[IC] The Pokémon Ranger Association

[Lady Termott]

Rebel was thankful the Leo, as he introduced, had initiated conversation. He seemed kind enough she was able to relax, if not just a little bit. They probably thought she was rude for not joining in and also introducing herself. She felt bad immediately and tried to go at it once again.

“I-I’m..Rebel,” She murmured slightly above her breath tensely, but it was hard to hear given everyone else was able to greet their new teammates eagerly and out loud. She glanced up to make sure he did mean her, but looked down when she noticed their eyes on her. “Rebel,” She said a little louder, self-conscious at the state she was in with the focus of others on her.

Rebel supposed she probably should add something more, like Can’t wait to work with you guys! or something like that but that was too out of character and it was already such a hassle for her to simply say her own name. Speaking of names, given Leo was a boy’s name, which meant the pink haired girl was Lylis? Wasn’t that what the senior ranger had said when they called the names of those in the squads? She also looked like the friendly type, such as Leo. That was a relief if so, she couldn’t handle harshness of some people, but she figured she shouldn’t expect being babied due to her shy nature.

That also reminded Rebel of what the higher ranked Rangers mentioned, how they were able name their squads. Of course she didn’t mind what these two would decide; anything would be fine for her. Rebel looked up, forcing a smile to seem friendly enough. When she did, she noticed something particular in the distance. “A Flygon?” She asked out loud, much louder than she said her name as her love for Pokemon definitely exceeded that for people. “Oh wow! I’ve never seen a dragon type in real life before! And a fully evolved one at that! I wonder if there are rare Pokemon like that here?”

Rebel realized her sudden outburst, and her face flushed once more out of humiliation. Now they were going think she was some kind of nut. “Oh dear, I-I’m s-sorry…” she whispered, “Hi,” Rebel added to get back to introductions, certainly not living up to her namesake.

[Sen]

As all three of them got together, the ice-breaker of their conversation was the correction of Rena’s pronunciation of Regan’s last name. Both of them introduced themselves, and accurately guessed that he was, in fact, the one and only Rena Sato. Before responding, Rena took the chance before responding to observe them a little closer. He crossed his arms when I chilly breeze blew by. Would they be dealing with ocean winds the entire time they spent here? Sighing, Rena slid his bags onto the ground and rummaged through the gym bag until he came across a white hoodie, which he promptly tied around his waist. If he needed to later, he could put it on in a second flat. The styler that was in his back now neatly rested on top of the rest of his ranger supplies.

“I’m Rena S. Sato; it’s nice to meet you both.” He gave them each a solid stare for at least a minute. He bit the bottom-left of his lip and continued. “I was raised in Anistar City, which is in Kalos if you forgot. My family owned a repair shop and naturally I worked there part-time.”

“You both have pretty similar names,” Derrick had said. Rena frowned a bit at the thought. They weren’t really that similar, but their first names both started with a “Re-.” It wasn’t much of an issue, and more of a silly coincidence.

“They’re not that close, but they have the same first syllable I guess.” Rena held his eyes closed for a moment. He scanned his thoughts for a good topic to actually start the conversation with.

He flashed his eyes back open and quickly shifted his weight onto his hip. “What do you guys think about our new home-away-from-home? I’m eager to see how it’ll all work. Do you think it’ll be gender-separated or will both sexes live together…?” Rena’s mouth grew into a devilish smirk. He glanced at Derrick, just to imply some things. It wasn’t like he was actually planning anything. Rena was more of a follower than a leader when it came to that sort of thing.

Disregarding that train of thought, Rena turned to gaze at the homely bungalows that populated the majority of the clearing they stood in. The smell of paint lingered around the houses, almost symbolically. They either just built them or were trying to make them look as good as they could for the new recruits. They were one of the more interesting parts of the whole Ranger experience (at least, they were to Rena) and it was probably the one thing he wanted to learn about the most at the moment. Though, missions were more important, and their teams were more important than the mission. He turned back to face his new allies. Rena replaced his mischievous grin with a simple smile.

