6/25/09 - Just for those who don't have the game and are having difficulty following along with the Mystery storyline i made, i am working on a complete retelling of the Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia game. those who know this story cause you played it before, do check every so often for exclusive scenes i make only here and nowhere else. they will be perfect references in my main stories. chapter one is served.

3/11/11 - Edited Ver 2.0 - Finally got to look it over, and renovate this chapter to better condition. I'm still thinking of editing this again someday when I have a better eye for writing... I plan to take out all relations to KHR, and still keep connections to FMA. That means Reborn will have to be replaced with someone from FMA or some obscure character from the Pokemon games. More to come when 2nd chapter is edited.

1/19/13 - Edited Ver 2.1 - Finally starting to come back to this and re-edit the story a bit so it can be much more enjoyable without those nasty grammar errors and other things! Progress will be slow, though.

Shadows of Almia

Chapter 1- Initiation

"All you have to do is capture this Pikachu."

A brown haired girl with pigtails nodded to the man with the teal cap, and she glanced from the Styler to the Pikachu. She then set the Capture Disc off, bringing it to a circle around the mouse Pokemon by the guidance of her fingers. The girl started waving the Styler in loops and spun occasionally. The mouse Pokemon looked around in surprise as the Disc made a contracting glowing circle around it. Finally, it turned blue and back to normal again. The Pikachu hopped a few moments to signify success.

"Okay, good going," The teal-capped man looked awfully too happy to her. "Hehehe… My name is Kaplan. Now you are a member of our secret army, the inscrutable Team School! As proof of your membership, you are conferred the School Styler you just used. Together we shall rule the world…"

Kate stared at the man with a blank expression, unsure of what he really meant by that. Were all of the teachers going to be this strange ?

"Oh, Mr. Kaplan, don't tease my student with a silly performance like that!" A woman chided him from across the empty gym. Both Mr. Kaplan and Kate spun around to see a woman with red hair and a business suit. She made her way to the two, her arms crossed. The man sighed in exasperation at her lack of humor, and then straightened up.

"Ahaha, sorry, the timing was too perfect," Mr. Kaplan chuckled and then cleared his throat. "Congratulations! You have just passed the entry test with flying colors! That was a really impressive capture."

The woman turned to Kate, presenting the exit. Her frown immediately turned into a warm smile, and the stern atmosphere lifted.

"Congrats! You have been accepted! Starting today, you are officially a student of the Ranger School. I'm Miss April. I'm your class teacher. I'm pleased to meet you. Your classmates are waiting for you. I'll show you to your class."

"Thank you." Kate nodded at her and followed after her teacher of back onto the grassy courtyard of the school.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, class, and good morning, everyone!"

"Good morning, Mrs. April!" The class answered in unison to their teacher, who nodded in return.

"As I mentioned we have a new member for our class…"

Before Mrs. April could finish, the entire class then looked at each other in excitement, whispering countless things amongst themselves, most notably about the new student.

"Is it a guy? Or a girl? Which is it?"

"Is the new student cute? Cool? Or look like a celebrity?"

"Okay, that's enough!" Mrs. April silenced them with the raise of a hand. "You can see for yourself. Here's your latest classmate, come on in!"

The door at the back of the classroom creaked open, and in came the new student. All eyes were trained upon her as she slowly made her way across the room. It felt like she was walking to her own death before she could begin living, with everyone staring at her all the way, unimpressed voices or whispered awes following behind her. She reached the teacher's desk at the front of the classroom, and made a complete turn around.

"Our new friend came alone to our Almia region to become a Pokemon Ranger," Mrs. April continued, and remembered something. "Oh, you should introduce yourself."

"I'm Kate... Kate Davies," Kate replied, she gave a small bow. "I hope I'll become an excellent addition to this class."

Kate then heard a redhead at the front row snicker at her introduction. She began to think that she must have been done something wrong when she was talking. Well, thinking back, she just used some pretty long words. Was that irritating to people? She didn't look too awful, did she? While Kate was lost in thought of all the mistakes she could have done, Mrs. April noticed that the girl had nothing more to say, and carried on the talking.

"Please, class, make her feel welcome. I understand she scored well on her entrance exam…" Then the teacher noticed the a red-haired boy making faces from the corner of her eye. "What is it Keith? What's the big grin?"

So that was his name, Kate thought. She had noticed he had for once paid attention to the front of the class when he heard that she had a high score on the entrance exam. He must be a boy of many faces, if he had just ridiculed her and then suddenly saw her as some equal within seconds. Keith then sat up from slouching in his seat. "Nothing, Mrs. April!"

