I can't think of anything to say here.

Chia: You're losing your touch.

READ, REVIEW AND ENJOY!

Chia: By the way, what's with that chapter title? 'Having a Blast'?

Oh you'll see. *smirks*

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Kate yawned, stretching her arms into the cool air. She had gotten a lot of rest and woke up very early the next day. Too early, in fact. Kate was awake before everyone else in the Union was. She couldn't go back to sleep with so much hyper energy in her. And as much as Kate would love to explore the Union some more, she didn't want to disturb anything or anyone. So throwing on her ranger uniform, Kate decided to go take a walk along the Union road. Chia decided to come along too; sleepy but wanting to be with her buddy. They'd stroll for a bit, see the sights and then head back inside when everyone would be waking up.

And were the sights wonderful. The cool air made Kate shiver but it was worth it to see the sun's glow over the treetops. Dewdrops formed on the blades of grass and leaves that hung off the tree branches. Night pokemon were starting to go to bed while daytime pokemon were starting to awaken. The air was quiet and peaceful. Chia rested on top of Kate's head, relaxing. Kate smiled at this perfect scene.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

The ground was shaking violently! Gigantic earthquake! Kate yelped, falling to the ground. Chia woke up in a panic and clung to Kate's head with a firm grip. The girls tried to hold on as the ground trembled beneath them.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE…

In a minute or two, it was over. No more earthquake. Everything shifted back to normal again.

"What the hell was THAT?!" Chia exclaimed, still clinging and with her fur stuck up in all directions.

"I have no idea…" Kate responded, stumbling to get up.

There was a cabin nearby. A middle aged woman raced out of there, looking around with a frantic expression. She saw the ranger and came right over.

"Goodness! Are you alright?" The woman asked, anxious.

"I'm cool." Kate replied. "I hope you're doing ok too. Those tremors were really violent."

"I'll say they are. And I'm worried about those hikers out on Peril cliffs." The woman said.

"Hikers?" Kate repeated.

"A little while ago, there were these men in strange outfits carrying all sorts of supplies. Explorers, I think. I saw them as I was drinking coffee and went out to say hello. They told me they would be hiking and looking for something. When I asked what they were looking for, one of the men told me they were searching for an explosion of fun. Odd boys." The woman told her.

Explosion of fun? Plus those earthquakes? That seemed suspicious.

"Strange outfits? In purple and black? With a logo?" Kate guessed.

"That's exactly it!" The woman nodded.

"I get the picture." Kate sighed, then put on a smile. "Don't worry. I'll go investigate the cliffs and look for those 'explorers'."

"Why thank you! It brings me relief to know a ranger is looking out for everyone!" The woman said, heading back inside.

There was a path beside the cabin that led to the Peril cliffs. Kate had never been there before but that wouldn't stop her. Time to go check out what was going on. The ranger and pachirisu charged up the pathway. After a little bit, they reached the cliffs. Wow, were they tall. The Almia maps made them look smaller. Cliffs were high into the sky. Rocks were a reddish brown color with dozens of vines stretched across them to climb to multiple ledges. Scaling the cliffs wouldn't be so hard.

"Should we call Keith for backup?" Chia asked.

"Nah. Let him sleep in." Kate replied.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

"…or let him call us." Kate sweatdropped before answering her styler. "Morning Keith!"

"Kate? Nnng. Where are you?" Keith sleepily asked.

"Um…would you believe I'm at Peril cliffs?" Kate sheepishly told him.

That woke him up. "Peril cliffs?! Why there?"

"There was this huge earthquake on Union road and it wasn't close to natural. A lady told me of some strange men heading to Peril cliffs earlier. I think we've got another Dim Sun attack. And I thought I'd better take care of this." Kate told him.

"I'll be there and ready to help in a few minutes." Keith said, determined. "See you soon, Kate."

