Pokémon Ranger: Duty and Conflict
Chapter 3
The calm, gentle winds and the surrounding countryside near Mount Coronet are among some of the most serene, picturesque and remote places in all of Sinnoh. It was a pristine habitat for many thousands of wild Pokémon, living happy, productive and enjoyable lives in tranquility.
This tranquility was disturbed when three figures crash-landed into a nearby tree. Despite the laws of physics, they managed to get back up quickly and relatively unhurt.
"Damn that bitch J!" Jessie complained as she got back up.
"She just had to hyper beam us to oblivion." James added.
"My tail hurts!" Meowth whined.
"Wobbuffet."
Jessie recalled Wobbuffet to his Pokeball, much to the dismay of the blob Pokémon. The Rocket trio surveyed their surroundings, but while James and Meowth simply wanted to rest, Jessie had other ideas on her mind; namely, revenge.
"We have to find a way to trap that misbegotten excuse for a prima donna and finish her off once and for all!" Jessie declared for all to hear. James and Meowth were decidedly less enthusiastic.
"Jessie, she's a thousand times more powerful than we are, and besides, let's call it day. I'm pooped." James complained.
"James, I refuse to believe that! We are Team Rocket for fuck's sake! We need to-"
"Shush guys, I think I hear something." Meowth motioned for the group to crouch down. They could hear a group of people in the distance chattering among themselves quite loudly. The trio sneaked up to get a closer look. They saw a group of five people dressed in ugly black and purple uniforms. They also carried these large white/silver briefcases.
"So what are our orders?" One of the grunts asked.
"We're to capture whatever Pokémon we can from this region and begin general terrorization, chaos, the usual stuff." Another responded.
"And we better get some good ones too, since these Miniremos are in short supply here." A third added.
"Finally, Team Dim Sun will arise again to wreak havoc and take over the world!"
"Dude, we don't know what the hell the boss plans to do. For all us minions know, he could just demand some rare Pokémon as payment or something."
Team Rocket was intrigued by this conversation. Criminal plots were their specialty.
"Team Dim Sun, huh. Didn't I read something about them being active in Almia?" James quietly asked. "Something about controlling Pokémon and a mess with a Darkrai?"
"Yeah." Meowth agreed. "But didn't da Ranger Union bust dem up?"
"They obviously didn't do a good job of it." Jessie added, but she was still angry enough that her voice was heard by the Dim Sun minions.
"What was that?" The first minion asked.
"I don't know, but it sounded like something that we didn't do a good job at."
"Oh no, someone is here, and commenting about us! Guess we need to try this baby out now…that randomly-sleeping Fearow over there should do the trick!"
The minions activated their Miniremo and it fired a beam at the Fearow. It struggled for a bit, overcome with pain and negative emotions. Darkness eventually took control, and the Fearow was under Team Dim Sun's command. Team Rocket didn't have time to react.
"Fearow," The second minion shouted, "use Whirlwind behind those bushes."
The Fearow flapped its gigantic wings and created its twister. Team Rocket couldn't hold on to the bushes and flew up into the air.
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off already…." They disappeared with a twinkle.
It was a bright and clear sky, with few clouds around and the sun was bearing down on the ground below. Team Rocket was not amused, they've blasted off quite enough for one day. Despite the rather obvious fact that Team Rocket hated blasting off, if they had known what their flight plan was, they would have requested a slight detour to the left. This would have put them on a direct course with a cloaked ship hovering near Mt. Coronet. A cloaked ship that is looking for something, and someone.
Hunter J was not amused. She had been searching from the skies for hours, with on trace of the brat or his group of friends. The interference from Mt. Coronet wasn't making things easy either.
"Any sign of them yet?" J asked one of her henchmen.
"Negative. It's difficult to determine what's under this dense forest. Especially with our cloaking device engaged."
J knew that the cloaking device gave her an advantage in not being detected, but its main drawback is that everything else was affected in some ways. As well, J was not impressed with the current situation. She was regretting not going after them when she had the chance. But she knew that stealing that brat's Pikachu and finishing him off in front of people would have been too risky. She didn't want to bring too much unwanted attention to herself, even with her client keeping the police at bay.
