The monitoring him... it didn't sit well with him. It poked some nerve, a nerve he could not quite place. Regardless, he sucked it up, kept his head down, and followed the orders. Just get through this, he told himself. It would get better. It had to get better... right? It didn't feel like it.

Then he saw Josh was in trouble. That made him frown.. but he rushed off. Eagerly to assist his friend who was trapped. Even if he had his own problems with the league and rangers right now, he wasn't about to abandoned one of his best mates over something personal that was with him.

Right as the message had been went, a gust of wind would blow against the woman as Matt landed just above the cave entrance on a Pidgeot. Climbing off the bird, he jumped down and landed on his feet. Returning the bird to it's ball, he walked over and looked at her. "Matt Vice reporting." The tone was even, almost bland.

"Lead me to the cave in, so we can retrieve ranger Devlin."

Josh Devlin

The Elite smiled when Rookie Vice arrived on the scene, hearing the quick and simple greeting. "My name is Norma. Elite Ranger Norma," she introduced herself. "You don't mince words. I like you already. Now, let's get out of this nasty weather." She led Matt into Rusturf Tunnel proper, the main highway of which was artificially lit. She palmed a Poké Ball containing a Breloom into her hand in case things escalated.

The blue-clad Norma led Matt about a third of the way down the main highway, to an offshoot that led to a less-traveled part of the cave. "He's on the first sublevel. almost right below where we're at," she reported, confirming her map with the triangulated coordinates and encouraging Matt to do the same. It was difficult to hear, but there was a distinct sound of quiet murmurs coming from the other side of the downward-winding tunnel. "You hear that?" the Elite asked. She immediately recognized the sound as that of a horde of Whismur. "If you know what it is, prepare accordingly. Use your resources if you have to."

Josh's eyes snapped upward when he heard the sound of footsteps. He checked the ticket and saw that a Mauville Elite and none other than Matt Vice was on the rescue effort, which brought joy to his heart. He had mentored the rash but kind man into a fine Ranger, despite the Head Ranger's and Razz's scathing remarks. Now it was his turn to be saved by his own mentee. How quickly things had come full circle!

Matt followed after the ranger. He knew what this tunnel was famous for. He had lived in the town over for quite a while with his boyfriend. A click of his tongue, grumbling. "Mmmm.." Walking forward, he would head directly for the whismur. Seeing the little hoard there was, he glanced around, spotting another tunnel he could usher them off into. That made sense...

Letting out a pokeball, out came a scraggy. "Gauntlet, round them up further down that tunnel." The scraggy gave a salute then scurried off, stumbling as he tried to keep his pants up. Once he was at the little herd, he flailed his arms at them, trying to get them to shoo on off down the other tunnel so that Matt and Norma could ge tby.

While that went on, he grabbed his phone, texting Josh. 'You're a loser, lol'

Josh Devlin

Gauntlet's gambit worked! The Whismur scattered, but probably not the way Matt expected; the Normal-types fled toward Matt and Donna. The Elite held still; she knew that mistakenly stepping on one of them would cause them to scream and likely make the cave-in worse. Provided that Matt got the picture and held still while the horde squeezed around them, Norma would produce a subtle smile.

"Even the threat of power has power," Norma mused, palming a Poké Ball from her belt. "The first level is the only level that's artificially lit," she warned Matt. "Do you have a Pokémon that can help you see in the dark?"

It took a minute or two for Matt's text to arrive. While there was cell service in Rusturf Tunnel due to the highway running through the first level, it wasn't great on the first sublevel. "Come on Matt, stay on task," he moaned. "I taught you better than this..." With that, he texted his colleague back. "Stop goofing off and get me out of here."

Matt couldn't help but smirk at the text back from Josh. 'I'm comin', chill your butt.' Looking back to Nroma and the clearing whismur, well this made it fairly easy. "Good job, Gauntlet. Return." The scraggy went back into it's ball. Without much of a word about Norma's question, Matt started to follow the tunnel deeper underground.

Reaching to his belt, he produced Nana's pokeball. Letting out the fire-type, he shrugged off the backpack of supplies he had brought with him. Even pulling out a torch! Looking at her, he held it up. "Light this, we have to go help Josh." Nana snorted, blowing a flame onto the torch to light it.

Looking back to Norma, he motioned ahead of him. "Coming?"

Josh Devlin

While Rusturf Tunnel was far away from Meteor Falls and Mount Chimney proper, the cave was still above Mount Chimney's massive magma basin. The volcanoes in the Meteor Falls and Rusturf offshoot of the Chimney Mountain Range had been dormant for centuries, but scientists could never declare them fully extinct, as evidenced by the slight rise in temperature after dropping one level. Matt found his cell signal spotty at best, struggling to use any apps that pulled their data from the Internet. All his local apps seemed to function fine.

