PKM Rangers: Rise of the Dark Gems

by Shot Knight

When a terrorist organization called the Dark Gems will stop at nothing to kidnap May Birch and her daughter Sarah, the only person that can save them is May's ex-husband, Agent 1076. But how can a man who lost everything become a hero strong enough to save them? His transformation into the Golden Ranger marks the beginning of an epic journey to reunite his family. AdvanceShipping.

37. Morph 37

Author's Note: Ah, hello all. I haven't posted in a few months, and the reasons for that are varied. Most of them have to do with school and work, and about a million other priorities I'm sure few of you care to hear me blab about over the Internet. Anyways, six years ago I posted this story on this website for the first time and, tonight, I present a New Year's present in the form of four inter-connecting chapters that will set the stage for the final arc of this saga, which will conclude next year. So here is the first chapter I will post tonight. Enjoy!

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Morph Thirty-Seven: The Master's Revenge

"The baby appears to be perfectly healthy."

415 waved the small wand over May's stomach, adjusting the image on the monitor to her liking, until the static-filled image cleared up and a video feed of a small little baby appeared. It seemed to be active, occasionally shifting its limbs around as if trying to get comfortable. "The child is currently three months away," said 415. "We will have to make arrangements to take you to the hospital for delivery. I do not have the necessary equipment to deliver the baby here and, even if I did, my technical skills as a health practitioner end well before the maternity ward."

0 nodded. "Alright. Which hospital would you recommend?"

415 shrugged. "I have not yet finished my consultation in that field. I am still examining floor plans from hospital blueprints around Goldenrod to assess the safest location for the child's birth."

"Good. When it comes we'll just use the teleporter, same as the trip to the airport. No problems at all." 0 kissed May's forehead. "Anything else we should be aware of?"

"No. The baby looks very healthy, despite some of the trauma suffered by the mother. All signs point to the baby having zero defects when it is born."

"Wonderful," said May.

"So," said Sarah, peeking up from the side of the table, "am I gonna have a little sister or brother? Can you tell yet? I wanna know."

"Sarah, we agreed that would be a surprise," said May. "Do you really want to spoil the surprise?"

"Yes," said Sarah bluntly. "I wanna know if my little sister and I are going to have awesome tea parties and ride Pokemon together, or if I'm going to have a stinky little brother that farts all the time."

"To be fair, Sarah," said 0, "I seem to distinctly recall you farting on me all the time when you were a baby."

Sarah turned bright red. "Gross, Dad! Don't just tell people that!"

May laughed. "I remember this one very vividly. We were sitting at a café and you somehow wriggled your way out of your diaper, and when I went to put it back on you peed all over the seat."

"Ugh! Stop embarrassing me!" Sarah flung her arms into the air and ran out of the room before May or 0 had the chance to tell another story from her infancy.

"If we could return to the analysis," said 415, after 0 and May had stopped their snickering, "are you certain that you do not wish to know the sex of the baby? At six months, it is quite simple."

May looked to 0. "Well? Do you want to?"

He nodded. "I know we said no, but I don't think I can wait another three months. We can keep it a secret from Sarah, though, since she doesn't seem to want a little brother."

"Very well," said 415. She maneuvered the wand once more, positioning it so that they could ascertain the gender of the baby.

"Is that—" said 0.

"Are we—" said May.

415 nodded. "It would appear so. You are having a boy."

0 pumped his fist. "Yes!" he shouted. He proceeded to jump up and down several times before he remembered he was the only one celebrating like that and calmed down. "Uh, I mean great. Good to hear."

May eyed him coyly. "I take it you wouldn't have reacted so positively if it was another girl?" she asked.

"Of course not! It's just…you know…I was really hoping for a boy this time. That way we have both."

"I'm only teasing," said May. "It's wonderful news. Just think, in three months we'll have ourselves a healthy baby boy. Ooh, we need to think up names."

"Should've asked Mom while we were in Kanto," said 0. "Our family usually recycles names."

"I recall. Sarah's name came from your side, didn't it?"

0 nodded. "Yeah, one of my great-grandmothers, I think. Mom suggested that one too." 0 consulted the morpher on his watch. "Hang on, I have to morph back." He pressed the button and reverted back to his ranger form.

"How long are the time outs now?" asked 415.

"They're still two hours," said 0. "Every time I try to stretch it passed that point I end up stuck longer. But if I morph back before the limit, it only takes me five minutes to recharge so I can reassume my regular body."

"Interesting," said 415. "Does it correlate to your current project?"

"No. The five-in-one combo's still got some kinks," said 0. "Pi and I can't seem to make much of a crack in it. That part's annoying."

"You'll get there," said May.

"I know I will. It's just that we went to Kanto for the sole reason of getting enough Pokemon to attempt the new form and it just hasn't been clicking in all these months. So far we've only worked out the core process for it."

"Which is?"

"The idea is to split the work. If we can pull it off, I'm channeling six different Pokemon, each one regulating a specific function. That makes the form possible, but we don't have the raw power to pull it off yet. Maybe if I went and hooked myself up directly into a power plant."

"That would likely be unfeasible in combat."

"Exactly. Hence why it's just a theory. But at least I get to keep my human body around longer. And I can eat and sleep now."

"Well," said 415, "my diagnosis is complete. Do either of you have further questions for me?"

"Can you pinpoint when the baby'll be due?" asked May.

"Yes," said 415. "You have three months, five days, assuming all goes according to plan. We can adjust for anything, but uninterrupted the baby should be ready for birth around that time."

"Wow," said May. "We really will need that name sooner rather than later."

"We'll start making a list," said 0.

"If that concludes your appointment," said 415, "I have another one scheduled. The Dark Gem and I are reviewing his progress once more. Your presence would distract from my research."

"Of course. Come, my lady." 0 gallantly assisted May off the examining table. "Be seeing you. 415, do you have patrol duty tonight?"

415 shook her head. "The Dark Gem is assigned."

"Good to know." He left, and briefly exchanged greetings with Max as the younger man entered the room.

"You are late," said 415. "Explain yourself."

"Sorry about that," said Max. "I had to spend an extra five minutes explaining to Sarah that the world isn't going to end if she winds up with a baby brother."

