Pokémon Academy: Ch 2a: Dragons [IC]

[Sutoratosu]

"Well, it's a bit of a story..." Mareek said, glancing at the girl who had come up beside him. "That blimp you see fighting the Aggron and the Tyrunt, Snorlax? I guess it was sleeping near here earlier and it got hungry, which pretty much resulted in it going on a little rampage in camp. I tried to subdue it with paralysis since I didn't have anything that could put it back to sleep, but that plan kinda fell flat. After that one of the Faculty stepped in and challenged Snorlax to a battle, said if it won, it could eat all the food it wanted...it accepted the wager, but it wanted to fight with a Student ordering the Aggron you see out there instead of Tyron himself doing it. The boy right there," he pointed to Claude. "He took the offer and here we are... he's doing better than I expected though, his little phobia considered and all." he turned back to the student beside him, certain now that he had never seen her face around before, otherwise the name should've come right to him... and that reminded him, he didn't even now the name of the guy battling right now...nor the guy who had told him more about Cipher Yesterday... but everything in due time.

"Mind if I ask who you are, by the way?"

[Chim]

Jory and DarkLight

Kristen gave Jacob a quick peck on his cheek. “It’s a promise.” She turned back inside to check up on Sofia.

Lucky Elf

Snorlax stumbled backwards and fell. The impact was too much and this time the massive Pokémon didn’t get up. “Great battling!” Tyron placed his hand on Claudes shoulder and jumped forward. He threw a Pokéball and a red flash sucked Snorlax in. One wiggle. Two wiggles. Click.

“Professor Silva is right,” a voice spoke up from behind Claude. Devin was standing there with an approving look on his face. He handed Claude some medicine. “The bond between you and Tyrunt grew a lot in a short amount of time. Keep up the great work.” He walked back to the rest of the teachers while surrounding students gave Claude a round of applause.

[Felicity]

Claude was elated. He immediately went to work, using the medicine given to patch up Colere. Whilst not good as new, with a little rest she would be alright. Before Claude returned her to her pokeball, they looked at each other for a second. There was a new look in her eyes. Maybe one with some respect in it...? With a flash of light, she was resting in her accidental home.

Claude was shocked at himself. All throughout that battle, Claude had controlled not one, but two rock types, and he hadn't thought about it for a second. He really was changing... hopefully for the better. He had a stupid grin when Lancelot and Doux rushed over, Doux chirping happily for his master and Lancelot bouncing around like a maddened mankey, all hyper after seeing his master fight. "Well, I think that went incredibly well..."

[DarkLight]

Corona wanted to cry when Kristen accused her master of being selfish. Couldn't she see that Danielle was also worried about how this would effect Jacob too? Once Kristen left after a quick kiss, which almost made her want to scream, the Larvesta cheered up when Jacob didn't accuse her of anything. However, as Jacob calmly explained to her his thoughts on the budding relationship between his two best friends, Corona sighed sadly before letting out a few tears. She didn't want to see the three of them break apart, but if this helps Jacob recover, then she will let it be. Corona nuzzled Jacob's hand to show that she understood his message. "L-Larvesta! Lar!" she then cried as she pointed to herself, hoping that Jacob would realize that she came to him on her own accord. She then motioned towards the dinner table and the Snorlax battle, wanting to accompany him since Kristen's departure.

-------------

Avis looked after Corona like an older sister would to a younger sibling, her eyes rarely ever leaving that sight in case Kristen decided to take a swipe at the bug. When Kristen kissed Jacob on the cheek, however, Avis' cruel thoughts haunt her once more. The urge to fire this Dark Pulse at her smug face would have overwhelmed her if Avis didn't see Jacob gently petting the Larvesta. The Murkrow quickly shook her head to calm herself down. How ironic that a Dark type like herself could fall even further into the shadows of darkness.

[Chim]

Surge (Galen)

"Then let's get right to it, Teach. Is my team ready?"

