Me-Yolo! We're back with the next chapter for Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia! My Way! I'm sorry it took so long...

Kate-It's alright...

Crawford-Where da heck have you been?!

Me-Places. School's bugging me a little too much.

Crawford-Ah.

Kate-Say, where'd Keith go?

Me-Huh? What do you mean? He's not even in this chapter.

Kate-I meant- - -

Keith-Boo. *blows air on Kate's ear*

Kate-KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~! *jumps behind me* Save me!

Me-Um...okay?

Barlow-Yolo! NightcoreAddictXx does not own Pokémon!

Me-And read on! But, first, here are the replies to the reviews:


PKMN Trainer Crystal-Thank you very much! :) And here is your virtual Budew. :D

Sese Daniels-Well, I am very glad that you love this fanfiction. And there is no way that there will be KatexCrawford even though there may be some hints of that. This story is strictly VatonageShipping! Virtual Budew! :)

Extended Experience-Oh? I am quite surprised that I'm starting to change your opinion a little here...XD Virtual Budew! :)

sk8boards4ever-I know. I understand what you mean, too. Well, I honestly don't know if she'll get attacked or not. I just gotta look at the walkthrough and see. Virtual Budew! :)


Kate's POV

I was woken up to the sound of someone pounding on the door furiously.

"Hunh...?" I grumbled tiredly as I slowly poked my head out of the sheets.

"Kate! Time to get up!"

"Ugh...Really, Luana...?" I let out a yawn.

"It's urgent. Barlow wishes to speak with you."

"Really now?" that made me instantly fly up from bed. "I-I'll be out there in a second!" I hollered.

I heard soft laughter come from behind the door before her footsteps began to fade away. I pulled my tank top over my head and slipped out of my pajama shorts. As I began to tie my hair into a high ponytail and put on my Ranger outfit, I noticed the letter on the desk still. I then began to contemplate if I really should send it or not.

"Should I really...?" I shook my head. "Nah. Like I was telling myself last night, he won't have the time to read it..." I then glanced over at the door. "But...why would Barlow need to talk to me? Is it really that urgent?" I asked myself.

I hopped out of my room and began to skip down the hallway to the exit. The doors automatically opened and I stepped out. Everyone turned to look at me.

"Morning, Kate!" Crawford hollered.

"Morning." I said with a small smile and a small wave as I made my way over to Barlow, who was stuffing his face with a breakfast taco.

"Good morning, Sir." I greeted.

"Hey, there! Good morning to you, too!" Barlow stuffed the rest of the taco down his throat. "Did you sleep well?" he asked.

I shrugged.

"Mmmm...pretty well..." I trailed off.

"The beds here at this Ranger Station are pretty comfortable, aren't they?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Yes, they are, Sir." I replied.

"That's good to hear." he looked around at everyone else. "Okay, you guys! Listen up!" he clapped his hands loudly, catching everyone's attention. Everyone stopped talking and they focused on Barlow. "This is very important. We have received a very disturbing report from Mr. Woodward." he began.

"Mr. Woodward...?" I wondered out loud.

"What happened?" Crawford asked.

"He claims that there are strange noises coming from the Marine Cave on Nabiki Beach." he said.

"Ah!" everyone except for me declared in shock.

"Kate," he turned to look at me. "You remember too, don't you? When those Pokémon went wild at the beach? This incident could possibly have a connection to that one." he said.

"Whoa..." I trailed off.

Barlow looked over at Crawford.

"Crawford, go investigate the Marine Cave." Barlow then looked over at me. "Take Kate with you, too." he suggested.

"Eh?! Why me?!" I nearly exclaimed.

"You haven't gone on a real Mission, have you?" Luana guessed.

"Yeah...but! I never thought it would come this soon!" I exclaimed.

"It'll be fine. Besides, I'll take care of you real well." Crawford said with a wink.

"Um...thanks?" I answered uncertainly as Barlow and Luana rolled their eyes.

"Geez, why don't you two just get married already?" Barlow asked in an annoyed voice.

Crawford's face flushed a bright red while I gawked at Barlow in surprise.

"S-Sir! Seriously?! I am not going to get married to Kate!" he took ahold of my wrist, which made the supposed smirk on Barlow's face grow wider. "Let's go and get this over with." he stated before dragging me over to the Ranger Station door.

"By the way! Kate, if you want to check out the status of your Mission, click on the blue icon on your Styler on the far-right." Barlow called out.

"O...Okay." I said before finding myself out of the Ranger Station.

I sighed, breathing in the fresh air of the small town. I looked over at Crawford, who was looking down at his Styler.

"Hey, do you have any idea on where the Marina Cave is?" I asked.

"It's located on the beach. Since it's that time of the year again, the tide should be out far enough for us to get in. It's on the west end of the beach." Crawford put his Styler away and looked at me. "This is it, Kate. This is the first mission worthy of the title in such a long time." he said.

"Really?" I questioned.

"Yeah. These days, we had gone on worthless Missions that didn't even seem worthy of the Ranger title. Now that you're here, the best Missions are coming in like crazy!" he declared.

I blushed at that.

"W-Well, I'm flattered..." I stammered out.

"Come on, Kate! There's no time to waste!" Crawford said before dragging me off in the direction of the beach.


Once we arrived at the beach, the first thing that caught Crawford's attention was a noise that even I couldn't hear.

"Hey...you hear that, Kate?" I shook my head to that. "It's being carried by the wind...We need to hurry up and get to the cave." he said.

I nodded as I followed him down the stairs. However, he stopped me halfway, his arm stretched in front of me.

"Hold it. Look at those Shellos." he said.

I looked over his shoulder and I looked at the Shellos on the beach. I arched an eyebrow in confusion. What was it about the Shellos that had Crawford so concerned? They looked normal. I then got a better look and gasped.

