Chapter Two. Reunion.

2026.

"You know if I'm honest, I thought this'd be a bit more spectacular than it actually is," Nahir said sarcastically. Since the book signing, she'd changed into a pale yellow blouse and a black skirt with high heels in the same colour. "It's not like we never see each other at all is it?"

"Speak for yourself," Xavier replied, folding his arms. He had black hair and blue eyes, while wearing a suit the same colour as his eyes and a red tie. "I haven't seen Ryan since Katie and Duo's wedding. You on the other hand, I saw the other night on TV. Interesting. I like how you can get away with branding that as fiction."

"Just because we know it to be true doesn't mean that anyone else has to," Luke pointed out. While it might have looked like the same suit he was wearing at the book signing, it was actually an identical one from Nimbasa City in Unova which he'd bought in bulk the last time he was there. "Sure, it's ruined for you, but for everyone else it's a flight of fancy never seen before."

"I love it when you quote the reviews for my books," Nahir said, turning to her husband with a smile.

"I know, that's why I do it," he replied, returning the smile.

"You know what," Xavier said dryly. "I remember when you two hated each other and Luke used to make sarcastic comments to everyone. Now you just do it to the people on your version of The Apprentice."

"Guys got to fill in his time somehow," Luke replied. "And hey, it seemed like a good offer to do that show."

Not much time passed before the rest of them eventually showed up, Katie and Duo being the next to arrive, while Crane and Paige came shortly after. Then, Lance, Bill and Ryan made their way in last, all of them looking relieved to finally be here.

"Sorry we couldn't get a bigger banner!" Duo called, pointing up to the sign in the middle of the room they'd rented out. He had white hair and brown eyes and was wearing a black suit with a blue shirt underneath it. "But thought it might look suspicious."

"Ha," Paige commented. She still had her strawberry blond hair, although it had grown out a lot, and hazel eyes, while she wore a white dress and high heels. "You couldn't make that much more suspicious if you tried."

High above them, the banner read. 'Poké Rangers: Genesis Overload. Fifteen year anniversary party.'

"Think sparkles might have that effect," Ryan said. He also wore a black suit, but with a green tie. He had blond hair. "Or maybe big fifty foot high neon letters."

"Now you're just being ridiculous," Lance said, clad in his suit and his cape. Unlike the last time they'd seen him, he had a beard now. "I think the sign looks fine."

"Wherever you got it, they did a great job," Bill added, the Pokémaniac dressed more casually than the rest of them in a blue polo shirt and jeans. "Got to get me one of them for keepsakes."

"Can't stop the collecting, huh?" Crane asked grinning. Although he hadn't been part of the team, he had helped them out on several occasions, hence his invitation. He was wearing a grey suit with a red tie. His hair was light brown and his eyes were green. "You haven't changed, Bill. And that's a compliment."

"I know," Bill replied. "I really got to know when you're joking and when you're being a pain in the ass. Remember when I did out your computer system? Three weeks of talking to you, addition to the several months on the Silver Gyarados. I got smart. Actually, I was already smart. I'm just enjoying the trumpet while I've got it in my hands."

"Nice for you to have it," Katie said. Unlike her earlier days when she'd dyed her hair a different colour every few weeks, she'd now gone back to being blond permanently. Her eyes were a deep shade of azure, and she wore a red dress and black boots. "It's nice for us all to be back together again. It's been a while."

"You remember the last time?" Nahir laughed. "Your wedding? Tara got drunk and chucked up out of the window at the reception."

"Apparently, I'm not going to be allowed to forget that," she replied with a shudder. "Still, didn't ruin the day, did it?"

For the next few hours, the ten of them continued on, talking and reminiscing and enjoying the occasion. And then, the lights started to flicker. Before any of them could react, a tremendous rip of energy tore through the room…

… And there he was. Just as he had done arriving previously in the domain of Dialga and Palkia, Clarence hit the deck in pain. Gritting his teeth, his skin pale from the blood loss, he got to his feet and threw weak smiles around the room, a small treasure chest under his arm.

"Hello," he said. "Long time no talk."

Then, he collapsed again, his legs unable to take the weight of his body.

"I'm no doctor," Luke remarked, watching as Xavier and Crane, the closest to him, went to help him up. "But he looks terrible."

"And you're right, Mr Sunderland," the Conduit replied. "I'm dying. Very quickly in fact. At my own estimation, I'll be dead in ten minutes. So please, feel free to continue making sarcastic comments."

Nobody else spoke up.

"So how've you all been?" the Conduit asked. "Just joking, I know you're all fine and well."

"Guess we'd like to say the same about you, Clarence," Katie said. "What happened?"

"Got stabbed," he replied. "By a Syodian. A few thousand years in the future, he's going to do something that puts everyone in grave danger."

