"Keith's not my crush! He's not even my dog!"
"Leave Kate with a screwdriver and fuse box, and you'll have a field day."
Protector of Silence
Chapter Thirteen – A stormy story time
Storms were common in Almia in late November, everyone knew that. Everyone knew this was about the time when Suicune, the Pokémon of the north wind, and Raikou, the Pokémon of lightning, liked to have massive arguments from everything from territorial disputes to who was Ho-oh's favourite on top of the Hia Mountains. They also knew that there was never an eruption in Boyleland at this time of year as Entei preferred to stay out the way of his quarrelling siblings. This all adds up to tornadoes, thunder storms and power cuts. Especially power cuts.
"Power cut!" Liam's impossibly loud voice woke Keith from his much-appreciated sleep. He yelped as he realised the entire dorm had been thrown into darkness - even Ponte's strangely reassuring although very-much pathetic night-light was off.
"Oh not again!" Keith groaned, sitting up groggily, whacking his head on the bottom of the top bunk in the process "Ow! Last time this happened last year that nervous wreak Neville peed the bed, and he was on the top bunk!"
Silence.
"Er...thanks for that comment Keith" said Liam awkwardly from somewhere "So, let's try and keep calm, not loose our heads and..." At that moment the dorm's door slammed shut "AHHHHH! What was that?!"
"Isaac just went out" Ponte answered weirdly calmly. Maybe he was in shock. "Probably went to find help."
"Er...yeah, I knew that" Liam recovered himself "We ought to find the teachers too, try and get this problem fixed. So, has anyone got a torch?"
"I have." Keith heard the sound of Nick climbing down the ladder from his bunk. Then a cone of yellow light emanated in the darkness, catching Nick's face in it's light.
"Alright then" Liam stood up and also appeared in the ray of light cast by Nick's torch "Us two will go for help. Everyone else, stay put."
"Who died and made you leader?" Keith snorted.
Liam ignored him and he and Nick left the room, the door slamming behind them at the exact time thunder crashed overhead.
"Eeeeek!" Ponte shrieked "Guys! Don't leave me alone! Wait for me!"
Forgetting the fact he still had Keith and Kellyn in the dorm with him, the perpetually turquoise-haired boy stood up and turned on his tiny pocket torch. The tiny metal cylinder object cast a beam of blue light the size of a laser beam across the dorm before the door opened and then slammed shut for a third time.
Keith sighed to himself, wondering how he managed to get himself into fixes like this constantly. Take last January's snowstorm for instance: he didn't mean to get trapped in the snow-drift-surrounded cafeteria. And that October he hadn't locked Mr Kincaid's classroom door so he could tear up the oh-so-important papers - he'd locked it to stop the Bibarrel doing the aforementioned deed from escaping as he captured it. He should have earned a gold star for his capture, instead he got a week's detention, and only because Miss April had been there to force Mr Kincaid to commute his sentence from suspension.
"Fate really has it in for me" he groaned.
"Espe?" A little white head with a glow of blue on it hung down from the bunk above. Keith was about to scream when he realised it was only Luna. The white Espeon's blue jewel on her forehead was glowing a pretty cobalt colour and functioning as a torch.
"Oh, Luna, it's only you" Keith gave a sigh of relief "Is Kellyn okay?"
Luna gave a whimper and disappeared. Keith blinked and fumbled around for his torch. Switching it on and holding it between his teeth, he climbed the ladder and peered over the edge of Kellyn's bed.
"E-en?" He asked, then removed the torch from his teeth so he could speak properly "Kellyn? You awake buddy?"
He shone the torch into his friend. Luna was standing on Kellyn's chest, desperately nudging his face. The mute boy was apparently asleep, but he was trembling.
"Kel?" Keith started to feel concerned "What's wrong? Kellyn!"
'What is this place? Where am I?'
