A/N: only going to have internet access at weekends now as at uni
Episode 2: Humble Beginnings Part 2
On Iron Island the group of thirty students, two teachers and some helpers were exploring yet another cave, by now Miss Hall, the head of the Pokémon Contests department was not enjoying herself, she had been made to come along on this incredibly boring trip. The whole time they had been underground in caves, going from one to another-as if there was any real difference in them and as if that wasn't bad enough because an earthquake had opened up more that they just had to explore and get lost it.
Brushing back a lock of he brown hair she sighed, she had been told they would be above ground so she could at least get a tan, dressed in a thin brown striped shirt with a black cardigan and black jeans she was not prepared to be clambering in these smelly, dirty and above all freezing caves that they were only exploring because of a recent landslide revealing the entrance and cracking the ground open so they could see in them. Still at least she had gotten the students to carry her bag, stupid boys swooning for her attention, still being as pretty as she was it was hard not to be so noticed.
After some more walking they finally started going downhill again, gee she was so bored she wished something, anything would happen, anything for some excitement. Descending down she started to hear water, good at least now I might get to finally get a rest. Continuing on they came to a lake as she approached it she thought she saw a flash of blue light, but when she looked round, nothing was there.
The group as a whole then took a break with the staff refilling water supplies and trying to work out where to go since none of them had Pokémon that could help and fit in the tight caverns. Then one of the teachers-Miss Hall-noticed a strange mark on the wall nearby, half submerged in the water, it was an intricate circle with lots of swirls and curves extending from it, reaching out Miss Hall touched it then gasped as it glowed a fierce blue.
When the light faded a strange creature was there: it had the body of a giant empoleon but instead of flippers it had the claws of a crawdaunt, stranger still was its head and bottom were those of an azumarill. Laughing manically it said "I am Empomaril, I am finally free and now all of your pathetic race will pay for your crimes against me, I am your kinds doom but I shall give you a small head start for freeing me". One of the helpers who was from the island stuttered "but your just a legend, your not real and even if you were you were sealed with an unbreakable seal so you can't be real". Laughing once more Empomaril snarled "yes I was sealed but their magic has weakened over time and that water damaged the glyph while strengthening me, releasing my spirit, all I needed was a large amount of negative energy and some fool to touch the seal for my release".
The same man countered "but according to the legend that would take a vast amount of negative emotions like envy, hate, jealously and anger, like hundreds of people, not enough here for that", scoffing the response was "ok first never question me inferior being, second you underestimate the weakening along with my strength and third you guys are human" spitting that like the worst insult possible "and you are with a group of teenagers in high school, duh there's gonna be hate by the barrowful and that's not even starting on the other emotions". Eyes wide as he said "yeeeaaah that'd do it", Empomaril smirked before lunging forward.
One hour earlier "What do you mean the test is a single three on three" Erin said (spluttering on the wh) "Well they have changed it since Kiru's back" Genna smirked, twirling her finger around a lock of her hair "for the purposes of his documentary due to his record and Flying's plummet, they are making this a double battle you and him vs. Kiru and me one Pokémon of our choice each and one from our houses given by the sixth year head which we start off with, or in Kiru's case the fifth since his is on that silly trip to the middle of nowhere, like anything exciting or important could happen there".
Kiru turned around to return his Pidgeot to the Pokéball in his hand, startling the brown haired reporter in a yellow suit who was speaking into a microphone while looking at the camera in front of her. Ignoring the reporter's irritation as the Pidgeot was next to her for the camera when recalled he sauntered over to the other end of the arena to stand ready for the battle. Giving a quick wave to Robert as she was moving back, Genna spun and went to join them, the reporter however seeing the newcomers rushed over to them.
Pressing her microphone towards them as the cameraman sidled slightly to the side to get Erin and Robert on camera, she started speaking to the camera "and these must be the opponents the vice-head of the Water house, Erin and the one being tested, Robert so how do you feel about the surprise change of format? Do you think you can win? And what do you think of the combo of Grass and Flying pros, Kiru and Genna?" Unaware that while she was speaking the boom microphone being held by a short cubby guy in a blue shirt and with brown hair was slowly creeping down until it completely fell and hit her in the back of the head, on the first hit her brow furrowed and increasingly so on the successive hits until she spun around and yelled "Gee Jack you would think that by now you would have learned to do your job properly or that me, Rhonda, the star of Sinnoh Now the largest news show would not have to deal with this".
Suddenly going back to calm Rhonda flicked one of the parts of her hair that curled into her face and returned to the interview "so anyway where were we? Ah yes you were about to answer those questions" Rhonda asked extending her microphone towards them, then she exclaimed "huh where did he go". Erin looked over Rhonda's shoulder and saw Robert had somehow moved to the opposite end of the arena from Kiru and was leaning against the wall with his arms folded. Using Rhonda's distraction to slip past her, Erin made her way over to Robert at a measured pace while inside she was shaken at the prospect of doing a double battle, she had been avoiding them and hadn't done one since… then, the only thing that made it better was at least she had a partner for it so she was less the centre of attention, even if any and all mistakes would be seen by the ever growing crowd and anyone who watched it on Sinnoh Now later.
Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, Erin walked up to Robert and asked "how can you be so relaxed? And how did u get over here without us realising?" Shrugging slightly he replied "what will be will be, no point worrying over what's to come it won't positively effect the outcome", she was baffled and intrigued by his response, it was so logical and cool yet was unrealistic towards emotions.
The doors to the arena at the middle opened showing the house heads, seeing this Robert uncrossed his arms and moved off from the wall to stand in their box. Erin followed up close behind him just before the head of Water gave came over with a tray, he handed one Pokéball from it first to Robert and then to her, followed by a screen which showed which Pokémon they had been given and its moves. Glancing over she saw the head of Grass giving hers to Genna, the vice-head of flying to Kiru and Rhonda behind them talking to the camera. Rhonda and her staff filed around to the side as the referee (the head of Fire) came forward and explained the rules while the camera filmed him and introduced their judges: the school's very own nurse Joy and the head teachers of battling and Pokémon knowledge (does things like abilities, unique features and moves i.e. for the anime while ice ball gets stronger with each use it also takes longer to charge).
At the referee's call all four released the Pokémon they had just been given, Erin herself had a prinplup, although she preferred ice types she could deal with it since it knew a flying move for Genna. The other Pokémon revealed themselves: Genna had a grotle, Kiru had lucked out and got a fletchinder, which was good they would need the advantage and Robert had got the slowbro, which could have been better since it wasn't too keen on battling, well except for food or if it was attacked. Raising his arm, the referee declared "battle" then as he swung his arm down "begin".
Genna immediately seized the initiative and ordered "Grotle run forward and use Razor Leaf on Prinplup", taking a breath to try to calm herself, Erin thought over her options before telling Prinplup to jump backwards, but as it started to Kiru ordered "now Flame Charge", flames covered its body as fletchinder rushed at high speed towards Prinplup while he was in the air. Erin froze as she realised her blunder, she had left her Pokémon open to attacks while it was in the air and couldn't move. "He knew, of course he would he always knows what his opponents will do" she muttered as she tried to think of a way out. However, Robert quickly butted in with "now Slowbro use Psychic to knock the leaves into one point on Fletchinder". Slowbro's eyes glowed pink as an outline of the same colour glowed around the leaves, which veered off course and slammed into Fletchinder's side and although some were burned because they were grouped together enough made it through to knock it off course, making it miss.
Erin breathed a sigh of relief that her partner was quite good and Prinplup was about to land but she couldn't let herself be outdone, especially since there was no guarantee Slowbro would listen again. However, Grotle had continued to run forward and Genna called out for bite to be used on prinplup, with it still in the air there was no way to dodge so Erin called out "Bubblebeam", Prinplup opened his beak and fired a stream of bubbles at Grotle, which hit the upper face, then shell and while they didn't do much damage, they did slow Grotle down then to a stop. Keeping in mind Fletchinder's fast charge from before she switched her gaze to it, now feeling more confident but she was caught off guard by the ember attack it launched instead which hit the outside of Prinplup's right flipper, leaving a burn.
To make matters worse Grotle lunged forward to land its bite on that spot causing Prinplup to cry out in pain. Kiru then had his fletchinder use peck on slowbro who, true to form ignored the command he was given to fire a Water Pulse before Fletchinder came in close, until the pecking started then slowbro launched the move summoning a wave of water that flew out in all directions and though it missed fletchinder who flew over Slowbro's head it did knock into Grotle, washing him away to the side and splashing some water onto the burn. Not enough for Kiru, he had launched another Flame Charge but Fletchinder flew straight past Slowbro to hit Prinplup, wheeling around, Kiru ordered another at the location he pointed to. Shaking inside that again she was being dominated like this and there was nothing she could since Fletchinder was fast enough to alter course to dodge the attack she normally would have fired, or counter the dodge normally ordered. Unable to watch she busied herself trying to think how to counterattack when it hit.
A collective gasp shocked her from her thoughts as she saw Fletchinder turning around for another pass but he was too low to the ground. Eyes widening as she understood she said "of course I normally would have tried to jump it at the last moment so he sent Fletchinder higher to dive-bomb in and get a hit but was aiming off the ground". Shaking herself, she ordered "now a wide spread Bubblebeam". Prinplup's beak opened wide while his mouth glowed blue and fired a cluster of bubbles but instead of a steady stream, a scattered spray of them burst out, just finishing its turn Fletchinder didn't have time to clear the full spray, taking a few hits and plummeting from the sky, before crashing onto Grotle's back. When after a few seconds it still hadn't moved, it was declared unable to battle and Pidgeot was brought out.
