Chapter 1- Mission Start
The room I was sitting in was filled with seemingly frazzled people in lab coats. Most of the large room was white boxes with beeping flickering buttons cluttering up the surface of the box. To tell the truth I had absolutely no idea what any of it did which made me pretty nervous about meeting Professor Hastings and Captain Commander Jack Walker, the leader of all Pokémon Rangers. Riolu could sense my unrest and kept trying to comfort me by nudging up against my legs. I noticed my reflection on the side of a shiny metal box. Although normally I would never do this, I checked to make sure I looked good. I remember I had about ear length shaggy brown hair, lime green eyes, and slightly tan skin. I was content with my facial appearance so I checked my clothes (which really didn't make any sense because all Rangers wore the same thing). My ranger uniform was in complete order; my black T-shirt fit perfectly on my body, the red jacket looked natural over the shirt, my shorts reached just past my knees, and my belt had all my equipment on it except my styler since I had to turn that in at the front desk.
"I think I'm ready buddy." I half smiled half shuddered at Riolu. "How are you doing?" Riolu never talked but he always transmitted his feelings through his aura control, which we had been working on lately and he has gotten pretty good. I still remember the impact of every aura communication he's ever done. This one he told me that I was way too nervous.
"So, you must be Chase Range!" A fierce and quick voice startled Riolu ad I and we sprung up from the chair.
"Uhhh… yeah." A tall and old man in a lab coat stood in front of me. He had a snow white beard and long shaggy hair. He was about three feet taller then me and I was about six feet tall!
"I'm Professor Hastings, please follow me." The man quickly turned away and strode out of the room. I outstretched my arm down towards Riolu and he jumped onto my shoulder.
It wasn't easy catching up with him. By the time we left the room he was far down the hallway. It was a busy hallway with a bunch of rangers rushing around so we could barely keep up with him.
"What's the rush Professor?" I asked sounding unbelievably dumb.
"There isn't any reason to sit around and introduce ourselves. It's just a waste time and life is short so not even a second should be wasted." He said very severely. This guy really intimidated me. "As a newly recruited top ranger you should always remember and follow this guideline: time cannot be saved, it can only be spent… Understand?"
"Sure!" I squealed and looked down in embarrassment. Eighteen and I still got scared of people like him… really it was kind of pathetic.
"Good."
Before I had realized it, we were standing in front of an elevator. Professor Hastings pulled a key card out of his pocket and swiftly swiped it in the panel next to the door. The door opened and we walked inside. It was really cool because the elevator walls, floor, and ceiling were all completely made out of glass. Professor Hastings pressed the top button in the elevator and I looked down to see us rising very quickly. Suddenly the elevator was flooded with light and, for a moment, I was blinded. When my vision returned I noticed we were going up a long glass tube to a small platform in the sky. I looked out from the glass elevator to see all of Almia beneath my feet.
"Wow… that's really awesome." I scanned the ground for all the major land marks. I noticed the Altru Inc. tower where Kellyn, another top Ranger, defeated Team Dim Sun and saved all of Almia from destruction almost forty years ago. Then I spotted the Pokémon Ranger School. "This brings back a lot of memories." However, the memories were short lived because, moments later, Almia disappeared from beneath my feet and all I could see was dark steel walls.
The elevator stopped and we walked into a small dark room with two rank nine rangers standing motionless on either sides of a small blue platform. They both nodded to Professor Hastings and returned to their motionless stances. The rangers were considerably older then me and much buffer than I. I couldn't see their eyes or hair because they were wearing black helmets and black sunglasses. I was a bit freaked out by this but I was a top ranger now and had to be brave. Professor Hastings stepped onto the platform and beckoned me to follow. I glanced at Riolu on my shoulder and saw that he was without fear. So I boldly stepped onto the platform with a heroic stride. Until that is… I discovered it was a warp tile. I felt the light consume me and felt like my molecules had been ripped apart for a moment then rapidly reconstructed. Basically, it felt like I was caught in a vicious tornado and being pulled in every direction. My distress put aside, I stumbled a bit at the point of landing but that was all.
I looked up it amazement. We were in a dome of some sort. Beneath my feet was a LCD screen with a map of the globe on it. Random messages, alerts, and descriptions of situations were sprawled out over the screen. The screen covered the entire room. The ceiling and walls of the dome were all lit up with screens as well, displaying all different sorts of information that any ranger would ever need to know. In the center of the room were three Operators sitting at consoles that seemed to be made of light; next to those Operators stood Professor Hastings and a very old man. I scurried over to them and Riolu stood up on my shoulder looking confident but for some reason had an air of serious respect to his stance.
"Chase Range, I would like to introduce you to the Captain Commander of the Pokémon Rangers… Jack Walker." Professor Hastings said with out looking at me.
