Josh had just got back from returning the tub that had his steak fries in it. Thankfully the restaurant was open as early as 11 AM, though the bar was not yet open. That way, he could still make his probation hearing with Matt. Unsurprisingly, the two didn't seem particularly happy to be in the Head Ranger's presence. With the room being large enough to have a Pokémon out, now that it wasn't filled with over twenty people, the racer let out his Manectric to keep him company.

"Good afternoon, Head Ranger Anderson," Josh greeted the head honcho of the Hoenn Rangers, dressed in his new red uniform that had arrived in Fortree while he was gone. He took a seat as instructed, stretching his arms over the long table. Matt also took a seat near Josh, a silent stare the only communication either one of them got. "You don't have to mince words around me. Just tell it like it is."

Matt clearly didn't want to own up to his mistake, remaining completely silent. Josh, on the other hand, was ready to defend both of them. "So, as I said last night, this all started with Razz Kingsman belittling Matt. Matt might not have been comfortable around so many high ranking Rangers. We've known each other since before he became a Ranger. I sent you an email about why he acted the way he did." The reason was because of Matt's social anxiety, which is the primary reason Ranging appealed to him. It was a good job that he didn't have to regularly interact with people in mostly social situations. "For that reason, he didn't take it too well."

"As for me, I was merely standing up for my friend. I already told you last night. You don't have to tell me again. I shouldn't have yelled. But I can't do anything about that now." His eyes shifted toward Matt, then back toward the Head Ranger again. "I have a lot of personal investment in Matt. His recruitment is one of the reasons I'm even in this red uniform today. I feel he has strong aptitude as a Ranger, and that one incident has nothing to do with his performance in the field. He got heated trying to defend himself, and I got heated defending him. Both of us were clearly wrong. I just could not stand for Razz bullying Matt like he did." Josh's normal smile turned upside down. He wasn't sure how Lars was going to take such a weak and simple justification, but it was the truth. All he was doing that night was standing up for his friend. "I still think Razz needs to apologize to both of us. It really felt like he was trying to drive a wedge between us because we're still new."

Josh breathed a big sigh of relief when he found out that karma was going to catch up with Razz after all. "Thank you. I'm glad you agree with me." He rolled his eyes at Lars' acknowledgment of the potential for escalations, given both the size of the crowd and the many ideologies its members were subscribed to. After all, the Rangers were by far the most loosely collected organization in the League. They were still important, yes, but their connections were much more loose than Law Enforcement, the Gyms, or anything of the like.

"...That would be a problem, wouldn't it?" Matt rolled his eyes, getting sick and tired of hearing about Razz's special position within the Rangers. He had things to do; he just wanted to find out what his punishment would be and leave. He even nudged Josh to try to get things moving. "Must be subcontracted, then. But that's neither here nor there. How long do we have to hang up our uniforms for, Mr. Anderson?" He hoped it wouldn't be too long; while Josh had ample savings, going without a steady paycheck for any amount of time was going to hurt.

Matt was...surprised at how lenient his punishment was. Not even a single day where he couldn't work at all. Sure, he couldn't work without a supervisor for three missions, but that wouldn't be a big deal at all! With how much work he did under Josh, those would be completed in a jiffy! He nodded toward Lars before suddenly taking his leave, leaving Josh and the Head Ranger in the room alone.

When Lars addressed Josh, particularly alone, it was as though the temperature in the room dropped a full forty degrees Fahrenheit. To him, it felt it like went from room temperature to just above freezing. He even started shivering in his uniform, doing his best to listen despite the sudden wicked cold that felt like it came out of Shoal Cave. "W-w-what about me?"

When Lars was done delivering his suspension, there was one more thing he wanted to bring up, now that the two of them were alone. After he had pulled his arms inside his shirt, he started to feel a little warmed. "Head Ranger, there is one other thing I'd like to talk to you about, now that it's just us. Remember when I said I was going to pursue Raikou? I'm serious about it. Ever since the Cloud thing happened, I've just felt like he's looking for me, and I'm looking for him. I don't get why, but I can't stop thinking about it." By now, Lars had been emailed the full details of what the Ranger remembered from his journeys within the digital space, including his vivid memory of seeing Raikou and his entire team killed by spears of light.

