"You called?" Rocket Red said, as he, flanked by the other Rocket Rangers, entered Dr. Nanba's lab, where all the other inhabitants of the castle were waiting. The walls were lined with shelves of Poké Balls, with few areas not covered, and large desks were covered in test tubes, conical flasks, and other scientific equipment, some of which doesn't exist yet, but they cant be described in three, or even four dimensions.
"I beg your pardon?" Giovanni barked. It wasn't a question.
"Sorry. You called sir?" he asked again.
"That's better. Now, Dr. Nanba has been working on a project to enhance your physical capabilities. You all seem to have sufficient mental capabilities – especially you, Rocket Pink, though yours are aided by your psychic abilities – but your physical strength isn't up to the standard we expected of you when we created you. When it is done, you will use it to finally obliterate the Poké Rangers, and conquer the Earth!" Giovanni cried. The others who had once been human averted their eyes at this point- Giovanni had been growing more and more bloodthirsty all the time – possibly a side effect of his Nidoking mutation.
"It's complete, sir," Nanba said, and Giovanni span round wildly, and Nanba nervously continued, "I – I finished it this morning."
"Excellent! Get it now!" the Boss said excitedly. Giovanni turned to a patch of wall with a built in keyboard, and typed away. The wall above then split apart, revealing large, shining armour.
"What – what is that?!" Rocket Green asked, in total awe of the technology before him.
"This," Nanba said, with a dramatic pause, "is the Rocket Battlizer!"
(Backing music plays, Rangers shown battling, including the Neo Cycles)
To protect the world, from devastation! Go Neo, Go Neo, Go! (Kris, Red Ranger, Arcanine Zord shown)
To unite all peoples, within our nation! Go Neo, Go Neo, Go! (Greg, Blue Ranger with Thermo Booster, Octillery Zord shown)
(Kurtis, Green Ranger, Sunflora Zord shown)
To denounce the evils, of truth and love! Go Neo, Go Neo, Go! (Anna, Pink Ranger, Togetic Zord shown)
To extend our reach to, the stars above! Go Neo, Poké Rangers! (Rei, Yellow Ranger, Manectric Zord shown)
(Backing music plays, Silver Scizor, Scizor Zord shown)
Poké Rangers Neo! (Jessie, James, & Meowth glaring at Cassidy & Butch)
Poké Rangers Neo! (Jimmy meeting with Dr. Nanba)
Poké Rangers Neo! (Giovanni sat on his throne)
Po-ké Ran-gers! (Neo & Rocket Megazords, and Mega Insectazord battling)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Rocket Rangers shown)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Rangers with Neo Weapons, Rangers with Neo Blaster, Scizor with Insecta-Ray)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Whitney, Miborg in Sanctuary)
Po-ké Ran-gers! (Poké Rangers stand facing an army of Grunts, led by Giovanni)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Donny and Carl at Golden Youths bar shown, Nanene, and Kyle shown at a table)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Kris/Megazord using Legend Armour)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Rangers with Laser Sabres)
Po-ké! (Neo Garuda Megazord using Brave Bird)
Ran-gers! (Ranger teens at Golden Youths)
Neo! (All six Rangers stand before season logo, credits below read "Characters created by Psyduck Ranger, xXMaddie FitzpatrickXx, Daniel the Dragonfly, anonymous, and Phoenix Espeon; Everything Else by Psyduck Ranger")
Chapter 29; Secrets & Battlizers
It was another beautiful Wednesday afternoon in Goldenrod City, so where might we find our heroes? Golden Youths of course…
As usual, the Rangers were sat with Nanene and Kyle – but Adelie had returned home to Saffron City, to visit her parents and to study floristry under the current gym leader (a descendant of one of the previous gym leaders of the neighbouring Celadon, no less) – when Jimmy sat down to join them, with his chair backwards, leaning over the back.
"Hey, Nanene. You know a little Mukkubird told me that you have a pretty nice singing voice," he said, ever so slyly.