"Sir, we've detected something!" A henchman exclaimed from a console to J's right. "Two objects at high velocity heading towards the Mt. Coronet. Altitude: approximately two thousand feet above sea level."
"Visual." A viewer switched from displaying a schematic of the ship to a close-up of the unidentified object. It was Kellyn, riding a Staraptor at high speed. J was shocked when she saw Kellyn. Now the situation was becoming unacceptable. Kellyn was obviously arriving to assist the brat. She thought that her client, whatever his name was, was going to keep the Rangers occupied while she did her work. The anger pouring through her was getting a little too much for to disguise. But somehow, this latest development didn't surprise her. "I was wondering when Kellyn was going to show up."
J's many experiences with Kellyn over the past year or so gave her some ideas as to how the Top Ranger may act in this situation. She had a hunch that Kellyn harboured amourous feelings for the brat, and that he would do whatever is in his power to protect him. He would likely try and lead them through the interiors of Mt. Coronet, where it would be difficult, if not impossible, for her and her men to track them from the air. It would be easier to land and track them on foot and in the ATVs. Plus, it would be easier to snag the Pikachu and dispose of the brat and of Kellyn within the mountain- fewer people, if any, would be paying any attention.
"Find a suitable place to land the ship close to the mountain. We're executing a ground search. Once we've landed, de-cloak and mobilize. This time, failure is not an option."
"Yes, sir!"
As her ship moved closer to the ground, J knew that she would finally have her chance for revenge.
Closer to Mt. Coronet, Ash, Pikachu, Dawn and Brock were anxiously waiting Kellyn's arrival. They were apprehensive, and with good reason. J and her men may arrive at any moment, and there was little they could do to potentially stop her from getting Pikachu. If Kellyn didn't arrive in time, there seemed to be only one option for them, but they did not want it to boil down to that, no matter how bad or obsessed J is.
"I hope Kellyn shows up soon." Ash spoke worryingly, "We don't know when J will show up again."
"But the question still remains, Ash: Where do we go after Kellyn shows up?" Brock commented. "J does have powerful equipment on her side and she will track us."
Brock's words added nothing but worry onto Ash's face, and Dawn could see that. She was very concerned about her friend. Pikachu meant so much to Ash that the thought of him becoming depressed and angry if he was taken from him would be too much to bear for her. She really cared about Ash. He was such a good friend to her. But sometimes she wondered if he could be more? 'No Dawn, he doesn't.' She said to herself. 'He just thinks of you as a friend. Besides, he's you're only ten years old, he's not likely to think about you that way.'
"She won't get her hands on Pikachu. She'll have to kill me before I'll let that happen!" Ash exclaimed. Pikachu was overjoyed to hear such words from his best friend; he just hoped that those words would never come to fruition.
Any such thoughts that were going through each of their minds were soon gone as the gang heard a loud 'Starrrrraptor!' above them. It was Kellyn, coming down for a landing.
"Kellyn! You're here!" Dawn shouted.
"Pikapika!"
Kellyn and Staraptor landed down without much difficulty and Kellyn quickly jumped off the bird Pokémon.
"Thank you very much, Staraptor. Take care, my friend." Kellyn patted the Pokémon.
"Staraptor!" Staraptor called and flew back up into the sky and soared away. Kellyn turned around to see Ash and the gang running towards him. Kellyn got his first good look at Ash since the Riolu affair. 'He looks so handsome there…Easy Kellyn! You're supposed to be protecting him, not ogling him.'
Ash was oblivious to Kellyn's mental glancing when he ran up to him. "Kellyn, thank goodness you're here now. I was worried J would show up before you would." Kellyn could tell that Ash was incredibly relieved to see him.
"I came here as fast as I could. It was a bit of trouble trying to get the clearance to come here."
"How so?" Ash asked.
"There have been reports of Pokémon becoming hypnotized over Almia and Fiore. A criminal organization, Team Dim Sun, is behind this. We thought we disbanded them over a year ago, but they've apparently resurfaced." Kellyn explained.
"That's terrible!" Dawn shouted. "Why would they do such a thing?"
