Lots of eager responses! Back in the last chapter, many of you did catch the 'Tangled' movie reference. Applause! YOU ALL WIN A SOAP BASKET…well ok I used the soap and then the basket was destroyed by my eevees….heh…

Also I never did tell you about the two 'inactive' legendary messengers from a past chapters. Lots of guesses from the right answers to the weird (but clever & unique) answers. The pokemon in another dimension? Obviously Giratina. The pokemon meditating its power in solitude was a little trickier for people. That one was Mewtwo.

This chapter's a little longer than the usual ones so enjoy! Oh and read & review it too.

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Legend Protector….help me….please….

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"You look tired. Everything ok?"

Kate sleepily looked at Keith as they strolled through the Union hallways. Boy was she exhausted…nightmares all night long. Apparently the power to quell nightmares and put people to sleep didn't work on herself.

"Nightmares." Kate muttered.

"Sorry." Keith rubbed her hair.

"Nah. No biggie." Kate yawned. "I'm ready for anything."

"Guys!" Rhythmi ran up to them. "Erma's looking for you! She says she has a mission to assign!"

'Anything' was about to spring onto them rather quickly. They went upstairs where Erma waited. As Rhythmi took a seat down in her chair by the operators station, Kate and Keith stood at attention, ready for the mission.

"Good morning you two." Erma greeted. "Sven has been in the Chroma Highlands doing some investigating on Dim Sun. But there's too many grunts for him and his luxray to handle on their own. He needs backup. So I'll be sending you two."

"You can count on us!" Keith saluted.

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Ordinarily, Keith would've grabbed a staraptor for the two of them and fly over to Pueltown. But riding on doduos to the highland area? That was cool. Sort of from a cowboy movie. Not to mention Kate was having fun. Keith blushed a little as she held onto his sides for support as the rode to the area.

"Ack…" Keith coughed. "What's this black stuff in the air?"

A dark shroud of mist covered the entire mountainside of the Chroma Highlands. It was difficult to even see your own hands. Even worse, it was draining the styler's energy at a slow pace.

"I see the murkrow did a good job. Can't see a damn thing here."

Keith heard voices. He and Kate walked over, seeing silhouettes nearby.

"I know right? It'll take a pokemon that knows defog. And there's only one for in the area."

"You did lock it up…didn't you?"

"Of course I did! I'm not an idiot!"

"…hey. Hey I see someone! Two people right there!"

Busted.

"Hey you Dim Sun creeps!" Keith yelled. "Get ready for defeat!"

"Rangers! EEEEK!"

"Oh shut up! We've got miniremos!"

"Right. Totally forgot. Take this!"

Familiar clickety clack of the keys. One minion sent two koffing while the other got two murkrow. Keith decided to take on the koffing. Nothing to it. They may have expelled more gas and smoke but overall, piece of cake. And judging on the sound of two miniremos exploding, Keith could tell Kate accomplished her task.

"No fair!"

"We're telling on you!"

Sheesh. Bunch of crybabies. Well the job was done.

"Ok so there's a pokemon somewhere that can desmist this place." Keith sighed. "Now where to find it?"

"Kyuuuuuun!"

From the sky, a pokemon descended before Kate and Keith. A small gray & blue one with a red sphere. It seemed to be familiar with Kate.

"You know this pokemon?" Keith asked.

"Er…sort of. I've heard about it from Sinnoh myths." Kate replied. "This is Azelf, the being of willpower."

"Can you hear me?" The pokemon seemed to ask.

"Wha…?" Keith blinked. "You can talk?"

"No, no." Azelf chuckled. "This is just my telepathy. I can now communicate with you!"

"Great!" Keith said.

"So Azelf, have you seen the pokemon that knows demist?" Kate asked.

"I saw those dark dressed people take it to a cave and put something to block it. Here, lemme show you!" Azelf offered.

Azelf flew around, showing the rangers which way to go and also helped avoid the testy carnivine. Keith learned that azelf slept in Lake Valor of Sinnoh but tended to leave on rare occasions. When he asked why it came, Azelf seemed to stumble around its words before replying it was visiting Almia temporarily and wanted to help get rid of Dim Sun. Something seemed off about the reply. But what?

"Here we are!" Azelf showed them. "The pokemon is behind this gate!"

"It's locked." Kate pulled on the door.

"No problem. I got this" Keith got to work on the lock.

"Wait…you know lock picking?" Kate asked, stunned.

"When your parents guard the hotel room keys 24-7 and you want access to the best spots, you learn these things." Keith smirked. "Ha! This door's way too easy!"

