Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. I do, however, own all OC's.
Let the rain fall down and wake my dreams
Let it wash away my sanity
Cause I wanna feel the thunder
I wanna scream
Let the rain fall down
I'm coming clean
Hilary Duff- Come Clean
Basically the same as the game, but with a few differences:
1. The characters are actually more realistic and act like normal people, with normal problems in some people's cases, and not so normal problems in others.
2. The game is spread out more time wise. Everything happened in a rush in the game and there were soooo many time skips. I'll be going through what happened in these time skips.
3. The player person actually…you know…talks. And has a personality.
4. There are more OC's (but mainly just the extra characters with personalities and more screen time. Like the students, area rangers and operators). And the OC's have backgrounds, personalities and relationships with the main characters.
5. Some people's personalities are changed completely. I won't list anyone in particular, but people who were soft and sweet in the game might be hard and vicious now.
6. The sizes of buildings and towns are bigger. Like the Ranger School, which you will see soon.
7. People actually use modern technologies, such as cars and phones.
8. The people aren't completely oblivious to the opposite sex. In the case of the girls, they are waaaaaay more boy crazy.
And let me warn you this. This story is going to have more love complications than A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Chapter 1. School is now in session
"Draw loops around the Pikachu and capture it," the man behind her instructed her. Kate fumbled with the Styler, but somehow managed to release the capture disc and capture the Pikachu.
"Okay, good going. That's pretty impressive." The man smirked.
"Thanks, I didn't even know what I was doing," Kate laughed, turning the Styler over in her hand. The man blinked, but chose to take it as a joke and laughed as well.
"Hehehe…" The man chuckled. "My name is Kaplan. You are now a member of our secret army, the inscrutable Team School." Kate blinked and made a small noise of confusion, but the man-Kaplan-continued talking. "As proof of your membership, you are conferred the School Styler you just used." Kaplan took her hands in his and looked her solemnly in the eyes. "Use it well. TOGETHER WE SHALL RULE THE WORLD!"
"Oh, please, Mr Kaplan!" Another voice made Kate and Kaplan's head snap up. A young looking woman was walking towards them, her youthful features modelled into an irritated expression.
"Please don't tease my student with a silly performance like that," the woman continued, and Kate realized with a start that the woman was her teacher.
"Ahahaha, sorry, sorry," Mr Kaplan snickered. "The timing was just too perfect to miss."
The teacher rolled her eyes in annoyance and Kate couldn't help but smile.
"Ahem." Mr Kaplan cleared his throat. "Congratulations! You have passed the Ranger School's entrance exam with flying colours! That really was quite an impressive capture."
"Congratulations!" The teacher turned and beamed at Kate. "You've been accepted! Starting today, you are officially a student of the Ranger school!"
"And you can help me plan world domination," Mr Kaplan hissed to Kate, his eyes darting about. "OW!"
"Now," the teacher continued, taking her high heel off of Mr Kaplan's foot. "I'm Ms April. I'm your class teacher."
"Nice to meet you." Kate held out her hand to Ms April, who shook her hand with a beam.
"Nice to see another student with manners! I'm very pleased to meet you. Your classmates are waiting for you. I'll show you to our class."
Kate gulped, suddenly nervous. "S-sure, l-lead the way!"
Ms April turned on her heel and gracefully walked out of the room, Kate following her and feeling slightly awkward compared to Ms April's fluid movements.
"Enjoy your school life!" Mr Kaplan called after her. "Don't forget to come back to help me plan world domination!"
Mr Kaplan ducked the rock Ms April threw at him and chuckled; pleased he could still get under the normally calm and composed teacher's skin.
- x - x - x - x -
"Sorry to keep you waiting, class." Ms April stood at the front of the class, her cheeks slightly flushed with a combination of frustration and exertion. "And good morning, everyone!"
"Good morning, Miss April!" the class chanted back in unison.
"As I mentioned yesterday, we have a new member for our class."
The whole class straightened up and everyone started talking.
"Is it a guy?" Billy asked, his round hazel eyes wide. "Or a girl?"
"I hope it's a guy," Tiara sighed as she fanned herself slightly. "There aren't enough interesting guys around here…"
"What do you think, Keith?" Rhythmi asked him. Keith shrugged.
"Who cares? As long as they keep out of my way, I'll be fine."
"Which is it?" Billy repeated, getting excited at the possibilities.
"Okay, that's enough!" Ms April called over the mayhem of the class. "You can see for yourself. Here's our latest classmate!"
Kate hovered in the shadows created by the door.
"Come on in!" Ms April beamed at Kate, oblivious to her nervousness. Kate took a deep breath and stepped inside the classroom, extremely aware of everyone's eyes on her. She took few steps inside the classroom, then, convinced she wouldn't faint or fall, walked up to Ms April.
"Our new friend came alone to our Almia region to become a Pokémon Ranger," Ms April began, but suddenly stopped and turned to Kate. "Oh, yes. You should introduce yourself to our class rather than me. Let's start with your name, shall we?"
