Kanto Sentai Pokéranger

(a.k.a. Power Rangers: Pocket Monsters)

Usual disclaimers apply. These characters do no belong to me.

The same magic Brock felt earlier in the day could be felt a second time. He groaned and convulsed wildly, the feeling even stronger than before. Even Degenhart froze in place, feeling the strange magic himself, but being a lot stronger than Brock did not feel as drained as the Green Ranger.

“Brock!” Ash shouted, grabbing his friend and keeping him from falling over.

“Let me guess,” Tracey started, “another one of those fusion spells, right?”

“Correct, Tracey,” Degenhart said after he regained his senses. “Pandion is at it again.”

“They didn’t use Jessie again, did they?” Misty asked.

“No. This time, it was her partner.”

Max’s hands flew like lightning across the controls, and eventually he brought up the scene somewhere in Pallet Town. People were running for their lives as what looked like a giant, bipedal Meowth terrorized the neighborhood. “It looks like James!” Max shouted. “And…that talking Meowth that Team Rocket has?”

It didn’t end there. A few local Pokémon trainers attempted to stop the creature, only to have their Pokémon beaten and severely wounded. This creature was not showing them any mercy.

“That’s it!” Ash shouted. “I’m going in!” Ash struck a heroic pose, his helmet still in hand, and clenched his fist tight. “Back to action!” he shouted. In a flash of light, he disappeared.

* * * * *

The White Ranger had to press through a handful of panicked villagers running for their lives as he ran towards the James/Meowth hybrid monster that was attacking the sleepy little burg. He ran until he found the thing in the parking lot of a mini-mall, doing battle with another local trainer.

But it wasn’t some nameless trainer like before. It was…

Gary!

Gary stood defiantly against the creature, dressed in a black shirt and dark purple slacks and what looked like brown Lugz boots (he couldn’t tell; his pants covered up most of the boot). His green and yellow yin-yang charm dangled from his neck, and his Umbreon growled in anger.

“I’m putting a stop to your reign of terror right now!” Gary shouted. His Umbreon howled in agreement.

“What makes you think you’re better than any other trainer that stood before me?” it answered. “No one will stop me from laying waste to Pallet Town!”

“I AM Pallet Town!” Gary shouted back. He pointed at the creature. “Umbreon, take down!”

“Umbreon!” {“Yes sir!”} Umbreon shouted. It sprinted towards its target as fast as it could move, the James/Meowth hybrid not moving, only smiling a wicked, predatory grin. As the charging Umbreon neared, its right arm snapped up, bearing a nasty set of claws. It slashed as the dark Eevee evolution, and sent it sprawling back towards its master.

Gary dashed towards his wounded Pokémon. “Umbreon!” Gary wailed. Umbreon was not in good shape. It had some pretty deep cuts on its side, and they were bleeding badly. Gary had tears in his eyes as he returned the one Pokémon he carried with him. “You…you monster!” he shouted. Meanwhile, the James/Meowth mutant only smiled with sharp, fanged teeth and soulless eyes.

The coin charm on his forehead glowed brightly. With a loud snarl, it shot a wave of coin-shaped energy bullets at Gary. They struck him around the chest and legs, and with a pained scream, he fell and spun to his stomach, the Pokéball containing Umbreon dropping from his hand and rolling away.

“N-no…Umbreon…” he groaned. He tried to push himself to his feet, but only got one hand firmly planted. It shook violently, along with the rest of his body. Gary coughed hard, and a glob of blood poured from his mouth and pooled on the asphalt below.

“Pathetic human,” the monster laughed. It brought its arms up, claws flashing menacingly. “And now, you die.”

Gary turned his head to look at his attacker, eyes wide with fright. There was a bright flash, followed by a loud yell, the sound of a foot hitting flesh, followed by an agonized groan. Gary shielded his eyes with his arm, still expecting his death to be delivered upon him. When the light subsided, he moved his arm. Standing before him was a figure in white, holding his Umbreon’s Pokéball.

“Who…who…are you?” Gary said, weakly.

“Here,” the person said, handing him his Pokéball. “Are you able to stand?”

“I think so,” Gary said. He tried to stand, but he pitched forward, into this white-clad stranger.

