“Gah – this thing is so confining!”
A swift tug of the young teenage boy’s hand had most of the
buttons of his black Nehru jacket undone in one go. Sighing, he ran a hand through his
already-messy ginger hair as he surveyed his new surroundings, still a bit
overwhelmed.
The path connecting his dormitory to the main path of Trinity
Island
was surrounded by deciduous trees, their leaves muting the bright sunlight that
fell from above. The trickle of a stream
called Aurora
flowed beside two different dorm buildings – the Raikou dorms – that sat on the
bluff of a cliff, over which the stream flowed in a thin, short waterfall of
sorts. Cries and chirps of wild Pokémon
could be heard in the distance. New
students like himself nervously came and went from their dorms, some seeming
lost and others already tag-teaming to explore, while older-looking returning
students gathered in groups and caught up with their friends from the previous
year. The students were of all different
ages, varied widely in appearance, and encompassed both genders – the only
feature they all seemed to share was the school’s uniform, standard black aside
from accenting colors and crests that designation each student’s
dormitory. He was somewhat relieved and
encouraged to see that most of the students in his immediate line of sight wore
the deep red and red-and-gold flame insignia of his own dorm, Entei.
He nearly laughed in sheer excitement as he continued down
the path, leaving the thicker part of the crowd of students behind. He had made it! That long and grueling exam process had been
more than worth it to get into the most prestigious academy in the Pokémon
nation. Somehow, he already knew that
this would be an amazing year. From the
occasional excited shakes of the six Poké Balls at his waist, his Pokémon were in
agreement and couldn’t wait to show the school what they were made of.
“You guys want to come out already?” he laughed as his
Serperior’s capsule gave a particularly violent quiver. He had just reached the base of the
aforementioned cliffs, the faint white noise of Aurora Falls coming into
better earshot.
“Were you talking to your Pokémon or did you really know we
were here?” a faint voice from above replied to his question. He whirled around in surprise just in time to
see two more boys vault down from a nearby tree.
Both were obviously taller and seemed older than himself,
and it showed clearly in their demeanor as well as in their appearance. One, who seemed the older of the two, was tan
with short inky black hair and eyes so dark brown they almost appeared onyx as
well. The other was more fair-skinned,
with somewhat floppy dark chestnut hair and brown eyes that more closely
mirrored the color of the freshman’s own.
Both were from the Entei dorm as well, judging by the flame crests
appliquéd over the hearts of their Nehru jackets.
“Talking to my Pokémon, duh!” the ginger laughed. “You guys scared the crap out of me! What were you doing up there?!”
“I surprised him,” the black-haired boy jerked his thumb
towards his companion with a slight smile, “the same way last year. You must be new. Duce Kazuhira, junior – Celadon City, Kanto.”
The brunette chimed in with a short wave. “DJ Sensou, sophomore. Opelucid City,
Unova. Nice to meet ya!”
Okay, so standard
greeting – name, grade, hometown and region.
I’ve got this!
“Awesome! I’m from
Unova too – Verbank
City! Les Honda, freshman!”
Les held up a hand for a high-five, and DJ would have
responded had he not frozen in surprise at the mention of Les’s surname. “Whoa, wait!
Honda? As in former
Unova champion Honda?!”
“That’s right,” Les replied proudly – he had expected such a
reaction. “I’m Alder’s nephew.”
Something seemed to spark in Duce’s eyes at the mention of a
champion’s relative – whether it was envy or sudden determination, Les couldn’t
tell.
“That sure is interesting,” Duce half-smirked. “You up for a battle? I’d like to see if you live up to that
lineage.”
Les’s brown eyes nearly lit up with indignation. “Are you trying to imply that I got into this
school on name alone?”
“Whoa, I’m not implying anything,” Duce shrugged. “I just want to know how good you are.”
“If that’s all, then how about I take both of you on at the
same time and show you?!”
DJ seemed excited at this development. “Why not?”
He elbowed Duce in the side playfully.
“I think we can set our differences aside long enough to teach this
freshman the ropes, don’t you?”
“I’m game if you are, bro.”
Duce’s excitement was starting to show as he turned back to Les. “Two of your Pokémon against one of each of
ours. First side to lose both Pokémon
wins. Sound good?”
“Let’s do this!” Les smirked as he grabbed two Poké Balls
and let them fly. “Serperior, Lucario, I
choose you!”
The upperclassmen glanced at each other knowingly, then
nodded.
“You’re in charge, Alakazam!”
“Ninetales, let’s go!”
