(All Questions will go to the "Hidden Secrets")

(There won't be an exact Table of Contents, but there'll be something several changes within the chapter to signify that they are two different parts.)

~~~

Midnight stretched as he eyed the computer in from of him. Linda had sent some files for him to review since the rest of the team was at rest from an Operation. He was deep in his work when Parchment's voice ran in the air.

"Midnight!" He hummed as he glanced at her through his goggles. She paused. "Whatcha up to?" He hummed again before turning his attention back to the computer.

"TTR work."

"TTR?" He hummed in response as he scanned the info. He had a pad of paper in front of him, helping him jot down notes since he still hadn't figured out how to edit the files on the computer (Yes, let him sound old. He was used to paper files still.) He jot something else down before turning back to her.

"True Top Rangers." He then frowned. "Wait... how badly do you have to- oh wait-" He grumbled off before he grabbed his phone and called someone. "Hey- yeah, you screwed up your file on the 0-39 mission. Pak sola dif pak to pudum't leto. Whaaat?? oh- pudum't verlo. Mismo tipa." He chuckled at the light complaint on the other end. "Don't worry. I'm currently writing up all the corrections now. I'll send them once I'm done. Yep bye." He hung up before sighing. "Well then-"

~~~

Midnight chuckled as he caught up to Sven. The taller ranger hummed at his presence.

"I thought you had work elsewhere."

"I did. But Linda called all hands so we could get a meeting going soon. Something went down." Sven didn't say anything for a moment before he hummed.

"Get ready to tie up the targets." Midnight paused. "I'm capturing the area."

"Fine. Hurry up." Sven hummed before speaking into the comms.

"Sven to Linda, have everyone assist Midnight in gathering the targets. I'm clearing the zone."

"Copy that. Go now." His styler hummed before he fired.

"CAPTURE ON!"

His styler hissed before the disk flew out. He stood still as he created a circle in front of him, going slowly. Upon completed the circle, he snapped his arm down. A hum followed before he gulped. Linda finally spoke with Seafoam beside her.

"What the hell-"

"Nicely done. That was 140 pokemon."

"Only 140?"

"ONLY?!" He heard Linda's giggle as Midnight spoke.

"Everyone pull out. We have that meeting to do."

"You sure everyone will be there?"

"Only if you don't show up."

"Ha."

~

Sven paused as he, Linda and two others joined him in entering the meeting room. Midnight had clearly beaten them and was on the phone with someone in the corner. Sven silenced the group as they went to the chairs. Midnight glanced at them before going out, thinking it was too loud already. They waited before Linda paused.

"Uh oh. Well..." She pulled out her laptop and tapped some things. "Ok... I see we're missing Sven- Oh sorry. That's the ray of sunshine next to me." The group giggled at his face. "X. Good to see you from Kalos. How fast did you move?" The Kalosian scanned her.

"I was bored." Sven laughed as she sighed.

"Dear lord. Uh... Wicke. I'm glad you had time off." The older woman stretched.

"I needed a break from those reckless trainers." X purred as Linda hummed.

"I thought so. Midnight will join us... whenever. We're still missing Bethany-" Sven frowned.

"I haven't heard anything from her end. Has anyone?" Wicke shook her head before X hummed.

"I talked to her last week. It wasn't very long. I was lucky to catch her while she was awake. She was too tired to talk for long though." Sven hummed as Linda gulped.

"Well... she can be excused until she shows up. And then she's not longer excused." They chuckled as she hummed. "Still no Kyle either..." The trio asked the question in sync.

"Who?" Linda hummed.

"No idea. We'll ask Midnight." They giggled softly before the door opened. Midnight stayed quiet, taking his time as he closed the door and went to his chair. Sven heard unsteadiness as sat down, so he spoke.

"So who was on the phone?" Midnight didn't miss a beat.

"Well, it wasn't your girlfriend since she's sitting next to you. So there's that." Linda snickered as Sven hummed. That was a cover for whatever was said. It was unsettling in the room now as Midnight sighed. "Attendance already done?" Linda hummed.

