it is a lot to clean up. and cleaning up is her least favorite part about pretty much any activity. do you know how many times kolya has had to yell at her after she's walked out of the kitchen, munching happily on a snack that had somehow ripped the entire room apart?

but it's necessary. and it's towards the end of her designated shift anyway. 

dmitry and frogger have been accompanying her for most of these long hours so they're tucked neatly in their balls. in lieu of her water-affinity companions is oleg, who would only traipse through the water once sasky showed him that his little sharpie feeties she'd drawn on wouldn't come off. 

they will undoubtedly smudge, but he'll be a good boy and let her put the beans back on. 

saskia has the other one in hand when ollie pulls her attention to it and she crows ecstatically. "oleg was just making shadow puppets with it," she says animatedly and then blinks, coughing, going, "erm, i mean we were just setting it aside, head ranger, ollie, sir..."

ollie morales

☉

frogger and dmitry swim alongside her and every once in a while, when something cumbersome and dangerous drifts by them, dmitry extends his buoyant tail so sasky can hold on and get a bit of a boost to her swimming. but unlike roy, she doesn't have a water dragon companion, or a water mount companion for that matter. 

dmitry and frogger are the best she's got, hence her own flippers, and it's good enough to get the job done. 

his voice is tinny in her ear, but she makes out what he's saying anyway and nods towards her pokemon. the shifting structure groans nearby, echoing down the depths, and sasky watches octillery, remoraid, and a few mantine pull themselves free of their prison. 

the octillery scrabble and the remoraid seek shelter under the rays' wings. when the mantine swim as fast as possible in one direction, sasky turns in the other. bubbles explode out from around her mouth as a large head swings towards her. 

the giant gyarados' jaws narrowly miss her feet as frogger swims up and punches her in the stomach, shooting her ten feet back. she goes frozen, fearing the worst, but then the gyarados screeches and thrashes. 

"it's stuck," she says into her mask, horrified. the latter half of its body is crushed between two chunks of land mass. dmitry does a couple of somersaults over her head and a lightbulb goes off in her head.

"can you distract it? i got an idea and we need to get closer."

Roy Aker

27. Handle encounters with hostile individuals or pokemon.

☉

dmitry and frogger help shepherd as best as they can. the tailwind helps, but a particularly strong wind also sends dmitry rolling down a small knoll. saskia watches him go, knowing the marill is going to give her hell for that later. 

she gives herself a boost up. the structure is pitching on its side. one of the octillery loses its suctioned grip while hauling itself out of the building; she scoops it and jumps out. 

oleg shrieks and the psychic energy leaves him. behind her, all the stress points he'd been holding together snap all at once and the building crumbles in on itself, sloughing into the sea. 

sasky stares in dismay, knowing there's little they could have done. they completed their mission. the octillery are safe. but watching the destruction, seeing the shards of glass glittering in the water, makes her teary-eyed. 

she turns away and tromps towards the boat, wordlessly sticking close to keiko, not knowing how to ask for comfort but finding in it with her mission partner just the same.

keiko mori

objectives complete

☉

wet footfalls near them and saskia whirls towards the door, terrified that some other creature might be making its way toward them, but it's only keiko. before she can cry out to wait and try to a diplomatic approach to resolving the situation at hand, keiko has already tackled one of them to the ground. 

it makes them all frenzy and the tightknit pod they'd formed of themselves bursts outward, arms flying every which direction.

oleg makes another whining sound, sensors on the fritz when supersonic waves bounce around the room, and sasky feels panic crawl into her throat. the building groans and sasky tries to yank keiko back upright. 

