"It's fine, it's not like I expected you to know all the details" He answered, shaking his head. "It's something I need to talk to her about anyway. The kids aren't used to Hoenn, and the heat is probably agitating them. So they're uncomfortable and unfamiliar and I don't... Well, I guess I can't really blame them for acting out more often. And I'm sure if I talked to Izumi about that, she'd understand. I just don't think I can really talk to her about it while she's in the middle of chewing them out for the third time this week" The blonde explained.

They were just about done, it looked like. When something would pop out of the pile of old clothes. While surprised, Josh smiled lightly when he recognized it. "Rai!" Lightning chirped in delight as the Raichu spotted the Pichu that had appeared in front of them.

"Is that one yours, Alec?"

KABOOM.

It was done.

They'd succeeded in keeping the bomb from bringing anyone harm. Fawkes landed and Josh would slump down as he fell off the Charizard, hitting the ground in a heap. He let out a groan in exhaustion as he managed to sit up. But it didn't take long for him to remember their other problem.

"Arceus alive... It's like I never left Interpol."

He needed to take this thing down, so he could head off to the Pokemon Center to get Dunamus proper care. Several Pokemon are battling the creature, and Josh knew that it was time for one final assault if they were to take this thing down. He noticed right away that the thing looked... Different from before. But perhaps that meant it was close to being defeated?

Either way, Josh would hop back aboard Fawkes, as would Lightning. Josh would command the Charizard to fly straight at the creature, and the trio ended up right in the middle of its attack in turn. While his senses were still a bit dulled from the explosion earlier, Josh hoped they could still pull this off...

"Lightning! Fawkes!" Josh called to his Raichu and Charizard. Fawkes would use Flamethrower, hoping to stop the obstacles heading for them. As for Lightning...

"RAAAAAAAIIIII... CHUUUUUUUU!" Lightning screamed at the top of its lungs, using Nasty Plot followed up with a Thunder that careened straight for the creature, at full power.

It was now or never.

a|IeTzQw

Josh smiled brightly as the Venusaur began to pluck even more berries from its back to hand to them. He would bow his head gratefully. "Thank you. Your generosity will save many lives" He promised as he would take the berries handed to him. Lightning would take some as well, as did Kazimir. While the Raichu was alerted to being able to plant them, it remained to see how Lightning would communicate that to them. But it would manage, somehow.

As they bade the Venusaur farewell and began to head back, Josh looked toward Kazimir with a quizzical look as he began to bite into one of the berries. Was he just really hungry? Or was there addictive properties to these berries? That was something that Lightning wouldn't be able to tell them.

"Save some for the sick" He pointed out calmly as they headed back to town. Hopefully these berries would be able to stop the spread of the infection. And then his kids would be safe.

"Aye. Somewhere on the other side of town. I'll probably swap places with her before the end of the night to see what the festivities on the other side are like with the little one here. I don't know when she's coming around, though. If I see her, that just means it's time to switch."

Josh takes a breath before showing Zachary how to wiggle the line a bit. While there isn't a clear indicator of why to Zach, there was also no reason for them not to follow and keep doing so. Before long, a Magikarp grabs the line. Zachary lets out an array of squeals and giggles, and Josh places Zach's hand on the reel, getting him to grip before starting to spin it.

"Good" He spoke softly toward the Ranger when he had lowered his voice while mentioning that he had been ensuring that the Pokemon were being treated right. "I'm glad to hear that. It's as you said before. These are their homes too. They should be treated as equals."

He sure hoped they could get it. Otherwise they would have to deal with the fact that Kazimir had winded itself. Especially if the Venusaur up and attacked instead... That would be a problem. So he held his breath a little bit during the exchange. He flinched a bit when the Venusaur's vines would come out. He had a Venusaur of his own outside the region, and knew exactly what the vines could entail.

Bu instead, the Venusaur would pluck a berry from its back and hand it to Kazimir. Josh took a deep breath, as he looked to Kazimir. It seemed that it was now or never... Moment of truth time.

It worked.

