A/N: I do not own Pokemon Ranger of ANY sort. They belong to Nintendo and Hal Laboratory

I finally decided to up this chapter. This one will appear to be longer than my longest fic ever: Prophecy Girl (which contains 11 chapters including epilogue). Because the plotbunny just. Won't. Stop. Breeding! -kicks bunny family into the cage-

The throne room of the castle was large. So large that a long table filled with papers as well as five men were able to sit and have enough space around them to access stationery and relevant documents easily and have servants and scribes waiting at the sides. Only four were actively discussing something.

"Chicole Village?" Purple Eye scoffed. "Why would you want such a backwater village known for only its farms?"

The man across him, whose blonde hair was styled in a ridiculous way, laughed. "As expected from someone native to Oblivia. You don't know the true value of Chicole Village," he commented.

"Chicole Village alone is more than half the food industry in Almia," Black Hall read from a paper. "If we get this village, the supply of food can be monopolized. Simple isn't it?"

Purple Eye rolled his eyes. "Whatever. The decision to attack still remains with the King," he said. "And then again, I don't recall him turning down any chance to invade an area. After all…"

"As long as our King holds the Kabuto Armour, we are unstoppable," Edward finished. The doctor, nearing his fifties lounged back onto his chair comfortably. "Soon, Oblivia will conquer the world!"

The fifth man who had kept silent all this while laughed. "That's going to take some time, Edward," he remarked. The nearest region is Shinou and Kanto. Princess Shirona, I heard, is a formidable foe on her own. And Prince Red of Kanto is definitely not someone to be messed with, especially with our current power."

"I was just saying, Sarg," Edward replied in annoyance. "The Kabuto Armour will help us."

Sarg shrugged. He stood up and bowed down to the King on the throne. "What say you, Your Majesty?" Sarg asked.

The man on the throne leaned forward a little, shadow casting over his face. It was hard to read his expression then. After some time, he stood up. "Gather the troops," he ordered. "And bring me the armour. We shall convene again at twilight!"

The five men around the large table stood up together. "Yes, Your Majesty," they chorused as they left for their respective destinations.

Hinata watched in amusement as Minami pressed the tip of a conch shell. The shell was rigged in a way that the tip was a button to activate a sound recording system below. When finished, letting go of the button will stop the recording. Pressing it again will replay the recording. Pressing the button twice in a row and the previous recording will be gone. Minami said something into the conch shell and let the button go.

"Exactly how long are you going to play with that toy of Panema's?" Hinata asked.

Minami pressed the button again to hear the recording. "As long as it takes for me to find out how to get recordings into that thing I'm doing for the Cresselia Festival," she answered.

Hinata sighed. Minami can be a serious workaholic sometimes, even if she did not seem like one sometimes. "The Festival is two weeks away. I'm pretty sure it can be done by then, whatever you're doing."

"It's eye-catching alright," the other magician answered. "By the way, I saw Hajime when returning. Since when did he get a brother?"

"He has a brother?" Hinata echoed. There was silence for a while. "I think Hitomi said something like that a while back. I don't exactly recall it. What with the King having a temporary break from conquests and such…" Her speech was stopped when she saw someone coming in. A small blonde girl in a white and blue dress greeted them. "Oh. Hello Tsubasa."

The girl smiled. "Hinata, it's great to see you too."

"Is there anything you need?" Hinata asked. It was slightly unbelievable to her at first, but this child was responsible for all mail to and from everybody in their secret circle. Their leader, Kira was harsh on security when sending and receiving mail. Tanza had suggested Tsubasa as the girl loved birds and was able to somehow communicate with them. Kira reluctantly agreed to let her to try out mail for some time. After a while, Kira was impressed with her speed and efficiency and made her the one in charge of communications via mail.

Tsubasa nodded. "I have word from the castle. From Shinbara," she stated simply. "The King is planning to invade Chicole Village in Almia next. The soldiers are gathering at twilight for further instructions and will set off from there."

That caught the attention of both magicians. "What!" Hinata demanded. "Damn. That's Hitomi's home village! And she's still in Almia!" After a few rounds of swearing, she turned back to Tsubasa. "So what did Kira say?"

"Kira said to meet as usual to discuss who will be sent and who will stay here to keep watch," the young girl answered. "She also said 'As for Hinata and Minami, tell them to close their shop early and head for Chicole Village instantly'."

