The rangers have just been at their briefing and are now in their way to Altru Park to meet up. My characters Spoiler Name (full): Alastor Fisher Used name: Al, Alastor Age: 21 Gender: Male Height: 193cm Hair color: Dark Brown Eye color: Brown Skin color: Tanned Build: Lean, slightly muscular Description of their characteristics: Alastor is cool, collected and laid back. He sleeps a lot generally at any given chance sometimes at inappropriate times and as a result of that often have a tired expression on his face. Not a talkative person Alastor generally doesn't talk unless he has to like when people address him or he sees a need to speak up. Partner Pokémon: Totodile Other: He loves dismantling and repairing machinery Name (full): Tyrone Maxwell Used name: Ty, Max Age: 20 Gender: Male Height: 181cm Hair color: Black Eye color: Dark Blue Skin color: Fair Build: Broad, muscular Description of their characteristics: Tyrone can be impatient and a bit slow to pick up on things. He’s a good guy and cares a lot about his fellow rangers’ wellbeing more than his own. Partner Pokémon: Growlithe Other: Enjoys working out in his spare time Pokémon and Assist Info Spoiler: Flying and Surfing Pokémon Here are all the Pokémon that can be used to carry you around in a pinch. Crobat (can only be found at nighttime) Staraptor Fearow Pelipper Charizard Honchkrow (can only be found at nighttime) Skarmory Salamence Aerodactyl Flygon (it can actually learn fly in the main series) Altaria Togekiss Drifblim (very slow flyer, can only be found at nighttime) Pokémon that you can surf on: Blastoise (can also be ridden in ice water; cannons can break ice) Dragonair (can also be ridden in ice water; Dragonair can sort-of levitate and learn Fire-type attacks to melt ice) Walrein (can also be ridden in ice water; tusks can break ice) Empoleon (can also be ridden in ice water; canon) Bibarel Floatzel Gastrodon Spoiler: Friend Pokémon and Assist Info Friend Pokémon may use attacks from their Sun and Moon level up list, BUT They may only use two attacks per time you have one Pokémon captured. Status inflicting moves; like Thunderwave, Will-O-Wisp, Hypnosis, Grass Whistle, Etc; are not allowed to be used. If an attack you have has one of the status inflicting side effects, please do not hit it every time. That is impossible. Dual-type Pokémon may choose to use either of their typings Assist. However, you may only use one type per capture of that Pokémon. (Assists are found in the spoiler beneath. Partner Pokémon may use every attack in their Sun and Moon Level up list, aside from the Status inflicting moves. They may also be used for Assists. Assists Normal: Will increase the power of your capture style, making it slightly easier to capture the target Pokémon. Water: Creates a wall of bubbles that slows down a Pokémon that tries to run through it. Electric: Gives the Capture line and electric charge. If the target Pokémon runs into it, it will be stunned for a while. Fire: Creates a small wall of fire that will trap the target Pokémon. Note Pokémon that can fly or levitate may get out of this assist. Grass: Creates a trail of long grass that may trap the target Pokémon and make it easier to capture. Ice: Creates an ice surface that may make the target Pokémon slip and loose its footing. Note that this doesn't work on Flying and Levitating Pokémon. Fighting: Enhances the Capture line to make it easier to catch the target Pokémon and makes it slightly harder to break. Poison: If the styler top stays in place long enough it will create puddles of goo that hinder mobility and may even trap Pokémon that run into it. Ground: Creates a small sandstorm that trails the capture disc, which is the center of the sandstorm. This is hinder both the sight and the mobility of the target Pokémon. Note that this is not as effective on Rock, Ground, and Steel-types. Flying: When this assist is active the disc will emit small gusts of wind. When close enough to the target Pokémon it may knock the Pokémon of balance. Psychic: When looping a few feet away, while this assist is active, the capture disc will emit a small push of psychic force that knocks the Pokémon around a bit, interrupting attacks and such. Bug: It creates a sticky line from the ca[ture disc that may be used to trap the target Pokémon in a self-made web. Rock: If the ranger completes a loop without the target Pokémon in the loop, it will create a rock spike that hinders mobility. The rock spikes do crumble after a short while as it takes a lot of power to sustain them. Ghost: This assist creates a duplicate of the capture disc. The duplicate will mirror the movements of the real one. Dragon: This assist will lengthen the capture line and make it much stronger. It is kind of a waste on normal Pokémon, but great against stronger Pokémon that are known to give rangers trouble. Fairy-types somehow are not affected by this assist. Dark: Can be used to clear hazards from the field that were put there by the target Pokémon during a capture. It can also be used to clear leftovers from their own assists. Steel: Strengthens the defense of the capture disc. This makes it harder to knock it off course, break the line, and for the top to take a lot of damage. Fairy: While this assist is active the styler top creates a small trail of fairy-like dust that can blind the target Pokémon. It needs to be close in order for it to work though, as the dust can be blown away. Note do not use this near yourself, or you will end up blinded.