[Rocie]

Even though she hadn’t been trying, Cecelia found herself back at the front of the group when the paths forked and she made sure to take a picture of each split, thinking to look over them later and start mentally mapping out the forest so she wouldn’t get lost if she ever came back through it.

Being used to traveling around so much, the distance was nothing to her and when they arrived in a clearing she actually felt a little disappointed that that was all. Cecelia quickly found herself staring at the little houses. She was glad they didn’t look like the small little cottages she thought they might be, and happier still that they looked quant and cozy and very comfortable to rest in after a long day’s work.

Smiling at the adorable stutter the ranger who was telling them instructions had, Cecelia immediately decided that out of all the other rangers that had shown them here, this one was her new favourite. Looking at the girl who just snatched her favourite ranger’s cue card away, Cecelia’s eyes grew wide. Surely she wasn’t this lucky! Taking a picture of her, Cecelia zoomed in and gasped to herself. There was no denying that the Viva LaBelle was a ranger. And not just any ranger, one assigned to helping them get settled! Cecelia was practically bouncing with excitement at the chance to meet her idol, and barely even noticed when her name was called.

Heading over to where she was supposed to, Cecelia looked back and forth between her two new teammates and smiled when the team leader introduced herself. Cecelia lifted up her camera and took a step back to get a picture but frowned when she realized the sun was in the wrong position.

“Hm… hold on a second.” She announced then rotated herself around Mai and made sure the sun was properly in place now. Taking the shot, Cecelia looked down at her camera and smiled, “Perfect!”

Realizing she still hadn’t introduced herself, she laughed and added in a sing-song voice, “I’m Cecelia. Feel free to just call me Cece though!”

Looking over at her other teammate, she quickly repositioned herself again and took a picture of him too. “Let’s all be great friends, yeah?”

[CitrusArms]

Kalos? That star-shaped region? She'd never had the chance to go, herself, but she's heard things about it. "If our missions ever take us there, I suppose we'll be relying on your knowledge, then. I've never been. Have you, Derrick?" She turned and smiled softly to the large man. He seemed imposing, but she shouldn't let that phase her. Some people just had stern exteriors, right? Right. Her father was that way...

She had to share her sentiments with Rena, though. Their names were only similar by some small coincidence, it wasn't anything remarkable. If this were a movie, they'd say that, but it'd turn out to be significant later, wouldn't it? Haha.

A sentiment she did not share was the next one. "I should certainly hope it's separated by gender. Even if you might not be up to something, I'd hate for some other girl to have to suffer a peeping tom, right in the same bungalow. And if I catch you, you're done, just to be clear." She smiles sweetly at Rena and cracks the knuckles of her right hand against her left. More teasing than anything, really... but don't peek at her, seriously.

More concerning in her mind... Her eyes turn toward the sky, searching for Flygon. It takes her a moment to spot the creature, but there it is again. It makes wide circles for a while before landing. After she loses sight of it, she turns her attention back to her companions. "Hmm... y'know, before I came here, I swear I've seen Rangers with pokeballs. Do you think it's a regional thing?"

[Skybreaker]

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?

[CitrusArms]

Their conversation was interrupted as one of the Ranger leads addressed them all with a commanding voice. They were to take a pledge, and were thus given one. She holds her Styler high and repeats the words, her eyes closed. She doesn't flinch away from the Styler's zap, instead slowly lowering the device to her chest. She must take the pledge to heart.

The device was active now, huh?

Regan opened her eyes and turned her head down to look at it, holding it in her opened palm. She stares at it for a moment before starting to fiddle with it. If this was the tool of her trade, she should figure out how to work it. She was in the middle of busying herself with that when tragedy struck.

It was the hair on the back of her neck that alerted her. She turned her attention upward and caught sight of the massive ghost-type. Panic stuck immediately, and she froze. A Dusknoir!? That's crazy! Forgetting what she held in her hands, her left swings aside and her right goes for her poke-

Oh. Shit.