"What?! No, no, who told you that? No, I-I just train my Lapras to sing," Nanene said, and Ritchie swallowed his drink quickly to speak.
"Oh, so you're training your Lapras when it's in its Poké Ball and you're in the shower?!" he asked sarcastically, and Nanene opened her mouth to speak, but Ritchie wasn't done, "Seriously, you've got a great voice, but it does my head in when I'm trying to get to sleep at night."
"You really think my singing's great?" she asked, blushing. Kyle narrowed his eyes and looked in Ritchie's direction.
"So much for not saying who told me, so anyway, how about performing here sometime? Like tomorrow night?" he asked, but Nanene began to protest, before Rei interrupted.
"Oh go on, I've only seen a few people go up on that stage, but everyone I have has gone on to be huge!" she said.
"Oh – ok then, I'll do it! I'd better go home and get everything I need!" Nanene said, starting to get excited, and Jimmy left the table happy.
"Hold on, you're not going on for over a day, why do you need to get ready now?" Kyle asked.
"Trust me, with what I'm going to need I should have started preparing last week – in fact, I'm probably going to need some extra muscle – come on, you!" she said with an evil grin, dragging Kyle off by the scruff of his neck.
"NO! Guys, please! Save me!" he screamed, trying desperately to break free of her grip.
"See ya Kyle!" Kurtis said, waving goodbye after him. Moments later, Kris received a call from – yep, you guessed it; The Sanctuary.
"What's up guys?" he asked.
"Rocket Rangers, another mutant, Mahogany Town, no biggie," Whitney told him.
"Ok, we'll get over there now," he replied, and he led the other Rangers out.
Shortly, in downtown Mahogany…
The Rangers had ridden their Neo Cycles (or SATV), and when they arrived they found Rockets Blue, Green, Yellow and Pink, along with the new mutant and a squad of Neo Grunts randomly and pointlessly blasting buildings, causing rubble to line the streets. The new mutant looked like a slim shiny Dusclops, with arms between it's hands and torso like an Arcanine's legs, and an Arcanine's head and mane with Dusclops' single eye where Arcanine's two would have been. It also had an Arcanine's tail.
"Look what the horribly mutated Meowth dragged in…" Kurtis said to get their attention.
"Hmm. In case you couldn't tell, Green Ranger, we're outside, so it couldn't have dragged us in," Rocket Green replied.
"Hey, shut up!" Kurtis yelled. He drove forward on his Neo Cycle, then leapt into and span in the air, before coming down for a hard kick to Rocket Green, who caught Kurtis' foot. The other Neo Rangers leapt off their Neo Cycles, and ran forward to fight, as did the other mutants.
Rocket Green swung Kurtis around, preparing to throw him for a Seismic Toss, but Kurtis Neo Cycle rammed into him, causing him to fall back and let go of Kurtis' foot, who landed on his Cycle, turned it off, and returned to fighting Rocket Green.
"Hey Ghost Mutt, where's Reddy today then?" Kris asked, as he pressed his Legend Staff hard into the new mutant's arms.
"The name is Canisoid. And don't worry, Rocket Red will be along soon enough," he replied, with an evil grin, before being knocked back by Kris kicking his leg.
Meanwhile, Anna was flying high in the air with the Neo Wings, avoiding the Bell Scarf, occasionally swooping down to try and attack Rocket Pink, who would simply dodge, Greg was trying to send jets of water at Rocket Blue, who simply froze it with the Ice Horn, trying to get at Greg, Rei and Rocket Yellow were using the same physical moves, mirroring each other, and Ritchie had trapped all the Rocket Grunts in a Spider Web attack.
"Anyone need any help?" he asked, all of them stuck.
"If you wouldn't mind," Kris said, who was at the mercy of Canisoid, who was using a combination of Gravity and Lick attacks.
"Insecta-Ray, fire!" he called, summoning his other two weapons, combining all three, and firing at each of the mutants, knocking them down as well as freeing Kris.
