Pokémon Academy: Ch 1b: Recruits [IC]

[Ojama Yellow]

"Sigh...I guess it's time to move," Brian said, hearing that there would be more beds down the hallway. And by the way, it's not that Zoah is shy or timid, she just doesn't say anything. Literally. In all the years I've known her, she hasn't said anything, not even that typical Pokemon cry." Brian paused. "Anyway, let's just move."

When Brian reached the new beds, his eye fell on a girl sitting on one of the beds. He wasn't the type to stare at girls, but he couldn't help it with this one. Not because she looked a bit frail. Not because of the pale skin. It were the different colored eyes. Life on the streets had learned him to notice peculiarities about people, and this was most certainly a peculiarity. Intriguing.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

It made sense that the Bronzor didn't really say anything as it didn't look like it had a body part to make sound with. Well... it kinda was his first time seeing one in person, so he wouldn't really know if they resonated from something inside their bodies. Staring at Zoah, he followed Brian down the hallway, which looked bare and, well.. Boring. Zeke frowned a bit. Hope I don't get locked in here for too long everyday, he thought, deciding he'd go on as many missions as possible if he had to just to escape the monotony of this hideout.

Soon they passed by a room with an open door and a girl as its only occupant. Blond, skinny-looking, like she would've been easy to hoist up. Strangest of all, the eyes. He couldn't help but stare-- not that she was eye-catchingly gorgeous by his standards, but the eyes were out of place with their color.

[Snap Crackle Pop]

Aurelia had been staring off into space and thinking, she didn't have much to do right now and she was bored out of her mind. The pokemon that she received the other day, a ralts, was next to her, asleep along with her partner of many years, Trix. The zorua looked identical to his new friend, but Lia still knew who was who. The two got along better than she could have hoped for, so much so, in fact, that she was a little bit surprised, seeing at how selective the tricky fox pokemon was. She was also glad that the ralts, timid as it was, seemed to like Lia as well, it had been years since she obtained a new pokemon and she was glad that it felt at least comfortable around her.

Aurelia might have continued on staring off into space like this for some time if she didn't feel the eyes on her just now, lingering. Her eyes came into focus and she looked to the door, meeting the eyes of Zeke and Brian with a raised eyebrow and a bit of impatience. The stares of strangers was not uncommon for someone like her, but it still wasn't something she got used to, from time to time it still annoyed her.

"Yes?" She asked pointedly. Lia had held herself back from making a snarky comment, not wanting to make enemies on her second day. "Have you got a question?"

[Ojama Yellow]

Brian realised he was staring and quickly looked to the other side. "No no, it's nothing, Just..." Now to think of something that wouldn't be insulting or ridiculous. "Your eyes...they have a different color." Yet he went and made the comment. At least he didn't -hopefully- come over as a creep. He was aware of Zeke next to him, who was also staring. "Hey," he whispered, "make sure your eyes don't fall out."

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

"What he said," Zeke replied, jerking his thumb towards Brian after looking away too. After hearing his whisper, Zeke shrugged as if to say something along the lines of "not like I could help it" or something. "Sorry 'bout that," he added, and turned to move along, not wanting to get held up there before all the rooms were taken again.

[Chim]

There were no other rooms available. Brian and Ezekiel had no other option then to bunk with Aurelia if they wanted to get some rest. Little did they know that within 2 hours Teach would show up again.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

They'd come back to the strangely-colored-eyed girl's room again after taking a tour around the floor. What the hell. As he'd expected, they'd been beaten to the other rooms.

After a bout of awkward silence and realization, he nudged Brian. "You ask her."

Edited September 25, 2014 by ZephyrEnyalios

[Ojama Yellow]

"Damn it man. Why do I have to?" Brian didn't look forward to asking a girl to stay in her room after she saw that both of them were staring at her. Not for THAT reason, mind you. But it was very well possible that the girl thought that they had some, eh, bad intentions. On the other side, there was no other place to stay. Nothing he could do except to ask. He walked over to the girl. "Eh, do you mind that the two of us stay with you here? There are no more rooms available, you see... Oh, for good manners, I'm Brian, and the kid's Eze...Zeke."