The ex-trainer's eyes turned quickly to confirm before turning again to look at the weird shape in her left hand. The styler... but could she manage it? Using this tool, in this situation? She looked up, into the sky, watching that Flygon's silhouette. It's found her again now, and was descending rapidly. The woman's eyes narrowed and she gripped the Styler tightly, before taking a stance. She'd just have to prove it, then. Even if it was a ghost pokemon in front of her.

Oh. It went away.

"..." Silence, and a dead rookie. She wondered how some of the others would react to that. Most likely, not everyone on that boat was prepared to encounter death. Not so soon. And with their missions coming up in only a few hours, they could not afford to be distracted by something like this. Standing and giving it idle thought would do no good, so she turned to her group. "If I might get the opinions of my teammates. What do you think of the appearance of such a powerful ghost pokemon in this area?" Herself? It bothered her. She wouldn't expect to run into ghost pokemon here. Not at this time of day, either. "It was awfully aggressive, too, wasn't it..."

The Flygon has flown away.

[cerozer0]

The teammate named Cecelia approached, looking rather cheery, and Mai returned the smile with her own shy one until a rather confusing string of events took place. A camera was suddenly held up and an arm was draped over her shoulder. The lens stared down blankly, and the electronic itself moved too and fro as Cecelia seemed to be making adjustments around the sun's glare, and then the sound of a picture being taken rang out once. Mai blushed furiously as the blonde detached herself, not very fond of having her picture taken, and the jumped a bit as introductions were made again.

“I’m Cecelia. Feel free to just call me Cece though!”

Mai stared at the bubbly girl once, then nodded, fumbling with the hem of her dress. They eventually broke eye contact as Cecelia went to take a picture with the other boy on their team, Reiner, and Mai took the time to glance around at the other groups. Many of them were already laughing and chit chatting, preparing themselves for long days of working together, and Mai couldn't help but appreciate all the smiling faces in the crowds. She was only distracted from all the cheeriness once, when there was a fain rustling behind her, and just before she could glance back to find the source, the black-haired girl called back everyone's attention. She let out a soft yell, as everyone else did, and then watched quietly as instructions were given on how to part take in the pledge. Mai took a moment to dig into her bag and pull out the styler, lifted it as high as everyone else, then repeated the words that Viva had said moments before,

"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."

Lights flashed, and suddenly, Mai felt a jolt where her finger tips met the styler. She cringed, but did not drop the item, and instead brought it down and stared at with intense interest. The pain had been brief, nothing like how her chest felt after ten minutes of heavy running, and was basically gone now. The styler itself seem to be, well, on now. Explanations eventually were given, and finally, Mai let out a sigh of relief and began to relax, and the soft murmur of conversations picked back up as they were dismissed. She was finally a Ranger. She had ran away from home, discovered her hatred for boats, walked a mile through a jungle, and finally began to converse with children her age. And she was a Ranger. Mai felt her lips widen into a grin as she returned to her own group, beginning to idly stammer out a conversation as everyone else did.

And then she heard it again, the rustling. Purple eyes narrowed tightly as she glanced away from her teammates and into the woods behind.

Nothing... No, wait...

There was a brisk feeling in the air, the feeling one would used to get Pokemon Tower back home, and Mai traced the area once more until she saw it. A figure, invisible, which quickly formed into a Dusknoir, The Gripper Pokemon. It was massive, frightening, and standing just over one of the other newly initiated rangers. After a few moments of inspecting it's face and body movements and the strange noises it produced she stepped forward, mouth parted in a wide, frightened 'O'.

Oi, it's going to...

