Ranger Records

A New Beginning

Dear Diary,

A few months ago, near the beginning of summer, I got my acceptance letter from the Ranger School! I'll be heading off for there tomorrow. It's the start of my adventure. I could have been like my sister, skipping off to contests left and right and earning ribbons, and sure, that seemed sort of appealing to me, but for some reason I don't think I'd be cut out for it.

I also could have taken the same path as my brother, but I don't think I could make it as a trainer, either. I love Pokémon, a lot, but I don't think I'd be the best caretaker in the world. Maybe for one Pokémon, or even two, but I couldn't constantly take care of six of them! I just couldn't handle the worry!

So I decided to take an entirely different route, and applied for the Ranger School. And I even got in!

However, I now have another choice ahead of me. Should I be a Ranger, an Operator, or a Mechanic? Right now I honestly don't know, but I'm sure the answer will come to me once I've been at school for a while.

To commemorate my accomplishment, my Mother got me you! You're really pretty, you know. You're not too big, but not too small, and you're a dark purple, with black flowers all over your cover. You remind me of that story book I used to read, a long time ago. I forget its name. Something something of Estreal. At least I remembered the Estreal part, right? That means it was at least a fairy tale book about our region!

It's late, and I have to get up early tomorrow if I'm going to walk all the way to the school without being tardy for the opening ceremony at 12. I'm going to go to bed now. Goodnight, Diary. I can't wait to share my adventures with you.

I was having a really wonderful dream. You know, the kind of dream that comes by maybe once every six months. It's a dream that really makes you think that it's real, as if you're awake and walking around, talking to your friends and having a really amazing day, yet at the same time you can feel yourself asleep and it's completely relaxing. I was at the Ranger School, and already in my second semester. I had tons of friends and the highest grades in my class. The teachers loved me, too. I graduated early, because they said I didn't even need to finish the year!

And then I felt something lick my foot.

I shifted in my bed, tangling myself up in my blankets, and tried to kick whatever was licking me. It didn't feel like I made contact, but whatever I tried to kick made an angry noise anyway, and licked me yet again. I jerked, hit my night table with my head, and fell to the ground.

"Ow! Jeez, who the heck is licking me—" I stopped myself. I kicked around until I got the blanket off. I really should have known. "Lickilicky! Get out of my room! I told you you weren't allowed in here during the morning! This is why!"

Lickilicky sent me this look, as if saying 'well, excuse you' and marched out of my room. I rubbed my head.

My peaceful morning awakening was ruined, however, when my mother decided to alert me of a very important fact that I seemed to have missed.

"Morning? Sweetheart, it's almost eleven! I mean, technically it's still the AM, but it's almost lunch, and therefore I consider it more of an early noon time…"

"…Wait, what, mom?"

I heard her tapping her fingernails against the railing, a sign that she was getting irritated. "It's almost eleven! Do I always have to repeat myself?"

"Eleven?"

"Almost eleven."

"Mom, I have to be at the Ranger School in an hour! That's all the way past Sherter Town! That's three towns away, and I have to go through Lawtor Forest as well! Why didn't you wake me up?" I threw my covers to the side and grabbed my favorite pair of black boots and purple tights. I put on a belt, a white shirt, my white bracelet and a black vest, combed my hair and grabbed my backpack.

"You were leaving for Ranger School today?"

"I told you that, mom!"

"You said the First!"

"It is the First!"

"Oh, well look at that."

I ran into the bathroom and brushed my teeth quickly. No time to shower, but I had at least taken a quick one last night. My hair, though, wasn't washed during that one…

I turned on the sink and stuck my head under it. I grabbed some shampoo and lathered it through as quickly as possible, before dunking my head again. I grabbed a towel, did a quick rub dry, and brushed my hair out. It would dry more on the way there.

I ran downstairs and grabbed a granola bar from the cabinet. "I'm off, then, I guess! Bye mom!"

"Honey, that's hardly a proper breakfast," she said, now decorated with an apron. "Let me make you something. And I want to take your picture, too…"

"No time, mom! I love you, but I have to go."

"But your father will want to see pictures after he comes back from Hoenn!"

