Chapter Four of Love and Calamity! Things start coming to light now; we'll soon find out the name of the group that attacked Ringtown's Ranger Base, is it the Go Rock Squad Returned? Or a more sinister organisation with far darker plans?
Chapter Four
In the Shadow of the Dragon
Midnight in Fiore, the moon's pale light bathed the sleeping settlements of the region, but whilst most law abiding citizens had long since sought their beds, the night was only just beginning for the darker elements of Fiore's society.
Deep within the Olive Jungle of Summerland figures in dark cloaks picked their way gingerly through the tangled undergrowth eventually discovering the jagged opening of a cave hidden behind rocky outcrops, "Why the heck do we have to meet all the way in this dark, dank cave in the middle of a jungle? Why not somewhere nice and clean. Like an abandoned warehouse in Fall City?" one of the figures complained.
A swift cuff on the head was his answer, "Shut up idiot, this place is the only place in Fiore not crawling with Rangers! Now be silent and wait for our leader to speak," a second figure admonished.
From deeper within the cave a second, larger shadow emerged, "Greetings my friends. Today the first stage of our plan began. An explosive device was detonated in the Ringtown Ranger Base, severely disputing their operations"
The cloaked figures turned to regard each other, murmuring quietly.
"Yes, but this was merely a test of the Ranger's strength. In any great war skirmishes are fought to test the mettle of the opposite side before true battle is joined and the war decided. Now we have struck the first blow against the Rangers, we have tested their strength and found them weak and complacent after the Go Rock Squad's fall. But now is not the time to strike, no now the Rangers are scared, alarmed at this attack, on guard. Now we must watch, see their reactions find out how they think… But once we know this we can strike at their heart and destroy them and they will be powerless before us because we will know every move they will make. Every strategy they will use. And we will be ready to counter them"
One figure suddenly spoke up, "Why not attack now? They are still off-balance from the explosion, we could take Ringtown!"
Their leader turned to face the critic, only his eyes could be seen, but they held a burning intensity that made the cloaked man sweat, "We will not strike because we are still not ready. This was the downfall of the Go Rock Squad. They were impatient, foolhardy, and too hungry for wealth and power. They announced their plans to the world and were surprised when the Rangers destroyed their Power Styler and brought an end to the Squad. We will not make that mistake. The Rangers will not know our true plans, our intentions, what we will do next, how we will achieve our ultimate goals, not until it is far too late and all of Fiore has fallen under my shadow. Our shadow. They will not know until the Ranger Union lies in ruin and then all they will be able to do is curse our names and weep over their broken Stylers. This is why we will prevail"
After that monologue their leader fell silent for a time, when he next spoke his voice held a darker tone to it, "We are the Shadow. We shall fall upon Fiore and it shall kneel to us and the Rangers will be as dust. We are Dragons and we will burn any town that opposes us. We will devour those who stand against us. We are the Shadow Dragons. And we are the future of Fiore and the entire world. This I swear to you as your lord and master. When we are done with this place they shall all fall to their knees and cry out Kyrie Eleison!"
One of the figures tentatively raised his hand, the leader muttered something, "It means 'lord have mercy'"
The man put his hand down their leader growled, "any more questions?"
One of the figures raised his hand, "What's part two of the plan then? Wait?"
Their leader laughed softly, "Wait? Of course not. We will build more Stylers and train our people in their use. We will build an invincible army that will crush the Rangers… Two Rangers in particular must be defeated before we can move: the two Rangers that defeated Gordor, and the Legendary Pokemon, Kyogre, Raikou, Groundon, Suicune and Entei. The ones who now lead the Ringtown Rangers. Together or apart it matters not; they are the most powerful Rangers in all Fiore and they pose a threat to our plans. Once Phase Two is ready they must be eliminated. Now begone and do my bidding, I must prepare our champions. The Go Rock Squad had their 'Go Rock Quads'. We shall have our own force. My lieutenants will seek out and destroy Solana and Lunick of Ringtown; they shall be the Knights of the Shadow Dragons… They will destroy Lunick and Solana and bring the end of the era of the Ranger Union and usher in the Era of the Shadow Dragon!"
