"Thanks, Raichu. I can take it from here." Lunick waved off the larger electric type, having to shout a little bit just for it to be able to hear his release commands over the roaring thunder of the Fiore Grand Falls. Sekra range's Pokemon could tend to be especially unforgiving- even to a newly found Top Ranger of his ranking. Finding the Raichu here saved him yet another trip to the sweet retired Ranger couple that made the Roof of Fiore their home: while they would most certainly always welcome him with open arms for a styler recharge any time, he had already been thrice today, and he was sure he was not their only taker of the offer.
As it turns out, blowing up a significant part of a mountain range happens to displace the surrounding wildlife greatly, to the point of the Wintown Ranger Base needing backup for rescue and recovery of the natural environment. It was a footnote he would be sure to inform the remnants of the Go-Rock Squad of, should they ever rear their heads again after being disbanded. (Or I guess, band-ed, in the case of the Quads.)
Most of those Rangers who had already been dispatched to the north here simply extended their assignment once the critical assessment had been made that taking on the range's recovery would be more than the Wintown team could handle on their own. That meant that the little couple in the mountains here was probably juggling at minimum: himself, Solana, Aria, Freddie, Chris, and Elita. Without even counting the Rangers in the lower range that could run back to the Wintown Base to recharge if needed… So, the less times he could burden them, the better.
Speaking of Elita, a metallic clang of a cry pierced its way into his ears over the sound of the gushing waterfall behind him, and within seconds the Leader and her Skarmory were landing hard onto the outcrop of rock he had been occupied. "You weren't answering your styler," she commented, and thankfully Lunick had been stationed out here long enough at this point to see past her steely hardened gaze to know the comment wasn't a reprimand. Pointing at the waterfall with her thumb, the senior Ranger nodded. "Now I see why."
"Probably didn't help that the thing was nearly dead," Lunick mused, clipping it back into his holster. "Some Piloswines got the best of me. I can return to Area 4 shortly now that I got a bit of a boost."
Elita didn't dismount her Skarmory, and so Lunick knew she was only popping in for a fleeting check-in. "Aria is covering it, sweeping in from 3. Since you're here, make yourself useful and see what you can do to return these Magikarp to the waters. I don't need a Gyarados climbing the falls and taking out this bridge in a rampage on top of cleanup."
"Yes, Leader!" Lunick saluted, and Elita turned around, ready to fly off.
"And maybe make sure not to miss any further check-ins?" This was actually more of a tease, even though to an outsider it may seem like harsh leadership. "Next time, you may actually need saving, after all."
"Yes, Leader," he repeated, though it was a little more exasperated and paired with an amused, toothy smile as she flew off to check on the rest of the squadron. As instructed, he made haste over to one of the only built structures in the mountain range: a wooden bridge across the falls where many Magikarp flopped about, having been blown out of the water. Lunick got into a relatively easy routine of snatching them up by the tail and hucking them back into the rushing water, and made quick work of the side-assignment as he crossed back over to the main hiking trail. Usually, there was a Tangela here, but it was absent- something that was entirely fine by him anyways, as the little suckers had tripped him up by the ankle one too many times during this recovery mission for him to find it cute anymore.
Lunick scooped up his Minun onto his shoulder, huffing and puffing his way up the large flight of unkempt stairs. Even though he was certainly of good physical health, he still very much so needed to take a breather at the top of them, because the air was much thinner at this altitude.
Wheezing just a little, the dark haired man hobbled himself a few steps to the right, where he then bent over and placed his hands on his knees. No matter if he'd been in Wintown for 2 weeks or not, he still didn't think he would ever get used to the biting cold or need to gasp for breath after exertion. Ringtown's climate was just so much more his speed.
The issue was, in that little moment of thought, he failed to recognize the what-should-have-been-familiar rumblings of the ground shaking beneath him. Which were always, ALWAYS followed by the-
THWACK!
A Golem rolled smack into where he was standing, absolutely bodying Lunick and knocking him over. And off of the ledge. Needless to say, the wheezing had quickly become screaming.
