Chapter 9. Contains Voicemailshipping & Vatonageshipping.
Chapter 9: Location Code: Random
Leaf resisted the urge to strangle this person. "Okay… Almia. And… what's your name?"
The boy did a spin, then put his arm out. A watch-like thing shined in the light. "I'm Kellyn!"
The three Kanto trainers stared. Blue ventured to ask, "What was that?"
"A Ranger Pose!"
Red face-palmed. Blue's mouth dropped. Leaf sighed.
Kellyn looked at the trio. "And who are you?"
"Blue."
"Leaf, and this is Red."
Kellyn shook their hands. Leaf's eyebrow twitched. "So… what's a Ranger?"
Kellyn gaped. "Really? You don't know? We keep the peace in Almia, Oblivia, and Fiore!"
Blue's curiosity was piqued. "How do you do that?"
Kellyn held up his watch-ish thing. "With this! This is the Styler! Very special, too. The only one of its kind!"
Leaf scratched her head. "Um… what does it… do?"
The boy pointed to a nearby Staraptor, which Red found odd. Staraptor don't usually fly close to the ground. "Watch this!"
A wheel shot out, sat for a moment, glowed brighter, then looped around the Predator Pokémon. There were about two loopings, and then Staraptor looked really happy, and flew towards Kellyn. "Capture successful!"
Leaf knew she was going to regret asking. "Capture…?"
Kellyn struck that pose again. "The Capture Wheel goes out, makes circles around a Pokémon, and then that Pokémon becomes friendly! The Styler is so circly…"
Blue was shocked. "What? You force Pokémon to become your friends?"
Kellyn ignored that. "After the Pokémon helps us, we let it go to enjoy freedom."
Leaf shook her head. "That's not friendship! You just use Pokémon, force it to help you, and then you let it go! There's no bonding in that!"
Kellyn frowned and crossed his arms. "Okay, how do you make friends?"
Blue held up a Pokéball. "We catch them with these, then keep them, train them, and battle with them. They stay with us all of their lives!"
Kellyn twitched. "You… battle with them? You make them fight… for all of their lives? What kind of bond is that?"
Red sighed, then stepped forwards and whacked Blue and Kellyn. "Ow! What was that for?"
Leaf smiled. "We're wasting time. We need to get back to… Unova immediately."
Blue nodded, painfully. Red had a point. "Take us… to whoever's in charge."
Lyra and Ethan wouldn't stop blushing. Crystal found that the tension was too thick. "So… how was it?"
Ethan flinched, and Lyra tripped and fell.
After the situation with their clothes, they managed to get changed, although Crystal didn't know exactly how they managed. After that, they made their way through the jungle, which rather looked like a Johto jungle.
Ethan looked at her. "Crys… why would you even ask?"
Lyra stumbled about. "Crystal… shut up."
They continued in the same awkward silence.
Yellow woke up to N's gray eyes in her face. "Aah! What?"
N smiled. "Ariel and Cynthia… told me about you. I have… some questions to ask."
Yellow nodded. "Okay, just… can you back up, a little?"
N nodded. "Yeah, of course!"
Yellow sat up. "Um… what's your name?"
N smiled. "I'm N."
Yellow laughed charmingly. "That can't be a real name!"
N winced. "Um… well… actually… my real name is… Natural Harmonia Gropius."
Yellow's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Uh… I can see why you like 'N.'"
N nodded. "I suppose… 'Harmonia' isn't my name, anymore…"
Yellow didn't ask. "So… what did you want to know?"
N pointed at her hands. "You can heal Pokémon and read their thoughts, right?"
Yellow nodded. "Uh-huh…" Where is this going?
N smiled. "I can, too."
Shock. Disbelief. Connection. Amazement. Yellow went through a wide range of feelings. "Wha… wha… uh… em… uh…"
N shifted. "I don't know where I came from or why I have powers. Cynthia and Ariel didn't know about you. Please… please tell me that you know why I am the way I am!"
Leaf looked up. "Impressive. Doesn't have anything on the Indigo League building at all." They were standing in front of what Kellyn called the Ranger Union HQ.
Blue nodded. "The Indigo League building is way larger than this little cottage."
Kellyn looked at them funny. "Uh… this is the second-largest building in Almia."
They entered the third floor. A group of two girls and a guy were at a huge desk with an electronic screen-map of Almia and many hundreds of buttons and switches.
Kellyn went up to one of them, a blonde girl who was looking bored. "Rhythmi! I'm ba~aack!"
"Kellyn!"
