So I'm all signed up for College classes and getting ready to start my future in whatever I decide to do! Right now I'm thinking about doing something with kids. Maybe an elementary school teacher. Though I've always wanted to do something to do with law. Though if the whole school thing doesn't go well I can always go with my original plan... Off myself at 21. Yeah... I know... It's kinda a morbid way of looking at things. XDXD
By the way~! My new Username is now TheCheshireGengar! Squirtle-Chan was just getting kinda old... But I really like my new username! It could have something to do with Gengar being my favorite pokemon and Cheshire Cat being my favorite fictional cat!
Aqua: Squir- I mean TheCheshireGengar doesn't own pokemon!
Chapter 36
The Tower of Darkness
Kate POV
"KEITH! NOOOOOO!" I screamed as tears filled my eyes. There's no way he could have survived that! He got knocked all the way into Vien Forest! He's dead... He has to be... My Keith is dead...And it's all... Her fault... I glared at Lavana with tears in my eyes. He saved me...
"Squiir!" Keith! Aqua cried out before looking to me. Kate...?
"The Yellow Gem... We'll have it back, thank you very much." Lavana smirked. "Sorry for having to kill that little boy toy of yours. But it had to be done. I'm sure you'll get over it eventually~"
All of a sudden the building started shaking. I instantly started to feel weak... But I forced myself to stay strong.
"What? The Incredible Machine's switched on already?" Lavana questioned. "...Oh, yes, I get it. It's designed to creep up to 100%. It's going to reach that state when the date changes at midnight. I'm going back to the barrier's control room. Girls, you see to these naughty children. Don't embarrass yourselves again!"
"Thank you for trusting us, Lady Lavana!" The twosome shouted as Lavana walked inside the tower with her Magmortar.
"This time, there will be no failure!" One told us. "If we blow this, the Crimson Unit will be disbanded in disgrace!" They pulled out their miniremos and has a Gardevoir and a Scizor attack me.
I tearfully captured the two Pokemon.
"...I think I've found a new hero." One said.
"The Rangers... are even kind of cool." The other said before running away.
"Voicemail! Voicemail! Hastings! Hastings here! Keith was blown off the roof? We'll dispatch Rangers to search for him! Kate, you must keep going up!" Hastings told me.
I tearfully went to hang up.
"Wait! Wait! Don't hang up! I've got good news! Our research team of Vatona and Nage have made a breakthrough! They completed the Styler software that makes the impossible possible! They've named it the Incredible Program! And, indeed, that's what it is! It's designed to work with the three Tears of Princes taken from the pendants. Those colored stones are fitted into your styler, Kate, if you recall. We'll send the Incredible Program to update you Fine Styler in a minute. That will transform your Fine Styler into the world's one and only Vatonage Styler! Using it, you will gain the ability to capture even those Pokemon under enemy control! Kate, you may know this already, but there is an ancient word in Almia. It is a word that means 'to rekindle the light that has sunk in darkness and restore harmony to the world.' The word is vatonage. It is a word barely remembered by even those old men and woman born in Almia. But now, the ancient word is reborn as the name of your new Styler! All right, we will send the Incredible Program to your Styler, Kate. With it goes our our kudos to all the Rangers for their courage!"
"Hastings... Is now really the time for this? My boyfriend just got attacked and thrown off a roof and thrown all the way to Vein Forest. He's more than likely dead! I'm an emotional wreck who can barely stop crying." I cried as my styler was updated. "So explaining this cool new styler and telling me I have to keep going isn't really helping me calm down!"
"I... I... I'm sorry... Miss Catriona... I forgot that Keith and you were so close... I sincerely apologize. I'll send a search party out for him right away. Keith's a strong boy. I'm positive he's fine." Hastings apologized before ending the voicemail.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. I tearfully looked back to see Isaac.
"Everything will be okay, Kate... Trust in Keith. H-He won't go down easily. Let's finish this... for him." He rubbed my back.
"Y-Yeah. It's time to end this." I rubbed the last of the tears from my eyes. "But I know one thing... Lavana's going to pay... No... All of Team Dim Sun."
And with that I stormed into the building earning a sad glance from Isaac.
The second we walked inside I received a voicemail from Sven. "Voicemail! Voicemail! Sven here. You're in the tower? Impatience breeds mistakes. Be careful." The Cowboy ranger warned.
"This is Wendy here. According to the tower's blueprints, the barrier has three separate layers. Each of those layers appear to be controlled from a different floor." Wendy explained.