The capsules opened in midair at their hinges, and with a
warping crack released their occupants who materialized from fizzing red
energy.
Les gulped – his Grass and Fighting Pokémon were at a
definite disadvantage against the Fire and Psychic types opposing them. However, it was too late to back out now.
“Serperior, use Frenzy Plant against Alakazam! Lucario, hit Ninetales with Aura Sphere!”
“Hit ‘em both with Psychic!”
“End this now with Fire Spin!”
“Allegro, quick! Use
Whirlwind and break it up!”
“Huh?!” All three
students gasped but quickly had to brace themselves against the sudden gust of
wind that deflected the released attacks into the air – and sent all four Pokémon
back into their Balls!
“What the heck was that?!” Les cried, his eyes finally landing
on the source of the unwanted interruption – a Togekiss, circling above them a
few times before gracefully landing before a girl advancing towards their
battle site from one of the two dorm buildings beside the base of the falls. Only one of her blue eyes were visible – the
other was covered by a sweeping shock of golden blonde hair streaked with ash
blonde, the rest of which was cut above her shoulders to be longer in front and
shorter in back. She wore the same black
pleated skirt as all of the female students, but the collar of her uniform
shirt was deep blue, peeking out from her black blazer accented in the same
color, and the emblem over her heart was a mellow blue raindrop accented with
tendrils of royal purple. A dark blue
armband circling her upper left sleeve was marked with “prefect” in lighter
blue hiragana script.
A different
dorm…Suicune? Les thought.
“Way to be a buzz kill, Aria!” DJ rolled his eyes, dusting some blown dirt
from his jacket but not seeming too upset.
Duce, on the other hand, seemed genuinely disturbed at the lack of
battle happenning, but quickly shook it off and said nothing.
“Guys, if I’m not mistaken,” Aria said, petting “Allegro”
behind its head plumage, “Pokémon battles aren’t allowed on campus until after
the headmistress explains the rules of out-of-class battling at the welcome
assembly. Sorry.” She seemed a bit sheepish, as if she didn’t
want to offend the boys. They listened,
but didn’t seem distraught at her warning in the least bit – Les deduced that
they knew each other.
“You know,” Duce teased, “just because you’re a senior
prefect now doesn’t mean you can randomly break up battles between students
from different dorms.”
“And,” Aria retorted, “just because you two are at the top
of your classes in the Battle Training program doesn’t mean you can gang up on
freshman who don’t even know the rules of battling here~!”
“Aw, that’s cute – of course the rich kid sides with the
famous kid!” Duce wasn’t relenting at
all.
“Oh, shut up!” she huffed.
“I’ve only been hearing that from you for the past three years!”
“Come on, Aria, you know I’m only
kidding.”
“Mm-hm, sure you are. Honestly, it’s kind of hard to tell with
you.”
“Wait,” DJ cut in, pointing to
Les, “what did you mean ‘gang up on freshmen’?
He’s the one who said he’d
take on both of us at once!”
Aria went from glaring at Duce to
glancing at the fourteen-year-old – and then blushed with embarrassment. “Whoops…um, it might not be a good idea to
take on upperclassmen until you’ve been in classes for a while. Just trust me, ‘kay?”
Les pouted, but acquiesced,
nodding. “Okay…”
The senior smiled. “Okay, good.
Allegro, could you return?” She
held up a Premier Ball and the speckled bird Pokémon gladly returned to it in a
stream of red energy. Beginning to turn
on her heel, she bid them farewell. “I’d
better meet Hayley back in our room to finish unpacking – see you guys
later! And no more battling until after the assembly, ‘kay?”
“Hey, wait up!” Les cried. “I didn’t even meet you yet!”
“Huh? Oh, yeah!”
She whirled around again with a sheepish laugh, holding out a hand. “Aria Higure, senior, as you know. Violet City,
Johto.”
“Les Honda, freshman, like you
said. Verbank City, Unova.”
“Nice to meet you, Les! You’ve probably already heard this, but
congratulations! Only the best of the
best get into Pokémon Interregional
Academy.
What are you studying?”
“Uh – law enforcement
training. I want to be a Ranger.”
“Huh?” DJ blinked.
“You come from a League champion’s family and you’re not studying
battling?!”
Les shook his head. “I love battling, but going pro isn’t really
my thing. Excitement and exploring is
where it’s at!”
“That’s cool!” Aria
commented. “Most prospective Rangers go
to actual Ranger academies, so our program is kind of small. Definitely in-depth, though, from what I’ve
heard – you’ll love it!”