Spoiler Name (full): Saria Luna Boyden Used name: Saria Age (between 15 and 25): 19 Gender: Female Height: 5'5' Hair color: Dirty Blonde Eye color: Light purple Skin color: Fair Build: Slender, lightly muscled like a runner Description of their characteristics: She is a tough girl that looks to see the positive in things. She trusts easily, but after you have crossed her, she will be wary of making the same mistake twice. She is an outdoorsy person, loving to walk in the forest and on patrol. She is very outgoing and likes to talk. However, she is smart enough to know when to keep her mouth shut. She likes to work with other Rangers on assignments. She recently attained ranger rank 7 due to her mission in one of the trainer regions. Saria takes assignments very seriously especially if they revolve about Team Dim Sun. While she wasn't there personally to witness it, her brother Zen got hurt during it. She will not take any slack from her fellow Rangers while on the job and has a very strict code that she honors. She hates unprofessional conduct. Partner Pokémon (preferably a smaller or non-evolved Pokémon, no legendary Pokémon): Rockruff named Rasa Other: She uses a red hair band to keep her hair out of her face and likes peaches and apples. Really like peaches. Name (full): Andor Zenith Boyden Used name: Zen Age (between 15 and 25): 19 Gender: Male Height: 5'11' Hair color: Dirty Blonde Eye color: Red Skin color: fair skinned Build: Lean, mostly due to the running he does inside of the Union building. Description of their characteristics: Calm and collected most of the time. Very organized and likes to make sure the Rangers he guides are at their best. He got injured during the attack on the Union during the Dim Sun incident. Partner Pokémon (preferably a smaller or non-evolved Pokémon, no legendary Pokémon): None Other: Is an Operator, has a small crush on Wendy Name (full): Gwyn Parker Used name: Gwyn Age (between 15 and 25): 20 Gender: Male Height: 5’10” or 1.75M Hair color: light brown Eye color: dark brown Skin color: Tanned Build: muscular, but not overly so. Description of their characteristics: A bit of a goofball and mischievous, but knows when to pay attention. He likes to keep in shape and goof around with his partner Pokémon Shuppet. Despite being older than the Boyden twins he was in their class at the Ranger School, but due to a mission gone wrong, he ended up being set back in his quest to become a top ranger. He recently became a union ranger and caught the tail end of the Dim Sun drama, forcing him to grow up a little bit. Partner Pokémon (preferably a smaller or non-evolved Pokémon, no legendary Pokémon): Shuppet Other: He likes to play small pranks on his fellow Rangers. Saria had captured the Mareep without any real trouble and now she was walking down the Union road toward Altru Park. On the way, she saw a lot of Rangers still running around trying to get some things fixed and Saria signed loudly, causing Raca to look at her funny. "It is just that I have no idea what I am up against, even if it is that Dim Sun Team, Rasa. I wasn't here when it happened after all." The blonde tried to remember what she had heard about Dim Sun after she came back from her assignment in Hoenn. She knew that the ones that made the most trouble had been handed over to the police or fled after one of their Rangers had put a stop to the crazy plan Blake Hall had cooked up. That was about all she knew about it though. She gave a sigh of frustration and lowered her arms with a loud huff. Saria hadn't realized that she had already made it to the meeting point. Rasa, on the other hand, was already racing around to play with the local Pokémon, the captured Mareep doing the same, making sure to stay close to Rasa. The blonde settled on a spot near the entrance to Chroma road, a bit hidden in the shade. It wouldn't do for the civilians to think that something was going on. She looked around a bit to see if she could spot other Rangers yet, but she couldn't. Saria shrugged and started tinkering with her styler to try and improve the launch distance of her capture disc. She wasn't succeeding much, but at least she wasn't making it worse. "Hey, Saria. You got here fast." A male voice came from the road and Saria stopped tinkering with her styler for a moment to see who was addressing her. She let a grin show on her face as she spotted one of her old Ranger School buddies. "Gwyn! I haven't seen you in so long. You also going to Chroma today?" She asked only to receive a nod. Gwyn was staring at her a bit funny and Saria discreetly tried to figure out if something was on her face. Seeing as it wasn't the case, she opened her mouth to ask why he was staring only to hear a loud SHUP! in her left ear. She yelled as she tried to get up and away from the sound only to fall flat on her back and stare right in the blue and yellow eyes of a Shuppet. "Saria, meet my partner Shuppet." Gwyn introduced Saria to his mischievous partner. Saria for her part just grinned as she spotted Rasa coming toward her after hearing her yell. "Well, Gwyn, meet my partner Rasa." She said as Raca barreled into Gwyn's backside.