"Very good, Rangers. You've beaten them as you always do. But let's see how you handle me!" the easily recognisable voice of Rocket Red called from somewhere.
"Fine, we always beat you too!" Anna yelled back.
"Well not this time. You see, I've had an upgrade," Rocket Red said, and upon hearing jets, they looked up to see Rocket Red slowly descending. And when he said he'd had an upgrade…
His upper torso was now an inch or so thicker (with a Team Rocket red "R" on it), whilst his lower half was quite a few inches thicker (remembering he has his torso plate, which is just for show), covered in white armour. His upper arms were coated over as well, with an open compartment on each one, containing a small rocket each. He had a jet pack on his back and two more jets under his feet, which shut off when he landed, as did the others, and they fell into either his back or arms depending on where they were. His upper legs, hands, and parts of his head were also now white.
"So, do you like the look of the Rocket Battlizer, Rangers? I think it's pretty classy myself," he said with a snigger, as the other mutants grouped around him.
"You've got a Battlizer?!" Rei cried, and she couldn't help but be in awe of the style – very unusual for Team Rocket.
"What's a Battlizer?" Ritchie asked.
"Oh right, you weren't around back then. The Battlizer is an upgrade certain Poké Rangers, normally just the Red Rangers receive, giving them much more power to take on the most powerful enemies. Our old leader got his from the power of a meteorite that crashed at Meteor Falls. The reason that only Red Rangers get it is because of the immense power they need, and Rangers would be lucky if they ever found such a power source," Greg explained.
"And the mutant lava provided us with just such a power source. So. Ready to die?" Rocket Red asked evilly, and all the mutants laughed.
"Dream on! Only one thing for it; Legend Armour, activate!" Kris yelled.
"Ha! Launch Mini-Rockets!" Rocket Red called. Compartments on his hands opened up, and exactly what he called for came out and fired at Kris. He ducked and struck back.
"Legend Armour blast!" he yelled, firing a massive beam from his chest.
"We're with you, Kris! Thermo Booster, fire!" Greg yelled, firing from his unique weapon.
"Neo Blaster, fire!" Kurtis called, firing the weapon held by him and the girls. Canisoid had made Kris drop the Legend Staff, and they'd apparently picked it up.
"Every step of the way! Insecta-Ray, fire!" Ritchie cried.
"Thank you," Kris said, a tear forming in his eye beneath his helmet.
All four beams hit at once, but when the smoke cleared, Rocket Red was fine…he had caught the blast in his hand.
"Hmm. Pathetic," he said, throwing it back at the Rangers, and they all fell down in the blast.
"No. I'm not gonna let you win!" Kris cried, and he got up and ran forward, with his fist behind him, ready to punch the mutant – who caught Kris' fist in his hand as well.
"You wannabes can't compete with the Rocket Battlizer!" he cried, as he crushed Kris' fist, as he screamed in pain, demorphing from it.
"Get off him!" Anna shrieked, trying to run forward to help him, but Greg and Rei held her back, leaving Kurtis and Ritchie to help.
"Let's go," Rocket Red said, letting go of Kris so he fell to the floor, and he stomped hard on Kris' chest, cracking some of his ribs, before he and the other mutants left via a lava hole.
"Kris!" Kurtis yelled as they reached him, and the other three came forward as well now.
"Kris, wake up!" Anna cried, pulling off her helmet, and kissing him.
"Come on, Whitney and Miborg will be able to help, let's move!" Greg said, and they all returned to their vehicles, Ritchie giving Kris a lift.
Shortly, at the Sanctuary…
"And, you're set. You should probably let it rest for a while though," Whitney said. She and Miborg had managed to help the healing of Kris' bones, so after only half an hour or so he was almost perfectly fine. They'd done it with technology they'd invented recently, and they'd just given it to the hospitals of the world.