"It's going to attack! Mov-" her cry of warning ended with a loud gasp as the boy in the hood was whacked back, and then drained of his life force. Two attacks were then barreled at the ghost-type and it finally vanished, leaving behind a stunned silence within the clearing. Mai stood there, stunned, and then quickly broke her trance and walked over to the body of Hao, her face as calm and as grave as ever. The rational side of her brain was keeping her sane, asking serious questions like: 'Perhaps he is still living, the spirit had been released' and 'Its best to keep calm, right? One person being calm can spur others.' She knelt down beside the boy, her hands reaching up to feel around his neck and his wrists. No pulse. He was already cold as well, like the air had been beofre. Mai then tried CPR, which she learned after reading a few books on first aid, and when nothing else seemed to work she sat back, panting. After catching her breath she gently placed a hand on his forehead, then drifted down to his eyes, closing them.

"He's dead." is all she said, the slight quiver in her voice giving away how much fear she felt at that very moment. The air was warm once again, the sun blaring. An ironically beautiful day for such a frightening event.

Mai wanted to cry.

[Sen]

“No way anyone’s peeping on you,” Rena knew it wasn’t good to heat the coals for that topic, but he couldn’t let Regan get the last word in it. Even if his remark wasn’t all that great. Regan changes her focus from the group to the sky for something, but quickly returns and continues the conversation. Rena paused to think about Regan’s question. Now that the thought arose, Rena had never seen many rangers, let alone with pokeballs on hand.

“Maybe only high-ranking rangers get Pokeballs? I haven’t really seen many with them, so it’s probably that.” He replied, but was cut off at the very end by the senior rangers. It was time to pledge allegiance, or in other words, become a real ranger. He reached for the styler in his back pocket and slipped it out with extreme ease. Like everyone else he jousted it to the sky.

This was it. The girl recited the vow, and Rena followed suit. “I solemnly swear, from this point onward, to be courageous and fight the forces of evil,” The tension in his voice wavered half-way through the pledge. “to not let any emotions or personal interests get in the way of my duty, and to protect the innocent; people or Pokemon.” With the vow finished, Rena made sure that his arm was straight to the sky.

From the ranger’s own styler, a wave of light swept through the clearing, igniting all the trainees’ own stylers. The object reverberated with a strong shock, coursing through Rena’s body. He instinctively brought his arm down and grasped it with his free hand. It took almost all his willpower to not drop it and for not dropping it, he mentally rewarded himself. Without thinking about it he returned to the position again with a wide smirk. The ranger shortly continued her speech. “The vibration signifies that you 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...” A registered ranger. Rena was now one of those. He mouthed the words over and over again, barely being able to contain his excitement.

Moving towards a bulletin board in the heart of the clearing, the ranger continued; “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.” Rena inched his way closer towards the front of the group as he put his styler back into his pocket. He churned over the fact that he wasn’t sure which ‘number’ his group was. Being called last, it would probably be the highest number painted.

Rena started his way over towards the bungalows to put his luggage away and explore his new homes, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed people turning around. He wasn’t particularly concerned about what was going on until he started to register what was wrong. Number 1, everyone went silent. Number 2, everyone was turned towards the issue. Number 3, there was a lurking figure quickly fading into visibility. Number 4, there was a rookie standing in the path of it.

He took a instinctual step backwards as the figure revealed itself to be a Dusknoir. Rena had never seen one before but he had read about them in books. Unless they were on your side, they weren’t something you wanted to be against. Not without protection like this. As it approached the horde of humans it produced a heavy static sound, which almost brought Rena to his knees. For whatever reason the frequency resounded painfully through his head.

The sound soon dissolved into nothing but a moment of silence. Rena forced himself back into a stable stand and observed the scene. There, on the ground motionless, was the only causality. The unfortunate soul who was too close to the beast and now laid without a pulse. It took Rena a brief moment to fully realise what had just happened. His face contorted into a mixture of fear and pain. Someone just died. Someone was now dead. They just had their first casualty.