"You can get pictures of me in my uniform after my 1-day internship! I'll be sure to visit! I have to go!"

She sighed, resting her hands on her hips, a spatula clutched in her right hand. "Fine, fine. But if your father gets mad at me for this…"

"He won't, mom. I'll write to you, okay?"

"…Okay. Be careful, Phay."

I smiled. Time to get while the getting's good. "Bye, mom."

And I ran.

I honestly couldn't remember any time I had run so fast in my entire life, or so much. It was the first day of me growing up, and yet I was already making mistakes. Why hadn't I set an alarm clock? Why hadn't I made sure my mom knew I was leaving in the morning? Why didn't I allow Lickilicky to wake me up in the morning anymore?!

I was still about a mile away from the next town. Towns in Estreal weren't very far away, maybe three miles between each at the most. The cities, however, were wicked far, sometimes twenty miles away. Luckily there weren't any cities between my hometown of Vye Village and Sherter town, but it was still a good nine miles away. Seven, now, since I had already ran a good distance, but with only about forty five minutes left…

"My kingdom for a bike!" I screamed, running over the Lorraville bridge as fast as I could.

"Wait, wait! Wait, you, the one running there, please stop! I need help!"

I blinked and skidded to a stop. Near the beginning of the bridge there was an old woman. She was really small, I'd guess about five feet tall, and the hand she was using to grip her cain was shaking. I could feel my chest heaving in and out. Stopping made me more aware of the burning I felt. I really didn't have time for this! "Yes, ma'am? What is it?"

She smiled at me, as if she had been standing there for hours and I had been the first person to stop and address her. "My Skitty, a real rascal, ran up this tree here, and is now too afraid to come down on her own. I'd climb up to retrieve her myself, you see, but I'm just and old woman…"

I looked at my watch. Thirty seven minutes left. Thirty seven minutes to run six miles. "I'd really love to help, ma'am, but I'm really late, and…"

Immediately her smile faded. She seemed worn out and worried. So small, so fragile, so vulnerable. I saw her glancing up the tree, her Skitty mewing at her for assistance, and I saw her hang her head, sad that she really couldn't help the poor thing on her own.

"…" I began running towards her, and dropped my bag at the base of the tree. "I'll have your Skitty down real soon. I promise."

I examined the tree for a minute and reached up, tugging at one of the branches. Deciding it was sturdy enough I grabbed onto it and started up the tree. I had climbed a lot of them, being a kid and all, so it wasn't too hard, except for the fact that the branches were sort of far apart.

When I reached the Skitty, I held my hand out towards it, but it moved back, near the end of the branch. It wiggled, as if it was about to break, and I glanced downwards. It was a good ten feet up in the air, and if the Skitty fell, it could get hurt…

"Excuse me, ma'am? Do me a favor and hold your arms out, and follow where the Skitty goes while on the ground. Okay?"

She nodded to me and I nodded back. Slowly, I moved closer and closer to the Skitty, and it backed up more and more until it fell off the end. It shrieked, and the woman below looked a bit startled, but she was able to catch it, and it didn't claw her up, so all was good.

I smiled. "There you go, ma'am!"

She glared up at me, waving her cane as if to say that were I on the ground, she would strike me with it. "What a dangerous child! What would you have done if I was unable to catch my poor Skitty? It could have died! Reckless glutton!"

"…Glutton?"

"Hmph!" The woman exclaimed, marching off in the opposite direction of the bridge, probably heading to her home.

"…Well. You're welcome," I said, my lips pursed. Last time I help an old lady get her cat out of a tree. I glanced down at my watch, only to see that I had…twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes to run six miles.

"Shoot! I am so late."

I got to the school an hour later. The opening ceremony had already come and gone, but I saw two teachers standing out front while a student attempted to catch a Bidoof. I hesitantly approached, just in time to see the capture.

The teacher on the left, a woman with her blond hair up in a pony tail and her green eyes hidden behind thick, black rimmed glasses smiled. She was wearing a large, Ranger School sweatshirt, a skirt that went down to the middle of her calves, thick white socks, and penny loafers. "Great job! You may enter the school now."

