Smiling casually and returning the girl's fist bump, Dirge was about to engage in small talk but his teeth began to chatter. That was odd, did the temperature just drop? Storm or no storm, it was late afternoon, almost evening. It was also Spring, so there was no place for the cold. Rubbing his arms in a sorry attempt to keep them warm, the brunette chuckled as he looked around. So everyone felt it. "I wonder where our third guy is, huh? He's probably in the wrong group..." Dirge looked around curiously, spotting a few disorganized people without a group. So this was it! He was about to be a ranger. No more school, no more event less days of counting the dots on the ceiling. He felt like nothing could kill his mood. 

"Okay everyone, ready to make a pledge?" Viva yelled loudly. There was a positive chorus of shouts. Dirge cheered with a single hand. "Okay. Now hold up your capture stylers like this," She continued, holding up her own like a sword pointed toward the sky. " 'Kay now repeat after me. I solemnly swear from this point onward to be courageous and fight the forces of evil, to not let any emotions or personal interests get in the way of my duty, and to protect the innocent; people or pokemon." Just then a wave of white light flashed from Viva's styler, and all the trainee's own glowed. 

Dirge let out a startled cry as his capture styler zapped him with an electric shock. Though it stung only a bit, the boy dropped his weapon onto the ground. Hesitantly, he picked it back up. "The vibration signifies that y6ou are all registered rangers; only you can use your own styler. Keep this in mind if you wanna live. So when you use them you just twirl 'em in a circular path... Well, live and learn, I guess. " Annemarie walked over to a large bulletin board in the center of the bungalows, where several pieces of paper were. She picked some and then handed them out to each group. "These are some fairly easy missions you are expected to accomplish. As easy as ranger missions get, anyways. You leave in a few hours, so until then do whatever. Meet at the docks at sundown. The painted numbers on the bungalows are the same to the numbers of your squads, so have fun figuring that out. Alright, everyone, dismissed." 

Everyone seemed to speak among their own groups and try to get to know each other better. "So we're all rangers now, huh? I've been looking forward to this for almost two months..." He mused aloud, just as he saw a hooded boy making his way over to them. "Oh, look, Noah! That's probably Hao." Staring at him blankly for a bit, Dirge's eyes narrowed as it got even colder. But the sun was still out, and there were no clouds in the sky... And then it came. Transparent at first, the monster began to take a solid form. With a bulbous, grey body, with a yellow zigzag band around it's belly and two glowing yellow eyes on its center. There was a head, and a single ominous eye. The thing had a disk-like antennae on its head and two humanoid arms. The pokemon floated, though not at all in a cute kind of way. 

Dirge's mouth fell open and he wanted to scream, or run. While dusknoir were fascinating in books, they were so big in real life, so... scary. It let out a low moan and the newly appointed ranger was paralyzed with fear. All was silent except for those eerie moans. Then it drifted toward the rangers, closer... closer... It made strange static radio noises as it got closer, but in a language no one could understand. Its presence was heavy, and as it's hands brushed against the grass, the life was sucked from it. The closest unfortunate person to be near it was... Hao. Slowly, slowly, the monster approached the boy and before he could do anything to react, slammed him into the ground with a large hand, the pried the knocked out ranger's mouth open. With a sucking sound, the dusknoir's mouth opened and an aurora-like stream went from Hao's mouth to the opening. With a distraught cry, a styler came flying at the pokemon. It went inside the mouth, and immediately the ghost began... coughing and gagging? Eventually, it spit the styler out, as well as Hao's spirit. However, the spirit dispersed into the air. With an angry bellow, Dusknoir began harnessing energy in it's mouth and prepared to fire. Folling suit, Kyler hurled his own styler into the monster's eye. Slowly, it faded out of existence, but the damage was already done. 

Hao was dead. Dirge's eyes widened a bit more and he felt sobered. Did he... just witness a murder?