Sorry about the last chapter, it was rather lacking, but this one should be a bit more adequate. :) And new charries! You may be able to recognize them. Nada mas. Enjoy!

Jackie

A dash of intrigue. A sprinkling of confusion. And a whole crapload of action. This was Jack Walker's tried and true method to creating chaos. My younger sister Lydia once called me the master of confusion. Danielle quite frequently accuses me of creating unnecessary (and yet quite clever) diversions whenever we're talking about something I really don't feel like talking about. Basically, when I leave this earth and, well, die, the world will remember me as a master of causing crap. It's a talent and should be treated like one. Let's just say I had a few surprises lined up for Mr. Ice here.

First was Fearow. Let me just say that Fearow can be very helpful, especially Spenser's Fearow, because, despite its lazy attitude, when it decides to get off its feathery behind, it can cause quite a lot of chaos. Kinda like me. Minus the feathery behind.

He swooped over the deck, causing a trail of alarm down the deck and knocking a few grunts on their asses while he was at it. Chatot, Arceus bless his soul, made a beeline for Ice and dive-bombed him, literally getting in his hair so as to cause a disruption in the line of command. With Ice too distracted to yell out commands, our job becomes a whole lot easier. I immediately took off from my position by the stairs and ran to the side of the ship, peering into the water. There had been… there it was.

"Capture on!"

A few more seconds and we had a Gyarados at our command as well. If I hadn't spotted a few of them around earlier when I was on the deck, we would've been a lot worse off. They weren't entirely rare once you got far enough out from land. Part of the spy game was taking nothing and making something of it. I had learned it well. With Gyarados, we had the power. I nodded to Spenser and Solana as Gyarados roared, causing the grunts on the deck to sent scattering. A Dragon Rage in the middle of the deck proved even more effective.

The two Ringtown rangers bolted for the upper deck, Spenser slightly in front, while styler-less Solana covered their back. They were headed for Ice- well, mainly Spenser was heading for Ice- with a vengeance in his eyes I may add, when I heard Chatot's pained screech.

My eyes jumped ahead. Ice had my partner tightly gripped between his two hands, the captured bird's wing at an awkward angle. My heart skipped a beat. Not Chatot. He had been with me through thick and thin, ever since the Manaphy mission, and besides being invaluable as a scout to my job, he was practically my other half. I froze and so did Spenser and Solana. Ice gave us a superior smirk, tightening his grip on my partner. Damn it. I hadn't prepared for a hostage situation. Chatot was a pro, but so was Ice. He knew I couldn't risk Chatot, not after everything we've been through. I hated that villains had that convenient lack of morals.

The situation was stopped in time, like a bug in amber, except the grunts, who had been slowing inching their way back towards us after Fearow and Gyarados had stopped their chaos. My mind was frantically begging for the action to slow down as I reached slowly for my styler, pressing the button that allowed me to talk.

"Any time now would be good."

Seconds later, the blare of a horn sounded as everyone on the deck turned to see another ship plowing its way through the water, only a hundred feet or so away. Riding above the waves like the feather on the wind was the pride of the Rangers and Danielle's favorite ship in the world, The Union. The huge wooden ship rammed into the Dim Sun ship, sending it rocking and almost toppling us all over as we grabbed for something to hold on to. Then, from the sky, a flash of feathers and a moment later, Ice was knocked over, and Chatot wriggled from his loosened grip. Solana rushed forward to gingerly pick him up, while Spenser lunged for Ice, pinning the Dim Sun leader to the wall when he tried to rise.

I shook my head as the Starraptor and his rider landed next to me. It figured he would be show-offy like that. "Well done, kid. Someone taught you well. I doubt even I could've done it better."

Grinning at me broadly from beneath brown hair and goggles, Ben Natsuya patted me on the back. "Good thing we were back in time to save your behind, Walker. For sure no one else was going to do it."

My type of position in the Ranger Union was hard to fill, but, if I were to pick a protégé, it would be Ben Natsuya. When he first became a Top Ranger, I took him under my wing and, despite him being big-boy enough now to go to total different regions, I still thought of him as my boy. He was a total goofball and responsible where I was carefree, but he had that something that a Ranger needed to survive cut-off from his base and on his own. He had a flair for plans as well and for creating chaos, something that I could appreciate. I've never told him this, but I think he recognizes that I respect him. Perhaps if he really wanted to commit, I could teach him everything I know and he could be the next Ranger spy, but every single time we broach the subject, something stops him. I haven't figured what it is yet, but I'm working on finding Ben Natsuya's weakness.