Blue blinked. The girl called Rhythmi just (seemingly randomly) entered a make-out with Kellyn, and made it seem natural. The boy to Rhythmi's left and the girl to Rhythmi's right looked disgusted. The girl even muttered, "…disrupting operations for kissy time…"
"Kellyn! Let Rhythmi get back to work!" The order issued from a girl with spiky ponytails who was dressed like Kellyn.
Kellyn promptly ignored her, and the girl sighed. "Why can't a Top Ranger be more professional? Why can't a Top Operator be more mature?"
Leaf edged towards her. "Um… who are you?"
The girl spun around in a pirouette fashion, and raised her Styler above her head. "I'm Kate! The twelfth Top Ranger!"
Blue was grinning and writing in a notebook, and Red noticed and snatched it. Kellyn & Rhythmi… so cute! With a sigh, he handed it back to an annoyed Blue.
Kate yelled again. "Kellyn! Don't make me get Erma!" She turned to Leaf. "Erma's the only one who can control them when they get like this."
With a sigh, Kellyn and Rhythmi separated. Kellyn turned to Kate. "I don't interrupt you and Keith, do I?"
Kate crossed her arms. "Completely different. We don't disrupt each other's work."
Blue stepped forward. "Keith, eh? Who's he?"
Kate very calmly said, "My boyfriend. He's the eleventh Top Ranger, and this guy…" She grabbed Kellyn's ear. "Is the thirteenth Top Ranger."
Kellyn winced. "Ow, ow… that's my ear, Kate!"
Kate scowled. "Get back to work!"
Kellyn left in a hurry. Rhythmi seemed sad, but a glare from Kate was enough to make her turn around and begin working again.
Leaf was concerned. "You seem a little… harsh on them."
Kate's mean face became more lighthearted. "There's just so many Quests and Missions… so much work! I don't mind when it's their off-time, but… using the Voicemail system for personal reasons, making out in the middle of the hour, using the one and only Vatonage Styler to capture Luvdisc… repeatedly…"
Blue smirked. "Sounds like a very devoted couple."
Kate laughed. "You have no idea. They've been like that since Ranger School… the rules in the place say boys don't go in the girl's dorm, and girls don't go in the boy's dorm. Guess who broke that rule?"
Leaf shook her head. "Um… we don't really have time to gossip. Can we talk to whoever's in charge?"
Kate tilted her head. "Erma's not here, Professor Hastings is sick, and Sven, Wendy, and Keith are on missions. By seniority, I'm in charge right now."
Lyra ran forward, clearly excited. "Civilization! WOOOOOOOOO!"
Crystal sighed. "So… where is this?"
Ethan shrugged. "I don't know… looks kinda like…"
Lyra gasped. "Frontier Access!" she shouted, so loud it made Hana jump.
Crystal didn't know what she was talking about. "Which Frontier?"
Ethan smiled. "Johto Frontier!"
Crystal looked at him. "Johto doesn't have a Battle Frontier."
Ethan shook his head. "Crys, Johto's Frontier is exactly the same as Sinnoh's. The Frontier Brains from Sinnoh are here in Summer and Fall, and there in Winter and Spring."
Crystal frowned. "I would think I would know if Johto had one."
Lyra smiled. "At least we know where we are! It was bad when we found out that Ethan's Pokégear was broken!"
Crystal peered at the large Frontier in the background. "Hey… there's someone there! Someone I know!"
N nodded. "So… in your world, as a random variable… a single child per generation is born with special powers… in Viridian Forest in Kanto."
Yellow frowned. "Variable? You sound like Node."
N shook his head. "From the sounds of it, Node talks one hundred percent in numbers. I don't… but I've been around Ghetsis too long, and his way of speaking rubbed off on me. Anyways, do you think I could have been born in Viridian Forest?"
Yellow considered it. "I don't think there's any other way to have what we have."
N smiled. "Um… if we go to Kanto, can we look around Viridian to try to find where I came from?"
Yellow gave him a shy smile. "Yeah, sure."
Ariel, looking back at the two, frowned. Wait… is N Yellow's counterpart? N is such an important character that surely he'd be in the manga… right?
Kate frowned, and pointed at a piece of data on screen. "What's that, Linda?"
Linda pulled it up. "…? It appears to be a Team Dim Sun minion."
Leaf read over her shoulder. "Team Dim Sun?"
Kate nodded. "Yeah. They controlled Pokémon through machines called Miniremos. They were funded by Altru Inc. before Kellyn stopped them. Why have they resurfaced?"
Red pointed, and Leaf took two seconds to figure out what he saw. "Wait… who's that guy?"
Kate leaned in and squinted. "Eh? Wait… that's… Ice!"