[Chezka]

Noah ignored the prickling feeling that ran through her body, brushing it off as a sense of excitement rather than one of foreboding. It was probably just a weird temperature dip anyway; everyone else looked like they felt it, as well. Shrugging, she shaped her hands into two circles and looked through them as though they were binoculars. She joined Dirge as he looked around for their missing partner, although it was a little difficult looking for someone shebdidn't know. There weren't that many still without a group, but she couldn't find one that looked like a 'Hao Ryota.'

"I don't see him either," she said, just as Viva called for everyone's attention.

Noah turned to Viva to cheer along with everyone else and hurriedly dug into her Aipom backpack for her capture styler, following Viva's instructions. She mimicked the experienced ranger's actions, raising her styler high up enthusiastically. The pledge that came after was a little harder for Noah to follow, but she managed to repeat the most important parts. She grinned widely, suddenly feeling a surge of resolve and zeal. To protect the innocent; people or pokemon. That was what she came here to do!

She watched in awe, starry-eyed and mouth agape, as all of the rangers' capture stylers began to glow, covering the area with a constellation of light that reminded her of a group of Illumise. Her quick reflexes kicked in when the styler emitted a slight electric shock, and she was throwing her styler up before she realized, but she managed to catch it before it fell to the ground. Noah turned to Dirge then, just as he received their mission from Annemarie. He was pointing at something behind her, seemingly at the hooded boy slowly approaching them.

"Ah, you think that's really Hao?" She waved at the boy excitedly, calling him out. "Over he-"

A shiver ran down her spine, and the prickling feeling from before coursed through her once again, but with ten times the intensity. She was going into a fighting stance before she could comprehend what was happening, digging her feet into the ground and lifting her arms into position. Noah looked like a Zoroark ready to pounce. Her eyes darted this way and that, scanning for whatever danger was looming about.

There was nothing at first, but then she saw it. It started out as a strange distortion, slowly taking solid form until it was completely visible. Driven by instincts, Noah was running toward it before she could even tell what it was. A ghost Pokemon! she realized as she neared it, although she hadn't known what it was called. All she knew was that it evolved from a Duskull. The ghost Pokemon let out a terrifying moan, and she watched in horror as it left a trail of ruin in its wake.

"Hao, get back!" she called out, as she realized it was fast approaching the hooded boy. "Hurry!"

The Pokemon attacked before Hao could react, and it sent him sprawling on the ground. Noah threw herself at the Pokemon with a strangled battle cry, but she had simply gone through. Too startled to roll in time, she landed on her stomach, just across Hao's body. No… Hao's corpse. Noah choked back a sob and tried to move out of the Pokemon's reach, but she was frozen. She couldn't take her eyes off the poor boy across from her. He was going to be in her squad. He didn't even get to go on his first mission.

Noah only realized that the other rangers had taken care of the Pokemon after someone ran up to Hao to give him CPR. He's dead. She repeated the girl's words. Dead, and she couldn't do anything to save him. She was right there, and she couldn't save him. Didn't she just vow to protect the innocent?! Noah pushed herself up weakly and ran straight to Dirge, tears welling up in her eyes.

"H-Hao, he--" was all she could say before she burst out crying.

[Crimson Flame]

Leo couldn't help smiling as the girl known as Rebel shyly introduced herself. She barely managed to whisper it. Then, he bust out laughing when she got excited about a Flygon that was passing by overhead. His intuition about her had been right. She had even said the lines from the show almost word for word. "Hehe! oh my gosh! You are so cute!" He exclaimed as he threw his arms around the girl, and gave her a big hug. "You really are just like Fluttershy! I think we're gonna get along great!" He then let go, before he accidentally suffocated the girl. "I like Flygon too. It's one of the cutest Dragon types ever! Well, besides Dragonite, Altaria, and Goodra, but I see Flygon more often where I live."

