"Ngh… Eh?"
Keith woke up groggily. He sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. He then realized that there was a breeze coming from next to him. He looked over to see the AC.
…His bed wasn't by the AC…
He looked down a lump under the covers next to him. He then noticed that he was still in his uniform. He looked up to see… Rhythmi laughing her head off, muffling her giggles behind her hand.
Keith then realized the situation. He had sat by Kate on her bed while she was asleep last night… And then drifted off himself right next to her. He got off the bed without disturbing Kate's sleep, and then glared at Rhythmi. He pointed at her menacingly.
"Rhythmi," he said, "You have three seconds to run before I annihilate you."
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When Kate finally woke up and headed down to breakfast, everything was the same as before. She sat down between Rhythmi and Keith in her usual seat, and when breakfast was finished, Barlow issued their mission.
"Professor Hastings is coming today. Kate, meet him and escort him here."
Kate blinked.
"U-um… Me? Alone? By myself?" She exclaimed nervously. "I'll go with her!" Keith immediately stated, but Barlow glowered. "It's just going to the entrance to the forest by herself. She'll be fine." He growled. Keith scowled, but said nothing.
"Ah-ha… if it's just that, I'll be OK. But thank you, Keith." Kate smiled. Keith blushed and muttered "Rhythmi, please pass the syrup", but of course she refused.
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"Jeez… when is the Professor going to get here?"
Kate was sitting dejectedly at the entrance to the forest, waiting for the professor.
"He was supposed to come ten minutes ago!" She murmured to herself. Suddenly, she heard a voice.
"I don't know what those people hoped to achieve by putting that barrier by Lookout Ridge, but it was ridiculously flimsy!" The voice boasted loudly. "A chop here, a kick there, and it fell apart! That's what jogging will do to you!"
Kate turned to see an old man with a long white coat and a cane. He had a white mustache and beard and a hat also. She ran up to him. "U-um, are you Professor Hastings?" She asked shyly.
The man stared seriously. "Why, yes, I am!" He shouted at an unnecessarily loud volume. Kate flinched at the outburst, but when she recovered she said, "M-my name is Kate. I'm a Vientown Ranger, and I've come to escort you to the Base…"
Hastings nodded. "Very well then! Let us jog to the Ranger Base!" He proclaimed, jogging ahead of Kate. "Y—yes—!" Kate stammered, going after him.
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"We're back!" Kate called, panting.
"Oh, hey." Keith greeted happily; he seemed to have gotten over the shock of Kate's first real Mission by herself.
"Hi!" Kate replied. Professor Hastings walked off to engage in conversation with Barlow, and Kate walked off to next to Keith at the counter. Rhythmi was behind it, looking irritated. "Is something wrong?" Kate asked her best girl-friend concernedly.
Keith started laughing. "Blondie here just lost what was a very heated debate."
"What was it?"
Rhythmi sighed exasperatedly. "I was trying to convince him that the legend of Darkrai isn't real." She muttered.
Keith gasped dramatically. "Of course it's real! It's in all the books, all the myths, all the news reports—"
"—All the fake news reports, you mean!"
Keith groaned. "Kaaaaaaate!" He whined, draping an arm around her shoulders, "Tell Rhythmi that Darkrai is real!"
Kate, unfazed by Keith's sudden action, replied, "Of course it's true. I've heard all the myths back in Fiore. Back there, Darkrai is treated like some kind of god."
Keith grinned and turned his already close face to Kate. "Oooooooh, do tell!" He said. Kate sighed. "Only if you get off." She ordered, turning her face to Keith's.
Keith felt himself go red. "Sorry." He muttered, sitting upright again.
Kate took a deep breath and started. "Well, back in Summerland, it's almost always a clear sky. But for some reason, when it becomes night, there's never a star in the sky, and you can't even see the Moon. We believe that it's because of Darkrai."
Now Keith and Rhythmi were interested. "Why is that?" Rhythmi asked.