"What?" Ryan asked.

"Remember the Genesis Book?"

"Oh come on!" Nahir exclaimed. "How could we forget?"

"He's found it. And once he powers it up to what it can be, then… Well, I think you can guess what will happen. I tried to stop him, I couldn't. Away from the boundaries of Earth, my powers are at their weakest. He found a way through. And now I'm going to have my eternal rest. I ask that you don't mourn for me…"

Both Luke and Duo looked like they wanted to interrupt with sarcastic comments, but refrained from doing it.

"… Instead that you hear me out. Time is short. With my dying wish, I ask you to go to the future and stop Nixysis from going through with it. It was your duty to protect the Genesis Book, that duty never died. Only the threat to it."

"Hey, for what it's worth." Crane suddenly spoke up. "I think you should go. I know you all should go. It's the right thing to do."
"He's right," Duo said. "What was the point of doing what we did in the past, saving the world, if we're not going to do the same for the future. I mean, just show up, kick ass and then leave, right?"

"That's the plan," Clarence said. "Don't want to sound like I'm hurrying you, but time is an issue."

He gestured to his side, the blood starting to seep through his clothes once more.

Straightening herself up, Katie looked around the rest of her fellow rangers, drawing in a deep breath.

"Anyone else think that it's the right idea?" she asked. "Most of us have been out of the game for quite a while, but most of it's like riding a bike. We'll pick it up soon enough, if we have to."
"Pretty dangerous nostalgia," Luke remarked. "But what the hey. I'll do it."

"Count me in," Xavier said.

"Ditto," Paige offered.

"I'm ready to jump back in the saddle," Ryan said.

"There's not even a question of doing anything else," Nahir finished. "Now, there's just the problem that we don't have our powers any more. They burnt up when we did in Forsythia, remember?"

"Like it was yesterday, Ms Sunderland," he said. "If only that were the largest of our problems."

He opened up the chest beneath his arm to reveal…

"Hey, I remember those!" Bill exclaimed. "The morphers I built."

Even in his pain, Clarence managed a small smile. "Great thing about time travel. I went back into the past and 'borrowed' them from your sleeping forms. When your mission is over, they'll be returned to the appropriate time by my replacement."

"Your replacement?" Katie asked, taking her morpher back up, the one with the Fire Stone in it. Around her, the other rangers did the same, Duo with the morpher containing the Dusk Stone, Xavier the Water Stone, Ryan the Leaf Stone, Nahir the Thunder Stone, Luke with the Sun Shard and Paige with the Nevermeltice. "You have a replacement."

"I need a replacement, otherwise who would do the job?" the Conduit asked, raising an eyebrow. "My replacement is currently hard at work gathering some… allies. He'll be with you when they're ready."

"We have allies?" Luke asked. "You mean we could be working with some complete clueless morons?"

"Well I suggest you don't put it to them like that," Clarence said. "Maybe there will be some familiar faces among them."

He then groaned, clutching the wound in his stomach.

"My time grows short. Just to reiterate. I'll send you to the future, you'll track down Nixysis on the seventh moon of the planet Vandor and you'll stop him. Then you get returned here. But by the time that happens, I'll be gone so I won't know, but I wish absolutely that you do everything in your power to ensure this goes well."

He was pleasantly surprised when all seven rangers piled onto him in a hug, surprise that lasted all of a few seconds until the pain from his wound kicked in.

"Take us," Katie ordered.

Hearing her words, Clarence closed his eyes and the eight of them vanished, leaving Crane, Lance and Bill alone in the room.

"Not even a goodbye," Bill cracked. "That's just rude."

"Bet they'll be back before too long," Crane said. "That's the brilliance of time travel. They will be back. I know they will."

"You want to explain how?" Lance asked.

"I might do."

With a yelp, the blue haired woman wearing a lab coat and jeans fell out of the sky at the end of a stream of blue light and landed on her back on the carpet of an abandoned room.

Although, it turned out she wasn't alone. Within a few moments, more beams of light started to appear from out of nowhere, streams of red, yellow, green, black, purple and white light flowing into the room.

The red light materialised into a brunette male in his mid-twenties wearing a flashy white jacket with red flames upon it, a black T-shirt and blue jeans, Poké Balls attached to his belt.

The yellow light materialised into a black haired girl wearing a yellow T-shirt and jeans, a few years younger than the guy. A second beam of light, a golden one soon appeared beside her, bringing a confused looking Pikachu into view.

Next, the green light faded out to reveal a man with light blond hair and black eyes in a green shirt and jeans. The shirt had a leaf on the back, while the white light materialised into a woman in her thirties with green hair and grey eyes. She also wore a lab coat and jeans, her coat having a black star on the back.

