Disclaimer's Note: Pokemon belongs to me! Scrap that. Pokemon does not belong to me. Damn you, Nintendo.
Pokemon School Party! Chapter 1 – Freshness
Dash crept along the green turf, footfalls silenced by the grass. A swish in the air told him he was targeted and instinctly ducked behind a nearby boulder. A spurt of bullets hit the spot he had been at earlier, sending dirt and grass spraying. Edging himself cautiously to one side of the rock, Dash caught sight of the enemy diving behind another boulder and sent a useless spray at the enemy with his assault rifle. Angry spats sounded when metal met granite.
'All too easy, I shall just fake a reloading and grenade him out of his hiding spot,' Dash thought.
Dash swiftly took out his plasma grenade and felt the cool ball wrapped in his palm. This grenade of Covenant origin was particularly nasty in a way that it stuck onto whatever it hit and it was almost impossible to get rid of it in time. Dash mentally timed 2 seconds before aiming the grenade at the spot slightly above the enemy's boulder. As expected, the enemy stood up at the spot where Dash had thrown the plasma ball, sticking directly onto his astonished face.
"Take that, you son of a gun-"
What Dash expected was a fireball-like explosion, and not bright light filling his sensitive eyes. Irritated, Dash could not help but release a groan. Apparently his mother had drawn the curtain blinds, much like how all mothers do when waking up their children at the most exciting part of their dreams.
"Seriously mom, why did you have to wake me up? My dreams are always incomplete. I was so going to-" Dash stopped himself; he could not let his mother know he was up all night playing Halo 3 on his Xbox 360. Naye. He was supposed to be sleeping soundly in his bed. How he managed to pull away from the Xbox and put his body on his bed will truly be a mystery even to himself.
Mrs. Bolton raised her eyebrow and eyed her son suspiciously. "You were going to what?"
"Uh, I was going to… uh wake up by myself. Yea, that's it. What time is it anyway?" Hopefully changing the subject is going to stop mom from pursuing this issue and save my ass.
"It is 7.50 am, sleepyhead. Why do you think I always have to wake you up? The only thing that would do any good for me when you get detention for being late is to say 'I told you so'. Just hurry up and go get ready, I've packed your breakfast for you. It's the little brown paper bag on the kitchen table. You can't miss it."
With that, Mrs. Bolton sighed and stepped out of the room thinking, I wonder when the dear boy is going stop playing his darn Xbox, he'll never get to school early at this rate.
That sent alarm bells in Dash's head ringing. "What! 7.50? I AM going to be late! ARRGHHH! I need to take a shower… No, just get changed already… Damned Mew." Dash Bolton muttered to himself, striping off his clothes and slipped on a new set of school uniform.
Dash Bolton was an 11-year-old student in Pallet School. His birth name? Dashiel Orion Bolton. Pretty neat, huh? Though Dashiel sounded somewhat cooler, Dash was pretty much the easier calling of the two. It is his second year in the Secondary Level this time. He was quite an active boy in school. He had always wanted to be a Pokemon trainer and travel around the world. He loved dragon Pokemon more than anyone one else. Well, not love as in developing feelings in a boy girl relationship, but you know what I mean.
He had dark brown hair, just like his father, Mr. Bolton. He had a nice bronze tanned skin and had blue coloured eyes and was more than happy to know that his eye colour was not green. He is always eager to do about anything to deal with Pokemon. He has an exploding fringe and had gotten his good looks from his father. But he had no time to style his hair this morning, he never had.
After cleaning up and wearing his clothes, Dash hurried down stairs to grab his breakfast and his bag. He then rushed out of his house waving goodbye to his parents. Bye! He thought, despite knowing that they could not hear it.
"Oh boy, our son sure lives up to his name!" Mr. Bolton, with the wind created from Dash's run blowing at the newspaper he was holding.
"Well, what do you expect? He is in the school team for running. Remember the other day, he said that he was going to be participating in the athletics event next year. What's it called? It was some 'Hyper Dash' or some other whatnot." Mrs. Bolton said, "They named the race after our son, it's like announcing his victory before they even start, isn't it? Hmm, Dashiel Bolton, champion of this year's Hyper Dash race. Such a talented winner at this year's event-"
Mrs. Bolton chuckled at her own imitation of a would-be commentator and continued ranting, and left her husband with both eyebrows raised. Mr Bolton's gaze lingered at his wife's behaviour briefly before returning to his morning paper.