A click sound and the door burst open. Some pokemon flew out, knocking Kate to her back. Keith went to work capturing while Kate protected little Azelf from possible harm. Geez this pokemon was tricky. Fast and a little violent. What was he dealing with anyways? According to the browser after capture, it was a skarmory.

"Skarmory! Demist!" Keith gave the command.

Skarmory complied and blew away the dark mist. It flew off, the job done.

"Wow…the Chroma Highlands are beautiful…" Kate gasped in awe.

She was right. It was peaceful yet rustic. Very relaxing atmosphere (minus Dim Sun lurking around). Keith found the cave was near a flight of stairs. He led everyone up to the highest point in the highlands.

"Ok we're at the entrance!" Keith cheered. "But I don't see Sven."

"He's probably inside the ruins. This rock slab is like a door of sorts." Kate said, feeling the giant, heavy rock.

"There's got to be a strong pokemon for a job like this somewhere." Keith's eyes scanned the Chroma Highlands.

"You let me take on this one."

Another pokemon floated down. It looked similar to Azelf but its shape and color (yellow) was different.

"Uxie!" Azelf greeted. "You're here too!"

"I am. You can let me show these two the next part of the journey while you start going back to Sinnoh. You've been apart from your lake too long." Uxie told its friend.

"Awww! I just wanted to…" Azelf wanted to say.

"I know why you're here but we can't just abandon our lakes." Uxie warned. "Time to head back."

"Fine. Bye Kate." Azelf sulked before disappearing.

"So you know Azelf?" Keith asked.

"Oh where are my manners? I'm Uxie, being of knowledge." Uxie politely introduced itself. "I protect Lake Acucity."

"No offence but uh…" Keith hesitated. "Why are your eyes closed?"

"Uxie has the power to erase minds when his eyes are open." Kate informed.

"Very good Kate!" Uxie applauded. "Now you two are looking for a pokemon to move that rock? I'll show you where I found one. It's the least I can do for making sure Azelf is alright."

"We would've protected Azelf no matter what." Keith said, following Uxie back down the stairs.

"Yeah but if Azelf is hurt, he'll drain the willpower from any living thing in the area." Kate said.

"Yikes." keith sweatdropped. "Thanks for guarding Azelf back there, Kate."

"Anytime." Kate giggled.

The walk wasn't too long. They came across a bastiodon, stomping around crankily. Kate didn't waste a second. She dodged the incoming charge tackles and rock throwing in order to capture the pokemon. Everyone went back up the stairs and over to the rock slab. Like Uxie said, it moved with ease.

"My work is done." Uxie said. "Sorry I can't help you from here."

"But I can!"

A third pokemon appeared. This one was pink.

"Mesperitt, I've found Azelf. He's going back to Sinnoh. And so are we." Uxie told her.

"Who's Mesperrit and how many of these guys are there?" Keith whispered to Kate while the two pokemon talked.

"This is the third and final one. Judging on where Azelf and Uxie is, I can assume Mesperitt lives in Lake Verity." Kate murmured. "Oh and as the being of emotion, she can also drain your emotions away if you touch her."

Keith shrunk back a little at the remark. Uxie was gone and the pink pokemon remained.

"I know the tunnels since I was looking for azelf down there. That cowboy guy must be who you're looking for and I know where he is. Let me guide you!" Mesperitt offered.

"Sure thing." Kate accepted.

"Yeah it'll be fun!" Keith agreed.

And it was a good thing they got the help. Walking through the dark tunnels, Keith found the place was full of maze like twists, turns and puzzles. Floors had to be fallen through or use driftblim to fly up on. Unfortunately for Keith, only one driftblim per area. His face turned red each time his body hugged around Kate's as they rose to another floor.

"Sooooo…" Mesperrit 'innocently' hung around Keith as Kate went to find another driftblim. "I see someone has certain feelings for a girl!"

Keith choked on air at the sudden remark.

"WHAT! I do not!" He protested.

"I'm the being of emotion. Not exactly hard to hide your feelings from me." Mesperitt snickered.

"…so you know?" Keith gulped.

"That you're falling heavily in love with Kate with each passing day? Yeah big time." Mesperit replied.

"GREAT." Keith groaned. "And now you're going to blab it all to her, aren't you?"

"I respect other people's emotions rather than mess with them. Telling Kate you love her? That's up to you." Mesperit told him.

Keith remained silent. The pokemon inspected him closely.

"You really love that girl don't you?" She questioned.