"Wendy's got it right. There are three barrier-control floors above us. I didn't design the barrier system, bit I know how most of it is set up. On each floor, there will be a Circuit Ball that feeds power to a barrier layer. There's only one problem. Well, actually three. Each Circuit Ball is guarded by Altru's troublesome executives, the Sinis Trio."
I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before walking towards the stairs. As the two of us went to walk up the stairs the tower shook. "THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE'S POWER LEVEL IS CURRENTLY 1. POWER NEEDED FOR LEVEL 2 IS... 50%. I REPEAT, 50%. POWER IS RISING STEADILY. THERE ARE NO ABNORMALTIES."
"Aww, no. We're running out of time! The Incredible Machine has three power levels, one through three. It's going to hit Level 2 soon. At Level 3, Almia's going to be in serious trouble." Isaac panicked as we ran up the stairs.
I gritted my teeth and nodded my head before walking farther up the tower... After a minute of walking I noticed an electric gate blocking the stair case heading towards the up stairs.
"The beam system won't turn off even when I get close... The system isn't recognizing me. We're going to have to stop it ourselves. The system's Circuit Ball has to be destroyed for us to keep going up." Isaac explained before leading me to a room. "The yellow barrier layer''s control room is in here. Heath, who wears yellow outfits, should be in charge here. You Ready, Kate?"
"Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be." I smiled weakly.
He smiled sadly. "Let's go in, then."
And with that the two of us ran into the yellow light filled room. Near the back of the room was a huge yellow glowing glass orb! In front of it stood Heath and his Rhyperior.
"I am hearing someone coming in... But I not smelling someone bad. They are not being our people, I can telling. You thinking so, too? My cute Rhyperior." Heath spoke with his back turned to us.
He turned around with a surprised expression. "You Ranger! Again, you coming?! Even you bringing Prof. Isaac, the traitor. You two coming in to turning off barrier system, you are? Breaking the Circuit Ball is what you're intentioning on doing?" He asked walking forward doing his weird pose. "No, cannot let you doing that. I saying no. Allowing not so!" He stepped asside.
"Gehaarah!" The Rhyperior yelled out walking towards me. "Gehaarah!"
It shouted before attacking me.
"Capture on!" I shouted before working towards the hard task of capturing the pokemon.
Aqua Started shooting a variety of water attacks against the raging pokemon weakening him.
"Thanks Aqua!" I smiled as I kept working towards capturing the pokemon.
Just as I finished capturing the Raging pokemon Aqua started glowing white. "Capture Complete... Woah!"
I stared at my pokemon in awe.
"Aqua! You're evolving!" I grinned as I watched my tiny turtle pokemon transform into the turtle pokemon, Wartortle! "Amazing!"
"War! Wartor!" I did it! I evolved! Amazing! She cried out happily before proudly looking to Heath with a glare. "War war warrtor?! Tor tortle!" Are you happy now Katie?! Please tell me you are!
"Yes Aqua... I'm happy." I smiled wiping the remaining tears from my eyes before lifting the pokemon up and kissing her forehead.
"Losing! Again and again! Depressing me, losing is. Cannot be showing my face to Boss in this may now." Heath panicked. "Oh, but then, I thinking, my pride is gone. But that's all right. Important more is the barrier system, not pride for me. Not worrying, then! Barrier system is not break easy." He turned to the Circuit Ball. "But! I also planning ahead when being here waiting with Circuit Ball. I fooling with it, and putting on it, a secret thing for trap... No, no, no, never mind, I not saying! Bye-bye, adios!" He cried out before running away.
"He's so annoying..." I sighed before looking to Isaac.
"That guy's such a joke. He probably programmed the Circuit Ball so it can't be hit with a Target Clear. But guess who taught Heath and the other two to program? I think Heath forgot that it was me." He sighed before walking up the the Circuit Ball and easily shutting it off. "...And, bingo! See? Trap disarmed in 1.38 seconds. You should be able to use Target Clear on this safely now."
I nodded my head before Aqua used Skull Bash on the Circuit Ball shattering it into millions of tiny pieces.
"Good Job, Aqua!" I smiled.
I all of a sudden started receiving a Voicemail. "This is Sven, circling overhead. Just confirmed the outside layer of the Barrier is gone. Two layers to go!"
I let out a happy sigh.
"Let's hurry to the next floor!" Isaac smiled before we ran up stairs.
As we walked towards the room that held the second circuit ball there was a rumble that caught me and Isaac's attention.
"THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE'S POWER LEVEL IS CORRENTLY 1. POWER NEEDED FOR LEVEL 2 IS... 20%. I REPEAT, 20%. POWER IS RISING STEADILY. THERE ARE NO AB... ABNORMALITIES."
"This isn't good... The system is charging power faster than I expected." Isaac frowned as we walked towards the room that held the Circuit ball.
