This is basically my version of Pokemon Rangers: Shadows of Almia. There's more romance, some added scenes, all that stuff. I hope you enjoy it. I don't own Pokemon.

Kate Hitomi sighed heavily as she looked at the Ranger School in front of her. Today, she would begin learning how to be a professional Pokemon Ranger. She smiled brightly and adjusted her spikey, twin ponytails. "Time to make my dream come true..." she whispered to herself hopefully.

There was a large shack that Kate was instructed to go to. She quickly ran up to it and knocked on the door. "Hello? I'm Kate Hitomi, the new student?" She looked around nervously. "I was told to come here befor-"

Kate was suddenly pulled into the dark shack. She shrieked in surprise and tried to pry herself from the mystery assalant's grip. The stranger let Kate go, causing her to fall on the ground.

"Welcome, young lady." The light turned on to reveal a man standing in the middle of the room. Next to him sat a little Pikachu that looked quite nervous.

Kate stood up, brushing the dirt off of her Ranger School uniform. "What's going on?"

The man chuckled as he gently pushed the Pikachu over to her. "Now, this is your Styler. Use it to capture this Pikachu." He gave her a school styler.

Holding the styler in her hand, Kate lifted it into the air and said, "Capture on!" She began to quickly draw loops around it until she had successfully captured it. "Yes!"

"Okay, good going. That's quite impressive." The man said. Then, as the Pikachu ran over to him, he began laughing creppily. "My name, it is Kaplan." Kaplan pointed to Kate. "You are now a member of our secret army, the inscrutable Team School."

"Wha?" Kate asked, confused. She scratched the back of her head in bewilderment.

Kaplan continued. "As proof of your membership, you are conferred the School Styler you just used. Together, we shall rule the world..."

"Oh, please, Mr. Kaplan!" A voice said from behind Kate. She turned to see a woman with shoulder-length auburn hair. She sent a warning glare at Kaplan. "Please don't tease my student with a silly performance like that."

Mr. Kaplan chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, sorry... The timing was just too perfect to miss." Then, he cleared his throat. "Congragulations! You've passed the Ranger School's entrance exam with flying colors!"

Kate smiled. 'Awesome!'

"That really was quite an impressive capture." Kaplan complimented.

The woman, named Ms. April, turned to her new student. "Congratulations! You've been accepted. Starting today, you are officially a student of the Ranger School." She smiled and shook Kate's hand. "I'm Ms. April. I'm your class's teacher. Pleased to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you, too, Ms. April." Kate said politely.

Ms. April motioned for her new student to follow her. "Your classmates are waiting for you. I'll show you to our class."

As Kate followed her teacher, she heard Mr. Kaplan yell, "Enjoy your school life!" and waved good-bye to him. She followed Ms. April out of the shack and into the school building just as the bell rang.

As they approached the classroom, Ms. April turned to Kate. "Wait out here, please. I'll inform the class of your arrival and then you can come in and introduce yourself." Kate nodded, and watched as Ms. April went into the classroom.

Ms. April stood in front of her class and smiled. "Sorry to keep you all waiting, class. And, good morning, everyone!"

"Good morning!" The class said in unison.

"As I mentioned yesterday, we have a new member for our class." Ms. April watched as her class responded with pleasantly surprised looks.

A male student, named Corry, turned to a red-headed boy sitting next to him. "Is it a guy? Or, a girl? Which is it?"

A girl with a bob haircut turned to a girl with puffy blonde hair. "Is the new student cute? Cool? Maybe they'll look like a celebrity!" The blonde nodded hopefully.

Ms. April held her hands up to the class. "Okay, that's enough! You can see for yourself."

Meanwhile, outside the classroom, Kate was panicking slightly. "Hi, I'm Kate Hitomi. Hi, my name's Kate. What's up? The name's Kate." Kate practiced different ways to introduce herself to her new classmates. She groaned, rubbing her face with her hands. "I'm way too nervous to do this! I only hope I don't make a fool of myself..."

"Here's our new classmate! Come on in!" Kate felt her stomach clench nervously as she heard Ms. April call for her to come into the class. She smoothed out her outfit and hair and put on her brightest, prettiest smile.

