Chapter One

The last thing she saw was the mocking expression of the man in red, before her consciousness faded.

The last thing he saw was the pained face of his partner, before she fell through the clouds.

Ben did the only thing he thought appropriate. He cried the name of the girl that had stood by his side through countless missions. The girl that was falling, falling, falling….

"Summer!"

Guardian Signs

Summer hit the water with a splash, being jolted unceremoniously from her unconscious state. The Micro Aqualung activated the second it came into contact with the water, forming a mask that would allow her to breathe. With the mask, a special system allowed her to hear the Voice Nav. from the Styler.

Summer looked around, confusion showing on her features. How had she ended up here, underwater? The last thing she-

And then she remembered. The two on the hover machines, Ben, the man in red, the green light… And she faintly recalled the chilling laugh she'd heard before she lost consciousness.

A loud, robotic voice sounded in her ears, bringing her back to the present. The Voice Navigation. "The Capture Styler has come off! Urgent! Reattach the Capture Styler!" the same lines were repeated, until the voice crackled and faded.

Summer looked down to see the component that enabled captures had indeed come off of the main part of her Styler, sinking down at a fast rate. She tried to swim after it, but before she even got close an excited-looking Mantyke seized it and swam away.

Sighing, Summer had no choice but to swim after it. After gaining on the blue Pokémon through short bursts of speed, it grew frightened, dropped the Capture Styler and swam off again.

Luckily, the Capture Styler settled on what looked like a dais, with a pretty, rainbow-like pattern. Summer looked around her, surprised to see stone columns and broken bits of stone. She shook her head. She could admire things in her own time, but right now she needed to get to land. The Aqualung could only be used for so long.

Reaching down, she grabbed the Capture Styler and hastily reattached it. As she turned to swim back to the surface, her Voice Nav. spoke again. "Danger, danger! Massive object approaching!" Summer looked around as the water around her seemed to shake and a rumbling noise could be heard.

"Danger! Danger! Extremely strong current! The current is… zzz zzz zzz…" And at the exact moment the robotic voice began to fail, Summer saw the 'massive object' fast approaching. It was, in fact, a submarine. A large, black submarine that was closer than she had thought. And bigger. And before she could even comprehend it, the current swept her away.

Guardian Signs

The submarine had surfaced mere meters from the spot where it had caused Summer to be carried away. A hatch opened, and out flew ten men and women on the flying machines. They were dressed in the green ensemble that the two who had chased Latias had been dressed in.

One man, the leader of this group, turned to face the rest. His words were slow and deliberate. "Alright. For those amongst you who suffer from short-term memory- or are too stupid to remember simple orders- let me remind you of our mission. We fly to Dolce Island. It is uninhabited. Therefore, we should have no trouble capturing the Pokémon there. Keep an eye out for the target. Clear?"

A series of nods and a few murmurs of "Crystal…" were given in response.

"Alright. Let's go!"

And with that, they all flew off to carry out their mission.

Guardian Signs

A group of happy Pokémon all stood in a clearing, smiling and having fun. The group consisted of several Pichus, Marills and Bulbasaurs and one Sunkern. In the middle stood a Pichu holding a blue ukulele that was lovingly handcrafted out of wood. The Pichu shone with electrical charge and when it ran its paw along the strings of the ukulele, it gave a joyful, melodic tune. When it had finished playing, the other Pokémon cried out in joyful appreciation of the music.

But when the Ukulele Pichu looked to the sky, it froze with surprise. And when all the other Pokémon looked to see what caused the alarm, panic ensued. The group scattered, running to hide.

The assembly of men and women from the submarine dismounted their hovering machines, and split into groups at the command of the leader. The groups searched the island and upon encountering a Pokémon, used a special device to capture it. The device was a Control Gauntlet and it was the opposite of a Ranger's Capture Styler- instead of conveying friendship, the energy conveyed hatred to a Pokémon. The Gauntlet was like a glove, it was 'worn' on the hand and the palm was where the energy was shot from.

After several minutes of capturing both frightened and angry Pokémon, the leader gathered the rest of the group, declaring: "We have established that the target isn't here! Though disappointing, this is still good work. Let's get back to the leader. Z.Z. Flyer Squad, move out!"

The Flyer Squad had gone and most of the island's Pokémon had been captured, but there was a rustle and out of a shrub jumped the Ukelele Pichu. It looked around frantically, wondering if all of its friends had been taken by the intruders.

Guardian Signs

Haze… A memory… She and Ben stood on an electronic map of the Oblivia Region, facing an old man in a lab coat.

"Ah, yes." He said. "You two… I've been told good things about you…" The man trailed off and his gaze drifted slightly to the left of the two Rangers, thinking.

After a few seconds of silence, Ben coughed pointedly and the man's gaze snapped back to them. His eyes narrowed. "Impatience will get you nowhere, boy. Now. I trust that you have heard of me? Well, who hasn't these days..? I am Prof. Hastings, the Ranger Union's Chief of Technology!"

Ben looked at Summer and rolled his eyes. She grinned in response, then looked back to the Professor.

Hastings started to walk back and forth in front of the Rangers. "Now, I am sure that you are aware of the situation in the Oblivia region?" He glanced at the teenagers, who stood up straighter, intrigued.