"The red barrier layer's control room is in there. The person in charge is Lavana... that awful woman who wears red. Are you sure you're ready for this?" Isaac placed a hand on my shoulder.
I took a deep breath. "Yeah. I'm ready."
"Okay, let's go in." Isaac nodded his head.
The two of us walked into the room but the room was empty.
"Huh? There's no one here." Isaac frowned. "We lucked out. Let's smash the Circuit Ball while we can."
We turned around to the sound of heels clacking against the metal floor.
"Well, hello there." The pink haired bitch smirked, her Magmortar stood next to her. "Sneaking around and avoiding my eye. You seem to be having fun. Oh? Well, if it isn't my darling computer teacher." She was steaming mad. "You've realized your mistakes, and you've come to apologize, I take it. And, because you were so embarrassed, you brought your Ranger friend as well."
"You're as predictable as ever, Lavana." Isaac glared.
"You're not one for sarcasm, little boy. I know you're here to disable the barrier. You're about ten years too early. Magmortar! Burn that awareness into their heads!" She shouted before stepping to the side.
"Magmorrrtn!" The pokemon jumped around for a minute before running towards Isaac full force.
I jumped in front of the mushroom haired boy shouting, "Capture on!"
I quickly captured the angry possessed pokemon freeing it from it's control.
"This really happened? I should lose? It really happened...?" She backed up with a panicked look on her face.
"Where's the Yellow Gem?" I questioned her.
"What? The Yellow Gem? I don't have it. That thing's too heavy to carry around!" And with that she fled the room.
"Okay, let's keep moving." Isaac smiled a bit before rushing up to the Red Circuit Ball and disabling it's protection. "Hahah! This time it took only 1.07 seconds! Lavana's booby-trap program was no big deal, either. You can Target Clear it now."
"Aquarius! Destroy the Circuit Ball!" I smiled tossing Aquarius' pokeball into the air.
The Vaporeon used Water Pulse on the red Circuit Ball shattering it into tiny pieces.
"Great Job Aquarius! Return!" I returned the pokemon to her pokeball.
I received a Voicemail the second the Circuit ball was destroyed.
"This is Wendy, calling from overhead. The second layer of the barrier went out! Good going, Kate! There's only one layer left to the barrier!" Wendy's voice came ringing from my styler.
"We're almost done!" Isaac smiled. "There's only the blue layer of the barrier left to take down."
We went to walk up another flight of stairs only for the building to shake again.
"THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE'S POWER LEVEL IS CURRENTLY 1. POWER NEEDED FOR LEVEL 2 IS... 10%. I REPEAT 10%. POWER IS RISING STEADILY. THERE ARE NONORMAMAMAMAMAMA... ABNORMALITIES."
"The system seems to be acting up... but it's almost level 2. We can't waste any time at all!" Isaac panicked.
My eyes widened and I quickly nodded my head. "Let's hurry then!"
The two of us rushed up the stairs and ran towards the door to the final circuit ball.
"This is the last of the barrier control rooms. You probably guessed it already, but the boss here is Ice, who wears blue. He's the leader of the Sinis Trio. Don't get careless around him." Isaac explained. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah... I am..." I looked to him.
"All right! Let's go!" Isaac and me ran into the room where Ice stood in front of the blue circuit ball will a Gallade behind him.
"Hey there, Little Mermaid! And a big hello to our computer teacher... The boy genius Isaac! Welcome to Altru Tower!" He smirked at us before he started pacing the floor. "Very soon now the date will change. Yes, a new era is dawning in Almia. Join me in counting down the seconds to Almia's new beginning. It's a day to celebrate. As you know, I've always been a pacifist. It's just the way I am." He did his odd dance move pose. "I'm doing this for peace... Gallade, get these interlopers off the premises!"
The Gallade cried out before attacking me.
"Capture on!" I cried out before capturing the Pokemon.
"...What the..." Ice gasped. "Brought down by a fairy tale..."
"Sorry, Ice." Isaac frowned. "I'd like a look at your lame booby-trap program." He walked up the the Circuit Ball. "...Huh? This is weird. This isn't the amateur-hour program that I taught the Trio?"
I frowned and walked over to Isaac.
"Hahaha! I get the last laugh, after all! Isaac, I wasn't satisfied by that simple program you taught us. I studied programming like there was no tomorrow. Studied every day. That trap program's rather elegant, wouldn't you say?When I heard two thieves broke in, I got down to redoing that program in a hurry." Ice smirked.