"….more than anything." Keith sighed.

"What if it was dangerous to love her?" Mesperit cautiously asked.

"Why dangerous?" Keith was confused.

"I mean you know about her powers. What if they uh….went out of control?" Mesperit asked.

"I don't care. I'll help Kate in any way I can because I care about her." Keith said.

Mesperit remained quiet for a long time, deeply in thought.

"There are things going on right now that involve her and her powers." Mesperit's voice was quiet. "Things that are way out of your league, Keith. You won't be able to protect Kate for much longer."

"I will." Keith glared at the pokemon. "Even if it means costing my own life."

"Please be careful." Mesperit warned.

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It was some time later before Kate reached the deeper end of the tunnel. The dark crystals on the walls were a vivid purple with an eerie glow. Grayish dirt walls were suddenly darker and blacker. Seeing Sven and his luxray, Zap, from a distance, Mesperit said goodbye and good luck to the rangers before disappearing.

"Hey guys!" Sven whispered from behind a large rock. "Keep your voices down. We've got trouble."

Kate and Keith gathered with Sven by the rock.

"What do we got?" Keith asked quietly.

"Dim Sun grunts. And a lot of them; too many for my liking." Sven murmured. "Better listen in on what they're saying."

"They told us to dig up all the dark shards we can but we're running out!"

"Only the light colored ones are left."

"Well don't throw those out! Save em!"

"Save them?"

"Yeah they make good jewelry for tourists. Helps us get by what with the lousy salary."

"Heck yeah."

"Dig up the dark shards, keep the light. Got it."

"They're digging up dark shards for their miniremos and gigaremos. Plus some pocket money to boot." Keith said.

"I think it's high time we run them out." Sven nodded his head. "But how do you propose we do that?"

"We can take em on!" Keith seemed fired up.

"Hold it!" Sven stopped him from charging out there. "We're outnumbered here. What we need is a plan to get these rotten thieves out."

Rotten…wait….Kate got it!

"Stay here!" Kate started running. "I know what to do!"

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Only moments later, Kate was back again. This time with a stunktank. It's foul stench made Kate's capturing a bit thrown off. But she got it and brought it back to the group.

"I see where you're going with this." Sven smirked.

"Go get em!" Keith snickered.

"Pinch your noses." Kate warned.

She stepped out from behind the rock and sauntered to the middle of the Dim Sun group. At first, no one noticed. But slowly, they turned their focus to Kate.

"Ranger!"

"What's a ranger doing here?"

"Hey we're on the good side of Dim Sun! Nothing illegal goin on here."

"So why don't you scram?"

Kate held her breath and snapped her fingers.

DESCRPTION OF THE STUNKTANKS MOVE STINK IS CENSORED BY THE AUTHOR FOR BEING EXTREMELY DISTURBING AND GROSS. PLEASE ENJOY THE REST OF THE CHAPTER.

A greenish yellow cloud filled the air. Absolutely putrid and disgusting. Kate tried to keep her lungs from exploding as she stood, frozen in place. Dim Sun members were screaming and running all over the place.

"MY EYES!"

"Arceus its horrible!"

"Make the pain stop! Make it #^&$*% stop!"

"Eyes on fiyaaaahhhh!"

Footsteps shook the group as the stampede of grunts emptied from the ruins. Within another moment, the air started to clear. Kate could see the area was Dim Sun free and the plan worked perfectly. Although the air was still foul.

"HACCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!"

"Aw dude! That was my favorite hat!"

"Do I even want to know?" Kate sweatdropped as Chia climbed on her shoulder.

"Not in the slighest." Chia sighed.

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The group ventured further down the Chroma Ruin tunnels. Crystals on the walls were getting bigger and brighter as the tunnel itself was darker. Kate had to admit that she felt tuckered out. The excitement of the three lake pokemon and the stuntank wore her down. Seemed like the guys were tired as well. Though Sven was a little moody since he became hat-less.

"Hey what's that?" Kate asked, looking up ahead.

There was a cave entrance. But in front were five oddly shaped stones with cracks from the top center to the middle. On both sides were dots that reminded Kate of eyes.

"Ah I've heard of this pokemon." Sven said. "It's called Spiritomb. They say its made up of 108 separate spirits that seek vengeance. Kind of how like I'm seeking vengeance on Keith right now…"

"I said I was sorry!" Keith groaned. "But you could've warned me about the smell! Ugh."

A purple ghostly essence rose from the center of the five key stones. It was a circle-vortex like 'body' with green orbs spiraling around. The eyes were creepy to Kate.