"Yeah. Let's get started. Starting off... Midnight, do you know a Kyle?"

"Who?"

"Never mind." The others chuckled at the noise from the boy. "Um... The chairperson did mention that he only can go so long before he needs to come back for duty. So if anyone can reach him and let him know, do so. In all means necessary." Sven hummed.

"Does that mean I can go on a date with his sister?" Linda paused.

"What does she do?"

"I hear she just graduated to Wintown a few months ago. And according to Elita last week, she wants to meet the brother to figure out how they're related." Linda scoffed.

"Tell me if she prefers tea or coffee when you're on date. And if she learns I asked you to do it, you can't go on another date for a year." Midnight chuckled at the noise, though Sven responded perfectly.

"She won't guess without asking me. Anyway... I'll see if she knows when I do that date." Linda hummed before X paused.

"Anything else?" Linda hummed.

"Just the routine check-in stuff." Midnight then spoke, not before Sven caught his tension with his breath.

"Then I got something before we do that." Silence followed. "That phone call was Bethany." X hummed.

"How is she doing?" Sven heard Midnight lean forward with a sigh.

"She... she passed away last night." Wicke dropped her pen as Linda stopped whatever she was doing on the laptop. Midnight gulped as he continued. "She... apparently took her last breath just after the staff saved a child that had come into the ER." X finally spoke.

"Did... was there anyone with her? Any final words?" Midnight hummed.

"No one was able to be at her side. Visiting Hours had just closed and the entire staff was going to save the kid. A nurse ran all the way from the ER to her room to try and be with her, but nothing. The nurse was kind enough to have a letter sent with Bethany's words for us. But that's it." Sven finally spoke.

"She wanted to fade away with the comfort of no one there. She's always been the spotlight, so she wanted to go when no one would be there to shower her with love." Midnight waited before speaking.

"If you're going to cry, please just fucking do it." Sven didn't miss a beat.

"I don't hear you crying. Why the hell should I?" Linda fired back.

"I'm surprised she didn't marry you." X started choking on his water as Sven smirked.

"She said she didn't want a relationship while she was in the hospital." Linda scoffed.

"I think that's bull shit. But don't listen to me." Sven's glare must've missed with her following words. "That's the wall, sunshine. If you're going to glare at me, do it correctly." He scoffed as she continued. "When are we expecting the letter?" Midnight hummed.

"In the next week. Her family has been informed as well. I told them to give them my number to send the funeral date." Linda hummed.

"Then we best be ready for that. Let's call it a day. I'm sure the chairperson won't mind if we don't to the check-in work with the news." The others seemed in agreement.

~

Midnight chuckled at Parchment's rant before his phone hummed. Rand kept her going while he answered. He then paused.

"One second..." He slipped past the ranting duo and went outside. "Go on... yeah? Ok. We'll have at least... 6 people. There's a chance of a seventh, but I can't count on them. Yeah... thanks. Bye." He then sighed before going in, hearing the argument quiet down. Parchment paused.

"Who was that?"

"No one. Excuse me." He went up to his room as they glanced at each other.

~

Midnight sighed as he moved near Linda, who had an umbrella in the rain without anyone else. Sven stood away from the group, staring at the spot where the coffin had went down. Linda spoke after a moment.

"Oh lookie." X followed her gaze before Wicke spoke.

"Well well well..." Midnight finally looked, seeing Kyle. He stood off to the side, sorta eyeing the crowd. The Chairperson sighed.

"This seems like the only time to do this it seems. Will someone have Sven sit down before he hits his head on a tombstone?" Linda hummed as the elder went over to the distant TTR. Kyle noticed and chose to meet her in the middle, which seemed to be the most amount of respect from him. Linda convinced Sven to join them with the umbrellas as X got a chair out for him. Midnight eyed the conversation with a hum.

~

"So that's what happened?"

Sven hummed. Apparently Kyle's only reason for joining the TTR was to get his sister into the rangers. Their family only had enough money for one to join and refused to send the sister. So Kyle abandoned his dream of becoming an archeologist to help his sister. The Chairperson nodded.

