"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize Fletch was a she," Josh apologized for mis-gendering the Talonflame. "With a lot of Pokémon, it's really hard to tell the male from the female." Elinor seemed surprised by Josh's suggestion of a Talonflame ride Pokémon. She was right; they normally didn't grow that big. "It's pretty common for Pokémon racers to hire breeders to breed Pokémon that are really large for their species, as well as really fast." He shook his head as his demeanor took an abrupt shift. "Anyway, let's get to work. My frequency is one one niner decimal four three. Contact me if you need anything. Let's get these poor souls home."

Before long, the two were in the air, flying northwest of Fortree City. The crash site was very near the Route 119/120 border that extended northwest of Fortree City. If it were under better circumstance, Josh would have loved to go on a swift flight aboard some of his newer flying Pokémon. But not today; there was work to be done.

Though there was no reaction from Bladestorm when Josh first got close enough to catch sight of the blaze producing the telltale black smoke, the rider knew he was getting close. It was a pungent smell that mechanical aviators of all skill levels were familiar with: the smell of jet fuel. Switching on his comms, he attempted to contact Elinor. "This is Rookie Ranger Devlin, do you read? I have visual on the crash site. Descending to canopy level to search for survivors. Contact me if you find them, over."

"Roger, Elinor," Josh replied. The tropical jungle was quite dense, making it difficult to see even from canopy level. He had little choice; he would need to descend beneath the canopy. Bladestorm was the perfect mount to do it, too; those razor-sharp wings would be able to slice through thin trees with little trouble if need be, but dodging them altogether would be far more preferred. There would be no reason to shave a path through the jungle and disrupt an ecosystem used to receiving mostly indirect light.

A few minutes later, the sound of a loud explosion rocked Josh's comms. This was immediately followed by what sounded like several human screams, still loud but not loud enough to be picked up on a microphone. A gout of flames rushed upward from the crash site, directly in the Rookie Ranger's path. "Faster!" Josh shouted as he saw the already dead bodies of several wild Pokémon go catapulting into the air. He was not in time; the incredibly hot fires singed Bladestorm's tail and came close to incinerating part of his harness, which would have been a disaster for his rider.

He pulled back as hard as he could on the Skarmory's reins, but the Metal Menace simply could no longer maintain lift. Close to the start of his glide, he caught sight of two shirtless adult males, both waving their shirts in their hands as though they were flags. Josh's strength combined with the Skarmory's gliding ability let the two make a safe emergency landing not too far from the survivors. He withdrew the wounded Steel-type and called on the help of Saber, his Manectric. The fleet-of-foot electric Pokémon carried Josh the rest of the way to where the four survivors stood. The four breathed big sighs of relief, the young child jumping up and down.

"Rookie Ranger Devlin, but you can call me Josh," he introduced himself to the family and what he presumed was one of the pilots. "I'm here to make sure the four of you get home as quickly and as safely as possible." He sent out all of his fastest and most loyal Pokémon: his Pyroar, Aslan; his Luxray, Blitz; and his Absol, Twilight. The child of the group seemed particularly enthralled by all of the Ranger's big Pokémon were obedient enough to be ride Pokémon, he judged from the saddles they all wore. "It'll be safer if we ride back to Fortree from here. Get on."

The ten-year-old was quick to take a seat in front of Josh, and the others seemed as comfortable as they were going to get with his armada of fire and electric Pokémon. The copilot sat astride the Pyroar. The act of the Pyroar turning around let Josh see the copilot had a substantial but not severe head injury. The others had only suffered minor injuries at worst. Josh radioed Elinor back with an update, though he could have been difficult to understand with the extra static electricity being discharged from his new mount.

"Elinor, this is Josh again. My Skarmory is down, but I have reached the targets. They are about zero decimal three miles north-northeast of the crash site. The copilot has a head injury but says he's fine, and the rest only have minor injuries. Should be able to transport--"

Another loud explosion rocked the crash site, setting alight nearby portions of the jungle canopy. "Move!" Josh cried, commanding his four Pokémon to flee farther north of the crash site. There was only so far they could go, though; the rough terrain of the Braviary's Nest was not too far away, and this fire was spreading quickly, threatening to cut off possible escape routes.

Your courage is admirable, but you sorely lack the foresight to use it.

It took a bit of thinking, but Josh realized it was his error that made things far worse. Almost all the ride Pokémon he had brought were Fire-type or Electric-type, and only added fuel to the fire. One latent spark in the wrong direction, and the entire site could explode, taking their lives with it. "Everyone off!" Josh shouted. The marooned travelers all dismounted his Pokémon, the racer quick in recalling all of them except for his Absol. He radioed back in with an update, this one accompanied by much less static.

"Elinor, this is Josh again. We are now zero decimal five miles north-northeast of the crash site, and the fire is spreading fast. I don't have enough Pokémon that can safely cross the crash site. I need you to come to my location ASAP so we can get this family out of here before our escape routes all get cut off. Repeat: come to my location ASAP, over."

Leon's RAIN DANCE enveloped the area in fog, constant sizzling noises a sign that the summoned weather was working. It did substantially reduce visibility, making it difficult to see. The path to take was obvious, Gron and Elinor having secured it by mowing down tree after tree and denying the fire as much fuel as possible. While the flames roared high, only once did a spark fly over the Aggron's wall of fallen trees. And even then, the rest of her Pokémon were quick to re-open the path.

Josh breathed a big sigh of relief once they were over a mile south of the crash site. Though he and his Pokémon were covered in sweat, his team, as well as Elinor and her team of Pokémon, had gotten the family and co-pilot well out of the worst danger. "Alright, we're going to switch over to some more stable Pokémon." He pointed at everyone except the mother. "I need everyone to hop down except you. Lugg, you catch up with Elinor."

Once the three had followed his instructions, Josh sent out his Manectric, Pyroar, and Luxray again. The excited young boy immediately slid down from the Dragonair's back and climbed up Blitz, excited to hold the Luxray's reins. Both his worried looking parents scolded him for it. "It's okay," Josh assured them. "He's probably excited to meet such a big Pokémon for the first time. Blitz is very well behaved." Josh also doubted the young child had the leg strength to push the Luxray to particularly high speeds.

Once the four survivors were atop Josh's Pokémon, the group of five took off to the south. The mother let out a bit of a yelp as Twilight transitioned from a canter to a light gallop. While it was nowhere close to racing speed, Josh's five Pokémon were traveling at roughly city thoroughfare speed limits. The gallop had to be rough on the ten-year-old, but he looked like he was having too much fun tugging on Blitz's reins with his meager strength and making shallow turns back and forth.

A half-hour's ride later, Josh and the survivors had reached Fortree Airstrip without further incident. He was showered in compliments from all four plane crash victims, from how calmly and quickly he had acted to how stable and even fun riding his Pokémon was. The ten-year-old in particular would have a story of how he got to hold the reins of the heroic Ranger's Luxray, and actually control the electric predator. Of course, it wasn't true control like Josh could exhibit, but the illusion of control was enough for the young boy to believe in his story.

While Fortree didn't have a proper airport on this side of town, the airstrip area did have a control tower. Josh directed his Pokémon to the bottom of the tower and let emergency services handle getting their injuries taken care of. His duty complete, he withdrew all of his Pokémon and waited outside the tower for Elinor to return with her Salamence and Talonflame, ready to give her a big hug on what should have been an easy mission but escalated thanks to his mistake. While his JUDGMENT failed him in preventing that mistake from happening in the first place, his quick thinking and FORESIGHT to withdraw his Fire-type and Electric-type Pokémon at the crash site saved the lives of everyone involved.

That was precisely what Ranging was about.