From then on the battle had gotten significantly harder, Pidgeot had quickly rushed Prinplup with an Aerial Ace but Robert had Slowbro move Prinplup aside just it time and Pidgeot had crashed into Grotle which had really made Kiru mad and stop "playing around" as he put it. It had been brutal, Slowbro had focused solely on Grotle following a Bite to the head, which had taken them both down when Kiru had hit Prinplup with a Brave Bird attack so strong he had been sent flying into both of them and all three had fainted since Prinplup had managed to hit Grotle with a Peck on contact and Slowbro had been crushed beneath them.
With their reserves out they had done a little better since Robert's Pelipper fully obeyed him and he took full advantage of it to stop Pidgeot's charges with constantly changing tactics while taking advantage of Air Slash and Hydro Pump. Erin herself had been able to check Genna's Vileplume's spore attacks and Energy Balls with her Cloyster's ice attacks and vice versa while Vine Whips blocked other attacks so the situation was a stalemate, until the vice-head of Flying burst into the room in a panic.
"Trouble come quick" he panted before dodging to the side as a large group of fire types charged onto the battlefield and started running around berserk, while fighting anything that came near them including the Pokémon already out battling, the flyers were ok but Vileplume quickly fell to fire attacks before being recalled, Cloyster was able to maintain a Protect though until recalled as well. Then as soon as it started all the fire types collapsed. As if the chaos hadn't been enough, another person burst in and said "The Iron Island group has been attacked".
Meanwhile in the cave the blue ranger was pacing, getting ever more impatient, when Haoges had said to meet the team he would have imagined right away not come back later when red and yellow had rested and here he was ten minutes after the designated meeting time waiting on his team mates, as if he needed them, he had been doing just fine on his own before these newbies came along, geez they were meant to help him yet they would probably just slow him down based on what he'd seen of red.
Out of nowhere a voice sounded "could you just stop pacing for five seconds its kinda annoying", startled and glad he had his helmet on covering his face to hide his surprise he turned towards the feminine voice that was definitely not Haoges only to see more of the darkness at the sides of the cave, something else he didn't like about this, Haoges only lit the middle of the room and the side with the monitors when they were on, so he couldn't see where the voice from the other side originated or who had spoken.
One foot came forward towards the edge of the light showing a yellow boot, before the figure stepped forward, into the light, to reveal, the yellow ranger. She walked towards him and from the way her helmet moved he knew he was being given a once over before he said "nice of you to arrive", she scoffed and said "I've been here for about eight minutes, I just didn't want to waste energy, unlike you, while I waited for the other one and Haoges", and there it was, for them even maintaining ranger form was somewhat of a chore, it constantly sapped energy from them. Although that wasn't as bad in this room thanks to Haoges, this was also why she trained them before letting them handle missions, lest they demorph in battle or even worse in public.
Still he had to reply to her so he said "red", she snorted and quipped "oh great so your colour blind lovely, well you see you are blue and I am yellow, like the sun", rolling his eyes at her comment he corrected "no I meant red is the other burden I'm about to meet". Right when it looked like she was about to snap back at him Haoges flashed between them with the red ranger who glanced at them before saying "so these are the guys I'll lead cooleo" at the same time blue snapped "hell no" yellow snapped "yeah right, so not happening" she paused then continued "well seems we agree on something". Red spluttered "bbut we are Poké Rangers, Red always leads and that's me". Again both responded at the same time, yellow with "so what, that's a completely unconfirmed and extremely unfair system" and blue with "and that means nothing, I will not follow someone as green as you".
Before the argument could escalate Haoges emitted a shock wave that knocked them all back "enough of this, red will not lead, especially not for a stupid reason like that, you are Magus, channellers of the forces of nature and the Majin, never forget that". There was silence for a few seconds before yellow asked "so which of us leads then?" "Neither of you, have proven worthy at this time I will decide later" was the reply. "Now listen well because you are going to all learn the story behind the origins of your powers and those of your enemies" Haoges said, or rather as always emitted, since she had no discernable mouth. Her glow brightened suddenly as all three rangers started to speak, warning them not to interrupt "all of you have only heard part of this tale and not much to do with your enemies so listen well and. Do. Not. Interrupt!" she continued, emphasising the end.
"The humans have a tale" she began and as she spoke her light shifted, condensing around the middle before displaying images to go with the story, "a tale of how beings from another world lived peacefully with and helped them, with the rulers called-the Majin." She paused glancing around to gauge their reaction as they realised their power's were in part from the Majins, so the story must be true and they all knew how it went. "However, this is as far as the truth goes for the human tale I'm afraid", pausing for effect the images switched to a different scene, to the past showing the ancient dwellings "the Majin did allow one human each to channel some of their powers, yes but while the humans claim some of them wanted the powers for themselves, it was a far greater numbered than they imply, many had been disgruntled they had not been chosen or deemed worthy, while others saw the powers and wanted it for themselves and sadly, some of the channellers were dissatisfied over the nature and quality of the powers they received." Haoges said as the images shifted again to large groups of people rallying and cheering at a figure, wearing the cloak of a channeller with two more behind him.