"Consider it done," Minami said. "Thanks Tsubasa." The blonde girl left the shop and ran off.

Hinata pointed at the sign which flipped around to say 'Closed'. "You heard Tsubasa. Let's go."

"In a moment!" Minami quickly said. Hinata watched as Minami recorded something into the conch shell and set it on the counter. "So who's going to use the travelling spell?"

Hinata rummaged under the counter and reappeared with a bag. "Me. Because the last time you cast it, we ended up in Drop Island when we were supposed to be on Rainbow Island."

Minami shrugged. "Fine, fine… I'll clean the place up till you're done packing."

A sword clashed with another, creating a loud ringing sound that echoed through the arena. A couple of knights were training in the sparring area. One had reddish-brown hair and the other dark brown, although both were wearing the standard light leather armour issued for casual training.

"Heh, not bad," the one with reddish-brown hair commented, jumping back to his original stance. "Though not as good as me."

"You're just overconfident, Dazzle," the one with brown hair argued back, bringing his sword down in a low slash. "What were you doing during the three days of vacation we had because the higher ups wanted to organize the initiation for the new knights?"

Dazzle leapt back and moved in quickly, but his friend was faster and blocked the blow. "You know me. Training, resting, reading tactics in the library. I'm not you, Hajime."

Hajime pushed off Dazzle and lowered his sword. "I'm sorry I have a little brother who isn't that much younger than me to look out for," he laughed. "Time up. I want to go check on Natsuya."

"He'll be fine," Dazzle said, as he headed for a bench where their bags were. "After all, he got the almighty Hayate as his instructor. Speaking of higher ups, there was an order earlier to assemble in the parade square at evening."

A puzzled look was all he got from Hajime. Dazzle sighed, dropping his gloves carelessly onto the bench. "You have to pay a bit more attention Hajime. Hitomi ain't around to remind you anymore. I don't know how you managed to survive till today."

"Hitomi's here," Hajime answered. He smirked when he saw Dazzle's shocked expression. "I knew it. You were too busy in the castle and perfecting your moves that you don't go out much. She's here in Aqua Town. 'Cept that when I talked to one of the girls she was working for, she said Hitomi's gone back to Almia for a while."

He was totally unprepared for Dazzle's surprise attack. "You spoke to Hitomi?" he demanded, grabbing the collar of Hajime's armour. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Yes, I talked to her. I found her only a few months ago on one of my days off and will you let go? This gear isn't conducive for interrogations," Hajime answered as he flailed around.

"I'm hurt Hajime," Dazzle frowned as he put his friend down. "Whatever happened to the promise we made?"

Hajime hummed thoughtfully to himself. "You mean the one we made when we were ten and I was about to move away? Oh come on. How long can anything woven by grass last?" He received a light hit on his head. "Ow. Ok ok! Our next day off, I'll take you to see Hitomi. But that's only when we both get the same day. And Hayate's stingy about vacations."

"Fine," Dazzle replied as he looked at the sky. The sun was nearly setting, colouring the clouds rose pink and spreading orange and yellow through the sky. "Let's go. It'll be assembly time soon. If you barely make it for this one, Hayate's going to blacklist you for life."

Hajime stuck his tongue out at Dazzle as they made their way from the arena.

Evening was upon both girls when Hinata finally emerged from the back door of their shop. "Sorry, I was checking whether everything was locked up. You know how Kira gets whenever we lose anything related to the circle."

"Forgiven," Minami laughed. "Because it's actually valid. I got yelled at once for misplacing one of the combat formations. Turns out I left it with Imachi." She looked back to the building. Raising both hands, she muttered 'Sperre". Faint blue electric crackling fanned out from the top of the building and rained down in a circle around the building before fading. "Now that the building has been taken care of, let's go."

Hinata eyed the building. "You sure it's secured? I mean, we're not the only magicians in town you know," she said. "I really hope nothing happens… Akuusetsudan!" The moment the word left Hinata's lips, a large tear opened up below their feet. Both girls suddenly plummeted into the open space.

"HINATA YOU IDIOT!" was the last thing Minami remembered saying.

Hajime ran out to the assembly square with Dazzle quickly. Their expressions fell when they saw the neat formation that the knights were already in. "We are so doomed," Hajime muttered as he quickly stood in line at the back. Unfortunately not quick enough to escape Hayate's watchful eye. The green-haired knight strode over to the two knights.