“We just sent word to them. Once their respective missions end they will join you. In the meantime I’ll give you the mission details so you can prepare. As you know your little brother is attending the Academy so you have to by disguised the entire time.” He moved a brown envelop. “Take your time to read through it and let me know if you have questions.” A few seconds later Melody entered.

Teach crossed his hands and stared at Galen. “Before that I need to know one thing; do you want to be a gardener or a chef for your disguise?”

((The mission details are in that PM from earlier))

[Commander]

Henry watched as all the students applauded Claude's performance. He slowly made his way up to Claude using the cane. "Not bad, not bad at all. You made some fatal mistakes as the start but it seems you actually have a functional brain in there...unlike some people." To be honest, I thought he was going to wet himself and run away. "You coordinators never fail to surprise me one way or another."

[Sutoratosu]

Galen

"Hmm... well, being a chef would make it a bit tougher to sneak off when necessary,what with someone always expecting you to be in a particular place." He took the brown envelope, looking through it and skimming the mission details quickly, then once again, making sure he had memorized the dispatch. He set it back down on the table, passing the envelope over to Teach's side. "Considering the required mission objectives, I'll take Gardner, Teach. It'll give me a lot more freedom of possible range for a longer amount of time."

[Jory]

Jacob's face turned beet red as Kristen pecked him on the cheek. Even for Jacob, this was a new shade of red. Chalchi laughed softly at her Trainer, reminding the teenager that he had left his Lapras out all that time to witness his attempt at asking Kristen to get dinner. Jacob laughed uncomfortably, pressing the return button on his Lapras's ball before returning his attention to Corona. "I know you came over here on your own, Corona. I don't think Danielle would have so much gall as to actually try to get in my way." Or at least she'd better not, he thought quickly. Otherwise I'm going to have to start agreeing with Kristen. He shuddered at the thought of agreeing with anything the fiery redhead said about his friend and nodded to the Larvesta when she suggested he go to the table. "Alright, Corona. You win," he said, sighing heavily and looking down at the slumbering Togepi in his arm. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to feel comfortable."

The Trainer beckoned at the Larvesta to follow him to the table and sat down a couple of seats away from the newly minted couple, shifting awkwardly for a moment. He finally put the Togepi down in the seat next to him, being careful not to disturb the little egg's slumber. He then got up without a word and went to get himself a tray of food along with several dishes of Pokemon food. After getting back to the table he sighed and looked up at Danielle and Slade. "I hope you two don't mind, but the whole team is gonna be out eating." He then hit the release button on all three balls causing Teo, Chalchi, and Spitfyre to appear in a flash of light. "Alright guys, dig in!"

The Pokemon all began to eat ravenously. Spitfyre even joined them after eyeing the food suspiciously for a few moments. However, the first smile Jacob had ever seen on the Charmander's face appeared as he took his first bite. Hmm... So food and victory will win his heart. That shouldn't be too hard after my little experiment with him today, he thought to himself as he chewed his food.

[Felicity]

Claude glared at the other Coordinator. "You do remember which program you're in, right? Besides, there was no mistake in the beginning. The sandstorm had a role to play, look at when Aggron was body slammed, the sand reduced friction and made it easier to slide Snorlax off his armour rather than pin him down as well as giving Aggron that natural boost steel types and such get when it's dusty. And the roars were an attempt at distracting the brute. Any other "Mistakes?"" Claude poured rhetoric itno that last question.

[Tses]

"I see." Sissy said back at Mareek once he finished explaining the story. "Too bad I wasn't around here earlier. I may have helped you out with putting it into sleep." She said with her face at the battle. "I am McLake Sissy. Pleased too meet you." She said, but her Misdreavus got between her and the boy, letting out a small cry. "And this here is Miss. I could introduce you to my other partners, but they tend to sleep instead of wandering around." She smiled at the boy. The Misdreavus gave a little bow and sat once again on her trainer's head.

"Seems like the battle is over." Sissy said looking at the battle scene.