"Fine, just as long as-" Kris started, but he stopped as the Danger Alarm went off. Everyone turned to the Danger Orb as Miborg brought up an image of the Rocket Rangers and Canisoid attacking Lilycove City.
"Ok, time to go to work," Kris said, jumping down from the table, but his ribs still ached, so he winced as he landed.
"Oh know you don't, you need rest! You won't be any good to anyone if you get yourself killed!" Whitney said.
"But what use am I to anyone if I don't try and stop them?! Better I sacrifice myself than let them win!" Kris yelled at her.
"But what if the other Rangers then say the same thing if anything happens to you?! And then they get injured, or worse, killed as well?! Then the world will be defenceless against Team Rocket, and they'll have won!" Miborg cried, unusually assertively.
"They're right. We can't just stop them all the time with reckless violence. We need a plan," Greg said. Kris slammed his fist on the table in anger, but unfortunately, it was his until recently broken hand, causing it to ache more.
"I feel so useless!" he cried, rubbing his hand.
"There has to be a way we can fight against the Rocket Battlizer. I don't suppose you guys have any secret weapon up your sleeves, do you?" Rei asked jokingly.
"Well, actually – we could always…try and build it ourselves," Miborg said
"A Battlizer?! How?" Kris asked anxiously.
"Well, we could power it with the Pidgeot Zord – the Zords have enough power for your Neo Phones, and the Pidgeot Zord is much stronger than the rest. The only problem is working out how it works," Whitney said, and she brought up a hologram of Rocket Red battlized on the Danger Orb.
"We're not sure if it's been worked into him, or whether it's armour like normal Battlizers, or what," Whitney said, pointing at the joins between Rocket Red and the Battlizer.
"Well why do we have to use this one? Couldn't we use the Meteor Battlizer's design, or any other that we've seen?" Anna asked.
"No; unfortunately, all the data we'd gathered on Battlizers has been deleted to make room for Tetris!" Whitney said with a hint of anger in her voice. On cue, everyone else began whistling innocently.
"Anyway, it's an extremely complex design, Team Rocket have truly outdone themselves with this, we can't get the logistics of it from simple analysis, we'd need the original design. But now Team Rocket have that design, and the lava, there's nothing to stop them from making four more for the other Rocket Rangers…" Miborg said.
"That's our Miborg; always looking on the bright side," Kurtis sighed.
"So what do we do in the meantime?" Ritchie asked.
"Hmm…well, it's getting late now, but tomorrow, once you've rested up, you guys could try and break into Team Rocket's castle and steal the design, whilst the Rocket Rangers are out…" Whitney said, unable to finish her sentence.
Meanwhile, at Team Rocket HQ…
Giovanni, surrounded by six of his minions were watching as the other six flattened Lilycove, with not a Poké Ranger in sight.
"Sir, we're starting to get tired. Permission to return to the castle and rest for the night?" Rocket Blue said via intercom.
"Hmm, but of course," Giovanni said with a grin. The Rocket Rangers and Canisoid soon appeared in the main chamber of the castle, via lava hole. Rocket Red had deactivated the Battlizer.
"Excellent work, all of you. Especially you, Nanba. The Battlizer is truly phenomenal. And by tomorrow morning, the Grunts will be finished with the construction of four more. And whether or not the Poké Rangers try to stop us, we'll crush everything on the planet. It shall finally be – ours," Giovanni cackled.
"As for the rest of you, I want you to take shifts guarding the designs for the Battlizer. I know the Poké Rangers will try to break in and steal them, so make sure they don't!" he added to Cassidy, Butch, Jessie, James and Meowth.
Later that night…
One of the five mutants turned up to take their shift guarding Nanba's lab, relieving the previous one from their duty. They entered the lab and addressed the Neo Grunts.
"Giovanni said you're to stop working at once. He doesn't trust the Rocket Rangers and doesn't want them any more powerful," they said. The Grunts looked to each other in confusion, before the person added, "That's an order!"