Mrs. April then turned to Kate. She had been standing there long enough, and she looked ready to shrink back into the whiteboard behind her. The girl was sure she had been in front of the classroom for more than necessary now.

"Anyways, we better get you seated," the teacher smiled. "Take the desk next to Keith, please."

The girl nodded meekly and walked to her left to take the assigned desk. Keith was doing all sorts of things to make her uncomfortable, but she quietly slid into her seat and began taking out the materials left in her desk, not even sparing a single glance at the redhead. Then a small sense of dread dwelled in Kate's thoughts as she thought of the redhead who had laughed at her introduction. She was beginning to wish she didn't ask for transfer papers for this school… Of all the things she could worry about, she was fretting over the impression she gave a single boy. Kate finally gave in and looked to him from the corner of her eye, catching another grin. What was that? Amusement? Welcome? Relief?

"Okay that will do." The teacher clapped her hands together in conclusion. "That's it for treating you like a new transfer student. From now on, you're all my students whom I can take pride in teaching. Let's do it, everyone. Let's not fail your dreams of becoming Rangers, Operators, and Mechanics!"

The class followed suit. "Yeah!"

"Okay, I've changed the schedule today. It will be a free-study period." Mrs. April then turned to a blonde haired girl next to Kate. "Rhythmi, can I get you to show Kate around the school please?"

"I sure will!" Rhythmi replied happily. Kate turned round to see a nicely dressed girl with waving blond locks. She must be some sort of class representative, or self-proclaimed, whatever she was.

"I'll be in the Staff room. I'll leave you to it," and Mrs. April left the room. Then all the students gathered around Kate, and began to fire around loads of questions. She wasn't sure what to answer first and after that, and she looked to the people outside for help. Rhythmi was trying her best to get her out of the crowd, but to no avail. Keith, on the other hand, was quite amused by her panicked face, and slowly made his way. The other students noticed her presence, and immediately made way for him to come through.

"Hey, new kid, I forgot your name, but… How long did it take you to capture a Pikachu? Like hours?"

Kate was taken aback. For once, she thought that he could have been redeemable somehow, but it seemed she was wrong. She said nothing in return, hoping that nothing bad will come of this. She pushed past him and the other students, and rejoined Rhythmi at the foot of the door. The blonde waited patiently, and she, too, was clearly irritated by Keith.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting," Kate said as she approached her new companion. Rhythmi quickly answered that it was not a problem.

"Keith's just a show-off," She said as she pushed open the door. "You're better off ignoring him. Instead you should be paying attention to me. I'm not here to become a Ranger like he is."

"Oh," Kate answered flatly. "Then what do you plan to become?"

"I want to become an Operator," Rhythmi grinned proudly. "So when Keith becomes a Ranger, I can order him around like servant… just joking!"

The two girls quickly left the classroom out into an indoor hallway lined with portraits, posters, and house plants.

"All, right, let's go on that tour, shall we?" Rhythmi pointed at the door they had just exited. "Well, that's our classroom, and Mrs. April, well, you've already met her. She's really nice, but if you get her mad, watch out."

Kate made a mental note to be at her best behavior in class, which shouldn't be too hard, since she never spoke much. "Oh."

"Let's move on, shall we?"

Kate nodded and followed Rhythmi along the rather long hallway and up the stairs. The second floor was just as large as the ground floor, if not, larger. Supposedly, this was the cafeteria, judging from the many round tables in the room. They stepped further into the room and turned to face the stairs, seeing two doors on each side, one blue and one pink.

"Here is our dormitories, well, it's separate, not co-ed," Rhythmi commented.

"So, pink is girls and blue is boys?" Kate asked. She hoped that the rooms inside wouldn't be frilly and pink when she stepped in there that night.

"Of course!" Rhythmi sighed, and then motioned to a middle-aged lady who was busy sweeping the cafeteria's floor. "Janice is our housekeeper. She keeps the dorms nice and tidy for us. Hello, Janice!"

The said lady turned around, noticing the two. She waved back, but quickly went back to her work.

"Janice is really nice, but it's best not to interrupt her chores," Rhythmi added. "She also tends to the Pokemon we have here at the school. She really likes the Bidoof here. Now, let's go to the next main attraction, the library!"