"I'm Kate," Kate whispered.
"Your name is Kate?" Ms April asked. Kate tried to refrain from rolling her eyes (why would she say her name was Kate if it wasn't?).
"Yes, Ms April," Kate politely said.
"Okay, our new friend is named Kate." Ms April turned to the class. "Let's make her feel welcome."
"Hi, Kate!" Jake called up goofily. "I'm Jake!"
Kate gave him a small wave. "Hi, Jake. I'm Kate!"
"Really?" Jake's eyes widened in mock surprise. "I never knew that!"
A nervous giggle spilled out of Kate's lips and Keith glared at Jake. Kate mentally filed away the Asian boy in the 'Find out more about' folder in her brain. He was stunningly good looking – more beautiful than handsome – and moved with a refined elegance to his moves. He seemed the polar opposite of Billy, who was only slighter shorter than the tall, gorgeous Tiara and rather average looking with his spiky brown hair.
"I understand that she scored quite well on our entrance exam," Ms April continued as if no one had spoken. Keith smirked and Ms April looked faintly amused. "What is it Keith? Why the big grin?"
"No reason." Keith shrugged. "What, can't a guy grin in this school?"
Ms April rolled her eyes at him, but turned back to Kate. "Anyway, we had better get you seated somewhere, Kate." She studied the classroom. "Hm… you can have the seat next to Keith." Kate moved to the chair and sat down quietly, Keith watching her out of the corner of his eye. "Okay, that will do." Ms April nodded. "That's it for treating you like a new transfer student. From now on, you're all my students, people who I can take pride in teaching."
"Aw, shucks, Miss!" Billy pretended to be bashful. "We love you too!"
Tiara elbowed Billy sharply in the ribs. "Shut up, Billy!"
"Owwww!" Billy whined, wriggling away. "That hurt! Rhythmi, make her stop!"
"Shut up, Billy." was all Rhythmi said.
"Let's do it, everyone!" Ms April spoke over their argument. "LET'S NOT FAIL YOUR DREAMS OF BECOMING RANGERS, OPERATORS AND MECHANICS!"
"YEAAAH!" everyone around Kate cheered.
"Okay, I'll change the class schedule especially for today. This will be a free-study class." Ms April made to leave, but stopped by Kate's desk. "But before I leave, Kate, I need to explain something to you. It's about the School Styler you were provided with before the entrance exam."
"What about it?" Kate asked.
"It's a simplified version of a Ranger's official Capture styler," Ms April informed her. "Now, put simply, a Styler is a device used for befriending and capturing Pokémon. By drawing loops around Pokémon, it conveys the Ranger's feelings of friendship to the Pokémon. When the Ranger's friendship is fully conveyed, the Pokémon is captured."
For about ten minutes Ms April continued explaining the Capture styler, everything which Kate had read from the Pokémon Ranger's Official Handbook and the class had learnt before. Keith let out a yawn and Ms April stopped in irritation.
"Oh, please, Keith, don't yawn with your mouth wide open like that."
Keith turned a deep shade of red and Ms April continued talking about the Styler.
"Don't you think the new student is kind of interesting?" Rhythmi whispered in Keith's ear, hoping to get a reaction from him. Keith shrugged, still angry that Ms April had embarrassed him in front Kate. Rhythmi looked slightly upset, but shook herself out of it when Ms April turned to her.
"Rhythmi, can I get you to show Kate around the school, please?" Ms April asked her.
"Of course!" Rhythmi beamed. "I'll show her everything I know! Even the secret passage Tiara told me all the couples-" She was cut off by Tiara's hand over her mouth.
"Shut up, idiot!" hissed Tiara.
"I'll be in the staffroom." Ms April looked highly amused. "I'll leave you to it."
As soon as Ms April left, the students all crowded around Kate.
"We are not worthy," chanted Jake and Billy, bowing on the floor to Kate. "We are not worthy…"
"What?" Kate blinked, confused. Jake and Billy grabbed at the edges of Kate's jacket, oblivious to her flinch.
"You made Ms April give us a free study period! WE'VE BEEN TRYING FOR AGES TO DO THAT!"
Keith pushed them away, eager to gain Kate's attention. "Hey, new kid, I forgot your name, but how long did it take you to capture Pikachu?" Keith put on his aggressive face. "Like an hour?"
"Actually…" Kate shrugged. "More like a few seconds…it really wasn't that hard."
Keith flushed. "Liar! No one's ever captured a Pokémon in a few seconds on their first go! Not even me!"
Rhythmi tapped Kate on the shoulder, gaining her attention and making her jump, startled. "Keith's just a show-off. You're better off ignoring him."
"Like Mayblie so clearly does everyday!" Jake called, cracking up laughing.
"Ooh, burn!" Billy crooned, exchanging hi-fives with Jake. "Also it's Rhythmi."
"Whatever."