Both stylers hung up. Kate knew Keith would be scrambling to get dressed and race on out to meet her. And while she should wait for him, Kate felt she should move on ahead a little. The girl already began climbing the vines up the cliff.

"You never were the patient type, were you?" Chia commented.

"Keith will get here soon. And until he does, I might as well get a look at what we're dealing with." Kate told her. "Also, look who's talking."

Chia rolled her eyes but she didn't object. The pair climbed up the vines and scaled the cliffs together. Kate was getting high up in no time. Being on the cliffs at that height gave her quite the few and filled her lungs with fresh air. But this wasn't time to sightsee. There was a job to do.

"YAY! SPRINGY GRASS!" Chia cheered.

On the edge of a cliff was a gigantic leaf burrowed in the ground. Kate grinned at the sight of the infamous springy grass. She loved to bounce on these things back in Fiore. It kept her entertained for hours at a time. And now childhood returned to help her out.

"Ready?" Kate smirked.

"So ready." Chia nodded.

"One! Two! Three! CHARGE!" Kate shouted.

She ran at high speed and took a jump. Her feet landed on the springy grass, which, in turn, catapulted her across a wide ledge and all the way over to the other side. Whew! What a rush! Kate forgot how much she loved springy grass! After this whole thing was over, she'd have to goof off on those things again.

There was a slight shaking in the cliffs. Then another shake. What was going on? Kate ran to the edge of the ridge she landed on, looking for the source. It was at an normally inaccessible part of the mountain; on the ground at the dead center. There was a tyranitar and a rampardos ramming their heads into the wall of the cliff, creating a huge hole. Kate knew that tyranitars could potentially destroy mountains but only when super enraged. Neither pokemon was enraged. Actually, they seemed to be suffering a deep pain. Close to the pokemon were two guys operating a laptop. Those outfits made it clear they were Dim Sun grunts.

"Rotten jerks…" Chia growled.

"Well we're going to put a stop to this." Kate said.

"Put a stop to what?"

Kate spun around to see Keith and Wave. She smiled, happy to see her partner was ready for action.

"Right down there." Kate pointed out the pokemon. "I think those pokemon ramming the wall is the cause of our problems."

Keith took a look. "I'd say that's about right. We better stop Dim Sun before they do worse damage."

"Ok but there's no vines to climb down from his point." Kate said.

"True." Keith glanced around at the cliffs. "We'll have to climb higher, make our way across the ledges and then lower ourselves to the base of the cliffs. I think that's how those guys did that."

"Sounds like a plan." Kate gave a thumbs up.

Together, the rangers and their pokemon scaled up the Cliffside. There was a lot of vine climbing which gave them a full workout. Staravia were nothing to fear though the pinsirs weren't making things easier. Mankey and mawhile seemed to be very upset over the tremors. Kate managed to befriend one of the mawhile while trying to calm down the other pokemon. It was a tricky route but she and Keith made it to a gigantic patch of vines. Vines that stretched for long ways up and over to the sides. The next ledge Kate needed to reach was some distance away and she'd be very high up. It was critical not to make a single slipup during this climb.

"GLIII!"

Not a good sound. As Kate was halfway there, she saw a gligar in the corner of her eyes. These pokemon were very territorial. And it didn't like the rangers invading its space. Gligar was flying straight towards them!

"KEITH! WATCH OUT!" Kate shouted.

Keith wasn't aware of any danger until it was too late. Gligar missed Kate but landed a direct hit on the redhead. Keith cried out in pain as he was knocked from the vines. Kate used one hand to grab his wrist before he could fall.

There was a moan. Keith opened his eyes, looking up at the girl who held onto him. He was stunned for a second before realizing what was going on.

"K-kate!" Keith stammered.

"Grab a vine! Quick! I think mine's weakening!" Kate quickly told him.

Keith immediately got one of the vines closer to him and had a firm grip. Kate managed to get another vine to hold onto before the other snapped. Way too close on that one. The gligar was coming back. Both rangers hurried to that next ledge. From that ledge, they lowered themselves a little more and made their way across the mountain.