Meanwhile…
Dash glanced at his watch and the luminous digits on the plastic surface flashed: 7.55 am. Ah… Only 5 more minutes left to reach school. I must double up. There's no way I'm going to be late again. Not today. I don't want to be scolded by that useless discipline teacher, Pedro again. I rather be whacked by a Magikarp's splash than face him in detention.
3 minutes later
"Go! Shoo! Scat!" Dash shouted at several Pidgeys on the grass blocking his way and charged through the open doors of Pallet School without stopping to give the birds time to fly off from his mini-stampede. He was about to step into his classroom when Mr. Pedro appeared out from nowhere and grabbed his shoulder, causing Dash to jerk backwards and almost trip.
"Where do you think you are going? Trying to sneak in into the classroom to avoid detention because you are late again eh?" Mr. Pedro pressed his face against Dash's, with 2 pairs of eyes engaging in a stare contest.
Dash had never seen eye-to-eye (pardon the pun) with the ex-prison guard for the past 4 and three-quarter years, even much less on friendly terms with him. Just this week Dash had already bickered with Mr. Pedro on 3 accounts, all regarding punctuality issues. Mr. Pedro often scared the smaller kids with his strict and harsh personality, but something about him told Dash that defiance was the only way to go. Though it usually landed him in trouble.
"Yea, look Pedro," Dash stressed on the discipline teacher's name as if it were made of poison. Dash didn't want to sound too unpleasant and tried to keep his tone in check, but very much failing to do so. Dash was more or less used to Mr. Pedro's sneaky tactics and sudden appearance out of nowhere every now and then. The tanned-hair boy continued, "You know it's still 7.59 am and technically you can't stop me from walking through that door. By the way have I ever told you that your scare tactics aren't working on me? So why don't you spend your time better and prowl on those who are late, huh?" Dash was glad for once he could give Mr. Pedro a piece of his mind without getting into serious trouble.
"First of all, that would be mister Pedro to you," Pedro hissed disturbingly at the word: mister; his hand unconsciously outlining the word in front of Dash. Though to Dash, it seemed as if Pedro had bold, underlined, italic-ed and highlighted all together on the virtual word that his hand had spelt out for Dash. It was like teaching a child how to spell ABC, though replacing the child with one of a hundred times its intelligence and witty comebacks and the teacher with well, an irritating crack-up.
"And second you better know your place than to argue with me again, or it will be less pleasant when our next meeting arrives. Do I make myself clear?"
"Fine mister Pedro," where Dash hissed mockingly at the teacher, "You can count on that. And you're ruffling up my shirt, thank you very much." With that, Dash reached up to try to loosen Pedro's grip on his collar.
Mr. Pedro unwillingly released his hold on Dash and indicated the classroom door with his index finger, "If you don't get in that room in another 10 seconds, then you should be marching your way to the detention room for the fourth time this week.
With that, he walked away with his usual cold blank expression on his face with what seemed like a half-frown plastered on it and skulked off to find other victims he could scold. Kids these days just don't have any inkling on how to respect their elders. No this, no that. Damn, it would have made my day if I could land that non-respecting little bugger in detention. Sheesh!
Dash quickly shuffled into his classroom, trying to put Mr. Pedro and the detention room at the back of his mind. The school bell rang the moment he sat down next to his best friend Brandon while putting his bag on another empty chair next to him.
Brandon Farch was the same age as Dash, another 11-year-old student in Pallet School. He and Dash had been neighbours since they were born, and they were the best of friends. If you looked at "friends" under the dictionary, you could see the picture of both of them, as a figure of speech of course. He had spiked black hair which complemented his fair skin. Always the joker, he never failed to entertain anyone. He, like Dash, could never sit still for more than an hour. Despite being the best of friends for more than 10 years, Dash could tell that his companion was a still a tad mysterious in many ways.
"Hey, what happened to you? I saw Mr. Pedro talking to you. I bet it's not a courtesy call." Brandon nudged Dash on his ribs. "No wait, let me guess. Epic showdown between that prowler and the fastest boy on earth, double knockout!"
"Very funny Brandon, I always wonder how you manage to think all this stuff up."
