Again, I'm truly very sorry for another delay! I was busy preparing for my final high school year as well as the activities in my school club (even on holidays!)
Last chapter's reviewer:
Skydancing Dragon: Thanks! Glad you like it!
And the disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon!
Pokemon Ranger – Darkness in Almia
Chapter 7 – Dark Tower
The next morning, all experienced rangers were gathered in the meeting room. There were new faces for Lunick and Solana, but not for Keith, Kate, and Kellyn who had been working as rangers in Almia for years.
"Crawford! Luana!" Kate ran over to them, "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Kate! Is that you? I believe you've been a lot of dangerous missions as a top ranger, right?" The woman with short black hair said.
"Well, kinda..." Kate replied shortly with a smile, "By the way, what are you and Crawford doing here anyway?"
"We got a call from the prof yesterday and Leader needs our help as well. Man! This is taking my time to improve my jokes!" The ranger with afro hair, Crawford, complained.
"Oh, I see... Okay, I'll see Professor Hastings first and ask him what's going on. See you later!" Kate waved at Luana and Crawford as she walked down through the elevator and headed towards Professor Hastings' lab, leaving the other four rangers.
"Professor! What is going on here? Why are there so many rangers in the meeting room?" Kate asked immediately after she opened the doors with her card key.
"I'm afraid to say that the past might be repeating itself..." Professor Hastings didn't look at Kate, but instead he was looking at the shadow crystal in the capsule from before.
"What do you mean...? Did Darkrai go mad again?" Kate asked worriedly.
"Professor! Bad news!" Keith ran into the lab and stopped in front of the two, panting, "We... saw the tower... covered... by dark clouds..."
"What!? Does that mean..." Kate turned to Professor Hastings.
"Yes, Darkrai has something to do with it," Professor Hastings nodded, "But this time it's much worse than what happened before as it was fully controlled by the darkness 'planted' by the device you gave me after giving me your report the other day."
"I knew it! I have already had a bad feeling about that gun-like thing!" Keith exclaimed, "So now we'll take those rangers to fight in the tower, right?"
"Half correct, young man! We'll have most of the rangers help with the employees' evacuation and secure the surrounding areas for any affected wild pokemon. If you excuse me, I'll announce the plan to the other rangers in the meeting room." Professor Hastings said before he walked out of his lab.
Kate and Keith followed the professor as he walked out of his lab and headed towards the meeting room upstairs. Professor Hastings walked in front of the crowd of rangers while Keith and Kate walked into the crowd to meet up again with Lunick and Solana.
"May I have your attention, please?" The whole room went silent as all eyes were fixed on Professor Hastings, "Some might be aware of the strange things happening in the Altru Tower for the past few days. So I'll ask most of you to help with evacuating the employees in the tower."
"I'll also ask some of you to help with the fight in the tower," Professor Hastings continued, "Those rangers will take Staraptor to the platform on the top floor of the building, where the Altru Building and the Altru Tower are connected. They are Kate, Keith, Kellyn, Barlow, Luana, Crawford, Lunick, and Solana. The rest will be in charge of the evacuation and securing the surrounding area from wilp pokemon. I wish you all luck!"
The crowd dismissed, leaving to do their assigned tasks. Only eight rangers mentioned before who still stayed in the room to hear any further instruction from Professor Hastings.
"The eight of you will be doing the most dangerous task. You have to climb to the top of the tower because of the evil aura there. There's no doubt that the whole tower will be full of agitated wild pokemon, so all of you need to be careful," Professor Hastings said as the eight of them saluted before leaving.
The eight of them flew to the top of Altru Building on Staraptor, landing safely. They went inside and took the first set of stairs, only to find a group of wild pokemon blocking them on the way to the second set of stairs on the tower's first floor.
"Wild pokemon! And there's a lot of them!" Keith commented, getting his styler ready.
"Everyone, go on ahead!" Luana came forward, "I'll take care of them!"
"I'll help as well!" Crawford came to Luana's side, "Roselia! Let's paralyze them with your Stun Spore!"
The Roselia jumped into the air above the wild pokemon and spun his body as yellow colored spores came out from the roses on his hands. The spore covered the wild pokemon and they became paralyzed and slow moving.
"Lopunny, frezee their feet to the ground!" Luana commanded as a brown bunny-like pokemon came out from her back with a blue beam in her mouth. She shot out the blue beam on the ground, pinning the paralyzed pokemon to the ground.
'Wow... Their partners have even evolved...' Kate thought in amazement, "Thanks Luana and Crawford!"
The remaining six rangers carefully walked through the wild pokemon, heading towards the second set of stairs. They went up to the second floor, only to find another group of wild pokemon coming from the next floor.
"Another group, eh?" Barlow stepped forward, "I'll take care of them!" His partner pokemon, Makuhita, came out from behind him, "Let's give them the taste of our combined strength!"
"I'll join the fight as well, Leader!" Kellyn stepped forward as well, with his partner, Pachirisu, on his shoulder.
"Leader... but..." Kate tried to argue, but was cut off by Barlow.
"I believe I've taught you back then when you're still a student that you shouldn't let down someone who had risked their lives for you and that you mustn't be a coward, right?" Barlow asked.
"Right... I... I understand..." Kate turned to the others, "Let's go..."
The four remaining rangers went up to the third floor as Barlow's Makuhita and Kellyn's Pachirisu had made them an opening. When they were heading towards the stairs to the final floor before the top, a few tougher pokemon were blocking the way.
Lunick and Keith, who were standing behind the girls, exchanged glances before nodding to each other. They both stepped forward and their partner pokemon, Minun and Buizel, were both ready to fight.
"It's time for the pro rangers to step into the battle!" Keith declared proudly, "Kate, you go ahead! Save the world, er... Almia I mean..."
"Keith..." Kate looked at Keith thoroughly as his expression showed the unbeatable determination he always had.
"Solana, take care of my sister!" Lunick told Solana.
"Okay, I will," Solana turned to Lunick, then to Kate, "Come on, let's go!"
Kate silently nodded, following Solana as both of them climbed the stairs to an empty floor. They took the final set of stairs to the top of the tower, which was as dark as the night sky with such an awful and strong feeling of evil aura.
"This is just like how it was when I first captured Darkrai..." Kate looked around, "But it didn't have such a threatening aura like this..."
"Kate, is that... Darkrai?" The girls looked in front of them and saw a silhouette of a pokemon shape which was almost like a floating person.
The pokemon revealed itself to have glowing red eyes. It had a light purple head and a dark purple body, with a neck shaped like a black scarf blown by the wind. The pokemon flew closer to the girls slowly, its glowing eyes locked on the female rangers.
Kate gulped nervously and pointed her styler at the pokemon. Solana did the same, and noticed that her Plusle, who was on her shoulder, looked terrified. She looked at Kate's Pachirisu, who was terrified as well.
"Is that really Darkrai?" Kate asked back to Solana.
'...elp...'
"Huh?" Kate looked around to find the source of the familiar voice.
'Kate... help...' The voice became clearer in Kate's mind.
'It's my brother's and Keith's voices! But where did they come from?'
Mysteriously, Lunick's and Keith's voices suddenly came into Kate's mind! And what happened to Darkrai? Stay tuned as the truth will soon be revealed! Please leave a review and tell me what you think!