"You two got some answering to do once this briefing is over, Hajime, Dazzle," Hayate hissed under his breath. "One more time tonight Hajime, and you'll be organizing the weapons with Kamuri."

Hajime shuddered internally and nodded. Above in the balcony overlooking the parade square, was the King himself. Hajime steeled himself and looked up. It was the first time he was to go with the main army to a fight. All the previous times, he and Dazzle were assigned to stay behind and guard the castle along with the more inexperienced knights.

"It is time," the King announced. "That we claim a village in the name of Oblivia. Our target is a farming village in Almia. No doubt, the Almian army will be waiting for us. However, the Kabuto Armour will guide us to victory!"

A loud roar erupted around Hajime. Shouts of 'All hail Oblivia' and 'King Euron' were heard around him. He wondered where they were headed to now.

Another person stepped up after the shouts died down. Hajime recognized him as one of the ministers in the Council. One of the instructors at school, Red Eye was sent away from the castle because he went against this person's orders. If he remembered correctly, the minister standing beside the King was called Purple Eye.

"We shall depart at sunrise towards Almia," he said clearly. "We have sent scouts ahead as well as a handful of knights to set up camp there. Our target this time is quite a distance from one of the towns in our name, Pueltown. Therefore the need for camp. Our target, is Chicole Village."

Hajime's mind stopped working that instant. Chicole Village, that was where he, Dazzle and Hitomi used to live together before Hajime left. Dazzle left a few years later, but Hitomi never did. Hitomi merely came to Oblivia to look for a better job. Her family is still back in Almia. And Minami said she went back home.

"Hey! Oi Hajime, snap out of it," Dazzle said, snapping his fingers in front of Hajime's face. No response. He took hold of his friend's shoulders and started shaking it. "Hajime!"

It had the desired effect. "Wha—Where… Dazzle?" was the confused question.

Dazzle snorted. "No, I'm Commander Youji," he replied sarcastically. "What the hell?"

"Chicole… Hitomi…" Hajime mumbled. Dazzle was visibly twitching. His friend had this bad habit of speaking too softly if he was despairing over something.

"What? You're mumbling."

Hajime took a deep breath. "Hitomi is in Almia. Back home," he said. "You know where I'm getting to?"

Dazzle's face paled. "Crap. She'll be in Chicole Village when we get there." He groaned. "What now? Not even Hayate can call off the invasion. Only the Council can, and the best they can do is postpone it. I can't set my birth village on fire."

"Neither can I," Hajime admitted. "We'll talk to Hayate tomorrow. The assembly's adjourned and we would be going home to inform our parents or something. I want to find Natsuya and go home already." His friend silently agreed and left the assembly square.

A/N:

Purple Eye – Purple Eyes (obviously)
Mirakado – Kincaid. The hair pretty much says all
Black Hall – Blake Hall. The president of Altru
Shirona - Cynthia
Red - ... well... Red. Reference from Beyond Limitations, only with a different setting.
Sarg – Sabios
Euron – Ellois. You won't get to meet him unless you play the past missions faithfully. Also those who actually play that far will know what Guardian he's using ;D
Panema - Nema
Tsubasa – Supurna
Tanza - Tanvir
Dazzle – Keith
Imachi – Murph
Kamuri – Cameron
Red Eye – Red Eyes
Youji - Clyde from Go-Rock Quads
Drop Island - Dolce Island
Rainbow Island - Renbow Island

According to my dictionary, twilight is around the time of the evening. The recording shell was a little something from one of my favourite anime/manga from all times. First person to get it right gets a chapter 5 preview NOT in my profile. I did research before using any names of the towns and villages here. Pueltown and Chicole Village are exactly the same as their Japanese names. Incidentally, some spells I mentioned requires incantation. I got them off Babelfish. For the Japanese ones, I merely used the Japanese names of attacks:

Allumez – creates various sized light orbs. It lights up places. It's supposedly 'light' in French
Tornade – creates a small tornado. Supposedly 'tornado' in French
Akuusetsudan – creates a tear in space. It literally means 'Subspace Tear'. It's the Japanese name for Spacial Rend, Palkia's signature move. Reason why this is in Japanese, I couldn't find good translations for a simple word: 'Teleport'.