My dear and loyal readers! Welcome back to the universe Sharkey52 has created within the Pokémon world where psychic beings walk the earth (in fear mostly), Almia and Fiore once had a really big war, people you think are dead aren't (instead they crack jokes in pointless filler chapters and quote the limited TV shows and movies this author watches) and it is possible to have white pupils if you've got a piece of another dimension instead your head, hence giving you awesome superpowers that usually get you killed (hence the psychic beings living in fear bit). Wahoo!
So, some quick info before we begin. This story is set somewhere in the range of about 25 years after Protector of Silence. I know, wow, time-skip and all that. But all shall make sense eventually. That puts Kellyn and at gang at about 36 or so, so obviously they won't be the main characters, but they're still pretty important as you will see. Also, this means the Murph referred to in this story is actually called Murph Imachi Jr - son of the Murph from Holiday Spirit and the original Pokémon Ranger game - and he's in training to become PR to the Ranger Union like his dad. The old Murph will typically be referred to as 'Uncle Imachi' or sometimes 'Uncle Murph' by our main characters, just to clear that up. Also, this story is set at about two-and-a-half years after the game 'Guardian Signs' - in other words, Guardian Signs took place in the July and this story takes place two years later in the January. Okay?
A quick warning though. For a few of the chapters I've written at least in part, Ben may act very differently to how he normally does in my other fics. However, he does have a good reason for this that shall be explained eventually.
So, one last thank you to all my readers out there who have stuck with this series, and I hope you enjoy this pilot chapter.
"Now I get to spend the rest of the year with the only significant other I need in my life in my most favourite place in the world."
"Oh. So...I should probably stop talking now?"
For Emzie - Protector of Silence's biggest fan and my total writing support. This one's for you.
Protector of Loyalty
Chapter One - Return to Oblivia
It was only mid-morning in the middle of January, but Summer found herself wishing she'd remembered to pack her sun cream anyway. She shaded her eyes from the sun as she strode out onto the deck of the Union, her eyes meeting nothing but endless ocean over the railing. Raising her arms above her head and arching her back into a stretch, she let her bare feet touch the wooden deck, wincing slightly at the heat already, and peered out towards the front of the boat.
Ah, there he was.
Clad in a pair of shorts, a T- shirt and a pair of sandals as well as a pair of ("epic") sunglasses, her parter was leant on the wooden railing at the front of the boat, a puzzle book and a pencil in his hands.
"Hey Ben-Ben" she smiled, leaning against the railing beside him, ignoring the slight burning sensation on her arms as her tank top failed to protect them. Like Ben, she'd forsaken her uniform for now as they were officially in international waters.
"Good morning Summer" Ben just put on a small smile that was code for 'really happy to see you and all that, but I only got a few hours sleep and my head hurts from the spiked punch at our goodbye party, so I'm just not in the mood to be over-excitable right now'. He tapped his chin twice with the rubber end of his pencil. "Nope, still no good nicknames for that."
Summer shoved his shoulder, coaxing a laugh out of both of them. "Did you get any sleep?"
"Two hours" Ben clarified, directing his gaze down to his almost completed word search. "Your dad's voice screeching 'Don't Stop Believing' is forever stuck in my poor pounding head."
Summer winced, trying to block the mental images from her head. She'd never, never forgive her dad for that stunt. "I dunno, I think Uncle Imachi and Mr and Mr Pemberton's routine of 'I'm Sexy and I Know It' was worse." Now she tried to block the images of her one of her best friend's dad and Freddie and Julian Pemberton's horrific semi-drunk routine (except Freddie - he was definitely drunk, probably getting close to the 'trashed' mark). "Honestly, there were kids at that party! Murph's gonna be stuck with those images of his dad in his head forever!"
"I think they were making up for the lack of drunken acts at New Years" Ben pitched in "You know, terrible blizzards in the north and all that - lack of party and karaoke. Not to mention the lack of a bad blood-alcohol level."
"Maybe, but couldn't they have waited until we'd left?" Summer sighed, leaning on the railing even more now as she looped one foot around her other ankle.
"Sorta nulls the point of it being a 'Goodbye Party'" Ben pointed out, turning the page on his word search as he finished it and moving onto a sudoku.
