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Disclaimer: Pokemon (c) Masamitsu Hidaka
Claimer: everything else (c) me

Chapter Two: Re-acquaintance

As Ash, Dawn and Brock followed the two rangers, several of their Pokémon followed after them as Nurse Joy showed Kellyn to a two-bed bedroom, where he placed Alena on one of the beds. A Chansey came in cheerfully with a medical box and gave it to Nurse Joy who gave it to Kellyn. Then both Chansey and Nurse Joy left, closing the door behind them as the Pokémon gathered around the room with Ash, Dawn and Brock.

"So Kellyn, who is she?" Ash queried.

"The mysterious 13th Top Ranger," he answered while opening up the medical box as he sat himself on the bedside, "I met her just not 10 minutes ago. She was running from a Pokémon Hunter when we met."

Dawn blinked, eyeing something on her belt. "I-Is that a Pokéball?" she pointed out.

"It must be her partner Pokémon." Brock guessed.

The young coordinator looked at him. "Partner Pokémon? What's that?"

"When a student from the Rangers Academy graduates and becomes an official Pokémon Ranger, they are allowed to take a partner Pokémon that stays with them and assists in missions," Brock explained, "and the Rangers are allowed to have more than one partner Pokémon as they rank up. The catch is that only one can go with a Ranger at a time, the others have to stay and wait patiently at home."

"Hey Kellyn, how come you don't have a partner Pokémon?" Ash inquired the ranger.

"Well… I haven't really found any Pokémon that wants to stick with me," he answered, "I don't want to force any Pokémon to stay with me if they don't want to. It's kinda would be unfair to them if I had to take them away from their home."

Dawn cocked her head. "So don't you get lonely sometimes during your missions?"

He shook his head. "Not really, there are a lot of wild Pokémon that I meet and they're generally nice."

"Well that's cool that you keep on getting to meet a whole bunch of new friends," Ash said optimistically.

As Kellyn began to tend to Alena's arm, rubbing some disinfectant on the cut on her forearm, and she subconsciously cried out in pain. Almost instantly the Pokéball on her belt flew off onto the floor, releasing a Dragonair, which trashed its tail as it growled protectively in front of its ranger. Ash, Brock and Dawn's Pokémon were about to attack it, but the trainer, breeder and coordinator respectively stopped them before they had the chance.

"Its okay, Dragonair!" Ash exclaimed, "We're just trying to help her!"

The protective Pokémon didn't listen, glaring at them as it stayed beside Alena, its tail thrashing towards them.

"Capture on!" Kellyn called, thinking to calm down the Dragonair by capturing it, "Vatonage!" As the styler top encircled the Pokémon, it calmed down as Kellyn's feelings of friendship flowed into it. "Capture complete."

Hesitantly Ash and the gang approached behind Kellyn as the ranger gently pat the formally distressed Pokémon. The Dragonair nosed into Alena's pocket, pulling out a bottle of crystal clear water and dropped it into Kellyn's hand.

"Huh? What's that?" Brock asked.

"Don't know," he replied, "but I assume that Dragonair wants me to give this to Alena to drink."

Dragonair touched the tip of its tail to Kellyn's forehead, sending images of a few drops of the water into Alena's mouth into his head.

"Whoa…" he breathed.

"What just happened?" Ash inquired, "Are you okay?"

"Uh… yeah," he stammered, "it's just that… Dragonair just sent me images to only give Alena a few drops of the water."

They all gasped.

"It did?!" they exclaimed.

"It seems that this Dragonair has some sort of ability that's similar to telepathy," Brock commented.

Carefully opening up the bottle, Kellyn dripped two drops of the water into Alena's mouth and it flowed down her throat. Within moments her wounds faded, no sign of harm anywhere on her body. Her azure eyes soon opened to see Kellyn's face as he was leaning over her worriedly.

"K-Kellyn?" she breathed, slowly sitting up with a hand on her forehead. She noticed Ash, Dawn, Brock, Pikachu and all their Pokémon. "Who are you guys? Where am I?"

Her Dragonair dug its head against her, whining cheerfully in relief its ranger was alright.