Alastor had captured the Spearow fairly quick and decided it was better he headed straight for the park now since he didn’t wanted to make the others wait longer than necessary. On his way there he encountered others rangers that came to and from base, giving those that greeted him a stern nod in return, most of them were used to him not speaking often. Arriving at the park he spotted Saria and another ranger he couldn’t recall ever seeing before, as he walked up to them he gave a wave and nod as greeting. His partner Toto decided to join the other pokémon in their play session after he’d greeted the two rangers and their pokémon. “Gruff get back here, don’t run off like that!” A male voice suddenly shouted as a growlithe came running full speed towards the rangers and stopped in front of the rockruff inviting it to play. A muscular ranger black hair and dark blue eye came running up to them gasping for air “I wish you would stop doing that Gruff, how did you even know there was another canine here? We hadn’t even entered the park when you ran off.” After a few minutes he’d regained his composure and greeted his fellow rangers properly since he didn’t know any of them, sure he’d seen them around HQ but that was it. “The name is Tyrone Maxwell and the firecracker there is Gruff, would you happen to be the group that’s on the way to the Chroma Highlands? I was told to meet others here after a quick briefing while I was on the way back from another mission.” He gave them a big smile as he introduced himself and his partner.
"Yeah, we are. I am Saria Boyden, my partner Rasa is the Rockruff your partner tore after from what I understand." Saria greeted Tyrone with barely hidden amusement. Then she realized she was still lying on her back and she quickly sat upright again. She quickly put her styler away again and put two fingers in her mouth to call Rasa back to her. The Rockruff quickly bounded to her and sat primly next to her Ranger. Gwyn just laughed as he scrambled back up from where be had been lying on the ground, not feeling like getting up from the floor after Rasa had tackled him. He waved as he stood up before offering the lone female Ranger a hand and pulled her up as well. "I am Gwyn Parker, my partner is the Shuppet floating right next to your ear." He introduced himself to his new teammates. Shuppet just poked at Tyrone floating around the newcomer lazily.
“Alastor Fisher, ” Alastor had been listening as the other rangers introduced themselves and he figured he better do the same even if he wasn’t much for talking he couldn’t avoid it entirely. “Is just us the four of us right. Should we talk about a possible plan while we head for the highlands?” What Zen had said had really worried him so he was itching to get started in the mission. “Sounds like a plan, are the rest of you fine with that?” Tyrone looked at Saria and Gwin, “And I could probably use a better run down of what’s going on as well while we’re on the way since Zen just said it was urgent and something about the ruins I didn’t quite catch.” He smiled sheepishly; he knew he should have paid better attention to what the operator had said but he’d been focused on getting back to HQ to relax that it hadn’t sunk in till after the call had ended.
Saria was about to respond to Alastor and Tyrone, when she got a ping on her styler and she quickly opened the message, before looking thoughtfully at it. Gwyn was trying to read over her shoulder, but she just put a hand on his face and pushed him backward. He just grinned underneath her hand and made some fake sputters against it until Shuppet came over and licked her hand. She squeaked in response before looking in horror at Gwyn. Did he just lick her hand? "Did you... lick my hand?" She asked carefully, making sure to speak each word as slowly as possible. Gwyn already knew what was coming and tried to deny it. And technically it wasn't him, but Shuppet, but Shuppet had already floated off to speak to the other partners. So that only left Gwyn to blame for it. One slap later and a handswiping later, Saria was briefing Tyrone and Gwyn, the latter rubbing a sore cheek. "Basically, there is trouble in the Chroma Ruins. Seeing as it was the site where the DC was mined, the Union wants us to check out the shady people that have been coming in and out of them at random times. Local people seem to recall some muttering about rites and other stuff that we are a bit wary off at the moment." Saria kept the brief small and concise, knowing that time was of the essence and dealing with Gwyn's disgusting behavior was bad enough. Gwyn, on his part, just nodded and crossed his arms. He had only caught the tail end of the incident and hadn't actually known about the Dark Crystal being dug up from the Chroma Ruins. He did know the Chroma Highlands like the back of his hands, having been stationed there multiple times since the end of the Altru tower problems. "Alright, I think one or maybe two of us should scout in from the sky, while the others go on foot. It might be better to have only one ranger in the sky though, less conspicuous. They would be the vanguard and tell the ground rangers about possible problems. I think Saria should stay on the ground as she would be more helpful to the group with Rasa and the Mareepshe caught." Gwyn offered as the start of a plan to the other rangers.
