Josh would be so glad when this community service was over. Three thousand hours was a colossal amount of time, though frankly, he got off easy, given the offense he had committed. Soon, he would be free to enjoy himself -- or go back to actually making money doing Ranger work like he used to. Not that he wouldn't be enjoying himself today; he was doing courier work, ferrying people that flew into Mauville Regional Airport to nearby destinations in the region.

The Gym Leader caught sight of one of the people he would be ferrying, and what seemed to be quite the distance at that, from the way the ticket looked. It would not be long before HARLEY VALLA would see a small parade of saddled Pokémon outside the depot she was waiting at, one of Mauville's most prominent figures seated on the Shiny Pyroar at the front. His posture and balance looked immaculate, as though he were a professional Pokémon racer. Except that he was. The only one of the six that didn't wear a saddle was a Type: Null in the rear, the Normal-type looking far less amused than the other Pokémon in the line.

The Pyroar, Manectric, Kantonian Ninetales, Shiny Luxray, and Shiny Sylveon, perhaps the Sylveon the most attention-grabbing due to her enormous size, all looked well-behaved, not minding being beasts of burden at all. If anything, they seemed to be happy or proud of it. One thing was certain, though: they all looked like they could run.

At last, Josh's client had arrived, dressed in a white and pink cap. She looked cute, too, though the Gym Leader wasn't looking for romantic relationships. More friends, absolutely. But nothing romantic. The black-haired, intimidating-looking but friendly young man reciprocated her friendly demeanor. "Fortree? That's quite the distance from here! I can, but I wonder why you didn't just fly into Lilycove? It would have been a lot shorter." Aleph yawned absentmindedly, breaking ranks from the rest of Josh's Pokémon. "Great to meet you, Harley! Gym Leader Devlin or Elite Ranger Devlin, but everyone in Mauville calls me Josh," the racing celebrity introduced himself. "You're welcome to call me by Josh, too."

Aslan let out the softest purr he could manage to greet the Fennekin, but it still came out loud enough to perhaps startle the little one. It came out loud enough to make Josh's hair stand on end, feeling the power of the golden Pyroar's vibrating vocal cords reverberating around his neck. "Your Fennekin is brave to approach Aslan. Most Pokémon give him a wide berth because of how aggressive Pyroar are. It's a kind of Pokémon I'm known for in Mauville. I raise an entire pride of them for the Rangers' use. Aslan is one of eight." Formerly one of ten, with Nala and Rani having tragically passed away, murdered by Kyurem and Hoopa just weeks ago.

Harvey seemed quite excited to be ferried to Fortree. "And these four are Blitz, Mystic, Saber, and Pinky," Josh gestured toward his other Pokémon steeds, in that order. "They're all obedient to a fault." All except Aleph; the Type: Null didn't even wear riding gear at all. Josh didn't dare to even try riding the chimeric Pokémon, saddle or no; if there wasn't an Ultra Beast present for him to brawl with, he might go berserk. The purpose of Josh even bringing him along was to understand why, and determine what the best remedy was. "Don't be shy -- saddle up! Have you ever been on a Pokémon's back before?"

Ah, the woes of last-minute or unplanned travel. It was part of the reason Josh preached to the crowd how important he felt it was to raise a Pokémon that could ferry its trainer across land, sea, or sky. While it was impractical for moving due to not being able to easily transport tons of cargo, a Pokémon was a fantastic method of personal travel.

"I used to be until I became Mauville's Gym Leader," Josh answered. While he hadn't hit the pros, he was one of the semi-pros that garnered a lot of attention due to making a lot of close runs at punching his card to the very highest levels of competition. He could never seem to quite get there, though. One of these days, he would have to use his fame and fortune to learn from some of the most talented professionals around. "Had to move my passion to my Gym. Just don't have the time to grind the circuit anymore."

Pinky let out a low-pitched, almost alien-sounding squeal as she approached Harvey, the Shiny Sylveon gently rubbing her with her feelers if she allowed it. She crouched to let her guest aboard more easily. "It's almost as simple as driving. You need a crash course, I can give you one!" he offered as Aleph stirred at the prospects of at last getting moving.