He nearly felt his arm ripped out of its socket immediately thereafter, and soon found himself dangling between layers of the cliffside, having been snagged by a stray vine around his wrist that had prevented him from careening all the way down to broken bones town. He huffed out an exhale of panicked relief (because honestly, it was neither fully one nor the other) before something entirely different cut through his thoughts altogether, and suddenly the rescue made a lot more sense.
"Hey sweetheart. You hang around here often~?" Turns out the Golem was not the only thing he failed to notice- looming above him, crouched on the cliff he had just tumbled off of was a very cocky looking Solana, her grin so prideful and toothy that it nearly blinded him.
Rolling his eyes profoundly at her poor-bar-pickup-line tease, he tried to get his wits about him. His heart was still nearly beating out of his chest from the scare (and nothing else)… so he let out another long exhale that was actually full relief this time, because while he may have to suffer through her power trip of having him in a compromised situation, she would never, ever let him go.
"Ha, ha." He laughed sarcastically, doing the best he could to glare up at her, but it only fueled her fire. "You know, you shouldn't joke about things like that so loud. Imagine if Aria catches wind of it…! We will never, EVER hear the end of it!"
It was a bluff to trick her into ending his suffering early, and it was one entirely done in vain. "Aww, but just think about it! The Ringtown Duo, together at last~!" Solana teased, relishing in the fact that finally the tables had turned, and she was the one who could make these kinds of jokes at his expense. She even flicked her hair over her shoulder the way some of the more gossipy Rangers of the region did when they assumed the two of them couldn't hear their chatter, mimicking some of the actual things they'd heard whispered about themselves as they walked past. "I mean, wouldn't it just be sooooooo adorable~?"
He could also see now that she was in fact the reason the Tangela had been missing- it's long, leafy tongue was the vine wrapped around his wrist and holding him up from a gloomy plummet.
Goodie.
He couldn't exactly shrug, and the small, amused smile at her attempts to provoke him gave him away, but he grumbled nonetheless in begrudging surrender. "You know what? Just drop me. I think it would be more painless than this."
And okay, that one made Solana genuinely laugh, dropping the act. She reached down, first with a hand extended for Minun to clamber her way up to his shoulder from where she had fallen to Lunick's foot and to use Solana's arm as a bridge to traverse to solid ground. Once she had been squared away with Plusle, the teal haired girl anchored one of her feet into place and reached down with both her hands, where she and her partner grasped one another in a solid forearm handlock that allowed her to hoist him up from dangling and onto the ground next to her in a heap.
Standing up, Solana gave a flick of the hand and a sweet smile to thank the Tangela for saving her best friend and dismiss it back to where it had come. She brushed herself off, having gotten dirt on her uniform from crouching over him, and couldn't resist another jab. "You know, I for one think 'the hang out here' worldplay was at least worthy of a laugh."
"As if," he snickered condescendingly, which was ironically paired with her very gingerly keeping hold of his hand between them and peeling back his glove to make sure it hadn't gotten too bad of rope burn from the Tangela and was in need of treatment. He completely allowed her to assess him while they bickered, not even so much as drawing back an inch as she did so. "Two things. One, I was a little bit busy watching my life flash before my eyes, and two, you do realize laughing is usually something that happens after good jokes, yes?"
That warranted him a shove to the side, but at least she had the decency to make it his good arm that hadn't been yanked to hold all his body weight. "Alright, alright. Let's go. Chop chop. Back to the mission at hand." Lunick held his hands up in surrender, and she looked at him quizzically as she circled him like a Sharpedo, definitely knowing the sudden motivation was only to get her to relent her beatdown.
She stopped in front of him again, crossing her arms over her chest and teasing him again. "What's the rush? Got a hot date?"
"Damn right I do," he caught her off-guard by immediately playing along, and used that to his advantage to strike forward and snatch her styler right off her holster and hold it up in front of her. "A hot date with beating your score at the capture arena!"
Grinning wildly, he absolutely booked it down the downhill path, moving surprisingly fast for someone who just was dangling off the edge of a cliff mere minutes prior. And unsurprisingly, he was being chased down by his closest comrade and their two electric Pokémon, knowing he was way more dead now than he ever would have been had he just taken the fall outright.