Kate was led down the stairs back to ground floor again. They took a sharp right turn, where a pair of grand doors was waiting to be opened. Indeed, the library was something to be amazed at. The walls were lined with shelves stocked with a many books. Between the many shelves were tables and chairs, probably for studying. Since classes were still being in session, very people were in the library. Kate could recognize them all as people from her class, but there was one boy in particular she didn't know. He possibly was a second year, just like them, and he was quite tall with light hair. For a moment, Kate could have thought he was an old man from behind, but his face was too young.

"This is the library, or also known as Keith's napping room," Rhythmi gave a hint of disapproval. "Students can come to study every day. You see that boy over there? With a mushroom haircut?"

She pointed to that same mysterious boy, who had just decided on his next book to read, and was hiding away behind the other shelves aftewards.

"That's Isaac, and he's a total genius but he rarely talks to anyone except only a handful of his friends," Rhythmi said admiringly. "He usually hangs around here, and he really likes sitting by that certain window."

They then visited the office, where Mr. Lamont, the principal, was busy enjoying his afternoon coffee and reading the latest issue of Almia Times, from what Kate could see from afar. Mrs. April was around there, too, but she was busy grading papers at her desk.

Rhythmi quickly pulled Kate out of the office, and led to the other rooms, such as a small music room, which was complete with a variety of instruments, and a grand piano. Rhythmi told her that Mr. Lamont enjoyed playing the piano, and he would come in and play it every evening, when he had time. Unfortunately, it was one of the only reasons why the music rooms still existed, since very few students decided to take the music elective. Rhythmi then went rambling on about how Keith hung out in the music room to formulate his devious plans, but once she realized she was off-topic, she dragged Kate out of the room, too. On the way, they also visited the small garden, which was tended by Janice, the laboratory for science classes, which Rhythmi emphasized again that Isaac visited frequently, and a broom closet.

"There are many teachers here," Rhythmi rattled on. "But the main teachers are Mrs. April and Mr. Kincaid. Oh, and Mr. Kincaid is our last stop in this building."

The two girls arrived at the door of second classroom, where a large sign was posted brazenly and read: "NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS." Kate and Rhythmi quietly stepped into the room, trying not to make a commotion. Kate was then surrounded by the strong smell of cologne, or perfume? She wasn't really sure, but it smelled overly pleasant and suffocating. Up in the front of the classroom was a blonde man, with the most bizarre hair she had ever seen. Somehow, he managed to make the front of his hair slick back into a large curl. Was this even possible?

As soon as they had entered the room, the man had been staring coldly at them for intruding. The poor students up at front were asleep, terrified, or even swooning at the scent of perfume, or cologne. Only a few students were able to stand the strong aroma of roses and lavender.

"Sorry, Mr. Kincaid, to disturb your class," Rhythmi apologized quickly, and even she seemed shaky on her legs. "but I needed to take this new student on a tour!"

The teacher looked at Kate with a critical eye, as if he was trying to look for something on her. He gave up, and returned to the board.

"Fine," He said briskly. "But please do knock on the door before you come in."

"Y-yes, Mr. Kincaid," Rhythmi nodded, and turned wearily to Kate, and began in a low whisper.

"This is the other class. That teacher is Mr. Kincaid. He gets his hair to go that way with a ton of hair spray. He's a bit too uptight, I think, well, I'm not a big fan."

"So it was hairspray…" Kate noted to herself. So she was definitely wrong on the perfume and cologne, but doesn't help to think he uses that, too. Hopefully, he didn't hang many pictures of cats with frilly pink frames on his desk back at the office. Rhythmi was beginning to seem totally out of it, and Kate made it her duty to take her friend out the door, giving a sincere goodbye to Mr. Kincaid, who only glared back at her.

BONG! BONG!

"There goes the bell, we can go outside now." Rhythmi pointed to the main gate. She seemed to have recovered from the intense hairspray scent back at Kincaid's.

"Good idea." Kate responded as the two walked outside onto a large expanse of well-tended grass. Supposedly, Janice took care of this, too… was she the custodian, by any chance?

"So, Kate, how do you like this school?" Rhythmi asked, interrupting her train of thought.

"Oh, it's sounds really great," Kate answered, and tried to elaborate, but she couldn't say much. Rhythmi then pointed to a large separate building. That was the building Kate had just left after her exams.

"That's the training room. That's where Mr. Kaplan teaches capturing, and where Mrs. Claire teaches Target Clears. They're also in charge of the physical education classes."

Rhythmi and Kate then turned to a bunch of empty wooden crates at the right that lay around on one side of the courtyard.

