Keiko, her Pelipper, and Rex's Togepi had saved the day today, yet she was thanking the Amighty Sinnoh? What even was that? Some sort of baseball team?

Rex couldn't help but feel a little bit miffed.

"Ranger?" The young trainer laughed and poked his thumb towards his chest, beaming as he did so. As the fire smoldered around them, he struck a brave figure, full of light and power. "No, no. I'm..."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he smiled. In the background, the Togepi danced alongside the Togekiss in some abhorrent waltz.

"Unemployed."

---

keiko mori

Oh, she wanted to put the fire out? Damn. He hadn't brought any Water-type Pokémon. He had a Trapinch, but what the hell was he gonna do? Throw sand at the fire and pray? Could Trapinch pray? All Rex's tended to do was burrow and hide.

Still, defeating this Blaziken would likely work. The boulders thrown by the Rock Tomb had already shifted due to the Blaziken's immense strength, and it looked mighty pissed. Combined with the blaze, this was looking like remarkably dire straits. Still, that wouldn't stop him.

He'd need to find a way if he was gonna impress this chick.

"Not to worry! Check this out!" Rex grinned as he pointed at Togepi as it begun to waggle its fingers. "Togepi will save us!"

'toge toge!'

They were fucked. Still, Togepi continued to waggle, eventually producing a Metronome at its fingertips. As the Blaziken ran forward, all Rex could do was pray for a Water-type attack to stifle the wildfire.

'pi!'

The Metronome resolved as Togepi clapped its small arms together. With a flash of light, a Hyper Beam sent the Blaziken flying into the stratosphere.

---

keiko mori
27. Handle encounters with hostile individuals or pokemon.

In the short time that Rex had been assigned to the Top Champion, he had said about nine whole words before muttering to himself in a mixture of delirium and bashfulness. The pop idol looked as at home at Sea Mauville as Rex did at a M.M rave party. Still, that didn't stop the young trainer from looking at Melody and looking away when she looked back.

"Eheheh... Top Champ..." Rex giggled to himself as they descended deeper into the preserve. There were supposed to be a handful of people stuck in a men's restroom somewhere. With the entrance blockaded by rubble, assistance was desperately needed. "Eheheh..."

A simple task made difficult by Rex's unprofessionalism. He gave her another look, before turning away and shaking in excitement.

Sparking wires dangled overhead as they descended. Rex made a point to bob and weave around them.

---

Melody Miro
03. Address environmental hazards.

Sea Mauville was sinking. A nature preserve was sinking and they had dedicated two trainers to sweeping up an office space that had allegedly been turned into a preserve for Litwick. Why were Fire-type Pokemon taking refuge into a once-boat, Rex didn't know. He was a trainer, not a professor.

To make matters worse, the key to the room had been eaten by Rex's Munchlax as he had descended into the depths. It had been super embarrassing, but it wasn't about how you fell, but about how you picked yourself up and kept going.

"Alright, it's fine. I've got this." Rex eyed the locked door beadily, before turning to regard Tsuru. There was no way in hell he was going to look bad in front of some middle-aged mystic, lest she cast some voodoo curse on him or something. "I've done this before."

With a shout, he lunged forward, throwing himself against the door and sending it crashing to the floor. The office space behind it was filled with white candles, old books, and other various knickknacks. In the corner, one stood out.

---

Mitsuru Kagami
43. Force open a locked or barricaded door to access a critical area.

"Dammit, Munchlax! Why'd you have to eat the key? You oaf!"

The argument between Rex and his Munchlax would've been infinitely funnier if he and Roy weren't in a room slowly filling with water. Sea Mauville groaned slightly as it tipped slightly in the water, sending Sea Mauville branded mugs and cupholders crashing against the floor as the preserve continued to shift.

A Charizard pen fell into the water before Roy's eyes, lost to the ocean forevermore.

"You stupid! All we managed to get was this hard drive!" Rex bonked his Munchlax on the head with it in annoyance. The key was needed for a padlocked fire escape that had been designated a safe habitat for Binacle. Whoever had locked a fire escape of all things deserved to be shot.

"Spit it out! C'mon, spit it out!" Rex throttled the Munchlax. "You tub of lard!"

---

Roy Aker
45. Retrieve important hard drives from Sea Mauville computers.

It was a good matchup, Togekiss versus Blaziken. It wasn't the perfect type advantage, but at least Keiko held some marginal advantage, save for the burning forest around them. With clever direction, she'd likely be able to win.

As long as nobody infringed and made this fight even more complicated than it wa-

"Not to worry, pretty lady! I'll save youuuuuuuuuu!" Through the burning brush, a young man erupted with the hem of his coat ablaze. He stumbled, fell, pivoted into a deft roll, snuffing out the fires as he did so, before standing upward in front of Keiko. "I've got this!"

The fringes of his coat continued smolder as he stood in front of the Blaziken, alongside Keiko's Togekiss.

'toge toge!'

A Togepi waddled forward and spread its arms forward, as if protecting the Togekiss from harm.

---

keiko mori
07. Defend important locations or resources from harm.

"Damn. This sucks." Rex gave Tsubaki a glance as they stood in front of the women's restroom. The faint hiss of Ekans droned from behind the door, inviting them to a death of a thousand snake bites. Rex wasn't scared of a bunch of snakes, but he was scared of something else. "I 'unno how we're gonna deal with this."

Instead, the issue was the definitively female restroom sign as he regarded Tsubaki. His eyes flicked from the Gym Leader to the bathroom sign, as if he was comparing her to the sign itself.