“Aw, geez…” The man in white brought his fist up to his helmet’s mouthpiece. “Get an ambulance over here, quickly!”

“Way ahead of ya, White Ranger,” a young voice on the other end answered. “There’s one on its way as we speak.”

“Good.” He looked at Gary. Through his blurry vision, Gary saw his own face in the reflection of this guy’s black visor. He looked pale and sickly, almost like he was going to vomit. “Stay with me now,” he coaxed, “help’s on the way.”

“Maybe you should worry about yourself, Power Ranger!” James/Meowth shouted. Its forehead charm glowed again, shooting out another rain of coin bullets. The White Ranger grabbed Gary and dashed to the side, onto the sidewalk outside of a shoe store. He laid him down gently, fearing he may have aggravated his injuries by moving him. They saw the James/Meowth hybrid move to attack again. This time, however, four bolts of energy – red, blue, green and yellow – slammed into it repeatedly, knocking it to the ground.

“There’s…more of you?” Gary said weakly.

The White Ranger dashed over to his Red, Blue, Green and Yellow Ranger teammates. “Where were you guys? I was worried you weren’t going to show,” he said.

“Sorry, we were trying to figure out a way to stop him and save James,” the Green Ranger said.

“Any ideas?”

“Nothing any good,” the Blue Ranger said. “We couldn’t come up with anything that won’t end up destroying him permanently.”

The White Ranger looked shocked. “Wow. I’m surprised you guys want to go on with this.”

“Well, you did bring up some good points,” the Red Ranger added.

“Team Rocket does slap-on-the-wrist stuff compared to Pandion’s goons,” said the Yellow Ranger.

James/Meowth got to its feet. “Great, now I have to deal with all of you?” it said.

“That’s right!” PokéWhite shouted. “Your twisted magic has no place in Pallet Town! We’re gonna take you down!”

“Yeah!” the other four shouted.

“The purity of the light!” shouted the White Ranger. “The White Trainer—PokéWhite!”

“The harmony of nature!” roared the Green Ranger. “The Green Trainer—PokéGreen!”

“The whimsy of the seas!” called the Blue Ranger. “The Blue Trainer—PokéBlue!”

“The free spirit of the skies!” shouted the Yellow Ranger. “The Yellow Trainer—PokéYellow!”

“The fury of the mountain!” bellowed the Red Ranger. “The Red Trainer—PokéRed!”

The White Ranger stepped forward, his fist clenched. “The Pokémon of the world are at our control!” he shouted.

And as one, they struck heroic poses. “KANTO SENTAI…POKÉRANGER!” they shouted.

“Five against one,” the creature scoffed. “That’s hardly fair.” His claws lengthened and gave off an eerie glow. “You should go find yourselves a few more Rangers!”

“We’ve got enough firepower right now to take you out!” the White Ranger shouted, summoning his Pikatana. The other Rangers took his cue, and summoned their own weapons—the CroHammer, the TogeSpear, the ScytherSickles, and the CombuScythe, respectively. “Attack!” Ash shouted. They all kiayed, then ran towards James/Meowth.

Ash rolled over one shoulder as he approached. For the split second in which the enemy’s attention was on him, it gave Misty the opportunity for a free shot. Her spear struck around its shoulder, a spark indicating a clean hit. The enemy spun around and slashed Misty with its claw, knocking her away. May used her scythe like a spear herself, parrying with the spike on the top of the handle. She brought the weapon around and tried to land a blow with the main, curved blade of the scythe, only to have it blocked by one claw and take a claw to the stomach with the other. A kick to the back from Ash sent James/Meowth sprawling forward, right into Tracey and his ScytherSickles. They were evenly matched, claw for kama, until their weapons became entangled. Tracey pressured back into the creature and would’ve won if it weren’t for the hard kick in the stomach that laid him out. Then, James/Meowth turned to Ash. Ash thrust his sword forward, and the creature stopped it with his claws. This was just what he wanted. Brock was the last to attack, using Ash’s shoulders as a springboard to get more height on his jump, slamming his hammer in the back of its head as he jumped over it. Ash freed his katana, and landed one more slash as it was sent sprawling away.