“Seems like a good plan, but is Saria okay with being on sky patrol?” Tyrone looked at the female ranger with a questioning look. “That’s fine by me, but I need to transfer the mareep I captured since it can’t join me in the sky.” Saria had pulled out her styler waiting for one of her colleagues to accept the transfer. “I can take it for now I guess, just say if you want it back once you’re done scouting.” Tyrone offered as he held out his styler and accepted Saria’s transfer request. “Since the three of us will be on foot let’s get moving, Saria will be able to catch up easily once she captures a flier.” Alastor suggested as he started heading for Chroma Road calling out to his partner as he walked off, nearly startling his fellow rangers as it was a rare thing to hear him talk. Tyrone followed after he’d called Gruff back, who’d begun playing with some of the local pokémon. “Hey wait up! We better hurry up Gwyn or we’ll get left behind, we should stick together just in case something happens.” He called out as he ran after Alastor. Tyrone hadn’t participated in the missions involving Dark Crystal or Dim Sun, he’d heard stories from some of the other rangers that’d been around for it and it made him worry, especially when he hear Sari mention something about rites even if it was just stray words that’d been picked up by the locals. Gruff sensed his partner’s unease and looked up at him before nudging his hand nearly making Tyrone jump until he realized it was just his partner. “I’m okay boy, just nervous I guess. We never had to deal with anything from the incident involving Dim Sun and the Dark Crystal so is just mission nerves.” The ranger tried to reassured his partner.
"I am coming! Wait for me." Gwyn ran after the other male rangers, knowing that Saria would catch up in the blink of an eye when she was ready. He overheard Tyrone saying to his partner Growlithe that he hadn't really participated in any missions dealing with Team Dim Sun. Gwyn was a bit surprised to hear that. "You managed to miss most of the trouble with Dim Sun? That is weird. Saria also missed almost everything and I only caught the tail end of the whole dealio." Gwyn's face was thoughtful as he went over the information. "Alastor wasn't really involved either, right? Why did command put us all together if they think there is a possibility that those knuckleheads are involved right now?" Gwyn's styler went off and he quickly accepted the transmission from the last ranger in the party. As she appeared on the screen, he could see her blonde hair whipping around in the wind. His Shuppet cooed at the site of the screen displaying images and Gwyn plucked the Ghost-type away. "Here is Saria. I managed to capture a Starraptor and I have you guys in sight, I will move on ahead and scout the road." Saria's voice came from the speakers. Gwyn nodded in response. "Keep the styler on walkie-talkie mode to reduce response time. Saria out." She saluted the others and the screen went black, just as they could hear the call of a Staraptor above their heads.
“More like I missed it all at most I caught the cleanup work, never had to deal with Dim Sun in any way at all. Reason is because I wasn’t in Almia when all this went down.” Tyrone explained, he was wondering just like Gwyn why they’d chosen some that’s barely had any contact with Dim Sun for this it would make far more sense sending some that had dealt with them before. Alastor turned around to look at his fellow rangers before with a thoughtful expression chimed in on the conversation “I wasn’t involved much either that’s true, at most I dealt with those weird machines Gigaremo if you’ve heard about them. Had to destroy a few but that’s the closes I get to having any real contact I barely ever saw any of the Dim Sun members.” It did worry Alastor that they would send some that hadn’t dealt with Dim Sun before in a more direct manner, did HQ think that the chance of it being Dim Sun was smaller than they had let on to believe? “This is weird, why send us then? But I guess it can’t be helped.” Tyrone said with a sigh not understanding what those at HQ were thinking. He perked up when he heard Saria’s voice from Gwyn’s styler, he switched his styler’s communication to walkie-talkie when Saria said to keep it in that mode and he saw Alastor do the same. “So I guess now we just wait for Saria to come with an update at the ruins.” Alastor gave a nod in response before picking up the pace a little.