The student threw his hands up in joy and ran towards the doors of the school.

I coughed and moved a bit closer. The other teacher, a man with long, straight hair that fell to his shoulders glared at me. "Who are you?" When he crossed his arms I saw the muscles in his arm ripple, and I took a step back in fear. He had on a tight, white wife-beater shirt and jean shorts that fell to his knees.

"Um…hi, my name is Prophet Lotest, but I liked to be called Phay. I was accepted as a student in this school and received this acceptance letter" I pulled it out of my pocket, unfolded it and handed it to him. "at the beginning of summer."

His eyes traveled over the page for a moment, and upon confirming that it was a legitimate acceptance letter, he nodded. "You're late."

I hung my head a bit. "I know. And I'm really very sorry! It's just that I slept in, and then I met this lady on the way who needed her help getting her Skitty out of a tree, and…"

He held up his hand and I silenced myself immediately. I could already tell that he was one of those teachers, the ones that you fear and automatically hate. The ones who think they know everything and always boss you around, and always punish you for things you didn't even do. And yet, you always listen to them because if you don't you wind up feeling like you had sold your soul to the devil and he was coming to collect. "Those are all just excuses. You knew how important the opening ceremony was, and you came here late anyway. If you lived far away, you should have woken up earlier. If you have problems waking up, you should have set an alarm. If you had done that and had been on time, you probably never would have met that old woman, anyway. The one mistake you made lead to others, and it's entirely your fault."

I felt like going home. I really did. This was supposed to be the first day of the rest of my life, and everything had been going wrong. If I didn't want further trouble, I'd just have to nod along while this guy ripped into me. And yet, I just…couldn't. Sure, that woman had been less than grateful, and sure, maybe if I hadn't stopped to help her or used up my energy climbing that tree I could have had more time and ran faster and might have at least caught some of the ceremony. But I helped that woman. She got reunited with her Skitty, which she obviously cared a lot about. "Sir, I know this is entirely my fault, and I really am sorry, but I'm glad I was late. If I wasn't late, then, just as you said, I would have never met that woman. And that would mean that I never would have helped that woman. It had seemed like she had asked a lot of people before me, so if I hadn't been there, how many more would she have had to ask? I made a difference in her life and helped her out, so I don't have any regrets at all."

He seemed shocked that I had actually had the audacity to speak back to him, and he opened his mouth to retort, but the woman teacher laid her hand on his arm. He glanced her way, a vein throbbing in his forehead, but she simply smiled and shook her head. After a moment of them staring at each other, he closed his mouth and his arms dropped to his side.

The woman looked back to me, her smile still glued to her face. "While you were late, you just showed the real spirit of a ranger. We welcome you to the school." If such things existed, I would have sworn a light bulb shined over her head, as her eyes widened and she scurried toward a cardboard box. She took out some kind of device and came back towards me, placing it in my hand. "This is your School Styler. It's your official capture device while you're a student here. Take good care of it."

I tilted my head.

"My name is Mrs. Corder, and this man here is Mr. Dolesbury. Phay, was it? I think you're in my class…"

I couldn't really hear what she was saying now, as I was inspecting whatever gizmo she had given me. "Um, excuse me?"

"Yes?"

"What's a Styler? And what do you mean by 'capture'?"

The man-teacher, Mr. Dullsbury or whatever, glared at me again. "You came to a ranger school and you have absolutely no idea what a Styler is? How can you call yourself a to-be ranger and not—"

The woman, Mrs. Corder, looked at him again and yet again, he silenced. She took her gaze back over to me and said, "A Styler is a Ranger's most important tool. It's what we use to capture Pokémon, communicate with other Rangers, and receive voicemails from our Operators during missions. A 'capture' is when we use the antenna of the Styler to release and control the capture disc, which circles around a Pokémon with a capture line, which lets the Pokémon understand our feelings. When a Pokémon completely understands, it's captured, and lends us its help during missions."

"Oh."

I could tell that Mr. Dullsburg was getting more and more frustrated, but the woman just kept on smiling. She was nice. I liked her. Him, not so much.

