Blinky, Josh's Jolteon mount, was excited to go for a run along the winding road south of Mauville City. The Leader had just taken a long string of battle challenges yesterday, and this was one of his days off. The call to duty never slept, though; he still had Ranger responsibilities. Ultimately, he was glad he pushed racing to a mere hobby; if things slowed down for him as a Ranger, he could always book the time off to enter a race. There was one in the middle of October he was still pending approval for. If his boss gave him the time off, he would just need to call one challenger back to reschedule their appointment. Phew! Being in the Minor League versus the Major League was night and day. He had a newfound respect for Major League Gym Leaders after becoming one - they were busy!

"Slow it down, Blinky!" Josh tugged on the Jolteon's reins and released his leg pressure some, the quilled electric-type braking to run at a much more relaxed pace and not scare the Rhyhorn and trainer in front of them. The moment he caught up to greet Kaida and Lae, he noticed the rock-type was on edge. He canned his introduction and threw Aslan's Poké Ball a few meters in front of himself, the saddled male Pyroar bellowing an attention-grabbing NOBLE ROAR in the general direction Lae was facing.

As the roar echoed across the area, the ground started to sink in. It seemed the enemy understood that stealth was no longer an option. The tires of the transport screeched, managing to halt before it toppled over...to only one problem, it was now sinking. A group of Trapinch squealed and poked their heads out of the ground, peering upon their sinking handwork.

"Lae! Let's dig it up! Stop them!"

Her Rhyhorn, typically slow moving until irate, launched forward, shoving a horn under the truck and pushing it up. She snarled at the Trapinch, armor glowing with the threat of a Metal Burst.

Unfortunately, it seemed the little Pokemon weren't sent without a guard themselves. A screech rang out, another Pokemon exploding out of the ground. Claws already infused with Metal Claw, the emerging Sandslash rattled its spines and fixed upon the one stopping the truck from being seized. On her Rhyhorn's back, and refusing to move as long as her Rhyhorn was trapped, Kaida braced for impact.


Notes: First time Defend mission.

Josh Devlin

Josh groaned as he watched the chaos unfold. Ground-types, ugh; the Mauville Leader's fatal flaw. He had come prepared to defend against Team Rocket, not a squad of wild Pokémon...and especially not an entire armada of the common weakness of his two favorite Pokémon types. It wasn't going to be pretty, but the Leader had an idea. He sent out his Glaceon, the ice-type also in full riding gear. "Inky! Use your ICY WIND on that Sandslash!"

The Glaceon sprung to action, carefully positioning herself before pointing her tail and ear crystals toward the Sandslash. She made certain Kaida and her Rhyhorn were out of the Ice-type attack's cone before firing, hopefully nabbing one of the Trapinch in the process. He had hoped the Icy Wind was enough to freeze some of the quicksand in place so she could escape. If it didn't do so, he would send out Resheph, his Dragonair, and urge the female to climb on so he could get her to safety.

Provided she made it away from the quicksand, Josh would ask her, "I have an idea! I could have my Glaceon fire a Blizzard to freeze all of them! All we would need to do would be timing his Blizzard toward the quicksand at the same time you recall your Rhyhorn. That way, it'll fall on ice instead!" It was a daring idea, but it wasn't bad.

As the Sandslash leapt away, shaking painful frost from its spines, Lae bellowed to Kaida. Josh's Dragonair was approaching, and he yelled a plan. The strong Rhyhorn preferred her trainer in safety, and even not understanding much, she understood the end result. Freeze all of them...for a moment, she almost didn't relent. The tires might freeze, but it would be fixable, stolen supplies weren't.

Hooking her arm around the Dragonair, Kaida was lifted up, ready to return her Rhyhorn in the instant needed.

"Do it!"


Notes: First time Defend mission.

Josh Devlin

"Alright, on three! One, two, three!" On the count of three, Inky flung her tail and head crystals forward, summoning a bitterly cold wind...but not before all the Trapinch could counterattack. One of them them ensnared the ice-type in a SAND TOMB, with the other three trying to drop her into unwieldy FISSUREs.