Saria had quickly flown ahead to scout out the road to the Chroma Highlands, knowing fully well that if trouble was to be expected, it wouldn't just be at the Ruins themselves. Rasa was sitting quickly on the broad back of the Staraptor, used to this situation. She let out a quiet bark as she spotted something unusual and pulled her partner's attention to herself. Saria nudged the Staraptor to circle around the spot they were in and looked at the ground. What she saw made her glad that she wasn't on the ground. A swarm of Combee was on the road, the noise they were making was enough to ascertain that they weren't just passing through the area. The buzzing they made sounded angry and Saria winched when she spotted a Vespiquen in the middle of all the Combee. "Here is Saria, over." She had quickly whipped out her styler and quickly contacted the others while filling them in. "I haven't heard of the Combee in this area appearing with this many before. Not even in the season where they go out to gather nectar. I think that there is something horribly wrong at their nest for them to be so angry."
Tyrone frowned while listening to Saria as he looked at his two colleagues. “Think this could spell trouble for us?” What Saria had described was diffidently not normal combee behavior. “We better check it out.” Alastor said with worry in his voice as he slowed down to walk besides Tyrone so he wouldn’t have to turn around again. “I suppose that would be best.” Tyrone wasn’t sure what to expect when they encountered the combee, he just hoped it was because other pokémon had broken into their hive in search of food since that happened frequently. As they continued they started to hear buzzing that only grew louder, then they saw the swarm as large mass of combee surrounding their queen buzzing loud enough that it was almost too much for their ears, Saria was right they sounded angry. They’d have to deal with this swarm before other people came since the bug pokémon looked ready to attack any that got too close. “We’ll have to calm them down before other people show up or this could get ugly.” The muscular ranger looked at the other two Alastor gave him a nod in agreement while Tyrone’s partner let out a bark thinking the same thing, the growlithe obviously uncomfortable with the loud buzzing. Pressing down on his styler’s communication button Tyrone wanted to address something Saria had mentioned “Saria this is Tyrone, do you think you could find their hive and check it out? You mentioned something might have happened to it. We’ll try calm down the swarm before something happens, over.” They’d need a plan since this swarm was one too big to handle without some coordination. “So how are we gonna do this?” Alastor asked his colleagues never taking his eyes off the swarm.
"Roger that, Tyrone. I am on my way. I will take one last look at the swarm before I go." While talking to Tyrone about the hive problem, the female ranger had been looking down at the swarm to see if she could find a pattern in the swarm's movements. It seemed like the Vespiquen was taking up the middle position and the swarm seemed to be focused more on the south side of the road. She surveyed the surrounding area with a keen eye. She had an inkling as to where the hive would be. Before she could elaborate to Tyrone on her question, she noticed a waypoint appearing on the map. It was in full sight of the swarm in the southern area of the road. Not good. As soon as their faces appeared on the screen of her styler, she spoke quickly. "Guys, I have more information about the swarm. The Vespiquen is right in the middle. You will need to break up the swarm to get to her. After you thin out the main body, I think that you should try to capture the Vespiquen. Your Growlithe is the best aside from the Mareep that Al has, but you might need her to use a coverage move. Good luck." She quickly broke off the communication and she nudged her Staraptor, flying south to find out where the swarm seemed to be concentrated. ---------------------------------------------------- Gwyn had already whipped out his styler, feeling slightly intimidated by the sheer number of the combee that was gathered on the road. His partner hovered close to his shoulder trying to comfort his human partner. "So, we start chipping at the swarm, and when we get close to the vespiquen, Alastor and I protect Tyrone, while he tries to capture the queen bee?" He suggested, still tracking the combee with his eyes, even as he spoke to his companions.
“Um Gwyn, I’m the one holding the Mareep.” Tyrone held up his styler to display the list of partners he currently had with him. “I was the one that accepted it from Saria when she went scouting.” “I have a spearow I captured on the way here so I’m covered in the type department.” Alastor had readied his styler now. He already had a plan for how he would deal with the swarm, Toto could use his Water Gun to knock some out of the sky and with the help of the spearow’s assist he should be able to capture some of them at least. “Maybe you should take the mareep then? Since I got Gruff and Alastor got the spearow.” Tyrone held out his styler to offer him the mareep in case he wanted some extra coverage. Tyrone wasn’t exactly sure how he should deal with the vespiquen but his colleagues seemed to think he could handle it. Maybe Gruff’s Fire Spin would be good here, to keep the queen contained doing capture. “Are we ready?” Tyrone got snapped out of his thoughts when Alastor spoke. “I’m ready yeah.” Tyrone’s partner gave a hearty bark signaling he was ready too and very eager to get to work judging by the small jumps the canine was doing. “Okay, Gwyn you go in first then I’ll come in form the other side in a pincer maneuver. Hopefully that’ll keep them busy while Tyrone handles the queen. Sounds good?” Alastor had finally removed his gaze from the swarm to seek confirmation from his fellow rangers.