All of a sudden the building started shaking. "THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTERS. THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE'S POWER LEVEL IS CURRENTLY 1. POWER NEEDED FOR LEVEL 2 IS... VERY LITTLE. I REPEAT, VERY LITTLE. POWER IS RISING STEADILY. THERE ARE NONONO ABABABABNONONONOM MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA. THERE ARE NO ABNORMAMAMALTIES."
Ice frowned. "Sounds like it has abnormalities galore... Still, Isaac, it seems certain that you are almost out of time. The Incredible Machine's going to hit Level 2 shortly. And, the highest level, 3, will be achieved when the date turns. It's going to be right on schedule with Altru's birthday."
"Kate, don't worry! I'll crack the trap program!" Isaac promised before turning back to the circuit ball.
"Well, Isaac, you're still very bad at accepting hopeless situations. It's what made it possible to come up with that great invention, I guess you'd say." Ice laughed before walking up to me smirking. "Don't be afraid, Little Mermaid. I'm sure we can still have that dance." He smirked. "Or how about... this..." He forced his lips on mine causing me to panic as I felt something slip down my throat... My chest... It's burning... I gasped out as he pulled away...
"W-What did you do..." I grabbed my chest... the marks of kyogre started glowing all over my body they started turning dark.
"I just forced you to swallow a serum, a poison really... my dear Catriona. It's made of dark shards... You see... I had tests run on that blood sample I stole from you at the Almia Castle... And I learned something very... Interesting... Your blood reacted very oddly to the Dark Shard. Does it burn, Katie?" He smirked whispering into my ear as I collapsed to my knees gasping in pain.
Lavana and Heath ran into the room.
"We failing at orders from Boss." Heath sighed.
"I'm back from fixing my makeup." Lavana sighed.
Ice turned to them. "Your booby-trap programs were junk. They had 'amateur' written all over them. Thanks to your ineptitude, these pests have crawled their way up here." Ice growled. "Bah, moaning about your sorry efforts won't get the job done. Lend me your Pokemon. Take this three-Pokemon assault, weakened Little Mermaid!" Ice smirked as Lavana's Magmortar, Ice's Gallade and Heath's Rhyperior surrounded me.
"Oh, very good! Goodly done! That Ranger, no chance of victorying! That's good jobbing, Leader!" Heath laughed.
The three pokemon cried out and attacked me.
"Gha! C-C-C-Capture on!" I screamed out as my capture disc circled the pokemon over and over again until they were all captured. By the time they were all caught I was covered in burns, cuts and bruises. "Capture... Complete..." I sighed trying to not look as fatigue as I felt.
"Our Boss! He is on top! Of here! Protecting him we must be doing!" Heath shouted before running out of the room.
"I'm too ashamed to be showing my face in front of Boss! Not after being beaten by this brat again!" She ran out of the room in shame.
"You pair of spineless losers! That battle was only for show. Something to while away some time. Unless they can crack my trap program, the two of you are stuck here..." Isaac stammered. "Wha... Hey... Isaac? Why did you just crack a grin? It... It can't be! You cracked my program?!" His eyes widened, "...That's unbelievably fast. Having Isaac, the boy genius, as an enemy is terrifying, after all... Here! Take this damned Yellow Gem! Just take it and get out of here. But promise you won't come after me!" With that he dropped the Yellow Gem and Ran off.
I forced myself to stand and weakly picked up the crescent shaped gem... Just touching it made by body hurt less... and it made the dark marks disappear...
My chest doesn't hurt bad anymore... But knowing that the dark shards are inside of me... I won't be feeling well for long... Hopefully I can make it long enough to defeat Dim Sun before the dark shards take their toll on me.
"Program disengaged! Kate, I'm sorry I took so long. It's ready for a Target Clear now!" Isaac grinned turning to me before frowning. "Kate? Are you okay?" His eyes widened at my obviously weakened state. "What happened?!"
He must not of seen what Ice did... or heard what he said... He was too busy dismantling the program...
"P-Poisoned..."I forced myself to breath refusing to allow the darkness to consume me.
"Poisoned?! That poison they had me and the other scientists working on back at the oil field... I-It was... It was meant for you... T-They told us it was to kill weeds... not k-k-kill people... Kate! Breath okay!" Isaac was in tears.
"D-Don't worry... I'll be fine..." I smiled weakly at the boy genius before having the Ampharos I captured earlier destroy the blue circuit ball. I let out a tired sigh as the ball was shattered into tiny pieces. "Thank you, Ampharos." I smiled as the Ampharos ran off.
"Kate, watch out!" Isaac shouted shoving me out of the way of an explosion. "Are you all right? That trap had a time delay on it. I didn't expect Ice to have mastered programming that sophisticated. Those three have all chosen the wrong path... They're just like me..." He looked down in shame.