"ACK!"

Kate found Keith had fallen to his knees, clutching his head. Wave wasn't looking so well either. It seemed like both were struggling through intense pain.

"Keith!" Kate bent down. "A-are you hurt?"

"T…this sound…" Keith's jaw clenched tight. "I-it hurts…"

"Sound? I don't hear anything." Kate frowned.

"Shush!" Chia paused, listening. "I think I'm picking something up! This way!"

Kate helped Keith and Wave before following Chia. Sure enough, Kate could hear a noise. A noise that she knew right away. Standing on the edge, she looked out onto the area to see a bunch of pokemon hypnotized. Many were suffering while some were blocking the path to the cliff base. It was chaos!

"Huh. You were right." Kate said. "Looks like Dim Sun decided to stall us."

"Make the pokemon aggressive and keep prying eyes away…" Keith mumbled, rubbing his temples.

Looks like Keith wasn't in any condition to handle this. Kate would have to take out the gigaremos herself. Two gigaremos, to be exact. Both of them yellow and…plastic? Even from a distance, Kate could tell they were plastic. Kind of cheap for Dim Sun to use. But hey, that made things easier. The mawhile Kate befriended earlier had crush so it could easily take care of a gigaremo.

"Keith, I saw a mawhile some ways back. You think you can go capture it for me?" Kate requested.

Keith nodded. He and Wave took off in the other direction.

"You do realize I could transform into another mawhile to help? That Keith didn't need to go all the way back there?" Chia asked.

"Yeah but I needed to keep Keith and Wave away from the noise." Kate replied, scoping the area. "No vines. Though many of these cliffs and ledges are a good enough height to jump off. And I see more springy grass. This won't be too difficult."

Kate decided to go for the gigaremo that was more out of the way. She jumped from ledge to ledge, not intimidated by the heights at all. Springy grass catapulted her to other parts normally unreachable. It only took a few minutes to get to get to the gigaremo. Kate gave the word and mawhile easily took out the yellow gigaremo. Success! One down, one to go.

Keith came back with another mawhile. They climbed over to the last gigaremo, which was set up close to the pokemon blockade. Redhead seemed to be handling his headache a little better but Kate hated to see him in pain. She quickly got mawhile to slice and dice the final gigaremo. No more hypnotism. No pokemon in pain. And nothing stopping the rangers from confronting Dim Sun.

"I see some vines over there!" Keith said, fully recovered.

Sure enough, there were vines that led down. And right where they needed to go.

"Good eye!" Kate said. "Now let's go confront those dimwits."

Keith chuckled at the joke. He was right by Kate as they went over to the vines and climbed the long way down. The tyranitar and rampardos were still slamming their heads into the cliff wall. The ground shook slightly with each impact. Didn't prevent Kate and Keith from walking over.

Kate cleared her throat. "Hey you guys! Yeah you! In the weird outfits!"

"Weird? These happen to be state of the art uniforms!" The orange haired grunt snapped. "And I'll have you know….HOLY MILTANK ITS THE RANGERS!"

"AAAHHH! NOT RANGERS! THEY SCARE ME!" The blonde grunt screamed like a little girl.

"Gee, never had that reaction before." Kate muttered as the pokemon snickered.

"Why are those pokemon ramming the wall?" Keith questioned the grunts.

"B-b-because! We…are um…we're…" Blonde stuttered.

"WE'RE GEOLOGISTS!" The ginger blurted.

"Yeah! Geologists!" Blonde agreed.

"Really." Kate raised an eyebrow. "You're seriously passing yourselves off as geologists."

"We happen to be collecting…um…stuff. Studying stuff. Like composition analysis and big fancy science terms you kids wouldn't get." The ginger said.

Kate looked at Keith. "Please tell me you're not believing any of this."

"Not one bit." Keith agreed.

