---
It had been about a week since they'd started training, and Zoey was finally starting to get the hang of the staff drills. Of course, they hadn't been training the whole week as all of them had things to do.
It wasn't that the drills were hard to do or anything, but Zoey kept getting a case of nerves, and often went too fast, which resulted in her sparring partner (usually Daniel – Serena didn't really change them often) getting whacked instead of blocking it.
Oops.
It was in the middle of one of these sessions that Ai interrupted, the one not standing guard. Out of the corner of her eye, Zoey saw the white-clad girl move, silently and smoothly like a shadow, and she blocked Serena's staff with one hand and Rachel's with the other.
"What is it?" Serena asked, lowering her staff. The others did the same, now curious.
"There is a signal at Ruin Valley, Six Island. Aine says that there are monsters hunting for the strongest Pokémon there, who seem to be a new – or, rather, ancient – variety of Unown. The Glyphs are back."
"Great," Serena sighed. "Rangers, go deal with them. According to the legends, they're wimps."
"What are Glyphs anyway?" Joy demanded.
"An ancient species of Unown which the first languages were based on," Serena shrugged. "In the legends, they served as Abbadon's agents of destruction, mostly through espionage and other things. Hurry up."
The five Rangers looked at each other and shrugged. "Sevii Metamorphosis!"
"Electric Two – Yellow Raichu!"
"Grass Three – Green Victreebel!"
"Ice Four – Cyan Dewgong!"
"Water Five – Blue Gyarados!"
"Fire Six – Red Charizard!"
Serena shielded her eyes. Much to her annoyance, she had not managed to deprogram the "annoyingly bright lights" because they were tied specifically to the heartstones and she couldn't take out the power source. Aislynn stepped forward, and pointed to the morphed Rangers. She spoke words in an old, guttural language, and white light spiraled forward from her fingertips to wrap around the five. It flared brightly, and both light and Rangers were gone.
---
Aislynn's teleportation spell or whatever it was had sent them to a place none of them recognized. It was a valley, with sheer rock walls in all directions. They were directly in front of two large, gleaming white pillars that alone seemed to have survived the hand of time. The rest of the valley was wild and overgrown, or barren rock. It would have been beautiful, if it hadn't been for the hordes of monsters.
They were sleek, black, and entirely strange. Many of them resembled what looked like the Greek alphabet, though still more seemed like Egyptian hieroglyphs, and even more looked like pictograms.
(A/N: Not a word about how there is no Greek, Egypt, etc. in the Pokémon world. I'm looking at you, Psyduck.)
"So…we just attack?" Rachel wondered out loud. Startlingly enough (to her) she received an answer.
"Yeah," Serena's voice told them, probably through some equipment that came with the suits. "They are very weak. This might also be a good time to mention you have individual weapons."
"We do?! Then why did we have to do the staffs?" Zoey demanded.
"Implanted knowledge and reflexes are no substitution for experience," Serena snapped. "Thunder Daggers, Jungle Razors, Winter Halberd, Ocean Lance, and Magma Sword. You should be able to guess which weapon is which."
"Right. Winter Halberd!" A white light materialized in Rachel's hand, which lengthened to her other hand and solidified into a halberd. The staff was painted light blue, but the blade was a harsh silver-blue.
"Jungle Razors!" Instead of one, two lights appeared for Daniel. They became twin, rectangular knives with simple wooden hilts and wickedly sharp blades.
"Thunder Daggers!" Twin points of light materialized in front of Zoey, which changed into two daggers with gold hilts and bone-white blades. She grabbed them out of the air before they could fall.
"Ocean Lance!" Like Rachel's, Jun's weapon was a long staff attached to a sharp, metal blade. Instead of being shaped vaguely like an axe, it was long and pointed, and the staff was deep blue rather than light blue.
"Magma Sword!" Joy's weapon was, obviously enough, a sword. It was longer than her forearm, and gleamed brightly. The hilt was copper and gold, arranged in eye-catching, dazzling patterns that were, unfortunately, mostly covered by her hand. She continued, "Flamethrower!" Joy thrust out the sword, which had begun to glow red-hot. A stream of fire materialized out of nowhere, blazing through a group of Glyphs. It was hot enough to thoroughly roast the ones it hit – which, unfortunately, were only about half of the group.