"Regardless, we must do tests."

"Yeah, sure. Tests. By the way, have you picked out the movie for tomorrow night?"

"Silence your voice," said 415 in a hushed, quick tone. "Do you want everyone to know?"

"I honestly don't think they'd care," said Max. "Anyway, the movie?"

415 shook her head. "I have not decided. The choices are all arbitrary."

"How is it arbitrary? It's a movie, just pick one."

"How am I supposed to choose? I do not watch movies, Dark Gem. I review research. You gave me a selection of six available movies that are opening this weekend. How am I supposed to know which one would be the least waste of time? Do I judge by length, or the plot synopsis, or the reviews made by biased journalists? There is no frame of reference."

"Well, why don't we just pick a comedy?"

"Comedy is subjective. There is nothing I find humorous."

"What about an action movie?"

415 glared at him. "After the life we lead? How is any sort of film supposed to compare with the combat we have experienced?"

"Geez, I don't know. Why not pick one at random?"

"And leave it to chance? There are no variables to be considered. What if we pick the wrong movie?"

"Then we'll make fun of the movie. Isn't the point that we're supposed to go on a date, not where the date is?"

"It is not. A first date location may set the tone for the entire relationship. It may establish a hierarchy or inside joke of some kind. Failure to select the correct venue for such an event could result in this entire experiment collapsing."

"It isn't an experiment. It's just a movie. We'll be fine if the movie isn't great, most of them aren't."

"Then why bother having movies?"

Max shrugged. "Because people like being around other people. I used to really like movies because I could get together with a bunch of friends and just spend some time hanging out in front of the screen sharing an experience, no matter if the experience was entertaining or boring. We would just make fun of the movie if it sucked and have a great time anyway."

"That is not logical."

"Most people aren't. I'm not. You're not."

"I am exceedingly logical."

"No, you're still struggling to work out your emotions for the first time. That's not something a logical human does as an adult. You still haven't called me by my name."

"You do not call me by a name."

"You don't have one. That's not a fair comparison. And your name isn't important. I know who you are. I don't need to know your name for that."

415 grew uncomfortable and shifted herself. "This discussion is getting us nowhere. Shall we concede a draw? I will make sure we have a venue tomorrow night."

Max smiled. "Sounds good. Now how about we do some tests?"

At the mention of tests, 415 instantly relaxed and prepared the nodes she used to monitor Max's status while under the influence of the Dark Emerald. The nodes attached by sticking to veins and nerves just underneath the skin, an experience Max never really enjoyed. He usually transformed the moment the computer was ready and assumed the mantle of the Dark Emerald Ranger.

"Are you stable?" asked 415.

He nodded. "I am," he said. He still wasn't used to speaking in his own voice. "Releasing the Pokemon." His armor parted just enough for him to unhook the two Poke Balls attached to his clothes underneath. Mightyena and Grovyle emerged in bright flashes of light. "Ready?"

415 nodded. "Proceed."

"Alright. Let's do it, guys." Mightyena and Grovyle stood at his side as his dark shadowy chains slunk across their bodies, reabsorbed into Max's own body. He immediately sensed their minds, somewhere far away but close enough that he could hear their suggestions.

"Picking up the spikes in your consciousness," said 415. "Still stable."

Max concentrated on Grovyle, focusing on its strong, powerful legs. Instantly, he felt himself grow and looked down to see his legs elongating into the natural shape and build of a Grovyle's legs. He bent them, they felt quite sturdy. He jumped, he leapt quite high. "How we doing?" he asked.

"Vital signs are still stable," said 415. "I would advise adapting no more than fifty percent of your form to incorporate the Pokemon. Any further and you may lose your mind to the Pokemon instincts that will be generated the more attributes you take on."

"Should we test that?" asked Max.

"It is advisable to be certain. Approach no further than forty-nine percent."

Max concentrated again. This time he kept the legs, but his right hand sprouted a green version of his Mightyena's face. At the same time, his left arm took on the shape and appearance of his Grovyle's bladed elbows and dexterous fingers. In the dead center of his shoulders his skin erupted into Grovyle's face, peering out into the space behind him.

"Still stable?" asked 415.

Max had to focus. "Yeah," he said. "You're right. This thing is going to be hard if I keep adding stuff. Hang on." He concentrated, and the Grovyle face at the base of the back of his neck disappeared. "Ah, much better. Okay, it's still all me here."

"Good. Were you discomforted by your additional transformations?"

Max shook his head. "Didn't know you cared so much. Uh, no. I can kind of sense it's happening, but I can't feel anything of it. It was sort of like seeing yourself being operated on while under anesthesia."

"Of course I care about you. You are my prize experiment."

"Whom you are in a relationship with."

"That has nothing to do with this. You may demorph. I have the information I require."

Max nodded. "Thank you." He immediately released the Dark Emerald. Max, Grovyle, and Mightyena reappeared in a series of bright flashes of green light. "I can't tell you how great it is to get these out of me."

"Why? You heal the moment they are removed."

"Well, while they're stuck inside me, they itch like no tomorrow." He scratched each and every single healing hole in his body until they were all gone. "Can we seriously not figure out a better way to do this? Preferably with me not ending up as a human pincushion."

415 shook her head. "I am afraid not. Other methods are simply not as useful in gathering data. You will have to continue to use the needles while we monitor your growth."

"Was there any change from last week?"

415 nodded. "Some. The energy spikes increased, indicating your strength is still growing. Your base strength level is presently the same as Ranger Gold when not using the Auxiliary Pokemon System. With Grovyle and Mightyena attached, your power reaches a threshold halfway between Ranger Gold's standard form and Cario Form. There is no indication the incline is decreasing, either. Eventually, chances are good you will be the strongest ranger in our arsenal."

"Huh," said Max. "That sounds pretty cool. And I'm not even fully evolved."

"There is no way of measuring your potential strength in Shattered Form, but based on the jump in strength from Chained to Sealed Form, your Shattered Form may be on par with Ranger Gold's Chariard Form." 415 inputted the data into the computer. "However, it is unadvisable you attempt your final evolution. There is no way to predict how you will react to the biological change."

"I know. I don't have any intention of evolving. I think I'm just right for how I work in the team and I don't want to change that any time soon."

