Adam smiled as he watched the younger ranger watch a Wooloo walk on by. ”Ya know you can pet them if you want, they’re not going to bite you.” He laughed, finding it amusing how she looked like a fish out of water out here. Adam then crouched down and began to pet one of the Wooloo, feeding it some treats as he pet it.

He’d look up as Iris asked her question, smiling and turning his attention back to the Wooloo as he answered. ”I grew up on a farm like this or maybe a ranch is the better term for it.” He replied.

”And it was much busier than this place, so handling a job like this is nothing.” Adam further explained, standing up and brushing his hands on his pants.

”No one really taught you how to raise Pokémon properly, have they?” He was pretty certain he knew the answer to that but hearing it from her would confirm some things.

It was darn right cute watching her pet the Wooloo, reminding him of his younger days whenever he’d teach his younger siblings or the kids in the town how to take care of the Pokémon on the farm. He put his hands up defensively as Iris flipped out on him, not surprised that she took his words the wrong way.

”Right, right! I’m sure you’re an ace at training Pokémon.” He sighed. Adam crouched down on the other side of the Wooloo, taking out a treat and grabbing the Wooloo’s attention with it. ”You know all about how to make a Pokémon strong, I’m sure. But I said raising not training.” Adam added as he began to feed the Wooloo.

”There’s a difference in that ya know. When I say raise I mean knowing things like a Pokémon’s dietary habits, proper grooming and hygiene, keeping them healthy and active. Stuff like that. It's how I know wooloo like to eat this kind of stuff.” He’d explain, not wanting to drown her in all the different information one should know to raise their Pokémon properly.

”Keeping them in their pokeball all the time isn’t exactly the ideal situation. Not everyone enjoys living in a box.”

Oh boy it was going to be hard to get this message through to her but it was definitely a worthwhile project. And it did seem like she was getting it slowly so at some point Adam was sure it was going to stick.

Honestly though, he was still curious as to what in the hell Rocket was telling this girl when it came to Pokémon. Was it just that they’re tools to be used and discarded and that’s about it? And she had no qualms with this? I guess if that’s all you really know you don’t think about it much.

”Sheesh! Alright then let me ask you this.” Adam stood up, stretching a bit. ”If you’re so smart then this should be an easy question for you.” He’d look down at her, two pokeballs in his hand.

”You’ve got two Pokémon, right? One of them you put into a lot of time and effort raising them. You feed them properly, play with them all the time, tend to them when they’re sick. Put a lot of TLC into the relationship.” As he said one he raised the Pokeball in his left hand and afterward lowered it and raised the other one.

”This one you’re trained more like a soldier. Taught them obedience, structure, how to battle, things like that. They’re a real disciplined and well-oiled machine right. You’ve taught the other Pokémon this as well along with those other things that I mentioned. Now, this Pokémon you don’t really know that much on a personal level right. So here’s my question for you. Which out of the two do you think would be more willing to put its neck on the line for you? Go that extra mile even though it’s spent. They both might get the job done but which one do you think will be more eager to do a better one?”

”Oh man you really don’t get it!” Adam laughed, putting the two pokeballs away. ”At what point did I say anything about getting soft?” He continued to laugh a bit more before then composing himself.

”You get to train and fight longer and harder if your Pokémon’s more motivated to do it. They’ll get stronger and more efficient this way.” Maybe in her time with Rocket she didn’t actually do that much battling against other people. Given how the league was treating her that wouldn’t be much of a surprise and it’s not like they had record of literally everything she did in her time with the team.

An abrupt sound coming from the barn nearby broke the peacefulness of their little chat and Adam turned to face the where the sound was coming from. ”You have Blue with you right?” Adam would ask the younger ranger as he pulled out a pair pokeballs and released his Lucario and Arcanine.

”Soul you come with me and Pro stay with the Wooloo.” The two Pokémon nodded, understanding their orders. ”C’mon then kid, let’s make our money.” Walking towards the barn Adam would speak with his Lucario partner.

”How many are we dealing with here?” He’d ask as the Lucario used his aura sensing abilities to scan the barn. With a bark and a gesture of his paw, Soul communicated with Adam that he could see about five living beings within the barn that were most certainly not Wooloo and were about to make their move.

”Look alive kid.” Adam said to Iris as he cracked his knuckles, ready to show the girl the fun parts of being a ranger.

Despite his instincts pulling him to go help Iris he held himself back, allowing the rookie to handle this for herself for the time being while he focused on the enemies in front of them. The Swellow was just the first of five targets to deal with, now where were the others?

Crashing through one of the windows, a Mightyenna lunged forth firing a Dark Pulse from its maw. Without a word Soul jumped into action, sending off an Aura Sphere from his hands towards the dark type attack. The two moves collided, canceling each other out, causing an explosion which resulting cloud blocked the vision of both sides.

Something was moving within the smoke, something large and fast and was heading straight for Adam. Soul, catching onto this quicker than his human partner lunged for the white-haired male and pushed him out of the way. The Lucario then threw his arms up to brace for the incoming attack of the large creature.

”Help Soul out!” As Soul pushed Adam out the way the ranger pulled out a pokeball and released his Noivern who promptly used her powerful wings to blow away all the smoke revealing the large Pokémon that attacked to be an Obstagoon.

Well, this was one hell of an ugly pair but definitely top candidates for Pokémon some scum bag would use. Those who would be in command of these Pokémon would reveal themselves and called for Iris and Adam to give up the Wooloos before things got messy.

”Soul, Siren. Give em our answer.” The two Pokémon charged at their dace partners. Adam turned to Iris to see how she was handling her own problem.

The kid was doing alright; the little Mudkip she had was actually putting in some work which made the ranger smile. ”Not too shabby.” He’d turn back to his own fight, the thugs were putting up more of a fight than he expected so they weren’t amateurs at least.

Whenever the Mightyena was in danger of taking a serious blow the Obstagoon would jump in and use one of its support moves, it was annoying effective. But the large Pokémon could only take so much and if it were to be overwhelmed its defenses wouldn’t matter all that much now would it?

”Soul use Extreme Speed! Siren, Dragon Pulse! Corral them together.” On his orders the two Pokémon Adam summoned continuously attacked with the moves said, backing the two dark types into a corner.

”Now use Aura Sphere! Hurricane!” Their targets were in the right spot and with the two attacks the fight was over.

There was a bit of a mess with the two attacks colliding and making a big show of explosions and wind but no serious damage was done to the surrounding area. When everything cleared up the two Pokémon were KO’d and the owners even got caught up a bit in it.

”Maybe I went a bit overboard?”