"Listen up, maggots!" she announced to us, the poor, pathetic crowd of wannabe trainers that looked up to her (and all of the others in her profession for that matter). "This training that you have all willingly signed up for will be starting today! You knew the risks, now you'll live through them. And you will use the Pokémon I assign, got it?"

We nodded as a group, accepting the uneasy life of intense training ahead. Well, what could we say? We had after all signed up for this; we were willingly going through this to make something of ourselves.

The lady announced again to the crowd, "So, since Mistralton is a small place, you'll have to set up camp in the airplane holds and cargo planes. Just make sure you don't nap on the runway when the daily flight is in progress!" she said with a slight hint of malevolence.

We nodded once again. What could I say? I wanted this more than anything.

"Not only will you be learning about the charms and strengths of the bird Pokémon of Unova, but you will be living, battling, and fighting for balance as well as your life during these two weeks." The female gym leader continued her little speech. "And the graduation of being my official underling will be at the top of Celestial Tower, though I've only known five trainers to do so. Good luck to you all…" she finished threateningly.

The gym leader marched off, looking much more serious than I thought she would be. I mean, she looked very nice and lively on the outside. She had red hair (an indication to me of a fun-loving or hyperactive person) and a little flower thing in her hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a flight suit that looked far too revealing for a pilot. But what was I to say? She was Unova's only flying-type Pokémon gym leader and I was one of the hopefuls to train under her.

Why Skyla? Out of all the Gym Leaders of Unova, why choose Skyla to train under? Well, I wasn't quite sure myself. Maybe it was because I've always wanted to fly, and flying Pokémon are nice. I'm not allergic to bird Pokémon like I am to Lilipups and Purrloins. Maybe it was because I didn't like the thought of serving food as well as Pokémon battles at the same time in Striaton City. Maybe it was that a library in Nacrene was too stuffy, the huge maze of the city Castelia was too overwhelming, Nimbasa was too loud and amusement oriented with crazy sports fans, the underground gym of Driftveil made me claustrophobic, Icirrus city too blasted cold all the time, and Opelucid City was half modern/futuristic and half ancient with fierce dragons guarding the place (I shiver at the mere mention of dragons). It might have been that I hated everywhere else.

I liked to think that she was the nicest gym leader, but I didn't guess right about that. I wanted to think practicing flying with Pokémon by sticking yourself in the gym's cannons would be fun. I wanted to think that birds were the easiest Pokémon to take care of. (I didn't expect molting, nesting, and wet poop, I'll tell you that.)

But I think what really brought me to the tiny shipping community of Mistralton (the city of wind-blown leaves that has the delivery slogan of "Quick and Safe") was that I wanted to break a norm in Skyla's gym. Up until now, she's only allowed guy trainers that either work on airplanes or are pilots themselves to train in her gym. She keeps the whole gym like that in honor of her legendary pilot grandfather I suppose, but I think that there needs to be a change. I want to become the first female trainer in the Mistralton gym since Skyla took up the job of gym leader.

It was a stretch, but if I really liked flying-type Pokémon enough after these two weeks of hard training, I could even work my way up to succeeding Skyla myself. Did I have doubts? Yeah, lots since I heard her lovely (sarcasm) introduction and invitation to sleep on the ground or in cargo planes that normally don't have breathable air in them. I've heard from many of my friends that what I was doing was stupid. For one, Skyla is one of the harsher gym leaders to their subordinates (I didn't believe them at the time).

I've heard about other gyms in the Pokémon world, though it hasn't been all that long since Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, and Hoenn finally opened up their culture and sent trainers to us. From news coming from the other regions, I heard there are only two other flying-type gyms: Falkner of Johto and Winona of Hoenn. Falkner, I've heard, is a push-over gym leader. He fights noob trainers and tends to go easy on them. Winona has said to be an air-head on some occasions (Who seriously says "I have become one with Bird Pokémon" and doesn't come across as being weird or high?) even though she is in the same placement as Skyla in the order of Pokémon Gym Leaders. If I want to be with bird Pokémon (and certainly not "one" with bird Pokémon), then my best chances are with Skyla.

I was brought out of my thoughts when one of the official underlings (lucky him) started leading us to the additional hanger where the trainers would set up camp. The guy was in a mechanic's outfit, one of those guys who got in the gym to fix Skyla's plane if it broke down. He introduced himself as Cliff the mechanic. My first impression of him was that he didn't care much about hygiene and probably came from Twist Mountain due to his name. But hey, it's a first impression, it's not like I guessed right or anything.

The group of hopefuls (us) followed Cliff the Mechanic to the hanger; an empty, concrete-floored, metal-walled, and generally not warm area. The ceiling was huge. Seriously, my Vullaby could have flapped her little wings and traveled around the airspace for a while. The place had to be tall and wide to fit a bulky cargo plane. Since it was still a warm fall, the planes could sit out on the landing strip instead of hunkering down in the winter, though that was soon coming. The cold winds were just weeks away, I could feel it.

I glanced at the other people who had wanted this self-torture. Most of them were guys (I guess they saw the ratio of guy trainers to girls and thought being male was already getting them half-way there) and pretty well-built. Some of them almost looked like they had flown a helicopter, crop duster, or something like that before.

The requirements for getting even this far was that you had to have at least one flying-type Pokémon. I wondered how many others have a Vullaby like me, or if they caught a low-life Pidove and thought that they were good. Don't get me wrong, Pidoves, Tranquills, and Unfezants are all cool and tough, but they are so dang common! In my Pokémon journey I traveled all the way to Opelucid City to get my Vullaby because I wanted a different kind of bird Pokémon, although I should have trained my team a little more before charging into the grass (Bouffalants are the scariest thing I have ever seen!)…

The Mechanic named Cliff waved at us and said, "Don't worry, Skyla won't take it too hard on you the first day. After you find a place to set your stuff, the lady Gym Leader has arranged that we all eat in the Pokémon center!" he seemed very excited to eat in a Pokémon Center.

I told myself that this was Mistralton –a town of how many, 100 people? How many restaurants could such a small place have? One: the Pokémon Center. I should have figured. Oh the gloriousness of small towns (sarcasm)! I grew up in one, so I can't say that I hate them.

But enough of that, it was time to set down my huge backpack of stuff and join these other hopefuls in a rigorous training exercise. My only hope was that if I didn't make Skyla's cut I would still be recognized by my family.

A/N: Zangoose-Kira here for a new story! This is the first time I've written a Pokémon story in first person, so bear with me (I generally don't like writing in first person, but you get a lot of character development in exchange for seeing into other people. Oh well, this is a test that I hope to finish.) Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome :)

Edit: Due to some long thinking over my story, I have come to the conclusion that I can't work on both ends of the story at once. I know the beginning is rocky and harder to get through, and I thought editing it would help, but I'm going to try to be content with my original work and revise it when the story is complete, or maybe not at all. I suppose originals always have a flavor that the remake doesn't have. So that is why I'm putting the original first chapter up again.

Now that I'm doing this and back in school, I think I'll be able to write more frequently. Not to mention that once B/W 2 comes out, I will try to reference that.

And again, thank you for all you readers supporting my work. It means a lot to me :)

~Zangoose-Kira