I glanced over at the short old man. He was hunched over and was holding a cane. He had a lot of wrinkles on his face and had very dull blonde hair sticking out from the sides of his head. The rest of his head was completely bald; he had no mustache, no beard, and absolutely no hair on the top of his head. His body was boney and skinny and it seemed like he could barely stand. I couldn't help letting out a chuckle. Professor Hastings shot a horrifying glare at me and Riolu smacked me in the head. Captain Commander Jack Walker just looked at me and laughed.
"It's alright Jared. Let the boy laugh, I'm quite a sight after all." Jack Walker said with a strange wisdom in his voice.
"I'm really sorry sir… I don't know what came over me." I managed to say, still chuckling a little. Riolu was not pleased, he clearly sensed a very powerful aura from this man and couldn't help but respect him with every filament of his soul.
"What's not to laugh at? Who'd ever expect an old man like me to be the Captain Commander of the Pokémon Rangers?" Jack Walker said still laughing.
"I mean no disrespect but can we please hurry this up. I have much to do today." Professor Hastings said impatiently.
"Yes of course. Chase Range you have shown excellent performance in the responsibilities and aspects of the Pokémon Ranger. There for I now grant you the title of Top Ranger Number 15."
Jack Walker inched over to me with his cane and pulled a small brown package out of his jacket. He handed it to me and I opened the lid. Inside was a small rectangular styler that had a strap for my arm. It had a pristine shine to it and the screen glimmered in the light. I immediately strapped it to my arm and admired it. Riolu looked down at it in approval and excitedly jumped to the ground. He looked up to me hopefully and I nodded down at him. We performed the signature victory stance we had prepared for the Fine Styler. We both faced the same direction and performed two straight punches, then Riolu jumped onto my shoulder and we both flexed our muscles in a victorious stance.
"Very good! I see you have a Ranger Stance already!" Jack Walker said laughing. "I remember when I used to do that almost every day!" I smiled at him and he nodded in approval back at me.
"Yes well, less important things put aside, we have your first mission for you… Rythmi, would you please pull up the globe?" Professor Hastings asked the middle aged female operator next to him.
"Yes Professor." The operator punched a few of the holographic keys and a massive hologram of a globe appeared in front of my eyes.
"As you know, this our world." Professor Hastings began to explain. I looked up at the revolving hologram. I noticed Almia, Fiore, Orre, Kanto (where I spent most of my career as a Pokémon Ranger), Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh. The rest of the regions looked unfamiliar to me. "The Pokémon Rangers protect the world from natural disaster and those who would seek to harm the balance between humans and Pokémon. Most of the time everything is coordinated from the regional Ranger Union, however, for the few missions that require global services we have what we are currently standing in."
"What might that be?" I asked curious to what Professor Hastings was getting at.
"The Pokémon Ranger Global Air Base… headquarters of all Ranger activities." I was awestruck and Riolu stirred a little bit with the new knowledge that we were ten thousand feet above the ground. He had never been keen on heights.
"Do top rangers normally get missions that require this base?!" I asked a little afraid of what I was getting my self into.
"No, it is a rare instance indeed. I believe the last mission that the air base was specifically used for was Captain Commander Jack Walker's mission to save the Manaphy egg from Captain Phantom over forty years ago." Professor Hastings explained. I glanced over at the Captain Commander; he had a happy and wise look on his face. "The reason we are using it for this mission is because we may be searching all over the world."
"Ummm… searching for what?" I nervously asked.
"Recently, the Pokémon researcher posted aboard the air base went missing along with an experimental Pokédex and styler he had been designing. His name is Zephyr Folorum. He's been a researcher for over forty years. The Pokédex he was designing was meant to detect any Pokémon on the log and display its current position. He was also working on a styler that would release all of the Pokémon's potential power during the capture. He was nearly completed with both when he disappeared with out a trace."
"So you want me to find him?"
"Yes. We have an area ranger in each region searching for him as well so you will be receiving information from all regions. We will be coordinating the operation from the air base and feeding you information we get from the Ranger bases." Professor Hastings concluded.
"I accept the mission but just out of curiosity; why not assign this mission to a more experienced ranger? I just became a top ranger; wouldn't it be better to assign it to someone who has been in the game longer then I?" I realized I sounded like a coward but I was way too curious to care.
"All the other top rangers are on important missions as well. Besides, I heard great things form the ranger base in Kanto about you and decided it would be a good idea for you to take up this mission." Jack Walker cut in. I grinned with a bit of pride in my heart. Riolu stood up on my shoulder and made a very confident pose.
"That's the spirit old buddy!" I made the same pose as he did. I turned to Professor Hastings and Jack Walker. "So where do I start?"
