Sky: Welcome back to our show! Featuring the awesome cast of Shadows of Almia!
Keith: Well. It happened. Sky finally lost it.
Kate: I'll get the tranquilizer darts. Someone call the mental hospital.
Rythmi and Isaac: Taken care of!
Sky: *sweat drop* You guys have no faith in me. And where the hell is my co-author?
*HTF and Seren snack on pizza*
Sky: Hey no fair! I want some!
Seren: MINE! *runs*
Sky: GIMME! *chases*
HTF: This can't end well. Hey readers! You go ahead and uh...what is that line Sky usually says in her fanfics?
Kate: Something, something, dark side?
Keith: No idea. I tune these things out. *grabs a pizza slice while the girls aren't looking*
Saffron City was supposed to be one of the biggest, most populated areas in the entire world. Even before it became a thriving, golden metropolis. There was so much to see and do. Silph Co was offering tours, the Magnet Train looked cool to ride on, the fan club looked interesting, wow!
"Enjoying view, are we?" Sven chuckled.
"I've been in Almia so long, I've forgotten what a big city looks like." Wendy said.
True there was Pueltown. It was kind of like a city. But Almia's city was spaced out and ran differently than a regular city would. As great as Pueltown was, Wendy liked to see someplace new.
"I gotta admit. This place looks cool." Sven looked around. "And the view of Kanto from high up isn't bad either. Can't wait to get out into the country towns."
"Remind me again what we're doing here?" Wendy asked. "I got thrown off by how awesome Kanto is."
"We'll be meeting Professor Oak, top pokemon researcher in the world. Then we'll gather some information about what's going on and see what we can do to help." Sven replied.
"Sounds good." Wendy responded. "So where is he?"
...
"You don't know where he is, do you?" Wendy sweatdropped.
"Hey I can't remember everything off the top of my head!" Sven frantically defended himself.
"Brilliant." Wendy face palmed. "Now what?"
Sven took out his cell phone. "I'll call one of our operators. She can relay details or contact Professor Oak for us."
"In the meantime, should we patrol?" Wendy assumed.
"By patrol do you mean sightseeing?" Sven raised an eyebrow.
"...maybe."
The cowboy couldn't help but smile. He rubbed Wendy's hair, messing it up playfully. The green haired girl yelped before firing away some curses. It only made Sven laugh more.
"Alright! We'll do both! Sightseeing and keeping an eye out for trouble. At least till we get information." Sven told her as he dialled the phone. "Hey Linda. ACK! Sorry Rhythmi! My bad! No need to yell! Listen, could you help us out here..."
"So we're finally here at… Where are we again?" Ben asked as he looked around the Johto Region. Buildings were to the left, right and centre of him.
"Baka," Summer muttered. "It's the Johto Region, remember?" she asked, Ben just gave her a blank look.
"Well, whatever it is, it's a massive difference from the Oblivia Region," he replied as he looked at the large Radio Tower, along with the Pokemon Gym, Centre and Mart.
"Yeah, it is," Summer replied as she headed off towards the hotel they were staying in.
Once they checked in, got to their room, let their pokemon rest and freshened up, they were back on the streets of Goldenrod City.
"Right, so we're in GoldenRod and this Elm person is in New Bark Town, which isn't far from here," Summer stated as she looked at a small trainer map nearby.
"So, what? We can some Staraptor and fly there?" Ben asked as he looked over Summer's shoulder.
"I don't think so. Haven't you noticed? There are no Staraptor in sight, as a matter of fact I don't even think I've seen the standard wild city loving pokemon run by yet," she answered as she turned around, Ben's face smack in front of her. Summer felt a blush creeping up onto her cheeks.
"Aww, did I make the brave and almighty Summer blush?" Ben asked with a smirk.
"Shut up, I hate you," Summer answered with a growl and a glare.
"Yeah, you hate me about as much as you hate chocolate," Ben replied as he rolled his eyes and snorted. Summer only glared, she knew she loved chocolate and she knew what Ben was implying.
She turned on her heel to walk to the Pokemon Centre to her left. As she walked, Ben rushed to catch her up.
The two entered the centre to find that trainers were sat with depressed expressions. The atmosphere seemed tense, almost like there was no happiness in the centre.
"Excuse me, Nurse Joy?" Summer asked as she and Ben walked to the counter. The pink haired woman slowly lifted her head off of the counter to show her depressed eyes were lifeless.
"What happened here?" Ben asked as he looked around the centre, honestly, it was creeping him out.
"All the pokemon from Goldenrod have gone missing, trainer's pokemon too. We're all so worried and we don't know where they've gone to. It's starting to happen in other towns as well, but not as badly at the moment," Nurse Joy answered, Ben and Summer nodded as they thanked her.