With that impassioned speech over, the cloaked figures left the cave and re-entered the night-time jungle, returning to their tasks; building or stealing new Stylers, building an army the likes of which the world had never seen before, an army of Rangers that would burn all Fiore to the ground…
The next day Ringtown was returning to a semblance of normality. Reinforcements had arrived from Ringtown and new Stylers, computers and other equipment arrived with them. Several residents of the town had already begun to argue with insurance companies in order to get compensation, or else trying to find someone to sue. Despite the arrival of a real Leader, Solana and Lunick had been sternly told by both Professor Hastings and Joel that they would not be relieved of their additional duties, "Joel can't lead both Bases, he's just one man" as the Professor put it. And so both teens had been rushed off their feet trying to sort out the chaos of having almost two entire Ranger Bases work together.
In one of the intermittent lulls in the madness, Lunick managed to catch his breath on one of the benches outside the Ringtown Base, Spenser better get better soon, I can't take much more of this! Minun looked at Lunick in concern, "Mai, Mai mai!"
Lunick smiled and stroked the Pokemon's head, "Hey, don't look so worried I've handled worse… Can't think of anything right now but…" He chuckled to himself, At least Minun is trying to cheer me up, I'd be in serious trouble if a Cheering Pokemon was too worried or stressed to help me!
The respite was short lived, unfortunately, as out of nowhere a Gardevoir appeared and shot a ball of energy at Lunick's head, with reflexes honed by months of hard training and fighting, Lunick ducked and jumped from the bench out of the way with Minun in his arms as the bench exploded into splinters behind him. Lunick whipped out his Styler, the antennae popped out along with the Capture Disc, "Wow! Easy! What the heck's got into you?"
The Gardevoir sent another ball of energy at him; Lunick dodged it and sent the Capture Disc circling around Gardevoir, faster and faster it went drawing loop after loop when suddenly Gardevoir vanished. Lunick cursed, he'd forgotten that Gardevoir could teleport! He heard Minun cry out and rolled away, just in time as another energy ball skimmed his back, he gasped in pain as the clothing and skin on his back was seared, " Okay, if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you get!" Lunick growled, "Minun, blast it!"
Minun began to charge its thunderbolt, Lunick quickly checked his Partner Gauge, four segments full… It'd be enough. Another ball of energy shot at him and he dodged away, almost at the same time Minun discharged lightning directly at the Gardevoir, it cried out in pain as the full force of the bolt hit it square in the chest, stunned and immobile, the Gardevoir was helpless as Lunick sent his disc looping around it with lightning speed, the light of the capture line grew brighter until the Gardevoir was trapped in a sphere of light, Lunick released the disc and the light vanished.
Suddenly Lunick heard someone clapping, he turned to see a masked man in a black cloak, "Who the heck are you?" Lunick demanded.
The man threw off his cloak and laughed; he was wearing black plate armour, at his right side a sword was belted and a shield with a black dragon on a red field clutching a sword was strapped to is back, "I am Sir Ector, a Knight of the Shadow Dragon. And thou art my foe, Lunick of Ringtown. I am impressed by thy capture of Gardevoir"
Lunick stared at the 'knight', "This is your Gardevoir?"
"Yes, Gardevoir is mine" Sir Ector replied, "And I would ask that you would release her, for she was only obeying her lord's orders, as am I"
Lunick frowned, "And who is you 'lord'?"
The knight chuckled, "And dost thou think that I am foolish enough to name mine leader before his enemy? I shall not tell you his name, but his title. My master is the Shadow Dragon. My master is all that which you fear. You have defeated me in battle and for that you have my respect, but know that when next we meet it will be me, not you, who will be victorious! If thou art as intelligent as thou art skilled then heed my words, flee Fiore and never return! This land belongs to the Dragon now and the Rangers will fall before its Shadow!"
