Sage was lucky to be alive. It was only a week after the Chairperson visit did it hit.

"Voicemail, Voicemail, Sage?"

Silence followed as he tried so hard to reach his styler. But the memories flowed like a river before he could move. He heard other stylers reaching out.

"Voicemail, Voicemail, Cameron?"

"Voicemail, Voicemail, Joel?"

"Voicemail, Voicemail, Elita?"

"Voicemail, Voicemail, Chris?"

"Sage?"

No one moved as he gently called out to the room, the stylers not hearing a thing.

"Guys..."

"Sage?"

"You're still awake...?"

"Not... for... long... are you guys ok..."

"It hurts..."

He teared up as he whispered.

"I know... maybe... the others will come...?"

"Anyone getting..."

"Yes..."

"Someone get to their styler..."

"I can't move..."

Sage couldn't identify their voices as they blurred together and started confusing him.

"Sage? Stay with us..." Sage could only muster up a faint noise before everything went black.

~!_!~

Sage woke up to a battle cry filling the air.

"CAPTURE ON!"

A roar filled the air as something grew in Sage. He slowly got to his feet to find the source of the noise. Everything stopped when he saw it. Cedar and Lapis were pushing through the raging pokemon to where he was. A small group followed their lead as they pushed through. He couldn't move as Lapis was thrown into a wall.

"Lapis!?"

"Keep going! Get to the Base Leaders and Chris! I'll pull them out of the way!"

"We're not leaving you!"

"Then bloody come back for me! Those rangers are in more need than me! I can take care of myself! I'll get these guys, you get the rangers!"

"Alright moron! See you outside!" Sage had to sit down as stars clouded his vision. The sound of feet followed as Cedar, Aria, Freddy, And Percy ran in. Cedar's face lit up as their eyes met.

"Captain!"

Sage had no words as Cedar got to his side and pulled him into a gentle hug. The pain still roared to life, but Sage didn't care. Help had arrived and he didn't even give anything to them. His eyes drifted over to the others as they were helped to their feet. Freddy and Percy took three while Aria got to Joel.

"How..." Cedar smiled.

"When you guys didn't answer, I whipped up a little magic and tried to see where you guys were. When we saw your condition, Lapis made the call to go after you guys. The rest of us followed his lead. C'mon... let's go..."

Sage felt himself get pulled onto Cedar's back as he and the others headed out. On the way, Sage was able to sorta see Lapis's fight. It was more of the electricity that Minun was letting off, but the shouts that followed said enough.

"CAPTURE ON!"

He bit his lip lightly as he listened to the battle fade and they were carried out.

~!_!~

Sage woke up to Cedar sending faint glows across his body. Something floated beside him as he focused on his work. Sage paused.

"Cedar...?" The younger male froze and looked at him. A big smile followed as he sat down.

"Captain... you're ok..." Sage smiled as he looked over at his fellow teammates. Pain crossed their faces as they recovered.

"Did... Lapis..." Cedar looked down.

"We haven't heard from him. We're waiting for you guys to at least be up enough so that you can be downstairs so that we try..." Sage held out a hand.

"Then can you help me down? I want to beat Joel down there at the minimum."

~!_!~

Aria smiled.

"Morning Sage. You sure you wanna be up right now?" Sage huffed.

"I want Joel to be surprised. I'm passing out afterwards." A soft sound followed as Elita and Cameron came down. There was a light talk before Joel came down.

"Sage... did you..." Sage smiled.

"I at least woke up twice before you." Joel huffed as he sat down.

"So... what's the party about...?" Cedar flipped through a book as Aria hummed.

"We're going to see Lapis's condition. He has yet to return." Cedar held up the book and murmured something. A faint screen appeared and revealed the field. Sage froze.

"Lapis..."

The bluenette was badly outnumbered and at a clear disadvantage as him and Minun continued to fight off the raging ground and rock types. Despite that, he was still going, calming pokemon left and right. The operator gulped.

"Probably not the best move to do, but his styler is almost down." Aria turned to her.

"How bad?" The operator glanced at Sage.

"2 bars. He's been there for at least the past 9 captures." Sage trembled before looking at the screen. Lapis was thrown into a wall before getting back up.

"Crazy son of a..." Cameron shook his head to stop himself. Elita gulped.

"I would keep that sentence going. It's not far from the facts." Sage huffed as Lapis captured three more.

"Someone needs to get to him. I know he has trained himself to do things like this, but I really don't want to lose him to something as traumatizing as this."

Cedar nodded as the room went quiet. Panic followed as Lapis's styler was destroyed and he was slammed into a wall. Aria and Cedar didn't waste a single second to bolt out the door while the others calmed Sage down.

~!_!~

Sage had clearly passed out as he woke up in bed. He didn't move as he looked around the room with his eyes. Finally he stood up and went down.

Most of the other rangers were resting together at the table. He smiled before seeing Cedar. The smaller boy had his arm wrapped up from what Sage could see. Sage went to him as Cedar shifted.

"Cedar?" Cedar opened his eyes and smiled.

"Hey captain... you ok?" Sage nodded.

"Yeah... just fell asleep... then again I expected it. What happened?" Cedar followed his gaze and huffed.

"One of the pokemon bit me while we were going in. I was lucky that I had brought my first aid kit with me to care for it once we got outside. It doesn't hurt that much and not in my dominant arm. I'll be ok." Sage gulped.

"Did..." Cedar nodded.

"Lapis made it safely back. He's asleep right now because we almost lost him, but he was not going to go down easily." Sage nodded as he stood up.

"Is he in his room?" Cedar nodded as his eyes started to close. "Rest up, Cedar. You need it." Cedar nodded as he fell asleep. Sage went up to Lapis's room and peeked in.

Lapis was still asleep with Minun on his lap. They were both equally damaged as Sage went over quietly. He could hear Lapis's soft breathing as he brought over a chair. He sat down quietly as he paused.

"Lapis...?" Minun was the first to move. It looked up before smiling at him. He lightly petted it as he hummed. "Tell your partner to get up." It gently climbed up and tapped his cheek, the only thing not bandaged. Lapis's soft blue eyes opened and wandered up to Sage's weak green ones.

"Captain?" Sage smiled as he grasped his hand.

"You're ok..." Lapis stayed quiet as Sage continued. "You didn't have to keep the fight going..."

"I had to... they weren't going to let you-" He stopped as he spotted tears running down Sage's face as he lowered his head to hide them. "Captain..."

"Please... if you're going to do something like that... at least let me join you..." Lapis smiled as he gripped his hand gently.

"I'll try..."

Sage nodded as Lapis shifted slightly. The taller male wiped his face before rubbing the back of the bluenette's neck, causing him to slowly fall asleep. Sage smiled as he rested. The captain slipped out and went back downstairs. The others hadn't really moved other than Cedar had moved his head from the ground to the support of Slowpoke. Sage noticed a small file on his desk with a note.

"Sage,

I know you will be against this, but can you get this information into the sinful file? It doesn't deserve to be out in the open. This'll mean some people are joining us. We'll have to discuss it later.

~Joel."

He trembled as he picked up the file. He went to the back and pulled out a small key. He felt stronger than normal as he pulled the box out and opened the back of it. He placed the papers in the file and closed it up before putting it back.

That was better than anything.