Kate smiled. "Well, a lot of people down there believe in balance. Like, for every ray of sun there is a drop of water, or for every sad time there is always a day of happiness. Well, since it's always bright in Summerland, something else has to give. So that's why it's always pitch black at night, because Darkrai's powers bless—or curse, I'm not sure which—our beaches.
"…There's another reason I believe in Darkrai too." she murmured quietly. "And what is that?" Keith asked.
But at that point, Professor Hastings' voice rang out. "AH! WHAT A PECULIAR MACHINE!"
Kate smiled. "I'll tell you another time." She whispered before they all turned in their seats to see what the hubbub was about.
"I see… I see…" Hastings' muttered. He finally declared, "Well, there is nothing for us to find on the outside, so we must look towards the inside!"
"YES!" Elaine screamed in triumph. Hasting looked at her importantly. "Elaine, do you know how to dismantle this properly?" He asked. Elaine smiled.
"Of course I do. You just multiply the circumference of the main dials by the radius of the whole machine, and then when that's out of the way you HIT IT WITH THE SLEDGEHAMMER!"
Kate and Keith were now holding Elaine back again.
"E—Elaine!" Kate protested frantically. "Knock it off, for Arceus' sake!" Keith yelled angrily.
But it was to no avail, for the two were stuck holding Elaine back the whole two hours it took for Hastings to properly dismantle the machine.
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After all the mess, Kate and Keith finally dropped off of Elaine, exhausted. Rhythmi wasn't much better either, as she had had to hide all of Elaine's dismantling tools, from ax to sledgehammer.
"Hm? What's this?" Hastings held up a small dark stone from the array of machine parts around them. "Strange thing…"
Elaine got excited. "Should I dismantle it? I just multiply the diameter of the stone by pi and then—"
"Hit it with the sledgehammer, we know!" Keith yelled from his resting spot on the floor next to Kate and Rhythmi.
Hastings sweatdropped. "No, Elaine, I don't think we need this cru—err, dismantled." He laughed nervously. "Instead, I believe I'll go with Barlow to the Ranger Union to get it examined. Would that be ok, Barlow?" Barlow nodded.
But Hastings still had a frown on his face. "…I've seen something like this machine before… somewhere… Where was it?" He then snapped his fingers and proclaimed, "Ah, yes, Pueltown! I saw a lot of these machines in Pueltown on my way over."
…
"WHAAAAAAAAAT?" The whole team shouted. Hastings sweatdropped. "I thought they were mailboxes!" He protested. Barlow sighed and said, "Anyways, I'm going to go to Pueltown with the Professor to see what the big deal is. Professor, how many did you see?"
"One or two."
Barlow nodded. He then turned to the crew.
"Team. I need you all to be on your best behavior while I'm gone. Especially you, Crawford—and Keith, for that matter!" Barlow ordered. The two named boys pouted.
"Well then, we're off." Barlow and Hastings left. "Have a safe trip!" Kate called after them.
However, Crawford and Luana had malicious grins on their faces. "…What?" Rhythmi asked nervously.
Crawford grinned. "When Barlow's away, the Rangers will play!" He snickered. Rhythmi bristled angrily, but said nothing.
Luana smirked, and then giggled. "Which means tonight is…"
Elaine facepalmed. "Oh, no…"
And the two elder Rangers screamed in all their glory,
"SLEEPOVER!"
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At Crawford and Luana's request, everyone was in their pajamas and sitting in Kate, Keith and Rhythmi's room, which was the biggest in the Base.
They were also witnessing quite a strange event…
"Remind me, why did I agree to this?" Keith muttered angrily.
"I don't know, but this is fun!" Kate giggled as she tied various ribbons and beads into Keith's hair.
Rhythmi laughed. "Funny, if I had asked to do that Keith would've punched me in the face, but when Kate asks he breaks down…" She stated. Keith simply sighed morosely, knowing better than to fight a losing battle. Crawford was in hysterics at Kate's hair job on the poor boy, and Luana was trying (and failing) to convince Elaine to let Luana give her a makeover.
"C'mon, Elaine, just a little eyeshadow and mascara and it would really bring out the blue in your—"
"HELL NO."
