Disclaimer: Ash: Thanks! And I'll be sure to check that out! Thx for reviewing! And lol, you and your jetshipping; ya, of course I'll do it X D Ebaz: If you are, you're Casper the Friendly Ghost. And no, that Isaac was an OC, unfortunately. And also, you flatter me way too much ^^ Mitsy: Let us all cry chibi tears together ; w ; And yes, yes I would. I did a Touya and Misty chapter as a request, for example. Bloodyrosethorns: Thanks for the fave! Penny: Oh jeez, I'll get Groudon to cause a heatwave and make it all evaporate ^.^; Skyfire: Thanks so much! EVERYONE, CHECK OUT SKYFIRE'S FICS; SHE WRITES THE BEST RANGER FICS IN THE WORLD. Tri: Yep, PMing me details would help a lot : ) Olih: *Drags you out from Corner of Shame and gives you a Steven plushie* All better : ) Fromidam: It was awesome : ) EVERYONE, CHECK OUT FROMIDAM'S NUZLOCKE! Silver: Nuzlockes are tons of fun, but also involve lots of work. Character and plot development are key, and you get to play a lot with the storyline. I say go for it! HG/ SS is probably one of the easiest games to nuzlocke, too, so good choice. If you do choose to do it, I'll read it for sure- and if you choose just to play through the nuzlocke without typing it out, then have fun! CrystalHeart: And you have earned a laugh from me, because your review was the funniest thing I've read in a while. Thanks for that! And, like you, I ship Lyra with everyone, so of course I can do that. (And Morty is just so incredibly hot, so how can I pass up the chance to write about him? ; ) Kyo: You sound like you'd be a kickass fire type trainer : )

700 reviews, all thanks to you guys!

Also, happy late new years!

Question: Have you heard N's recently-released full name yet?

My Answer: Natural Harmonia Gropius.

Gropius.

I hear the word 'grope' in that.

Characters: A crapload of rangerships, because of reading Skyfire's fics and talking online with Ebaz. Don't worry, your requests are coming up next.

Summary: This was supposed to be longer, but halfway through I said "Fuck it" and sloppily tied it up.

Rangers

Jealousy

Murph didn't like to think of himself as the jealous type, but he couldn't deny the lonely twinge in his heart as everyone around him found love- not for who they paired up with, but for what they shared.

Comfort

"I'm sorry I lost the Yellow Gem," whispered Kate, her hands roaming over Keith: his arms, an angry red from the ropes that had bound him; his face, marred with scratches; his torn shirtfront; and his neck, where his pulse beat strongest.

"Don't worry about it," he said gruffly. Then he gave her that playful grin of his, and grazed a thumb across her forehead. "Sorry for making you lose it."

They smiled at each other for a while before Kate's brow wrinkled, and she reached out to slug him in the shoulder. "Really, Keith, you're such an idiot. I can't believe you let yourself be the damsel in distress."

He rolled his eyes at her less-than-comforting words, but tucked her under his arm anyways before heading off to the portal.

Always

Chairperson Erma had always been torn between Evan Lamont, the principal of the ranger school, and professor Michael Hastings.

She had always thought she would finally be able to make her heart decide, even in her old age.

A heart attack turned out to be the decider instead.

Protective

"Watch out!" screamed Ben, and dived through the sky on his staraptor to take the blow for Summer.

Bond

Aria and Joel had a strictly teacher-student relationship: the bond of two coworkers that had been working side-by-side for many years.

That's all they were.

That's all they were.

That's all… they had to be.

Because everyone knew that relationships between rangers were strained at best…

…and if she didn't admit the feelings to herself, they would eventually go away, right?

Regret

Rhythmi never regretted kissing Kellyn on graduation day, even though she knew that they might never see each other again.

Truth

When all of the other Vientown rangers treated him roughly, the gentleness that Elaine treated him with made Ollie want to blurt out the truth right then and there.

Dare

Keith banged his fists on the door of the girls' dorm. "Rhythmi, get out here! We have pranks to pull! Dares to fulfill!"

The other girls pulled their pillows over their heads, groaning, while Rhythmi hollered back, "Yeah, well, I have beauty sleep to catch up on!"

"Too bad!" Kicking the door open, he strode inside. Picking up the blonde and tossing her over his shoulder, he saluted the other girls before stomping out again, much to their amusement.