He smiled now, too, though. Only it wasn't an 'aw, I'm gonna be nice now' smile. It was more of a 'haha, now I can get you back for pissing me off, because I'm going to piss on your life' smile. He nodded to a Pikachu near the doors of the school. "In order to enter the school, you have to capture that Pikachu."

The woman glared at him this time. "We made all of the other children capture Bidoof. Pikachu's are of a higher level, Mr. Dolesbury. That's simply not fair—"

"She came late, Mrs. Corder. And we decided that we get to decide which Pokémon a student has to capture for each others class, right? This is my decision."

"Excuse me," I said, cutting them off. "But what happens if it gets really late and I still haven't caught it?"

"You sleep outside."

"Mr. Dolesbury!"

"It's her punishment for being late, Mrs. Corder."

"What will I do for classes, then?" I asked, beginning to get nervous. He wasn't serious, right?

He smirked. "You can watch and take notes from the windows. All classes are on the ground floor."

Oh, he was serious.

It was eight hours later. Mr. Dolesbury had left after the first, and even Mrs. Corder had left after the third hour passed. And me? I was still there, at the front of the school, trying to capture that Pikachu. It kept getting near the capture line, and I was afraid it was going to attack it or it was going to break, so I kept withdrawing my attacks. Basically, I was getting nowhere, fast.

A lot of my classmates had passed me during that time, and I kept getting points and laughs, mocking remarks or snide comments. It hurt a little, it really did. These were my new classmates that I was supposed to be making friends with, and they already thought I was a loser.

I sighed and closed up my Styler, slumping against the cold stone of the building. The Pikachu quirked its head at me, as if to say "oh, so you're done now?" and it skirted off somewhere. I would have chased after it, had I not been so tired, but instead I just laid down against the building, curling up into a ball. I hadn't eaten anything except for the granola bar in the morning, and since all meals were held inside of the school, I wasn't about to eat any time soon. I rubbed my stomach as it rumbled, and tried to drift off to sleep, shivering as a breeze passed over me with no blanket to cover me from the wind.

I felt something poke my arm, and used the rest of my energy to pry my eyes open. There it was, the same Pikachu I had been trying to catch a moment before, with an apple balanced on its head. I sat up immediately, drooling a bit. It was so big, and so juicy looking…

The Pikachu jerked back a little, probably startled by my sudden movement, and the apple fell of its head and rolled towards me. I grabbed for it right away, as I was absolutely starved, but then I looked back at the Pikachu. It hadn't purposely dropped the apple for me, I had accidentally knocked it off. What if it was its dinner?

I looked longingly at it for another second, and then held it out towards the Pikachu. It stared for a minute and shook its head, nudging the apple towards me with its tail.

"But it's yours, isn't it?"

"Pika, pika pi, pi chu, pi," it said, nudging the apple with its tail again. It was giving it to me, but the Pikachu had been with me as long as I had been with it, and it hadn't eaten anything, either.

"Hold on," I said. "I think I have a solution to this."

I dug inside my backpack until I felt something prick my finger. Bingo. I grabbed it and pulled it out. My mother had packed a sewing kit for me, just to be safe, and it was a good thing, too, because one of the needles could really come in handy. I took one of them out and made a vertical circle around the apple, and then retraced it a few times. Once the gash was somewhat deep, I put the needle away, grabbed the two sides of the apple and twisted. It broke apart into two, somewhat equal pieces, and I held out one to Pikachu. "Let's share, okay?"

"Pi pika pika chu?"

"It's fine."

It hesitated for a moment, but it grabbed the half with its hands and took a couple reluctant bites. I smiled and began to devour mine, happy to finally have something to eat.

"You know, Pikachu, I will capture you. But until I do, we should have our meals together, okay?"

"Chu Pika pi chu pi."

"Then we have an agreement. Goodnight."

"Pikachu."

Authors Note: Well, there we go! My first chapter. I got inspired after playing Pokemon Rangers: Shadows of Almia, and because I loved it so much, I decided to write my own Ranger story!

I'll try to update really soon, and I've got a few surprises in store for anyone who likes my story down the line. I know this chapter was probably a little slow (I'm sorry if it bored you D:), but it'll pick up soon. Please review.