"I'm glad he did fight for her placement. She has that ideal personality that rangers should have." Wicke hummed.

"Kind, caring, and open-minded, right?" X chuckled.

"That too. She's a ray of sunshine from what I hear." Sven nodded.

"Kyle knew he could never be a real ranger. So he became a mechanic and aimed for the top. When we asked him to be our mechanic, he accepted long enough to get her approved. Not a bad plan." Midnight hummed.

"Except that he left us with nothing on what happened. He could've at least said that he didn't feel cut out for our casualties." The chairperson smiled.

"He actually didn't want to leave immediately after his sister's entry for two reasons. One was to stay in the region for her graduation. The other was because he wanted to still be informed about Bethany's condition." Sven gave a face as she continued. "Bethany was the reason his sister wanted to be a ranger. So when he found out about her health, he wanted to keep his sister updated on her fight. He went to the funeral in his sister's place because she had a mission." Linda paused.

"That's... kinda sweet. Unlike when he wrapped up X's styler so that it didn't snap in half until it got back." X scoffed.

"I'm surprised it actually held. Kyle looked shocked too. I don't think anyone expected it to hold for long." Wicke giggled.

"Kyle had an entire roll of tape for your styler." He scoffed as Linda sighed.

"But still. I guess we can't blame him. He did at least give the organization a ranger with a lot of potential." Midnight nodded.

"And he still cared about us a little. While it was only Bethany, that's more than some could say." Sven frowned.

"Who are you pointing that at?"

"No in particular. The closest would be Joel. But still." Linda put her head down as Sven hummed.

"I'm glad you didn't say me."

"Sven, you are nowhere close to my statement. Hush." The others giggled as Linda sighed.

"Well, that means we need to replace two people. Now, Kyle made it very easy to replace him. Find someone who will actually stay." X glanced at her.

"Who?" The other laughed as she shrugged.

"Who knows. But the problem is Bethany's spot." The room feel silent as she gulped. "Our two options are either to find someone who is better than her or find someone who can master her styler in a month." Sven paused.

"Are either of those possible?" Midnight glanced at him.

"Sven, you are the only person who could possible pull off the first option. You have similar skill sets. She was just better and had way more range than you. So you eventually growing to her level is possible." He sighed.

"But I'm not there yet. And if I take her spot, someone will need to take mine. Right." Linda hummed.

"It'll be easier to find someone who can master her styler. We'll figure that out later." They nodded at that.

~

"Crap!"

Admiral cursed as softly as she could, but she damn well knew that people heard her. Her styler had broken again, though in her defense it was too delicate to fight with her. She called Crepe as she paused in Altru Park.

"What do you want from me?" She sighed.

"I didn't want to call you either. But my Styler broke again." He groaned.

"Again? I thought you started putting it on your belt when you are fighting?"

"I was just in a battle where I had to shift between capturing Pokemon and kicking people in the head. I didn't have time to take it off before needing it back on." He fell silent at that.

"Alright. Get back to base and I'll look at it. If it's any bad as what you did last week to it, the Professor might not let you get another." She sighed.

"I might just ask to get a regular styler. The Fine Stylers aren't working for me."

"You know he won't let you, right?"

"Then he better have a solution because I need a styler that won't break in 4 seconds during a fight I can't shift it out for."

~

Crepe sighed.

"Yeah... this is worse than last week. Lemme see if anything can get salvaged." Admiral gulped.

"I got swarmed... Kincaid barely gave me a chance to switch it out." Crepe glanced at her.

"Kincaid? That might actually give you some breathing room. Did you hear about what he did this past weekend?" She shook her head. "He hacked into some files here and copied some of the stuff on the stylers. Some of it included weaknesses." She gulped.

"So him forcing me to keep my styler slotted was on purpose?" He hummed.

"I wouldn't say the chances are low." The professor joined them with a sigh.

"Again?" Admiral turned as Crepe sighed.