"True" Summer pulled a face and nodded. She leaned forward a bit and looked past Ben at the miles and miles of nothing but pure ocean stretching before them. "Risking sounding like a child, how long do we have before we get there?"
"You're fourteen - you're still a child" Ben answered, ignoring Summer's adorable pout at that comment. "And the last I heard from Murph it was another eight hours."
"What?! Oh c'mon!" Summer whined "We left at, like, midnight last night!"
"Yeah, and we had to stop three times to let passengers on and off so we and Murph are the only ones left now" Ben pointed out "And close your mouth because I'll remind you again now when you're not about to fall asleep - we had to deliver passengers to Fiore, Kanto and Unova because Murph wants to get to the next level of his PR training before he turns sixteen this May - which you have no doubt forgotten - and that includes assisting members of the public. So he can now check that off his list of stuff to do."
"But why must it take so long?!" Summer complained on "It only takes, like, three or four hours on a Staraptor or Latias!"
"I'm sure my partner Pokémon will be flattered when she wakes up and I tell her" Ben's smile grew slightly "And as an official Aerial Ranger I do know this for certain, it's faster travelling by bird Pokémon because they're faster than boats at top speed and we can take a shortcut over Jhoto and Kanto by air. Boats have to go around land and avoid storms and rough seas and all sorts, so the Union will get there slower without any doubt whatsoever."
"Okay, looks like your new badge has added a few brain cells to your head" Summer smirked, joking gesturing to Ben's new Aerial Ranger badge pinned to his t-shirt. "But seriously, this boat ride feels slower than the original journey. And that takes something!"
"Are you referring to the fact we got lost over Hoenn that time, or when we lost the map near the end and you had to use your freaky psychic 'I can talk to Pokémon and apparently ask them for directions' thing on some Wingulls?" Ben asked, craning his neck back as he thought about that important point in their lives. "Arceus, has it really been two years since then? We were just kids. Little kids."
"Time flies huh. I can't wait to see Nema and Pichu and everyone again" Summer stretched, arching her back and raising her arms above her head for the second time. She cricked her shoulder and wondered if she'd lain funny or something.
"Yeah, but it was great to go home for the holidays" Ben pointed out "It gets boring singing Auld Lang Syne with Rand every New Years."
"You only had to do it once - it's not Rand's fault he can't sing" Summer pointed out, a grin on her face as she poked Ben on the arm, tempting a bigger smile out of her partner. "But you're right for once, it was great to spend Hanukkah with Mum and Dad again."
"Seriously, why do you insist on not calling it Christmas?" Ben gave her a strange look, as if this was a question that had been puzzling him for a long time. "I mean, you're not religious - you never went to Jew church."
"It's called a synagogue and I went there once for the world's shortest Bat Mitzvah ever. Seriously, it's in the Guinness Book of World Records" Summer explained, inwardly wincing for the third or fourth time that day as she remembered having to run without her uniform to her next urgent mission the second the ceremony was over, ripping her clothes and loosing one of her shoes in the process. "And it's habit more than anything. My dad was raised in that faith, but he still calls it Christmas around his colleagues at the Ranger Union. And my mum just said she liked the sound of Hanukkah better." Summer shot her partner a teasing look. "Legend has it, it was the second foreign word my dad learnt after crêpes. It took him, like, years to start saying words longer than three syllables. Said they were too long to be practical or something."
"Yeah but so did you" Ben reminded her "It took you until you were, like, six to say a word." His face then twisted into a smirk. "Problem is, since then, you've never stopped talking."
Accompanied by a mock gasp of hurt, Summer slapped him on the arm. "Watch it Mister! Point is, now Hanukkah is over and now I get to spend the rest of the year with the only significant other I need in my life in my most favourite place in the world."
"Aww" Ben grinned, looking flattered, sliding his sunglasses up onto his forehead so he could look Summer brown-eye to green-eye. "I'm touched my 'only significant other I need in my life'."
