Josh was still on the recovery from his bitter battle inside the Mirage Palace. While he came prepared for extreme heat, he didn't come prepared for extreme cold; all the skin from his knees to his ankles was still tender, recovering from frostbite. While it wasn't painful unless a lot of pressure was put on it, the swelling was still there, and he had to be especially careful not to get hurt.

For once, Josh wasn't in his Ranger uniform; he was off-duty, on the way from Lavaridge Town to Trainer Hill, where his Gym was located. He had fallen behind on challenge paperwork, and with one of his secretaries on vacation, he would have to fill out a lot of that paperwork on his own. After all, if there were a bunch of unregistered Quick Badges out there, director kyle lopez would have his head. And his license. That could not happen; he had challengers to teach about his hobby, and connections to forge to get access the upper echelons of the League. They would be the ones that would truly help him fulfill his dream of sitting atop the purple thundercloud belonging to the fastest land creature ever to roam the planet.

As his Absol cantered south, Josh squinted when he saw an incredibly large and tall Liepard walking in the distance, a trainer with an apparently larger build than his own next to the dark-type cat. As the two got closer, he could recognize more details. When he saw the man's skin tone and hair color, his jaw dropped. "...I don't believe it!" He had Twilight speed up, the Absol in surprise to see the man that had tried to run both of them off the road in the not-so-distant past. Once they were alongside him, Josh tilted his head. "It's really you, isn't it?" he asked the familiar traveler.

Matus had been enjoying a relatively peaceful walk; basking in the comfort of the moderate weather that currently graced the desert-touching route. Enough that he'd almost forgotten what he'd been out there for—if it wasn't for the nudging of Sepkat's nose into his side. "It's really you, isn't it?" Lost as he'd been in his mind, Matus hadn't even noticed the approach of the Ranger.

If it wasn't for the protective stance from the Liepard at his side, Matus would've simply pretended that he hadn't heard him. Though he'd finally look towards Josh proper, the once-over not exactly subtle as he took in the other's condition. There was some leg swelling, but that was about all he could see. He couldn't even try to feign ignorance, not when Sepkat was standing as tall as the feline possibly could to stare as threatening as she could over his shoulder. "What, are you here to try and drag me by my hair to the cops, pipsqueak?" As neutral as he could keep his voice, it still held a smidgeon of mistrust.

Though he could see the blot of Sila's form in the sky hovering there, either watching to see whether or not the Togekiss was needed, or surveying the route for any signs of a fire-type.

---

Josh Devlin
Sepkat — Liepard — OK
Sila — Togekiss — OK

A hand on Sepkat's snout had the Liepard beginning to settle, bristling fur gradually smoothing out as the feline glanced between the pair with a low grumbling huff. A false annoyance towards him easily betrayed with how the cat was leaning her shoulder into his back. Though his brow would raise at Josh's tone, watching the hands lift in an attempt at showing innocence; something that caused a marginal lowering of his shoulders. Not entirely trusting, but it was enough to have Matus easing up a bit, even if Josh was being almost painfully excited about him walking away from the trouble he'd been in.

The mention of the Absol had his attention shifting towards her; staring at the Dark-type's face a moment as he waited for it to click. He'd seen so, so many pokemon. But, after a few moments he'd give a slight nod. "I recognize her." And if he didn't, at the very least Sepkat did from her original reaction. As Josh prodder for his own name, Matus could only offer back a grin, showing more tooth than anything.

The feeling of the Liepard beginning to start moving again was enough to prompt the man to follow; tossing a look over his shoulder towards Josh and Twilight. "You don't get my name yet, boy. Now c'mon, don't just stand there flappin' your gums, pipsqueak. You can walk and talk, can't you? Don't gotta use your legs when you're riding that girl right there. We're lookin for fire-types."

Was that him offering an olive branch? Not quite. More like keeping the starving jaws from snapping on the feeding hand.

---

Sepkat — Liepard — OK
Sila — Togekiss — OK
Josh Devlin

Sepkat and Matus were a tough crowd to impress. Though it was clear the two remembered each other, the Drift King appeared somewhat hostile toward Josh. It was completely understandable, though! The Ranger had forced his fellow racer into making a big lifestyle change that, at least in the short term, would be much harder than the underground racing scheme he had left behind. His cold acknowledgment of his Absol made Josh take a mental step back.

Josh wanted to make a remark about how rude Matus was being, but his better judgment told him to keep his mouth shut. "All business, I see," were the first words out of his mouth after a long pause. Terse, but it got the point across. "Then let's ride and find some!" Certainly not the Pignite staring at them from the side of the arid road, but this part of Hoenn was a hotbed for Fire-type Pokémon, just as the traveler suggested was the reason he was there. He encouraged his Absol to pick up the pace, both their eyes shifting back and forth for a Pokémon that met their fancy.

A sharp hiss from Sepkat had the man glancing in her direction—watching the posture the Liepard had taken, and allowing his gaze to shift a little further over towards what had her attention. A Barbaracle that had inched marginally too close to the path—though now it had taken a couple steps back out of its own precautions from the hostile feline.

Of course that wasn't the type of Pokemon that they were searching for, so he wasn't going to stop her behavior. Simply continuing on with a nudge of the Liepard's harness, and another glance back towards Josh as he spoke. Though there was the look again towards Josh's legs, before he'd speak, a faint note of concern there despite the cold treatment Matus was giving him. "Don't gotta race for it right now. Take it slow, looks like you need it."

There was a begrudging respect there, nothing would be a 'fair' race in Josh's current state, when it looked like even slightly too much effort to keep him on the saddle would actively cause the man harm.

