Author's Note: Wow, I put this on hiatus for longer than I intended. Sorry about that! And I also messed up last chapter a little. But I fixed it.. hua... So, thank you for sticking with me, even though I put this on hiatus for nearly a year! Hah...

Some amount of nights later, I woke up entirely on my own. Not that waking myself up was out of the ordinary, but this morning, it had been just… different. I woke up tired, cramped, and to a vaguely smoky smell that reminded me a little bit of home. Looking over at my alarm clock and realizing I'd managed to wake up about ten minutes before it was set to go off, I switched the alarm itself off and got dressed, careful to not wake the… already waking up Luana.

I left the room to find the base eerily quiet – no Elaine to pore over the machine, Crawford has vanished to wherever, leaving only the unchanging Operator and Barlow (looking so very stoic) to address me with whatever was becoming more clear to be wrong.

"Good morning, Kate." He said, serious as can be. I tilted my head and stretched my arms out, giving him "good morning to you" in response. Luana exited right after this, rubbing her eyes and walking up next to me.

"G'mornin'! What's that smoky smell? Did someone burn their toast or somethin'…" Barlow shook his head. Something told me he was about to say something extremely important, and probably loud.

"That's no toast, that's the Vien Forest! It's on fire!" Something blaringly obvious was wrong, and I knew it, but… I still wasn't moving. From the corner of my eye, Luana herself looked a bit disinterested. This didn't appease Barlow in the slightest. "Snap out of your dazes! You've got people and Pokémon to protect! Crawford's out there now, go find him and help him put out the blaze!" By now, Luana was awake and alert, ready to defend. She probably did her Ranger pose before she dragged me out of the Ranger base. Truthfully, I still didn't know what was happening. All I knew is, well, Barlow said the Vien Forest is on fire. That probably means a lot more than I think it does, and it probably is a lot more important tha-.

"Kate! Come on! We have to go in!" Luana was staring at me, and Pachirisu was pushing me to the best of his ability. The smoky smell I'd smelled earlier, it was a lot clearer now, outside, right next to the Vien Forest. That's where it must be coming from… which would mean… the Vien Forest is on fire…

It hit me then, a nice wake-up slap to the face. The forest I'm not yet allowed to leave is burning to ash, unless Luana and I do something about it. My face must have registered something with Luana, because she turned around and I ran after her, head first into the blazing forest.

We weren't that far in before we noticed a small girl with some Pokémon at her side… Had she started the fire? The closer we got, we realized it was a girl from town, Mimi, and only one of her Happiny. Didn't she have four…?

"Mimi, what are you doing out here? The forest is on fire! Mimi you need to go home, right now!" Luana yelled. I didn't realize until then just how loud the forest actually was, despite the fact the fire hadn't reached where we were yet. Maybe it was just the adrenaline of it all, making it loud.

Mimi shook her head, saying something about her missing Happiny. I didn't have to hear the rest of her sentence to know what to do – so, I left Luana, despite her protests that came afterwards. It must be one of those things you pick up as a Ranger, when to just act upon a situation, even though I'd completely failed to do so earlier.

Before long, I had two of Mimi's Happiny, and upon returning to Luana, the three missing Happiny had been safely relocated, and she left. Beyond that, clearing the Vien Forest was… more of a pain than I'd anticipated. Falling, flaming logs were everywhere, and I couldn't keep up with the same three Wartortles I kept capturing to put them out.

I was acting almost entirely on reflex – I must have looked so cool while I was doing it. My mind kept going back to Outdoor Class – I can't remember, did Crawford say anything like this…? What is it like to be a Ranger, well, this must have been it. The pure adrenaline you feel as you're running through the burning Vien Forest to make your way to your comrade in arms…

There's no describing that feeling. It's incredible, and it's absolutely everything I signed up for. For a moment, my mind went to Keith… what would he think when he heard this? Would he even hear about it? What has he even been doing over in Ringtown…

"Luana! Kate! Oh thank goodness, you're finally here!" Crawford, panting, sweaty, and dirty, called out as he ran to us. "What took you so long?"

"We had to hel-." I started.

"No, no, answer later, there's a Blastoise around here somewhere. Luana, help me relocate these Pokémon, please. Kate, Kate go find the Blastoise."

"What? What am I going to do with a Blastoise?" I yelled back. Luana had already run off, finding Pokémon in danger. Crawford came closer to me, grabbing my shoulders, leaning in a little.

"Kate, trust me. You'll know exactly what to do and where to do it. You need to go find the Blastoise." He turned me and shoved me a little. "Go, Kate!" He started off on the other direction, but got caught on a burning branch. From what I could see, it looked like it managed to cut his uniform, burn his skin, and maybe set his uniform on fire – that was, before he put it out.

"Crawford!" I yelled. He brushed me off, making "go" motions with his hands, clutching his arm.

"Go, Kate!"

I turned my full attention to the direction Crawford had put me in and sprinted, then jogged, then stopped. Where am I going to find a Blastoise…? Blastoise don't reside anywhere in the wooded area. Maybe they did on the banks, but-.

Oh. The riverbanks.

In that moment, I was grateful for the training the Ranger School had given me. Even though I was also running on adrenaline, I would have been more than winded by all the running around the Vien Forest I'd done that day. And luckily for me, I was absolutely right about the riverbank. A Blastoise, a welcome sight. Despite the fact it charged me at every opportunity, catching it wasn't too difficult. And, neither was finding my way back to Crawford and Luana.

He saw me before I saw him, meaning he saw the Blastoise too. He gave me a thumbs up and yelled something at me, though I couldn't hear him.

"Make it rain…?" I said back, trying to decipher his mouth movements. He was doing a bunch of pointing and shouting, but I couldn't make out any of it. I turned to the Blastoise, and made my way to a narrow clearing with it.

"… Make it rain, Blastoise." I said, moving my arms in large circles, trying to mimic the look of it raining. The Blastoise apparently didn't need the visual, because next thing I knew, it's pouring down rain. I looked around to the trees, the ones that were on fire, and… well, couldn't really find them. Crawford and Luana ran to me, both panting.

"Kate, you did it! Had I known it was going to rain, I would've brought an umbrella…" I turned to the two of them, smiling at least. "Now, no, it's not time to make jokes, we got soaked for glory!" He took the two of us and brought us into a group hug. "Good work, you two… Mission Clear."

I couldn't have been happier to hear those words, standing with my arms around Crawford and Luana.

:lll:

Walking back to base, I came to realize I was just as winded as I was expecting to be – Burned out, as Crawford probably said. The three of us were soaked and tired, and the random redhead running away was too – with more cuts and burns than either of my comrades did, apparently.

Wait, what? Where'd he come from? I wasn't the only one to notice, as Crawford and Luana both chased after him, noticing his injuries, and escorted him back to the Ranger Base.

It was nice to have the walk to myself.