[Commander]

Henry just stood there in silence for a moment. "No that's all I need to hear." How the bloody hell did he come up with that? He only saw that Aggron for a few seconds before the battle even began. It seems I've met my match.

"I'll admit it. I didn't even think of using the sands like that. How did you figure that all out so quickly?"

[Sutoratosu]

"Yeah, it does," Mareek said, having noticed the Snorlax's defeat the moment it had happened. He had to admit though, he was expecting for Professor Sylvia to actually go and capture it. "My name's Mareek, by the way," He continued, intentionally withholding his last name on some mental reflex, though he didn't know why it was there. "And this is Erce, and that's Nemo.

Erce looked at Sissy and Miss for a few moments before looking back over at Claude and Henry's conversation that had started up. Nemo though was ironically more than willing to be sociable enough for the both of them, holding up his bone and giving a loud "Cube!" in greeting to the Trainer and her misdreavous.

"He fought pretty well with Aggron, didn't he?" Mareek said, attention turned back to Claude. "I kinda expected him to freak out at some point though..."

[Felicity]

"You have a fear of something. you learn about it so you can get the fuck out when you can or counter it as easily as possible. At least, that's what happens when fear isn't born out of ignorance, and I know all about that..." Claude explained. "Besides, even if none of that happened, the Sandstorm might have simply helped Colere and Aggron hide some more. I had no clue that snorlax could use earthquake..."

[Aurorix]

"I hope you two don't mind, but the whole team is gonna be out eating."

"I don't mind," Slade said cheerfully to Jacob as he tipped his hat to him, "Seeing as how these two have been eating." He said chuckling while patting the pokemon on the head, first Flare then Xemnas. "So, I see you got some more friends, mind introducing me to your new friends?" He said before taking a big bite out of his spaghetti

[DarkLight]

Corona nodded happily and followed Jacob to the dinner table and back to Slade and her master's table. She was just glad that she was able to get Jacob to sit with them despite his apparent unease. Corona then propelled herself up to sit on the table by Jacob.

Avis gave a questioning look to the Larvesta as they both arrived. Was everything fine? Corona chirped and put one of her front legs to her mouth. Based on what the Murkrow saw, it's safe to say that Jacob isn't over Danielle just yet, but he is making a good effort to get over it. Jacob definitely didn't believe everything Kristen might have said about Danielle (and her instincts tell her it was something bad), so that's good, too. Acknowledging Corona's response, Avis nodded, but stayed by her master's side. The black bird then poked Danielle so she would notice the Larvesta.

--------------

"What makes you think we do, silly? You know you're always welcome!" Danielle smiled at Jacob and waved her hand to come sit down with them, relieved that he was back in one piece. She did note the sigh, but this wasn't the time to address it, especially since Slade decided to address another subject entirely. 'I'll talk to him later, I owe it to him to make this transition as smooth as possible without hurting him more.' Avis' small nudge then prompted her to look at a Larvesta that was sitting besides Jacob along with a sleeping Togepi and a Charmander. Wait, a Larvesta? Danielle turned to look down at her feet to find two empty Pokemon dishes. "Mon dieu, Corona! When did you get over there?" Danielle facepalmed and gave an exasperated sigh. 'First Avis, now Corona too? I don't know whether to be happy that she is growing up or be scared for her life.' "Sorry, Jacob. I didn't realize when Corona got to you. She didn't do anything bad, right?" She then took a more thorough examination at the new Pokemon. "And also..." she pointed towards the Togepi. "Isn't that Henry's Togepi? Or is this another one? He caught one by accident when the whole fiasco was coming to a close..."

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

"Hm? Ah, it's okay, pon. I'll get to know them later... Kinda troublesome making more acquaintances, and for the past few days I've been meeting more and more people in a row, pon," she said. No point in making more "friends" or people who think they're my friends, if I couldn't care to take care of all those bonds. "I kinda... I'm kinda choosy about people to talk to, pon. Kinda go with my gut feeling, if I've got a good feeling about this person or not."

