Pokemon Ranger: The Hero of Oblivia

Signs of the Hidden.

When I woke up, Yuka and Nema were gone from the bed. Jet was looking at me intently. I hardly realized where I was. I half expected to still be in Almia with my sister and parents.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" I asked, rubbing behind his ears.
Jet gave me a small smile and climbed off of the bed. I'm guessing that that was my cue to get up. I threw on my lemon yellow backpack and reattached my Styler. Jet was waiting patiently by the door and I smiled. This Buizel never stopped, did he? "You don't need to protect me, you know. I'm not a scrawny kid."

Buizel shook his head. "Buibui. Buizel zel!"

I wished that I could understand Pokemon so that I didn't have to guess what they were telling me. I fingered through my hair as I walked out of the room. I was instantly rewarded with the sweet smell of breakfast. I tried not to seem too eager as I ran to a seat at the table, joining Nema and Rand.
Leanne, who was the one cooking, laughed. "Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." She teased. "I thought Rangers were supposed to get up early."

I looked to the clock on the other side of the room. It was eight in the morning. Normally, I was up by five so that I could train myself. "Well, this Ranger went through the Distortion World and back." I reminded her. Leanne offered me a simple shrug and Rand cleared his throat.

"We met another one besides the one at the wireless tower." Rand impatiently blurted out. I was sure that Professor Hastings and Rand would get along swimmingly. Leanne's smiling face grew serious. "He violently destroyed the Big Brooker Bridge that goes to Mitonga Island."

The girls gasped and my face dropped, recalling each moment clearly. "That's terrible!" Leanne exclaimed, bringing breakfast over to the table. She sat to my left. "That means that they're trying to trap the Rangers on this island! And the ocean current is very fast, so we can't go over there by ship..." She trailed off.

"We could try flying over there, but I haven't seen any Staraptor around recently." Rand added.

My stomach flipped and I suddenly had no appetite. "So that means that the only thing that we can do is to wait for the bridge to be repaired, right?" I asked. They nodded slowly.

Rand stood up from his spot at the table. "I'll ask Booker to fix it! He did build it, after all."

Leanne motioned for him to sit back down. "Do you mind if I ask a question?" She asked, turning to me.

I was startled by her sudden request. "Shoot."

"After capturing Raikou, you mentioned something about seeing a floating figure in the sky, right?" She asked, brushing her hair out of her face that was tangled from a night of restless sleep.

I nodded wordlessly. Was this the part where they would call me crazy and laugh?

"Do you remember the shape?" She asked, her eyes analyzing my every move.

Wait, did this mean that they trusted that I was telling the truth? I thought back to when I befriended Raikou. "Yeah... Yeah, I think so." I muttered. "Do you have a pencil?"

Leanne pulled a pencil out of her bun. Well, that was convenient. I grabbed my paper napkin and started doodling. Everyone got up from their seats to look over my shoulder. I drew a lightning bolt with a line through it. "It looked like that."

I could feel Leanne's breath on my neck as she gasped. "This looks like some kind of Emblem!" She breathed as she snatched up the napkin. "There's something curious about this. I'll do a little research on it." She took the napkin and ran upstairs to her library.

Nema sighed once she left. "Once Mama goes into her study, she won't come out for a while. I guess it's up to me to do the dishes."

I offered her a small smile.