A much softer chime had Matus turning his head back again—blinking a few times towards where Sila had apparently decided to rejoin them; circling excitedly around the Pignite that Josh had already noticed. "Fire, yes. But not what we need." The tone Matus took towards the Togekiss could easily leave how he spoke to Josh as being glacially cold, a softer rumble to his voice as he'd approach it to shoo the Pignite away himself—and gently shushing Sila's softer whine.

---

Sepkat — Liepard — OK
Sila — Togekiss — OK

Josh Devlin

OOC: Skipping this round too!

Even if he pretended not to heard Josh's answer, the further easing of his shoulders would give it away. Some distant part of him satisfied with hearing he'd at least be going to get medical attention, even if it was just someone looking at a leg and going 'yep thats swollen'. Matus had pointedly not looked back towards Josh as he'd spoken, like he was trying to enforce the idea of him not having a single care towards the other.

At least, he'd been 'ignoring him' until he'd started talking about Sila... Which had also drawn said Togekiss's attention as the huge Fairy seemed to teleport between them, disappearing from Matus' side in one moment, and appearing practically in Josh's face the very next. Though, whether it was just the Togekiss being particularly fast, or happening to use a very short burst of an Extreme Speed—albiet for an incredibly dumb reason.

"Sila." That time, at least; the tone Matus held was a bit more warning, though the Togekiss seemed to just... entirely ignore him, instead busying itself with the worried hovering closer towards Josh's legs; evidently fretting in its own way about the swelling it was seeing. "Ignore Sila, He does not understand boundaries." It was almost like he was trying to avoid the questions Josh had asked, but honestly, not the entire truth. Rather, he knew just how alarming and offputting a sudden massive blimp of a pokemon suddenly appearing in someone's face, actually was.

"... To answer your question... No, I have not." Well, there was the answer, finally. "I have been spending more time handling... Other things," Matus didn't exactly feel the need to elaborate there, it was probably obvious from the other terms Josh had set down that even allowed him to walk around freely like he was. "... I do not want to run Sepkat ragged, so we are searching for others who can handle it." Oh, well. There was the Liepards name, for the first time, and the actual reason he was out there aside from just 'fire-types'.

Baby steps.

---

Josh Devlin

Sepkat — Liepard — OK
Sila — Togekiss — OK

As if on cue, Sila demonstrated his Extreme Speed, disappearing from his trainer's side and reappearing directly in front of Josh and Twilight. The Absol reared in fright, Josh hissing in pain from her fur and skin rubbing against her rider's swollen legs, once when she ascended to her hind legs, and again when she lowered them to be on all fours. "Aaaaagh!" he cried as Sila gave the two room again; it was clear now that he had been shrugging off quite a bit of pain.

Josh frowned at first when he heard Matus had not gotten the chance to race yet, but his follow-up statement explained everything. "If it's what I think it is, then it's got to be a gargantuan task." He let out a sigh.

"Second, I want to see personally that you return every last Pokémon you've stolen to their rightful owners."

"Once the racing season wraps up and I have more time to myself, if you need a hand with it, just holler." He noted the Liepard's name as it probably slipped, but didn't repeat it; he figured the man was in deep thought as things were. He could not stop thinking about their last meeting ever since the two reunited. "You've got a lot of talent. You really do. And I'm glad to see you're starting to use it to help people rather than hurt people. That you actually listened to my words that day means a lot."

The effort was monumental, the restraint Matus had to show to not slap a hand against his face and sigh with the force of thousands of tired men. Even as awkward as it was, that pain wasn't intentional; which meant an apology was needed if any of those... behavior... helping... classes... were to be listened to— But, well. It seemed Sila was, once again, beating him to the punch.

As the Togekiss would startle backwards at Twilight's reaction; wings barely twitching with a sharper whine in the floating fairy's throat at Josh's cry, to then creep closer as slowly as he possibly could to not trigger any other abrupt and sudden reactions from the Absol. The very body language of the Fairy-type practically crying 'I'm sorry! I'm sorry!', hell it even had tears already streaming from its eyes.

"Sila-" Once more, another attempt to get the Togekiss to listen— usually he listened perfectly fine! but now he was just being stubborn— and once again, Matus was ignored in favor of Sila starting to frantically shake its head, even though it looked more like the Togekiss' entire body was shaking from side-to-side instead; scattering the gleaming tears sporadically around the group, as if hoping the Life Dew would be of any help to soothe Josh's pain.

The commotion at least had brought Sepkat padding back over; the feline having already gone a bit ahead without seeming to realize she no longer had company. Just, calmly settled back and watching the show with the same guarded expression that a Liepard could wear.

But even as Josh would continue to speak, Matus would keep his attention focused on Sila, already well-versed with what the Togekiss was trying from the many time it had panicked over the small scrapes he himself would end up with on the... less than ideal racing tracks. "... Times are changin' pipsqueak, gotta be a fool not to see it." Though what the ranger said was cheesy as hell in all senses, it was a small reassurance.

Hell he'd tried to kill the kid when he met him, and he was still being this nice? Despite the fact he was being as welcoming as hugging a Cacturne? It was almost enough to make a ground-type swim. Ah, there it was. There was the sigh of a thousand eternally exhausted men, complete with Matus' attention going anywhere else aside from the current subject of conversation, and the entire just... tired posture properly coming up, slumped shoulders and a slouch that seemed to make him lose a couple inches of height.

"... Call me Matus."

---

Sepkat — Liepard — OK
Sila — Togekiss — OK

Josh Devlin