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.

Adam was completely in his element. Having grown up on a farm during his childhood and helping his friend run a daycare that was on a farm something like this was going to be a piece of cake for him.

This job was going to be smooth sailing for him but he wasn’t sure about how his partner was going to fair on this job. While he had plenty of experience he was pretty positive that she had absolutely none. So far the tasks they had gone on were pretty easy and anyone could do it so how would she handle this?

”Alright then kiddo, this should be an easy job.” Adam turned to Iris, a smile on his face. ”Ever do any sort of farm work before?” He’d ask, looking down at a Wooloo than was walking by.

”Seems pretty right easy at first glance, right? But trust me when I say it can be harder than it looks. Especially dealing with the little bastards that tend to feed on these sorts.” Adam looked back to the barn where the Wooloo were normally kept.

”They’re sneaky little bastards who will slip in when you least expect it so keep an eye out alright?”

He didn’t actually intend on falling asleep but he did so anyway. This was why he didn’t hear the girl coming up to him and when she called out to him he jerked violently for a second and shot up. ”Woah, what’s going on!” He panicked, looking around for whatever sort of emergency was going on but calmed down when he saw that it was only Iris.

Adam rubbed the back of his head and let out a load yawn. ”Oh hey you did do it.” He blinked, well that was fast and he was having a good dream too.

”Well good job kid, let’s get this where it needs to go. Your Mudkip will be back to one hundred once we get this to him.” Adam began to walk towards the exit of the forest back to town.

”Oh and Adam is just fine, Mister Shepard sounds weird.”

To avenge the fall of their trainer Adam’s Pokémon increased the intensity of their attack. Left and right they flung snowballs at a speed the kids wouldn’t be able to keep up with. ”Woah guys there’s no need to go that hard.” Adam said as he poked his head over their little snow mound, causing his two Pokémon to lighten up.

He was surprised to see that Orion and his Pokémon were getting in on the fun too. The sight had Adam pretending to wipe a fake tear from his eye as he smiled at the man. If he were to glance over the silver haired male would be giving him a thumbs up.

”Turns out I’m alive suckers!” He shouted as he jumps from behind the mound and starts to fling snowballs left and right. With the combined effort of the two rangers, the kids didn’t stand a chance!

It had felt like his fear had completely control over his very being, causing him to stand still as he stared down this dark alley. It was unlike him to completely cower to the emotion and let someone else take charge by themselves.

That feeling of uselessness enraged him to the point of visible frustration; of course, he was scared but so what? And what exactly was he scared of? A creepy hallway and some voices! It was utterly pathetic and all he had to do was take a step forward and answer a simple question, was that so hard?

”Soul I want you to stay back.” Adam ordered to his Lucario who looked displeased by this command. ”Once whoever or whatever it is that’s asking this question shows themselves that’s when you attack alright? You’ll be too fast for them to handle.” The explanation calms the Lucario down as Adam then moves. As Illeana answered Adam was not far behind, stepping to the woman’s side and answering as well.

”You heard her! Red!”

2Tb5XPTV

”I come from a big family so dealing with kids isn’t a big deal.” He explained. This was why when he looked at the scene before him he could only shake his head and laugh a bit as he thought about how many times he saw something like this growing up. The nostalgia was making him a bit homesick. He laughed again as Orion got decked by a snowball.

”Man you really aren’t good with kids.” Adam said as he pulled out two more of his pokeballs. He then released his Lucario and Infernape, the arrival of the two Pokémon grabbing the attention of some of the kids.

Adam then began to gather up some snow, making a fine snowball. His two Pokémon seeing this caught onto what was going on and made their own.

”Alright ya bunch of little Patrats! I’ma about to show you how you have a real snowball fight!” And into the fray he and his Pokémon went, slinging snowballs left and right like it was their job. What made it so fun for Adam and his crew was the fact that the kids got really into it, playing things out like they were in an actual war.

”C’mon then! Get yourself some ammo and join in the fun!” Adam would call out to Orion as he took a snowball to the chest.

”Man down! Man down!” He wailed jokingly. He and his Pokémon hid behind a snow mound using it as cover for the rain of snowballs coming their way. ”I don’t think I’m going to make it.” He cried, holding onto Sun’s hand. The plan was to tire the kids out with a big snowball fight, that’d get them to calm down.

Adam smiled as he heard her run off. He knew how the league and his other colleagues viewed the girl and treated her. Sure she had a muddied past and some of her views were less than ideal but she was still a person, and a kid on top of that.

Besides she’d never grow if all they did was hover over her and not let her act on her own at some point. And given that she always seemed eager to please, Adam didn’t worry at all about her running off or doing something stupid since he wasn’t watching over her.