"Yeah, sounds like a good plan. I will take the Mareep, Tyrone. Just to be on the safe side." Gwyn nodded to his fellow rangers before steering off to the left to start the pincer maneuver that Alastor had proposed, the Mareep and Shuppet following him quietly. As he crept into position, he took a quick look around to see if Al and Tyrone were in position as well, before he grabbed his styler firmly and took aim. "I am in position and will start the capture in three, two, one... CAPTURE ON!" He relayed to the others before he shot his styler top right into the swarm of combee. He managed to capture five of them fairly quickly before the swarm noticed him. Gwyn had to dodge a well-aimed gust, but as soon as he regained his footing, Gwyn continued to capture as many combee as he could to ease the strain on Tyrone. ------------- Saria had flown a small distance when her Staraptor and Rasa had gotten agitated by something. Urging the flying type to go in the direction, despite it being painful for the Staraptor. She arrived at the hive within a few minutes. Saria watched helplessly as several Combee were flying around erratically within the hive. She had to cover her ears because they were making so much noise. Rasa whimpered as she couldn't cover her ears. The Rockruff was trying to block out the noise by burying her face in the ranger's stomach. Saria winced as Rasa's collar dragged painfully across her stomach, but she did nothing but just gather her little partner close. "Something must be upsetting the Combee, but what? There is nothing here..." She muttered to herself as she looked at the cave-like structure with wonder. The walls and floor were sticky and she didn't dare to dismount from her Staraptor in fear of getting stuck. The bird suddenly moved and Saria had to hold on tightly to Staraptor to stay seated. Her ears were then assaulted with the noise of the Combee but heard something else as well. A small noise that vibrated around the cave. The combee had started to send gusts of wind their way and Saria and Staraptor quickly started to fly around to stop the attacks from coming closer. She whipped out her styler and quickly started capturing some of the more persistent ones. They started to calm down a little bit, but they didn't get captured as she friend Pokémon, something that put the fear right into Saria's heart. When it finally calmed down again, the Staraptor brought her to the ceiling and Saria wondered why. Narrowing her eyes, she spotted something lodged in the material that made up the ceiling and Saria reached out to grab it. It was lodged deeply in the ceiling, and she knew that it was no accident that it was there. She had to pry with the tips of her fingers to even find a little purchase on the metal object. She found that it had a sharp edge, when blood started to drip down her hand. She pulled at the object anyway, pain be damned. It needed to come out, seeing as she suspected that this was what, what was upsetting the combee. As soon as she pulled it out, Saria took a good look at the object. It looked like an electronic device, but what was it doing here? Saria held it in the slight light that fell into the hive and noticed a broken antenna like thing on the device. She must have broken it when she pulled it out. Suddenly she felt Rasa pawing at her and then Saria noticed the eerie silence. She clutched the device in her hand, now more sure this was the source of the Combee trouble. She steered her Staraptor back to the opening they had come in through and made haste to meet the others. Maybe one of the others could identify the thing. She quickly send a message containing that she had found something in the hive and was returning to the group ASAP.