"Good. I would not want you to evolve unnecessarily."

Max grinned and got close to her. "That sounds awfully like concern again," he said. "Sure you're being impartial in this analysis?"

"I am still quite capable of cleaving your head from your shoulders. We are in public. Refrain from such trivialities." 415 offered him a brief smirk, just a tiny incline of her lips, before she resumed her stoic facial expressions and drew away.

"Yes, ma'am." Max turned to his Pokemon. "You guys don't care about 415 and me dating, do you?"

Mightyena perked its ears and looked towards 415. Then it shrugged and decided to scratch itself behind the ear. Grovyle suddenly found itself incredibly interested in flicking off a piece of dead leaf from its arm.

Max stuck out his tongue. "Return," he said, and held up their Poke Balls. They vanished and he reattached them to his belt. "Bunch of sourpusses."

"Come," said 415. "It is my understanding that Brock Harrison will be undergoing his physical therapy upstairs. I should observe how the prosthetics are operating."

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Brock was clearly not accustomed to life as a cyborg yet.

He missed his arms and legs dreadfully. Since the operations to remove the withered remains of his arms and legs and prepare the ports for the mechanical replacements, he found himself wishing that he could still feel flesh and blood when he closed his hand into a fist. The limbs had been connected to his nervous system, so he could still feel in a way, but it was more of a distant, calculated sense of feeling, the sort one gets while analyzing data never truly experienced.

Still, Elgyem and Chansey had made the limbs so well that they were virtually indistinguishable from his old arms and legs. They had his exact skin tone, the exact same length (with a little bit of additional muscle, to Brock's delight), they were perfect replicas. He could move his arms and change a channel on the television by himself. He could lift himself up and wheel himself over to the bathroom to do his own business without Elgyem levitating him. He had adapted to his new arms perfectly.

He was, however, still having trouble with the legs. Having spent months in the hospital bed waiting for the transplant, his balance was terribly off. Every time he tried to lift himself to stand he fell over, leaving him to crawl back to his wheelchair. He could wiggle the artificial toes and flex the artificial muscles, but something was off when he tried using the legs for their intended purpose.

"Maybe we connected something wrong," said Serena, as she looked him over.

Brock shook his head. "No, that can't be right," he said. "You guys did a great job on me. The arms work fine. It's gotta be something wrong with my head. Some kinda mental block."

"Maybe you need some motivation," said Serena. "Do you think that could help?"

Brock shrugged. "No idea. What'd you have in mind?"

"Well…" Serena giggled. "Okay, I've got it. Now, bear with me on this. What if, if you can try and take a few steps, we can go out to dinner again? Would that be enough motivation?"

Brock turned bright red. "Uh, I don't know about that."

Serena frowned. "Why not?" she asked, and gestured at herself. "Aren't I pretty enough for Brock Harrison, cyborg, to take to dinner?"

"Well, sure, but—" Brock paused, as if unsure how to phrase his thoughts. "Aren't you ten years younger than me?"

Serena huffed. "Why I never! A gentleman does not ask a lady her age!"

"I'm sorry, it's just that—" Brock stopped, he noticed that she was starting to laugh. "Oh, I get it. Ha ha."

Serena broke out into a full-body laugh. "I'm sorry, Brock! I'm just busting your balls. Geez, you really can't take a joke when it's coming from a beautiful woman, huh?"

Brock shook his head. "I really can't. Comes with the territory of being a hopeless romantic."

"Tell you what. We'll make a deal. You try to take a few steps, we'll watch that Bronyta thing you like together. But if you don't, Sarah gets to watch it first and spoil everything for you."

Brock's face fell. "That's not funny, Serena! She'll tell me everything before the credits are done."

Serena shrugged and sat down on a table on the other side of the room. "Guess you'll just have to get up and stop Sarah."

Brock groaned and immediately tried to adjust his legs so he could stand. They wobbled warily into place so that he could actually shift himself out of his chair. He immediately lost his balance and grabbed an adjacent counter to stabilize himself. "N-No fair," he muttered. "Why couldn't we have done this on some carpeting? Tile's slippery."

"I'm hearing a lot of complaining and not a lot of walking," said Serena. "Guess someone's getting spoilers."

"No!" Brock grunted again and hoisted himself up to the top of the counter. He was standing, albeit shakily, but standing nonetheless. "Okay, and now we balance." He shifted himself so he was still grabbing onto the counter with one hand. "Now we balance, now we balance, now we balance."

"Come on," said Serena. "I'm getting bored over here."

"I'm on it, I'm on it," said Brock. "Let me just…" He ordered his left foot to take a step forward. There was a brief delay as his mental command transfer from his nervous system to the electronic supplements, and then the foot shifted into place and set itself firmly down on the tile floor. "Okay, that's one step."

"More please," said Serena. "Just that one isn't going to cut it here."

"Alright, alright," he muttered. He tried taking another step with his right foot, taking advantage of the quick delay between thought and action to adjust himself as he moved. The other foot came down as well and he felt stable. "There. Two steps. That's a lot considering I've been stuck in that chair for a while."

Serena shook her head. "Uh-uh," she murmured. She pointed to the hand that was still balancing him on the counter. "Let's see you walk on your own. You do a good job, we might go get you a cane."

"But that wasn't part of the deal," said Brock.

She shrugged. "I'm allowed to change the deal if it suits me. There's no sense in complaining about it. I'm the one with the power to wheel you out of the room when the show's on."

Brock grunted again and suddenly released his grip on the counter. He instantly swayed, but was able to hold his balance with a tremendous amount of focus. He took another step forward and almost fell, but at the last minute used the weight of his new arms to steady himself and maintain his balance.

"One," he said, and offered a big grin.

"Try another one," said Serena.

He did just that, finding that his prosthetics were automatically adjusting to his motions. On his attempt for a third step he fell, sprawling himself on the floor, which resulted in Serena bursting into laughter.

Brock hoisted himself up off the ground and back into his chair. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Can I watch my show now?"

Serena nodded. "Let's go," she said and allowed him to wheel his way into the living room, where Sarah was already waiting impatiently as close to the television as she was allowed to be.

"Uncle Brock, Aunt Serry, hurry up!" she shouted. "It's gonna start!"