Everyone turned toward the door as Kate opened in and walked up to the front of the classroom. She stood next to Ms. April, smiling at her classmates. 'I hope everyone likes me...'

"Class, our new friend came alone to our Almia region to become a Pokemon Ranger." Ms. April started, but then, she turned toward Kate. "Oh, yes, but you should introduce yourself to our class rather than me. Let's start with your name."

Kate took a deep breath to steady herself. She smiled at her new classmates. "Hello, everybody. My name is Kate Hitomi. It's a pleasure to be here."

"Okay," Ms. April said. "our new friend is named Kate. Let's all make her feel welcome." She patted Kate on the shoulder. "I understand that she scored quite well on our entrance exam."

Before she could continue, she noticed a strange look on the red-headed boy's face as he stared at Kate. "What is it, Keith? Why the big grin?" Keith, however, didn't answer and continued to grin goofily at Kate.

Ms. April shrugged. "Anyway, we had better get you seated somewhere, Kate." She looked around until her eyes landed on the empty desk next to Keith's. "Oh, there! You can have the seat next to Keith."

"Ok." Kate said. She quickly went over to the desk and sat down. She shifted in her seat a little, feeling Keith glance over at her. 'Why is he staring at me like that?'

"Okay, that will do. That's it for treating you like a new transfer student." Ms. April said. "From now on, you're all my students, people whom I can take pride in teaching." She stepped forward. "Let's do it, everyone... Let's not fail your dreams of becoming Rangers, Operators, and Mechanics!"

The class yelled happily at this statement. "YEAH!"

Ms. April chuckled. "Okay, I'll change the class schedule specially for today. This will be a free-study class." Ms. April began to walk toward the door. Before she left, she turned to Kate. "Before I go, Kate, I need to explain something to you. It's about the School Styler you were provided before the entrance exam."

"Yes?" Kate said, turning in her chair to face her teacher.

"It's a simplified version of a Ranger's official Capture Styler. To put it simply, a Styler is a device used for befriending and capturing Pokemon." Ms. April continued. "By drawing loops around Pokemon, it conveys the Ranger's feelings of friendship to the Pokemon. When the Ranger's friendship is fully conveyed, the Pokemon is captured."

Kate nodded, taking in the information. Ms. April turned toward the girl with puffy blonde hair. "Rhythmi, can I get you to show Kate around the School, please?"

Rhythmi looked over at Kate and smiled. "I sure will!"

Ms. April nodded. "I'll be in the Staff Room. I'll leave you to it." With that, Ms. April left.

As soon as she was gone, the whole class ran over and crowded around Kate. She smiled nervously as they began asking her questions about her life before coming to the Ranger School, her family, and other things like that. Kate was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable from the attention.

Suddenly, Keith walked over to her. "Hey, new kid. I forgot your name, but how long did it take you to capture Pikachu? Like a hour?"

Kate bristled. "No. It was really easy, it only took about 10 seconds."

Rhythmi scoffed at Keith. "Keith's just being a show-off, Kate. You're better off just ignoring him." She turned Kate around so that they were facing each other. "Instead, you should be paying attention to me!" She said cheerfully. "I'm not here to become a Ranger. I want to become an Operator instead."

Rhythmi sent a smirk towards Keith. "So, when Keith becomes a Ranger, I can order him around him around like my servant!"

Keith glared at her. "As if!"

"Just joking, Keith, calm down!" Rhythmi chuckled, holding her hands up in surrender. She turned to Kate. "All right, let's get started on that tour. I'll start with the classroom."

Rhythmi went on to explain about the classroom, Ms. April, and their fellow students. She told Kate about the classroom next to their's, who's teacher was Mr. Kincaid. She held Kate's wrist. "Now, I'll show you around the rest of the school building."

They left Ms. April's classroom and went next door to Mr. Kincaid's class. Rhythmi opened the door and ushered Kate inside. "Sorry to disturb your class, Mr. Kincaid. I'm just giving the new student a tour." She turned to look at Kate. "This is the other classroom. The teacher up there in the front is Mr. Kincaid."

"How does he get his hair to stay like that?" Kate whispered to Rhythmi.

"A ton of hair spray." The blonde whispered back, making Kate giggle. Then, Rhythmi took her to the Library.