The Ground-type attack was in a class of its own in terms of power; while among the most unwieldy attacks a Pokémon could use, it could incapacitate any Pokémon in a single attack, no matter how powerful it was. While it would be trivial for the Glaceon to dodge one even while ensnared, a second would not be possible. The last two fault lines crisscrossed, opening a mouth of sharp rocks that appeared underneath Inky and skewered her.

Her parting BLIZZARD still did its job, though, freezing the four Trapinch beneath a solid layer of ice. It wouldn't last long, though, and they still needed to deal with the truck! "Got any bright ideas? My electric and fire Pokémon won't be too helpful against them if they break free!"

The Pokemon froze solid, but judging by the way the ice wriggled, they were not being given a breather for long. At the beginning of the fight, Kaida had thought these were Rocket Pokemon sent to steal from them. Motionless in ice, she suddenly became aware that these Pokemon were too thin, too ragged to possibly be from Rocket. If anything, their Pokemon had to be healthy physically to battle.

"Catch them!" Her yell was accompanied by the throw of a Pokeball, nodding in satisfaction as one of the Trapinch disappeared within, wiggled once, then stopped with a ding. Wild Pokemon then.

Without waiting for Josh's answer, she prepared another Pokeball.

Notes: First time Defend mission.

Josh Devlin

With these being wild Pokémon and not Rocket-owned Pokémon, catching and releasing was suddenly an option, and quite an easy one at that! "Phew! Good eye!" With that, he procured a pair of empty Poké Balls to catch the two remaining Trapinch that were frozen solid. Unable to put up any capture resistance, the two red-and-white spheres came to a halt, each with a loud click.

That taken care of, there was one more task at hand. "Now there's only one thing left to do, and that's get that truck off the frozen quicksand before all this ice melts." Blinky let out a cry as she trotted to the other side of the quicksand, ready to help out. "Sorry, Blinky - we're going to need some really heavy duty Pokémon." The Jolteon let out a whine but obeyed her trainer. "Aslan, my Pyroar, is the only Pokémon I have that would be strong enough to move it, and he'll melt the ice just by standing on it. Do you have any really strong Pokémon that could help move the truck? I think once we do that and drop these Trapinch off somewhere else, our work here is done."

Kaida gazed sadly at the captured Pokemon, jerking back into reality as she remembered she couldn't just leave Josh by himself. "Keep those Pokemon on hand, we're going to drop them off at a Ranger station...can't let them run wild if they're getting desperate enough to attack supply vehicles." Everything was getting very bad these days.

Now there was only a matter of said supply vehicle, spinning its wheels on the ice. A super strong Pokemon? She couldn't help her smile as she stepped forward. No doubt Lae could help, but with the Pokemon she had in mind, he wouldn't even need help.

"Kjoll! Lift the truck and bring it forwards!"

An Onix burst from the Pokeball, both long enough to avoid the ice yet big enough to have the strength to pull the truck. With a gentleness that contrasted his size, the giant Pokemon leaned forward, grabbing a sturdy part of the truck like a kitten before lifting it up and out.

All in all, it might need repairs later, but their supplies would reach the destination.

"Thank you." For a moment it might be hard to tell she was talking to Josh, "You were a great help, thank your Pokemon for me."

Notes: First time Defend mission.

Josh Devlin

"Affirmative," Josh answered. "Should be a station close by. Worst case, I can always run them to Mauville HQ and they'll take care of it," He flipped his helmet's visor back up to let the cool breeze blow in his face. "I've noticed that. Might not be a bad idea to file an incident report with HQ if this is a recurring problem. As much as I hate paperwork...ehh, I'll just send the Captain an email. She'll know what to do."

While Josh was starting to appreciate the utility of having Pokémon with a wide variety of body shapes after seeing Kjoll lift the truck out of the thawing quicksand pit, his primary career path was Gym Leader. He had to raise primarily Pokémon that suited that goal. These sorts of Ranger missions were not his forte, but he was willing to help if they were as short-handed enough for the VALOR Initiative to exist at all.

"Glad I could help. Remote rescues are more my bread and butter as a Ranger, but if I can help, I will." With that, the racer and Gym Leader took off toward Mauville City to report in.