"Professor, Kincaid caused this." The elder fell silent. "He didn't give her a chance to switch it out." He sighed.

"I see... never mind then." He paused. "Is there anything that can be saved from this?" Crepe gulped.

"The only good news is that the ID chip and Motherboard weren't hit. Everything else was either damaged by Admiral's fighting style or what looks to be an aimed attacked." Admiral paused.

"Woah... wait what?" He nodded.

"There's some scratches here that look like they were purposely targeting the styler. Probably trying to get to the Motherboard. That might be the only good thing about your fighting style. It kept all the threatening attacks from destroying your styler entirely." She gulped as he pulled the Motherboard and ID Chip out. "Yeah. These look untouched. Which is good. We can rebuild a styler from this and try to bypass Kincaid's knew obtained knowledge." Admiral sighed.

"Phew. I thought it was totally done for." Crepe smiled.

"For now, we can put the ID Chip in another styler while we work with this Motherboard." The Professor hummed.

"I've been meaning to look into new styler designs. So this will be good." Linda's voice filled the air as she and Midnight went over.

"Technical difficulties, eh?" Crepe sighed at her words.

"More like Kincaid's attack is now doing damage." She hummed. "Kincaid forced Admiral to nearly destroy her styler. I'm just glad the Motherboard was spared." Linda hummed.

"I might have a small solution for Admiral here." The Sea Ranger glanced at her as she smiled. "Do you have her ID Chip?" Crepe nodded.

"The only other thing that didn't get destroyed." Midnight scoffed.

"I wait to see one get destroyed." Linda giggled as she took it.

"Perfect. Admiral, why don't you come with us?" Admiral looked confused before joining them.

~

Admiral eyed the device Midnight had as Linda typed something on her Laptop.

"And... there!" Midnight smiled as he handed it to her, getting Admiral to take it. "That should be able to be connected anywhere onto you and should help you catch pokemon a lot easier than the Fine Styler." Admiral paused.

"Really?" Midnight nodded as Linda pulled something up.

"Yeah. Come here." Admiral got closer as she showed something on the laptop. "These are the last two users of this styler. Both incredible performers, but they both had to create something to help them with the styler." Admiral hummed as she looked at the screen, seeing the two items. "We're hoping your fighting style will work with the styler. There's a chance." Admiral hummed at that.

She chose to attach it to her upper leg, where she could reach it. She eyed the disk before tossing it into air and kicking it forward. She then used a normal attack pattern before stabbing the ground, catching the pokemon. She paused as her Eevee brought the disk back.

She returned to the duo as Midnight paused.

"Well?" She smiled.

"It... felt much more natural than the stylers I've used." Linda smiled.

"I thought so." She stood up from her spot and went in front. "The last member to have that styler asked us in a letter of her final words to let you have the styler." Admiral paused. "She saw your fighting style when she came to visit the one day she was able to come and thought the styler would fit your style better than her style." Admiral hummed as Midnight giggled and stepped in front.

"If you want, there's a group that you can join to really use the Styler's full potential." Admiral tilted her head as the smaller boy giggled. "The True Top Rangers. A group of skilled Top Rangers that work together to protect the entire world!" Admiral paused as Linda smiled.

"The ranger to use that styler before you was a member. We didn't have a lot of choices for candidates since our options were to either find something on her level or someone who could master her styler." She paused. "The only person who could reach her level is Sven. The problem there is he's already a member, so we would need to replace him, which is harder. There's also the problem that he is too far from her level right now. So the styler was our only way." Admiral paused.

"So... you want me to take her place?" Midnight sighed.

"We would've done tryouts to see if someone could master it until the letter came. She recommended you for the spot." Admiral paused before she smiled.

"Then... yes. I... shouldn't let the opportunity go to waste." Midnight smiled as Linda held out a hand.

"Welcome to the TTR." They shook hands. "Take the time to get the Styler better situated with your gear so that it's easier to use. I'll text you the next meeting time so you can join us." Admiral nodded as Linda sighed. "Right. Let's get going."