Yep. After a close comparison of the Gym Leader and Tsubaki herself, this was definitely the women's restroom. A bad sign, because...

"You're gonna have to go in without me. It's women only." The sign was decrepit and unused, just like this section of Sea Mauville. The preserve's actual amenities remained unused for several decades. "I'm a dude."

His earnest expression made it absolutely clear that he wasn't joking as he regarded the large supply of antidotes they had piled up by the door.

---

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki
12. Ensure sufficient supplies are available for the operation.

Sea Mauville was large.

Spoiler alert.

A dozen stories, levels, and docks covered the preserve like a latticework and honeycomb. It was remarkably easy to get lost, turned around, and completely confused. Many of the rangers had provided detailed maps and pamphlets of Sea Mauville's layout, but it didn't help when a large portion of the area was collapsed.

That was how Rex ended up sharing a vent's crawlspace with one of Hoenn's Elite Four.

The hardest part of their mission wasn't breaking into an old manager's office to steal a ton of files, it was actually resisting the urge to challenge one of the strongest trainers in the world to a Pokémon battle with a Togepi.

"You're gonna knock down the third vent cover on the left and drop down, I think." Rex frowned at his map as they shuffled forward. "Not this one, nor that one... Say, random question."

He was silent for a moment.

"Any chance I can fight that big dog I keep hearing about?"

---

Navy
21. Use technology to assist in the operation.

Rex didn't have a Water-type to rely on. He had a Togepi that had waggled its finger and destroyed an entire floor of Sea Mauville with a Metronome-induced Explosion. Silverio didn't need to know that, though. Rex would repent and spend a few months in jail once this was over, but for now, the people here needed their help.

"You are? Nice, man. I hope the sandwiches are Paldean." Rex prepared to slip the breathing apparatus over his face as they prepared to dive into the deep. Silverio's froggy friend had gone and done a quick recon of the water below, and had reported nothing of note. "Alright, lets get going."

The apparatus slipped over Rex's head and he gave a thumbs up, before slipping into the grate below.

As the young trainer's eyes adjusted, he peered into the depths. He saw the safe, but there were an unfortunate number of Binacles surrounding it. Ugly little shits, those.

He gestured at Silverio and his froggy friend and pointed down.

---

silverio delfino
21. Use technology to assist in the operation.

Blobbert was a hero to Water-types everywhere. The Magikarps would hail his name from the depths of Route 120 to the shores of Shoal Cave. He would be a god and savior to the Horsea and the Krabby as well. As the Muk grinned, all Rex could do was offer a thumbs-up.

"Huh? Oh." Rex turned to regard the Togepi curled up in Hideo's arms, waggling his fingers with eldritch glee. "Yeah, that's mine. He's just a little guy, you can hold him if you want. He likes you. Makes sense, you probably saved his life."

With that, Rex turned back to the ocean to regard the spill. It really was dangerous, like a dark miasma that crept across the sea like a tumor. A small microcosm of Hoenn.

The finger wagging continued.

'toge toge...'

"Y'know, after the battle there."

---

Hideo Kino
03. Address environmental hazards.

He stood beside the Littleroot Gym Leader, an odd expression plastered on his face as the two looked out towards the oil slick leaking from Sea Mauville's hull like a bloody gash. The oil refused to mix with the water, creating a distinct black sludge that had buried Magikarps, Mantykes, and other Water-types in toxic runoff.

Well, Rex was 'seeing'. Hideo less so. Still, Rex shifted from foot to foot, awkward.

"The other teams have relocated a lot of the wildlife, Hideo. It's just us and the other cleanup crews now. I don't even know where we start with this, or like..." Rex shrugged awkwardly, unsure of how to approach an environmental disaster. "...anything."

'Toge toge...' A Togepi nudged Hideo's shoe, demanding uppies.

Man, it felt weird being with his hometown's Gym Leader. It was like running into the mayor while doing community service.

---

Hideo Kino
15. Coordinate with other teams or local authorities.

The expression that Rex had as he opened his mouth was one that Roze would remember until the end of her days. It was spoken with such conviction that it would resonate with the facets of her soul until the end of time.

"Because he's the strongest." Rex said with a smile as Munchlax kicked another piece of rubble out of the way with minimal effort as he rushed towards the pipe. This was the power of a Pokémon that had turned its metabolism into a weapon of mass destruction. "He would never lose."

Munchlax leapt forward like a missile, launching itself towards the gaping wound expelling noxious gas into Sea Mauville. The pipe was plugged by Munchlax's rotund body.

Slowly, the poison began to dissipate like magic.

"Yeah..." Rex beamed at Roze with an insanely smug aura of pride. "I'm the best trainer in the world."

---

Roze Falkner
42. Use a pokemon to clear the air of smoke or other noxious gases.

'Toge!' The Togepi nods in agreement, its ribbon curled around its spiky body as Eris scoops up her new stalwart ally. She's not incorrect, for Togepi's power is great and incomprehensible.

Which is he begins to waggle his fingers to cause a Metronome.

A dangerous move, given Metronome's unreliability. It could do anything. The room could flood, Sea Mauville could sink, the Togepi could explode, or the room could fill with Woopers. The possibilities were quite literally endless.

So when the finger finishes wagging, an Ally Switch occurs.

Three very rotund Sealeo appear in the middle of the room, confused. A dozen Woopers follow, spilling on top of the incredibly round seal as they butt heads with one another. Rex, meanwhile, is nowhere to be found, having been switched with the countless Woopers and Sealeo.

Victory...?

---

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