"Oh… I'm sorry, boy," she cooed, stroking the Pokémon's head, "I didn't mean to worry you." She then looked at Kellyn after he released Dragonair from his styler's control, "Sorry if I worried you too," she added, "I really didn't mean to."

"You're okay," he said smiling, "that's all that matters. You're at the Pokémon Center."

Alena looked at Ash and Co. behind him curiously as she swung her legs out of bed. "And you guys are?"

"Oh, I'm Ash from Pallet Town," he introduced as Pikachu hopped on his shoulder, "and this is my buddy Pikachu."

"Pika!" Pikachu cheered, raising a tiny paw.

"I'm Dawn," the coordinator said, "nice to meet you."

Brock popped up in front of Alena, taking her hand in both of his, his voice sweet and trying to be romantic. "So you're a Pokémon Ranger, huh? It's so nice to meet someone as beautiful as you. My name is Brock, and you can capture me with your styler anytime you want. All you need to do is-"

He was abruptly cut off as his Croagunk stabbed its arm into his side, causing him to fall to the ground, surprising Alena and somewhat Kellyn as it dragged the breeder away.

"I met these guys when I was undercover trying to rescue a kidnapped Riolu. These guys, especially Ash, were a great deal of help. I couldn't have completed the mission without them," Kellyn explained.

"Well… hi, I'm Alena, and –like Kellyn, I'm a Top Ranger," she said, "but as you could see… I'm not like normal rangers. I have the power to transform into any Pokémon I want and use their powers. Since you've already seen me in action, I hope it assists you in believing me."

"So this is your Dragonair?" Dawn inquired, pulling out her Pokédex as it scanned the Pokémon.

"Dragonair, the Dragon Pokémon. Dragonair has the ability to manipulate the elements as it wishes. Dragonair is a legendary Pokémon that can make rain or snow fall at its will. It can even fly without wings." The Pokédex informed her as they watched the Dragon Pokémon nuzzle against Alena's neck lovingly.

Kellyn placed a hand on Alena's shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked.

Her partner Pokémon growled as it glared at him.

"Easy, Dragonair," Alena reassured, gently stroking the scales on its back, "It's okay. He's not going to hurt me." Chuckling, she looked at Kellyn. "Sorry, but… he's kinda a little overprotective. He thinks a lot of people are after me, including the ones I reassure him that are okay."

Crooning, the Dragonair looked at its partner with sparkling dark eyes, and she blushed, realizing the true meaning in its concern.

"Pika?!" Pikachu gasped, running and hopping onto the bed, staring up at the larger Pokémon as it talked to it, "Pi- pi- pi? Pika? Pika-Pika?!"

A commotion started among the other Pokémon as only Ash, Brock, Dawn and Kellyn had no idea what they were talking about, while Alena's face grew redder and redder.

"Is something wrong?" Ash inquired, "What are they talking about?"

"U-Um…" Alena began nervously, obviously not wanting to tell them what the Pokémon were really discussing. How am I supposed to tell them that Dragonair is being overprotective of me because he's worried that Kellyn is going to fall in love with me? I only just met the guy! She contemplated. Hmm… best not explain it to them at all then. And about Dragonair's guess… well… we'll see what happens later during this mission.

"N-Nothing of major importance," she half-lied.

For the time being they decided to let it pass.

"So what was that bottle of water anyway? Didn't it just heal all of your wounds?" Dawn inquired.

"Oh, this," she replied, holding up the bottle, "it's just some water with healing properties that I collected from a lake one time during at mission." Putting it away she looked at the time on her Styler. "Well… I'd say it's time we go for dinner. We can talk then." She said, looking at her Dragonair and outside, "Do you think you could stop the rain please? It's kinda giving a dreary mood at the moment."

Crooning, the Pokémon looked outside and the rain soon ceased to fall, clearing up to reveal the clear night sky.

"Thanks," she chuckled cheerfully, stroking Dragonair's scales, "let's get going. You guys go ahead."

The Pokémon piled out, Ash, Dawn and Brock following.

