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Julia had signed up to be a Ranger to protect the environment and the Pokémon living in it. That meant dealing with poachers and other bad actors, but she'd been trained for that. She hadn't been trained for this kind of skirmish. She hadn't been trained for almost getting killed by a motorbike on purpose. And it wasn't like she knew that Kurze wouldn't have dealt the fatal blow.

[break][break]Julia wasn't naive. She knew there were bad people out there. Really, really bad people. But she was still too innocent to truly imagine the depths of these people's cruelty. Or perhaps she simply didn't want to imagine them. But tonight, she'd gotten a taste of it. Of, in her eyes, people willing to nearly kill someone as a warning. It was disgusting. Despicable. Horrifying. But that only strengthened her resolve to keep doing the right thing and dealing with these kinds of people wherever she could.

[break][break]The fight was over, huh? Julia was rattled, and Chester was hurt, exhausted, and being held at bone-point to prevent him from doing anything, but the fight wasn't over, not if Julia had anything to say about it. She just needed to buy a little more time to... She glanced at the communicator that had fallen to the ground. Could she even make a call with it anymore? With Chester in his current state, Isaac had the mobility advantage with his bike, and if he decided to use it as a "warning" like his Bisharp had... Even still, the thought of giving up now made her gut roil. She still had one more Pokémon her opponent hadn't seen, and if she could figure out the opportune time to let her loose...

[break][break]The way the Rocket spoke his next words surprised Julia more than what he actually said at first. If she didn't know better, she'd say he sounded almost concerned. And the way he said that nobody would hurt her, that it was over... What the heck? Was this his way of saying he'd decisively won? Because it sounded more like he was trying to reassure her. When he told her to name five things she could see, her first instinct was to glance around for any new signs of trouble like backup. But then she realized: This was the first part of a grounding technique that Julia had learned in therapy.

[break][break]"What?" Okay, so that wasn't a thing she could see, but she was so confused right now. Was he trying to distract her? If he was, this was a weird way of doing it. "What are you trying to pull?"

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Julia was confused. She was at least 99% sure that this wasn't how enemies were supposed to act toward each other, even if she accounted for the fact that life wasn't always in black and white. He was admitting to having been in a panic spiral before? And now he was trying to help Julia, even if it was to his disadvantage? He even recalled his Pokémon back into their Poké Balls and set them on the ground with the rest.

[break][break]Julia could take advantage of this. She still had her other Poké Balls on her. Chester was in bad condition, but Sparkie was still raring to go. She could send out Lazuli and freeze his bike in place. She could get Sparkie and Momo to fetch Isaac's Poké Balls so he couldn't use them, then get her radio so she could finally call for backup. She...

[break][break] ... would feel like a total jerk if she did that.

[break][break]In nearly every sense of the word, this guy was an enemy. He was a Rocket, a fugitive, someone smuggling explosives (which she still didn't know where they were now, shoot), and someone who'd sicced his Pokémon on her in a way that could have gotten her killed, yet he was making himself vulnerable and walking her through calming down. He physically and metaphorically had his back to her. But backstabbing was what Rockets and other criminals did. And Julia wasn't like that, for better or worse.

[break][break]"I'm not panicking," she said. And it was true that she had calmed down now that she was no longer in danger. Still, she glanced around, making sure to keep Isaac in her peripherals as she listed off what she saw: "There's a streetlight. Chester and Sparkie, of course." She beckoned the two over. "A starry night sky. Aaaaand a Rocket whose Pokémon almost ran me over." Was there a hint of bitterness in that last one? Probably. Julia did tend to wear her heart on her sleeve, after all. That stab of anger reminded her to keep her breathing steady.

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[attr="class","juliaw"]

Julia still didn't understand why a Rocket, of all people, was walking her through a grounding exercise. She didn't dismiss the possibility that he was just trying to get her guard down, but this was a really complex way of doing that. And with how much this exercise had Julia focusing on her immediate environment, it wouldn't be very effective, either.

[break][break]She couldn't help but feel a bit proud that her verbal snipe had Isaac sounding bashful. But then Isaac explained Kurze's rough past and how it led to his behaviors. Even though he'd just tried to kill her, Julia couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the Bisharp. She'd worked with troubled Pokémon in the past, and she knew that their circumstances could lead to behavioral issues. Potential vehicular manslaughter was a new one, though. If this had been anyone else, Julia would have commended them for sticking with Kurze despite his issues.

[break][break]"You probably shouldn't let him drive again, then," she said instead. "Not unless you train him or something. Just, you know, don't train him to run people over." Okay, maybe giving advice to a Rocket was a bad idea...

[break][break]She wasn't sure whether she wanted to accept his apology or not, so she focused on the grounding exercise, instead. Four things she could feel. She'd been taught to focus on physical feelings in these situations to keep herself from getting stuck in her own head. She reached out and stroked each of Chester's heads, one at a time. "I feel Chester's feathers." She knelt down to pick up Sparkie and put her on her shoulders. "Sparkie's fur. I feel the warm night air. And..." She focused for a moment. "I feel my feet firmly on the ground." Technically, she could only actually feel one of those feet, but that wasn't the point.