Kellyn looked about in confusion. What was this place? Just an endless expanse of brown, no ceiling or walls. A thick layer of fog swirled around his ankles, making to impossible to see the ground.
'What is this? Why am I here?'
"You are here because I had Darkrai bring you here."
Kellyn jumped as a deep voice answered his question. Slowly, a Pokémon began to materialise from the fog in front of him. A great red and black serpentine creature with golden spikes and two huge black wings. Kellyn almost died of shock.
'G-Giratina?' he stuttered. The Renegade Pokémon nodded its head.
"And you're the one who they refer to as Kellyn, am I correct?" Giratina asked. Its mouth didn't move, the words just seemed to appear in Kellyn's head. Telepathy.
Too stunned to reply, Kellyn just nodded his head.
"Good, I bring a message for you" Giratina said, but then started mumbling "I can't believe the nerve! One of Arceus' own generals demoted to being a messenger! Darkrai and Cresseila are supposed to be the ones in charge of dreams! But no, those idiots have to go and have their fight in Canalave City! All because Jirachi is asleep again and Celebi got herself stuck in the Cretaceous period so Dialga has to go and rescue her, and Mew and Palkia have developed a new video-gaming obsession and refuse to leave the television alone...!" He went into more of a mumble but it was too low for a very baffled Kellyn to make out.
'E-Excuse me?' he asked after a few minutes of extensive mumbling 'Um...What was the message?'
Giratina blinked. "Message? Oh right!" The legendary Pokémon flicked its tail "You may have noticed the meteors that have been falling near Almia lately." Kellyn nodded "On one of these meteors was a Deoxys, one that brought a message, a prophecy for Arceus. And now one of the inhabitants of my domain has come to understand it, and wishes for you to know it."
'Someone from your realm?' Kellyn blinked 'What is it?'
The Renegade Pokémon gave off it's signature cry, making Kellyn jump, before answering.
"A howling gale will save our worlds, the sun and moon will continue to protect them, a pale-furred guardian shall bring a new beginning to all worlds" Giratina bowed its head slightly "The rest is in your hands now."
Without a word more, the legendary Pokémon faded into shadows that crumbled away into the endless expanse of brown.
'Giratina, wait!' Kellyn cried as the brown slowly turned to black 'What do you mean? GIRATINA!'
"Kellyn! Wake up Kellyn!" Keith shook the younger boy's arm in a vain attempt to arouse him. Suddenly Kellyn shot up into a sitting position, giving a terrified squeak. Using his arms as support, he just sat there, his unusually high panting blocking out the annoyed yelling of Luna who had been sent flying off the bunk as he sat up.
"Kellyn?" Keith asked, getting his friend's attention "You okay?"
Kellyn nodded.
"Nightmare?"
Kellyn paused, as if uncertain, then nodded.
'Was it just a nightmare?' he asked himself 'Surely, I mean, why would Giratina come and speak to me?' He bit his lip 'A howling gale will save our worlds, the sun and moon will continue to protect them, a pale-furred guardian shall bring a new beginning to all worlds.'
"Stay here" Keith commanded before ducking down below the bunk.
'A howling gale will save our worlds?' Kellyn wondered 'A howling gale...a tornado? Or a hurricane?Hurricane - Hayate! Spencer Hayate! Well, everyone's heard of Spencer's adventures with the other three Fiore leaders before he became Ringtown's ranger base leader. Sun and moon will continue to protect them. That one's obvious - Solana and Lunick. And a pale-furred guardian will bring a new beginning to all worlds...?' Something dawned on him as the silence was interrupted by loud complaining from the floor 'Luna! She's got white fur! But, a new beginning...?' He sighed 'I don't understand. What does this all have to do with me?'
"Here" Keith reappeared and sat on the top rung of the ladder holding half a chocolate bar out to his mute friend "Always makes me feel better."
Kellyn smiled and took the half-a-chocolate bar from his friend, unwrapping it slightly is he could bite off a chunk. Automatically he felt better. He shot Keith a 'thank you' smile.