Serena sighed unhappily. "Going to have to work on the accuracy."
"How are you watching this anyway?" Rachel asked, swinging the Winter Halberd horizontally to slice through a group of Glyphs. They collapsed like paper, and she jumped forward to stomp on them for good measure.
"Video in the visors," Serena said off-handedly. "Most of it hooked up to the main console."
"There's a main console?" Zoey asked, running through a Glyph with both her daggers. She pulled them both out seamlessly and turned to knee another Glyph, sending its extremely light, probably hollow, body up into the air. She didn't bother waiting for it to land, instead whirling to unleash a Shock Wave on yet another group.
"Duh. You know, this is better than a movie."
"Except with no explosions," Daniel grumbled, thrusting one Jungle Razor into a Glyph as he snapped out a sidekick at another. Then he had to try and tug the razor back out of the Glyph.
"Definitely no substitute for experience," Serena sighed, obviously referring to Daniel's little problem. "What, you like explosions? Just blast it off your weapon with an attack or something."
Jun had to duck the Bullet Seed, which tore through the Glyph easily, and rocketed over his head to slam into another Glyph. "Watch it!" he called, thrusting his lance through another Glyph. He twirled it, slashing its way out of the Glyph. "How many of these things are there, anyway?"
"You have about ten left," Serena said.
Joy landed on the ground, and a loud and bright explosion drew everyone's attention to her. She turned to survey her work and nodded. "I'm done."
"She gets explosions and I don't?" Daniel complained, unleashing a swarm of Razor Leaves to slice through some more Glyphs.
Then a rhythmic thump-clank sounded out, effectively freezing the remaining Glyphs (only three) in their tracks. All eyes were on the source of the sound – a tall Gardevoir, almost six feet tall, was mounted on a muscular Rapidash at the top of the major ruin. The Gardevoir had black rather than green hair, and the red plates that usually thrust out from a Gardevoir's chest were gone. In addition to a long, white and hooded cloak (currently with the hood off), she wore chain mail, shoulder-guards, and a metal plate skirt that reached to her knees over the cloth dress of most Gardevoir. Her weapons were a sword and shield. They were both rather simple, the shield painted jet-black with a gold circle in the center. The sword was longer than Joy's, though more slender than most. The edge looked sharp enough.
The Gardevoir smiled down at them. "Hello, Rangers. My name is Ladynight, and this is Valor," obvious meaning the Rapidash.
"Ladynight…under Abbadon, by any chance?" Zoey asked.
"Oh, very good, Yellow. I'm one of the three generals. I came to congratulate you."
"Congratulate us?! On what?"
"Yeah, Red, congratulate. On beating up the Glyphs, obviously, though they are wimps. Lantis and Lusion-X are so stuffy. A girl needs some fun, y'know. But Abbadon said I can't play with you yet," she sighed dramatically. "So you'll have to settle for a playmate, hmm?" Ladynight raised her sword in the air and fired off a burst of vibrant, electric blue Psychic energy. "Come to me, Erebus!"
In answer to her call, the sky darkened swiftly. Gray storm clouds materialized out of nowhere, swirling faster and faster clockwise. They seemed to drop out of the sky, touching down right between the two unscathed pillars. Then they retreated, leaving in their place what looked like a cross between Sableye and Sneasel, except for the fact it stood five feet high, hunched over. Its body was primarily a Sableye's, except its skin was black and the eye-gems were bright red. Its claws were also much more pronounced than a Sableye's, white and viciously curved.
Ladynight peered down. "Be a dear and play with the Rangers, yes Erebus?"
"As you wish," the monster said in a grating voice, making what was probably supposed to be a bow. It then launched towards the closest ranger – Rachel – who yelped and swung the Winter Halberd at it. Erebus blocked the blade with the claws on his forepaws, then grasped the staff and kicked at Rachel with both feet.
Ladynight smiled at them, waving. "Ta-ta, Rangers. Play nice, now!" she laughed, guiding Valor towards a spiraling purple-and-black disc of energy that hadn't been there a moment ago. Knight and horse stepped through, and were gone.