"Same here." Kate turned back to the grunts. "Ok smarties. You claim you're geologists? Then would you like to enlighten us on what the soil composition?"

"Ummmm…" The ginger nervously tried to think.

"DIRT!" The blonde burst out. "Lots and lots of dirt!"

"Well no duh, idiot." The ginger smacked his partner's head. "But there's also clay and water too! And…calcium right?"

"Isn't that in milk?"

"I think so but can't it be in soil?"

"Then maybe the dirt's also made of beta carotene?"

"No, no. Maybe we're thinking of salt?"

Kate and Keith listened to the grunts bicker for a moment, stumbling around for answers. It took a moment for the grunts to realize they were sounding not-so-smart after all. There was an awkward moment of silence.

"Oh screw it. YES! WE ARE DIM SUN!" The ginger announced. "BUT WE WON'T TELL YOU WHAT WE'RE DOING! MUA HA HA HA HA!"

"Yeah! And we'll let our pokemon do the talking!" The blonde added.

The ginger grunt grabbed his laptop and started typing things in. Both pokemon stopped ramming the walls at once, turning to the rangers with menacing looks.

"Rampardos! Tyranitar! Crush those rangers into rubble!" The ginger commanded.

He typed more things into the laptop. Both pokemon cried out before racing towards the rangers. Kate and Keith split up to take on one pokemon each. Keith handled the tyranitar while Kate got rampardos. Keith's battle would be easier since Wave had a water assist but Kate would have to manage best she could.

Chia helped out to paralyze the rampardos. Not too effective due to typing but it gave Keith a head start. Speaking of heads, the rampardos' first headbutt attack nearly trampled Kate! Yikes! Kate would have to stay on her feet more than usual for this capture. Rampardos loved to tackle, headbutt and throw boulders all over the place. Occasionally, it'd make a huge rock slide fall from the cliffs. Kate was frantically trying to avoid getting hit while she looped the capture disk around the large pokemon.

After awhile, Kate was noticing something peculiar about this rampardos. It seemed to be bulked up more than a normal pokemon. Like it was on some sort of pokemon steroid. Kate thought it could be pokerus but the effects were nothing like she had seen before. And it didn't make pokemon turn violent like this. Plus, pokemon eyes didn't flash between a normal shade and dark red.

The friendship gage was about two third's full. Kate was getting so close! One of the rock slides came back down but the rampardos wasn't fast enough to get out of its own attack. A particularly sharp rock started to fall onto rampardos and scraped his face. There was now a massive, deep scratch that ran from the near top of the head, down the side of the face and ended on the shoulder.

"Wait a sec. What is that?" Kate thought, squinting at the scrape.

Some of the scrape was just flesh, blood and some tissue. But a good portion contained something shiny and silver. Metal!

"Capture complete!" Keith called out.

Kate finished up. "So is mine!"

Ramparos and tyranitar weren't looking so good. Their eyes were changing colors at a very fast rate as they moaned in agony.

"DAMN IT ALL!"

The grunts were very anxious. Partly ticked off but mostly freaked out.

"Great! Two experiments down the drain!" The ginger growled. "All thanks to those damn rangers!"

"Now why don't you tell what's going on?" Keith stepped forward. "How'd you control the pokemon without a gigaremo? What are these 'experiments'? And why's there metal inside that rampardos? Something's suspicious about your pokemon.

The blonde was too terrified to speak. But the ginger glared, angry.

"You think you're so darn clever, rangers. Well the experiments a failure but we're not giving information. And maybe we'll be promoted for the backup plan I set into place!" He whipped out a remote control.

Ginger grunt pressed a two blue and green buttons on the control, causing the pokemon to run off with shaky movements. The blonde grunt followed behind. Before Kate could object, the red button was pressed.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM!

The entire cliff shook in a gigantic earthquake more powerful than the last. Kate was knocked straight into Keith's arms from the blast.