"Don't mention it" Keith grinned "Just expect to have to deliver in the future. Maybe in the form of answers to the questions of the next test."
Kellyn rolled his eyes. Why did Keith seem to believe he had 200 IQ? Surely Isaac would be better to study with. Oh wait, Isaac didn't appear to like Keith anymore. Well, Keith's loss.
Kellyn pointed at Keith's torch and then the dorm's main light, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"Power cut" answered Keith.
Lightning flashed outside the window and thunder rumbled overhead. Kellyn quickly grabbed onto Keith's arm, the older boy flinching at the strength of his friend's grip.
"You don't like thunder storms?" Keith asked.
Kellyn shook his head, his eyes wide and terrified. He'd never been good with thunder storms, he wasn't sure why. It was one of his few phobias. In order to distract himself, Kellyn pointed at the other bunks.
"Nick and Liam went to find some help" Keith explained "Ponte went to panic somewhere and Isaac...he probably went to the library to look for a book called '1000 safety hazards to watch out for in a power cut'."
Kellyn snorted with laughter, letting go of Keith's arm, and stroked an annoyed Luna's head as she crawled up the bunkbed's support beam and stood on the duvet glaring at him. Automatically the white Espeon calmed down, well, after a belly scratch.
So it's just us?
He wrote the message in the light that Luna's jewel was emitting.
"Yup" Keith nodded "Just us two."
As if cued, the door swung open and banged against the wall, making Keith jump so high he hit the ceiling and then landed on the floor. Kellyn expected one of the boys to be standing there, but instead he saw two girls. Kate and Rhythmi to be exact, in pyjamas, their hair down and frizzy, holding two torches in front of them.
"Uh, hi girls" Keith groaned, rubbing the back of his head that had previously hit the floor "What are you doing in here?"
"Escaping" Rhythmi answered "The others girls are all shrieking about the Apocalypse, and Becs is threatening to knock them all into next Thursday if they don't pack it in. And something about Supernatural - I lost them at that."
"The two of us wanted out" Kate added. Kellyn found himself staring at her hair. Out of those silly spiky pigtails it just reached her shoulders and was actually very pretty. He quickly shook his head and told himself to stop staring at Kate. If Luna and/or Keith figured out what he was doing they'd give him no end of grief about it.
"You can come in, it's just Kel and I" Keith let them in, although the girls had already seemed to have made themselves at home.
Rhythmi shivered, rubbing her arms to keep warm."It's freezing in here!"
"No heating - go figure" Keith told her.
A little lightbulb seemed to flick on above Kate's head. "Hold on, everyone sit in a circle on the floor"
A little quizzical, Kellyn grabbed his notebook, pen and torch before sitting on the rug in the middle of the dorm. Rhythmi and Keith followed suit. Then, without any warning at all, Kate grabbed Keith's duvet and threw it over the top of them.
"Huh? What?" Keith cried "Kate, what gives? What are you...?" Kellyn quickly covered Keith mouth to allow Kate to explain. Once Gabby-Keith got on a roll, he never stopped.
It here was a pause of about four seconds before the duvet rustled and a corner of it lifted off the ground. Kate crawled in - followed by Luna who took position in Kellyn's lap - and sat between Kellyn and Rhythmi as they all sat in a sort of small circle.
"Keith, I know you slept through science but here's the baby's version" she sighed, holding her torch beneath her chin so dark shadows flickered across her face "Our bodies create warmth that usually escapes into the cold air and looses its heat. However, under here, the duvet stops the heat from escaping, so it stays in here and keeps us warm. Got it?"
"Sort of" Keith closed one brown eye in concentration, trying very hard to get his incredibly small brain around the idea of physics.
There was a painful silence for a minute or two. Kellyn couldn't help but wonder how awkward it would be for someone to walk in to find two girls and two boys sitting under a duvet in the middle of the dorm in pyjamas in the middle of a thunder storm.