"we gotta corral them! we can't stay here! oleg's starting to struggle!"

keiko mori

objectives complete

☉

greyson the delphox fades from the spotlight now that the bit is over. 

now that maugrim is crouching there, all snarling teeth, hackles raised, looking at sasky like she's some prime cut of meat. looking at greyson like he's a pile of ground chuck. 

saskia does not know what to expect. maybe autumn? maybe a lycanroc of his own? or a cat of some sort to bring some harmonious energy into the mix? whatever it is, she's certainly not expecting him to open a freaking portal right next to him and summon the biggest godsdanged dog she's ever seen in her whole life. 

her eyes bug out. her jaw drops. even maugrim tilts his head in confusion. 

"whattheheCKGREYSON," she says in one big rush. all the air leaves her lungs at once in a wheeze and she takes a step back, fearful of the meaner and way bigger dog currently stepping through, again, a FREAKING PORTAL MADE OUT OF NOWHERE!!!!

maugrim, however, gets over his initial shock, and snarls, pelt hardening, stones skittering, as he accelerocks towards the blue dog.

Greyson Connors

☉

"how could i forget!" she crows back. it is not a question in the slightest. she's more than happy to bounce back over to him with a grin, ready to tackle the world. 

"i didn't take you for a ranger," she says with a laugh and then pauses briefly, nodding to herself as though drawing a quick conclusion, and amends, "actually, i could totally see you being a ranger. but like the bad boy kind. or like the sour patch kid kind."

she sings, "first they're sour, then they're sweet!"

a somewhat withering look is spared by her squad leader, tyra, and she grabs him by the arm, saying, "going! going, going! anyway, we ought to go south side. i hear east is starting to get a little too cluttered with debris. just got back from scouting with irina up there and there's a whole group of corsola that are stranded." she frowns. "their reef got all messed up by a building. so we gotta go catch the lot of 'em."

KING WAYLAND

03. Address environmental hazards.

☉

"maybe look for, um, like usb drives or something?"

she's inside the building now, the broken glass of a window around her feet. dmitry had done a solid job of taking out the window and she'd felt bad about it, but really, the building's going under anyway. 

she's pretty sure if oleg could sweat, he would be. 

we don't have a lot of time.

when frogger and dmitry are safely inside, and oleg is tucked back into the crook of her arm, she turns around and comes face to face with a pod of octillery. all of which are tense and trembling in the corner of the room, scared out of their wits. 

"oh, well we're not alone. oleg's okay, but this isn't easy on him, and also, wait, froggER, DON'T TOUCH THEM. NO!!"

too late. the curious little frog gets too near and, panicked as they are, the octillery react. saskia takes her hand off the comms and barrels into her frog before he can make the situation any worse; ink sprays of her and she squeals.

keiko mori
i lost my post...it was like 6 paragraphs...
i will do better on the next one...

06. Use non-lethal methods to calm or capture rogue pokemon.

☉

"oh, that was all frogger," she says with a flippant wave of her hand, always at the ready to pass off any bit of praise to the adorable members of her team. her brows furrow as she fiddles with more of her equipment. the stray flipper, she unties and tosses onto the deck. no sense letting it weigh her down. 

i really hope that doesn't come out of my paycheck, she thinks in dismay. that poor solitary other flipper is probably all the way at the bottom of the ocean already.

"eh, the radio has so much noise on it and honestly, it wasn't like i was in crazy, immediate danger." except she'd have been in trouble if an angry swarm of pokemon had shown up, or her little slice of island had been hit by a wave, or a giant rampaging primal whale decided to turn around and head to them. 

hmmm. 

"rustboro! swanky city boy, huh?" she says with a tilt of her lips. "i'm up in oldale with my pa. we don't have many rangers out there and hq's pretty small, but i adore it. been traveling a lot though.

"hoenn's always got something going on." she looks around them to emphasize her point. with her gear all double-checked, she tucks her hair up into a ponytail and grins. 