[Snap Crackle Pop]

Aurelia had to resist the urge to chuckle, seeing the two standing in awkward silence by the entrance- she found it quite amusing. She already had an idea why they were back again, judging from the influx of new arrivals and the emptiness of her room. As Brian stepped forward, both the Pokemon next to her woke up, the corners of Trix's mouth were twitching up and he was looking at Lia expectantly. The unnamed ralts took a few paces back on the bed, slightly behind it's new trainer, who remained sitting.

"Eh, do you mind that the two of us stay with you here? There are no more rooms available, you see... Oh, for good manners, I'm Brian, and the kid's Eze... Zeke."

"Aurelia Lennox- Lia, if you will," the girl said curtly, carefully looking the two. She had a suspicion that she really didn't have a choice, but she wasn't too eager to be sharing a room with two guys. Still... They weren't as sleazy looking as some of the other people that she had seen in her life, in fact, if she were to trust her instincts, she'd say that they didn't seem too bad at all; they were just genuinely caught off guard from her eyes earlier.

"And... So long as you maintain those good manners, I don't think there will be a problem," Lia still spoke with a relatively curt voice. "Just remember that good manners do not include staring." These last words weren't quite as icy, her tone softening considerably and her expression was faintly mischievous.

Edited September 26, 2014 by Snap Crackle Pop

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Phew. Underneath that apparent ice, she seemed nice. "Thanks," was all Zeke managed to say, genuinely relieved-- from not having to risk sleeping in a worse place, or not being told to flip off, he wasn't sure. Anyway, he didn't really have much on him... For all the planning he did, all he'd packed into the pockets inside his jacket were some neatly folded underwear, some coins, a small can of Poketreats for Pixel (and the newcomer to the team, maybe). Hey, just because most kids who went on journeys didn't change their clothes (or so it seemed), that didn't mean he'd completely follow their example. Already avoiding looking at Lia whilst adjusting his hat, he mumbled sheepishly in addition: "Don't worry. We won't look or stare or anything."

[Ojama Yellow]

"Don't worry. We're over the staring phase." Brian joked. Hopefully she wouldn't interpret the joke wrong. He saw Zeke unpacking and wanted to do the same, except he had nothing to unpack. Life on the streets could do those things to him. So, whilst Zeke was trying to avoid the girl, Lia, Brian looked back to her. "Say, are those two Ralts? What's the deal with having two mons of the same species? Are you wanting to evolve one into Gallade and the other one into Gardevoir or something? Eh, not ment impolitely."

[Snap Crackle Pop]

For a brief moment the question surprised her, before it clicked, and she looked over at the pair of pokemon, both seemingly identical. Very casual eye contact was made between trainer and pokemon, Trix, who was poking at Lia not moments ago, stopped, a simultaneous smirk flickered on both their faces. Permission granted. The actualy ralts seemed to have an idea of what was coming and it watched with a faint smile.

Aurelia opened her mouth to say something but Trix jumped the gun, lunging forward in a way that was very un-ralts like. It was within inches of Brian's face before it shifted to a pink ball and soon formed into a mirror image of him- aside from the black tail the copy had. As soon as Brian had time to register what had just happened, Trix then turned on his heels and shifted into a copy of Zeke, laughing as he did so. Trix did the same for the pokemon that accompanied them, shifting into an Eevee and a Bronzor before returning to the ground and to his actual appearance; a Zoura, who was laughing and looking very satisfied.

[Ojama Yellow]

"A...Zorua. I see. Could have known. I have seen a lot of things by now, but a Pokemon transforming in an human? That's new." Zoah didn't move closer to the Zorua as she did to Pixel earlier, and Brian could see exactly why. Type disadvantage. Not that she was timid, just to avoid confrontation with her weakness. "Well, I guess it's cool to learn something new every day. Even if that something is that Pokemon can partly impersonate people."

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

"V-Vee--!" Pixel toppled over in surprise when the strange dark-type changed forms, especially when it changed from Zeke-- with a weird fuzzy thing on his butt-- and then to another of her species and so on. She'd taken refuge behind Zeke, before looking at the shapeshifter from behind him.

"Wew, that's some neat tricks your friend has there," Zeke said, grinning, obviously impressed. He'd heard about some strange Pokemon that could change forms at will, but never seen one do so in person. Turning to see Pixel quivering a little bit, he stroked her gently, calming her down. "Nothing to be scared of. It just turns into me and other people... With cute fuzzy tails," he chuckled. Getting over her shock, the Eevee leapt over to sniff the Zorua curiously.