The first time someone moved was when thunder crashed outside and a stroke of lightning illuminated the dorm. Kellyn squeaked with fear and clutched onto Kate's arm. After his racing heart had calmed down he went red with embarrassment and let go.
"Raikou's really bringing down the house tonight, huh?" Kate commented.
"You're telling me sister" Luna yawned and rolled onto her back in Kellyn's lap.
Another awkward silence.
"So, Kate" Keith tried to start a conversation "For the record, who do you like better? Me or Kellyn?"
"Kellyn" answered Kate immediately "Not even close."
Kellyn snorted with laughter at the blunt response. Keith looked gobsmacked.
"Kate!" Rhythmi complained "You can't choose between your school crushes just yet! Where's the excitement in that? You've gotta draw them out, leave 'em hanging!"
Kellyn stopped laughing as both boys just stared at Rhythmi with worried looks. When since did Miss oh-so-sweet Blondie starting thinking devious like this?
"Keith is not my crush!" Kate folded her arms "Not even my annoying immature little brother. Not even my dog." She looked thoughtful "If my little brother had a dog and his dog had a crush and that dog's crush had a pet - now that would be Keith."
Kellyn silently laughed so hard he began rolling on the floor with laughter. Rhythmi also started laughing at Keith's angry but shocked reaction.
"Good one Kate!" Rhythmi finally stopped laughing "But you're wrong about the dog's crush's pet bit. Keith is far more trouble then a dog's pet."
"Hey!" Keith complained, putting his hand on his hips "What is this, 'Let's all gang up on Keith' night?"
No Keith, we all just generally don't like you and find joy in watching you suffer
Keith grunted at Kellyn's response, folding his arms.
"I don't know, Keith's not as bad as some previous students" Kate pointed out "Remember Crawford? And Elaine; plus their little tag-along Luana." She grinned like she was remembering the funniest memory in her life "And then there's Spenser of course."
"Spenser?" Rhythmi blinked "As in Spenser Hayate? Since when was he a trouble maker?"
"Less trouble maker, more continuously hyper" Kate explained "My older brother Percy is a ranger in Summerland in Fiore. His base leader, Cameron, is an old classmate of Spenser's and loves telling the whole base embarrassing stories about poor Spenser that he passes on to me. They're seriously funny! Lunick fell down Ringtown Base's stairs from laughing so hard at one of them and almost broke his leg. Leilani passed out from laughing at another."
"Just the thing to lighten the mood!" Keith grinned, happy the subject had been changed from him "Go one, tell us a good one Kate!"
Kate seemed to cower at the four eager stares pointing in her direction. One of them belonged to Luna, who looked interested to hear about what a complete and utter idiot her old leader used to be.
"Well, there's one" Kate cleared her throat "It happened when the gang: Spenser, Joel, Cameron, Elita and Jackie, had just arrived at Ranger School..."
"New students! Congratulations on passing the entrance exam and welcome to Ranger School!"
Elita raised her chin to look up at the school principle, a friendly man in his early twenties standing on a stage above the students, called something like Mr Splendidocious. Thankfully they had been permitted to call him Principle Lamont. That was a relief, considering Cameron would never be able to get his name right and would probably make a fool of himself. Speaking of Cameron…
"You nervous?" The small auburn-haired boy next to her asked. She shook her head, her pink-purple ponytail flicking across the back of her neck.
"I am" Cameron admitted. He was biting his lip and Elita could see by the state of his nails he'd been biting them too.
"You're always nervous about everything!" snorted a bespectacled boy with blonde hair on Cameron's other side.
Elita rolled her green eyes at Joel. The Fall City resident was, in short, a complete and utter pain in the neck. People said she could be a little cold towards people, but Joel was ridiculous. He hadn't stopped insulting Cameron since the two of them and Jackie, the blond boy on Joel's other side, had rammed into each other outside the school gates thanks to Jackie upsetting an angry herd of Ponyta. Thankfully Elita had been there to stop a potential fight breaking out.