~

Admiral gulped as she arrived at the room. She was nervous, but wasn't sure what to do. The best of the best were basically in here. Footsteps neared her as she turned.

"Hey Admiral." She smiled as Sven joined her. "Here." He opened the door for her. She thanked him as she went in. Midnight glanced over and smiled.

"Hey." She smiled as Sven plopped in his spot. "You can sit here." She nodded as she sat down. "Linda will be here soon to start us off. We're waiting on two others." Sven hummed.

"And the invisible man." Midnight glared at him.

"You wouldn't know if there was one if it slapped you."

"Funny. Anyway." The door opened as a sigh followed.

"I don't get paid enough to hear these things." Sven cracked a smile as X sat down. "Seriously. Is this all you guys talk about?" Midnight hummed.

"We're not answering that for classified reasons." Sven snickered as X sighed. Someone else joined before they smiled.

"I'm guessing you're Admiral?" She looked up at the woman before nodded. "Wicke. I think I'm the only one who hasn't meant you in person. I've heard so much about you from so many people." She hesitated after shaking her hand. Midnight smiled.

"Wicke also works for the Aether Foundation in Alola. So while we've talked a little bit about you, I'm sure our allies in Alola talked about you a whole lot more." Admiral paused as Wicke sat across from Sven.

"Indeed. When I mentioned your name, I think Sun lit up like one. She said so much more than I thought he knew. Fortunately, Moon finally shut him up before he went any deeper." Midnight sighed.

"Flames. Can't learn to shut up on their own. Still." Admiral gulped as Linda joined them.

"Where's Kyle?"

"Who?" The unison said a lot as Linda paused.

"Oh right. He's not a member anymore. My bad." Sven chuckled as she sat down and brought her laptop out. "Alright. First things firsts, we have a new member. So welcome Admiral to your first TTR Meeting." The others clapped as she smiled. "Second. From last meeting, we had two spots to fill. With one done, have people thought of what they were thinking for the second?" X hummed.

"If we go for a mechanic, they need field experience. So a Unit would be better than anything." Wicke nodded.

"Medical Experience would also work. After what happened in our last Full Team Mission, I would rather not have a repeat." Midnight hummed.

"There's not a lot of people to fit that role. There's three Units in our ranks." Sven frowned.

"Out of the three of them, two of them are busy plotting murder." Linda sighed.

"I hate that you're right. I'm not sure if Crepe or Malov are ideal. Which leaves Ponte as our only option." X hummed.

"I'm surprised he wasn't first pick." Midnight glanced at him.

"He declined the first time because he wanted to finish his mastery training. He should be done now." Linda hummed.

"I'll reach out later. Ok. Last thing. At our next meeting, if Ponte accepts, we are doing our test mission. We want new members to get used to the team." Sven scoffed.

"You mean get used to you screaming in their ears?" She whacked him over the head as the others giggled.

"We don't need a test mission for that, Idiot!" He shrugged before she sighed. "Right. Anything else before we go?" Wicke smiled.

"Admiral, I was hoping we could talk afterwards." Admiral paused before nodded. Linda waited before smiling.

"If nothing else, meeting is done."

~

Admiral paused as she and Wicke sat in the common room. Wicke was showing designs of special shoes she had planned.

"Moon commented that she was always worried about your feet when you are on missions." Admiral hummed.

"With what I have with my foot brace, I really didn't want anything in the way. But I can see her concern." Wicke smiled.

"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. Why don't we get something made that will act as your foot brace, but in shoe format?" Admiral pondered the thought.

"Would that work?"

"Oh yeah. And your feet would be safe from harmful elements." She paused before nodding.

"Ok." Wicke smiled as she started asking questions.

~

Admiral smiled as she finished transferring the items from the brace to the shoes. She unwrapped the brace into its flag form before folding it carefully. Tying it around her upper leg, it perfectly hid her styler's location while looking cool. She smiled.

"Perfect." She then turned to Midnight, who was waiting for her to finish. He stood up and smiled.

"Ready?" She nodded as she got into her normal fighting position.

~

(Let me know if you need anything)