"alright. let's go do what us rangers do best."

silverio delfino

☉

Participants focus on protecting Sea Mauville's diverse pokemon population from the escalating crisis, ensuring their habitats remain intact and secure amidst the sinking structure.

irina floats above her, feeling a lot more calm and collected than saskia does. she's been out here for hours already and every second of it has been filled with varying levels of stress. deep sea dives, struggling against sinking wreckage, dodging angry hoards of sharpedo...

the list goes on and on. but she has to keep going. they all have to keep going. people and pokemon need their help!

but when their relief teams start flooding in, she can't help but wish her squad leader wasn't too tied up and might see the lines of exhaustion drawn on her face. 

in a sea of worried faces, she spies someone she recognizes, and honestly, that's all she needs to forget how tired she is again. 

"oh my gosh! hi! you're the guy! the guy who saved me from the building! tyra, i'm stealing him! king, right? with the cute lil swampert."

KING WAYLAND

☉

the bit of lethargy trying to cling to her is washed away as soon as she guzzles half the water silverio gives her. it tastes absolutely marvelous and it's so cold. the perfect second wind to keep her going. 

"right-o, captain. no point staying here. i think my marill scavenged anything useful already." she hands the water bottle back, but only after making sure her pokemon get a couple sips as well. 

then she follows him carefully through some of the floating debris. the water is past their ankles now. sheesh, he's right about the tide. at the very least, it makes casting their boat from the shore easier. 

"you really saved my bacon," she says as she settles onto the middle bench, stretching out her pruny toes. frogger cuddles up next to her, mouth slightly ajar as he admires the evolved form of his cousin. dmitry looks purposefully off the bow, pipping intermittently to help instruct while his golisopod clears the way. 

"oh, heck yeah. thanks." she undoes her straps and shrugs off the tank backpack, fingers twisting the locks to let the canister pop out. it hisses as she disconnects it. she quickly screws the top shut and offers it out to him in exchange. 

"so where you based? don't think i've seen you on the field before."

silverio delfino

operatives complete

☉

her grimace flips upside down into a beaming smile when the other side sparks with confirmation. frogger does a couple flips in the air, legs flailing, but he manages to right himself in order to dive neatly into the water. he crawls up onto the shore a few seconds later, blinking up at saskia. 

"you did it, buddy! they're coming." his relief is palpable. 

dmitry, bored of awaiting rescue, makes himself useful by scrounging up bits of what's been washing onto their little sandbar. by the time silverio has arrived, saskia is crouching and going through cracked pieces of tech. 

she looks down at herself when he asks if she's okay and she admits - "kind of thirsty, actually, if you have water?" her swimsuit protected her from the coral, but part of it had torn at her ankle. she hadn't realized it until now, when he's checking her over.

"um, maybe like forty minutes? my watch cracked." here's to hoping they don't take that out of her paycheck. "but where were you headed? i still got half a tank left in my scuba gear and i know we're still scrambling out here. we're all good to go."

silverio delfino

28. Recover essential resources or items.

☉

Participants are tasked with exploring the submerged areas of Sea Mauville to salvage valuable resources and artifacts.

saskia might be clueless when it comes to anything outside of platonic intimacy, but she is still at the whims of herself, and her gaze lingers just a tad too long on him after he gets down to his swimsuit. it's not her fault, really. she reads too many YA novels and all of the protags are brooding bad boys.

she thinks nothing of it and stares down hard at the choppy water lapping at the side of their boat. 

"are you new to the rangers?" she says with a laugh, trying to envision him at the annual ranger potluck with some mashed potatoes in hand. 

"'cause sorry, roy, but i'm gonna have to make sure i got your back. no one's gonna get hurt on sasky volosenkova's watch!" she snatches the waterproof earpiece from his hands and tugs up her diving suit's hood around it. the waves become muted; her internal voice gets lower. 

she hums and feels the vibration in her throat. WEIRDDD.

frogger resurfaces and then paddles to the side, waiting expectantly for sasky. she wriggles her flippers, rights her gear, and says, "see you in the deep, bestie," and falls backward into the water. 

Roy Aker

21. Use technology to assist in the operation.

☉