Bet

"I bet I can make you laugh," Crawford said, one side of his mouth creeping up into a smirk.

"I bet you can't," scoffed Luana.

"And what are we wagering?" he asked.

She considered. "Dinner. Whoever loses pays."

He laughed heartily. "You'll be eating those words. Literally."

She rolled her eyes, but smothered a giggle. "Whatever."

Melody

On the afternoon of the one-day internship, Isaac found Kate playing with his younger sister on the bridge.

"Melody, what are you doing out here?" he demanded, exasperated. "You know you aren't supposed to leave Pueltown alone."

"Sorry, big brother." Her round eyes blinked up at him. "I just wanted to wait for you here. But," she added, a smile passing across her face, "this nice ranger girl kept me company. So I wasn't alone after all, huh?"

His gaze flicked to Kate, but found that the radiance of her smile was too bright to look at for more than a second. "Thank you," he told her, meaning it. "It was very kind of you to look after my sister."

The melody of Kate's laughter stained his cheeks with red. "It was my pleasure, really. She's too sweet." She unhitched herself from the bridge railing, and began walking off. "Kind of like her brother."

He stared after her, his whole body glowing as red as a tomato.

Stream

Lunick and Aria lounged in the forest, their feet dangling in the stream. "You're actually smiling," he mused, placing yet another flower crown atop her head.

She tossed her head, her curls glinting in the sunlight. "You were unaware that I could?" she queried, her expression turning wry.

"Well…yeah," he admitted.

She rolled her eyes, and splashed him.

Need

Elita and Silent Chris didn't need words to know what the other was thinking.

Care

"Let me go down first," pressed Keith, dropping down one of the holes in the cavern of the Chroma Highlands. He then turned, and lifted his arms up to help Kate carefully down after him.

Dislike

Lavana couldn't tell if this hot, pulsing feeling in her chest whenever she saw Ice was dislike, or something else.

Arceus, she hoped it was the former.

Difference

Spenser pored over the letters of Solana. The more he read, the less differences he saw in their opinions- and the less differences he saw, the more he felt his heart melt. By the seventh letter, he had taken to reading them aloud to anyone who would listen, and would rant about how he absolutely had to meet this girl.

Sarcasm

"Joel is just so dreamy," crooned the fangirl stationed outside Fall City's base.

Aria's eyebrow twitched, but she kept her voice calm. "Want to know how to get his affections?"

The girl gasped. "How?"

"Stick your head in the fountain, and count to a hundred. He'll love it, believe me. So will everyone else, for that matter."

Shy

Ben peeked over at Summer, who was laying in the grass beside him. "What are you writing, Sunshine?"

Drawing her legs up to her chest, she shyly lifted the paper, which read, 'I love you.'

Darkness

Kate could feel herself drowning in darkness. It seethed around her, as if the contents of Pandora's Box had come alive in form of a raging, roiling black sea.

"KATE!"

A familiar voice yanked her out of her state of despair, and she felt a warm hand hoist her out of the gloom just before her head went under.

Relationship

"You and the ranger girl are married, right?" asked the little girl with the two jigglypuff.

Lunick blinked, taken aback. "Huh? N-no. Why do you think that?"

"Because Daddy looks at Mommy the same way you look at her," she informed him.

Torn

The countdown in the Go-Rock Squad's base ticked down, and Spenser appeared seemingly out of nowhere, charteuse hair windblown around his face. "I'm going to try and rescue the pokemon," he told Solana and Lunick, purposefully avoiding Solana's eyes.

"What?" she gasped. "Spenser, that's suicide!"

Spenser turned his head away, not wanting her to see how torn he was. "Lunick, get her out of here."

"Roger that, Leader." Taking her arm, Lunick dragged Solana away, despite her refusals.

"Spenser, don't!" she shouted after him. "You idiot; at least let us help you-"

Giving her one last fleeting glance, Spenser lifted his hand in a half-wave- and then he was gone, a blur of green and red in the bad lighting. Solana was hauled against her will behind Lunick as they braved the watery path underneath the base, resisting the entire way. As soon as they stepped foot outside, she wrenched away from Lunick and refused to meet his eyes.

He assumed it was because she was angry. But in actuality, she just couldn't bear Lunick- or anyone else, for that matter- to see her cry.