The Gardevoir suddenly cried out behind Lunick, when he turned around he found that it had vanished, cursing Lunick turned back to confront Sir Ector, but the black knight was gone.
Aria and Solana ran out of the Ranger Base, "Lunick! What was that explosion? Are you hurt?" Solana cried out worriedly.
Lunick smiled, "I'm f- aaah!" He fell to one knee, gasping in pain, the wound on his back sending fire down his spine, in the adrenalin rush of the capture and his confrontation with 'Sir Ector' he'd forgotten all about it!
Solana rushed up to him and gasped when she saw the burn on his back, she turned to Aria, "Aria, he needs to be taken t the Infirmary, help me with him!" both women grabbed his arms and helped him up, helping him into the Ranger Base. The main room quietened as they walked in, Rangers stopped mid-stride and stared, people murmured, and Murph ran over, "Lunick What happened?"
Solana frowned, "Later Murph! Get a Medic will you?"
Murph blinked and then nodded, "Uuh, right, yeah!" He ran towards the infirmary, a few seconds later he returned, dragging on of the green-clad Medics.
The Medic quickly examined the burn, "It looks worse than it actually is, let's get him to the Infirmary and I'll patch him up"
The trio dragged Lunick to the Infirmary and the Medic applied a poultice to the burn, Lunick gasped in pain as the cold bandage touched the ruined flesh of the wound. Aria frowned, "What happened out there Lunick?"
Lunick winced and looked at the two worried girls, "Well, I was attacked by a Gardevoir, that's what caused this burn. I caught it but then some guy in armour appeared, called himself Sir Ector, told me that he was a 'Knight of the Shadow Dragon' and that the Gardevoir was his and that he'd been ordered to attack me by his master, who he called the 'Shadow Dragon'. Then he said that I'd better leave Fiore because his master was going to destroy the Rangers and take over the region!"
Aria frowned, "It's the Go Rock Squad all over again!"
Solana frowned, "Great! And just when everything was back to normal!"
Lunick gave them an angry look, "The Go Rock Squad? No! These guys are worse than they ever were! Don't you guys see? These Knights of the Shadow Dragon… They almost destroyed the Ringtown Ranger Base! Almost killed me! This is far more than the Go Rock Squad did! They frightened people, caused a bit of trouble and charged money for it; the worst thing the Squad did was trick Solana and I into creating the Jungle Relic Volcano! These guys… We can't treat them like the Go Rock Squad… I think they might actually be able to…"
"Don't be so stupid Lunick!" Solana snapped, "They can't win! The Rangers… We'll stop them! They may be sneakier than the Go Rock Squad, more dangerous perhaps, but that doesn't mean we can't beat them!"
Lunick looked away, sighing heavily, "I… I don't think so Solana, not this time… I… I think that these guys might actually…"
Solana had had enough of Lunick's self-pity and self-doubt, and so she did the only thing she knew would shut him up.
She slapped him, hard.
Lunick cried out in pain and cradled his cheek, now sporting a bright red hand-mark, "Solana! Damn it! That hurt!"
She nodded, "It better have, now you listen to me Lunick and you listen good, or I'll have to hit you again, got it?"
The boy winced and nodded, "I'll listen!"
She smirked, "Good boy. You are the best Ranger in Fiore, apart from me of course" she winked at him, "And if our battles with the Go Rock Squad have taught me anything its this; the Ranger Union will always win because we have men and women like us, people who won't stop, who won't mop about and give up, people who will face adversity and over come it, no matter the odds Rangers like us can't be beaten, not by the Go Rock Squad, not by these Shadow Dragon guys, not by anyone, and if I catch you even thinking that we might lose this then I'll slap you into next week and then get Minun and Plusle to shock back here again!"
Lunick sighed dramatically, "Well, if I'm being threatened into optimism… I suppose I have no choice"
Aria shook her head in bemusement as she watched this exchange, "Honestly you two, you're like an old married couple. When are you going to wake up and get together?"
Both Solana and Lunick blushed and glared at her.
