Chapter 1

The task seemed simple enough to Kate: find and capture an Umbreon that was causing trouble in the market place. The main problem with that was finding the Umbreon.

"Any ideas?" Kate asked Pachirisu. The small pokemon looked up at from his seat on the bench. The white fur around his mouth was stained a deep blue from the Oran berry he was eating.

"Pacha?" Pachirisu tilted his head to the side.

"Never mind," Kate said halfheartedly. She glanced out into the crowd, hoping to spot the moonlight pokemon. Instead, she caught a glimpse of a familiar blue coat disappearing behind a corner.

"Let's go, Pachi." The top ranger scooped up her partner and rushed into the crowd.

It wasn't too difficult for Kate to work her way through the crowd of people at first. People tend to see the ranger uniform and politely move out of the way. That was, until a blast of dark energy rippled from around the corner and into the crowd, sending everyone into a panic.

"Guess we found Umbreon," Kate said to no one in particular.

Kate found herself running into a new person every few seconds as she tried to get to the rampaging dark type and she tried to get to it.

Finally managing her way through the stampede, Kate turned the corner and found that the Umbreon had someone backed against a wall. Kate's eyes widened. She immediately recognized who it was: Ice.

Kate hadn't seen the Dim Sun admin since the completion on Operation Brighton three years ago. He looked artery much the same as he did back then. He still wore the same outfit, including that horrible white collar and his Froslass with her arms around his neck. It was impossible for Kate to read his emotions because he was so well guarded, even during his staring contest with the Umbreon.

Ice broke his gaze away from the Umbreon when he saw Kate turn the corner. A look of shock flashed across Ice's face but disappeared as quickly as it had shown up. The dark type took Ice's distraction as a chance to strike.

Before Kate was close enough to do anything, the Umbreon lunged and bit into the shoulder that Froslass had just been on. Ice gritted his teeth to keep from crying out in pain, not something he was going to do in front of Kate, and Froslass fired an ice beam to dislodge the moonlight pokemon.

"Pachi, discharge!" The small squirrel launched himself at the Umbreon and let loose an electric attack that ended up paralyzing the dark type. Unfortunately, Umbreon had the ability synchronize, so Pachirisu became paralyzed as well. Kate quickly pulled out her styler and performed the capture flawlessly.

The top ranger headed over to the two pokemon and fed them each a Cheri berry that she had in her pocket. "There you go, guys," Kate told them and Pachirisu jumped back onto her shoulder.

"Fross!" Kate turned back toward Ice when she heard his Froslass calling her. The ice/ghost type was hovering around Ice with a worried expression on her face. Ice was sitting with his back to the wall and clutching the shoulder that Umbreon had bitten.

"Are you alright?" Kate asked as she ran up to the former admin. She had no clue why she cared. After all he had put her and the other rangers through, a bite on the shoulder was just the beginning of what this guy deserved.

"I'm fine," Ice assured her as he lifted his blue gaze to meet hers. His expression remained as stone cold as ever. Ice got to his feet and started to walk away. Without turning around he called back, "thanks for the help, Kate-n00b."

Something finally dawned on Kate. "Hold it!." Kate called as she ran after him. She managed to catch up to him and grabbed him by the wrist. Ice turned back toward her. "Weren't you arrested after Operation Brighton?"

"Wow, nothing gets past you, Kate." After shoving as much sarcasm into that one sentence as he possibly could, Ice's tone become completely serious. "Yes, I was arrested if you must bring that up again, but I was released on good behavior, unlike my former comrades."

Kate thought about that for a second. It was entirely possible tat he was telling the truth, but it was just as likely that he was lying to gain her trust. "Wait, what do you mean by 'unlike my former comrades'?"

Ice chuckled. "You'll find out." He pulled his wrist free of Kate's grip and continued on his way, leaving Kate with a lot to think about.