The Rangers regrouped around their leader as James/Meowth got to its feet. And with a loud roar, the creature shot another volley of coin bullets from its forehead. The Rangers shielded themselves from the assault, each coin creating a cloud of smoke upon impact. Though the clouds weren’t that big, they added up. Eventually there was a curtain of smoke between them and the monster.

The creature gasped in shock as the Rangers moved through the smoke, the White Ranger holding the Master Blaster, the Blue and Green Rangers to his right, and the Yellow and Red Rangers to his left. All five barrels were trained right on him.

“Prepare to return fire,” Ash ordered.

“Ready, aim, fire!” they shouted as Ash pulled the trigger. The five beams of light that shot out from it twisted around one another, and their corkscrew flight pattern added extra intensity to the composite beam. It drilled into James/Meowth, the impact sending him to the ground hard with a loud wail.

They kept the weapon aimed at the creature, waiting for it to make another move. It didn’t. Just then, they heard the sound of ambulance sirens. They disengaged the Master Blaster and unsummoned their weapons. The paramedics worked quickly, getting Gary on a stretcher and loading him up.

Ash’s communicator beeped. He answered it. “What’s up?”

“Ash!” It was the voice of Professor Oak. He sounded very panicky. “Is Gary going to be alright? Where is he?”

“Gary’s being taken to the hospital as we speak, Professor,” Ash answered. “He’ll be—”

A loud explosion cut him off. The ambulance’s engine seemed like it exploded, and it skidded wildly out of control until it hit a power line pole. There was a commotion inside.

“ASH, LOOK OUT!” Misty screamed.

Ash turned around, and saw the James/Meowth monster run at him full tilt. Apparently, it was the reason the ambulance crashed, considering its forehead charm was glowing, though the glowing was subsiding. The White Ranger had no time to react as its claws slashed repeatedly into his torso in rapid succession, each blow giving off a small spark.

“That looked like a Fury Swipes attack,” Brock commented.

It ended its attack with a huge slash with its right claw. Ash wailed as he was sent flying. When he hit the ground, his White Ranger uniform shattered like glass. He struggled to get to his feet.

“Oh, no,” May gasped, “Ash…demorphed…”

Everyone ran to their fallen leader. Misty and Tracey were the first to reach him, and they helped him to a vertical base. The creature was laughing and boasting about its latest accomplishment. A trickle of blood leaked from the corner of Ash’s mouth. However, he did not lose any of his resolve. If anything, it – along with his anger – grew stronger.

“Yes…” the monster hissed, “cower in fear, Power Rangers…beg for mercy at my awesome power! Give up! You are helpless to stop me!”

“No…” Ash growled. He forcefully yanked his arms away from Misty and Tracey. “I’ll never give up. I’ll never bow down before the likes of you!” Ash clenched his fists, and white light started to glow around them. “As long as I have a breath in my body I will stop you at any cost!” His hands glowed brighter. Then, he snapped his hands up, his fingers fanned out and his palms almost right against his cheeks. He shut his eyes tightly.

“PROMINENCE!” he bellowed.

In an instant, the entire world seemed to explode in a bright flash of light. The Rangers behind Ash weren’t affected, but everything in front of Ash was engulfed in white light. They could hear James/Meowth scream in agony, and they could just barely make out his form convulsing and flailing about in agony. As the light subsided, the creature was half blind, and everything appeared as a blur to it. Deciding it could not fight like this, it flung its hand at the ground, causing a magical fissure to appear. It disappeared into the fissure.

“Hey, get back here!” Ash shouted. He ran three steps and fell to one knee, gasping for breath. He heard his friends power down behind him. Again, he was hauled to his feet, and this time he did not object to their help. They hurried over to the wrecked ambulance and surveyed the damage. The front right side was blackened, while the entire front side was crushed underneath the power line pole. The driver was pinned under the steering wheel.

Brock grabbed the handle of the driver’s door, only to have it fall completely off. “Anyone got any Pokémon that can get this off him?” Ash asked. Everyone else murmured to themselves as they went over what Pokémon they had with them…

“Wait!” May interrupted. “We left all our Pokémon at the lab!”

“Oh, that’s right,” Tracey groaned, “we’ve got nothing!”