"You sure you're okay?" Kellyn asked, still a little concerned.

She sighed, "Don't worry about me, Kellyn. All I need is a good night's sleep, that's all. Now let's get going before the others begin to worry about us. By the way, I accept your offer to work on this mission together, however, its best if the others don't know about our mission nor join along. This is dangerous enough that I'm doing this with you. There are still various Pokémon Hunters after me, and so it hurts me enough that I'm putting a fellow Pokémon Ranger in danger." Standing up shakily, she took a careful step forward and –as seeing that she didn't stumble, walked with him and Dragonair out of the room, closing the door behind them as they went to the cafeteria inside the Pokémon Center. Dragonair and the other Pokémon ate at the table beside theirs, eating at the various Pokéblock and other tasty treats for them.

"So why were you being chased by a Pokémon Hunter?" Dawn asked Alena after they finished dinner.

"Well… with the powers that I hold, I'm 'valuable'. Various hunters want to capture me and sell me to the highest bidder and they'll probably try to harness my energy for their own evil purposes." She answered, "That's why my status as a Top Ranger had to be classified for the time being. However… many hunters and other people have discovered my existence, so I'm no longer safe. I've been on the run from this particular one for the past few days." She pulled out a photo of the masked man that had tried to capture her. "He's from an organization named Team Rocket, and he's known as the Iron Masked Marauder."

Both Brock and Ash gasped, "Hey! It's him!"

"What? You've seen this guy before?" she inquired.

"That's the guy that tried to capture Celebi!" Brock exclaimed.

"Iron Mask," Ash growled, "I thought he was put away though after being caught. I guess he must have escaped."

Dawn looked at them. "What?! You guys know Pokémon Rangers and now I'm hearing that you've ran into a Celebi before?!" she whined, "That's so cool!"

"Yeah, well this Iron Mask tried to turn Celebi against us and nearly destroyed the forest!" he retorted, "Now he's after you it seems."

Alena dug through her pocket as she replied, "Yeah, but it's not just that." She pulled out a short white wooden flute. "He also wants this too," she added, "if played correctly, it can call all sorts of Pokémon from anywhere. I'll show you an example sometime before Kellyn and I get going to complete our mission."

"What's your mission?" Ash asked curiously, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

Alena looked at Kellyn, her eyes hard before looking back at them. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we can't tell you. I can't risk anyone else getting hurt on this mission. It's dangerous enough that I've dragged Kellyn into this by accepting his offer to work together since our mission is the same."

"But these guys have always been a big help," Kellyn tried to argue.

"I'm sorry," she sighed, standing up, "but my decision is pretty final unless you guys can give me one heck of an argument." Walking away, she left withdrawing back to her room. Dragonair whined quietly as it stared sadly after its partner before following her back to her room after saying goodbye to its new friends.

Kellyn sighed, staring after her and the following Dragonair. "Forgive her outburst," he told them, "but she doesn't want the rest of you to get hurt. If she's protesting this badly, I'm assuming this mission is far more dangerous than I'm suspecting. Our mission is to find and escort a group of Leafeon to their migrating home up on the mountaintop. Their original home was destroyed by natural causes and it doesn't seem likely that they can find their way so Alena and I have been assigned the mission to escort them home."

"A group of Leafeon?" Dawn repeated.

"Hmm… I did read about the stories of a group of Leafeon living in this forest," Brock recalled.

"Yeah… our job is to help these Leafeon out or else there's a low chance that they'll be able to make it out before the winter comes blowing by," Kellyn said.

Ash suddenly looked determined. "We wanna help those Leafeon get home!" he exclaimed excitedly.

The Top Ranger laughed, "I knew you were going to say something like that. Well… its fine by me, considering how well you guys helped me out last time, but it might take a little longer to convince Alena. She's pretty determined not to let you guys come, but only because she doesn't want you guys to get hurt."

"We'll convince her eventually," Brock said, "or at least we'll try."

Now Dawn looked as determined as Ash. "But we're coming with you guys anyway!"

All three friends cheered in union, punching a fist up into the air as Kellyn could only smile at their courage.

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