"Together they lured their Majins and other visitors who are know as the Maglors into a trap and drained the powers from them and this is where they were corrupted, from the darkness of all those their and their own channellers as their connection went both ways. Many were greedy though and took too much too quickly though rendering them dead or unconscious. This allowed the imprisoned to escape and after reabsorbing all that was theirs they dealt justice to the greedy, warping their bodies until they matched their minds as beasts but without any powers beyond a human, except the channellers, they were brought to a public trial, equally by the Maglors, humans, channellers and Majin for the jury but they did not agree, the humans defended their own despite the evidence and with an even split the accused went free and both sides declared war the humans for perceived wrongs the Majins had done in their punishments and the visitors for the lack of justice and acceptance of the actions, shattering their trust." Stunned the rangers could hardly believe it as the images showed some of the battles where the humans attacked anything foreign even those warped by the Majin with mass numbers and utter cruelty.
A sigh came for Haoges before continuing "while the humans did this, the Majins split, those imprisoned joined the battles while the others evacuated those of their own they could back home to Majindalor, yes that is the name of their dimension, he was just very egotistical, until seeing the darkness in the battling Majins two of them contacted the channellers still trusted and rallied together to return the Majins-who were the only ones left since the channellers had been sealing the other Maglors in remote places-home. Then the Majins all met but when the others wouldn't return they fought and then the channellers betrayed them all, the other channellers even those who had done the imprisoning combined all their power and sent the weakened Majins through the portal then sealed them all but this time in objects and hid them in temples before they sealed the last they absorbed as much power as they could though, returned to their home as heroes and tried to seal the dimension off except they couldn't, they narrowed it to six portals in out of the way locations they put seals on and now they are weakening, with one already comprised, the others are soon to follow and with this all their enchantments will decline unsealing the sealed corrupted Maglors and opening the portals to the other dimension. Without the Majin each nation set up its own government and some will not want to relinquish their power so will attempt to stop the Majin's revival" the red ranger asked "and they would do that how?"
"By killing you" was the response that caused a collective gasp "the channellers still had a link to the Majin, so the Majin slowly regained strength back and since you have inherited their powers it is the same and by killing you the link is cut and the Majins remain too weak for the seals to ever be broken". The yellow ranger was the next to question "but how did they get so weak to begin with?" Haoges answered "The Majin's powers are from the elements and powers they were born with. However, they require worshippers or people to at least know of them to maintain their strength, now they are relegated to myth by most so their powers have waned but as for how they got so weak, after the trial and in the coming war all humans seceded their worship, it weakened them but more so for the fact that the channellers drew strength from them and sapped their powers on use so the magic using of the channellers also weakened them and their power has only lowered since the channellers deaths. The biggest factor though was when they fought each other as they needed all their strength but the pull their powers from the same magical source and when they warred it screwed with their powers".
Blue thought this over but there was till something that stuck out so he queried it "but how do we then relate to the Majin? If we are like the channellers why do we get weaker when they drew power from the Majin? And how did the channellers manage to seal them and others with weakening seals?" Haoges paused before answering "you are like the channellers? Yes as after all this time the powers of the channellers have chosen new hosts but because you cannot drain from the Majins your powers come through the Morphing Grid and are fuelled from your bodies not the Majins. However, the Majins' mystic powers are also fuelled by a compound in the air known as Magicite, which is emitted from their plants, it is a very small crystalline substance that fuels their magic, while the portals were open some Magicite drifted through but maintaining the seals of the more powerful beings has used most of it up, which is why you get weaker from attacking or being morphed, your bodies have to supply the energy for your moves and some of your energy goes to the Majins."
Suddenly an alarm blared, turning on the monitors to the side which warned of a seal breach of a corrupted warrior and then soon after a massive amount of Clawrills were shown attacking Oreburgh City sighing the yellow ranger said "ah these guys again, you think they would have learned from last time and it seems the cats out of the bag, oh well see ya" as she went to teleport Haoges said "wait you all shall go and try to keep your existence hidden they may know of the Clawrills but not of you", when yellow was about to protest the screens switched to the moments in the last fight when she had been losing cutting her off before she sullenly muttered "and remind me why you're the one in charge" to which Haoges said "because I am one of the three overseers of the Majin but that's a story for another time" and teleported them all away in flashes of light matching their ranger colour.
A/N: so that's that done and I would like so say please someone give me a submission its awkward writing the rangers dialogue and actions when I have nothing set for their character.