“I have an idea,” Brock said. “Give me a second…” He walked away from the scene of the accident, only to grab a big handful of grass and return a moment later. Brock opened his hand, letting the blades cover the steering wheel and the dashboard. Then, he held his hands over both. “Tangleweed!” he shouted. His hands glowed green, a sign of Brock channeling his energy into the blades of grass. The grass started to grow, and fast. The blades became weeds that wormed their way into the steering column and the dashboard. Brock grunted, and his hands glowed brighter. Eventually the weeds started growing out of the interior, more and more growing until it burst and split open. He stopped working his magic, and pulled the scraps apart, enough so that the driver could get out. The paramedic quickly got out as well.

“Wow! That was amazing!” the driver said. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“Don’t ask,” Brock said flatly.

Eventually, another ambulance showed up, and Gary (who was still half out of it) and the other paramedics were loaded in and taken away. “Come on, let’s get back to the lab,” Ash said. Everyone agreed, and the five Rangers disappeared in color-specific flashes of light.

* * * * *

“I can’t believe we couldn’t treat Gary in here,” Professor Oak said once everyone was back in the secret command center underneath Oak’s lab. The Rangers were demorphed, but still a little on edge.

“But that would give away our secret identities,” Max argued. “Isn’t that what we’re trying to prevent?”

“Indeed, Max is right,” Degenhart said. “True, this laboratory is better equipped to handle his injuries than the hospital Gary is in now. However, if he found out, our entire operation would be compromised.”

Professor Oak took this a little incorrectly. “Are you saying that my grandson would tell the whole world about this?” he insinuated.

“Not exactly,” Degenhart answered. “However, for the sake of all of us, it’s better to keep this a secret. The fewer people know about it, the better.”

“Well there’s something that I don’t want kept under wraps,” Brock insisted. He turned to Ash. “How did you do that big flash of light thing earlier?”

“What?” Ash said. He thought for a moment. “Oh, that? Gee…” He scratched his head. “That’s a good question. I guess after I got demorphed, I just got really angry. It seemed…I dunno, totally natural to me.”

“And how did you do that thing with the grass?” May asked.

“That…well, that was my special ability,” Brock said with a wink.

“Brock has begun to use his powers as the Green Ranger even when he is not morphed,” Degenhart explained. “Since his element is earth, Brock’s ability is he can channel his own strength into things like plants and Pokémon, healing them or making them stronger—or in the case with the grass, grow. Also, by the same token, he can borrow from nature and make himself stronger, for a short time.” He looked at Ash. “Just as Ash’s element is light, he is able to use the light to hinder and confuse his opponents.”

“What kind of things can we do?” Tracey asked.

“Give it time, Tracey. Just because Brock and Ash have tapped their potential first does not mean you and the others lack the ability to do so. But given your elements are…” he pointed at Tracey first, “…wind,” then at Misty, “…water,” and then to May, “…fire, your ‘civilian powers’, if you will, will use them in some way. How is entirely up to you.”

For a few moments, no one said anything. They were entranced in their own thoughts. What kind of tricks could they do with their new powers? And how long will it take to unlock them? Not soon enough, depending on who you asked.

The alarms blared again. At once, Ash and his friends looked at the monitors. “It’s Team Rocket again,” Ash said.

“Yeah, but look at them…” Misty said. They were causing more havoc in Pallet Town, but something was different about them. The same James/Meowth creature was there, as was the Jessie/Seviper mutant. Their eyes, though… “They look like they’re completely out of it.”

Tracey leaned closer. “I know,” he said. “Look at their eyes. It’s like they’re in a trance or something.”

“My guess is that Pandion has finally broken Jessie and James’ wills,” Pandion hypothesized. “That’s probably why James fought you two so viciously…he had no will to resist. Seeing his partner violated like that must’ve cracked him.”

“We still gotta stop them!” Ash insisted.

“Wait,” Professor Oak coaxed. “Before you go, I want you to take these with you.” He handed Ash two Pokéballs, except the part that should’ve been red was five colors—the colors of the five Rangers.

“What are these?”

“They’re balls designed to split up Jessie and James and their Pokémon…so we hope,” the professor explained. “I provided the technology, and Degenhart whipped up a spell that should separate the two. We call them Catch-and-Release Balls.”

“All you have to do is incapacitate them to the point where they can not resist being captured by these balls,” Degenhart added. “Think of it as just capturing another Pokémon in the wild.”

