As Justine made her way down the street, she heard someone call out and looked over to see two young men looking over at her. Her shoulders tensed slightly out of caution, though they didn't [i]seem[/i] like bad people. On the contrary, their words indicated they were concerned for her well-being, which was completely reasonable considering what she had heard of Pyrite recently. 

However, while Justine didn't seem too worried about the two strangers, Jasper got into a defensive position and started growling immediately at the men. This wasn't unusual: Jasper was aggressive to pretty much everyone beside Justine and her family. Apparently, the Pokemon had always been like that. Her dad had told her when he had given Jasper to her as a Poochyena that Jasper was intended to be trained as a Police Pokemon but her over-hostility had made her difficult to train. Jasper had been pretty aggressive towards Justine in the beginning, but had eventually warmed to the girl and even taken the duty upon herself to protect Justine no matter what. It was touching, Justine had to admit, but it also meant that, during the early days, Justine had to restrain Jasper a lot when they were in the company of others, for fear the Dark type would attack. She wasn't so bad these days, thank Arceus, but Jasper's signature greeting to strangers always remained a snarl.

"Hey, Jasper, don't be like that," Justine told the Pokemon. "It's rude." On that command, Jasper stopped snarling, yet her body remained tensed and defensive. Justine then glanced over at the two men and gave a grin. "Heh, thanks for the warning," she said. She paused before suddenly realising that this would be a perfect time to ask for some directions. "Actually, we're just looking for a place to rest for the night. You guys wouldn't happen to know of one?"