"Those crates are for Target Clear practice. Whoever it was didn't clean up this morning."

The blonde then flitted to Kate.

"Say," Rhythmi looked at Kate again. "Do you know what a Target Clear is?"

"No," Kate replied flatly. "Not exactly. I'm sorry. I'm a second year, and I haven't even learned what it is, yet."

"It's all right," Rhythmi remained cheerful. "We have the Training Room."

So, they visited the gym, where Mr. Kaplan and Mrs. Claire graciously gave small tutorials on how to use Target Clears. They gave thanks to the two teachers and left the training room shortly. Kate and Rhyth stepped out onto the lawn again, and the two looked at each other.

"Well, now you know what Target Clears are, right?"

"It wasn't too bad…" Kate drifted. "I guess it's easy to remember."

"Help! Oh dear! Someone help me catch the Bidoof for me?"

The girls spun around to see Janice in despair as a small pack of Bidoof around her ran around in different directions. The two girls stared dumbfounded at the sight, and made little action until the school doors swung open. Keith, who had decided to visit the courtyard, laughed in amusement at the scene before him.

"Hehehe," he chuckled, catching everyone's attention. "I wonder what the ruckus was all about. Looks like a good time for grabs!"

Rhythmi snapped out of her stupor and stomped her foot at Keith.

"Keith, don't just stand there! You help with the Capturing, too!" She paused and then grabbed Kate and shoved her to the middle of the courtyard. "You, too, Kate!"

Keith then snickered again as he strolled down to the lawn. "It won't be much fun to help. Hey, new kid!"

"It's Kate!" Rhythmi shouted at him. "Call her by her own name for once! Can't you make an effort to remember our classmate's name?"

"It's okay, Rhythmi," Kate smiled to calm her new friend down, but she stared back at the redhead with uncertainty.

"Sorry." He shrugged. "Forgot your name, but I challenge you!"

"What do you want?" Kate frowned at him.

"Let's see how many Bidoof we can capture!"

"Kate," Rhythmi tried to talk her out. "Don't listen to him! It's a waste of time!"

"Interesting," Kate put up her competitive tone, whipping out her Styler. "I'll accept your challenge."

Rhythmi resigned and let it go, since she was already angry at Keith.

"Gosh you're so annoying, both of you!" She shrugged. "Go ahead with your silly race, or whatever!"

Keith ignored her and pulled out his Styler. "Three, two, one! Let's go!"

"I caught five, well, that means you only got four, so I win!" Keith jumped into the air to make his Ranger pose. Kate glowered at him and looked away in annoyance, but she couldn't think up of anything to throw back at the redhead. Rhythmi was still angry at the fact that the two of them were foolish enough to bother competing to capture anything at all.

Janice looked from the students, completely unaware of what contest they had agreed on.

"Keith, you looked good at the capturing, well I do have to thank Rhythmi and your new friend, too," Janice laughed. "This is a big relief for me, so thank you. I must have stepped on the leader Bidoof's tail, so maybe that's why they went crazy. I'm really sorry, I'll give them extra treats."

Janice then walked away from them with a herd of Bidoof behind her. Keith then turned to Kate, who was still not happy with the results of the race.

"I'd rate your capture 65 out of 100." He smiled, catching her surprised face, which was rather amusing, actually. "… but hey. I was pretty surprised by how you did. Honest. So you're Kate, right?"

Rhythmi then turned to slap the boy on the arm disdainfully.

"Oh, you, Keith!" She slapped him again. "You knew her name all along, and then you just pretended you don't know? "

"It's okay." Kate caught Rhythmi's hand just before she was about to turn Keith's arm any redder. "People make mistakes the first day they meet…."

Keith then gave another impressed smirk at her, and then remembered something else.

"Rhyth, you're done with the tour yet?"

"Nope," Rhyth shook her head. "Going to the Ascension Square last. Coming?"

"Oh, really?" Keith was rather interested at her offer. "Sure… why not?"

"Yeah. Come on."

"This is Ascension Square. It's near that big monument over there called Pledge Stone."

Kate gaped at the height of the rock. "It's so huge!"

"What?" Keith rolled his eyes, though he was surprised that Kate could express herself more than nods and softness. "Never seen a rock monument?"

Kate shot a quick glare at him for his smugness, and then turned to Rhythmi, who continued.

"Next month, there's going to be a special class here called Outdoor Class. If you make a firm pledge to each other with your friends here, it will surely come true… well, that's what Principal Lamont said."