[Jory]

Jacob brightened visibly at the mention of the new Pokemon. He looked over at the Pokemon. The Togepi had woken up and begun to eat. Spitfyre was almost out of food but didn't seem to be slowing down, so Jacob addressed Teo. "Hey, Teo, can you go get yourself, Chalchi, and Spitfyre some more to eat?" The Trapinch nodded and wolfed down the rest of his food in one giant gulp with his huge jaws and excitedly began to move toward the food. Jacob then turned toward his friends. "Well, that Charmander over there is Spitfyre. I caught him on top of a rock plateau earlier today. And that Togepi isn't mine, but I didn't even realize Henry had caught one."

Hmm... I never really thought about catching this Togepi. It seems to like me, and it might be good for me to have a Fairy-type on the team. And the triple weakness to Electric attacks shouldn't be a problem for my team once Teo becomes a Vibrava. Jacob smiled and reached down to his belt, pulling out a Poke Ball. "I think I'm gonna catch Togepi. And I have the perfect name for her," he said with a grin. Togepi looked up at the mention of her name and wandered over to the Trainer. "Arete." The Togepi looked up at Jacob questioningly. In reply, he held the Ball out to the egg Pokemon. "Do you want to come with me?" The Togepi nodded enthusiastically. Jacob smiled and tapped the Pokemon on the head with the Ball. It shook in his hand once, twice, three times before dinging. Jacob then clicked the button in the center and let Togepi out of her ball. "Alright! Now get back to eating, Arete! We have a lot of training to do tomorrow." The Togepi nodded and went back to her food dish, excitedly digging in.

The Trainer then looked up at his friends. "Thanks for the good idea, guys. And I'm glad I had an easy capture today, especially after Spitfyre decided to run me through the ringer. We have an agreement now, though." Jacob looked toward the pair's Pokemon. "Oh, wow! Slade, you caught a Gible! That's a really powerful Dragon-type!" Jacob excitedly pulled out his Pokedex and scanned the Gible. He quickly read through the data. "Yours is going to be really strong some day, Slade. With you training it, it's going to be a force to be reckoned with. And it's the quality of both Trainer and Pokemon that matters most. Some people say Cynthia's Garchomp was one of the strongest Pokemon in the history of the world!" he finished excitedly.

[Aurorix]

"Cynthia's Garchomp? HA!" Slade said smugly, "Me and Xemnas here are going to be way greater then them, right!?" He said looking down at the Gible doing a fist pump who then replied with a, "GIBLE!" filled with gusto. It seems the Gible is hyped to evolve. "Yea, I agree completely!" He then looked back at Jacob, "So how was your chat with Kirsten? Did everything go smoothly and when did you find that Togepi?" He asked curiously.

[DarkLight]

'It seems like Corona didn't cause any trouble. That's a relief.' Danielle gave a thumbs up for Jacob's easy capture and decided to let Slade continue the conversation, seeing how excited they both are when they talk about battling. As Slade asked about Kristen, Danielle looked at her Pokemon to see if she was missing anything. Avis seemed a bit uneasy about something while Corona looked content, even at the mention of the redhead's name. Danielle stroked her Murkrow's wing. "And what ruffled up your feathers?"

Avis looked up at her master with a worried expression. She gathered up her energy, thought about the cruelest things she could come up with, and spewed out an incomplete Dark Pulse into the sky. Several black and purple rings continued their ascent until Avis forced herself to close her beak. The black bird then crowed fearfully, shaking her head to clear the darkness that was threatening to control her mind.

For the first time, Danielle could see that Avis was afraid. The human took the Murkrow into her arms and cradled her. "Don't be afraid, Avis. We will work it out together, I promise." she told Avis in a reassuring voice. She felt Avis nod against her chest, the small body began to relax against her arms. Once she was sure that Avis was fine, Danielle turned her attention back towards the two boys, waiting for the conversation to continue.