"There is a group, much like Team Dim Sun you might say, who are taking helpless Pokémon from their owners. They call themselves Pokémon Pinchers. The organisation is only getting bigger and I want you two to go to Oblivia and stop them in their tracks- they can only be up to no good."

Ben folded his arms, looking determined. "No problem! We'll stop 'em, right Summer?"

Summer nodded.

"Good." said the Professor. "It's good to see that you are willing to do this mission. Now, the Oblivia region i- "

"Hold on!" A plump man with brown, pink-tinged hair dashed in, looking quite pleased with himself. "Hi, you two." He said, slightly breathless. He held out a friendly, if slightly sweaty, hand. Uncertainly Ben shook it, then Summer. "I'm Murph."

Hastings looked quite annoyed. "Murph, what are you-" But again, he was interrupted as Murph stepped in front of him, grinning.

"I'm in charge of the PR at the Union, you know." Murph said. "It's a great job, I couldn't believe it when they promoted me!"

The Professor sighed. "Yes, yes, Murph, I couldn't believe it either. Now let me take care of the explanation, would you? Go and… do whatever it is you do."

"Sorry, Prof., but this is one of my responsibilities. So, no." A moment's silence ensued as the Professor decided not to engage in this silly argument any longer.

"Good choice, Prof.!" Murph grinned, a strange glint in his eye. "Alright. Oblivia is a peaceful region, probably the one where'd you go and live in when you retire." Murph glanced at the Professor when he said this, but the glance was fleeting, so Hastings hardly noticed. "There's only one Ranger there, right?"

The Profssor nodded. "That may be exactly what the Pinchers are looking to exploit. With only one Ranger around, it would be easy to get away with more."

"Exactly. You know, the region's motto is: 'Oblivia, Islands of Ancient Ruins and Legends.'. Sounds dead exciting, I know. A lot of archaeologists have visited lately, trying to work out the region's secrets. It's quite funny actually, they're there for months but they get nowehere and-"

"I think that's enough, Murph. If you're so eager, then let me find you a job." Murph moved to interrupt, but the Professor tapped his walking stick on the floor, glaring. "I'll make sure it's exciting, for goodness sake. Now, then." He turned back to the Rangers, both of whom were watching the exchanges between the two with mild amusement.

"Oblivia might be peaceful, but keep an eye out. We may not know what they are after, but the Pinchers are a dangerous organisation. You will leave at once. Do your best."

Ben smirked and gave a sidelong glance to his partner and raised his hands in a thumbs-up. He whispered, "We can do this!" to her, just loud enough for her to hear.

Summer gave a quick nod, smiling. And at the same time, both of them gave their best Ranger poses, excitement on their features.

"To Oblivia!"

Guardian Signs

She heard the sound of the sea, lazily crashing against the sand. She heard the screech of Wingulls above and the smell of sea salt filled her nostrils. She felt the soft tickle of sand underneath her. Only the voice of her Styler caused her to rouse.

"Current location… X Coordinate 055665, Y Coordinate 355671. Seawater has penetrated the Styler's Voice Nav. circuit." The sentences were repeated with several 'bzzz' noises and crackles, but then the Voice faded altogether.

Summer got up slowly, stretching and shaking her head. This was not going well. She had lost Ben and felt pretty weak- well, she should be worse off, really. Falling from the sky and getting swept along by a strong current, then only feeling weak?! What was she, superhuman?

Her Styler beeped. "This is Dolce Island in the Oblivia region… Bzzzz… Recovering Voice Nav. program. Recovering Voice Nav. program." Summer sighed. She hoped her Styler wasn't too damaged.

Summer tapped her foot. "Recovery is almost complete. If you want to use Styler functions, please touch the Styler menu button in the lower-right corner of the Styler screen. For more information, please refer to the Glossary in the Styler menu." Summer frowned as static sounded from the Styler. "The Stlyer's communication functions cannot be recovered. Commuincation with Ben is currently impossible." Oh great, Summer thought. This was even worse.

Her current coordinates were repeated. "Oh, shut up." Summer muttered. Her location was repeated again, much to her exasperation.

"According to the data about this area: Dolce Island is uninhabited. The nearest inhabited island is Renbow Island, which is north of Renbow Island, across a narrow strait." Alright. With new resolve, Summer decided to find a way to Renbow Island.

After walking a short way across the beach, she saw a path that led to a forest. She followed it and after walking past a hollow tree trunk, she came upon a small Pichu. The Pichu looked lost and was wandering about, calling out every few seconds. It looked as if there was a Ukulele on its back, which was cute, she observed.

But when the Pichu spotted her, it glared. Before she could blink, it ran at her and attacked, electrical energy making it glow.

Summer activated her Styler.

Hellooo! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this! I hope you don't mind all the scene switching and page breaks! …Am I right in saying Pichu has a paw? And yes, I always thought Murph's hair looked pink in the game, but apparently it's not according to a quick Google search.

I did say that actual chapters would be longer, didn't I? Sorry. If you think the chapters are fine this length or should be longer, let me know. But, yeah, I'll try to make them longer anyway.

Thank you to followers, favourite-rs and reviewers! I'll keep writing for you! :D

As of 17:29 and however long this takes to take effect on 21/02/15, I'm changing the title of this story to 'Signs of a Guardian'.