Finally, the purple and black lights revealed a similar looking man and woman. The woman had black hair with blond streaks in it, while the man's hair was silver with purple streaks in. She wore a black top covered by a grey vest and black three quarter pants, while he wore jeans, a purple T-shirt and a scarf in the same colour with a psychic type eye upon it.

"Pikapika?" the Pikachu wondered, looking around in confusion as if to wonder what the hell had happened.

"Ah, Pikapika indeed," a smooth voice said from somewhere out of sight. "Don't worry. Everything's fine. Or it will be in a few minutes when I offer an explanation."

"Good," the brown haired man replied, sitting up. "Otherwise, I'm going to introduce you to my Charizard. And you won't like him when he's angry."

"David Fury," the unseen man said. "Claire Springfield. Julia Ketchum, or Katsumoto, whatever the heck you call yourself now, Andy Black, Emma and Riku Blight and Naomi Springfield. Welcome."

Julia sat got to her feet and looked at the Pikachu in front of her.

"Welcome?" she asked. "That's all we get as an explanation. Storm, shock him!"
"Wait!" The shout came from both Emma and Riku, the twins speaking in tandem, the call stopping Storm in his tracks.

"There's something about his aura that's off," Riku explained. "I can see it from here. Just lay off for a moment."

"I assure you that I mean no harm," the voice said. "Just hear me out, I have a story for you. A good story, and unlike one of Mr. Black's books, it's not fiction either."

"Hey!" Dice protested. "I resent that."
"You'll have to pardon me," the voice replied. "I took a brief course in learning about you, I only got the chance to check the blurb out. It's not even close to being accurate, but hey. Not an issue. I didn't say it was a poor book. This is the story of the Lost Zone. Sound familiar."

"We know that story," Claire said impatiently. "Save your breath. If we don't show up, every Poké Ranger I know personally will come looking for you."

"What you don't know is that the Lost Zone has been tapped far in the future," the voice continued. "You know your own story. Are you familiar with that of the Genesis Rangers? Those who fought the Coppingers in Verger fifteen years ago?"

Claire's eyes lit up.

"Yeah, they'll come looking for us as well!" she exclaimed. "You're going to get your ass kicked when they…"
"You like the sound of your own voice, don't you?" the voice asked. Everyone bar Claire flinched at the comment, seeing her tighten up. "They'll be coming too. Even as we speak, they're probably already on their way there. What the Genesis Rangers sought to protect in the past, the Genesis Book, has been found and this Syodian warlord…"

"What?" Emma asked. "What's a Syodian?"

"It's a Deoxys-like creature," David said. "I worked with one when I went on that red ranger mission. She was cool."

"… Intends to use it to use it to bring war to the universe in the future. And he's tapped the power of the Lost Zone to activate it. Now it might not feel like it, even though you defeated ZeroMew, you still have a responsibility as the protectors of the Lost Zone."

"You're joking, right?" Riku asked. "You want us to go to the future and fight some crazy Deoxys? Why?"

"Because he's right," Naomi said. "We were Poké Rangers. That means something."

"A ranger's work is never done," Julia replied. "And as the former leader of the team, I'm telling everyone to tool up because we're doing this."

"Good, that saves a lot of persuading," the man in the shadows said. "Do you have your morphers on you?"

"Actually, I don't," Dice said.

"Me neither," Julia added.

"Or me," Emma offered.

"I don't think any of us do," Naomi said. "Haven't needed them."

"Right, I see," said the man. "Okay, here's my suggestion. I'll send you to the future, then I'll go and get your morphers for you. You meet up with the other rangers, have a catchup and a conversation, I'll get in touch. You need to get to the seventh moon of Vandor to find Nixysis, but I'll be sending you to the hub of the galaxy. That's where my predecessor is sending the Genesis Rangers."

"Well," Claire said, her eyes shining with hero worship. "If nothing else, it'll be great to see Katie again."

"I know the feeling," the man in the shadows said, smiling. "Okay, I'll see you on your way. Say hello to them for me, tell them I'll be there soon."
"You got a name?" Emma wondered.

Before she could get an answer, the eight of them, including Storm, vanished once again in eight streams of light. And once they were gone, the man stepped out into visible sight, his eyes a shade of violet and his hair was a silver blue colour. He wore a brown suit with a beige trench coat above it.

"Yeah, I got a name," he said softly. "They used to call me Dorlinda…"

Author's Notes.

Dum dum dum.

Yeah. So the rangers are about to be entered into play and it's nice to see them all again.

Thanks for the reviews. All appreciated.

Can't keep a good man down. As one dies, another rises.

Next one'll have some monsters in and perhaps some action.

Also, another thing. Although Cosmo Force was cancelled, one of the things I considered doing was inserting a few flashbacks into both this and Forever Blue to explain away certain key events, okay?

Thanks for reading.

Don't forget to review…