[attr="class","juliaw"]

"Mm-hm!" Julia affirmed with a nod. Josh did have a point, though: the poacher(s) would probably see that he was on Snacker's back. She was going to suggest that he hop on Lazuli's back with her, but Josh came up with the even better idea to hide in the sun's morning light. That way, they'd see the silhouette of a big Sharpedo, a perfect target for them, but be less likely to see Josh himself. And this way, Josh would be right there when the poachers moved in, meaning Snacker wouldn't be in any danger.

[break][break]"Perfect!" Julia said. She made sure her communicator was tuned into the stated frequency, then grinned at her coworker. "Let's do this."

[break][break]Julia pulled out her binoculars and watched the opposite horizon once Josh had headed southeast. She didn't see anything, but the voice on her radio confirmed that their targets were in sight. She followed Josh's directions and spotted the vessel in the distance. From here, it just looked like a regular ship.

[break][break]"Copy that; I have the target in my sights," she said into her radio. "Who's Resheph, anyway?"[break][break]

---

[break]Meanwhile, on the deck of the boat, one of the poachers caught sight of a blue serpentine shape streaking through the sky. "Well, would you look at that," he said with a grin. "Not our target, but probably still worth a pretty penny... Hmm?" He followed the Dragonair's trajectory toward something in the water. He had to squint his eyes against the sun's rays, but the shape was unmistakable: a Sharpedo. And a big one, too.

[break][break]"Boss, boss!" he shouted. "I found one! And it's huge!"

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Okay, so that had been too much "a bit." So maybe she should go for something like a "smidgen" for her next try of Over-the-Gyarados instead.

[break][break]

[break]Nope, that was still too much! Dang, what was smaller than a smidgen...?

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Whoa, a Z-Crystal! Julia had never seen one of these in real life before! She turned it over in her fingers to make sure it was the real deal, but even in this wavy underwater world, she could tell. So cool! She wondered who would get the chance to use it as she continued sifting through the sands.

[break][break]

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Another try at the dunk tank. Could Julia shoot her shot, or would she miss and have to try again? Only one way to find out!

[break][break]

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Too much momentum would just throw Julia into the water, but too little meant she couldn't do the trick. Obviously, not being able to do the trick was way better than totally wiping out. So she figured if she ramped it up just a bit, she could do the Over-the-Gyarados.

[break][break]

[break]Julia never had been at the whole "a bit" thing. Into the ocean she went!

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Ooh, that looked important! But it was just one piece of a puzzle. If she could find the others, that'd be great!

[break][break]

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Another shot at the dunk tank. Could Julia shoot her shot, or would she miss and have to try again? Only one way to find out!

[break][break]

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Julia had signed up to be a Ranger to protect the environment and the Pokémon living in it. That meant dealing with poachers and other bad actors, but she'd been trained for that. She hadn't been trained for this kind of skirmish. She hadn't been trained for almost getting killed by a motorbike on purpose. And it wasn't like she knew that Kurze wouldn't have dealt the fatal blow.

[break][break]Julia wasn't naive. She knew there were bad people out there. Really, really bad people. But she was still too innocent to truly imagine the depths of these people's cruelty. Or perhaps she simply didn't want to imagine them. But tonight, she'd gotten a taste of it. Of, in her eyes, people willing to nearly kill someone as a warning. It was disgusting. Despicable. Horrifying. But that only strengthened her resolve to keep doing the right thing and dealing with these kinds of people wherever she could.

[break][break]The fight was over, huh? Julia was rattled, and Chester was hurt, exhausted, and being held at bone-point to prevent him from doing anything, but the fight wasn't over, not if Julia had anything to say about it. She just needed to buy a little more time to... She glanced at the communicator that had fallen to the ground. Could she even make a call with it anymore? With Chester in his current state, Isaac had the mobility advantage with his bike, and if he decided to use it as a "warning" like his Bisharp had... Even still, the thought of giving up now made her gut roil. She still had one more Pokémon her opponent hadn't seen, and if she could figure out the opportune time to let her loose...

[break][break]The way the Rocket spoke his next words surprised Julia more than what he actually said at first. If she didn't know better, she'd say he sounded almost concerned. And the way he said that nobody would hurt her, that it was over... What the heck? Was this his way of saying he'd decisively won? Because it sounded more like he was trying to reassure her. When he told her to name five things she could see, her first instinct was to glance around for any new signs of trouble like backup. But then she realized: This was the first part of a grounding technique that Julia had learned in therapy.

[break][break]"What?" Okay, so that wasn't a thing she could see, but she was so confused right now. Was he trying to distract her? If he was, this was a weird way of doing it. "What are you trying to pull?"

[attr="class","juliaw"]

She'd been prepared for the Over-the-Gyarados to be tough, and she could definitely see why! Landing on the back of a flipping Mantine was quite the feat. A feat that Julia really wanted to accomplish before this celebration was over.

[break][break]

[break]Close but not close enough! She hadn't quite gotten enough momentum on the flip to be launched off.

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Julia took a moment to just appreciate the scenery around her before getting back to the hunt. What lay buried in the sand today?

[break][break]

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Another shot at the dunk tank. Could Julia shoot her shot, or would she miss and have to try again? Only one way to find out!

[break][break]