"Grandfather, you wished to see me?" Gary asked as he took his aviators off his eyes. He was dressed in a purple tee-shirt under a black jacket. He ran a hand through his brown spiky hair and stole a glance at the man that was standing with Professor Oak. His Umbreon followed him closely at his heels, taking a glance at everything and anything around him.

"Gary," Professor Oak acknowledged. "We have an interesting proposition for you." He took a seat. Gary watched cautiously as the man dressed in a black suit sat down next to his grandfather, he put a suitcase onto the table. Professor Oak motioned for him to sit, which he complied.

"Mr. Oak, your grandfather tells me you're a very competent battler." The man said as he opened his briefcase.

Gary absentmindedly petted Umbreon. "You could say that." He said with a smirk.

The man nodded as he handed him a couple of papers. "How would you like to go to school? But, a different one."

Gary scrunched his eyebrows. "School? What's this have to do with me being a battler?"

The man gave a half smile. "There is a new school outside of Sunnyshore City that is opening to Elite battlers and co-ordinators alike."

"And?"

"There's one slight problem."

"Well, what is it?

The man sighed. "Team Thunder is arising out of that area. No one seems to know what they're after, however." His eyes moved away from Gary.

"So, the Dean of the school approached me asking if I knew any battlers that have been through enough to be able to keep their head during an attack. Naturally, you and Ash popped into my head." The Professor chimed in, studying Gary.

Gary thought this over for a moment. "And you expect Ash and I only to be able to keep up with a whole team in an invasion in a school?" He scoffed at the idea. "I may be amazing, but taking on a horde of them would do it for me and my Pokemon."

The man smiled, a look of relief passed over his face. "Does this mean you agree?"

Gary nodded. "I do."

He stood up. "But, first things are first. I am Drake. I hate to rush this upon you like this, but I need you and Ash to find six other people, if you can." He studied Gary carefully. "I'll see you all in a week at the opening, alright?"

"Alright." Was Gary reply. With that Drake walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Professor Oak watched guy leave and glanced over at his grandson. "Six other people?"

Gary shrugged. "I'll get Ash on it. I'm going to go train." And with that, he walked out of the laboratory. Professor Oak sweat dropped.

"Espeon!" Rae yelled in a singsong voice. She ran into her bedroom holding a sheet of paper and jumped onto her green bed. Her Espeon raised its head at its trainer. She wore purple spandex and a black tank top. Her normally wavy black hair was thrown into a messy bun. "Guess where we've been accepted?"

"Es?" The purple Pokemon asked as it stretched out.

Rae's blue eyes gleamed. "Yes! We got into the Battle school!" She danced around the room while her Pokemon sweat dropped. She motioned for her Espeon to follow her as she walked out of her room, down stairs to slip on a pair of grey flip flops and out the door, and unclipped the Pokeballs from her belt. "C'mon out everyone!"

She threw five Pokeballs into the air. She looked around at the five Pokemon in front of her and grinned. "We got in, guys!"

Her Charizard opened her mouth and spewed fire into the air, roaring as it did. Her Poliwrath punched the air while her Ampharos giggled in joy and high fived the Haunter beside of her. The Salamance eye rolled at everyone.

"We leave in two days, everyone. Who's up for a little bit of training?" Rae asked her Pokemon while smiling.

"Wait a second. All of us are going to this school?" Paul scoffed as they met in front of the school. "I'm impressed Troublesome even made it." The plum haired boy stated. He wore a dark blue jacked over a black tee shirt and jeans.

Dawn rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at the plum haired boy. "Paul, can you just shut it."

He shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

Gary surveyed the group. He noticed that apart from himself and Ash, only Paul, Misty and Brock were battlers. Dawn, May and Drew were actually coordinators.

Misty, wearing an ocean blue tank top, yellow mid-thigh shorts, and yellow converse, her hair in its normal side ponytail. She had Vaporeon by her side, and looked over at the building. "Quite an interesting place for a school." She remarked with her eyes raised. Apart from Brock, she was the eldest of the group.

Dawn, who had her hair in her signature bobby pins wore a pair of black jean shorts covered by a pink tank top with a silver heart necklace. She wore her usual white hat, whistled. "It looks like a haunted house." She said as she looked at the school. Calling it a school was almost an insult. It was made of black stone with four pillars surrounding the main part. It looked like a castle out of a fairytale. She held her Piplup in her arms. "You ready?"

"Pip!" The penguin Pokemon replied to her, raising its arms.

"Ah! Gary!" Drake said as he walked up to the group. Misty frowned as she looked at the man with the shaggy brown hair and dark shades. She swore she saw the man smirk, but it was quickly replace with a smile. He wore black dress pants and a yellow dress shirt with a matching black tie. "And Ash! Is this everyone?"

Gary nodded. "This is everyone." He stated shortly as he watched Drake. Something seemed... off about this guy to him, ever since he met him. He shrugged it off and motioned to the girl next to him. She wore a pair of black bike shorts and a white tee shirt under a red vest. "This is May. And that's Drew." He said while pointing at a guy of about fifteen with shaggy green hair which he flicked out of his eyes. He wore a pair of blue jeans and a black tee shirt under an opened purple jacket. A Roserade followed his every move and watched Drake warily.

"Misty, Brock, Paul and Dawn." Ash finished as he pointed at the four. Brock, who had yet to say a word just nodded. He wore his signature orange tee shirt under a brown and green vest with brown cargo pants. His Sudowoodo stood at his side, silently watching everything.