"I don't think we'll be getting by without a capture. This spiritomb must be guarding something." Sven said.

"Then leave it to me!" Kate readied her styler and charged forth.

The pokemon seemed surprised at first but accepted the challenge. Kate circled the disk around, moving from stone to stone. Damn the ghost pokemon was tough…spiritomb changed locations rather quickly. At least Chia was able to help with occasional thunder attacks. Even with her greatest efforts, Kate's progress was slow.

"Hmmm…would your name be, by chance, Kate?"

A voice echoed through Kate's head. It wasn't like usual when the legends talked to her.

"Just think. You can talk to me that way."

Kate was a bit disturbed but decided, what the hey?

"Like this?"

"Exactly."

"Are you the spiritomb?"

"Took you long enough. Now answer me. Are you or are you not Kate?"

"Yeah my name's Kate."

"….ah so I see."

Kate noticed the capture was starting to get a little easier, friendship level boosting up.

"He's been expecting you. But alas, you are too late."

"Wait, who was expecting me? And why am I too late?"

"He's gone. And so is the treasure that lies beyond here. I'm not even sure how it happened. One minute, things are peaceful. I go to check on the treasure and guardian to find both absent. Something is terribly wrong."

"Um…alright…but how do you know me?"

"You are the Legend Protector, are you not? Guardian has mentioned you once or twice before. My hope is that you will rescue the guardian from whatever evil has taken him away, as well as recover the treasure."

"Your guardian's a legendary pokemon?"

"Indeed. And as much as I hate humans and their assistance, I admit I'll need yours if I ever want to restore things to normal."

"Ok I'll help."

"You promise?"

"I swear."

"…..very good."

The friendship bar needed a third more to go but Kate noticed it instantly filled up. The spiritomb was caught and befriended. Must've trusted Kate enough.

"I expect you to keep your word, Kate."

The spiritomb used its stone to bounce away into the dark. Keith and Sven walked up, unaware of what happened during the capture.

"Nice work!" Keith clapped.

"Alright! Let's go check out the back of the tunnel." Sven said.

They all walked down and into the deep end of the ruins. Kate felt a chill in the air, aware that something was definitely wrong. So this is what spiritomb felt. She hustled the pace a little and came to a gigantic room. Lots and lots of purple crystals of huge proportions. But Kate's eyes found a dias, a humongous hole torn at the very top, near the wall.

"What the…" Keith gasped.

"We were too late!" Sven exclaimed.

Everyone ran up onto the dias.

"I've been on the trail for this thing for a long time. Now someone's gone and hauled it away." Sven muttered.

"What do you mean?" Keith asked.

"The Shadow Crystal." Sven answered. "Judging on the size of the hole, its one hell of a rock. And if tiny shards could do that much damage in the miniremos…"

Kate froze, understanding what the full potential of the crystal could bring. Utter chaos, destruction, darkness…too much to bear….

"So spiritomb failed to protect the crystal." Keith said, kicking a rock.

Sven started explaining another pokemon had that responsibility while spiritomb watched over the tunnel itself. As he bounced theories on what that pokemon was, Kate found an oddly placed crystal. It looked as if it broke through the dias stone not so long ago. The crystal was purple but had a black, thin energy glowing around it. Curious and almost compelled to, Kate touched the crystal…..

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"Capture that darkrai! Don't let it escape!"

A shadow pokemon, presumably darkrai, was attacking numerous Dim Sun members. The Dim Sun grunts and admins were attacking back, using miniremos to summon pokemon. A man, his face unable to be seen, was leading the attack. He directed black gigaremos to be placed around the room. Darkrai didn't notice it, being too distracted to fend off the attacks and protect a giant, black crystal that was on top of the pedestal.

"Activate the Gigaremos!"

The grunts did as ordered. Energy pulsed from the gigaremos, hitting darkrai where it stood. It cried out in agony and fell to the floor. A giant white shipping container was being brought forth. Darkrai summoned a crystal from the dias stone and transferred dark energy into it.

Shadow Crystal was pried from its spot, being taken away. Darkrai was captured. Everything started to fade….

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Kate gasped and stepped back a little. An image flashed through her head. She had just seen darkrai struggle and become captured as the Shadow Crystal was stolen. It was Dim Sun's doing, no doubt about it.

"Legend Protector…help me…please…"

That nightmare Kate had. It was darkrai's doing! He was calling for help!

"But…I failed him." Kate thought, sadly.