With the low light situation the way it was, Norma sent out a Lopunny, both for her own protection and to help locate Josh. Thanks to its Aura Sight, the Normal-type could sense exactly where his trainer's original mission partner was. Of course, she wasn't going to help Matt unless he absolutely needed it! "He's a backup in case you can't handle it," Norma advised in a stern yet not belittling tone. "If you truly deserve your change of clothes, you'll be able to do this on your own."

Suddenly, the signal showing Josh's location disappeared. At the same time, heavy footfalls echoed from two different directions; had Matt done his research on RangerNet prior to coming here, he would have known the lower levels of Rusturf Tunnel were not only home to Loudred and Exploud, but Fighting-type Pokémon, many of which had access to their Aura.

Meanwhile, Josh's cell phone disconnected from the network. The connection did not return any time soon, either. Best case scenario, the signal was simply too weak to reach him; worst case, there was some wild Pokémon interfering with it. Seeing little else to do while his phone was disconnected, Josh turned it off to save battery power. "You can turn your light down now, Aslan. I'm just going to try to pass out until he gets here. Wake me up if something happens." With that, the Gym Leader closed his eyes and let the tendrils of sleep claim him.

Matt had to pause a second. Seeing the lopunny, that made him remember something.

He owned the Aura pokemon.

Digging to his belt, he let out Dagger. The riolu shook out his fur, looking around, then up at Matt expectantly. "Look for Josh, and let us know what's coming." Dagger gave a firm nod, the red eyes lighting up bright as they tapped into their aura power. Seeing many shapes of nearby pokemon. One in particular it was looking at was a Machamp, before looking at Matt, shaking his head.

"Danger?" Dagger nodded. "Threat level?" Dagger paused, then looked at Nana, pointing at her. To indicate it was probably just as strong as her. "Mmm..." Nodding, he motioned for Dagger to get on top of Nana. "Lead us, try not to engage a battle unless they attack us first."

Nana nodded as the canine went forward, with Dagger on top of her head, guiding them through the tunnels. They did come across the Machamp, that stared at them. Flexing it's muscles with a growl towards them. Matt watched, his step angling in front of Norma- a protective stance he took to anyone he was with. Nana growled towards the fighting type, she wasn't backing down. "No, Nana." He commented, not wanting a fight to start.

"We just want to pass through and clear the cave in, has that disturbed you?" The Machamp stared, snorting towards him, and nodded. Pointing with a pair of it's arms further down the tunnel, a longing whine escaping it's throat. Matt arched a brow, looking towards Dagger. "What's wrong?" He asked the canine, as the Rilou looked at the other fighting type, the two commutating between each other. THen Dagger turned to him, making a motion with it's paws as if something was separated.

"Did you also lose someone in the cave in?" He asked, the Machamp nodded. "We can help, if you can lead us to it."

Josh Devlin

A subtle smile washed over Norma's face as Matt sent out his Riolu. While the two could not directly communicate using Aura powers, it was clear that his Riolu was tapping into both their Auras to get a better understanding of each others' thoughts. The Elite was equally impressed with Matt's nonviolent ways to resolve the encounter with the normally territorial wild Machamp.

Working together, the fighting-types and Norma were able to locate the spot where she and Josh had been separated. She was about to command her Lopunny to help clear the rubble, but there was no need; the wild, along with one of its Machamp friends, was doing the work for her. The pair of four-armed Pokémon were able to clear the rubble in a matter of maybe fifteen minutes. It would have taken less muscular Pokémon hours to clear that pile of dense rock.

Once the way was clear, Matt's makeshift torchlight revealed the backs of several figures: a pair of Machop fast asleep just past where the cave mouth was, and Ranger Josh Devlin a bit farther back. He was likewise sleeping; the Machamp had been so efficient with their work that he had slept right through it all! "Well done, Rookie Ranger Matt," the Elite showered him with praise. "Your task here is complete. Now, return to the surface and report to your Captain. Ranger Devlin and I have more work to do down here."

Matt was surprised by how helpful the pokemon turned out to be. It made him smile; this was why he wanted to be a ranger. Moments like this.. but they were so rare and fleeting. Like his faith. Looking to Norma, he gave a brief frown. Having wanted to make sure Josh was okay before he left. But he nodded.

"Yes ma'am." The tone was to the point, as he looked back down the cave. "See ya later, Josh."

Without a word he went past Norma to head back to the exit. He had a captain to go bother about promoting him.

Josh Devlin