Summer grinned back and gave him a brief but tight hug around the shoulders (noting the fact he appeared to have put on a little weight over the two weeks they were apart and saving it in the back of her mind for future blackmail) and rested her head on his shoulder just in time for a cloud to shift and for the sun to come beating down on them once again. Summer hastily shaded her eyes from the intense light. "Favourite place in the world maybe, but why is it whenever we come here, it's always so hot you could fry an egg on a Pokédollar?"
"Well it could be worse" Ben pointed out, returning to his puzzle "It could be like home was."
Summer raised an eyebrow. She'd spent most of her holiday at her home in Chicole Village; Ben's parents now lived in Pueltown, so they'd spent most of the holidays apart. "Which was?"
Ben tapped his chin with his pencil, looking pensive. "Snowmageddon."
Summer facepalmed. "Snowmageddon? Seriously?" She looked over at Ben's suduko puzzle. "And suduko? Just how old are you? Eighty?"
"I'll have you know solving puzzles like these improves critical thinking, creativity, attitude and focus" Ben gave her the look. Since he'd lost some of his baby fat, it was easier for him to pull it off these days.
"So you basically just admitted that you're dull, uncreative and impatient" Summer remarked "I can see you're focused, 'cos ya haven't noticed that there's an orange peel on your head for the past three minutes."
"No I'm not...wait what?" Ben slapped his hand on top of his hair (cut quite a bit shorter so now it less resembled a smoke-plume - rumouredly due to the expense the Union had been covering of the amount of hair spray and gel he had needed to keep it in position) and yanked the orange peel off of it, frowning and grimacing a bit.
No one dared to question what been the fate of the orange.
"You, my significant other, are very, very mean" Ben gave her the look again.
"Aww, you love me really" Summer grinned, looping an arm around his shoulders.
"Well, I'd better" he mumbled "Second we dock, I'm official stuck with you on archipelago of less than 1000 residents."
Summer was about to reply, when a familiar voice piped up from the back of her mind:
"Oh please - you're hardly alone. You've got two dimwits to deal with."
Summer stiffened, the white of her unusual pupils dimming slightly. 'Two?'
With a flick of his gloved hand, Nick reset the circuit breaker for the smoke alarm. To his relief, the smoke alarm stopped blaring and possibly sending out a homing beacon for Martians to track their location from their base on the moon.
"Whew" Nema wiped her brow as she strode out of her room, covered in soot, grime and who knows what else. "Crisis 479 averted."
"479?" Nick blinked "What happened to the other 478?"
"Thanks for helping Nick - couldn't have done it without you" Nema carried on, taking her work gloves off and placing them in the kitchen counter, yet again forgetting her father's rule about that. "I mean, Papa's off on patrol and Mama never leaves her office unless she's had a break through or the whole island is on the verge of a meltdown and Summer and Ben are away - I need some big, strong adult-power to get stuff fixed to prevent nuclear catastrophes. Orange juice or sprite?"
Nick was about to correct her by mentioning as he was only 16-years-of-age he was not yet an adult and warn her about the Martians potentially sending war machines after them because of the smoke alarm disrupting their 'evil take-over-the-universe plotting seminar', but Nema was spared the rant by her last request. "Huh?"
Nema strode across to the sink, picked up a recently washed pan and began to fill it with water. "I'm going to cook some Sunday Lunch - just with a whole lot less vegetables."
Nick was about to remind the thirteen-year-old scientist it wasn't even Sunday and this idea was clearly the result of radiation poisoning or demonic possession, but she once again stopped him before he could begin. "But do you want a drink first? Orange juice or sprite?"
"Er...sprite please" Nick answered, deciding that he was more likely to be killed by choking on an orange pip than getting horrendous gas pains from the gas bubbles in sprite.
Nema placed the half-filled pot of water on the hob before pouring some sprite mixed with water (she'd learnt from the days he'd spent at her house that he liked it best that way) into a glass for him. Nick took a seat at the table as she set it down for him, not completely trusting him not to drop it and freak out.
"Can I just ask you something?" Nema inquired.
"Er...you'll ask even if I say no" Nick pointed out.
"Why do you wear your watch on your left hand?" Nema asked, completely disregarding Nick's answer to her plainly rhetorical previous question. "I mean, you're left-handed - everybody knows that. Shouldn't you wear it on your right hand or something?"