“I think I can handle that,” Ash said with a smirk. He took the balls after they were shrunk down to golf ball size, but he didn’t morph yet. If he did, they would still be part of his civilian attire, and he’d have no access to them. So he did something especially tricky…he first tossed them in the air. “Ready?” he asked his friends, grabbing his Morpher. The others fell into place, as per the usual group morphing ritual.

“Ready!” everyone else shouted.

And as one, they morphed. “POKÉRANGER! GO!”

* * * * *

The Rangers found Jessie/Seviper and James/Meowth on a rocky, barren coast far removed from the lab. They were ready for their enemies, and with their human counterparts lacking any will of their own, they could carry out their assignments without question. They stared down the heroes in color-swapped outfits.

“Remember,” the Blue Ranger reminded, “we gotta treat those things like regular Pokéballs.”

“And that means this is no different than catching Pokémon in the wild,” the White Ranger said, coming to that realization.

“Well, that is…” the Yellow Ranger started, “if you forget about these mutant abominations of nature and…”

Ash didn’t wait for Tracey to finish his thought. “Attack!” he shouted. With a loud shout, they ran at the creatures, full tilt.

They didn’t give them any time to attack or any room to wind up and try anything big. The White, Green and Yellow Rangers teamed up on the Jessie/Seviper creature, while the Blue and Red Rangers turned their attention to James/Meowth.

Jessie/Seviper couldn’t move as fast as its assailants, as its snakelike lower half only seemed to hinder its movement. It scored only a few hits on the Rangers; when it would attack with punches, they would be blocked by one of the Rangers and it would leave itself open to attacks from the other two. The most damage it did came as a tail whip that struck all three at once. They countered quickly. Ash, Brock and Tracey raised a fist in the air, and they could feel their individual powers flowing into them. When they charged enough power, they each drew them back and slammed them into Jessie/Seviper’s chest, driving it straight into the ground.

Meanwhile, Misty and May kept James/Meowth a good distance away with their weapons. It couldn’t get past both the CombuScythe and the TogeSpear long enough to attack with its comparatively shorter claws. Every time it would take a step forward, Misty would be right there, poking with her spear. In its haste, the creature dashed forward, its claws coming out in an X-slash. The two Ranger ladies easily sidestepped the attack, and instead the creature ate the points of Misty’s spear and May’s scythe. And as it staggered backward it caught the girls’ final attack.

Misty jumped up and spun around in mid air, smashing her boot into the monster’s face at the peak of her jump, while at the same time, May ducked and spun, knocking James/Meowth off its feet with a back sweep kick. The impact was so fast and hard the creature landed practically on the back of its head before collapsing in a heap.

Once they were incapacitated, they fell into formation behind Ash. “Alright, that should be enough,” Ash declared. “Now, let’s finish this!” Ash reached behind his back, and pulled out the two Catch-and-Release balls. He handed one to Misty, who was currently the closest one to him.

“You sure this’ll work?” she asked.

“You know what?” he answered. “No. But I don’t have any other ideas, so this is what we’re going with.”

The two Rangers wound up, their throwing motions mirror images of one another (Ash is left handed, Misty is right). “Pokéball, GO!” they shouted. The balls sailed cleanly through the air and struck the two creatures. Dazed and confused, they had no idea they were being “captured” until it was too late, and couldn’t avoid the balls. Upon impact, they snapped open and sucked the creatures inside.

“Got ‘em!” Brock shouted.

“Good job, you two!” May added.

“Save your praise,” Ash warned, “we haven’t caught them yet.” They wobbled around for a few moments, the button glowing red all the time. And if we don’t catch them, I don’t know what we’re going to do, Ash thought. We just might have to destroy Jessie and James…

After a few more moments, they stopped wobbling. The light on the ball went out.

“Okay now we got ‘em!” Tracey said. The second he said that, the Pokéballs snapped open, and not one but two oddly shaped lights sprang from the ball and hit the ground. The Rangers gasped as they surveyed this newest development.

There, on the ground, were Jessie and her Seviper, James, and Meowth, all unconscious. Slowly, their eyes opened. They looked at the Pokérangers in shock.

TO BE CONTINUED……………