The Rangers had better things to worry about than her, though. Right now, Erebus was the main problem – it was just too fast and agile. The monster nimbly vaulted out of reach of almost all weapons, causing the long-range ones to keep going and sometimes hit the others ("Rachel, watch where you aim that Ice Beam!" "Sor-ZOEY I AM NOT A LIGHTNING ROD!"). Needless to say, it did not make any of the Rangers happy.
Finally, Serena said, "Rangers, back off. Zoey, you deal with it."
"What?!" Serena couldn't identify all the incredulous voices or the number, but she was willing to bet at least Zoey was among them.
"As the Yellow Raichu, you are the fastest and most nimble, and best suited to deal with Erebus. His strength is in his speed and agility, not in his attacking nor defense. If the rest of you attempt to help, you'll just get into each other's way. Try to set traps if you can, but leave the main battle to Zoey." When they still hesitated, Serena snapped, "Do it!"
Four of the Rangers moved back reluctantly, and Zoey launched forward. She latched onto Erebus with one hand, tightening her arm around his shoulders as she tried to stab him with the Thunder Dagger in her other hand. Erebus clawed at her desperately, but his claws were apparently not sharp enough to tear through her suit.
Zoey pulled him backwards, landing on her back with a jarring thud. Despite that, she released him and kicked him into the air, where he flailed wildly, shooting off Icy Winds in many directions, which all went wild and missed. Zoey pointed both Daggers at the Sneasel-Sableye. "Thunder!"
From the clear sky, a jagged, bright white-gold finger of electricity darted down to strike Erebus, and the monster had enough time to scream in pain before his body disintegrated into ash.
---
"That was too easy," Serena muttered, tapping her fingers on the computer console. It displayed different viewpoints of the Ruin Valley currently, through which she could watch the battle and the surroundings.
"Speak for yourself," Zoey grunted, struggling to her feet. Daniel got there first and helped her up.
---
Ladynight had been watching the fight through what looked suspiciously like a crystal ball crossed with a TV. She sighed and turned in her chair. "Lusion!" the Gardevoir called. "Erebus failed. I want to see the Zords."
A groan, and a telepathic voice, which was how Lusion-X always talked. Fine. Give me a moment.
Ladynight turned her attention back to the screen, which displayed the remains of Erebus. They began to slowly reassemble, then faster, and grew, blazing with green light. "You're such a dear, Lusion," she called, grinning.
---
"Uh, Serena…"
"Yeah, yeah," Serena muttered. "I'll send the Zords now." She picked a set of goggles off of the wall and slipped them on. They activated, glowing with green light and she began swiftly typing instructions to the computer, watching them being etched in data and binary code with neon green light and carried out. "Stall for a minute, the Zords are too big to teleport," she instructed them.
"Oh, that's wonderful," Joy said sarcastically. "I just live to – DUCK!"
Apparently, Erebus's new status as a giant monster had given it more power too. He didn't bother to cry out his attacks, just did it because he could. A Blizzard had shown up, thick and cold. Gathered into a block maybe five feet wide by five feet tall, it raced towards the Rangers. All of them managed to get out of the way, barely. "Holy mother of Mew! Can't you hurry it up?" Joy demanded.
"Do I look like Palkia or something?" Serena asked sharply. "They'll get there when they get there!"
"Hey, they're here!" Rachel interrupted, pointing at the sky. "Or at least…I think the Charizard's here…"
"The other ones can't fly, so they have to either climb up the valley walls and then back down or go around," Serena explained off-handedly. "So we built another one, and it's carrying them, but it's much slower than the Charizard Zord."
"Well, that's convenient," Zoey muttered.
Jun complained more loudly. "Aw, come on! I want giant-robot-time!"
"Oh, just shut up, you'd have to go 'slidey-slidey-slidey' all over the place anyway," Serena sighed. "Same with the Dewgong Zord."
In the meantime, Joy had ignored them all and stared at the Charizard Zord, which had landed in front of her to block Erebus's attacks. "So where do I get in?" she asked finally.