Nick blinked up at her strangely, plainly not understanding what she was getting at. "But Booker wears it on his left hand?"
Nema just sighed like he was a lost cause (which, honestly, he probably was) as she turned the hob on so the water for the potatoes would boil. "And why are you wearing an Almian family signet ring anyway? I've been meaning to ask you that all day. You're as Kantonese as a Pokéball."
"My family are from Cinnabar Island - I was born and raised in Oblivia" Nick clarified "And it's Booker's. He found it when he was clearing out some of his old junk last week. It doesn't fit on his finger anymore and he doesn't have any children to give it to, so he gave it to me."
Nema grinned, glancing up from the dials she was turning to set the hob's heat, Nick's eyes flickering nervously over to the pot with the rapidly-heating water contained in it. "Aww, he likes you!"
Nick snorted. "Likes me? I bet that old bachelor doesn't even like himself. I mean just last week he—" Nick suddenly sat up ram-rod straight, his gloved hands tightening almost impossibly around his glass of sprite to point Nema was surprised it didn't crack. "Oh no! Could it be?! Could Booker possibly be a serial killer, lying in wait to—!"
Let's leave Nick be shall we? The guy tends to talk in chapters, so sometimes it's just better to let him go on and on and wear himself out rather than trying to interrupt.
Nema meanwhile was struggling valiantly to open what had previously been dubbed: 'The-more-secure-than-Fort-Knox Nema-approved impossible-drawer'.
"Need some help?" Nick offered after he'd been forced to take a breath, then he paled "Oh no! Could it be?! A horrifying, terrifying monster has sealed—"
"Nick, the only horrifying, terrifying monster is whoever gave you that haircut" Nema cut him off, well used to Nick's rants by now. She finally unjammed the drawer and pulled out her trusty wooden spoon. "And don't try to deny it - you haven't taken that bandana off since I was six."
"It-It takes time to find a signature haircut - and I don't want anybody seeing my hair until I'm satisfied nobody will feed me to the cannibals for it, or have me abducted by aliens because they think I'm the mutated spawn of one, or send me off to—" Nick stopped as he registered the look on Nema's face and went back to his original tangent. "Anyway, hair...it's like art. It—"
"Art?!" Nema blew a raspberry "You call hair-dressing art?"
"Well they both take skill and talent, so it must be art" Nick pointed out.
"Oh yeah?" Nema raised an eyebrow "It take skill and talent to hit someone with a saturated-milk balloon from 50 feet away - but I don't go around calling that art."
Nick fumbled (as usual) for a response before settling on a shaky: "W-Well, I guess I'll have to prove it to you. Someday. I will."
Nema rolled her eyes. "Sure you will Seaweed Head, right after Ben beats Summer at karate chops."
"Hey!" Nick complained loudly "For the last time, neither my hair nor my brain - I think - are made of seaweed!"
"Tell that to the crabs that live in it!" Nema shot back.
"I do not have—!"
"Nema! Nick! Don't make me come down there!" Leanne, Nema's mama, called down from her study on the second floor.
"He started it!" Nema protested.
"I don't care who started it! I'll finish it!"
Nema pouted. "It was so totally your fault!"
"Nema! I'm warning you!"
"Sorry Mama!" Nema called upstairs, not wanting to be grounded in her mother's office when Summer and Ben arrived. She hated only being 13 sometimes.
"We're sorry!" Nick chimed in, then lowered his voice to gasp: "Unless—! Oh no! Could it be?! You're not really sorry and are secretly hiding plans to kill me and chop my body into—!"
"Nick, shut up!" Nema cut him off, absentmindedly stirring the pot with the wooden spoon, though not actually looking at it. "Summer and Ben 'll be here soon and I can't be grounded when they do! I have a mega surprise in store for them!"
Nick just blinked dumbly at her, twisting his glass in his hands. "Oh. So...I should probably stop talking now?"
Nema just nodded with a sigh and glanced down into her pot, whimsical for a second.
But only a second.
"AHHH! Mama, I burnt the water!"
Hello?
Hello, is anybody there?
Hello?!
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Somebody...
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Please...
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Please help me...
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Help me...
...please...