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In retrospect, Julia should have expected this guy to use the same dirty trick twice. Only now it was a lot worse with his Beartic's Avalanche. Sparkie was still struggling with the first set of rocks; there was no way she'd be able to hold back an entire avalanche on top of that.

[break][break]"RUN!"

[break][break]Her and her team's safety was way more important than trying to get the upper hand in this fight. Sparkie obeyed immediately, holding her Telekinesis just long enough to float back out of the initial rock slide's way before turning around and joining her trainer in fleeing from the ridge. Spot hesitated a moment longer, still watching his opponent. Just before turning away to run, as well, his eyes flashed with another Detect. Unfortunately, turning his back on his opponent would make it less effective.

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It was like their auras had been swallowed by the shadows they'd faded into. Spot growled to himself as his eyes darted about, trying to pinpoint his elusive targets. Suddenly, they and their auras reappeared in front of him, giving him barely enough time to hold up his arms defensively before the Dragapult struck. The powerful attack had Spot wincing as the pair flew upwards.

[break][break]"Shoot," Julia said, mostly to herself. An attack that even Spot's Detect couldn't protect him against... That wasn't good. That Dragapult needed to go down. "Try another Shad—"

[break][break]

[break]"Huh?"

[break][break]Julia sucked in a sharp, hollow gasp at the sight of the rocks falling. Falling and tumbling and clattering against the cliff face. Crushing and pain and bleeding and crying and hopelessness and loss and...!

[break][break]No. Not this time.

[break][break]She didn't even realize her hand was moving until she'd released Sparkie from her Poké Ball and just barely realized it was when she pointed up and shouted, "Telekinesis!" She regained herself just in time to see a flash of fear across Sparkie's face, but the Alolan Raichu raised her arms, eyes glowing green, and focused all of her psychic power into those boulders. They glowed in a green outline and slowed as Sparkie strained against them, looking like she was pushing against the air. Julia released a quivering breath.

[break][break]"Attagirl," Julia said.

[break][break]With the immediate threat to his trainer being neutralized, Spot was free to focus on the Dragapult again. He picked up on Julia's interrupted order and gathered another Shadow Ball between his paws to fire at the Stealth Pokémon.

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As far as Julia was concerned, destruction and conquest were Rocket's only motivations here. She never would have guessed that, in his own way, Cade was also fighting for the world. Not that she would have believed in such a noble claim from Rocket. Everything that Julia knew about them led to nothing but self-centered desires for conquest and wealth and power. And to her, Cade was just another enemy to her home who had to be stopped.

[break][break]The Shadow Ball raced right over the Rocket sinking into some shadowy portal and hit a distant tree, where it exploded harmlessly into scattering shadows. Spot let out a confused bark.

[break][break]"Where'd they go?!" Julia asked, looking around. "Spot, can you Detect them?"

[break][break]It'd be hard with all the chaos of the battlefield, but it was better than leaving the man's whereabouts unknown. Spot closed his eyes for a moment and then reopened them with a flash of blue light. He used his aura senses to scan the environment around him for any sign of their wayward foe...

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Julia giggled at Isaac's 7.8 jab, maybe a bit louder than necessary in an attempt to chase off the anger and tension that still fogged the air. Josh didn't seem to find it funny, but it actually got a snort out of Matt! Progress! She didn't quite get the humor in Matt teasing his friend about not being able to swim, but she let herself keep riding that wave of giggles as it rolled onto shore. It must have been one of those inside jokes between friends.

[break][break]"Oh, thanks!" she said to Josh. "I'll try to remember it whenever I visit your Gym. Actually, maybe I should just carry it around more in general..." If she didn't get an upgrade, that'd be one way to combat surprise water time. "You might have to give me some pointers for riding on him. I'm not used to going that fast in the water."

[break][break]A sudden gust of wind signaled Matt rushing past the group on Nana. He even pulled down his eyelid and stuck out his tongue at Isaac! "Hey, no fair!" Julia called laughingly. She didn't make a move to chase after him—not yet, at least. This seemed to be between him and Isaac for the moment.

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Julia wasn't at all bothered by this can of worms being opened in front of her. In fact, she seemed to welcome it. Pluto seemed excited to share his knowledge of the stars, and Julia knew that a great cure for sadness was indulging in your passions.

[break][break]She made a little "o" with her mouth when Pluto predicted that her star sign had water in it. "Yeah, I'm a Cancer!" Krabby totally lived in the water! "How'd you know?" She wasn't huge into astrology, though she did like checking her horoscope for fun when she read the morning news. But a relative stranger being able to (almost) identify her star sign had her more curious than ever.

[break][break]She gazed into the night sky as Pluto explained how the stars could be used as maps and show far-off galaxies. "How do you use them as a map?" she asked.