At this point Aria decided that, despite her obviously superior skills, a two-on-one fight with Solana and Lunick might not be a good idea… "I'll… I'll go send a message to Joel in Fall City about this incident"
Aria turned to escape, and then her plan was shattered by the appearance of Fall City's Ranger Leader, "Oh no" she groaned.
Joel walked up to the trio, looking worried, concerned over Spenser and tired all at the same time, "Hello you three, I've heard that Lunick was injured…"
Lunick frowned, "Joel? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Fall City?"
Joel shrugged, "Fall City can take care of itself for a while, I was… Worried about Spenser… But that's not important, what happened?"
Lunick sighed, "Well, I've been attacked by some knight guy, apparently there's a new evil organisation in Fiore, the Knights of the Shadow Dragon, and they're planning a repeat of the Go Rock Squad Crisis, but obviously with our defeat and their victory. That's how I got the burn. The other wound is the result of Solana cheering me up"
Joel frowned deeply, "Hm, I suppose the first thing to do is alert Cameron and Elita about this… Then we'll have to begin an investigation into these Knights… Once you're patched up, I want you and Solana to head the investigation. You already know that this is a very serious threat to the Rangers, maybe all of Fiore, so I don't need to tell you two to be careful, I heard that Professor Hastings is examining the wreckage from the explosion, perhaps he's found a lead by now?"
Solana nodded, saluting, "You can count on us Joel, we'll find these Knights and we'll teach them not to mess with the Rangers!"
Lunick chuckled, "You sound just like a Go Rock Squad Grunt!"
Solana smiled, giggling, "Hm, do you remember that Solo Go Rock Squad guy?"
Lunick nodded, "In the volcano? Of course!"
They both laughed as they remembered the One Man Squad that had tried, and failed miserably, to resurrect the Go Rock Squad on his own, neither of them mentioning that even that hapless loser had thought that they were together. Seriously, what is it with people and thinking Lunick and I are an item? I mean, first it was that old guy in Ringtown, then little remarks by almost everyone, and then that volcano holiday from Cameron and Spenser… Hah! I'd refuse to date him just to see the looks on their faces!
Solana's rather vindictive self-monologue was interrupted by Joel, "Yes, yes, happy memories of the last crisis that almost wiped out the Rangers. But I think we all have important work to do, correct?"
Solana and Lunick both nodded and, with Solana supporting Lunick, they both left to find the impatient Chief of Technology.
They found him half an hour later in a make-shift lab in one of the conference rooms as all of the other labs and workshops in the Base were still either waiting for important replacement equipment from Fall City or else too damaged to be worked in safely because the blast had weakened the structural integrity of most of that section of the Base, forcing the Rangers to evacuate everyone who usually worked there.
The Professor himself was passing the room, muttering to himself, constantly glancing at a blackboard upon which a schematic for the Ranger's Capture Stylers had been drawn, on a table in front of the blackboard lumps of twisted and scorched pieces of metal lay, the barely recognisable remains of some of the Ranger's Stylers.
Solana knocked on the open door, "Professor? It's Solana and Lunick, we've come to check on your progress"
The Professor whirled around and glared at them, "This is not possible! Simply not possible! How dare they! How dare they!" He waved his cane at them angrily, then at the lumps of metal, then at the blackboard, "Do you see what they've done to my invention!"
Solana frowned, "Yes, but we can build more Stylers, it's not-"
The Professor humphed, "It's not the ruined Stylers, it's what they did to them! They perverted my research! Look at this! And this!"
He pointed at the schematic, but Solana and Lunick, not being engineers, couldn't understand what he was talking about, "Professor, please, calm down, what did they do?" Lunick pleaded to the irate genius.
"Fine! I'll tell you! This is a derivative of my Super Styler research. Top Secret stuff… I closed down the research program after the Go Rock Squad incident and purged all records I could find… But obviously we didn't find all of the Go Rock Squad's stockpiles. These are refined, more advanced Super Stylers and, judging by the circuitry, they aren't designed to be used in musical instruments like the Go Rock Squad's, but through vibrating metal, vibrations so fast that the metal would appear to be completely still!"