[Snap Crackle Pop]

"Cute tails indeed," Lia nodded, bemused. "Actually, if you pull or touch the tail, the illusion wears off," she added. Yeah, they aren't so bad, the girl figured, looking briefly at Brian and Zeke in the face before looking back to the eevee and zorua as they checked each other out. She might even go as far as saying their presence was enjoyable- there were a lot of bad bad people here, it was comforting to know that not every one here was some thoroughly unpleasant lowlife. Well, as far as lowlifes went in this organization of lowlifes.

"He's a bit of a show off, Trix," Lia said, motioning to the zorua as she introduced him. He was now poking and prodding the meek eevee playfully in greeting. Lia turned her attention to the ralts that was next to her, she didn't want to introduce it as just ralts and change his name later, but she hadn't thoroughly decided the name she was going to give it. "And this is.... Cirus," Lia decided, the ralts shifted it's gaze from Zoah to it's trainer suddenly, faintly surprised, but generally pleased at hearing it's new name.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

"Pretty interesting fellow. Nice to meet you lot," Zeke said with a smile. "Now I'm curious about who this one i-- oh?" he'd looked at the Pokeball that he chose earlier, which was rocking of its own accord. Light flashed, and out popped a reddish-orange lizard with a brightly burning ember on its tail. It cried out as it looked at its surroundings-- new humans! new Pokemon! Pixel, who was getting used to the the Zorua named Trix, hid behind the Dark-type as the newer Pokemon materialized. "Eh? Hey, a Charmander! Well, at least it's not big enough to wreck the room, eh, Brian?" Zeke chuckled, and reached out a finger to the amazed-looking Charmander. "Ch-char... Char!" Its eyes lit up as though it knew what to do... and bit the finger. "Ow-- ow-- oi--!" the boy cried, more in surprise than pain really, as he withdrew his finger from the Pokemon. "Urf... Well, since we're naming our new pals, I might as well, too." After a few seconds, he blurted out, "Ignition! Yeah. That's a cool name. All right. Good to have you on board, friend." He reached over to pet the new member of his team-- tentatively-- and only continued when the Charmander allowed him to, this time.

"Heh, whoops. The room's starting to get a bit cramped with all these little friends running around, eh?" he joked, lightheartedly. Normally he wasn't so openly jolly, but a sudden freedom from boredom could do things to a person who was usually cool and suave and snarky, as people back home would call him... But here he was, out on an adventure, with new friends.

Friends. Huh. He looked around the room, at Lia (briefly though), Brian, and the Pokemon. They seemed to be decent people. Nice. Nice, but were tough as well-- something he appreciated. For a while he'd been worried that he'd have to put up with ill-mannered, rough, unnecessarily mean gits on this journey-- looking at the current crew he was in, he breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't something he'd admit to anybody-- ever-- but for all his tough-guy front, he was nervous about the prospect of literally stepping outside his comfort zone; at least these guys (and girl) weren't like that crazy old fool, or the burly, nasty-looking crowd earlier.

[Ojama Yellow]

Brian chuckled a bit when the Charmander bit Zeke's finger. "Just don't let it set the room on fire, and we're cool." He looked at his second Poke Ball, containing the Tangela. Both Lia and Zeke had given their new Pokemon a nickname. For Brian, giving a Pokemon a nickname was deciding he was strong enough. The Tangela hadn't completely proven that yet. He decided to not let it out of the Poke Ball. "A Zorua and a Ralts plus an Eevee and a Charmander. Seems like some cool teams."

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

"All ri-- oi, oi, watch where you're swinging that tail, buddy." The excited Charmander had taken to surveying the room as well as checking out the new characters it faced, hopping from bed to bed, person to Pokemon and vice versa. This time it approached Pixel who was still hiding behind the Zorua's fluffy tail and reached out with a paw (paw? hand? webbed fingers? upper foot?) in greeting, merrily calling out. Curiously, the Eevee crept from behind her new friend to sniff the Fire-type which immediately ran away to inspect the strange floating Steel-type. Ignition repeated the friendly gesture as though he didn't realize that Zoah had no way of physically reaching out to him. "Ah, be careful with that one, Ignition. It's a steel Pokemon; don't hurt it or swing your tail at it." Cautiously, Zeke moved closer to the enthusiastic Fire-type, whistling to him. After a few seconds of repeated whistling calls Ignition responded by (a bit too eagerly) leaping at his Trainer to nibble on his fingers again. "Ow. Ouch! Stop that." It took a while for the Fire-type to settle down in his Trainer's arms. "Boy, I am going to have to get some gloves so I can handle you," Zeke sighed.

