All right, let's get this started then.

First up, the legal stuff. It's pointless and has no real weight, but it's here anyway.

All characters, locations and concepts are the properties of their respective copyright holders, whoever that may be. Since no-one reads my stuff, it's unlikely that I'm gonna get sued over it, and I'd be flattered either way, but please don't.

Second, content warning. As those few among you who are familiar with my earlier work will probably have guessed, this fic contains definite Self-Insertion/Sue and probable Canon Defilement. If any of this offends you, stop reading NOW. Although why are you reading fan-fiction if you get offended by Canon Defilement?

Now that all that pretentious rubbish is out of the way...

Poké Rangers: Darkness Rising

Chapter One - Sunrise

Jon swung his bike down a side street, hoping to use this short-cut to make up time. He had an appointment to keep, and he was running late. He was wearing a red and black short-sleeved sweater, black cargo trousers and a pair of dark blue hiking boots. There was a navy-blue Pokétch on his left wrist and a slim pair of black dust goggles sat nestled in his dark brown hair, but no-one was really sure why. A travelling trainer he may have been, but there wasn't anywhere in the Sinnoh region to really warrant that sort of gear. He also wore a black back-pack with most of his gear in.


If he'd been paying attention, he might have noticed something moving in the shadows behind him. But he wasn't. He was too busy paying attention to the Team Galactic goon that had just accosted him, a Croagunk stood in front of him looking as intimidating as it could. Jon sighed.

"You do realise this isn't much of a contest? Monferno, you're up!"

He grabbed the first Pokéball from his belt, and tossed it into the street. A burst of white light formed into the shape of an orange monkey, with blue makings on it's face and a flame on the end of it's tail.

"Use Flame Wheel!"

Immediately, Jon's Monferno crouched down and began to spin, as flames began to cover it's body. Once it built up enough speed, it launched itself at the Croagunk, which was thrown a good ten feet down the road. The goon withdrew it, and beat a hasty retreat.

"Good job. Return." Jon withdrew his Monferno in a beam of red light, before picking up his bike again and cycling off through the streets of Veilstone City.


In a cave deep beneath Mount Coronet, something stirred in the darkness. Something powerful, something terrifying.


Jon locked up his bike outside the sports centre and went inside. He might have been a travelling Pokémon trainer, but this city was still his home.

"Hey! I was beginning to wonder if you'd show at all!"

Jon looked over at the table where the shout had come from. There were four people seated round it already. The shouter was Lucas Osborne, one of Jon's oldest friends. He was wearing a loose blue T-shirt and jeans, and his blonde hair was spiked up irregularly. Next to him was his younger sister, Sonja. She was wearing a close-fitting yellow T-shirt and white shorts, and her pale blonde hair was draped over one shoulder. Moving round the table, Jon could see Sonja's boyfriend, James Cooper. He was wearing a dark green hooded sweatshirt over a pair of black jeans, and his brown hair hung loosely over his face, to the point where Jon wondered how he could see out of his right eye. Next to him was Taki Woods. She was wearing a pink t-shirt and blue jeans, and her black hair was cut just below the top of her neck. Jon pulled up a chair and sat down.

"Sorry. Had a bit of goon trouble."


In the darkness, something stirred again.
Free... At last... The time has come to sow ruin upon the world once again...


The awakening was accompanied by a dark shockwave that seared across the sky. It could only be seen by most for a fraction of a second, and dismissed just as quickly. But on one island, out in the ocean to the north-west, something noticed.
It is happening again... There is little time. I must carry out the backup plan...


For the people in Veilstone, off to the east of Mount Coronet, the first anyone knew that something was really amiss was the arrival of a sudden storm. The skies went from perfectly clear to a very dark grey as the clouds rolled in. A lightning bolt split the sky as it began to rain, and hard.

"Well, that's just brilliant." The sarcasm in James' voice was so obvious it was painful.

Something slithered along the ground, darting from one shadow to another.

"What was that?" Sonja noticed the strange thing.

"That's just a Grimer. I hope." Jon saw it as well. It looked like a blob of tar, which then proceeded to form itself into a shape not unlike a Sableye. It had glowing yellow eyes and a rather nasty looking blade attached to the underside of it's left arm.

"That's no Grimer." James' little crack of the obvious got Jon rolling his eyes.

"Ya think?"

Then more of them started to appear, swarming through the street. Almost at once, the group disappeared in a flash of multi-coloured light.


When the light faded, they were in a wood somewhere.

"What happened, and where are we?" The whole experience had left everyone confused, but Lucas was the only one showing it. Jon was stood behind him, cycling through the apps on his Pokétch, trying to find the map. It didn't help.

"Well, we're off the charts. Let's get moving; see if we can't find a way out."

Working their way through the wood, the group eventually came upon a clearing. Behind them, the trees shifted, blocking the only exit. A light began to shine in the middle of the clearing.

You made it at last...

The voice had a strange, almost ethereal quality to it, like a choir of angels.

"What's going on?" Jon shouted, as the light began to marshal itself into a recognisable form.

I need help from all of you.

"What sort of help?" Lucas was quizzical.

There is a great evil that now threatens the world. You are the only ones that can stop it. And yet, there is nothing you can do right now.

"Why not?"

There is a power you must wield if you are to have any hope of defeating the forces that stand against the light.