"Team Dim Sun originally wished to ensnare the world in darkness and purge the world of friendship. They used the powerful Altru Inc. energy company as a front to create Pokémon-controlling devices to accomplish this. We put a stop to that and we thought we destroyed all of the devices and the plans to construct them." Kellyn continued. "Apparently, we missed a few."
"Pokémon-controlling devices? Sounds similar to what was preventing Officer Jenny from coming to our assistance." Brock pondered aloud.
"Then perhaps this Team Dim Sun is here in Sinnoh as well." Dawn said, echoing what everyone else was thinking.
"If that is the case," Kellyn concluded, "then we really must be careful." Kellyn then turned to Ash and laid his hand on his shoulder. "But in any case, our first priority is to protect Ash and Pikachu from Hunter J."
Everyone nodded and hummed in agreement. Kellyn crouched down onto the ground, grabbed a twig and started drawing a map. "Mt. Coronet is an obvious place for us to hide in the meantime. J's ship is not able to track us there, and the caves inside the mountain do provide adequate protection. But J would more that likely guess that's where we'll try to hide." Kellyn drew along the ground with a line heading up, "So our best option would be to make for Route 216 and head for Snowpoint City. J won't come after us in a major urban centre, plus the winter conditions would impede their search."
"And that is also where my next gym battle is!" Ash added with great enthusiasm. Pikachu concurred as well. "Pikachu!"
Kellyn smiled at Satoshi's outburst. Even when faced with danger, the boy was still filled with energy and excitement. He loved that about him. But time was of the essence. Kellyn got up and pointed to the east. "The entrance to the Mt. Coronet cavern system is that way. We need to get going now. Brock, Dawn, can you two go on ahead? I'd like to speak to Ash alone for a moment."
Both Brock and Dawn nodded, and started walking, but Dawn was a little curious. 'Why would he want to talk to Ash alone?' She decided to stay off a bit to hear what the two were talking about.
Kellyn went up to Ash and placed both his hands on his shoulders. "Ash, there are a few things I'd like to tell you before we go."
Ash smiled, enjoying Kellyn's touch, but he wasn't exactly sure why. "Sure Kellyn, what is it?"
"Ash, this situation is an incredibly dangerous one. While I know that you can easily take care of yourself, I am concerned if you start acting a little too rash." Kellyn's voice dripped with concern, but Ash was just a little taken aback.
"Kellyn…I understand. But we have to protect Pikachu at all costs! I won't let her take him-" Kellyn placed a finger over Ash's mouth.
"Ash… Please understand, I'm not saying I don't trust you. Far from it, I'd trust you with my life. It's just that… I don't want to lose you. Ever." Ash wasn't sure what to say to this, he could feel something coming up, something wonderful and incredible. He just wasn't sure how to describe it. "When you helped me with rescuing Riolu, I was eternally grateful. This is why I've decided to come and help protect you and Pikachu even though there is a crisis going on. You gave me something that I never thought I could ever be able to repay."
Ash could see the look on Kellyn's face. It was incredibly sincere. Ash felt something inside, something finally clicking inside. Upon discovering this, Ash was speechless. "Kellyn… does this mean you… love me?"
Kellyn's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. He could not believe what he just heard. Not normally one to stammer, he could barely give out a response. "…y…y…yesss…yes Ash, I love you. You're an amazing person." Kellyn finally gave into temptation and kissed Ash on the lips, if only briefly.
Pikachu, while enjoying the love scene, was impatient to get going. "Pikapi, pika pika!"
Ash and Kellyn broke off. "Right Pikachu," Ash said, "We need to catch up to Dawn and Brock." The three started heading off where Brock and Dawn went.
Little did they know that Dawn was actually watching them from a distance. 'Kellyn was kissing Ash? Just what the hell is going on here?' She was clearly confused. This was unexpected. She may have to keep a close eye on them.
A/N: Okay, at about 2400 words, this is my longest chapter to date. Finally we have some Aerialshippyness here. And yes don't worry, there will be more romantic and "close" scenes between Ash and Kellyn later on. I may not write the next chapter quickly because of term papers being due soon, but hopefully one more chapter by the end of March.