Once the Grunts were clear out of the way, they shut down the computer, and removed the disk with the Battlizer's design, cleaning them off the computer.
Early the next day…
Greg came downstairs early, still dressed in his pyjamas, to have breakfast, when he saw an unusually thick wad of mail at the door, especially since most people now used email. He decided to check if any was for him. Nothing was addressed to Greg Simpson, but there was one envelope with no markings but for two words:
Blue Ranger
Greg gasped, and quickly took the letter upstairs. When he opened it, a CD fell out of it. He looked at it in confusion, and read the letter. His eyes widened with every word. He took out his Neo Phone dialled quickly.
"Hello?" came Kris' sleepy reply.
"Kris, you awake?!" Greg asked.
"Obviously I am. NOW," he said angrily.
"Right, sorry, but you need to get to the Sanctuary pronto!" Greg cried, and without another word he hung up, and began to dress at high speed.
Shortly, at the Sanctuary…
"Greg, you're here early!" Miborg said in surprise as Greg burst into the Sanctuary. Miborg was wearing a purple nightgown and matching hat, with a stuffed Teddiursa, and Greg's clothes were mostly on backwards.
"I've got the Battlizer designs!" he gasped, putting the disk into the computer's slot.
"What?! But how?!" Miborg cried, a huge smile forming on his face.
"It's a – a long story," Greg said, opening the file, and images of the Battlizer came on screen, and Miborg and Greg grinned at each other.
"Let's get to work," Miborg said.
They spent the next hour or so doing metalwork, and connecting it up to the computer. A repaint of the "R" was done as well, so that it was now an "N".
When Kris finally arrived, the work was done.
"What's all the hubbub?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Kris Douglas, may we present you with – your Battlizer!" Miborg cried, as he and Greg stepped aside, revealing the same armour that Rocket Red wore (bar the "N").
"You've done it?! How?!" Kris asked, and as Miborg turned to Greg, Kris followed suit.
"Er…it's a long story," he said.
Meanwhile, at Team Rocket HQ…
"WHERE ARE THE BATTLIZERS?!" Giovanni bellowed.
"I-I don't know, sir! But we can check security footage!" Nanba squeaked. He turned on the TV, put on the right channel, and rewound it.
The screen showed one Grunts talking to the others briefly, before the others left, and the first approached the computer, fiddled with it, and destroyed the CD. Giovanni roared as he watched, and left the throne room. Nanba and the other mutants in the throne room waited, and heard the sound of a laser, and a flash of bright white light. Giovanni re-entered moments later.
"Nanba, we need more Neo Grunts. And I need you to redesign the Battlizer. I don't care how long it takes. In the meantime, I want to six of you to slaughter the Poké Rangers!" Giovanni screamed, before storming off to his bedroom. Cassidy, Butch, Jessie, James, Meowth and Nanba trembled, as the Rocket Rangers and Canisoid left for Goldenrod City…
Shortly, on the edge of Azalea Forest…
"Poké Rangers! We know you're in there! Come out, now!" Rocket Red yelled.
Back in the Sanctuary…
"You heard him, Kris. I'll call the others and let them know what's happening," Greg said.
"Right. Neo Access! Double-0 1! Legendary Ranger!" Kris cried.
"Rocket Battlizer!" he called. The armour on the table attached to him the same way as it had for Rocket Red.
Back outside…
"Three…two…one! Fine, Rocket-" Rocket Red began, preparing to attack the forest, but he stopped as he heard jetpacks, disturbingly similar to his own. Now it was the mutants' turn to watch in horror, as Kris appeared over them wearing the Battlizer.
"No! How can you have the Battlizer?!" Rocket Red cried.
"It's a long story," Kris said with an invisible smirk.
"Grr…Blast-Off!" Rocket Red yelled, and the various jets in his armour activated, and he and Kris fought in the sky, with fists, feet, and missiles.