"I wonder how too. Anyway, did you get detention again?"
"Oh, that? Nope, lucky me. I just had a more than 'friendly' – which Dash did an inverted comma sign for emphasis – chat with the prowler, that dang teacher just can't keep his nose from poking into other people's business." More or less everyone referred to Mr. Pedro as the Prowler because well, that's what he does.
"Actually, it's your fault for introducing that Halo 3 game to me. It's so damn addictive."
"That's your problem bud. You hardly see me losing any sleep over it, haha."
"But you have your mysterious ways of not having to pry your hands off that console!"
"I highly doubt that. I think it's just you. And I would hardly call my ways mysterious." Brandon let that mysterious smile creep up his face.
"See you're doing it again! That weird smile of yours, ew. Worse of all, I still feel tired."
"Hah! You and your sleeping habits are going to get you into real trouble one day. I hereby announce that Dash is the Guinness World Record Holder for the longest consecutive hours spent sleeping. Such a befitting title for you Dash." Brandon mused and he ducked an overhead punch from Dash.
A slight cough from the front of the classroom indicated that their form teacher, Mrs. Goodwin, was present and was shaking her head in slight disapproval at the two boys.
"Good morning class." Mrs. Goodwin interrupted their conversation.
"Good morning Mrs. Goodwin…" the class greeted her with the same monotonous tone.
Mrs. Goodwin was a teacher in Pallet School. Rumours said that she was from Hoenn but moved to Kanto because she was caught in some freak storm and her parents were lost in it. She had to raise her younger sister as she was the elder of the two, and moved to Kanto when her sibling was 20 years old. Mrs. Goodwin had fair skin and liked keeping her long hair down. Her preferred subjects were Mathematics and Pokemon Study. She always wears a blouse or a dress, because to her wearing pants kind of suck. She is also the form teacher of Dash's class 2A.
"Alright! Class. Today we are going to continue yesterday's topic on Pokemon and their various habitats, now if you will flip your books to page 127."
"Boooo."
"Get real."
"Text books are such a bore." Moans and groans echoed in the classroom, "I wanna sleep…"
"Ahem! As I was saying, flip to page 127 and we will wrap up on electric Pokemon and their natural habitats. And IF we have time, maybe I'll give a bonus lecture on dragon Pokemon." Mrs. Goodwin raised her voice in order for her to be heard above the complaints.
There was an indefinitely increase in excitement the moment she finished her last line, as they had never read or even heard about any dragon Pokemon, especially Dash. "Yippee! Dragons… We're talking about dragon Pokemon. Woohoo! Woop-woop!" Dash raised his hands in the air and did a cowboy rodeo dance that oddly resembled Neg from Balls of Steel for a while, before settling into a daze, a large contrast from the commotion he caused previously.
"Hey! We are talking about Dragons… DRAGONS… DRAAGGOOONNNSSS! DASH, DRAGONS! Your favourite type of Pokemon and their god-knows-what-not! Eh… hello? Dash, you there? Earth to Dash: Can you hear me? Oh damn, his engine just went out guys." Brandon shook Dash to wake him from his daze. Dash was giving that drooling attitude and was still having that sparkles on his eyes.
"Yoohoo, Dash. Snap out of it…" Brandon poked Dash in the ribs again for the second time for the day.
"Dragons…" Dash muttered, still in his daze and causing everyone to sweatdrop.
Everyone in the class knew Dash was a Dragon Pokemon fanatic, and they knew he tended to overreact and make a big fuss about it. "Ahem! Dash! Are you awake? I repeat, are you awake?" Mrs. Goodwin exclaimed. With that, Dash snapped out of his daze so suddenly that he stood up shouting "Yes Ma'm!"
Mrs. Goodwin continued saying all the statistics and information about electric Pokemon and their habitats. Dash went back into his daze again and those who could hear him merely sweatdropped again.
Time passes…
An hour later:
"So does anyone have any questions?" Mrs. Goodwin concluded her lesson and seeing no one with their hands in the air, "So I shall give you today's assignment: I want an essay of electric Pokemon and how they interact with other breeds, in your own words please. And don't bother copying from the textbook, there's a little more than a paragraph of information in there. So if you haven't been listening to today's lesson, I must say good luck to you."
"Don't complain, you have the whole weekend to do it," as she addressed the grumbles across the classroom. She started to pack her materials before remembering something important.