Alastor took up position on the other side of the swarm, with Gwyn starting the attack he hoped he could surprise the bug pokémon just a little before they realized what was going on. The swarm started to shift towards Gwyn’s side quickly to protect their queen. “Capture on!” He launched the capture disc, he couldn’t let Gwyn take on the entire swarm after even if he could probably handle it as long as he didn’t had to take on the queen too. “Okay Toto, do your thing, Water Gun!” Alastor commanded and the totodile obeyed the water sprayed hitting a few of the bugs forcing some to the ground, their wings heavy with water. Alastor quickly circled the grounded combees capturing 3 of the bugs. Some of the combees now turned their attention towards him using their gust attack relentlessly. Tyrone saw his colleague’s effort to keep the swarm busy were paying off as they captured several of the bugs each, what made worried though was that none of the captured pokémon stayed like they normally would once caught they just started flying off, presumably back to their hive as they all went in the same direction. The vespiquen was getting agitated as the rangers started attacking the swarm resulting in her launching several Power Gem attacks back to back in an attempt to get them to stop forcing Alastor to jump out of the way along with his partners. “Okey Gruff let’s get this over with.” Tyrone sounded a lot more confident than he actually was, “Capture on!” The disc flew forward at high speed, he started encircling the vespiquen. The pokémon noticed and wasn’t having any of that send the dust off course with a Gust before sending a barrage Air Slash aiming for the ranger. Tyrone frantically dodged the attacks; of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. His partner barked at the vespiquen trying to gets its attention to no avail. “Gruff use Ember!” He needed the queen to focus on something else for a minute so he could get back into the fight. That the bug type was this aggressive had taken him by surprise, usually vespiquen while it can be territorial would usually not just act like this without reason. The Growlithe obeyed sending small flares at the vespiquen making it focus on him instead of his partner. This time it decided Power Gem was a better option for dealing with the attackers forcing Gruff of dance around to avoid the moves. One more time he thought as he started circling the disc around the vespiquen again this time he managed to draw a few loops before the bug type broke free using Air Slash. Tyrone had to do something before his capture disc got two worn down to function, already taken two hits last one dealing heavy damage. “Okay Gruff Fire Spin, try keep her still!” The ranger ordered and his partner once again obeyed. Tendrils of fire sprouted from Gruff’s mouth, coiling around the angry queen that desperately tried to escape the move with all her might altering between Power Gem and Air Slash as she tried to break the growlithe’s attack. Tyrone tried to capture her again, looping around the pokémon Gruff’s Fire Spin seems to have done the trick and he finally captured the vespiquen even if she managed to knock the capture disc out of the way one more time before Tyrone succeeded. “I’m not very good at this.” He said as he breathed a sigh of relieve now that he’d finally captured his target. He couldn’t rest just yet, there were still combees left and even with a damaged capture device he should be able to help Gwyn and Alastor wrapping up calming the swarm.
Gwyn had just seen Tyrone capturing the queen bee and he let out an inner sigh of relief, before turning back to deal with the remaining combee. Between the three of them, they made quick work of them and then the road was almost silent as Gwyn panted for air and was rotating his shoulder. That had been a lot more combee than he had ever wished to see in his life, he thought. Then the silence was lifted as they could hear the flapping of wings. Gwyn peeked up and saw that Saria had returned. Her expression didn't give the expression that what she had uncovered was going to be any good news. "Yo guys! I see that the swarm has calmed down!" Saria shouted as she neared the site of the combee swarm. She could see that all three of her teammates were still whole and safe and she nodded at that. She directed her Staraptor to Alastor, knowing that he had more knowledge of electronics than either herself or one of the other two rangers, she wanted to show the device she had found to him first. She let her bid Pokémon hover above the ground as she fished the device from one of her many vest pockets. She held it up in the air for all the gathered rangers to see, before lobbing it to the quiet male ranger. "I found this buried in the ceiling of the combee hive. It was buried pretty deep and it really didn't want to come with me to show that it existed." Saria showed her bloody left hand almost sheepishly as she explained what had happened while she was away. "Staraptor heard it first over the noise of the screaming combee. When I pulled it out the screaming stopped, pretty much instantly after a few seconds, like they needed a sec to realize that the thing was no longer making any noises. I think that is because I broke the antenna like thing on top of the device while I pulled it from the ceiling." She crossed her arms, deep in thought. "I have no idea what it is or how it managed to upset the hive as much as it did. I don't think I have ever come across something that even remotely looks like this thing and did the same thing as this device does. Does anyone recognize the thing?" She asked the others with a confused look on her face.
Alastor looked up as Saria spoke coming to a hover in front of him as she tossed a mysterious device to him; he looked at her with a raised brow as he caught it. She explained how she’d found it and showed her hand with a sheepish smile as she continued. It was a curious thing she’d handed up, cylinder shapes, about the size of a soda can his inner tech enthusiast was more than eager to open it to find out how it worked but he lacked the proper tools as he’d only brought things needed in case a styler or capture disk needed a quick fix. Tyrone came over to look, “What is that thing?” He stared long and hard at it almost like that would make the device reveal what it was. Alastor’s expression became concerned as he ran a finger along the broken antenna, could this thing really be the cause of all this? What Saria had said reminded him a little too much of Team Dim Sun and their Gigaremo units but this was much smaller than any of those machine had ever been. “I don’t like that look on your face so what’s up?” Tyrone asked the silent ranger, he’d not said anything doing the entire time he’d examined it which was slightly unnerving to him. The tall ranger make a slight movement as if he’d been startled, he’d been deep in thoughts and forgotten he was actually on mission with others right now. “Well judging by what Saria have said it sounds like we could be dealing with Dim Sun or someone else that got hold of the tech they used.” He looked at his fellow rangers to see their reaction before continuing, “The device is much smaller than the ones I’ve seen but what Saria told make it sound almost like is just a smaller version of the Gigaremo, if you know what that is.” The look on at least Tyrone’s face told him he didn’t know what it was, “Is a device Team Dim Dun used to control pokémon, only this one is much smaller the Gigaremo needed at least two people to even get it to budge due to being ridiculously heavy.” He added an offhand barely audible comment about him having the honor of carrying the remains of one once. “Does this mean we’re dealing with Dim Sun then?” He sounded concerned despite trying his best to hide it, “And if it really is them why would they try something like this again?” “We don’t know if is them, we’ll need to find out who planted this thing first which we can’t focus on right now because we’re already on a mission.” He was still examining the device the best he could which right now was just sight and touch. “I suggest we send it off to the HQ and have them analyze it or find someone that can because I can’t do much with it without the proper tools which are in my room at HQ.” He lobbed it back to Saria once he’d satisfied his curiosity enough, “Since you’re the one that found it what do you think we should do with it.”