"We've got ten minutes, Sarah," said Brock. "Believe me, I'm just as excited as you. But take a deep breath."

"Brock Harrison," said a voice behind him. Brock turned and noticed Max and 415 standing in the atrium of the living room. "We must evaluate you."

Brock rolled his eyes. "Can it wait? I just want to watch the show."

"I am afraid it cannot," said 415. "My time is extremely valuable. Your evaluation time is scheduled to take place now. Please comply."

Brock sighed. "Fine, make it quick. We already did my testing."

415's eyebrow perked up. "You did? How?"

"Serena had me walk from one side of the room to the other."

"Did you succeed?"

"Sort of. I got the balance, but I fell over after the third step."

"That's pretty good," said Max. He and Brock then promptly exchanged high fives. "Considering you haven't been able to make a single step, that's really good."

Brock grinned. "Thanks. Truth be told, she made me do it or I wouldn't have been able to watch my show."

"Guys!" said Sarah. "Stop talking, it's about to start!"

"Leave it to Serena," said Max. "She just gets guys."

Serena smiled broadly and ruffled up Brock's hair. "Sure do. Especially big lugs like this one. You should have heard him complaining about not getting spoiled on today's episode."

"Uh, let's not go down that road," said Brock. "I'd rather that were private."

"Nothing's private in this family," said Max. "Lay it on us."

At this point Sarah, having had quite enough of the grownups speaking while she waited for her show, stood up and marched over to where they were all sitting. "Look," she said, in a sudden severity that none of them had ever heard before. "My Little Ponyta is starting in thirty seconds. It is my favorite show and I want to watch it in peace and quiet!" The adults, far too terrified of this little girl, said nothing in response. Satisfied, Sarah nodded her head and returned to her position as physically adjacent to the television as she was allowed.

"Remind you of anyone?" asked Max.

Brock nodded. "Getting more and more like her mother every day."

"Imbeciles," said 415, and left them to their show.

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Later in the afternoon, 0 and May took Sarah out for a walk with their Pokemon. Sarah, having already discerned that there was little that Z would not do when asked nicely by an adorable little girl, was riding the gigantic, orange dragon around the path. Z, trying its best to ignore the pain of being grabbed by its long, tube-shaped horns, stomped and snarled at the behest of the little girl. May found it to quite possibly be the cutest thing she had ever seen. 0 found it terrifying that his daughter could already subjugate one of his most powerful Pokemon in this fashion.

"You know," said May, as she watched Blaziken and Lu spar up ahead, "she's going to be eight in a few months. We might want to start looking into getting her enrolled in a Pokemon accreditation school to get her license to register as a Pokemon trainer."

"I don't know," he said. "I'm not sure I feel comfortable with Sarah starting the journey right now."

"Why? We both left at ten."

"Oh, I know. It's got nothing to do with that. It's just that I'm worried about what'll happen to her if I'm not around to protect her. I mean, we've got so many enemies out there, who knows if they would try to come after her? I just think we should hold off on her getting ready to leave until we're sure the coast is clear."

"Do you think this'll still be going on in two years?"

0 shrugged. "It's already been going on for more than two. There's no way to tell when they'll run out of rangers. I'd just feel more comfortable waiting until the threat's over."

"Still, she doesn't have that many friends," said May. "And she barely knows anyone her own age that didn't try to eat her. I just want to make sure she gets to interact with kids her own age. That's part of school too. She doesn't have to leave home just because she has the license."

"I suppose that's true. I guess I'm just being overprotective."

She lightly punched him. "Not overprotective. Sweet. Our parents probably went through the same thing." She looked to where Sarah had convinced Z that it would be a good idea to have a small flight in the air above. "It's just hard letting them go."

"Preaching to the choir here," said 0. "I just got back into her life. I definitely don't want her going off so soon. Maybe I should go on the journey with her…"

"You'll do no such thing," said May. "She'll be a big girl. Let her live her own life."

0 smirked. "Fine. But one of my Pokemon is going with her to supervise. Fair's fair."

"Alright. One Pokemon, so she doesn't just use that one in battles. Your Pokemon are very strong."

"Yeah they are," said 0 with a chuckle.

Z tucked its wings into a dive and gently cascaded down towards a soft landing. Sarah squealed with joy and pulled on its horns even harder, causing Z to grunt with discomfort. Then she leaned in and lightly kissed its neck, and Z's skin changed from bright orange to a deep shade of red. 0 chuckled. The Pokemon had not changed an iota in all the years since they had traveled together. He saw so much of himself in Z, both of them seasoned warriors capable of going through anything to defend the ones they loved. When he had transformed with Z, it had almost been like being supplemented by himself, unlike when Lu's playful nature or Tork's emotional side emerged, both of which were able to completely transform his personality.

"She's going to be quite the little heartbreaker in a few years," said May with a smirk. "You know, back when the paparazzi were always on our tails they'd always do nice little photo ops of Sarah. I think that was the one thing about them I liked."

"Hrmmm…" grumbled 0. "She's not allowed near boys until she's an adult. She should be focused on Pokemon, not boys."

May giggled. "That's ridiculous. There's no way she'll not be meeting boys on her trips. I mean, I traveled with you and Brock. Oh, and Drew for a while."

"My opinion is not swayed," said 0. "My little girl, my rules."

"Our rules, dear," said May.

"Oh. Yeah, that's what I meant."

Sarah had Z head back in the direction of her parents, touching down lightly at their feet. "Hey, Mom, when do you think the school is gonna open back up?" she asked. "I miss the games and everything."

"I don't know, little girl," said May. "When a bunch of bad guys show up and just start attacking in front of everyone at a school, parents aren't really interested in having them come back. Maybe in a little while, when everything calms down."

"But if we wait too long, I won't be able to get my trainer's license," said Sarah.

0 grinned. "Don't worry, you're a natural. The other kids won't know what hit them when you get in the ring."

"You think so?" asked Sarah.

"Definitely. Now let Z have a break. Why not go play with someone else?" A look of relief flooded Z's bright eyes, while the other Pokemon all suddenly took on expressions of extreme concern. Tork retreated into its shell in response.