[Chim]

After a bit of small talk and getting to know their new partners and roommates, the two hours of rest passed by quickly.

“GET UP!” a loud voice coming from the hall yelled. He repeated the same thing over and over again while smashing on the door’s, almost breaking them. “Y’ALL GOT FIVE MINUTES TO GO LEVEL 04. FOR THE NEWBIES: YOU ENTERED AT LEVEL 01 AND YOU’RE CURRENTLY AT 02.” Most recruits left immediately. Some waited on the elevator, others choose the stairs.

Level 04 seemed to be the highest level a recruit could access. It was a somber, open level. There was literally nothing but a blank space with 3 single doors. One was to the left, another one to the right and the last one was behind Teach. The instructor was waiting with 5 other RoG members at the end of the sober grey space. All 5 of them had papers in their hands. Behind them, on both sides of the door, was something that looked like black glass. It was impossible to see through, but probably had a clear view from the other side.

The recruits that arrived first said nothing while Teach kept a close eye on his watch.

Edited September 28, 2014 by Chimchain

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

It looked like the others had already gone ahead. While nobody else was in the vicinity, Zeke swiftly scanned the empty rooms with their doors left open for a pair of gloves. After nabbing a pair he returned to the room, wanting to go together with his new roommates. "C'mon; we can't get left behind on the first day," he said coolly, pulling the gloves on at the doorway as he waited for them to get ready, his Pokemon back in the pockets of his jacket.

[Snap Crackle Pop]

Aurelia nodded, amused by the fact that he really did get some gloves for handling the fire type. Giving both Cirus and Trix a final pat on the head, she returned them to their balls and pocketed them, heading over to the doorway. "Should we take the stairs then?"

[Ojama Yellow]

Brian had been sleeping with Zoah next to him. He didn't mind the cold metal pressing against him, since he was used to it. Then the voice came, telling all of them to wake up. "Damn it, it's been so long since I slept that good." He returned Zoah to her Poke Ball, then joined Zeke and Lia. He couldn't help but to crack a smile when he saw that Zeke was wearing gloves to prevent further damage to his fingers. "Stairs are alright for me. Now, if we're all ready, let's go. We wouldn't want to be late, would we?"

[Chim]

“Good you’re all on time!” Teach yelled a few seconds after Brian, Ezekiel and Aurelia entered the empty space. The door slammed shut behind them. “Time is essential in missions, for those that are too late, punishment shall be given. And believe me, you don’t want to be punished” He hissed that last word and started walking to his left, looking each recruit in the eyes. “Your training began the moment you stepped inside whatever transport vehicle that brought you here. We’ve monitored your every move since you came here. One of you already dropped out…” he let his announcement sink in for a few moments and looked Brian in the eyes. “That person was a useless rat anyway…”

He turned around and started walking into the opposite direction. “If you survive my training, each and every one of you will be able to go on missions. Drop-outs receive another job, so if you can’t handle it anymore, feel free to tell me,” his face showed a creepy smirk. Obviously dropping out wasn’t an option anymore at this point.

“So without wasting my time any further, I’ll explain how things work. We don’t only train Pokémon to help with missions; we train our soldiers as well. And I believe in experience makes better practice, so be prepared at any time. But for now we shall start with your skills as a trainer. Find someone to battle and get one of the five people behind me to evaluate your skills. Only 5 battles at a time, if you start one without a supervisor, you’re out!”

The recruits immediately took action and started to pair up. Some went for a bunkmate, while others decided to go for the person next to them.

((You can fight each other or a random RoG member. If all of you decide to fight a random, feel free to control your opponent. At this stage everyone is around the same level))

[Ojama Yellow]

Brian smirked as Teach looked him in the eyes for a moment. An useless rat was a very good way to describe the guy. Then the battles were announced. "Battles, huh? Looks like a good time to hone my skills...and those of my Pokemon."

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Here's a start. Zeke smashed his knuckles into this palm, evidently psyched up. Without really thinking about asking his roommates if they wanted to battle, he immediately sauntered to the random citizen next to him and prompted a battle with the dude and his Meowth. It was about time Pixel stretched a bit in this tiny space, after all.