Josh's jaw dropped, the young Ranger shivering again. While he was grateful it wasn't a full suspension, three months of probation was a long time. He would still be able to do missions in full capacity. Getting a Ranger of a higher rank for every single one simply to supervise was going to be a pain in the ass, and a huge waste of resources. He at first wanted to protest, but still being allowed to operate immediately was a relief. "Hey, I'm getting really chilly. Can you turn the thermostat up a bit?" Really chilly was, of course, an understatement. It was like an icebox in the room. He simply couldn't take it anymore; he had to bring it up. Even Saber was shivering, letting out a whine.

Lars wasn't wrong. Declaring intent to pursue a Legendary Pokémon in front of that many people was a risk. "It's something Elinor Anderson has known about since before I became a Ranger. She is the reason I even became a Ranger in the first place. She was the first person I told about my dream..."

"So for my tenth birthday, I asked for the Electrike you saw as Saber. I asked for an Electrike, even though I knew they were difficult to raise, because it would be the closest I could ever get to..." He trailed off again, then minimized all the applications on his phone's screen, all the way down to his wallpaper: an artist's rendition of a first-person view from above Raikou's back. The creature's thundercloud was drawn in shocking detail. Just looking at the rendition made him tear up more, given his mental state. Beat. "...That," he said, turning the screen toward Elinor. "This is why I chose to be a Pokémon racer!" he raised his voice. "I WANT TO SEE HIM MYSELF!" Not once could Josh well up the courage to mention the majestic yet savage Pokémon by name. He couldn't help but fully break down in tears. Whether or not he actually had a connection to the Burned Tower Beast, he believed it so much that he felt deep down it just had to exist.

He cried for several minutes straight before turning his phone off completely. "I'm so sorry to have to put you through that, Elinor. It's already one in a million just to see him. But to get on his good side and forge a bond with him like with Saber...that's another one in a million on top of that. It's embarrassing. But I can't let it go." He shook his head. "Anyway, back to what you were saying. I don't think I could be a cop. I don't like the rigid code, and it's full time. Ranging, on the other hand..." He took another long pause. Maybe this was the start of a new journey: one where he could use his unique skillset for something more than the glory of competition.

"...It's not something I can commit to year round, because I don't want to give up my racing career. But...oh Arceus, count me in." Resheph let out an excited coo, though she stayed mostly still. Josh put his helmet back on and slammed his visor back down; it was a sign of almost arrogant confidence in his off-season career change. "You said you were a League officer, right? Where do I start?"

"And yesterday I found out she's on the Council. Obviously they can be trusted. And we're Rangers. We obviously can be trusted. That's why I shared my dream with so many people." He stopped when Lars tried to give words of warning. "I know - all it takes is one bad actor for the information to get in the wrong hands. But like I said, every single person in that room is a certified Ranger and can obviously be trusted." That comment, just like the Raikou remarks, was rather naive. He minimized his phone applications to show the wallpaper he had showed Elinor that day to the Head Ranger. "But yes, carry on." Little did Josh know that the information he desperately tried to keep out of bad actors' hands was already there, by the vector of THEO BECKETT ...

"...Even around people you can trust," was Josh's first retort to the Head Ranger's remark. "There's a lot of paperwork that goes into applying to be a Ranger. Not as much as even a Minor League Gym applicant, but..." The racer and Cadet let out a bewildered sigh. The Rangers were already the spare tires of the League. If a member of Team Rocket wanted to infiltrate the League, the amount of paperwork and effort to become a Ranger versus the level of access one got to non-public League intelligence was simply not worth the effort. "Why the Rangers, though? Wouldn't Team Rocket have bigger Magikarp to fry?"

"Yes, the Great One, Ho-oh," Josh filled in Lars' blanks. "Whether it's true or not, I don't think we'll ever know. But I've always seen Ho-oh as the benevolent one and Lugia as the malevolent one, as far as disposition toward humans is concerned. The human allies those two seek, and their...subject Pokémon seek, for a lack of a better term, are like white pieces and black pieces on a chessboard. Diametrically opposed, yet similar in drive..."

Lars' last line was something Josh had already been doing. "That's what I had been doing; the list of people I had shared this with was very short and only people I can trust." It was a tragedy one of the people he trusted most also had a secret identity that could be used against him to destructive, even lethal effect. "And like I said, Rangers are scrutinized enough that they all should be able to be trusted."

With that, every topic Josh wanted to bring up had been discussed. "Anything else, Sir?"