"I can't believe I forgot a reminder so important. Remember at the start of the year, we announced that you all can get to own your very first Pokemon under your temporary trainer's license right? I do believe it is time to start choosing and listing down your top three choices of Pokemon that you younglings want."
Needless to say, everybody seemingly perked up and murmurs broke out throughout the class. It was their tentatively to-be first Pokemon afterall. I mean it was a hell lot more exciting than learning why Voltorbs or Magnemites do not poop, right? Of course the part about pooping happens to be not in their syllabus but that's not the point.
"Keep in mind that the Pokemon Association has clamped down the range of Pokemon choices to those only of Tier 1 Pokemon, those of higher tiers are a tad more dangerous and risky to handle."
The Pokemon Association ranks Pokemon accordingly to their threat level and degree of bloodlust to non Pokemon trainers, with Tier 1 being the tamest, like though darn Caterpies who give no care to anything else but feeding on pathetic leaves, and Tier 4 being the most dangerous. Everybody knows playing around with Tier 4 Pokemon means courting their own death, literally.
"Mrs. Goodwin, can we choose any evolved Pokemon that still is in Tier 1?" Danella Miers, a girl of adventurous and amiable nature, voiced.
"No, my dear, I'm afraid not. Once again the association wants you guys to start afresh with a new un-evolved Pokemon. And I hardly think the association would rank an evolved Pokemon with something relatively harmless ones. Try Caterpie and Metapod. Ok, bad example." Mrs. Goodwin answered and a few audible 'aws' were sounded.
After handing out a sheet of paper to everyone, and a horde-like commotion, she clapped her hands to seek the class's attention, a third time that day.
"That's the final list of acceptable Pokemon you need to watch out for. Government orders, no point arguing with me about that list. Of course your due choice will be subjected to that Pokemon's availability the association currently has. Unless you can somehow manage to find whatever uncommon ones you wish to find, you should better stick to those of more practical choices."
With that the bell rang and she hurriedly piled her books and strolled out of the classroom. Upon reaching the doorway, she turned her head back towards the class. "And remember to do your essays!"
Afternoon
After school, Brandon and Dash were walking home together, both eyeing the list that Mrs. Goodwin had given out during class with great interest.
"Are you kidding me? Both Nidorans are not in this list. I bet the association's scared of us getting poisoned." Brandon said with his face one of irritation.
"So is Diglett. Though the recent tremors in Diglett's Cave might have helped them decide." Dash replied.
"Look at this! Venonat's in this list, but isn't it supposed to be of poison type too? This is ridiculous."
"Yea, those fools at the government are plain retarded. Heh, I bet I'll make a better official than they are." (Elsewhere, a couple of officials sneezed, all at the same time.)
Brandon laughed, "You? You can't even hold yourself responsible for waking up early. What more of making important decisions for the entire population?"
Dash frowned. "Hey! At least I'm consistent with it. Not like the association, they are always easily swayed by third parties."
"How true." Brandon's statement triggered chuckles between the both pals.
"Anyhow, I'm still fired up by this. Our first Pokemon! How neat, huh? I can't wait to show my parents this list."
"Right, I think I'll lose some sleep over this. Which means it's too bad for Mrs. Goodwin, there goes my homework."
"She will kill you if you don't finish it by Monday. Remember that time where you made up the excuse where your Growlithe ate up your homework? No go, man."
"Well, that was bad impromptu thinking on my part. I don't even have a Growlithe, haha." Brandon recalled as lazily kicked a rock on the pavement.
"You think we'll get what we want?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. It's a fanfic afterall, let's leave it to that damn author to decide for us."
"Haha, good point. I'm raring to go. I can't wait till next year where we get our first Pokemon. Too bad, there's still one more year of education even after getting hold of it."
"Yea, pity. Shucks, we'll live, don't worry."
"Hell yea. To our first Pokemon!"
With that, the two friends fist-bumped each other, both grinning from ear to ear and fiery passion burning in their eyes.
Author's ramble: Huzzah! My first fanfic. I especially liked writing the Halo 3 dream part, though I must admit it was totally random to put it here. There's our 2 main guy characters. Might introduce the girls within the next few chapters. Thought there might be too much character info to process here already. What do you think? Reviews appreciated (:
To be continued