Note: Professor Sycamore here is not the canon Professor Sycamore. This was started before there was an actually Professor Sycamore. This is an assistant professor to one of the current pokemon professor that live in the region.

Miriam watched as the shifting blackness consumed the boys' forms and just as quickly dropped them to the ground. As Darkrai's hand drew closer to one of the boy's heads, his eyes still a horrid color, she realized she was scared. She shifted to the other foot as Darkrai's gaze settled on her, her mind tempting her to step back. Within moments his eyes shined blue again but a claw remained near the boy. He looked . . . sad, maybe. She realized something. "I . . . thanks," she urgently tried to swallow her sudden fear but the sadness in that look lingered despite her efforts. That foot eased forward, inching further out of the dense bush to step into the clearing, her mind thinking about how to get him to understand she didn't fear hi– a scream caused a skip in her heartbeat. The screamer called to her. She turned to further back in the bushes in the direction where she and Pup had entered from. "Emily," she whispered. Her friend stood there mostly hidden, her face framed by flowering growth that had closed their petals to the darkening shadows, with Pup softly growling by her feet. Both girls stood there dumbfounded, Miriam's own fear returning. How was she going to explain this?

"Bronzon! Use secret power to paralyze Darkrai!"

Miriam could hear Emily scream again as she felt herself being flung back further into the bushes.

Ranger Kite turned towards the direction of the young girl screaming for someone, noting the Professor jumping from the noise and nearly dropping the footage they had gather from the drone he had left at the Albo's residence yesterday to look for signs of the legendary pokemon.

"What . . . that doesn't," the Professor didn't finish speaking his thoughts. He didn't have to.

"Bronzon! Action time!" Ranger jumped over a stone bench running deeper into the garden towards the scream, leaving the Professor behind him stumbling to get up.

"Wait, ah, never mind! Go!" Professor Sycamore briefly paused to watch Ranger Kite run off before continuing to pack his things.

Kite's thoughts didn't wander as he raced towards the scream. He and Bronzon didn't even consider that Professor Sycamore had been left behind but they both silently agreed to themselves it was a good thing they had come quickly because as they burst into the clearing they saw a black claw reaching for the head of one of two boys who lay unmoving on trodden down grass. "Bronzon! Use secret power to paralyze Darkrai!" The girl screamed again as the attack flew through the air and kicked up a startling amount of debris.

The dust died down, revealing Darkrai hovering, its white plume tightly bound around its head, its arm crossed over its slightly curled body but the attack had seemingly missed. When the white plume suddenly fumed up again and its exposed eye caught sight of him Ranger Kite braced for an attack, ready to counter. (Maybe he could get it to settle down with the capture styler. Perhaps bring it in for the local lab for an examination.) But it stood there not moving, its arms still held up defensively crossed over its chest. It stared at him . . . like it was . . . confused? Kite's mind raced as it continued to just float there, not attacking, not fleeing, when it wasn't paralyzed. Wasn't it supposed to be aggressive when attacked? He looked at the boys. They seemed physically fine but then he noticed the ralts nearby. It did not look fine. He lifted his arm to ready his styler.

"Miriam!"

He looked out of the corner of his eye to see two girls, one sprawled onto the ground to the far side of the clearing and half hidden by a line of shrubbery. The other girl crouched over her. Kite's attention jerked to Darkrai as the pokemon took an openingly hostile stance. Its overbearing glare burning a hole in Kite's calm. The ralts' sudden squawk stilled everyone still conscious in the clearing. A dark reddish aura flared up, obscuring its small body before a wall of pressure accelerated outwards, the convulsing magmortar taking the blunt of it.

Professor Sycamore was just a mere couple yards into the tree line when he skidded to a halt as an explosion sounded and a wall of compressed air and sound rammed him. The trees' whipping subsided as he caught his breath. He had just been promoted to assistant professor but as this first assignment was going, a strange smile of excitement tinted with worry curved over his face, he could tell this was going to be an interesting job.