"Mmmm…alright," she said and hopped off Z's back. She immediately decided that she would play tag with Lu and Blaziken, who took off across the front lawn in gratitude for Sarah's decision not to ride them as she did Z.

And for a little while, 0 and May held hands while they watched their daughter play. They looked to May's protruding stomach, and they shared a smile.

"She's not going to be too happy about having a brother," said 0.

"She'll adapt. She always does."

"Ranger Gold, May Birch?"

0 immediately touched his hand to his com-link. "Here, 415," he said.

"We have guests. Recall your Pokemon and your daughter. We will join you presently. Out."

0 nodded, and then turned to May. "Looks like we have company," he said.

May turned to Sarah. "Little girl, come back! It's going to be a bad day!"

Sarah immediately stopped what she was doing and led the Pokemon back to her parents. 0 and May recalled everyone just as Max, 415, and Serena emerged from the house. Sarah found herself instantly surrounded by a circle of adults. She put her hands in her pockets and looked down on the ground.

"Who is it?" asked 0. "Another pair of Dark Gems?"

Serena shrugged. "Another pair of something. They're making a beeline for our location. One of them looked very familiar."

"Ame?"

Serena nodded. "Ame. Looks like she's finally making her move."

"Well, there's four of us and two of them, and Ame's never been much of a fighter. Let's give them something to remember."

Ame was indeed approaching, flanked by another, somewhat taller individual. An individual that was immediately recognized by all of them. The two approached the gathering of rangers and the man standing next to Ame offered them the biggest smirk they had ever seen.

"Alexander Charon," said 0.

Charon nodded. "Good day, everyone. I trust you're all doing well?" He then took out and placed upon his nose a pair of sunglasses, in spite of the fact that it was approaching dusk. "Me? I've been just peachy. Peachy, I tell you! Life's been great in PKM without my big shiny meal tickets wandering around being cool superheroes."

0 readied the trigger on his morpher. "You know why we left, Charon. We made the choice to leave because you were trying to split our family apart. You were going to gut Max to see what made the Dark Gems tick, you were going to abandon Silver, and you wanted us to be your slaves. We weren't just going to—"

Suddenly, Charon's eyes bulged out of his head. "I own you!" he screeched. "The technology was funded by my family, it was our turn to run the organization, you were my soldiers! Soldiers follow orders! You should have just shut up and done what you were told!"

"We're not soldiers," said Serena. "We're rangers."

"Because there's a difference!" Charon spat. "All you're arguing is a question of semantics!"

"Why are you here, Charon?" asked 0. "We're all kinda wondering why you're on a date with a Dark Gem that doesn't really do much fighting."

"Ah yes, that. Yes, why am I here?" Charon paused, as if waiting for someone else to complete his thought, then resumed the conversation. "I'm here to take back what's mine. I figure a few brand new rangers, ones that won't be so annoying, would be perfect for my brand new PKM."

"Well, that's just not going to happen," said 0.

Charon smiled. "Oh, but I'm afraid it is. You see, I have this." Up until now, none of the rangers had noticed, but Charon's right hand had been kept behind his back. He withdrew it, and it took all their power not to recoil with disgust.

They knew exactly what it was, even if Charon had made modifications to its design. The Master Morpher. Bakaguru's morpher. Its orange and white surface proved a sharp contrast against the black clothing Charon was wearing, and he lovingly caressed a new, small hole in the center of the morpher.

"You're sick," hissed Serena, who took a step forward but was held back by 0. "We have to do something. He can't just run around wearing that."

"It is an abomination," agreed 415. "We must remove it from his person." There was a quiver in her voice, a distinct distain that permeated the air.

"It's not an abomination, it's my toy," said Charon. "And it's not my only one, is it Ame?" He turned to the woman next to him, who so far has resigned to keeping quiet, who looked up at the rangers with a grim expression etched into her face.

She nodded. "Rangers, there is no other alternative. I have been authorized to use lethal force to fulfill my contract. In addition, Alexander Charon has been contracted by my employers to perform the single, solitary task of bringing about your demise. He has been given a Dark Gem which has been incorporated into PKM Ranger technology."

0 was stunned. "Incorporated? You can mix those two together?"

Charon smiled and produced a bright ruby. In a flash, he set the stone into the morpher, which acknowledge the foreign material and incorporated it into its design, transforming from a white and orange surface to a deep red and orange hybrid. "Just did, baby. Ame, you want to get in on this?"

Ame responded by producing a stone of her own, a dark purple gem that looked almost like an onyx. "Prepare yourselves," said Ame. The chain wrapped up one leg, across her waist, then down the other leg again. Charon's, on the other hand, produced no chain as he raised the morpher to press the trigger.

The transformation was not unlike the sequence that 0, Serena, and 415 went through when they transformed. A bright light in the shape of a Poke Ball just surrounded Charon and, when it opened, there he stood looking exactly as Bakaguru had when he had transformed, the only differences being where there had once been white there was now red and the giant, gleaming ruby in the center of his chest. Charon marveled at himself, looking this way and that to inspect the suit himself, before he appeared content and faced the others.

"Yes," he said. "I think this will work perfectly, don't you?"

0 clenched his hands into fists. He instantly demorphed back into his ranger form. "Burn him to the ground," he growled. "Burn him and leave nothing but ashes!"

"Dark Gem Ignite!" shouted Max. He, along with the others, followed suit and morphed into their ranger forms.

Ame waited until they were all done to transform. "Dark Gem, Ignite," she whispered as her body surrounded itself with a fierce, radiant purple.

"Beautiful," whispered Charon, when the light faded away. "Even more beautiful than I could have dreamed."

"Dark Amethyst Ranger," she said simply. Her body, from her arms to her helmet, was shaped in the distinct image of a Haunter's face and claws.

"She's already in Sealed Form," said 0. "Be on your toes."

"Ruby Master Ranger!" shouted Charon to himself. "Attack!"

Charon was on them before they could even get May and Sarah inside Ranger Downs. He tore towards them, disregarding the laws of physics, decency, and common sense, to punch 0 square in the face and send him flying. Max immediately took over and grappled with Charon for about five seconds, long enough for Sarah and May to start making a break for the house, but also long enough for Charon to topple Max's balance and shove him into the ground.

