Author's note: I will probably rewrite the prologue soon, as it horrible and very, very short. I also wanted to say that I decided to post a story on Heartgold/Soulsilver! This will still take precedence though, as I love the pokémon ranger games way more. (No offense to people who prefer the main games, it's just my personal opinion.) I hope everyone will look forward to seeing those! Ah yes, and as always, thank you to anyone who took the time to read and/or review this! I appreciate feedback, good, bad, or indifferent. Oh yeah, and underlined speech is telepathy.

Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon, the game's storyline, the characters, or whatever else I forgot. I promise you if I did, the ranger series would be the main games. There would be a lot more of them too. :)

Chapter 7: The One Day Interns!

(Kate's P.O.V, present day, too early in the morning)

"Wake up Kate! C'mon, wake up! You'll be late for class if you don't, and you don't want to see Miss April angry," I heard Rythmi yell to me. I jumped out of bed and thrust on my school uniform. I had a habit of waking up late for stuff, especially on the really important days. Ah! Today was the One Day Internship!

To be honest, I still can't believe I've survived five weeks of getting up early for this. Miss April hasn't even gotten mad at me once, but I suspect that she is just being nice. I don't know why though, maybe because I have been overly cautious not to break the rules since the night we snuck into the basement. Maybe she wasn't just being nice?

As I pondered that, I looked at the time on the watch my mother had given me when I was little. It was 7:25 already! I only had five minutes to get to class! I pushed my watch into my pocket, and rushed down the stairs and into class. I smiled and sat down in my seat, just before Miss April started roll-call.

"Is everyone here? Okay. If you all know your assignments, then I suggest you get going. Some of you have a rather long ways to go, so please be careful," Miss April said. Seemingly unsatisfied with everyone's reaction, she continued. "I also expect a report on everything, so you better pay attention!"

The entire class groaned. We all knew that if we were to become real rangers, we would have a report expected of us for every mission. That so didn't make writing them any more fun though, especially with the strict grammatical format Miss April enforced.

I rushed over to Keith, "Are you excited about today," I signed.

"Totally! I wouldn't miss it for the world, Katie." I gave Keith my death glare. I absolutely abhor when people call me Katie. I'm pretty sure that's why he calls me that though. He is one of those people who likes to annoy people. I've met a fair few of those though, and I know how to deal with them. If you annoy them right back, they never know how to take it. It is super funny.

"Me too, redhead," I signed with a smirk. Seeing his face become livid was totally worth it. Especially when it almost matched the color of his red hair! Now that's priceless.

I sneaked out of the class before Keith could get over being called a redhead. I then went to Mr. Kincaid's room to say hi to Isaac and Ponte.

"Oh hi Kate," Ponte said. "I was hoping to see you before you go. You know, I'm so jealous of Isaac. He gets to intern at the prestigious Altru Inc. I heard Mr. Kincaid asked Altru's president himself! You do know Altru Inc., right?" I shook my head. I just moved here, so what did Ponte really expect?

"Okay," Ponte said as he shoved a newspaper in my face. "Look here, the entire article's on Altru Inc."

I looked carefully at the newspaper. I didn't manage to see much before Ponte, the newspaper still in his hand, rushed away to ask Mr. Kincaid something. I walked over to Isaac, hoping to learn more about Altru. What I actually learned was quite surprising.

"Rythmi, will you ever like me back? Rythmi, I want to tell you something," Isaac was muttering stuff about Rythmi under his breath. As I backed away that moment, seeing how dejected Isaac seemed, I made a vow. I vowed that somehow, I would get the two of them together.

(Keith's P.O.V, present)

How long was Kate going to take? I had been waiting here what seemed like forever. The previous day, we had both agreed that we would meet just outside the entrance to the school, but I was beginning to think she forgot. If she wasn't here in another minute or two, then I'd have no choice but to leave without her. Rythmi had already left to go to the Ranger Union, so I was waiting all alone. Just as I was about to leave without her, Kate showed up, breathing heavily.

"I'm so sorry I'm late! I got caught up in something, and before I knew it, it was 8:00," Kate signed nervously. She must have been pretty nervous about how I would react after the whole redhead thing. The more I thought back on that though, the more it was seriously funny.

We both walked down the stairs towards the gates. I saw little Tim, looking like he was playing hide-and-seek with some bidoof.

"Hi little Tim! Are you playing hide and seek with those bidoof," I asked.

"Oh golly no," he replied with angst, "These here bidoof are tryin' to maul me!"

Kate looked at me funny. "The bidoof mean no harm, so why is he so afraid? They only want some of the miltank milk he's carrying," She signed.

I nodded to her, our signal for "time to capture". It's time to capture some bidoof.

(Kate's P.O.V, present)

The bidoof were even more confused than I am, I think. Keith seemed to know this guy though, so I suppose I could trust him a little. I saw Keith nod to me, so I guess I should capture a bidoof to calm it down.

'Capture On,' I thought as I started the capture. It was fairly easy like all bidoof, except for the fact that it had become so agitated it was attacking. Either way, it only took about six or seven loops to capture it. I gave the bidoof a hug, then released it. I honestly haven't met a single person or pokémon yet who doesn't like hugs. I'm sure I will someday, but I haven't yet.