Letting out a sigh in relief, he grinned wide. "Good. At least we know there's a cure now" He remarked as he looked to the Venusaur. "There are a lot of people sick from something serious" He explained to the Venusaur. "Do you mind if we take some more berries to give to some people that are really sick? And maybe let them know the berries are here in case others need to be cured? People and Pokemon are potentially going to die if we don't."

Lightning would chime in to ensure to the Venusaur it understood his meaning.

"She doesn't know" He elaborated. "My kids are smart enough not to tell her that they got caught eating cookies. Luckily they didn't seem to have ate many, so I doubt their appetite will be spoiled, so there's a good chance she won't notice unless she's suddenly developed magic cookie counting powers. But yeah, I just... I just look at them, with their big eyes, and I can't scold them very hard. My wife meanwhile, is a much harder scolder, and I can't take the thought of them dealing with that. They've gotten a lot of it lately."

He let out a sigh. Well, at least the house here was starting to look a lot cleaner. "Not that I don't appreciate that she can do that, Lord knows one of us has to. But the kids are still adjusting to the new place, so they're acting out more than usual. I just... Thought that just this once, they could go with just a light scolding this time and a reminder not to do that. But I don't do well with withholding information or lying, so... I took the chance to get out for a bit. I know it was irresponsible me to do, but... It's not like I can just say I scolded them already, she knows I don't do so hard enough for her tastes. So I just didn't say anything, and hope they don't take the break for granted."

"Hey, I know that Pokemon!"

That exclamation came shortly after he rolled out of the way of a Flamethrower heading his way. Josh grinned slightly as he brought out a Pokemon of his own. "Go, Kermy!"

"Poliwhirl!"

The rotund Poliwhirl, aptly named "Kermy" would attract the attention of the Magcargo which would fire another Flamethrower at the Poliwhirl. "Bubblebeam!" Josh called toward Kermy, who responded with a blast of bubbles that managed to overwhelm the flamethrower long enough, though the Flamethrower had more power. It wouldn't push it back long...

"Jump!" He called to Kermy, who leaped into the air. The Magcargo didn't react in time as the change in direction led to the Bubblebeam being shot from higher up, hitting the Magcargo dead on. Josh would take advantage of it being stunned to toss a Pokeball its way, hoping that it would be enough...

Josh laughed in turn as the grumpy Incineroar just got back to work, though Josh had to keep him from accidentally ripping a garbage bag. As they got to work, he couldn't help but chuckle a bit more as he chided his Pokemon for laughing.

"Well..." He began when Alec asked. "See, my wife went out to help out at the Izakaya, which is a restaurant in Lavaridge her mother owns. So it was on me to watch the kids. I got distracted for a minute as some of my Pokemon were making a ruckus and when I came back... I found Zachary and Lyra, my young son and daughter, both who are about three... With their faces covered in chocolate chips and trying to cram as many cookies in their mouths as possible from the jar. I have no idea how they got the jar, all I know is they had the jar.

But see... I'm not so good at scolding. I could only do so lightly, and I don't think it accomplished much. I just... Can't, you know? Whenever I try to get mad at them, they just look at me with these big old eyes and I just... Agh... I can't. I can't stay mad. My wife is a lot more hardnosed though, and will likely get on them for it, and big time. I decided to spare them their fate, I put the jar higher up, cleaned their hands and faces, and decided not to tell my wife when she got back. I don't do well with a guilty conscience so..." He trailed off with a laugh. "Your call came at a convenient time."

"I have a shiny Pokemon of my own, though they're not in Hoenn with me right now" He admitted. "We only just moved here a little while ago, and getting a large number of Pokemon past customs has proven to be... Difficult. So it'll be a little while" He added. "Maybe I'll show you sometime, if I get the chance once I've cleared that matter up."

He laughed a bit as the Ranger talked about his job and how stressful it could be. A dream job, but a lot of work. Well, didn't that sound familiar? And the people being the bigger stresser...

Oh man, did he know.