"415!" shouted 0 as he returned to the field. "Retreat with Sarah and May. Silver, activate Rescue Mode! Max, get your Pokemon out!" He himself inserted a distinctly green Poke Ball into his morpher. "Auxiliary Pokemon System: Perior Form!"

0's legs immediately started to change, growing vein-like vines from his boots to his waist. 0 wasted no time. "Synchronization Drive: Vine Whip!" The vines instantly started to multiply and grow, lashing out from behind 0's back like tentacles to distract Charon from the others. He flipped through the air and landed gracefully in front of Charon, covering the ground with vines.

"Boyo," said Serp, "the other is trying to pass us."

0 flicked his head over to check on Ame. She was indeed trying to get passed his squad, but Serena was holding her off with her Rescue Mode. Ame just kept backing up, avoiding the fight at all costs.

"No matter," he said. He was always surprised by how elegant he sounded when he used Serp. "We shall deal with this one, then conclude our business." He turned to Charon, who had only just noticed that his legs were covered in a thicket of vines. "Now then, how shall I dispatch you?"

Charon grunted. He twisted and turned, but was unable to escape the ever-increasing number of vines surrounding his body. The sheer mass forming from 0 even allowed Max the opportunity to retreat to a safer position. "You're nothing but a coward," Charon spat. "Don't make me do this the hard way."

"You're an impetuous one, aren't you?" asked 0, before marveling at the fact that he had no idea what the word impetuous meant. He assumed Serp knew what it meant and continued with his plan. "Synchronization Drive: Leaf Tornado!"

Somehow, the wind suddenly and sharply focused its attentions onto Charon. It kicked up and increased as dozens and dozens of leaves simply appeared around 0's body. They glowed faintly as they targeted Charon with their sharp, jagged edges. 0 shifted his head just so and the leaves attack, firing at Charon like a thousand little battering rams. Each time they struck Charon lurched back just a bit, but was trapped due to the vines and forced to endure as the next attacked, and the next, and the next, until finally all the leaves had fluttered to the ground.

With Charon still standing, looking no more worse for wear than if he had just had to endure the onslaught of a light breeze.

"Are you done?" he asked, glancing about himself. "Good. I wasn't sure, and you were taking forever, but I really didn't want to interrupt your big moment." He then patted the growing amount of vines around his waist and legs. "Get out of my way."

And then the strangest thing happened. The vines simply fell away. No withering, no vanishing, the vines simply loosened their grip and fell off, allowing Charon to step out and dust himself off. He double-checked himself again, and then turned towards 0.

"But…how?" asked 0. He had never seen anything like it.

Charon shrugged. "I just moved them out of the way." He tapped his helmet. "Force of will and all that nonsense. Now…" He ran up and punched 0 right in the gut.

Pain, pain that should not have been there in his infrared form, shot through his body and forced him to the ground. No one had hit him that hard. Sappho had not hit him that hard. Top had not hit him that hard. It was another new level of power.

"Max," he grunted. "Lend me the power of the Dark Emerald."

He hauled himself to his feet as Max approached. Charon had already moved on to assist Ame in dealing with Serena. May and Sarah were inside with 415, probably working to seal themselves into Ranger Downs with Brock. Max nodded and extended the shadow chains, flooding 0 with insurmountable energy once more.

"Our capacities are full," said Serp. "Have him release us and let us be off."

"Yes." Max's chains withdrew from him and he turned to Max. "Make your way to the base. Leave the rest to me."

"Aye, aye, boss," said Max. "Don't get yourself kill."

"That is the plan," said 0. He watched Max bound away then turned towards the fight. "Serp, begin powering up the Synchronization Drive. I have a plan."

"Oh?" asked the snake, who complied with his suggestion. "Have you forgotten the success of our last maneuver? What do you propose?"

"I recall Silver being capable of smashing through the Dark Topaz with the merest touch," he murmured. "Perhaps it would be a wise decision to repeat the process."

He could practically see Serp chuckling. "Very well, let us see."

0 rejoined the fight, separating Ame and Charon from his team. "Everyone, gather round!" he shouted. They instantly positioned themselves around him. "Silver, make ready your Rescue Mode for a direct attack upon the ruby. Max, concentrate on Ame. 415, with me."

Serena darted behind them as 0 and 415 charged forward into a headlong collision with Charon. Charon just stared at them and let them tackle him to the ground before he burst forth in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

"Is that really the best you've got?" he asked. Then he shoved them and both 0 and 415 went flying into the air. "A fluff of dust is more lethal to me!"

0 and 415 recovered just in time to see Serena punch Charon directly in the chest, only instead of the Dark Ruby crumpling and cracking into nothingness to take Charon to the death he so dearly deserved, Charon stood unharmed. He had grabbed her wrist with minimal difficulty, only touching the pieces of her armor that remained untransformed into the powerful ice plates so she could move about. He took her by her dainty hand and gave a slight bow of his head.

"May I lead?" he asked, and then threw her into the others. She barely managed to disengage her Rescue Mode before 0 grabbed her and set her back on the ground.

"Retreat," muttered 0.

"What?" asked Serena. "We can totally take them."

0 shook his head. "Not right now. We must retreat and plan for a second encounter. We cannot win at this moment." He disengaged Perior Form and reverted back to his standard gear. "We've got to teleport out of here, get Sarah, May, and Brock out of harm's way, before we can do anything. They'll just keep battering us down like this unless we fight on our terms."

He tapped his helmet, where a small com-link had been attached to the left side. "Watchtower, beam everyone back. We need to regroup."

"We can take them—"

"No you can't!" Charon abruptly cut off Max's retort by smashing the Dark Emerald Ranger in the face. Max slammed into the ground, but instantly rolled away and recovered.

"Watchtower, teleport us now!" 0 shouted. He suddenly felt himself fading away, and then found himself standing in the middle of Ranger Downs with the others.

"We could have taken them!" shouted Max.

"This isn't up for discussion, Max," said 0. "We don't know what capacities merging the PKM Ranger System with a Dark Gem produced. He could be strong enough to kill us even if we were ten times our size."

"We still could have tried," said Max. "Since when are you such a fan of playing it safe?"