Rhythmi clapped her hands together. "Now that's the end of the tour! Kate, I'm glad to meet you, and I hope we become friends for a long time."

"Hey! Hold it now!" Keith caught Kate's attention. "Don't worry about Rhyth. Be friends with me, okay?"

"Well, can't I be friends with the both of you?" Kate looked at the two, who were bickering over the said issue until the bell rang.

One week has passed, and Kate was getting acquainted with the school grounds. She found classes just as normal as the ones in Fiore, except even better, but she remembered her purpose. She wanted to get the best shot at being a Top Ranger, one of the highest ranked Rangers in the world, and to be a graduate of the main campus was the best place to start. Ambitions, now, was she?

At this point, she started to feel that she could have been acting very selfish. Her family back in Fiore had a successful farm in Ringtown, and they probably have to work more to pay for her expenses her in Almia. Her dad didn't complain or say no to her when she said she wanted to transfer schools, although she did give valid reasons, and her mom was even more delighted to know that her eldest daughter was so ambitious. Her brother and sister were just as accepting, and even her own brother wanted to go to the Academy here in Almia.

Kate was pacing in her new dorm. Pink flowing drapes covered the crystal glass windows of the calm sea behind it. Much to her relief, the dorms were not frilly and entirely pink. She was not the type to adore things like these, save for the view of the sea, but she found it rather ridiculous that many of the girls were still enamored with the pink curtains in the middle of the school year instead of the guys who have been sending chocolates to them every day. Kate was now sitting on her bunk, with a letter in hand. She was about to put it in a neat and tidy envelope when a voice came from below her bunk.

"Are you writing to your sister?"

Kate leaned over to look at Rhythmi. The blonde was sitting in her lower bunk, a letter in her hands as well. Kate gave a quick nod.

"Yeah. She's in Fiore right now."

"Well, Kate, I'm writing to my family, too," Rhythmi pointed to her paper. "They live in Kanto, so it's really far, but I take the labor to write to them once every two weeks… say… how about we sneak outside a bit?"

"Fine with me." Kate agreed and the two quietly left to leave. The others noticed, but said nothing about it.

The two girls were in the cafeteria right outside the doors to the dormitories now, where a handful of students were waiting. All of them look equally excited, and others were warily looking about the room, afraid that ghosts would come and haunt them.

"Looks like initiation's starting!" one of them whispered.

"Thanks for waiting." Rhythmi looked calmly at a redhead, who was impatiently tapping his foot. Kate sighed at the conflict between her two friends. Lately, through the past few days, he was not as troubling as Kate thought he was. Sure, he was annoying sometimes and demanded her homework at the wrong times, but he was nice when he wanted to be, and that was what mattered.

"Yeah, kept us waiting, Rhythmi." Keith scowled. "It took you an hour."

"Um, it's not her fault…" Kate added. "I needed to finish my letter to my sister, that's all…"

Keith then said nothing and turned to several other students who had come to join in.

"All right, let's get started with our test of courage to welcome Kate."

"Keep it down, but yay!" the students jumped and whispered. Kate was puzzled if it was possible to be quiet if they already jumped and made a hard thump on the floor altogether. More importantly, the test of courage?

"Um… what's this test of courage?" She asked Rhythmi.

"We just want to prove you're brave." The blonde answered her. "I had to do it, too, but it's no big deal."

"I meant the rules…"

"The rules are simple. The four of us left our Stylers in a separate room in the school. Your job is to find them and return them to the basement. It's pretty hard, so that's why we have this rule: the student seated next the initiate has to accompany the person and give clues… that means…"

Rhyth pointed triumphantly at a particular red head. "You, Keith!"

"What!" Keith jumped back in surpise. "Ha! I'm not close to her! You are now!"

"Quit cheating, Keith," Rhyth smiled, and dragged him to the end of the stairs with Kate. "Just go along with her. I bet she's even braver than you on your test. Okay, off you go."

She shoved them down the stairs, nearly sending them falling and shouting.

"Damn that Rhythmi," Keith hissed as he massaged his aching head. "Does she have any idea how much trouble we would have been if we did hit our heads back there?"

He then saw something moved in the dark and nearly let out a yelp and crashed into Kate, who was right behind him. They nearly toppled over onto the ground again.

"Gah! What was that?"

"Doof!"

Kate squinted in the dark, and turned to Keith with a raised eyebrow. So much for being quiet, huh…

"That's just a Bidoof," she sighed and looked at Keith doubtfully. "Are you really that afraid of the dark?"