Lunick and Solana looked at each other, "And all this means?"
The Professor sighed, "It means that whoever did this use far more powerful Super Stylers than the Go Rock Squad and that those Stylers may look absolutely nothing like a Styler, they could be anything made of metal"
Lunick's eyes widened, "Like a shield, or armour or a sword?"
Hastings nodded, "Yes, though why anyone would want to make Stylers shaped like that is beyond me"
Solana glanced at Lunick, "So, this Sir Ector can use his sword, or his armour or whatever as a Styler?"
Lunick nodded, "Yes, that's how he controlled the Gardevoir! That puzzled me; I couldn't see a Styler on him… This must be how!"
Hastings waved his hand impatiently, "Yes, yes, yes, all very good but I haven't told you the worst part yet! These Stylers, they were rigged to explode, but more specifically, they were designed to release an electromagnetic pulse to knock out electronics, high frequency vibrations and sounds to enrage Pokemon and a sculpted shockwave designed to cause maximum damage to a Ranger Base!"
Lunick stared at the Professor, "But if the bombs were designed specifically to destroy a Ranger Base"
"Then the Knights must have schematics and plans for the Ranger Bases as well as the Super Stylers!" Solana finished the thought, "If they have all of that sensitive information… What else do they know about us?"
Hastings sighed and shrugged, "We can't know, but if you remember that ancient phrase 'knowledge is power'… I'm afraid that, whoever these people are, they are very powerful indeed…"
Whilst Professor Hastings and the others at Ringtown pondered the dire implications of recent events, events moved much more swiftly than they realised...
In the jungle cave that was the meeting place for the low-level leadership of the Shadow Dragons, Sir Ector was making his report to his lord and master...
"I did as you bid, master, and went unto Ringtown to smite Lunick and bring an end to his threat to our plans..." Sir Ector spoke quietly, he was ever in awe of his lord, especially now that he was afraid of what his master would do when he learned of his failure.
The shadowy figure regarded his servant in silence for a time, "And did you succeed?"
The kneeling knight steeld himself, "No... I failed you, but forgive me lord! Lunick was more powerful than I realised, next time I shall-"
"No!" The figure thundered, "There will be no next time for you Ector! You have disgraced yourself by this defeat!"
"But sire, please, give me one more chance, I underestimated him... i will not fail you again!" Sir Ector pleaded, he knew the price for failure...
"Perhaps... Perhaps this is not so bad after all, you have seen Lunick's skill with your own eyes?"
Sir Ector nodded, "I have, lord"
The figure chuckled darkly, "Then I want you to take Sir Kay and Sir Gawain with you, I want you to teach them about Lunick; his strengths, his weaknesses, and when you are ready... Then you shall strike him down. I want his blood as proof of your victory; give me your blood-stained sword and I shall absolve you of your failure... Perhaps I shall even elevate you above your brother knights? And make you my champion?"
Sir Ector's eyes widened, "Thank you lord! you are wise and merciful beyond measure! I shall not fail you!"
The figure laughed softly, "No, you shall not. There is no place for failure in this brotherhood Ector and I have no wish to see you... Punished"
A chill went down the knights spine, "I give you my word of honour, I shall not fail"
With that Ector rose and left the chamber, intent on his purpose.
The 'Shadow Dragon' smiled, "Soon enough you shall fall, Lunick, and with your death the Ranger Union will fall also, and with it all of Fiore shall fall into my hands and I shall have lordship and dominion over all of Fiore... And then my shadow shall spread across the world, and then perhaps I shall take your Solana and force her to kneel before me and call me lord, yes, a fitting end for the Rangers; cowed and kneeling before me, my sword at their throats!"
A/N
So, what do you think? Yet another megalomaniac seeks world domination, and this one has learned from Gordor's mistakes...
As ever, I'm grateful for reviews... Now I have to start writing Chapter Five. Normally I'll write a chapter a head before I post another, but I haven't here so it may be a little while before I update again, I just hope I don't get the dreaded writer's block!