However, I was much more worried about Chatot. I strode across the deck, looking around to see that the grunts had all pretty much fled after the Union chaos and now that their boss was captured. Solana handed me Chatot carefully and I held the bird pokemon nestled between my two hands.

"Hey, buddy. You okay?"

"Okay, okay," he repeated, cocking his head and looking at me with his beady eyes of intelligence. I couldn't help but grin. The pokemon was extremely smart, he just sounded dumb when all he did was repeat after you. I took one of my hands away, while he stood up, and examined his wing.

"I don't think you'll be flying soon," I told him softly, distraught that, once again, he had gotten hurt because of something I'd asked him to do. Putting myself and other rangers in danger was bad enough, but when I put Chatot in danger, who probably didn't much care whether Dim Sun succeeded or not, it was a thousand times worse.

"Flying soon, flying," he repeated, balancing on one clawed foot while looking at me intently.

"Crazy bird," I smiled at him. Solana was still looking at me quietly when I looked up. "What?"

"Nuthin'," she answered, the hint of a smirk on her face. "Just that I finally saw a glimpse of what Danielle sees in you." What was she talking about? I'm quite a desired person and it wasn't because I had a soft spot for a particularly annoying bird pokemon.

I scowled at her. "Well, you better not let Spense hear about that. You might make him punch Joel in the face again."

"WHAT!"

"I'll tell you later." Ah, Spense was gonna kill me for that one. But, there were more important things to take care of. I looked up to see Ben and Spenser exchanging words while Spenser was holding Ice not so gently. Another Ranger had also joined them, a brown-haired girl with the same goggles Ben had, but, let's face it, a much prettier face than Natsuya. I was a bit less familiar with Summer Minami, but from what I'd heard from Ben, she was very opposite him, which I can imagine as very rational and realistic.

I was walking toward them when Solana stormed past me, teal bangs flying and her jaw set. She stopped in front of Ice. "Where is it?"

A hint of a smirk rose to the leader's pale face. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The reaction was immediate. She grabbed the front of his shirt, her face inches away from his. "Where is it?"

He stayed silent, meeting her eyes squarely.

"Spenser, could you check the cabin for me?" He didn't ask questions. This girl had a legitimate axe to grind and it terrified most of the people in ear range. Even Spense didn't know how to react and the only person who Solana better than him was Lunick. Most of the time, when Solana was mad, no one listened to her and she ranted for a few hours. There only one who didn't seem phased was Summer, but then again, she and the teal-haired Ranger had gone on a pretty serious mission together six months ago. Something in Oblivia that Ben couldn't be there for. Spense mentioned that she had always been a little different after that mission and the two rangers seemed to be bonded now. I don't know, I'd given up trying to figure out girls when I met Danielle. It stayed in utter silence as the Ringtown leader left.

"Summer?" Of course Natsuya would be the one to break the silence. The kid didn't know when to shut up sometimes.

Summer sighed. "Yes, Ben."

"You think Murph can handle being alone on The Union?"

"I doubt it, but he's going to have to. Besides, Ukulele Pichu's with him."

"Okay."

Spenser came back out, the Vatonnage styler in hand. He gave it to Solana in silence, who put it back in its rightful spot on her belt. "Thank you, Spenser."

He nodded and everyone was looking at Solana, who seemed to have wrest control of the situation. Maybe it was because of her previous predicament in which she had none, or maybe it was just that everyone reaches their breaking point at some point, but she was undoubtedly and irrevocably in control.

Summer broke the silence this time. "Something's not right."

Ben shot her a curious look and she briefly met his eyes before looking toward Solana. Only with a nod from Solana did she continue. "According to the briefing, Dim Sun wanted the styler in order to control Darkrai and this was the only way in which they could. They had the styler and the Ranger with which they could capture it, so wouldn't the next logical step be to head to where it is hidden?" Solana nodded. We were all with her so far and I was quickly realizing why Ben described her as the rational one. "We believe it to be hiding in the Sekra Mountains. By water is hardly a logical choice to get there. Where is this ship going?"

Solana stopped her pacing, her mind deep in thought. She slowly raised it. "We must be looking in the wrong place."

She turned toward Ice, who gave a shrug and a smirk. "You Rangers must not be too bright."

Solana was shaking. "Give me five minutes with him. I swear to Arceus, I will hurt him."

Summer shook her head, walking toward the older Ranger and meeting her eyes. "That's not going to fix anything, 'Lana." She looked thoughtful, turning away. "This is a ship. Someone get me a map."