Little Tim continued on his way up to the school, and me and Keith waved goodbye. Now we were all alone, with just a gentle breeze alongside us. I smiled as I took his hand, and we continued towards the bridge. We rushed over the second we saw a little girl crying.

"Big brother, where are you big brother," the girl asked. I was surprised to see Isaac walking over with a concerned look.

"Melody! Why are you here? You know you're supposed to stay in Pueltown," Isaac said. The girl stopped crying and looked at him.

"Big brother," she said, "I was coming to see you! I couldn't wait to see you again! Yeah, and shouldn't you introduce me to your friends?"

"Oh yes, right," Isaac began, "These are my friends Kate and Keith. Kate, Keith, meet Melody."

"Are they a couple yet," asked Melody earnestly. Me and Keith blushed bright red, and pulled our hands away from one another. We rushed away as Isaac told Melody not to ask questions like that in front of people. What I was wondering was, does that make it okay to ask behind someone's back?

We finally arrived in Vientown. I could feel the cool November air swirling past us, and smell the wonderful smells of autumn. It sure reminded me of Fall City.

When we got to the Ranger Base, Keith yelled out an apology for us being late. There looked like there was no-one there, but the place's aura had a pervasive sense of presence. I walked over to the place where an operator would normally be, and knocked loudly on the desk. Keith came rushing over.

"Why'd you do that Kate? It's not like there's anyone here..."

"Yes there is," Said an operator with dark teal hair. "My name's Shannon. I am the operator here. The others had to go off on an important mission. They left me a package for you to deliver, it was too heavy for them to carry there in such a rush. Here." She thrust me a letter and Keith a package. I opened the letter and showed it to Keith. It read,

Dear Keith and Kate,

This is a very important parcel crucial to our mission. You must deliver it to Breeze Hill, which is across the beach and up a flight of stairs. The contents are very, very sensitive, and so you must never, ever shake it. Also, on no occasion should you ever turn it upside-down.

Thank you for your assistance, Barlow, Luana, Crawford, and Elaine.

Keith thanked the operator for us, and we left to head to Breeze Hill. Along the way, I stopped. I sensed this was some kind of prank, so I told Keith. He just rolled his eyes and asked me how it could be a prank. You know, this is one of those times I wonder why I even bother.

As we took up the flight of stairs I heard voices. I was super jittery. Keith took my hand, and we walked up the flight of stairs together.

(Keith's P.O.V, present)

Poor Kate was so nervous she was shaking. I took her hand and gave her my most reassuring smile. Just to be clear, I was quite nervous too.

The second we walked up there, the group fell silent. A stout, muscular man with a smile walked over to us.

"Hello, I'm Barlow. These are Luana and Elaine, and you've already met Crawford. Now on to the important part. I expect the parcel is safe."

"Yes sir," I said with a nod. I then handed him the parcel. It was rather heavy, so it was a relief to (literally) get it off my hands. I watched as he plunked the parcel down and said, "Lunch is here!"

I looked at him in shock. Everyone, including Kate was falling over laughing. "Got you," they laughed. I really should have heeded Kate's warning. But hey, I could always appreciate a good prank.

(Kate's P.O.V, present)

We got Keith good. Yes, I was in on it too. I had asked Crawford after Outdoor Class that when and if Keith and I were stationed here for our internship, if he could think up a good prank to play on Keith. I tried to give Keith a small chance of not being fooled, but he was completely oblivious. Hey, what else is new?

We finished eating lunch and were just packing up to leave when a beach-boy came running up to us in a panic.

"My girlfriend," he said, "These pokémon came up to her and surrounded her! I can't get them to calm down! Please rangers, help her!"

"Okay guys, looks like lunch will be put on hold. You two help too," Barlow said. We all rushed down to the beach. I spotted a starly in a panic, so I decided to capture it. Once everyone had completed their captures, we all gathered again up on the hill. I was surprised to see it was already getting dark.

"Hey, you should release that starly," Luana said.

"I already did," I signed, "But she decided to follow me."

I was happy to see that Keith was translating for me. It was always awkward talking when people had no clue what you were saying. I knelt down and gave the starly a gentle hug.

Don't make me leave you!

I was shocked to hear starly say that. Pokémon like helping rangers, but are usually only too happy to get on with their lives afterwards.

I'm sorry starly. Maybe we can see each other again someday. I watched sadly as starly flew away. I wondered if we would ever meet again someday.

"Well, as it's getting late, I think you two should head back to school. We'll worry about cleaning up. So bye," Barlow said.

(At the School Bridge)

We found Rythmi waiting for us when we returned. She was as bubbly and chatty as usual, but I couldn't get my mind off off starly.

"… and then Professor Hastings kept calling me Misery! I couldn't believe that! I mean, how similar are Rythmi and Misery," Rythmi said.

'Well' I thought, 'at least life will always keep going on. Good times, and bad, they always keep on moving on. Life is always going to be a challenge, but at least I have friends now.'

What I never even thought about was, what would happen when I completed my mission. My mission to save Almia.

I hope this was long enough for you. By the way, I need names, both male and female for random people like the operators and such. If you have any, please leave them in a review, and if I do use them, I will be sure to include a blurb at the top saying who made them! Anyways, thank you for reading this far, and as always, please review. :)