"You'll be fine." Jackie peered past Joel and gave Cameron a wink. Cameron shot a small smile back before returning to being a stiff as a post, looking up at the principle.
"You are now all student rangers" Principle Lamont went on, not noticing the five of them on the left side of the front row whispering to each other "Let this be the first step of many towards your hopes and dreams." He gave them a merry smile "As you all know, being ranger students, you are now in possession of school stylers, designed by none other than our own Professor Hastings."
Elita cautiously moved her hand down to her waist and rubbed her thumb along the top of her new styler, smiling as she did so.
"You will board here for between a year and two years depending on your learning ability, developing your knowledge, wisdom and techniques" Principle Lamont continued "And you will leave us as expert rangers, mechanics and operators." He looked at a woman with blonde hair called Mrs Stella to read out the register.
"Cameron Aukland?" she called. Shaking with nerves, Cameron raised his hand.
"H-Here!" he stammered. Some sniggers arose from the students as he lowered it at the speed of light.
"Joel Mason?" Mrs Stella called.
"Here" Joel raised his hand, looking a million times more confident than Cameron.
"Elita Caulfield?"
"Here" Elita raised her own hand before lowering it.
"John Walker Jr?"
"Here!" Jackie called in his excessively loud voice, making his 'friends' wince and tend to their poor ears.
"Ann—" Mrs Stella was about to call.
"WAIT FOR ME!"
The door to the courtyard slammed open. What could only be described as a tumbleweed rolled at 100 miles-an-hour along the aisle down the middle and slammed into the base of the stage. As the tumbleweed unrolled itself, Elita realised it was indeed not a tumbleweed as she had first suspected. It was actually a boy who appeared to be her age. He had wild green hair that seemed to explode in all directions and mint-green eyes that weirdly seemed to not focus on anything, as if he couldn't see clearly. He was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"Name?" Mrs Stella enquired, plainly surprised.
"Who me?" The boy asked, pointing at himself, then smiling again but failing to focus in Mrs Stella as he did so "Er…Spenser! Spenser Hayate!"
Elita found herself falling for her old ploy of judging someone straight off the bat. She immediately knew the kid in front of her was hyper-active, a fidgeter and someone who you could never give caffeine to. However, she had a feeling he was one of those happy-go-lucky types, and one of those people who messed around yet somehow managed to be the best of the best.
'He might be one to keep an eye on' she thought, assessing her competition 'That is, if he ever grows out of immaturity.'
Apparently that wasn't happening any time soon though.
"Well Spenser" Principle Lamont peered over the edge of the stage to look at the party-crasher "I must inform you that you would normally get a detention for your lateness. However, since this is your first day...or should I say first minute here, as well as taking into account your condition, I will only caution you. Understood?"
Immediately whispers began to run through the crowd, wondering what 'condition' this new boy had that was enough to aid him in getting out of major trouble.
"Yup, understood!" Spenser quickly leapt to his feet. Elita realised he was actually about her height, maybe a little shorter because his wild hair made him look taller. He jogged over to stand in the empty space between Elita and the aisle. The female student couldn't help but realise how care-free he was despite the fact he had crashed the opening ceremony and some-what embarrassed himself in front of the school.
Principle Lamont continued with his little speech before only finishing with:
"You may now proceed to your classrooms."
A bell rung and the teacher left for the classroom. As the banging noise of brass upon beater echoed over the school, Spenser jumped into the air, punching his fist above his head. He then somehow managed to backflip over the row of students behind them and bounce his way to Mrs Stella's classroom, only his outstretched hand managing to stop him from crashing into the wall on his way there. Yep, definitely an eyesight problem.
"Way too hyper" Elita mumbled. Some others were mumbling similar things. Others were sniggering or rolling on the ground in tears of laughter. Elita looked over at her 'friends', but found Joel and Jackie were glaring at each other with Cameron futilely trying to break them up.