"I will alert one of the rangers stationed at Altru Park to come and get it and take it to Nage and Vatona. I think they have seen enough of those Gigaremo that they should be able to figure out what it is supposed to be, and if it is supposed to be a remo-variant." Saria mused as she turned the device around in her hand. She then noticed the dried blood on the device and remembered the wound on the palm of her hand. Now that she was actually paying attention to it, the wound stung pretty badly. "I should probably also do something about this wound, it doesn't look deep enough to require stitches, but it might be best to treat it before I go on." She looked around to meet the eyes of the other rangers and gave them an apologetic look. "I will stay here and catch up with you as soon as I can to provide air support and scout ahead again. Sorry for the inconvenience, guys." She apologized. Gwyn just nodded at Saria, knowing the girl felt bad, but it wasn't really her fault that the device had been buried so deeply wherever it had been. "No worries, we will see you soon, then." He said to her, before turning to Tyrone and Alastor. "Time for us to hit the road again, I guess. If it is truly Team Dim Sun, we have no time to waste." Gwyn didn't like the situation that they had found themselves in at all.
“Yes let’s get moving, the faster we arrive at the ruins the better at this point. I don’t like the thought of it possibly being Team Dim Sun again.” Tyrone said as he set off for the Chroma Highlands with his fellow rangers. Alastor nodded and followed, not sure what to expect when they arrived at their destination. They stopped at the edge of the highlands for a moment look out at it until Tyrone broke the silence, “So now that we’re actually at the highlands do we need to plan a strategy on how to approach or something before we move on or just wait till we hit the ruins?” He scratched his neck looking at other two, a strategy on how to handle things might not be a bad idea but since they didn’t know what to expect he wasn’t sure they should even plan out one properly. “We could but since we don’t know what to really expect whenever is Dim Sun or not. It never hurts to have a plan but first we have to reach the ruins and avoid the aggressive pokémon that’s known to live in the highlands as some of them can be well a little trigger happy.” Alastor replied in a monotone tired voice, he was really not looking forward to what they would possibly find there. “If we all agree on a strategy meeting we can hold one now or when we approach the ruins, we just gotta tell Saria how we choose to do it so she knows what to do.” The tall ranger stretched his arm above his head lazily as he spoke.
"I have a feeling that Saria will be back before we know it, but until then we need to be careful if we try to make our way through the Chroma Highlands," Gwyn said while checking his styler for any info on the previous mission that had been in the Highlands. "It says here that they used Murkrow to pull off some kind of haze or mist that drained the styler. I sure hope we don't have to go through that. That sounds mighty unpleasant." He looked at the other two with a grimace on his face. "Furthermore, we should be on the lookout for that Bastiodon that is rumored to live around here. I don't think I can handle that one to be honest." Meanwhile, after she had contacted one of the Ranger on duty at Altru Park, Saria had bandaged her hand tightly before pulling a spare capture glove over her hand to ensure that it would all stay in place. Rasa was whinging about the fact her human partner had been hurt and the girl just patted the rocky dog on her head. "It will be fine, Rasa, we will be back int he air in no time. And my hand doesn't hurt anymore. See?" She quickly opened her hand a few times to try and convince the Rockruff she was alright and all she got in response was a glare. "Oh, who am I trying to kid, it hurts, but I will be fine shortly." She threw up her hands in the air. Then she noticed a Doduo with a rider homing in on her position. Hm, it seemed like the Ranger she had paged was a bit smarter than the average one.