"Oh, right," Serena said. "Just jump. The Charizard Zord is tied to your suit and all that, so it should bring you up there with all the shiny buttons," she said, voice dripping with sarcasm for the last couple of words. Joy ignored her (again) and did so, landing lightly on the head of the Charizard Zord. A panel slid out of the way between its eyes, and she walked through. A couple of seconds later, the Charizard Zord turned to face Erebus, and if it hadn't been a giant robot that couldn't show emotion, one could have sworn it was grinning. Joy's voice called, "You were lying, Serena. There are no 'shiny buttons.'"
"Just singular," Serena agreed. "The 'oh-sweet-Mew-that-thing's-gonna-destroy-my-Zord-I'm-running-right-now' button. Or 'evacuate' for short."
"That's no fair," Jun complained. "How're we supposed to move them?"
"Well, Joy just did," Serena pointed out. "Physical motion or verbal commands. Of course, with most of the Zords you'll have to use verbal commands since the structure is completely different from a human's. It'll be like a Pokémon battle, only you're in the Pokémon, your opponent is a monster, and you're both gigantic."
"Gee, that's nice," Joy muttered. "Flamethrower!" The Zord belched a gigantic fire from its maw, which spiraled swiftly towards Erebus. Erebus, though, leapt out of the way as he always did. Audible cursing.
"I could make some comment about me still being thirteen, but I don't feel like it," Serena commented. "If you can hold him off, you could theoretically still leave it to the Raichu Zord when it gets here."
"How will it get here, though? Can the Zords swim?" Zoey asked.
"Gyarados and Dewgong, yes. Raichu and Victreebel…well, we had to build another one, like I said," Serena sighed. "They've pretty much all hitched a ride. You'll see."
"I think I see them," Daniel reported. "Over there." He pointed in the general direction the Charizard Zord had come from. This time, it was much, much larger than the Charizard Zord had been – wider, taller, and longer. A Dragonair.
"Why is it a Dragonair?" Rachel asked.
"Because they can fly and dive. Move out of the way, it needs somewhere to land."
The Rangers did so, dodging the stray Flamethrower/Ice Beam/Dark Pulse with much annoyance ("Joy! Watch where you're pointing that thing!"). The Dragonair whatever-it-was landed safely, coiling up to reduce the room it needed. Its mouth opened impossibly wide, and it belched up four Zords ("EEW!" "Disturbing." "Not cool." "Why do you think I didn't like it?" "At least there's no spit on them."). The Rangers climbed in.
---
Serena, manning the main console, began pulling up summaries on each of the Zords, fingers gliding swiftly across the keyboard. "Zords at one hundred percent and rising," she reported. "Each Zord has a specialty in battle, the same as each of yours, do you understand? Charizard, elemental strength. Gyarados, physical attack. Victreebel, long-range attacks are best. Raichu, speed. Dewgong, multiple attacks at once."
"Anything else we should know?" Joy asked. "Get out of the way!" she commanded her Zord, which leapt into flight to avoid a Dark Pulse.
"Nothing as of yet, except the Sevii Megazord's weapon is not yet completed. There's always improvisation, but I don't recommend it. Readout at one hundred fifty percent. Who's charging? Fire already, before it blow up your Zord."
"Yes ma'am!" The Victreebel Zord fired out a Solarbeam. Serena did not pay attention to the video feed of the rainbow-white beam hitting an unaware Erebus, only to the digital readouts. The energy level spiraled back down to one hundred percent and stabilized. "All Zords at optimum efficiency."
"Back to you, Zoey?" Joy asked.
"Of course."
---
Ladynight sighed, watching her monster getting taken down by the exact same strategy for the second time. "Lusion, your spirits are stupid," she called.
…Shut up.
Ladynight snickered and got up. She'd seen all she wanted to. The Rangers had strength, but Erebus was among their weakest allies. She'd seen them in morph, in action, and in the Zords. It had been a good day, and the only price paid was one of their weakest.
"This will be interesting," she said out loud.
---
A/N: Okay, so neither of these were very long, but I have a very short attention span. Meh. Don't expect them to get longer, expect me to start updating less frequently and run away when I do.
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