Rhythmi jolted out of her seat. "Ice? He burst into the Ranger Union HQ! What is he doing?"
Kate frowned. "We can't spare any Rangers… except me."
Red pulled out a Pokéball and threw into the air, catching it and tossing it again. Leaf grinned. Blue stuck her tongue out. "We'll come with you! I want to see what the villains are like here!"
Leaf nodded. "We're not Rangers, but we are strong! I may be cute, but I can still strike down villains with the best of them!"
Kate grinned. "Alright. Tell you what… you told me about how you came here. If you help me in this Mission, I'll convince Erma to help you find your way back."
Red nodded, smiling. Kate squinted at him. "Don't talk much, do you? Okay, Linda, you're in charge!"
Crystal ran up to the person. "Silver!"
The redhead turned around. "What?"
Crystal cheered. "Finally, a double with the same name!"
Silver scratched his head and said nothing.
Ethan ran forwards, panting. "Crys, give us a little warning before… Silver?"
Silver frowned. "You. What are you and Lyra doing here? And who's this chick?"
Ethan rubbed the back of his head, reminding Crys of talkative Red. "Well… it's a long story…"
Silver looked at them closely. "Are you in trouble… again?"
Lyra nodded. "We're trying to save the world!"
Silver's eyelid twitched. "Again? Then why is Lyra with you, rival?"
Ethan laughed. "She sorta got sucked into it. Um, why don't you actually say my name for once?"
Silver looked amused. "Why should I? I don't care about you."
Ethan blinked. Something occurred to him. "And you care about… Lyra?" He said her name…
Silver fell over. "No! That's not it! I… I… Who's the chick? You never answered me!"
Crystal growled. "I'm no chick. I'm Crystal."
Silver nodded. "Should I know you?"
Crystal shook her head. "Uh-uh. And now I don't care to know you. You don't seem to be a good guy."
Silver gave her an odd glance, as if she had poked him. "Hmm… you're all serious. Are you always serious?"
Crystal gave him an indignant look. "No. What does that have to do with anything? Now, are you going to help us or not?"
Silver gave her an evil smile. Crystal's eyes narrowed. He really takes after Giovanni in this world. Silver looked her up and down. "All business, all the time. You really are a very serious person. A very, very super serious gal."
The next moment, he was lying on the ground, and Crys was beating the crap out of him.
Yellow smiled and jumped up and down. "Yes! We know where we are!"
N nodded. "Anville Town. Home of that single turntable train that doesn't seem to go anywhere ever."
Cynthia smiled. "Okay, then. We're in Unova?"
Ariel grinned widely. "Yeah. Let's take a trip on the train, eh?"
N grabbed her and yanked her back. "Not quite yet. Let's watch the news on the monitor first."
They all looked up. A TV screen blared out channel 27, Pokénews. "The strange creatures, which have been given the odd name of Holes, are slowly disappearing. It's not surprising since the famous hero Dawn of Twinleaf Town figured out how to destroy them. Here's Dawn now."
N frowned, looking at his companions' faces. "Okay… who's Dawn?"
Cynthia folded her arms. "Dawn is the hero from my region who faced off Giratina."
N had a strange look on his face. "Why…" he began, but he was shushed by Yellow.
Dawn sat in a chair, with Lucas near her. "Thanks, Alice. Anyways, with you telling everyone how to destroy each one of the Holes already, I'd like to try to get a message out." She sidled closer to the camera. "Red, or Yellow, or Ethan, or maybe even Ariel… Node came back to Sinnoh and just told us that he was headed to Mt. Silver. I just thought you'd like to know."
The news reporter named Alice looked a little disgruntled. "Okay… that was… the hero, Dawn." It moved to commercial break.
Yellow moved a hair out of her face. "Why would he do that? He's never told us where he's gone before."
Ariel sighed. "This can only mean one thing. He's gotten an Unova Legendary Pokémon. It's time for the final battle."
"Voicemail! Voicemail! Kate, are you there?"
Kate moved her Styler to her mouth. "Yeah, Keith, I'm here!"
"Where are you? I'm done with this Mission. If you want, I could take over whatever you're doing."
Kate smiled. He was so considerate. "Keith, I'd like to have you here, but as backup, not a substitute. What we're doing involves Team Dim Sun."
There was spluttering. "Team Dim Sun was wrecked when Kellyn took out Altru!"
Kate sighed. "Apparently not well enough. Ice seems to have resurrected it for some reason."
A pause. "Ice? That pacifist? Are you sure it's Ice?"
"One hundred percent sure."
Another pause. "I'll be right over. Where are you?"
"Hia Valley."
Not much action this chapter, but that's alright.