She was too late. Darkrai was gone. And so was the Shadow Crystal. Though it didn't mean Kate would give up. She'd find out where they were. It was her job as both Legend Protector and Ranger to help pokemon in need.

"Kate!"

The boys were staring at her, impatient and confused.

"Let's go." Keith said.

"S-sure." Kate managed a sheepish smile.

Kate followed them through the tunnel and up a rusty, old ladder. They were back in the Chroma Highlands, up on a high cliff. But it was home to an ancient shack with broken machinery and oil barrels everywhere. Sven went to read the sign next to it.

" 'Al-ru O-l'. Altru Oil?" Sven read.

"Where the Altru company first started? This dump was Altru Oil?" Keith blinked.

"I reckon so!" Sven ran inside, the two other rangers followed behind.

The entire place was ruined. Furniture that could fall apart, dust on everything, papers across the floor…ugh. Sven and Keith went to investigating the place while unfocused Kate explored. She went to a back-room full of boxes that contained run-down supplies and items. The place had to be decades old. No amount of magic or some sort of realtor would bring this shack to former glory. But on a table, there was a badly burned book. Catching Kate's attention, she flipped through.

"Dates? Has to be a diary." Kate whispered.

The dust made her sneeze a bit. She tried to read the passages but it was too burned and damaged to properly read. Several words Kate could make out like darkness or crystal. Did this book mean something?

"Whatcha reading?"

"WHAT THE HELL!"

The sneak attack made Kate jump and whack someone behind her.

"OW!" it was Keith.

"Arceus….DONT EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" Kate snapped, smacking him on the head with the book once more.

"I won't! Now stop hitting me!" Keith shouted.

"What are you two up to now?" Sven came running. "Hm? Kate you find something?"

"Yeah. Looks like a diary." Kate handed it over to Sven, who paged through the book.

"I can make out a few words like black and darkness. We're taking it back to the Union for analysis." Sven slipped the diary into his pocket. "Way to go Kate!"

Flush!

….

"Either it was the concussion Kate gave me or I just heard a toilet flush…" Keith sweatdropped.

"No I hear it too." Kate said.

Ka-chunk!

A door opened. Out came someone in a Dim-Sun uniform but with a face Kate and Keith knew all too well.

"PONTE!" They exclaimed.

"Kate? Keith? Wow it's been awhile!" Ponte was equally surprised. "But uh…what are you doing here? And since when did you guys become top rangers?"

"Nevermind that." Kate waved it off. "When did you become part of Dim Sun?"

"Hm? Dim Sun? Oh the outfit." Ponte slapped his head. "Yeah I joined them. But their policies suck so I quit the day I joined. You know me, conflicted marshmallow boy and all."

"Sounds like you." Keith smirked. "What've you been up to?"

"I went back to being free. Made the shack my home for the moment." Ponte told them, showing them a few papers. "Until I really figure out my life, I've been doing some drawings and sketches."

"These are really good!" Kate complimented. "Wonderful work on the details too! You're a great artist!"

"Thanks." Ponte smiled.

"Anything you can tell us about Dim Sun?" Sven questioned.

"Lemme tell you. They're a total joke. Clueless about what they stand for or what they're doing." Ponte rolled his eyes. "Their slogan's 'a bright future for almia' and yet the name is DIM Sun."

He paused a moment to put the sketches back on a box.

"They were here not too long ago actually." Ponte went on. "Dug up…hmmm….coal maybe? All I know is that it was a huge digging effort."

"What happened to the…er…coal?" Keith asked.

"Carried away by helicopter. There was this giant white shipping container too, with a cry coming from it." Ponte replied. "One helicopter went to sea while the other was off to the mountains. I couldn't tell which had the coal and which had the crate."

"Thanks for telling us what you know." Sven tipped his hat.

"Hey Ponte, why don't you come back to the Union? Maybe we could use your help with some stuff?" Kate offered.

"I'm flattered but I'll pass. I still need more time to think things through." Ponte told her.

"Understood. We'll come visit sometimes, ok?" Keith smiled.

"It'd be great!" Ponte nodded. "Say what happened to Rhythmi and Issac?"

The three friends caught up on news and talked like old times for several minutes. After that, all the rangers left the shack that was once known as Altru. Time to report back to the Union.

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Friend reunion, drama, legendary pokemon and Sven is temporarily hatless. Don't you worry! Sven's got more hats (by next chapter, he'll have a new one).

…or does he? You have to get the next update in order to know for sure! MUA HA HA HA *cough cough cough*…er….HA!