people want transparency with Rangers, so if something happens tied to a previous Quest, everything is documented down to the last minute detail. Even if they name the kid ‘John Doe’, people can link things back or make assumptions.” Lena grumbled slightly. She then sighed and stared at the request; debating on if she should even consider it.

She glanced at both Arthur and Rina for their opinion, as they would be taking part. “What do you think? There are not a lot of details but…” Lena asked both of them with a slightly raised eyebrow, the two of them glancing at each other before thinking.

Arthur spoke first. “Our jobs, our roles, as Rangers, are to protect people and Pokémon first and foremost. That is why we strive to get stronger every day… so that we can do these requests, no matter what things may lie without us knowing.” Arthur affirmed. Rina nodded in agreement thereafter. Lena’s expression shifted on her face before she snorted slightly, shook her head amusedly, and smiled.

‘…Well, that decides that, now doesn’t it?’ She mused to herself, as she pressed a couple prompts on her Styler to mark the Quest as taken, and copied down the Xtransceiver number on the Styler before she navigated to the transponder function.

‘Let’s see what awaits us, shall we?’

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Beta Readers/Editors:

David “TheBlizWiz” R

Tempest

Garmfild

HerdingDog1

Multiple Anonymous Readers