0 stepped close to Max, to the point where they barely stood a foot apart. "I'm trying to keep everyone alive," he said. "We had three civilians that can't fight inside Ranger Downs that the Dark Gems want. If they had gotten through our line, who's going to protect them? Do you think I'm going to be of any help if they tear through my containment suit and scatter my data so it can't ever be recovered? Do you think my wife, daughter, and unborn child are going to be better off if Uncle Max gets his Dark Emerald crushed because he was afraid to run away? Do you think any of us are going to just be fine if we lose anybody? We already lost Bakaguru, we're not losing anyone else."

Max said nothing for a moment, and lowered his head. "I still think we gave up too soon," he said. "We had options."

0 shook his head. "No. We have options now."

"Alright," said May, stepping in between them, "so what's the plan?"

"Scatter," said 0. "We set the teleporter at random and bide our time. If I can synch all my Pokemon into another form, we might have a better shot with that kind of power."

"Hello, hello!" shouted a voice from behind the failsafe door. "I want to come inside!"

"We have to go," said 0. "Everybody stay demorphed, they can probably track us through the energy our ranger suits produce." He turned to Elgyem. "Whoever winds up with you will use your telepathy to communicate. Understand?" Elgyem nodded its head. "Then fire up the teleporter. Set the range to Goldenrod City so we can stay within telepathic range."

Charon was knocking on the door, which sounded a lot like a battering ram scraping against the metal. "Come on out, boyos! Time to take your medicine!"

Max stepped onto the teleporter first. "You'd better be right," he said. He helped Brock up to his feet and, with the aid of a cane, Brock made his way to the teleporter. Everyone else followed suit, and before long all eight humans were ready for transport.

"See you all soon," said 0. He clenched his wife and daughter's hands.

The machine whirled to life and the humans, and all of their Pokemon, vanished into thin air.

/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\

Charon took another five minutes, but he eventually made his way through the failsafe door and into the room. He snarled and broke at least three computers before Ame joined him.

"They got away," he complained. "Do something!"

Ame moved towards the machines. "There is nothing to be done. You just destroyed the equipment that would have allowed me to track them."

"No, no, no!" he shouted. "Fix it!"

Ame shook her head and demorphed. "It would be an unproductive use of my time," she said. "Better to find Eme and have him lead us to them."

Charon demorphed in order to spit on the ground. "Fine! Go get him for me! I'll track down their morphing signals. As long as they're morphed, I can find them."

"I would not bank on such a plan. Odds favor them keeping their morphers inactive for the time being." Ame crossed the room and returned to the door. "Remain here. I will contact you when you are needed."

Charon shook his head. "Oh, no. I've spent too much time sitting behind a desk and not enough time torturing those insubordinate fools. I'm coming with—" He stopped approaching her when she raised her hand.

"Remember, Alexander Charon," said Ame, "you may have a Dark Gem born from the pain and suffering of an entire nation of bodies. I have a Dark Gem that can rip your heart out and feed it to you. It will not kill you, but it will take some time for you to rejoin me."

Charon did not sweat, but he made no move to follow her as she vanished from the base.

/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\ /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\

…Twenty-Five Years Ago…

He watched as the computer decided his fate.

There were literally hundreds of possibilities as to where his aptitude test would place him. The computation was supposed to take five minutes, but he had been standing in front of the monitor for at least ten at this point. He was hungry too, he had not eaten since breakfast and they had made him skip lunch to take the test. He sighed and lost himself in a fantasy of the beef stew awaiting him in the cafeteria.

It took an additional two minutes, but eventually the machine reached its decision and started printing out his assignment. He took it with trembling hands and looked it over:

CANDIDATE NAME: NIWA, BAKAGURU

PKM AGENT NUMBER: 12334

CADET NIWA IS ASSIGNED TO THE SCIENCE DIVISION, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SECTION, SUBSECTION 003.

He could scarcely believe it. He turned the short message over to make sure it was not a hoax, but there was nothing on the other side of the paper. He reread it, then read it once more to be certain. It was unheard of, so far as Bakaguru knew, for a cadet to be assigned to Research and Development, particularly Subsection 003, which had the reputation of only selecting agents after years of training in other divisions.

"Why would they want me?" he wondered aloud. The design he had submitted was…strange, to say the least. He decided he would question it no more and simply accept his good luck, so he stood up and began making his way to the cafeteria. His mouth salivated as he approached, catching a whiff of the delicious stew he so enjoyed.

The cafeteria was incredibly crowded. All the new recruits were challenging the senior agents for breathing room in the lines, and as a result Bakaguru was forced to wait in a seemingly-endless line for his lunch rations. He found the slow crawl of the line almost unbearable, and almost devoured his bowl the instant the chef placed it in his hands. He reflected that such an action would not endear him to the female agents and took a seat at a table in the back as far away from the din of noise as he was able.

He unwrapped his spoon and dove right into the stew, but before he could complete his first, blissful bite he was approached by two other cadets.

He chewed then swallowed. "Can I help you two?" he asked. He had noticed the two of them in line, but had thought nothing of them at the time. One was very tall, with a shock of dusty black hair and fierce dark eyes. The other was a little shorter, though both were taller than Bakaguru, with brown hair and, oddly enough, natural red eyes.

The man with the dusty hair nodded. "You Bakaguru Niwa?" he asked.

Bakaguru nodded. "I am. Why do you ask?"

The man grinned then turned to the other. "Told you it was him. Saw him in one of the preliminary classes. Real smart cookie."

The two men put their portions of stew on the table and sat down with Bakaguru. "Nice to meet you," said the red-eyed man. "My name's Arthur. Arthur Logan. My associate is named Terrance."

"Terry," said Terry, lightly punching Arthur on the arm.

"Yes, Terry. Excuse me." He took a tentative sip of the stew and smiled. "This is excellent, by the way. We're your new coworkers."

Bakaguru's eyes widened. "You two were assigned to Research and Development too?" he asked.

Terry nodded. "Subsection 003."

"Pardon me if I say this, but the two of you don't exactly look like the smartest bulbs in the box," said Bakaguru. "I'm still surprised that I got in. Why would they want the two of you?"

Arthur shrugged. "In my case, it's nepotism. I come from one of the three founding families that started PKM, so I received my pick of assignments. I have no idea why Terry is here."