"Of course I would be!" Keith shot back. "Who wouldn't be if they'd think that someone would jump them at any moment?"

Kate released her Capture Disc, and sent it at the beaver-like Pokemon. "This is a school, you shouldn't be worried about that. For someone experienced like you, you should be less scared than I am."

"Not really…"

Kate and Keith walked into Mrs. April's Room first. The redhead immediately took refuge behind Kate as she walked, occasionally looking behind him, until Kate got fed up with it and shove him a few feet in front of her to push open the door to the classroom, which opened with a creak.

"Um…" Keith added. "The clue is… something wasn't here before."

Kate looked around. A bunch of wooden crates were scattered across the room. Oh, this was… not really obvious… She directed the Bidoof she captured to smash the crate nearby the lecture desk, eventually. The little beaver smashed the wood to bits and ran off. She looked at all the rest of the crates and wondered how she could just finish them. Perhaps she should just think a bit harder. If this was easy to beat up all the crates in this room, they put a lot thinking she'd try to work her way through. But of all things all routes to any boxes in the back were blocked by more boxes.

She gingerly stepped onto a crate, and she made her way across atop the wooden boxes. Keith lingered behind, watching her work her way through and find the very box with the Styler kept here.

"You could have done that better," Keith snorted with the very little courage he had in him. Kate raised her eyebrows, not sure if she should be nice about his comments this time.

"And how would you do it, Mr. Scaredypants?"

Keith flinched at the name she gave him, "Ever heard of parkour? They have a class here."

"Well," the girl snapped back. "How I get things done do not have to be done 'gracefully.' As for that class, I'll consider taking it later, thank you very much."

Kate pocketed the first Styler she found.

"Three to go." Kate looked at Keith. "Let's get going, then."

They entered Mr. Kincaid's classroom next where several crates were piled around as well, but the second Styler was on a bookshelf in the far corner. Kate jumped over the crates that stood in her way, and picked up the Styler. Keith attempted to do so as well, and much to Kate's surprise, he was quite good at it. As he had suggested to her, Keith was taking large leaps across, using every part of his body to proceed across, though she wasn't sure if he was too terrified to just be left by himself or not. When he appeared in the other side with her, Kate gave him a small compliment, which made him less scared than before.

"So you do this parkour thing a lot?" Kate asked. "You were really good out there."

"My brother and I used to have a teacher who'd send Urasings after us as training…" He laughed nervously. "Guess knowing how to leap over logs and tree roots is quite useful."

Next was the library. The windows shone only the white moonlight that illuminated the room, with more crates. Honestly, Kate was beginning to think that Rhythmi had people leave crates around the rooms… how in the world will Rhyth be able to clean all this up? In the far back was the third Styler. Kate had captured several Bidoof to smash several crates, that were stacked too high to her liking. Then she retrieved the Styler on the table behind the farthest bookshelf.

The final room was the teachers' office. There, a terrified Pichu ran in circles as Kate tried to catch for the past few minutes. After realizing it didn't work, Kate released her Captured Disc and captured the Pichu. Then a Styler fell from its hands. Kate picked it up, and gave it to Keith, who had been holding all of them..

"Now that's the last one."

Keith nodded back, and motioned to the door.

"Okay, can we get over with this?"

"You must be so paranoid." Kate shook her head. "So where do we put these Stylers?"

"Basement." He answered briskly.

Kate and Keith hid behind the crates as they waited for a low rumbling sound to stop. After the sound disappeared, the two students came from their hiding place, Stylers in hand.

"Just drop it there, and leave." Keith pointed to the door.

Kate approached it, but the rumble came back up again, and four Ghastly emerged from the walls and came charging at her. Kate released her Capture Disc again.

Kate and Keith ended with a "whew" just when Mr. Kincaid came storming outside.

"What are you two doing here?" He barked.

"Kate, run!"

Keith pulled Kate's arm and dragged away from the teacher's sight. Mr. Kincaid then walked back into the room where Isaac stood with several computers that were busy whirring away with vast amounts of numbers and codes that no average person could comprehend.

"Sorry, the program didn't work so well yet."

"It's all right, Isaac." Kincaid brushed the dust off his shoulders. "By the way, we should get some sleep."

NOTES

[1] Kate needed to be a little less skilled than she was before, so rather than just knowing parkour or something, she'll probably learn it somewhere later. Keith's been changed to know this stuff already, given his circumstances.