Exist

Ice's breath was cool against her cheek, and Kate gave an inward shiver. "Your existence is making things more difficult than they should be, Top Ranger," he murmured, his hairspray-saturated hair grazing the side of her face.

"Kill me, then," she dared him, keeping the bravado up in order to ignore the cadence of her heart.

She felt him smile. "But then they would be easy," he said, and walked out of the hole blown into the side of the Union after Lavana.

Tag

Lunick's minun and Solana's plusle played tag with each other along Fall City's shore, while their rangers patrolled arm-in-arm.

Scar

Kellyn dabbed at the blood on Kate's face. "That's going to leave a nasty scar," he informed her, pocketing the reddened handkerchief.

She shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe it'll make me look badass."

"You are badass," he reminded her.

She perked up. "Incredibly badass."

"The world's most badass badass that specializes in badassery," he said sagely.

The two stared at each other for a moment, and then cracked up.

War

Aria warred with her feelings during Cameron's annual party in Summerland, the moonlight bathing the sand in white. Rangers, dressed in bikinis and swim shorts, lounged around chatting and drinking, with some of the more daring ones braving the tropical waters.

"Cheer up, emo kid," said Solana, appearing behind the blonde with two drinks in her hands. "Here; drink up."

Aria took the bottle in both hands, and rolled the glass between her palms. Solana blew her bangs out of her eyes, and, with a huff, sat down on the sand beside her. "Hey." The blue-haired ranger nudged her. "Seriously, what's up? You haven't thrown your drink in my face yet."

Aria's narrowed blue eyes flicked in her direction, but slid away just as fast. "What do you care?"

Solana grinned amiably. "You know me. I'm a giver. And right now, I want to give you a listening ear."

The Fall City ranger scowled. "You aren't going to leave me alone, are you?"

"Not till you spill the beans, Ari."

"Fine." She chewed on the inside of her cheek before finally asking, "Have you ever- felt- for someone that you knew would never like you b-"

Solana snorted. "You're feeling self-conscious? Aria, you're gorgeous, so if this is about-"

"I wasn't finished yet," Aria said hotly. Coughing, she resumed. "Have you ever felt for someone that you knew would never like you back? Not because he didn't feel the same way- well, he doesn't anyway- but because… it wasn't proper?"

The words came out sounding small, and Solana raised an eyebrow at her. "Ari, if you're telling me you're in love with Hastings and that you're worried about the age difference, then I can safely say that I'm gonna kick your snotty blonde ass once I'm sober-"

"It's not that!" Aria swung a kick at her, which the Ringtown ranger deftly dodged. "I'm in love with Joel, you moron. And…" Realizing what she had just said, her face whitened, and she straightened up like a shot. "I have to go."

Solana sobered, a pucker forming between her brows. "Aria, I'm sorry-"

"Forget it," Aria snapped, but then her teeth sank into her bottom lip, and Solana saw her eyes fill. "Seriously, please, forget it. You never heard that. Got it?"

"But Aria-"

"Please." A single tear dribbled down her face, which she scrubbed violently at. "I don't care what the hell else you gossip about, but you can't ever mention that to anyone. If that ever got out- if he ever found out…" Her voice shrank until it was nonexistent, and she dropped the bottle before fleeing.

"But Aria," Solana whispered, though her rival was long gone, "he loves you, too."

Red

All throughout Ms. April introduction to the class, Kate found her eyes focused on a boy with reddish brown hair. He was grinning widely at her, as if she had just told him the most hilarious of jokes.

"Why the big grin, Keith?" asked the teacher, suppressing a smile herself.

"Nothing," he said, but the way his smile widened when Kate was seated next to him made her think that it might be something after all.

Enough

Isaac was in the library, studying, when he saw an unfamiliar brunette attempting to reach a book one of the higher shelves. Setting his textbook down, he made his way over.

"Do you need a hand?" She jumped at the voice at her shoulder, and a pair of warm brown eyes swung around to clash with his blue ones.

"Um… yeah," she admitted, a blush staining the dusting of freckles on her cheeks. "Thanks."

"Which one?" he queried.

"Blue binding."

He stretched, and slid the book out with relative ease. Peering down at it, he felt his eyebrows rise. "Mechanics," he said, impressed.

She shrugged one shoulder. "I would like to fix my style when I'm out in the field, and not have to rely on anyone else," she explained, taking the book from him.