"Hey, Canisoid!" the mutant heard his name be called, and he span round to find Greg and Ritchie pointing the Thermo Booster and Insecta-Ray at him.
"Smile for the camera," Greg said, as he was destroyed.
"Let's end this! Rocket Mode!" Kris cried.
"What's that?!" Rocket Red cried, and he watched in horror as Kris activated a feature of his Battlizer that the original didn't have. He held his arms out, and thin sheets of metal came out from his sides, connecting it to his arms, so he had metal bat-like wings. His legs connected together, and all of his jets activated.
"Final Strike!" he cried, flying towards Rocket Red. In the midst of the huge explosion, Rocket Red was hurled down on top of the other Rocket Rangers.
"Let's get out of here…" Rocket Yellow said, as Pink spilt a vial of lava on the ground, opening a lava hole.
The Rangers spent most of the rest of the day at the Sanctuary, whilst Greg told the Rangers of how he acquired the disk (in an entirely fabricated story involving him breaking in to Team Rocket HQ alone), and Kris explained what the Battlizer felt like to use, and the others expressed their jealousy.
"Whoa, look at the time! 7:00 pm! Nanene will be performing soon!" Rei cried.
"We'd better get going!" Kurtis said.
Shortly, at Golden Youths…
The Rangers arrived just in time to hear Nanene's first song, and they mingled in with the crowd of background characters.
"Um…this is one of my own…it's a tribute to the Neo Poké Rangers, who'll be there to protect us no matter what!" Nanene said, gaining more confidence with each word she said, as the teens listening agreed, and cheered when she was done, and she sat down and sang and played the Poké Rangers Neo theme song on the grand piano now on stage.
"Hey, Jimmy, how'd you get the piano in?" Donny asked the manager.
"What? I didn't bring it in, I thought you helped her," Jimmy replied.
"You really don't know me very well, do you?" Donny asked, as Kyle fell against the bar.
"Ugh…she didn't even let me use pokémon," he sighed, and both barmen laughed.
"Wow, you were right Ritchie, she is great," Kurtis said, and Ritchie nodded. As they and everyone else danced, Greg realised the time, and remembered he had somewhere to be.
"Uh – I'm just going to the bathroom," Greg told his friends.
"Ok, hurry back," Kris said. Greg made his way through the throng of teens, and left the building.
Shortly, in the National Park…
"Sorry I'm late," Greg said, as he approached the person he knew he was there to meet, despite the cloak covering him – it was hard to mistake the huge bulge at the midriff, and the fact that the person wasn't stood on the ground but hovering.
"That's fine, I'm not expected," the mutant said.
"What's going on – why'd you help us?" Greg asked, confused by the person's motives.
"Giovanni's gone crazy – this isn't what I signed up for when I joined Team Rocket – killing innocent people, or-" he took a deep breath, "I don't believe it any more. I just – I only joined Team Rocket to escape my family – but they're gone now anyway – but – it's just wrong. I'll contact you again if you need it, I'll help from the inside," he said.
"Here, let me give you my phone number," Greg said, writing it down on a scrap of paper he had handy, handing it to the mutant.
""02"?" he read.
"Yeah…privileges of a Poké Ranger…well, I'd better go; the other Rangers are expecting me," Greg said, and he left.
"Make sure you don't tell the others!" the mutant called after him, before adding "Good luck, and goodbye, Blue Ranger," as he pulled his hood down, revealing his face to the world.
It was James.
A/N: Well, did you guess it? You'll see now, I hope, why I've entered James for the Best General – I'm developing his character more now. He'll be answering your reviews today – alone – and here's another quiz – but if you don't want to make an episode, then please don't enter the quiz. Name me one hint I've laid in, in previous episodes that James would betray Team Rocket (they're often also hints of him working with Greg). For each hint, you'll get one DF storyline.
By the way, I may have a lot of updates on Wednesdays now, as I have basically no work for IT then, when I have double IT, so two hours two write in with no interruptions. See ya!