"It's because I'm a tactician," said Terry. "Before I got in, I used to be an awesome Pokemon brawler. I even won a championship once. I'm not the brightest bulb, but I'm a pretty tough one."

"Charmed," said Bakaguru. "So, why are you guys in PKM anyway? Well, I guess Arthur's here because of family."

"Ain't that the truth," said Arthur. "I really just want to write, but we take our lots in life. Figured at least Research and Development would be the best way for me to do some creative work while I'm here."

"I'm here because of family too," said Terry. "I wasn't pulling enough in from the Pokemon tournaments, so I figured I'd try a career change for the wife and kid."

"Won't they miss you while you do your training?" asked Bakaguru.

Terry shook his head. "I was on the road a lot as a trainer. I worked out a deal where my time here is about the same. Took a little hit in pay, but I've gotta see my little squirt."

"What about you, Bakaguru?" asked Arthur. "What brings you here?"

"I was drafted. After I finished my graduate work at university, I received an offer to join in the form of the company dangling enough money in front of me to pay for the design of all my blueprints."

"That's pretty neat," said Arthur, as the three of them began eating. "What were you designing?"

Bakaguru reddened slightly. "In truth it's a bit embarrassing. I had an idea for soldiers to use advanced armor, sort of like medieval samurai, in battle. I designed a system similar to Poke Balls to store the armor when it's not in use and bring it out with a push of a button."

Terry's eyes lit up. "Awesome," he said. "We would be total superheroes."

"It does sound rather fantastic," said Arthur.

"If you think about it, it really isn't," said Bakaguru. "We already have the technology to make the suits and the technology to store them. Poke Ball technology could be converted to work with a number of things. We could store weapons and vehicles, really anything we wanted. It isn't inconceivable that we could store and summon a regular suit of armor."

"Is there a way for us to make these suits different colors?" asked Terry. "I really see myself in red."

"Please," said Arthur, as he pointed at his eyes. "If anyone deserves to be the red one, it's me."

"We can see. Everything's hypothetical at this point. Who knows if they'll even let us make the technology? They might put us to work testing their new artillery or some sort of helicopter or tank."

"True, or they could put us on your awesome suit of armor plan," said Terry. "Now I'm really excited I got stuck in this science group. I thought for sure I was just going to be handing test tubes to nerds because science wasn't really my strong suit in school."

"Well, if the plan does get underway we will require a test pilot," said Bakaguru. "But we need to get approval before we can even consider positions."

But Terry ignored him. As they continued to eat, slurping up pieces of stew, they discussed how the technology would theoretically work, how the armor would materialize over someone's body without users having to physically strap themselves in, and what would be the best tools to put into the armor.

"Personally, I'm all for putting machine guns on the shoulders," said Terry. "Can we do that?"

Bakaguru shrugged. "I'm not sure, to be honest. I do know that if we continue to get more complicated with the design, the harder the armor would be to store. As the variables increase, the likelihood the armor will materialize in the wrong place increases."

"What's that mean?" asked Terry.

"Means that if you stick too much onto it, odds are good it could show up again up your keester," said Arthur. "Plus, the more we put onto it the more memory the storage device needs to keep it in stasis. Same reason we need bigger Poke Balls for bigger Pokemon."

"Exactly," said Bakaguru. "This would need to be compact, possibly not much larger than the human that would go inside the armor. And even then, odds are good that the storage device would be huge compared to a Poke Ball, possibly the size of a twenty-pound backpack. If we kept increasing the capacity, we could end up with gigantic packs that would be unfeasible for agents to carry into combat situations."

"Eh, I guess we could just carry guns around with us normally," said Terry. "Unless we make other storage units that could hold those. How much room would we need to store a regular gun?"

"Maybe the size of a Poke Ball. Those could be carried around in separate containers." Bakaguru smiled. "That's not a bad idea. I hadn't considered that."

"See, you're already pulling your weight around here," said Arthur.

Terry flashed him a grin. "So, how do we go about getting these things started? I'm eager to be getting my superhero suit on."

"Well, first we would have to finalize the schematics necessary to convert the armor to the storage device and have it successfully reemerge onto the user's body. Then we need to finalize the design for the armor itself."

"You don't have a design for the armor?" asked Arthur.

"Only insofar as its general appearance," said Bakaguru. "I'm not much of an artistic type. I essentially saw it as armor plating over a regular infantry suit."

"No, no, no," said Arthur. "There are a whole slew of factors to consider. What about Kevlar? It's new, but the research shows that it could become a viable replacement for metal in the coming years."

"I'm open to new ideas, trust me," said Bakaguru. "My primary skill was just figuring out how to store non-Pokemon components."

Terry pointed at his bowl, which was quite empty at this point. "How's about we continue this discussion over some more food? I need at least three of these before I'm satisfied."

Arthur and Bakaguru nodded in agreement and followed Terry over to the line. They continued to talk, ignoring most of the shenanigans going on amongst the newer recruits around them, and scheme about a proposal to set in front of the Council.

"You can really do that?" asked Bakaguru.

Arthur smiled. "Naturally. I can call in my father and get him to force the Council to hear the proposal. Unfortunately, it isn't our turn to lead the organization, the Brines have it for the next few years, so there's no guarantee that it'll work. With my backing, though, we definitely have a better shot than if it were just you two on your own."

"Whoever said that nepotism was useless and for hacks never met you," said Bakaguru. "It will take some time, but we should be ready to submit a proposal within the next year. It could lead to a new arms race. Think of it. Soldiers with the strength of tanks combined with the mobility and dexterity of any agent."

"And we'd be the ones that make it happen," said Terry. "Man, it'd be cool. I'm sure we'd get some kinda promotion."

"Maybe," said Bakaguru, "but I think our focus should probably be on the safety of the agents in the field, not promotions. Remember, we're just starting out here, even if we do have a huge head start over the others."

Terry nodded. "Fair enough," he said, and put his hand on the table. "So, we a team?"

Arthur placed his hand on Terry's. "Agreed."

Bakaguru smiled despite himself, and also put his hand on theirs. "Agreed," he said. They then lifted their hands in a traditional sign of friendship.