Alec definitely wasn't expecting another person to also be climbing up the same path, so when he turned to face the woman that spoke up, he was definitely surprised. Before answering, Alec took a good look at her and her pokemon for a brief moment. "Sure thing. Just to warn you though, this part of the mountain is notorious for bandits and thieves. We should be fine if we stick to the path, but that's not necessarily a guarantee. Are you sure you and your pokemon will be up for it?" He asked her. He wasn't trying to be rude or anything. She just hoped that she'd be able to handle a worst-case scenario is all. When she gave him her name, he figured he'd be nice enough to give her his.

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"Nice to meet ya Genny. My name's Alec. This here is Inferno, Veda, and Kaminari," Alec said, gesturing to his three pokemon in order, one after the other. They all greeted Genny and her pokemon in their own way, Inferno giving a gentle huff, Veda with her trill, and Kaminari with his excited squeak and wave. Kaminari also tried to imitate the 'shaka' hand sign that Genny's Toxtricity made, which made Alec smirk. He still couldn't make that symbol, even when Alec's Toxtricity Rev was around. "Well, we won't get any exercising done this way! Let's get going!" Alec had said, deciding to get a headstart. However, Kaminari was faster, starting to get ahead of him. Inferno and Veda were right behind them, obviously not liking the thought of not being able to fly, but rules were rules. "So, did you move to the Hoenn Region, or were you born here?" He asked Genny, deciding to get to know her a bit more. Normally, Alec didn't really much bother getting to know others, or at least, not like he used to. However, Genny seemed like a nice person, so getting to know her didn't seem like a bad thing, did it?

+ Hope this isn't too short :3

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+ Genevieve Cromwell

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“A ranger?” thought to himself. He had remembered a Ranger challenging his Gym long ago, however, he couldn’t ever recall her name. He kind of felt bad because he used to be really good at remembering names. Now, stuff like that just goes out the window, so to speak. If that were the case, however, Alec was sure that she’d be able to handle the trek up the mountain, even if there were thieves and bandits along the way. After all, the Rangers were good at handling stuff like that, right?

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That was the only reason why he didn’t stop her and her pokemon from tagging along. As they run along with one another, attempting to catch up to Kaminari. Genny answered Alec’s question, not seeming to mind him asking. It reminded him of how carefree he himself used to be. He also used to be the kind of guy who’d talk fifty friggin bajillion words per second. “Man, am I glad I got over that phase …” he thought to himself. He then came back to reality when Genny asked about him. He hesitated for a moment, but then decided to answer, not wanting to disclose his full story to her. Just what he felt was necessary to tell her.

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“I wasn’t born here, but It’s safe to say I’ve been to the Hoenn region before,” he paused, running while having a smirk on his face. “I actually caught Kaminari here in the Hoenn region. As for where I was born, I came from Blackthorne City in the Johto Region,” Alec revealed while not losing his pace. He didn’t want to tell her that he used to be one of the Hoenn League’s Gym Leaders, or was supposedly deemed dead by the League. A part of him felt bad for not telling her, despite not showing it, however, he couldn’t afford to tell people who he actually was. He knew that Team Rocket sticking their nose up people’s asses and didn’t want them to know that he was actually still alive … or at least not until he was good and ready to face them himself.

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Instead, he decided to keep the conversation focused on the present, or at least somewhat. “So you've been a Ranger for about a month now? Nice,” he said as kept running alongside her. She was able to keep up without even breaking a sweat. Normally the strangers that'd he'd meet wouldn't make it to where they were now, which sadly wasn't even all that far yet. They weren't even halfway there yet. As Kaminari was still ahead, he called out to them squeaking loudly. If people could understand pokespeech, they'd realize it said, "Hurry it up, slowpokes!" The remark however was kind of a dead giveaway when Inferno the charizard seemed irritated at the Pikachu's statement. As for Veda, she just thrilled and began using Extremespeed, only using her own two feet. She even zoomed by Kaminari and waved while pressing onward.

+ Apologies for the wait! <3

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+ Genevieve Cromwell

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Alec nodded to Genny while continuing to run alongside her. "Yep. They even share the same border ... although, not many people go to Kanto nowadays," the dragon tamer said solemnly. Alec figured that Genny also knew the reason why too. It was because of Team Rocket. With them having taken over the Kanto Region, it'd pretty much be like someone signing their own death warrant. You'd either be considered crazy or a fool to go there now.

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When Genny asked what Alec did for a living, he hesitated for a moment. "To be honest, I'm not employed at the moment. I guess you could say that I'm a traveler of sorts," Alec said, which was sort of true. Even though they had just met, Alec felt like he could tell her about his past life here as a Gym Leader, but ... that wasn't the reason why he was hesitant. He believed that by just telling her this that Team Rocket would end up making her a target just so that they could get to him. Sure, Team Rocket may not know that he was back in the region yet, but he was still worried that doing so would be a risk, and not for his sake, so it was best for him to not tell her about his past.

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Instead, he seemed to enjoy listening to Genny talk about her life, using it as a means to deflect him revealing too much about himself as a means to keep her safe, despite her being a Ranger. As they continued running, a golem out of nowhere barreling its way toward them, using Rollout. Inferno the Charizard, using its strength, blocked the golem, stopping it dead in its tracks. Kaminari, along with everyone else stopped dead in their tracks. Alec's pokemon poised to defend. Kaminari growled as static electricity cackled at its cheek pouches when a biker thug came out of hiding.

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"Well, well, look what we have here," he said, smugly grinning at Alec and Genny. Inferno had attempted to attack the Golem he stopped using DYNAMIC PUNCH, but it missed when the golem swiftly jumped back towards the biker, presumably his owner.

+

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+ Genevieve Cromwell

[attr="class","pokeclass"]