DJ rolled his eyes. “Don’t let her fool you, Les, it’s part of
her job to make the school sound good.
She’s in Coordinating and Performing Arts – she doesn’t know anything
about the law enforcement program.”
“Well, for goodness sake, don’t tell him that!” Aria giggled. “See you all around!”
As she turned and jogged back to
her dorm, the three boys turned back to each other. “I guess that battle will just have to wait,”
Duce said.
“I guess so,” Les agreed. “That sucks that we have to wait! But I’m not going to lose when we do finally get to do this!”
“We’ll just have to see about
that,” DJ smiled. “You may be related to
a champion, but that doesn’t mean anything. We all start off on an equal playing field at
this academy.”
“I’ll keep that in mind – but I’m
still gonna beat you!”
___________________________________________________________________________________
There’s certainly an interesting mix-up of new students this year, Duce
pondered as the shore of Trinity Island came into view along with the
suspension bridge connecting it to Central Island. The start-of-term assembly was starting soon,
and as DJ had forgotten something in their shared dorm room, he had insisted
that Duce go on ahead without him. This is going to be an interesting term, no
doubt about that…
The sharp-minded Trainer had
already made several observations from his and DJ’s encounter with the new kid
and the senior and determined likely turns of events. One, DJ had no intention of ending their
rivalry but genuinely desired a deeper friendship with him – something he
wouldn’t even think about denying, as he knew the consequences of putting
rivalry above all else. Two, Aria was
still attempting to keep up her typical people-pleasing “hide-everything-with-a-smile”
attitude that she had kept in place for the past three years, which would lead
to consequences that weren’t his to decide.
Three, that Les kid was definitely still a rookie – a big talker with an
impressive family and a lot of confidence in himself, but a rookie. Should they ever finish their battle, he
would become both enraged and distracted easily, and thus easily defeated.
The thought was enough to
make him a bit disappointed he had been denied a good challenge. Once again, he should have no trouble in
keeping up his status as the best Trainer in his year, one of the best in the
school. His intelligence and easygoing
self-confidence gave him qualities of the archetypal Suicune, but in battle, he
was Entei through and through – fiery and inexorable, and for good reason. He had to
become the strongest, and stay that
way.
His fist clenched at his
side unconsciously. Yes, someday he
would show everyone what true
strength looked like.
He was so lost in his
thoughts that he failed to notice the rustling in the bushes beside him –
following him – until he felt a vicious shake at his belt. Looking down, he saw that it was his
Persian’s Luxury Ball – it was almost a silent plea screaming “Let me out!”
“What’s wrong, girl?” he
inquired, releasing the Classy Cat Pokémon.
Immediately, Persian reared up on its hind legs as if preparing to
pounce, growling at the bushes. With a
ferocious mrow! the Pokémon leapt
into the greenery bordering the path, sending a figure in black scrambling out
of the bushes with a howl of pain, fresh scratch marks seeming to crisscross
its face.
“Great,” Duce muttered –
his Persian would never attack anything that wasn’t its opponent or a potential
threat – then raised his voice. “Hey! Who are you?”
“Gracious!” The figure leapt to its feet, revealing a
short teenage male with long dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes – and with a red
R emblazoned across his shirt. He seemed
to have a slightly crazed, or maybe simply apathetic, look about him. “You need to learn to control your Pokémon
better, sir!”
That logo spoke for
itself – no more mercy.
“How about this?!” he
yelled angrily. “You learn to stay out of my way!
You have a lot of nerve showing up here, after all you’ve done and how
many times you’ve been brought down!
Will your gang ever stay
dead?!”
The Rocket laughed,
confirming the crazed vibes Duce had picked up from him. “Stay dead?
Team Rocket never dies! In fact, I’m here to do a little
recruiting. How about it? A kid like you could become pretty powerful
rather quickly in our operation!”
He had heard enough.
“CLEFABLE!” Another Poké Ball was snapped open, and
another of his trusted partners appeared at his side. “MEGA PUNCH!”
The Fairy Pokémon seemed
more than happy to obey, drawing back its glowing fist menacingly before charging
forward with a cry and sending the Rocket flying with one powerful blow. Faintly, Duce thought he heard a scream of “I’m blasting off aga…I mean for the first
tiiiiime!” echoing through the sky, before a faint splash sounded in the
distance.
Returning his Pokémon
without a word, Duce continued his march to Central Island.
The headmistress would
most definitely be hearing about this incident.
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