"What did you do?!" Kate and Keith yelled over the explosions.

"Ain't dynamite a wonderful thing?" The ginger grunt smirked before running off. "Sayonara rangers!"

The earthquake was growing more powerful. Boulders were careening down the cliffs at high speed.

"RUN FOR IT!" Wave shouted.

Everyone started to race their way through the Cliffside and avoid the avalanche of rocks about to fall on them. It was as if the entire place was coming apart! The path back to Union road seemed more far away than ever. Kate tried her best to push forth and make her way over there.

"ACK!"

One of the falling rocks hit her foot, causing the girl to trip and fall to the ground.

"KATE!" Keith skidded to a halt several feet away.

"Go! Run! You can still make it!" Kate yelled.

"No way! I'm not going to leave you behind!" Keith refused.

The redhead came back over and lifted Kate into his arms. But before he could dash off, several large stones were sliding right at the pair! No way they could avoid the impact! They'd be crushed! Kate and Keith screamed, shutting their eyes and holding each other close as they waited for the impact.

…and impact that never seemed to come. After a moment, they opened their eyes and looked up. A rainbow bubble shield was protecting them! Rocks slid past the shield or crumbled upon hitting it. Kate and Keith were saved! All thanks to a certain pachirisu, standing on Keith's head and activating the rainbow shield for them.

The shield stayed up during the duration of the landslide. It was several minutes before the rocks settled and everything was still. Once the shield was gone, Keith carried Kate as he climbed up on top of a rock pile. They looked everywhere to see the entire base of Peril cliffs was covered in rubble and debris. Ledges on Peril were obliterated or severely weakened. Many of the pokemon were horrified by this sudden event. It was hard to believe that not too long ago, Peril cliffs were a nice place to view the land and enjoy peace. Now? The place was nearly destroyed.

"Kate? Are you ok?" Keith asked.

Kate nodded. Her face felt warm as she was carried in Keith's strong arms. Who would've thought Keith's muscles would develop so nicely? And seeing that face up close nearly made Kate melt. Keith was just too cute!

"We better get back to the Union and tell everyone what happened. I think they'd want to know about Dim Sun's latest strike." Keith suggested.

"Sure. Sounds good." Kate agreed.

Keith set Kate down and they started to climb over the rocks. Kate's foot was bruised but thankfully, it wasn't anything worse. It'd be sore for a little bit, yes. Though a bruise was way better than being flattened by a boulder. Keith tried to protect her! It was so sweet! Even if he'd face certain doom, Keith wanted to help his best friend and give his life for her. Had it not been for Chia, they'd both be goners.

Speaking of Chia….maybe Keith deserved to know the truth.

"Hey Keith?" Kate spoke up. "About what happened back there. With Chia and that shield…"

Keith stopped her. "I already know. Chia's a mew."

"YOU KNOW?!" Kate froze, shocked beyond words.

"YOU'RE A MEW?!" Wave exclaimed, staring at Chia with wide eyes.

"I've kinda known for a little while. But I promised Chia I wouldn't say anything." Keith explained. "And I promise to continue keeping her a secret. No one else but us will ever know about this. Right, Wave?"

"Er…yeah. I guess…" Wave mumbled, still startled by the news.

"Thanks Keith." Kate smiled, trusting him.

"Of course. You're my best friend and I-I'd do anything for you." Keith gently grinned.

Kate blushed for a second. She snapped out of it when she heard Chia giggling. Mental note, talk to Chia about the whole 'mew thing' and Keith knowing. With Keith and the pokemon close by, Kate made her way out of the Peril cliffs area and back to the Union.

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Chia: *face palm* Having a blast? SERIOUSLY?

What? I like puns!

Chia: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! CRAWFORD?!...well…you're super tall and you've got afro like him.

I don't have an afro!

Chia: Have you SEEN your hair when you first wake up in the morning?

Chia: Next update will be coming soon!