[break][break]Down below, Chester raised his right head in alarm. He squawked and ran toward a Morgrem skulking around Julia's campsite to chase it off. Why were so many wild Pokémon trying to get to his trainer's stuff?!

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Relief washed over Julia's whole body when she saw Josh in such high spirits, visibly dissipating the tension she hadn't realized she was still carrying on her shoulders and pulling her lips into a wide smile. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said as she walked in. He may have been hooked up to a machine to monitor his vitals, and he may have been lying on his stomach (which was more confusing than concerning to Julia), but he was awake and talking and apparently already bored out of his mind, and that was more than enough for Julia. "I wanna hug you, but I don't know where I can." Her smile turned more sheepish. She'd already learned that lesson from trying to hug the injured Isaac...

[break][break]Her attention momentarily flickered to the television, which was playing a Unovan football game. As much as she would have loved to just sit down and talk about sports with her friend, there were much more pressing matters at hand. Namely...

[break][break]"What happened? PSPN said that... that someone tried to kill you!" She still struggled to believe that headline was real, but Josh being in a hospital bed was unfortunate proof that it was at least partially true.

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"Nice shot!" Julia cheered at the Aura Sphere. Then she remembered who she was complimenting here and blushed. "You know, for a Rocket." Dang it, that made no sense! This was why Julia wasn't the tsundere type.

[break][break]While Blackjack and the Overqwil-riding poacher had their duel, the Dragalge gathered sapphire energy in its snout and aimed for Julia and Lazuli. Uh-oh. Julia snatched a Poké Ball from her belt and tapped it open on Lazuli's shell, releasing Inky the Kingdra into the water.

[break][break]"Smokescreen us, Inky!"

[break][break]Inky pointed her snout above Julia and shot out a ball of ink, which exploded into a black cloud that obscured Julia and her Pokémon. That didn't stop the Dragalge from firing its Draco Meteor, though. Julia quickly directed Lazuli to swim to one side to get away from it, but the attack still parted the waters behind them, causing Lazuli to tumble over a wave while Julia held on tight.

[break][break]The Ranger let out a sharp sigh of relief when she and Lazuli stayed upright. "You okay?" Julia asked. Lazuli warbled softly, sounding a bit hurt, but at least it hadn't been a direct hit. That could have been disastrous for both of them. Inky, meanwhile, had avoided the attack entirely by dipping under the surf, only peeking out now that the immediate danger had passed.

[break][break]Julia couldn't see them through the cloud of ink, but she could hear Blackjack and the other poacher still duking it out. Something heavy hit the water. Had someone fallen in? No time to check—a roar from the Dragalge told Julia it was still spoiling for a fight.

[break][break]"Inky, get in there and Twister it up," Julia said. Inky made a small noise of affirmation before diving underwater again and swimming toward their opponents. As the Smokescreen began to dissipate, Julia could see the water beneath the Dragalge begin to churn. Its rider shouted for it to move, but it was still slowed by Lazuli's earlier attack, so despite its valiant efforts to swim away, it was dragged into the Twister. Human and Pokémon cried out as they spun around and around in circles. Julia tried not to giggle. It honestly looked pretty funny!

[break][break]With a moment to breathe, Julia turned toward where her temporary partner was, but she could only see his Blastoise. "Where'd he go?" Julia asked, looking around. Oh, no, don't tell her he was trying to pull something sneaky...!

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Julia understood why some people were against the League's plan for the meteoroid. Sending it to some other world to make it their problem, instead? Yeah, that definitely sounded awful by itself. But the other world was full of hostile invaders, so was it really that bad? And that claim that sending the meteoroid to this other world would destroy every other world or whatever made no sense! Even without all that... what else were they supposed to do? Just sit there and let the meteoroid destroy their home and everything they loved? If there was a better option, the League would be using it. But this was all they had to work with, and that was that.

[break][break]Protests had been fairly common back when this whole mess started. Most of them had died out when they realized there was no other option other than "lay down and die," and most people weren't too keen on that one. But there were still some who held out for one reason or another, and they were a lot more extreme than the sign-wielding groups that usually gathered peacefully outside League establishments. They pressed against the boundary line despite the presence of officers, shouting demands at anyone who dared get too close. When they boiled over, they started attacking people and damaging property with no regard for anyone but themselves and whoever was on their side. Julia just couldn't understand what they hoped to accomplish with that. All they were doing was making the other side angry; how was that supposed to help their cause at all?

[break][break]That was the question she asked herself again when she saw the mob forming in Mauville. She'd gone to the city for some racing practice, only to find the streets clogged with tension threatening to brew into anarchy. Just listening to what they were yelling about made it obvious what they were here for. It already looked like a bad scene with protesters spitting vitriol over the boundary line and officers struggling to maintain order.