"We need a town map if we're gonna get to New Bark Town," Ben noted as he and Summer exited the depressed Poke Centre.
"I'll give Rythmi a call," Summer replied as she pulled her styler out.
What was going on in the Regions?
Keith walked alongside Kate as they patrolled throughout the cities. Lots of requests to find missing pokemon or put a stop to this chaos. But it was something neither ranger could do at the moment. This was way beyond their control. And until more information came alone, they were stuck.
Cynthia gave both rangers details about what happened and gave a general plan. Keep an eye out for more pokemon like the ones Kate and Cynthia had seen before. Try to capture them or defeat them while also getting evidence for the Union. Until another pokemon showed up or something happened, Kate and Keith were to patrol the area. Cynthia would be calling some of the other regional champions to understand how the situation played out elsewhere.
Thus, the two top rangers were out and about. The bike route had been closed due to rock slides so the two avoided that area. Eterna City was inspected thoroughly. The route to Cornet would be blocked off soon but Cynthia advised to stay away for the moment. So the last place to go to was Eterna Forest.
Eterna Forest was normally a peaceful, happy place to travel through with only the haunted mansion being anything to fear. But ever since this mess started, it grew darker. Barely any light if at all came into this place. Barely any pokemon were in this place. Keith wasn't liking this one bit. Darkness had always made him feel a little on edge. And after what happened with Darkrai, it terrified him. He almost expected for a dark void to open and drag him back down into a world of pain...to have his mind succumb to insanity.
"Keith? You ok?"
The redhead looked over at his partner. Kate seemed to be very concerned for him. Having her here with him just made things a tiny bit better. Like a candle in a dark room, she was the guiding light in his life.
"Uh yeah. F-fine." Keith lied.
Kate saw right through him. "This place isn't making me comfortable either. Since this investigation is going nowhere and there's practically nothing in these woods, how about we go back to Eterna? Maybe grab some pizza and watch a movie?"
"Sounds good to me." Keith smiled slightly.
They turned around to make their way out of the place. Keith couldn't help but grasp Kate's hand for support. She didn't seem to mind at all, instead giving a gentle hand squeeze. It was comforting. Keith may be a pervert to Kate at times and they have their squabbles. But Kate was his best friend and the girl he loved.
"Um...Kate?" Keith cleared his throat.
"Yeah?" Kate responded.
"I uh..." Keith gulped, getting embarrassed. "I've been kinda meaning...t-to tell you something. I think I..."
WHOOOSH!
A huge gust of wind flew through the forest, nearly sweeping the rangers off their feet. Keith's senses immediately picked up on something. Something sinister seemed to be lurking around the area. His nerves began to tense up as whatever it was drew close.
"Dunno what that was all about." Kate brushed off the leaves that stuck to her clothes.
Keith's eyes darted everything, trying to find where (or what) this thing was. The mysterious thing was soon found. A black, circular shadow on the ground was approaching an innocent Buneary. Keith tapped Kate's shoulder and pointed in the direction. Kate looked, freezing at she saw.
When the shadow was close enough, the shadow seemed to shift. From it came a clawed hand made of darkness. Purple veins dripped shadows onto the grass. The Buneary seemed to detect something off and turned to see the giant hand above it. It screeched, trying to jump off. But the hand was way too quick. Kate, despite being horrified by the scene, managed to take out her cell phone and record the hand grabbing the pokemon and dragging it down into the shadowy hole. Keith was too stunned to move. He wanted to help that poor pokemon though the dark hand made him flashback to those painful memories.
The Buneary was gone. Sucked into the hole by that gruesome hand and disappeared from the forest.
"W-well..." Kate's voice shook a bit. "I guess that explains where all the pokemon went."
Keith managed to nod. His skin was pale while the hand grew cold and clammy. Kate took notice of this.
"Come on. We better go find my sister and show her this." Kate said.
"Y-yeah. R-right." Keith mumbled.
It felt stupid that Kate was the somewhat brave one while Keith chickened out. As much as Keith wanted to help, he was frozen with fear. Darkness was his mortal enemy; worst nightmare.
But unfortunately, he knew he'd be facing a lot more of it in the near future.
Seren sighed as she followed Kellyn through route just north of Mauville. So far, no pokemon were in sight, it was worrying to Seren.
As they walked through the long grass towards the trees, Kellyn groaned slightly. He lifted his foot up to see dust falling off of it.
"What the?" he asked as he looked at the dust. Seren came up next to him as she placed her hand in it.
"It's just dust," she answered his question as she pick a bit of it up.
"Like dust what you get in the house?" Kellyn asked, Seren could tell he was still ticked, though why, she had no idea.
"No, this is different. It's dust, but not the dust you get from home. It almost looks like it's in the form of glitter, which would explain why it doesn't look like a large bump on the floor," Seren answered as she stood back up.