This would also help him evaluate what else she’ll need to know about ranger work. Knowing the lay of the land was extremely important and this sort of job was something rangers would get frequently. While something like this might seem boring it was important to work and having to fend off rampaging Pokémon or poachers, while might sound fun, can get stressful.

And besides, her proving she can operate on her own will go a long way with the higher-ups. Probably make things a lot easier for her moving forward if they trusted her more than they currently don’t.

It was quite unfortunate that a kid like her was raised within Rocket. This mentality that he was sure was drilled into her was disheartening. But Adam wouldn’t dwell on it much, not now at least. They had a job to do and they were right about in the place they needed to be. This would be a good test, see where she was in terms of being able to perform her ranger tasks.

”Alright, this should be good enough.” Adam stopped and turned to Iris, a smirk on his face. ”We’ll put a lynchpin in this conversation for later. And trust me we’ll talk more about this later.” He began, looking around at the forest around them.

”You know what we’re looking for right?” The older ranger took a seat up against a tree, getting rather relaxed. ”Go on then, I’m sure you can find it on your own.” After he spoke he stretched his body and let out a loud yawn.

”I’m going to just take a nice little nap here until you get back.” He’d then fold his arms and close his eyes.

Oh man this was definitely going to be one of those moments that tried Adam’s patience. He stopped, turning to Iris, giving her a puzzled look. Honestly he shouldn’t be surprised that the girl had this sort of mentality when it came to the treatment of Pokémon and her views on them.

After all she was in rocket and from the way things looked she was basically raised by them. It was strange, she came off as such a nice and polite individual but she harbored some pretty bad views. He didn’t think part of the job would be teaching this sort of stuff.

”So you’re telling me whenever a Pokémon got sick or injured you just got rid of them?” Adam ran a hand through his hair, sighing deeply as he did so before then shaking his head. ”Jeez man that’s just terrible. I knew rocket was heartless but I at least thought they gave some shit about their own Pokémon.” Just thinking about it made him sick.

”Alright well we don’t do that kind of screwed up shit. We don’t just toss people or Pokémon away because of their sick or injured.” While he was giving her a stern look he wasn’t upset with her.

”How would you feel if someone threw you out just cause you got sick?” He was almost afraid of what her answer would be.

”I imagine pretty shitty, right? Abandoning someone is a terrible thing to do, and Pokémon feels the same way people do.”

An actual job, and as long as Adam kept his cool and nothing went south then it should be an easy one too. Just get the stuff for the medicine and deliver and or use the goods. ”What?” What sort of a question was that? ”Uh cause they’re sick? What do you mean by why?” He laughed, though he was pretty sure this shouldn’t be funny.

 ”Umm of course strong Pokémon are useful and needed but everyone, Pokémon and humans alike get sick and don’t feel well.” Why was he explaining this to her? Shouldn’t she know this?

”So we just get them back into tip-top shape.” What a weird thing to ask.

Man this girl was a strange one, Adam could not figure her out at all. She wasn’t mad at him and not only that but she also blamed herself. ”What? No you didn-ugh! Forget it.” He sighed, shrugging his shoulders.

There was no point in trying to make her understand, they were on two completely different wavelengths at this point. They just had to pair him up with such a strange ex-rocket kid. No wonder they wanted someone to keep an eye on her. It seemed less rocket related and more just how she acted in the first place.

Sheesh she was definitely the type to just listen to whatever authority told her was going to happen. Adam rolled his eyes, it was going to be fun dealing with that but he’ll eventually get her out of that way of thinking. ”Having fun is a part of your training alright, so no questioning it. That understood?” He really didn’t need her to answer that.

”Alright then c’mon now, ain’t really anything to do here in boring ole Oldale.” This was one hell of a rocky start but Adam thought maybe he could turn this around.

Adam fucked up. He knew he fucked up and was fucking up but kept on running his stupid mouth. And this was even more evident when Soul walked up next to the man, placing a paw on his arm and giving him that god damn look that always made Adam feel like shit.

”Yeah, yeah. I know I screwed up.” He groaned, knowing that he was going to have to fix this. He took a deep sigh and told himself to swallow all that pent up anger he thought he let go of years ago, not to direct it at some kid.

And to make matters worse on the Adam is an asshole train the girl went and apologized. ”Oh don’t apologize.” Adam replied, turning around to face Iris.

”I should be the one apologizing.” He hung his head in shame. ”Yelling at you and overall being an ass was totally uncalled for. I’m deeply sorry for that.” Sheesh it was hard to stay mad at her when she acted like this.

”Anyone ever tell you that you’re annoyingly polite? Making me feel even worse for getting upset.” That probably came off as a bad thing but it wasn’t but it sure did make Adam feel worse and he should.

”Anyway we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. How about we have a restart and instead of standing around talking about names we can do something fun?” Anything to put this incident behind them.

"How's that sound?"