"What do you need us to do?" Jon was back in the lead.

Take up the role. Wield the power of the Poké Ranger and, and fight the darkness.

At once, in another flash of light, something materialised on everyone's belts. Jon plucked the strange item off from where it was nested behind his Poké balls. It looked a lot like them; it was a circular object, about an inch and a half across, with a silver panel and three buttons on it. The device was bisected by a black line, and the area below was coloured white, the area above coloured red. The panel had a small image embossed into it, and looking closer Jon could see it looked like an Infernape. He looked round, and saw that everyone else now held one of these devices as well. Lucas' was blue, and carried an image of an Empoleon. Sonja's was yellow, and bore a Pachirisu. James' was Green, with a Torterra on it, and Taki's was Pink, with a Medicham.

I regret that I cannot provide you with much more assistance at this point, but I lack the power to even hold any corporeal form. You will know, though, what to do when the time comes.


And then, with another flash of coloured light, the group disappeared once more, being deposited back in front of the sport centre where they'd started.

"Well, that was weird. But what did it all mean?" Taki was confused.

"You've heard the stories, haven't you? Groups appearing, fighting an indescribable evil and then disappearing just as quickly?"

"Just because you heard about it on the road doesn't make it true." James was begin sceptical. He seemed to do this arbitrarily.

"No, I heard about it happening in Hoenn a few years back. It's true." Sonja came to Jon's defence on the matter.


If they'd been paying attention, they'd have noticed a faint sucking sound as a number of the strange creatures appeared, encircling them. One of the creatures made a slash for Lucas' throat, but he dodged, countering it by punching the creature in what appeared to be it's face. Jon put a roundhouse kick into the chest of another, but it grabbed his leg and tossed him away. The others were having a similar lack of success trying to fight.


Rangers! You can defeat these creatures, but you need to morph first!
It was the strange voice again. Everyone exchanged blank looks for a second, then grabbed the strange devices from their belts.

"All right, everyone ready?" Jon called, and the others gave an affirmative.

"Fire it up!"

One by one they each activated their morphers.

"Pink Medicham Power!" Taki called, as a white light streaked with pink shout out of her morpher and up her arms, before covering her body, and eventually faded to reveal her wearing a pink suit, with white bands around the upper arms, a silver Pokéball on the left side of the chest and a helmet styled to look like a Medicham's head, as well as a white belt, gloves and boots.

"Yellow Pachirisu Power!" Sonja repeated the action, and this time there were lightning bolt like streaks of yellow in the light, leaving behind a yellow suit with a helmet modelled on a Pachirisu, only in Yellow instead of white.

"Green Torterra Power!" James' morpher released a burst of white light laced with vines, and left behind a green suit, complete with Torterra styled helmet.

"Blue Empoleon Power!" Lucas' morpher let out a wave of white light covered in streaks of water, leaving a blue suit with an Empoleon-esque helmet in it's wake. A black visor sat in the beak area, roughly where his eyes would be.

"Red Infernape Power!" Jon's morpher let out a blast of light streaked with fire, which settled into a red suit with a helmet based on an Infernape, markings and all.


Lined up, the five new Rangers faced down their attackers, who promptly charged at them, flailing madly. Lucas immediately dodged to one side, pushing the nearest creature over his leg as it passed. It slammed into the ground and vanished in a blast of ink-blue smoke. James smashed one across the back of the head with the side of his hand, sending it crumpling. Sonja delivered an open-hand strike to the chest of the one towering over her, and Taki whipped the legs out from underneath another with a low kick. Jon, meanwhile, preferred simply to high-kick one in the face. And yet, they kept coming.

You need to use your Blaster Sabres to defeat these creatures.

Realising what the voice meant this time, James grabbed the pistol from his belt, flipping the barrel up to generate a blade. Everyone else followed suit, before going to work on the swarm. Even with weapons, it was still no mean feat to take down so many. And yet somehow, they managed it.


In the cave beneath Mount Coronet, whatever it was that lurked in the Darkness was pleasantly amused by this new development.
Intriguing. Do these fools really think they can stop me? They can have their fun for now, but soon...


The group had been warped back to the forest clearing, which it seemed had changed substantially in the short amount of time since they were last there. The trees had formed themselves into screens and tables, the entire area forming a viable headquarters for what was likely to come. The light was now a ball in the centre of the clearing.

Well done Rangers. But the real test of your power is only just beginning. The creatures you fought today, we call them Karicas. But they are only a fraction of the power that the darkness can unleash upon the world. However, whilst you hold this power, it must remain a secret; tell no-one who you are. Doing so would only make your families a target of the darkness' wrath.


Later that afternoon, the group was back in the sports centre, listening as others tried to explain what they'd seen, trying to rationalise it. Everything from Team Galactic spiking the water with hallucinogens to aliens. Jon sighed and shook his head.

"It's amazing what people will come up with to try and explain the inexplicable."

"Human nature, I guess. Shame we can't tell them the truth." Lucas was acting the realist.

Jon laughed under his breath.

"True. Oh well..."

"Guess this means you've got to stop your Gym challenge then?"

Jon sighed again. Reaching the League Championship had always been his dream.

"Probably. There's always next year, though..."


A/N: So there we are, chapter one. This is probably going to be the longest one, at least until I get to the end. But even then I don't know!