"Oh," Kellyn replied.
"I'll give Keith a call, see if he or Kate's ran into anything like-,"
"I don't see why you should call him, just report it to the Union and we'll carry on," Kellyn interrupted. Seren looked at him before frowning.
"Kellyn, if we're the only ones that have found something like this then we'll contact the Union and-,"
"Whatever, just go call little lover boy," Kellyn hissed as he started to walk away. Seren stood shocked as she put her arm back to her side before walking to catch him up.
When she finally did catch him up, she caught his arm. Kellyn turned to look at her with a glare. Seren glared back ten times harder.
"What the hell is wrong with you lately? Why are you so, so, jealous of Keith because I speak to him?" she asked as she tightened her grip on Kellyn's arm. Kellyn glared harder at Seren.
"Nothing's wrong with me. It's you, all of this. You won't tell me anything anymore. You won't tell me who that kid was, why you're so uncomfortable being here, or anything. It's like I don't know you anymore. And yet…. Yet Keith knows everything. I'm supposed to be your partner Seren, not him. It's like I don't know you anymore," he answered as he pulled his arm away from Seren, who froze on the spot.
She looked at the ground, her hair cascaded over her eyes, causing her face to become shadowed and dark. She balled her fists as she bit back tears appearing in her eyes.
"I would tell you, if you just listened. But every time I try to talk to you know, the only thing you care about is that one little scar on your face. It won't do any harm, it's barely noticeable, but that's all you care about. Yes Keith knows everything," Seren looked up, her eyes hard. "But that's only because he knows what I'm going through, you wouldn't understand. And you don't take the time out to listen. You're fixated on one small part of your face that has no difference to you at all. I just wish you could see that sometimes Kellyn, looks don't matter and they never will. I just wish you could see that," she added as she felt a tear slip out of her eyes.
Suddenly the wind began to pick up as the tree rustled. Seren's hair was blown in front of her face as Kellyn tried to take a step forward to her, but found he couldn't. It felt like every single nerve in his body was frozen solid. Though those same nerves seemed to detect that the rangers weren't alone. Something was out there with them; something ominous.
WHOOOOOSSSHHHH!
A blast of wind shook the trees and rattled Seren, knocking her to the ground. Kellyn tried to help her but found he was helpless himself. His eyes then turned to something slinking on the ground, heading towards him; a dark, circular shadow. At first, it seemed to head towards Seren. But it soon rushed past her and positioned itself just before Kellyn's feet.
From this hole, something started to rise. Towering over Kellyn in a matter of seconds was a hand made of darkness and dripping shadows. Never before had the ranger felt so terrified. Seren seemed to be just as scared as him.
The hand hovered over Kellyn for a moment. Stretching its claws, the hand struck down and grabbed Kellyn, wrapping him tightly in its grip. Seren screamed, frightened and without any idea what to do. The hand sent dozens of little purple lightning bolts into Kellyn, electrocuting him. Kellyn shut his eyes and cried out in agony as the jolts spread throughout his body. It was like he was being burned from the inside out. His insides were in searing pain while the outside skin and had grown numb.
But it seemed to only be the beginning of the torture.
Kellyn's clothes disappeared as his body started to scrunch together, getting smaller. As his size changed, so did the rest of him. Kellyn's skin was turning light blue with a tan triangle surrounding the neck, which was squished against the head and shoulders. Feet were a little flat; almost like flippers. Hands became tiny with fingers three times smaller than they were before.
As for the face, Kellyn's mouth and nose seemed to stretch out. Nose was replaced by two little slits at the very end. Mouth opened as teeth became sharp. A tail popped right out of Kellyn's behind. Following it were red triangle scales that went from the back of the head to the tails tip.
No longer was Kellyn human. He was a Totodile.
The dark hand stopped feeding electricity to him. It seemed like it wanted to do something else but paused. Instead, the hand threw Kellyn to the ground and sunk back into a circular shadow. The hand disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Kellyn moaned in pain, on the edge of consciousness. Seren cautiously crawled over to what was once her human ranger partner.
"Oh...my...Arceus..." The girl whispered, left in shock.
Cast: … HOLY ARCEUS! KELLYN!
WAIT! YOU GUYS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO KNOW!
Sky: *uses mind washing device*
Cast: *looks around cluelessly*
That works, thanks Sky.
Sky: No problem.
Well we hope you all enjoyed that chapter.
Sky: Now things get interesting.
That they do, what will happen next? Well, you'll have to keep reading to find out.
Cast: We hope to see you soon.
Sky: No Rythmi wrapping it up?
Nah, give her a break.
*something blows up*
Sky: Too bad we can't get one.
MY KITCHEN! LUANA!