[Tacos]

When Kage and Ryan had reached the showers, Ryan almost fell face first into the first bathroom he could find, eager to clean himself off. "Let's just take this time to relieve our stress and when we're finished we can talk about our day." Ryan turned and shut the door. He turned on the faucet, allowing the water to heat up. He stripped himself of his clothes before staring into the mirror.

Look at you, you pathetic loser. You don't deserve him. You don't deserve anyone. You should have jumped while you had the chance. Ryan's face froze in a shocked position. It. Was. Back.

No, don't come back into my head again, I expelled you years ago, this is not the time. This voice was that of Ryan's grandfather. A senile old man, he was. Homophobic at best, and incredibly harsh. He was always opposed to his son marrying another man. So he made it his duty to hate his grandchildren more than he hated his son-in-law. When his fathers had left to go on a date, or left them alone for any reason, they called his grandfather to watch them, completely unaware of his hatred for Ryan and Lexis. When it was just the three of them, he would sit there, admonishing them for their tiniest mistakes and screaming insults at them. The children cried. The pain however, was worse later in life, as the incidents had scarred the two. Whenever the two were down, his words appeared in their heads, making them feel worse.

Don't try to get rid of me just yet. I still haven't finished what I have to say. His voice teased Ryan.

No, no no, they said cold water worked right. Ryan hustled over to the shower and turned the faucet to allow for cold water to run out. Ryan threw himself into the shower, curling himself into a ball under the icy water.

Trying to get rid of me already? How rude of you. You know it's awful to just throw people aside like they're nothing. Just like you'd done to that girl. You pathetic little bastard. But that's all for now. Feel free to keep that shower cold, even though I think I've had enough teasing for today.

Tears were coming down Ryan's face again. Disobeying his grandfather's words, he turned the faucet to allow for warm water to run out. Ryan rushed through the shower, wanting to just not have to deal with anything anymore. He toweled himself off, wrapped the towel around his waist so that it extended over his lower body, picked up his clothes, and opened the door to the bathroom, a blank look on his face.

[Jory]

Jacob scratched the back of his head. "Uh... She likes me, I guess? I dunno, she said she wants to get dinner sometime and then kissed me on the cheek."

[Aurorix]

Slade looked surprised at the fact she kissed him, "Wow, really a kiss?" He said in disbelief. A kiss on the first time they talked alone, wow. "I guess the next logical question would be do you like her?" Slade asked Jacob hoping he wouldn't avoid the answer.

[Jory]

Jacob blushed an even deeper shade of red. "Yeah. It was... uh... That's never really happened to me before. It was a little surprising, to be honest." He stopped and considered whether or not he liked her. "Well, I know that she can be nice. She's nice to me, at least. And she's pretty cute, which is a plus. I think I want to get to know her a little better before I can really make that decision, though," he said honestly.

[Aurorix]

"Hmmm..." Slade said thinking a bit, "Yea, I agree, you should get to know her better. And if this means anything, I'll support you in either situation you choose, whether it's a go or a no. So if you need anyone to talk to I'm always free, just remember that." He said giving a big smile towards Jacob then immediately went to take another bite from his food.

[Chevaleresse]

Kage sloughed off his clothes like a snake shedding its skin after he locked the door to the next bathroom, his Pokemon waiting outside the door. He fumbled with the knobs for a bit, figuring which one was hot and which was cold, then adjusted the temperature until it was a bit cool, just enough to be refreshing without it being cold enough to shock him. After scrubbing for a bit, he yawned. Showers always made him drowsy. After he simply relaxed in the cascade of water for a bit, he reluctantly turned it off and searched for a towel. Fortunately, most bathrooms were set up similarly, and towels muffled sound a bit, so he found them without too much trouble. He quickly toweled himself off and threw his clothes back on with the exception of his socks and shoes, which he put into his bag, then exited the bathroom. "Ryan? Where are you at?"