"Don't say that Isaac. You're good. You're nothing like them! You were just misguided. No one blames you." I smiled at him before my styler ringed.
"This is Sven, circling overhead. The barrier's final layer is gone! The barrier's down!We can get close to the Shadow Crystal anytime we want... Listen, Kate... I'm worried about Keith, too, but he's a Top Ranger. He'll be all right. Just watch." Sven told me.
I smiled. "Yeah."
"Voicemail! Hastings here! Sven and Wendy, can you hear me above the tower? Circle the tower, getting as close to it as possible. Even the two Gems you have will have an effect on the Shadow Crystal!" I heard Hastings say.
"Roger!" Sven said.
"Understood!" Wendy said.
"Kate, how are you feeling...?" Isaac asked me.
"N-Never better..." I sighed. "I'll be okay... Holding the Yellow Gem is helping to counteract the poison right now... Now lets keep moving. We don't have any time to lose."
The two of us walked out of the room and the building started shaking again.
"THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE'S POWER HAS REACHED LEVEL 2. POWER NEEDED FOR LEVEL 3 IS... 99% MORE. 98% MORE. 97% MORE. 96% MORE. 95% MORE. 94% MORE. THERE ARE NO URDLURDLUR BWEEEEEE GZGZGZGZ..." Then there was a boom.
"That does not sound good... I frowned.
Elsewhere
"The dream-energy machine has finally before fully operational!" A Scientist cheered.
"B-But isn't there something wrong?" The other frowned.
The room shook and they turned to the dark shadow surrounded by black Gigaremo's.
"Gao gah gah gah gi." The dark shadow growled.
"There's something wrong with the Gigaremo Black. It's as if it's being controlled by the shadowy being instead! This shouldn't be happening! What's going on here?!" The reseachers panicked as the room shook again.
Pueltown
All across Almia the pokemon began to become hypnotized.
"The Pokemon... What's gotten into them?" A man frowned.
"They're in agony, but from what?!" A woman frowned. "This isn't normal!"
Chroma Road
"The Pokemon are rampaging in abnormal ways!" A female Ranger yelled at a Dim Sun Grunt. "You! Dim Sun goon! This is your doing, isn't it?!"
"No, it's not me, I swear! I haven't done anything yet! They're being controlled by something other than my Miniremo!" The Admin panicked.
Altru Tower
"Look at the gauge on the floor!" Isaac pointed to the glowing domino like things on the floor. "The Incredible Machine's power has reached Level 2!" He frowned. "Once it gets there, it takes almost no time for it to reach Level 3, the final level!" He turned to me. "President Hall's going to get his way! He's at the top! Hurry!"
I quickly ran up the stairs, through a room full of black Gigaremos and a scary dark Shadow, as we ran up another set of stairs something caught Isaac's eyes.
"Huh? What is that machine? I've never seen that machine around before..." Isaac frowned before walking towards the stairs... "We can take those stairs to the top... Huh? Woah! It's high-voltage power!But, it's a piece of cake for me. How's this?" He smirked typing something into the control panel.
The electrified floor shut off... He did it!
"There! I shut off the power! We've got free access to the tower's top now!" Isaac went to walk but soon found himself trapped behind an electric fence. "No! It's the same time-lapse trap from before! I should have known... Sorry... Kate... I think this is as far as I can go to help you. I'm grateful that you believed me, even though I was with the bad guys. I'm sorry that I've caused you so much trouble... This whole mess started with me believing in Kincaid... Now Almia's going to pay because of it... And not only that... You're poisoned... I'm sorry... So-so sorry... But Thank you, and I mean it. But you have to hurry now. You have to go up to the top. There isn't a second to waste now. You're tough enough to take them down on your own. Oh, wait a second. You're not alone at all. You're friends are circling the top of the tower right now... And you have your pokemon with you to help... Kate! President Blake Hall is sure to have incredibly tough Pokemon! You should only go up when you're absolutely sure you're ready. I'll try to break out on my one. Good luck! And... Please! Be safe! K-Keith's going to kill me if you get hurt!" He wiped the tears from his eyes. "You can do it Kate. I believe in you. Everyone does!"
"Thanks Isaac! Come on Aqua." I looked down to my Wartortle, lifting her up, walking towards the stairs. "Time for us to put an end to this... And then when we're done... Let's go to the beach." I gave her a weary smile.
Kate...?
"Yeah, sweetie...?"
Are you going to be alright...?
"I... I don't know... but I'll never leave you..." I smiled before taking a deep breath and walking up the stairs towards my destiny.
Cliffhanger!