Then, one of the senior rangers called everyone's attention so everyone could pledge allegeance. Leo dug through his pink backpack, pulled out his capture styler, and held it up in the air the same way everyone else was doing. He then recited the oath, although he mumbled the "to not let any emotions or personal interests get in the way of my duty" part under his breath. He would try not to let it affect his duty, but he wasn't comfortable guaranteeing that. Leo never understood what was up with these organizations and feelings. Feelings were great! Unless it was anger, that wasn't so nice. Yeah, they weren't always right, but it was better than being cold and unemotional. Besides, sometimes following your heart can be good.

He watched in awe, as all of the rangers' capture stylers began to glow. The boys eyes were wide with excitement. "Wow! This is awesome!" he exclaimed. He was officially a ranger now. Then he jumped, and let out a yelp as the device gave him a small electric shock. "GAH!" He suddenly dropped the styler, then bent down to pick it back up. The lady ranger exclaimed that the shock was the styler registering them, so only they could use their styler. That made sense, but they could have told them that before shocking them. Then, she passed around some pieces of paper that listed the missions they could take. Leo nodded, thanking the older ranger as he took the pape. He looked at the paper, then showed it to his teammate. "So Fluttershy, which mission should we do? I like Help missions personally, but I also like Fairy types, and there's this Hunt mission involving Clefairy that I wanna do..."

Before Leo could get an answer, something unexpected happened. He felt a chill down his spine. When he turned around, he saw that a Dusknoir suddenly invaded the camp. After that, everything had happened so quickly, Leo barely had time to react. The Ghost type whacked a boy on the head, then sucked out his life force, seemingly at random. Thankfully, one of the senior rangers managed to make the scary Ghost go away, but the damage was already done. A new ranger was killed before he even had a chance to do anything. Someone even tried to give the poor guy CPR, but nothing happened.

Leo watched the whole scene unfold in shock. His eyes were wide, and his hand covered his open mouth. Even though he hadn't really gotten a chance to get to know the victim, his eyes were still watering from how sad this whole thing was. "Oh my gosh!" He couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. He had never experienced a death before. All sorts of thoughts ran through the boys mind, Why would a wild Pokemon do such a thing? Sure, Ghost types get bad reputations, but he had always been taught that Pokemon weren't evil, only evil trainers that make their Pokemon do bad things? If that were the case, that meant some bad guy wanted them dead. Who would do such a thing? They were just new rangers just starting out their careers, they hadn't hurt anybody. "He was so young! Who would do something like this?!"

[CitrusArms]

This wasn't good. The situation was devolving into chaos quickly. The other recruits were too scared to acknowledge her more rational approach. She was being drowned out.

That just meant that she had to take charge of what sound minds were left. She couldn't rely on her usual team, but luckily, she had a new one. Even if it was a lot smaller. "Rena, take Derrick and do a perimeter search. Do not approach anything you find, and return immediately. Do not venture out. Go." She cracked her neck to either side, eyes locking on to that Blaziken lookalike. He seemed like the responsible sort, right? But maybe it was just that image he presented reminded her of something...

No matter, she'd already chosen him to approach. Though... she could try and salvage some of this on the way.

First, she knelt by the body, and placed two fingers on his forehead. "Peace to you at the end of your journey." She took a slow breath before opening her eyes. Her attention shifted, bringing her gaze up to Mai. "I'm Regan Hiryuu, in group 4. I need to ask you a favor. Could you try and calm the others? You might want to start with that man, there." She turned her head briefly and nodded toward Leo. "He's still thinking, I think. In the mean time, I'm going to see what I can find out." She pushes herself back to her feet, rolling her shoulders. Just looking at the guy made her want to spar, she was getting oddly excited about confronting him... but she had to remember her purpose. She couldn't get overexcited about it. She had to remember that she wanted information, not a fight.

She stops in a soft speaking range, to keep the conversation close. This didn't need to be up for all to hear. Maybe the other lead Rangers, but not all the recruits. It would only stir them poorly. "Kyler, right? If I may so boldly ask, what the hell was that? I was under the impression that we were in relative safety here. Was I wrong?"