"This is going to be one long year" she muttered with a sigh.
Kate beamed with pride as she saw all the listeners of her story were beating the ground with laughter. Even Luna was in stiches laughing:
"I'm never-ever going to let Spenser live this down!"
"That hilarious!" Keith laughed, sitting up "The 'I-think-I-can-glare-a-hole-in-wood-because-I-am-so-serious' leader of Ringtown Ranger Base being completely hyper?!"
"More like Mr 'I-think-I-can-do-anything-and-everything-even-though-I'm-only-human'!" Rhythmi finally managed to pull herself together "How many of those do you know Kate?!"
"A few" the gingerette shrugged "Percy sends me letters with them in all the time. Usually when they have Team Bonding sessions or a party, Cameron ends up blurting it all out. They co-insist with the times Cameron get admitted to Fall City hospital with broken limbs."
She poked her head out from under the duvet before sighing. "Still no power. I'm gonna go and check the fuse box."
She disappeared and they heard the sound of the door opening and closing. Kellyn pointed at himself and then in the direction of the door.
"You better follow her" Rhythmi nodded "Leave Kate with a screwdriver and fuse box, and you'll have a field day."
Kellyn crawled out from under the duvet and shivered, immediately feeling the sudden temperature change. He then jogged out of the room and down the stairs. He caught up with Kate just as she had stepped outside the building.
"You coming too?" Kate asked, pulling up the hood of her yellow rain-mac.
The thunder and lightning had stopped, but the rain was relentless. Kellyn nodded, mirroring her with his blue rain-mac. Without any warning, the lights of Ranger School flickered on.
"Oh, looks like someone fixed the problem" Kate commented "Sorry for dragging you out for nothing Kellyn. I just couldn't sit around waiting for something to happen."
Kellyn held up his hand to show his 'it's fine' expression.
"No point in standing out in the rain" she flicked some newly-fallen raindrops off her rain-mac "We should—"
She was cut off by a loud whooshing noise overhead. A white light blazed over their head, causing them to duck in fear, and fell into the forest, creating a loud explosion. After the sudden event, there was nothing but the pitter-pattering of rain.
"W-Was that a meteor?" Kate asked shakily.
"I'll tell you what it was!" Luna was positively fuming "It was a positively enormous racket! It's still throbbing in my ears!"
Ignoring Luna, Kellyn set off towards the forest, signalling with his arm for Kate to follow. The two students, with Luna running in between them, sprinted towards the explosion. It was a few minutes before they arrived. There was now an enormous crater with a diameter of about 15 metres and at least half that deep in the centre of a newly-made clearing. The sides were ash-grey and the rain was seeing to the smaller fires the meteor had made, pooling at the very centre. There was no sign of any rock that could have fallen.
"Look!" Kate gasped, getting Kellyn's attention. She wasn't looking at the crash-site, but at the trees on the fridge of it.
Lying at the base of one tree was a boy. He looked about 13 with white hair that appeared to be quite long as it stretched a little way down his back. His hair looked smoke-grey in the rain, but Kellyn suspected when dry it was snow-white. His skin was tanned and he had a feeling the boy's closed eyes would be golden-brown. He was unconscious, apparently thrown back against the tree when the meteor fell.
Beside a him, a black Pokémon was trying to nudge him awake. Kellyn recognised it as Umbreon, the Eeveelution he and Kate were doing their project on. Its yellow rings were glowing slightly in the darkness of the rainstorm as it tried to nudge the white-haired boy awake. It then gave up, raised its head and looked at the ranger students plus Luna who had hopped onto Kellyn's right shoulder.
"Umbree..." The Umbreon spoke, its red eyes baring sorrowfully into their souls. Kate didn't understand the Pokémon's thoughts, but Kellyn did. He gasped as he understood.
"Please. Please help us!"