Luana sighed. "Fine… Ah, we're out of snacks!" Kate stood. "I'll get some more." She smiled and after picking up the snack tray, she left the room. As soon as she was gone, Keith immediately began tearing out the ribbons in his spiky hair.
Rhythmi started laughing again. "Priceless. I can't believe you agreed to let Kate do that." She said. Keith growled. "Shut up." He muttered.
Crawford snickered with the young Operator. "But seriously, you must really have it bad for Spiky." He stated.
"I DO NOT!" Keith yelled.
WITH KATE
"What was that noise? I hope Keith and Rhythmi aren't fighting…"
WITH THE OTHERS
Rhythmi smiled. "Oh, come on. You've gotta have a crush on her. Why else would you let her do that to your hair? Kate isn't exactly a beautician, you know!"
Keith frowned. "I only let her do that because she seemed like she really wanted to—dang it, she's good at tying these!"
Luana was confused. "What do you mean, he's got a crush? Keith isn't hurt. Is he?" She asked. Everyone sweatdropped at her denseness. Luana went on. "Is this some kind of code? I know that Keith likes Kate a whoooooole lot, but…"
Keith sighed. "I'm going to see what's taking Kate so long." He said and walked out the door.
Suddenly, Luana looked as if she just had a great idea.
"Hey, do you think Keith could have a thing for Kate?"
And everyone fell anime-style.
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"Kate… Kate? Where the heck are you?"
"Oh, Keith! I'm over here."
Keith saw Kate in the kitchen, staring out the window at the night sky.
"What're you doing?" He asked curiously. "Everyone's waiting for the snacks."
Kate sweatdropped. "Sorry. It's just that whenever I look up at the sky, and I see the moon and stars, I feel so happy that I decided to come here."
Keith nodded in understanding. "Yeah… I can get that." He said. Kate smiled and started to pick up the tray of snacks she had refilled, but Keith took it from her. "I'll take this." He sighed. Kate started to protest. "But I—"
"If you try to carry this all the way up the stairs and down the hall, you'll drop it. Trust me."
"…"
When they entered the room again Luana bounced excitedly. "Yay, snacks!" She smiled happily. Keith put the tray down and the whole group started eating.
Rhythmi then said out of nowhere: "Oh, and Crawford, you're not in the clear when it comes to girls either. We all know about Luana."
Crawford went scarlet, Keith and Elaine burst out laughing, and Kate and Luana simply blinked confusedly.
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The next morning, everyone was having breakfast as usual.
Kate was dozing off at her seat, she wasn't fully awake yet. "Ka-ate." Keith said. "Wake up!"
"B…but…" Kate's head then started to fall forward, almost straight into her buttered toast if Keith and Rhythmi hadn't grabbed one pigtail from each side and saved her.
Kate squeaked. "Ow, ow, ow! Let go!" She sat up straight as a board, and her two friends let go.
Suddenly the other Operator, Yumiko, came into the room (the reason she hadn't been at the sleepover was because she lived in a house close to the base with her husband and child).
"Crawford? Barlow wants you." She said, holding the telephone. Crawford blinked. "Uh, sure… but why didn't he just use Voicemail?" He muttered and went to take the phone.
"…Uh-huh… Sure… Wait, what did you call me? …I am not that big of a screw up. Ok, maybe. Yes. Ok, I get it. No need to yell. Yes. No. No. Maybe. Yes. Sure. Ok. Goodbye." He hung up and turned to the others at the table.
"Kate, Keith and Luana." He said, "Barlow wants us all down at Pueltown to help with the weird machines."
Keith was curious. "But I thought there was only one or two?"
"Oh, it's waaaay more than that."
"Great… Come on, Kate. We'd better go." Kate nodded and stood up.
As the four Rangers left, Rhythmi stared after them, thinking.
Kate was extremely shy.
Luana was painfully scatterbrained.
Crawford was a prankster who loved to tease Keith—and Barlow, for that matter.
And Keith was obviously dealing with a huge crush on Kate, however hard he tried to deny it. His silly and hot-headed attitude didn't help either.
Rhythmi turned to her laptop and sighed. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this…?"