"What is that stuff they're leaving behind?" I asked.

"It's slime. Those things inflict damage on you and your Styler." Crawford replied. "Be careful when you're walking."

I nodded and we continued down the stairs. We walked across the sandy beach towards the cave, which was to the west end of the beach, like what Barlow had said. We stepped in and we observed the place a little.

"I hear something coming from deep inside..." he trailed off.

We then a pulsing noise coming from the cave. I then began to wonder if that was normal.

"Caves usually don't make pulsing noises..." I told myself.

"Those must be coming from the source deep inside." he answered like as if he read my mind. "These pulsing noises are pretty sinister." he noted.

We looked all around us and we stepped a little further into the cave.

"Hmmm...if this is only about finding out what's causing this pulse, this Mission will be a piece of lime key pie." he stated, which made me sweat drop.

"What a weird way to use a cliché..." I thought to myself.

"But, Kate..." his hesitant voice reached my ears, which made me look at him weirdly. "Look over there." he said as he pointed his finger.

I looked at where his finger was pointing and my eyes went wide.

"Wh-What the...?" I didn't even know what to think of the sight.

There were two Pokémon going around in circles in one portion of the cave. They had a yellow swirly symbol above their heads.

"There is obviously something with those Pokémon. Something bad is going on here and I sure as heck don't like it." he said.

A shrill Pokémon noise traveled to our ears as a Zubat swiftly flew over to us.

"WAH! Kate, watch out for the Zubat!" he shouted.

The Zubat flew over to me and before I could defend myself, a battle began. I whipped out my Styler and I pointed it at the Zubat.

"Capture...ON!" I declared as I began to draw circles around the Zubat. However, the Zubat was flying around too fast. It created a whirlwind and it hurled it towards me.

"Kate! Watch out!" Crawford pushed me out of the way and took the hit for me.

"Crawford!" I could practically hear the Zubat snicker as I ran over to him. "Are you okay?" I asked.

He nodded slowly as he got up from the ground.

"I'm fine." he began to nurse his head a little. "Try and capture it again." he said.

I nodded in understanding as I aimed my Styler at the Zubat again.

"Capture...ON!" I shouted again as I went back to drawing circles around the Zubat.

"I'll block off its whirlwinds!" Crawford's voice sounded a little distant as I continued to draw circles. I finally captured the Zubat forty-nine circles and ten whirlwinds later.

"Yes! I got it!" I declared.

We watched as the Zubat fled the scene. This made Crawford's face twist into an expression of confusion.

"Just how much weirder can this get?" he wondered out loud. He turned to look at me. "You captured that Zubat properly, didn't you?" he asked.

I nodded slowly.

"Yeah..." I trailed off.

"That's weird...you captured it properly, but it wasn't befriended. Do you think this pulsing noise has something to do with it?" he asked.

I shrugged.

"I have no idea." I said.

"This pulse does not seem to affect the Pokémon that we have already captured, though. If we need to get help from Pokémon, then we're going to have to go outside and get them." he said.

I nodded.

"Understood. Let's continue on." I said.

We began to walk further into the cave. The further we went in, the darker it grew. We bumped into each other and the wall a couple of times because of the darkness. As my eyes grew adjusted to the darkness, I saw a stack of logs covering the path.

"Oh, great. The path's blocked." I said.

"If we have a Pokémon that has the field move Cut, then we could get through." Crawford suggested.

I began to think of a Pokémon that could use Cut. I gasped, a Pokémon coming to mind.

"I saw a Glameow on the way here. Maybe we could use her?" I suggested.

"Sure! That doesn't sound like a bad idea." he said as he took ahold of my wrist and he led me out of the cave. We broke out into the sunlight and almost instantly, we squinted our eyes.

"Aaaagh...so bright..." he grumbled.

"You know, if we hadn't been in that cave for so long, then you wouldn't have been saying that." I pointed out.

"True." he noted.

We looked around on the beach and we spotted a Glameow hissing at the Shellos we saw before.

"There!" I pointed my Styler at the Glameow. "Capture...ON!" I said as I began to draw circles around the cat.

A couple of minutes later, I captured it.

"Great job, Kate! Let's head back." he said.

I nodded and I followed him back into the cave with my Pachirisu and the Glameow I just caught following from behind. We made our way back to the stack of logs and I looked at Glameow.

"Glameow, use Cut on the logs!" I commanded.

The Glameow hissed before making its way over to the logs and slashing them in half.

"Thanks, Glameow." I thanked her.

The Glameow nodded before fleeing.

"Hey, what's in the back of this cave?! You answer correctly and you'll win three million dollars courtesy of- - -" he stopped, noticing that I wasn't interested in his jokes. "Not even a million?" he asked nervously.

"Let's just move forward." I said before walking off without him.

"H-Hey! Kate, wait up!" he called out before trying to catch up with me.


I continued to walk off without Crawford. It was no time to be listening to his lame jokes, anyway.

"Stupid Crawford...is jokes all he cares about?" I asked myself.

I heard the pulsing noises getting louder with each step I took. I was getting to the source. I continued walking through the cave until I stopped at a dead-end, which was probably the back of the cave. What I saw next shocked me.

"Oh my god..."


Me-Yes. I just did that.

Crawford-People are going to hate you for leaving a cliffhanger, you know...

Kate-And after you came back from such a long hiatus! *sighs* Geez, I sometimes wonder what is wrong with you...

Me-Wouldn't you say the same for Barlow?

Kate-Huh? What do you- - -

Barlow-Kate and Crawford, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N- - -

Luana-*hammers Barlow in the back of the head* Shut up, Sir.

Barlow-*groans before passing out*

Elaine-R&R, please! If you do, you get a virtual Glameow! :)