[break][break]Where was Josh? This was his city; shouldn't he be doing something? Maybe Julia was overestimating how much a Gym Leader could do, but she still put on her holo-sunglasses and tried to connect to Josh's private line.

[break][break]"Josh—I mean, Leader Devlin, are you there?" No answer. Her mouth tightened into a frown. Where the heck could he have been at a time like this? Standing here wondering that wouldn't help; Julia had to do something in this situation. She wasn't an officer, but she still had a duty to the region, and she wasn't one to take that lightly.

[break][break]She sent out Chester and climbed aboard her trusty partner. She thought about putting on her Ranger badge and armband but decided to wait until she was closer to the officers; she didn't want to get swarmed on the way.

[break][break]"Ma'am, please stay back," one of the officers said once she'd weaved around the crowd to get close enough.

[break][break]"I'm Ranger Julia Davis," she shouted over the crowd, flashing her badge. "Is there anything I can do to—"

[break][break]And then the first shot rang out, not with a boom but with a much quieter rush of water. The following scream of pain from one of the protesters and the bloody water spurting from his back were the true heralds of this tragedy. Julia could only stare, eyes wide with shock, as the man staggered forward, pointed an accusing finger at the League officers, and then collapsed, leaving only a stunned silence to blanket the scene.

[break][break]And then all hell broke loose, ripping that blanket away with screaming violence.

[break][break]Julia held tight to the reins as Chester backed away, just as aghast as his trainer. What... What was this? Julia had to have seen that incorrectly, right? There was no way the League would open fire like that, right? Some officers shouted that they didn't know what had happened, that no order had been given, but none of the protesters would listen. Instead, they surged forward to take out their anger on the officers... and, now that they knew she was on the League's side, Julia.

[break][break]A Poké Ball at her waist popped open, and Spot materialized in front of her and Chester, arms crossed defensively. His body was tense, agitated by all the hostile auras around him, but he held his ground to protect his trainer. Julia's heart pounded, pumping bile into her stomach with every beat. This wasn't right. Had she missed something? Had there been a sneak attack against the officers that had prompted the shot to be fired? Because there was no way, just no way, that they shot a man for no reason. Was he even going to be okay?

[break][break]Julia was a Ranger. She was out of her element, but she still had her duty to protect Hoenn. That included the people who disagreed with the League. Someone was hurt, and if Julia could do anything to help—

[break][break]But the protesters were already sending out their Pokémon against Spot. Some even surged forward and tried to attack Julia herself, only to be repelled by a shove from Spot or a peck or bite from Chester. She could tell her Pokémon were holding back so as not to truly hurt anybody, but even still, she could feel the tensions rising ever higher. To them, this was just more reason to riot.

[break][break]Finally, Julia found her words again: "Please stop this! That man needs help! This is only going to hurt more people!" But all that was met with were insults and more attacks. Already, Spot looked exhausted from the onslaught, but not once did he strike back. Julia was going to give him so many hugs for that later.

[break][break]A familiar voice sounded over the nearby speakers. "Josh!" Julia shouted, though she doubted he could hear her. Oh, no, he didn't know what had this crowd in such a frenzy, did he? She recalled Spot back into his Poké Ball and immediately shouted "Run!" to Chester. The Dodrio didn't even hesitate before pulling away from the crowd and sprinting toward where Josh was speaking.

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"Yeah, nimble's a good word, too!" She thought for a moment about Shalin's inability to ride the fastest Pokémon while being able to handle Treble like that. "I guess everyone's just different," she concluded with a smile and a shrug.

[break][break]Shalin's suggestion that Julia get a Mega Stone crafted out of her new treasure had her eyes sparkling. "That's so exciting! Who would have thought I'd find a Laprasite near a volcano?"

[break][break]Unfortunately, her excitement had to make room for the attacking Froslass and figuring out how to deal with them. Momo's Flame Burst struck true and spread to a second Froslass, causing the two to scatter. Although Kiara was able to hit her first target, her second attack hit where the first two Froslass had been, not where they now were.

[break][break]"One of them's over there now!" Julia called, pointing. "And there's another one over there! Wait, no, there! And the third one—whoa!" She stumbled back to avoid one flying right at her. As it turned out, invisible enemies didn't like it when someone tried to call out where they were!

[break][break]Momo kept shooting Flame Bursts, but only a few of them struck their targets. There was only so much calling out that Julia could do for three targets when she was the only one who could see them, and they quickly caught onto her tactic and got better at dodging and disrupting Julia's search. This wasn't good. She needed some way to hit them all at once, but how could she do that without risking hurting Shalin?

[break][break]Wait... Of course!