"Here's the Library. Also known as Keith's nap room." Rhythmi pointed to a boy in the back with blonde hair. "That boy with the mushroom haircut is Issac. He's really smart. He can usually be found here, studying." Rhythmi tapped her chin in thought. "But, sometimes, he'll dissappear somewhere..."

Next was the Upstairs Dorms.

"Our dorms are up here on the second floor." said Rhythmi. "This is where we all bunk down, coed style." She giggled. "Not in the same bedrooms, of course!"

Kate looked and noticed that on the left, there were blue chairs and on the right, pink.

Rhythmi led Kate over to a woman with light brown hair. "This is Janice. She's our caretaker, and she's like a second mother to us."

Janice smiled at the two girls. "Hello, there, Rhythmi. Who's this?"

"This is Kate. I'm showing her around the School."

"Well, then, Kate. It's a pleasure to meet you." She smiled warmly at her. Kate smiled back.

After they went back downstairs, Kate went over to the basement entrance. Rhythmi stopped her. "Oh, no! Mr. Kincaid's lab is down there. We can't go down there without permission."

"Oh. Well, that sucks." Kate groaned. She was curious as to what could be down there. Instead, they headed to the Staff Room.

"This is the Staff Room. Usually, it's only the principal, Mr. Lamont, who's in here. "She pointed to the gray-haired man at the front of the Staff Room. "He's always got a happy twinkle in his eyes. He's really nice, I like him pretty well." Rhythmi nodded, smiling as she spoke.

Kate nodded. "Okay."

As they exited the Staff Room, a bell sounded. Rhythmi cracked a wide grin. "There goes the bell. We can go outside now!" She pulled Kate alongside her as she ran outside.

Once outside, Rhythmi continued her tour. "The small building to our right is the Training Room. It's where Mr. Kaplan will teach you about performing captures. Ms. Claire teaches about clearing targets in there, too."

Rhythmi pointed over to two large crates in a clearing. "That big clearing is where we can practice doing Target Clears." She looked at Kate. "That reminds me... Do you know about clearing targets?"

Kate looked confused. "No..."

"I thought so. Well, it's all right. That's what the Training Room's for. Come on." Rhythmi led Kate over to the Training Room. The two girls entered the building and looked around. "Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Claire?! Can you give us some lessons, please?"

Mr. Kaplan smirked as the two students approached him and Ms. Claire. "Hehehehe... Welcome to the inscrutable Team School's secret hideout."

'That again?' Kate thought, smiling slightly.

Ms. Claire walked over to them. "Yes, yes, we've all heard of that before!" she told Kaplan in exasperation. Then, she turned to Rhythmi and Kate. "Let's not pay any attention to Mr. Kaplan and his make-believe conspiracy."

"Oh, please don't ignore me!" Kaplan begged. "I-I'll be serious and introduce myself. My name's Mr. Kaplan, and I teach the fundamentals of capture."

Ms. Claire smiled and nodded her head in approval. "And, I'm Ms. Claire. Glad to meet you. It's my job to teach you about performing Target Clears."

Then, Ms. Claire lanched into her lesson about Target Clearing. "First, you touch an object to see what type of target clear is needed." She pointed to a crate next to her. "This crate, for instance, needs the Field Move Crush level 1 to be cleared. Any Pokemon with the Field Move Level 1 Crush can clear this target."

Kate pointed to the Bidoof standing next to Ms. Claire. "An a Bidoof can perform that Target Clear?"

"Exactly." Ms. Claire nodded. "This Bidoof has a level 1 Crush Field Move. So, using your Styler, draw a line from the Bidoof to the crate."

Kate pulled out her Styler and did as she was instructed. The little Bidoof charged at the crate and smashed it into tiny pieces. Then, Kate released it. "Thanks, Bidoof. See you again!"

"After clearing a target, the Pokemon used will run back to where it was originally captured. Each Target has a certain Field Move that must be used to clear it. So, Crush won't work for everything." Ms. Claire told the brown-haired girl. Then, she smiled. "Well, that's about it. If you ever need a review, don't hesitate to come and see me."

"Okay, I will." Kate said.

Rhythmi smiled. "Thank you very much, Ms. Claire." Then. both students headed back outside. "There's one more place I want you to see, Kate. It's right over-"

"Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear!" Janice said from a distance.