"Pokemon and people share this home. But people don't seem to realize that. Or even realize how to treat each other a lot of the time" He spoke up with a small frown. "Lord knows how many people I've dealt with who just can't get along with others."

Though something caught his attention. A glimmer on a purple color, and then...

"Hey, is that...?"

No way.

Before he could speak further on it though, a "Rai... CHUUUUU!" sounded that caused Josh to look back to Lightning, who had zapped a Grimer that it had gotten into a dispute with. Josh let out a sigh and shook his head. "Lightning..." He groaned as he would take out a Pokeball and toss it at the Grimer. "Suppose least I can do is get this one to a center once we're done here."

Lightning just stared up at its Trainer and pouted. Whatever the Grimer had done, it had clearly offended it.

"Micken" He corrected quickly when Alec would try and pronounce the nickname he had given to his Incineroar, who had already at this point looked to Alec with a look of confusion at the mistake of its name. The prideful cat looked a mix of confused and maybe even a bit offended. "Like, Mick. Then en, pronounced like inn, like one of those old timey places you'd stay at. Though it's spelled with 'e-n'. You'll get it" He elaborated with a small grin. He looked to Micken for a moment and laughed. "Oh come on. He'll get it next time, you silly cat."

He was right though, the kitchen looked a lot more spacious now that it wasn't covered in Arceus knows what amount of clutter. "Place isn't bad. Reminds me of my dorm room when I went to university in Sinnoh" He admitted. He took one of the garbage bags when offered, and nodded his head at the instructions.

"I'll be honest" He spoke up as they got started. "I might be here for my own reasons too. I may or may not have done a bad thing and needed to escape the heat" He admitted as he laughed. "Let's start though, I'll explain as we go."

The Ranger had been a positive meeting for him, so it was easy enough for him to remember a friendly face in this case. He hadn't met much of those in recent years, so someone like Orion stuck out easily. He wasn't really offended that Orion didn't seem to recognize him at first. If he recalled, he had called himself a Ranger, so he probably saw a slew of faces on the constant. He smiled gingerly and nodded his head.

"Aye. We met in the Fiery Path."

He looks to Zachary who while he hasn't been catching anything so far, the child seems quite happy just watching the Magikarp move about.

"We are" He spoke in response to his question. "If my wife and daughter happen to come around, you might get a chance to meet them. But at the moment it's just Zachary and I" He remarked as he would slightly loosen his grip on the rod to let Zachary get used to using it on his own.

"You're here on your own?" He inquired toward Orion.

"I know. But you shouldn't have to" Josh responded curtly when the other man spoke up that he could power walk. It was far easier to deal with a gingerly walking Kazimir right now than to deal with one that had collapsed and needed immediate care. If he crashed now, they would have to abandon the mission for the time being. That was not something that Josh wanted to do. So to him, taking this at a ginger pace would be the way to go.

And then he took off at a run and Josh just stood there with a deadpan expression for a moment. He let out a sigh and plucked at his hairs a bit before he and Lightning ran off after him. Just as Josh predicted, Kazimir went down. Though not before they discovered a Bulbasaur, and then following it, a strange looking Venusaur.

Could this be the one?

Josh looked to Lightning, motioning toward the Venusaur. "Ask the Venusaur if it can heal ailments. Tell it our friend here is sick" He instructed, keeping it as simple as possible for the Raichu. Lightning nodded as he approached the Venusaur, and began to parlay the same point.

The Wynaut didn't take long before it started to dart toward the slide again. The Wynaut was still very one-track minded toward its goal, taking off full speed as it ran up the slide. As it began to slide down again though, the Wynaut would find a force keeping it from falling back. It didn't take long for Wob to decide that this meant that it could continue going up. So Wob continued running full speed, even if the slide's downward slope meant it was going up very slowly, until it finally managed to reach the top.

Wob nearly flew over the stairs on the other end of the slide, but managed to catch itself. Turning, it seemed to acknowledge that the Beldum had been a help to it. "Wy! Wynaut!" It chirped cheerfully, seeming to be thanking it.