The request was quickly granted. Ben came back a few moments later with a rolled-up map. That kid always did seem eager to please when it came to Summer Minami. She was good for him, if that was the case. Then again, I had no idea concerning anything about their relationship. Could this be his weakness? I decided to look further into this. This time, instead of voicing her reasoning, she was silent, tracing lines with her finger and mouthing things to herself. I shot a questioning look at Ben.

"It's how she thinks. Just be quiet. She'll tell us afterward."

She spent another few moments looking at the map. Finally, she spoke. "Chroma Ruins."

Spenser arched his eyebrow, waiting for more. "Because?"

"This ship is big, but not fast. If they wanted to get there before the Ranger Union, the place they were going to would need to be close by. Chroma Ruins in right across the channel from Boyleland. This method of transportation allows them to successfully smuggle large amounts of people and hidden cargo." She shot a wry look at Solana. "Plus, it's dark and goes undisturbed. It's the perfect place for a Darkrai."

Solana looked toward Ice. "You gonna say anything?"

His face was as neutral as possible. Even from a spy's point of view, I couldn't read it. Like always, this guy was a pro. I scratched under Chatot's beak absent-mindedly. No one had to remind me of that.

Ben looked up from the map, clearing his throat. "She's right. Everything that she said makes sense."

Solana nodded. "Alright. Spense, call the Ranger Union for me and let them know we're all together and that's where we are headed. We don't have time to loose and we need to calm it down once and for all."

"What about what happened last time we tried to calm it down?" The Ringtown leader asked critically. "I say we go to Chroma Ruins on stand-by. We phone for info on how to properly capture it, but even if they're working on it, we head to Chroma Ruins just to block off the place from anyone else disturbing Darkrai."

That took the wind out of Solana's sails. I could tell she wanted to take out the legendary and have it done with, but she couldn't ignore the cautions of her former leader. He was right. If it didn't work before, why would it work now? With a tiny bit of disappointment, Solana nodded. "Okay, that's what we'll do."

Spenser stepped back to make the call and I felt my styler rumbling. Someone was calling me? I was still undercover. Ranger Union rarely called when I was undercover, so as not to blow it. I picked it up. "Hello?"

"Jack? It's me. You know I wouldn't call if it wasn't important."

"D," I clutched the phone to my ear. Although she sounded calm, Danielle always was in control on missions. "What's wrong?"

Danielle knew how to give a run down. "First of all, let me just say that I just talked with Sven, who said you and Spense probably have blown up the entire ship by now and that's the only reason I called while you were undercover. So while he's busy doing damage control at the Boyleland Volcano, which seems to be in danger of erupting because of the disturbance with Heatran, Wendy and I need back-up. Let's just say we're stuck in a bit of a mess." In the background, I could hear shouts and Danielle let out a string of swear words, each one barely discernable from the next. That would be her Pueltown side. The one that I loved oh so much. "And the Ranger Union isn't picking up."

"They what?"

"They're not picking up, Walker. Maybe I should repeat a few times?" Ranger Union always picked up. They always had Operators at the phones, 24/7, just in case a Ranger or a citizen in trouble needed them.

"Where are you?"

"Secret base. It's a new one, right down the coast from Pueltown, actually. Disguised as a water treatment facility. I'm pretty pissed I missed it the first time around."

"Danielle, I'm on my way. Just… don't get killed." There were thumps in the background. I could tell they had barricaded themselves in somewhere.

"Good advice, champ." There was a grunt from Danielle's side as she was obviously putting something in place. "One more thing."

"What?" I partially snapped because I'm pretty sure I couldn't take one more thing again.

"They have the professor here. Whenever you last checked with base was the last transmission. They wouldn't have given up Isaac without a fight."

A long train of thoughts similar to the ones Danielle verbally expressed a few moments ago ran through my head. I guess everyone was going to have to learn to survive on their own. I said what I could, the only thing I could, at the moment. "I'll be there soon."

I hung up my styler and everyone stared at me for a good thirty seconds.

"Danielle called?"

Ben was the one who spoke, panic written all over his face. Danielle was a very capable Ranger, one who used to have the same exact job as me before she settled down as a base leader. Her calling for help was the equivalent of me calling for help and that rarely ever happened. Especially if the person I was calling was potentially on a mission of their own. And that wasn't even the half of it.

Spenser came back in. "The Ranger Union's not picking up."

I nodded grimly. "Danielle just called. She and Wendy are barricaded in at the secret base. They can't get out safely. Dim Sun have the professor. Obviously the Union's been taken."

"And who knows who else they have?" Summer added in a hushed voice. The silence was stifling. "What do we do now?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ice smirk. Unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you see it, so did Solana. This time, she couldn't help herself.

I would not want to get punched by that girl.