[break][break]"Momo, stay close to me," Julia said. The Ember Pokémon looked unsure, but he moved closer to Julia, anyway, still looking around for any signs of their invisible enemy. Julia took another Poké Ball from her belt. "Shalin, cover your ears. Lazuli, Sing!"

[break][break]The Lapras emerged from the tossed-out Poké Ball and immediately began to Sing a soothing lullaby into the room. Julia had to stop looking through the Lazuli Lens so she could also cover her ears. Hopefully this worked...!

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"Phew!" Julia sighed out when the Rillaboom came to a stop. "That was a great move, Captain!" Chester's outer heads looked at her and squawked their offense. "Hey, come on, you know you did great, too!"

[break][break]Chester's dramatics aside, there was still one big issue: Just what had made this Rillaboom so aggressive? Julia had never heard of one acting like this before, especially not to the point of causing two entirely separate troops of other Pokémon to lash out, as well.

[break][break]Something pressed on her shoulder, and Julia turned to see it was Spot's front paw. The Lucario was staring into the trees, eyes glowing blue with his aura sight again.

[break][break]"What is it?" Julia whispered. It couldn't be another attacker, could it? How many angry monkeys were in this forest?! But when the bushes rustled and parted this time, it wasn't an angry Pokémon leaping out at them. It was two little Grookey, looking worriedly between the dazed Rillaboom and the Rangers. One slowly approached the Rillaboom, chittering softly.

[break][break]"Ohh," Julia said softly. "I think this Rillaboom was trying to protect its babies."

[break][break]From their places in and at the bases of the nearby trees, the Passimian looked on, realization and curiosity seeming to cross their features. Or maybe Julia was just imagining that. Either way, they seemed pacified for now, making no move to attack again now that they were all awake.

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Julia grinned back at the compliment. Her thanks would have to be silent for now, though; they had a battle to win.

[break][break]"Spot, Aura Sphere!"

[break][break]"Krookodile, watch out!"

[break][break]The Krookodile unlatched itself from its opponent and scrambled away as Spot gathered aura energy between his front paws. His eyes flashed an electric blue before firing the sphere, which honed in on its target and knocked the Krookodile over.

[break][break]"Doing great!" Julia called back in a cheery voice.

[break][break]"Come on, Krookodile, get up and use Earthquake!"

[break][break]"I don't think so! Spot, Vacuum Wave!"

[break][break]As the Krookodile pulled itself to its feet, Spot summoned what looked like a whirlwind around his fists, then punched it toward his opponent. This time, when the Krookodile got knocked down, it didn't get back up.

[break][break]"Dammit!" The Krookodile's trainer kicked up some sand in his frustration and recalled his Pokémon.

[break][break]"You've got another Pokémon, right?" the first poacher asked, panic evident in his voice.

[break][break]"No, I only brought Krookodile 'cause we were gonna be in the desert all day!"

[break][break]"You idiot! Now what are we gonna do?"

[break][break]Ooh, this was Julia's chance to do something cool! She pointed rather dramatically at the poachers and said with a confident grin, "You're gonna stay right there 'cause you're under arrest for the poaching of wild Pokémon!" Spot looked at his trainer for a moment before crossing his arms and glaring at the poachers to back up his trainer. Even if she was being a dramatic goofball.

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"Whoa!" Julia was snapped out of that free-flying feeling by Chester's unfortunate fumble when his talon hit the inside wall. She had to hold on tight to keep from falling off as Chester stumbled, the Dodrio's outer heads squawking their displeasure. The right one turned back to express its anger at the Jolteon for distracting him, only to let out a cry of alarm that also had Julia turning her head. Uh-oh, Blinky was catching up fast, her rapid, crackling footfalls growing ever closer.

[break][break]"We're almost there!" she called above the whipping winds. "We can make it! One last Agility, buddy!"

[break][break]Last time, this move had given them a huge advantage over the other racers. It had to work this time if she wanted to guarantee her victory!




[break][break]

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"Shoot!" Julia hissed as Chester stumbled beneath her, jostling her in the saddle. "You okay, buddy?"

[break][break]The Dodrio had lost momentum just a bit too soon, causing him to nick a talon on the inside of the last corner. His center head let out an affirmative squawk, but the other two seemed annoyed by this turn of events. At least he hadn't been seriously hurt, based on how he was still running. Their standing was still the same—10th place, jeez—but they'd lost a good half second with that fumble.

[break][break]"We can still do this," Julia said. "It's not over yet! Let's focus!"

[break][break]This time, all three heads cawed, united in purpose. Ahead, four rapid right-angle turns awaited them. It didn't look like jumping over them would work like it had in Josh's Gym. They'd just have to be careful if they didn't want to lose even more time. Surely, they'd find a chance to make up for it later.

[break][break]