Drake clapped his hands together. "This is perfect! The school probably feels safer already. Come, come inside now." He motioned for the eight of them to follow.

Misty fell in step with the Dean. He looked over at her. "Ah, the Cerulean Gym leader! What an excellent privilege to have you here." Drake said as he smiled at her.

Misty secretly rolled her eyes. "Do the students know about the threat?" She asked as they neared the doors. Ash walked off to the side, wearing a blue sweatshirt with the Pokemon sign on it. He wore a pair of black cargo pants and a blue and red hat sat on his head. His Pikachu was perched on his shoulder.

Drake waved her question away. "There isn't any point to worry them over something we're not sure of, now is there?" He asked her as they opened the door.

"I... I guess not." She replied as she made her way inside.

He nodded as they walked in. "Now, the girls are to the left of us, while the guys are on the right." He said motioning to the two separate hallways. "The staircase behind me leads up to where we will meet for dinner in awhile. Now, enjoy!" He said as he sauntered off.

The girls looked down at their room assignments while the guys wandered off.

"Everyone have room 102?" May asked, finally speaking up today. The three nodded as they set off.

"102, 102," Rae muttered as her Espeon followed at her heels. She past a group of four girls smirking at her and she looked over at her Espeon who was glaring at them, and smiled. "Right. Don't worry about them." She looked at the doors, then paused once she hit 102. She reached to open the door, before she was stopped by three girls.

"102 is your room, too?" A girl with raven hair asked her. She smiled at Rae and Rae smiled back. "Awesome! I'm Dawn." She said while setting Piplup to the ground and holding her hand out for Rae to shake.

"I'm Rae." Rae said as she shook Dawn's hand.

"I'm Misty." The red-head said as she smiled to Rae.

"And I'm May." The burnette said as she finished tying her bandana. "It's nice to meet you."

Rae smiled and nodded. "As to you guys." She opened the door and the three other girls followed her and Espeon into the room. The room was divided by Japenese curtains into four sections, each painted pink, blue, red and purple respectively. Dawn squealed as she ran into the Pink one.

"Call it!" She yelled as Rae watched her Espeon run into the purple room. "Sorry guys, I think Espeon decided for me." She chuckled as she followed her Pokemon.

May laughed. "Perfectly fine, Misty loves blue and obviously I'll take the red room." She said with a smile as she dropped off the bags. "Rae, do you want to join us for dinner?"

Rae smiled. "Sure!" She said as she grabbed her Pokeballs and clipped them onto her belt. She looked into the mirror and looked down at her outfit. She wore a purple tee shirt under a black jacket with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and the jacket unzipped. She wore a pair of dark jean shorts and a pair of purple converse. She had her brown hair to her shoulders and only wore a hint of foundation and eyeliner. She grinned at herself as she recalled Espeon to her Pokeball and met up with the four outside of her room.

"Where are you from, Rae?" Dawn asked as she and the others walked to the dining area.

"I'm from Eterna City." Rae replied as she looked to the ground. "My mother is Gardenia." She usually hated to admit that, everyone expecting her to be some big grass Pokemon freak when in all honesty she didn't have a single grass Pokemon. "She was the one who sent me here, seeing that she couldn't convince me to stick with one type of Pokemon."

May nodded. "I know how that feels!" She smiled. "I'm glad someone else has a gym leader parent." She stated as she high fived Rae.

"June, hurry up! The food is almost gone." A boy said to them as he flicked his hair out of his eyes and smirked. May's eyes squinted at him.

"Drew Hayden, how many times do I have to tell you, my name is MAY!" She said as she yelled, chasing after him. Misty and Dawn seemed unfazed by this, so Rae thought it was a regular occurrence. She followed Dawn and Misty to a table where Drew plus four other guys sat. She sat down in between a guy with spiky brown hair and Dawn.

"Guys, this is Rae, our roommate. Rae, this is Brock, Ash, Drew, Paul and Gary." She said as she pointed to each respective boy.

"Nice to meet you." Ash said as he smiled from across the table. "Trainer or Coordinator?"

"Trainer." She said as she grabbed a bread stick. Gary smiled.

"Good."

Drew shook his head. "Loser." He stated as he smirked. She stuck her tongue out at him.

As dinner grew on, Rae became more and more comfortable with the eight friends, getting to hear all the stories about their travels. Everyone seemed to be connected through Ash, she realized. He was one of the more powerful trainers here, along with Gary. They sat there and talked for what seemed like a short period of time but in retrospect took about an hour. They were interrupted by Drake who hit his empty glass with his fork.

"Okay, kiddies. Listen up! We've got a few things to go over then its lights out." Drew said as he got everyone's attention. "First off, there will be no sneaking out of rooms past 11:30pm each night, excluding tonight which you have to be in your rooms by 10:30. Second, in the room to my right is the Pokemon center, the room to my left is the Pokemon stadium. Never, I repeat, never, go into the room behind me." He paused for a moment surverying the forty teens here.

"We have decided as a way to test your skills, you will all participate in a tournement, starting tomorrow. There will be four Pokemon battles going simultaneously, and whomever makes it to the top will have a prize. There will be no contest, but feel free to use anything you use there. Any questions?" He looked around the room and grinned. "Good! Now, everyone get to bed, and be ready for tomorrow's tournement." And with that he walked through the door behind him.

After dinner, they all walked back to their respective rooms, excited for the tournement that awaited them tomorrow. Rae couldn't believe how easily she seemed to have made friends with Ash and Co. She smiled as she turned off her lamp and laid down to fall asleep.

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