"Lucy," Alice's worry was mounting exponentially, the urge to yell for Tonio the same. It was probably nothing, Emily had apparently called her from somewhere in the background, and it was that thought that kept her from sprinting right out their front door right then, running all the way there and hugging her daughter. It had to be nothing. They needed to keep up appearances that everything was fine, not that some organization may have caught on to them hiding a legendary pokemon. She hadn't allowed her daughter to wander into danger.

"Oh dear," the phase grew louder as Emily's mother turned back to the phone.

"What!"

"Sorry, for some reason Pup got out of our backyard and ran into the city's garden and Miriam followed. Give me a moment to go get her."

"I'm still coming over," Alice tried her hardest to keep from screaming the phase but she feared she hadn't as she set the phone in the cradle. Her slight embarrassment began to burn on her cheeks as she sprinted out of the kitchen. "Tonio!"

"Oh dear, Emily!" She hurried to where her daughter sat clutching Miriam, both covered in debris and dust.

"Mom!" Emily allowed a few of the tears that had been building up to break free, cracking her composure.

"What happen?"

"Dar-," she turned around no longer seeing Darkrai or even the ralts. "I?" she flinched as the young man who had attacked stirred.

"Ah, jeez, what kind of attack was that," the pokemon ranger rubbed his head. A fine dust shook free from his hair with each movement of his hand.

"Sir," the young man looked at Emily's mother, "are you alright?"

He paused. "I," he mumbled as he looked over his front. "Bronzon!" he suddenly shouted, "Where are you? You alright?" He found his partner a few meters away fainted on the ground. "Come on, pal. You're alright," his prodding stirred the pokemon but it still wobbled as it hovered barely above the ground. He turned to the woman, "Yeah, citizen, we're fine. That was some attack that little ralts did." He had never seen something quite like that before.

"A ralts did this?" She noted the two boys and was torn between staying with Emily and Miriam and checking on their condition.

"Urg, that last blast," he suddenly stumbled to his feet, "where did Darkrai go?"

"Darkrai?" Emily's mother was clearly startled. "Are you sure that wasn't its attack?"

"No, I think it was the ralts," he surveyed the damage making notes, "where is it? We need to get it to the Pokemon Center." He looked over those still in the clearing. The dust covered boys were clearly showing distress in their features. Of the two girls, one was unconscious, the other seemed fine but scared and both the ralts and Darkrai were gone. Magmortar, probably one of the boys', had fainted. Where was Darkrai? Was it going to attack?

"S-she tripped," Emily blurted out. He hadn't meant to hurt her.

"Honey?" Lucy asked her daughter.

"She got scared and tripped," she tried to steady her own shaking.

"It's okay," Emily's mother gathered Miriam in her arms but didn't lift her up. She just knelt there cradling her head. A dusty Pup tried to climb into Miriam's limp arms. "Sir, call Officer Jenny and get her to get a bus over here for both human and pokemon."

He nodded, his waist comm already flipped open. "Open line 8-5-1. Bus requested at 6 by Main, about 20 meters north into the garden. Both human - 3 - and pokemon - 1 possible more - in need of medical assistance."

"Ranger Kite!" Everyone looked over at another man stumbling into the clearing. "What was that explosion? Was it a pokemon? It was, wasn't it? Did you see the pokemon?" His words kept getting more and more slurred together.

"Ah, it was a ralts."

"A ralts. Funny, it looked like night daze. Can a ralts learn night daze? I didn't think it could," he muttered to himself.

"Um," Emily's mother raised the question.

"Oh, ah, I'm Professor Sycamore. I'm working with the resident professor. How are you doing, madam?" He instantly froze as the trained line of those last couple of words slipped from his lips. The urge to curl into a ball or maybe sink into the ground was intensifying. Crap~
Lucy just glared at the man.

[author note: I know secret power doesn't work like that in forest/garden. Go with it.]