He smiled at her, feeling a wave of shyness overcome him. "I'm Isaac."

"Kate," she said, and shook his hand. "It's really nice to meet you, Isaac."

"You, too," he murmured. It wasn't much of a first encounter, but it was enough to spark something that lasted for the rest of their lives.

Hatred

When Solana waltzed into Spenser's office with that trademark smirk on her face, he knew something was up. He was just in denial about what that 'something' was.

She had already blown Cameron's capture score out of the water, pun intended. And she had trumped Joel in the capture game in Ringtown.

So that meant…

"Fifty thousand points," she announced, slapping the score paper down on his desk. "Bow down to me."

He didn't know whether to hate her or love her. Really, he couldn't decide.

"The Capture Arena's got a new ruler," she elaborated, her teeth winking like pearls in the light. "Better sharpen those skills, Leader, or the Union might just boot you off and let me take your place. And then I'll be the one sending you on missions nonstop to other places."

Hate, he decided. At the moment, anyway.

Faith

Ben paced, running his hands through the disarray that was his hair. It wasn't that he lacked faith in Summer, but she always had been reckless- and to run out to confront Red Eyes like that, so unprepared…

Ben jumped when he heard footsteps, and whirled to find himself staring at Red Eyes. The villain was approaching him slowly, as if nearing a rabid animal.

Summer was lying in his arms.

"What did you do to her?" snarled Ben, and charged him, fury pounding through his body like adrenaline.

"Take her." Stunned, Ben screeched to a halt as Red Eyes carefully passed over the limp body, and Ben's arms sagged as they struggled to adjust to the weight.

"What…?"

"Tell her to stay out of my affairs," the blonde said gruffly, although the softness in his eyes belied his words. "Next time, I won't be so merciful."

And with that he walked away, giving a backwards glance that, on any other person, Ben would have called wistful.

Vanish

"I'll give you a little hint. There's a post here, and a tangela somewhere else. You can figure the rest out by yourself," Aria told Lunick, and then vanished into one of the sewage pipes with a head toss and a flash of her bright blue eyes.

Question

"What's your name, rookie?" Crawford asked, giving her an easy smile.

Luana glanced up, too nervous to even crack a smile. "Luana."

"Well, Luana, why don't we go out patrolling?" He bent his head so that he was eyelevel with her, and dropped a wink. "I don't bite."

She felt her snarky side surface. "Yeah, but the pokemon living in your afro might."

He straightened, and let loose a laugh that shook the entire base.

Recovery

"Camerupt, bury this awful ranger!" shrilled Tiffany, her scream ringing through the Crokka Tunnel.

The fire pokemon stomped its hooves, and the vibrations caused the ceiling overhead to cave in. Solana found her legs pinned underneath one particularly heavy boulder, and she choked back a cry of pain as she struggled. She tried to twist out from underneath it, but Tiffany delivered a sharp kick to the side of her head before she left, which rendered the ranger immobile.

Fading in and out of consciousness, she was dimly aware of someone cursing, and of hands dragging her out from under the rock.

"Spenser…" she whispered.

"You're okay going to be okay," he murmured, swinging her up into his arms after gently prodding at her legs. "Nothing's broken."

She frowned blearily, her head still spinning. "Put me down," she persisted, though her limbs dangled uselessly as he picked his way through the rubble. "I can walk."

"Just stay still," he sighed, his face and hair a smudge of green and gold to her eyes. "Rest. Recover."

Still mumbling complaints, she felt the claws of unconsciousness drag her under, and she drifted to sleep in Spenser's warm arms.

Payback

"This is payback for how you humiliated me before," growled Lavana, and yet she made no move to lunge at Kellyn. "You stupid boy, I'll kill you."

He took a step towards her, their arms brushing.

"I'll kill you," she repeated defiantly, as if trying to convince herself.

Their noses touched, their breaths intermingling.

"I'll…" His mouth slanted up just as hers dropped down, and they met somewhere in the middle, long-buried desire surfacing in one fiery kiss.

Charm

Garrett stared at Solana with those amaranthine eyes of his, but she turned away sharply- no matter how charming he might be, he was an enemy of the rangers. It could never work.

Promise

The fireworks exploded in the sky, and promises were exchanged under the celebratory lights as duty was thrown away in favor of love.