[break][break]She knew how the rest of this exercise went. "I hear your motorcycle running." Which made it all the stranger that he'd set his Poké Balls aside since that kept him from getting away so easily. Chester let out a low warble. "I hear Chester, and..." She looked over at Sparkie. The Pikachu tilted her head before realizing what Julia wanted and letting out a squeak. "And Sparkie.

[break][break]"I smell her, too. She's not stinky or anything; she's just right here." Still, Sparkie looked a bit bashful, so Julia scratched behind her ear to make her feel better. "And I can smell the motorcycle fumes. And for taste... unless you want me to lick my Pokémon—" Sparkie looked rather horrified at the thought, but Chester just looked amused at Julia's quip. "—I taste the inside of my mouth. It's still a bit minty."

[break][break]Her breathing had evened out, and any trace of panic or anger seemed to have dissipated. It always felt good to be fully back in the present, to not be worrying about the past again. As she reveled in that feeling, she realized something. "Wait. Frivolous? You're carrying bombs! Where are they? Where'd you tell your Dhelmise to go?" She wasn't panicking anymore, but that didn't mean she wasn't worried about whatever—or whomever—those explosives were targeting.

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Well, it sounded like he wasn't going to train Kurze to run people over, so that was good.

[break][break]Julia hadn't even been trying to pull a fast one by asking where Dhelmise was. Her concern had pushed the words out of her mouth without realizing, oh yeah, a criminal isn't just gonna tell me where the stuff is. But she still couldn't let anyone get hurt! She was ready to go into full questioning mode (she was probably too soft to do a proper interrogation), but then Isaac reached into his jacket pocket. Julia and her Pokémon tensed up, unsure of what to expect.

[break][break]It certainly hadn't been a clearly labeled box of fireworks.

[break][break]Julia stared in shock silence for a few seconds. "You were... just getting fireworks?" That chase, that fight, that fear of someone getting seriously hurt had all just been for fireworks? Julia should have been relieved that it wasn't some huge plot to blow up Splashfest or something. Instead, she just felt all the energy being sapped out of her. She was gonna need a nap after this. Or would that just be regular sleep with how late it was?

[break][break]She knelt down and examined the box. It was still sealed, and when Sparkie gave it a sniff, she didn't seem to smell anything amiss. Yeah, that was a box of fireworks, all right. Julia picked it up. "Uh... thanks?" What a weird night.

[break][break]She and her Pokémon watched closely as Isaac released Sunny from his frantically shaking Poké Ball. The Golbat waved shyly at Sparkie before squeaking and hiding behind Isaac. Sparkie let out an embarrassed squeak of her own and rubbed the back of her head. Julia couldn't help but smile. "Hehe, yeah. Just be careful with the fireworks, okay? Don't wanna set something on fire just for a show." To go through all this trouble for fireworks for a "special someone"... It honestly sounded really sweet.

[break][break]But then Julia realized something as Isaac rode off. "Hey, wait a minute! These are still stolen, aren't they?!" Why else would he have gotten them in a mall parking lot at 3 AM? From Hank Winters, of all people? She took a few futile steps forward, but Chester squawked to stop her. Trying to chase him would be futile in the team's current state. She sighed and let her head drop. "Dang it..." This was why she wasn't a cop.

[break][break]The crackle and chatter of the walkie-talkie drew her attention. Was it working again? She picked it up off the ground and tested the talk button. No static, phew!

[break][break]"This is Ranger Cadet Julia Davis," she said into the radio. "I gave a report on two Rockets in Slateport Mall's parking lot. ... One of them froze my radio, sir. I gave chase to the north, but... but I lost him. I'm sorry. ... It turns out they were just fireworks, sir. He, uh, dropped a box before he got away. ... That might be a problem, sir. Chester got hurt during the battle. ... 10-4, sir. We'll wait here." She looked around for a street sign, then gave her approximate location.

[break][break]She put the radio back on her belt and stroked Chester's back feathers. "Looks like we're getting picked up." She noticed Chester's left head giving her a dubious look. "Well, I'm not just gonna tell them he gave me a box before he drove off! That'd make me look like an accomplice or something!" That head sighed, prompting Julia to reach up and pet it. "It's okay, buddy. We did what we could, and everything's gonna be fine. Why don't you rest, okay?"

[break][break]The exhausted Chester allowed himself to be recalled back into his Poké Ball without much fuss. Julia looked to her shoulder to see Sparkie looking equally worried, so she scratched the Pikachu behind the ear with a weary smile. "You should sleep, too. You did good tonight." Sparkie let out an uncertain "Piii," but her drowsiness quickly won over. She gave Julia one last comforting nuzzle before allowing herself to be recalled.

[break][break]With both of her Pokémon safely tucked away, Julia sat down on the sidewalk and looked up into the sky, waiting for her ride. She was going to have to file one heck of a report on this... and she probably wasn't going to be allowed to do volunteer patrol duty again. Oh, well. There was a reason she was a Ranger and not an officer.