"Instead, you should be paying attention to me!" Rhythmi cried, ignoring them. "I'm not here to become a Ranger. I want to become an Operator instead. So when Keith becomes a Ranger, I can order him around like my servant!" Kate stared at Rhythmi. Rhythmi giggled. "Just joking!"
Kate's alarmed gaze didn't flicker. "Didn't seem like you were."
"You'll get used to it." Rhythmi gave Kate a playful shove. "All right, let me take you on a tour of the Ranger School. Let's begin with our own classroom. You've already met our teacher, Ms April. She's really nice, but if you make her mad…"
The room gave a collective shudder.
"I saw her get mad at Mr Kaplan," Kate offered. "She threw a rock at him and stepped on his foot with her high heel."
"Yeah, but she does that everyday," Jake spoke up.
"There's another class next to us." Rhythmi gestured to the wall. "The teacher there is Mr Kincaid. He's very uptight and strict."
"No running in the hallway!" Billy interrupted, mimicking who Kate guessed to be Mr Kincaid. "It's like his pet saying."
"I'm sorry, who's leading this tour?" Rhythmi snapped. "That's right, me. Not you, me. So shut up!"
"What else are you going to show her in this classroom?" Tiara asked. "There's nothing else here."
"Oh…" Rhythmi surveyed the room. "So there isn't. Okay, let's move on! We'll explore the school building!" Rhythmi started pushing Kate out the door. Kate flinched whenever Rhythmi touched her, then let out a yelp as she toppled out the classroom. "Oops, sorry." Rhythmi winced, helping Kate up. "I've been told my enthusiasm makes things difficult for others."
"No, it's fine." Kate dusted herself off. "Where to first, oh pushy one?"
Rhythmi gave Kate a playful shove. "I'm not pushy!"
"Don't worry, Rhythmi, everyone has problems." Kate patted Rhythmi consolingly on the shoulder. "So, once again, where to first?"
"Well…" Rhythmi pondered, forgetting about what they were talking about before. "I was telling you about Mr Kincaid, right? We'll go to his classroom first! Get it over and done with…"
Rhythmi tugged Kate over to the other classroom, pausing to knock politely on the door.
"Hm?" Mr Kincaid glanced up. "What ever is the matter?"
"Sorry to disturb you!" Rhythmi exclaimed, bowing slightly. "I'm taking our new classmate on a tour of the School."
"Who's he?" Kate spoke quietly in Rhythmi's ear.
"This is the other class," Rhythmi whispered back. "The man looking this way is Mr Kincaid. He gets his hair to go that way with a ton of hair spray."
"Right…" Kate arched a delicate eyebrow. "Because I totally wanted to know how to style my hair like that…is that why it stinks?"
Rhythmi stifled a giggle, but shrugged. "He's a little too uptight, I think. I'm not a big fan."
Kate glanced at Mr Kincaid. "Right…let's go. He's kind of creeping me out…"
The two girls quickly left the classroom, Mr Kincaid's stern gaze following them out.
"This is the library," Rhythmi announced, gesturing to the shelves of books surrounding them. Kate took in all the books, star struck.
"Wow…" she breathed. Rhythmi laughed.
"I take it you like books?"
"Love them," Kate whispered, still gazing around the library.
"You're the complete opposite of Keith." Rhythmi giggled. "This is probably his napping area."
"Oh." Kate frowned. Rhythmi continued.
"Not many people are here when it isn't exam time. Or…so I've heard. Only two people come here…" She stopped and blinked at a boy with curly green hair sleeping behind a potted plant. "And there's one of them. That's Ponte… otherwise known as the school's conflicted marshmallow boy."
Kate frowned at her. "That's not very nice!"
Rhythmi shrugged. "What? He is. Maybe you'll see him around while he's awake, but I doubt it. He's usually in the library."
Kate sighed. "Well then...who's that guy? He looks around our age."
Rhythmi glanced up. "You mean the kid at the back with a haircut like a mushroom? Oh, he's Isaac. He's awesomely smart. You can usually find him right here in the library. Sometimes he goes off somewhere though."
"His hair doesn't really look like a mushroom." Kate blinked, tilting her head. "Unless you have a huge imagination! Like my little sister, she's so cute."
"You have a little sister?" Rhythmi asked curiously and with a trace of envy. "Lucky! I'm an only child."
"Having a sibling isn't all it's cracked up to be." Kate shook her head. "Sometimes it's cool though."
Rhythmi slapped her forehead. "God, I really need to focus! Let's go up and introduce you to Isaac!"
"What? No-" Kate began, but was cut off by Rhythmi dragging her by the wrist up to the boy standing at one of the (many) bookshelves.
"Isaac~!" Rhythmi sang, making the boy look sharply at them, startled by their presence. She gestured to Kate, who had a faint blush on her cheeks at Isaac's sharp gaze. "This is Kate! She's new here!"
"I was doing an eight-digit multiplication in my head when you interrupted me." Isaac frowned at her. " I'll have to start calculating from the top."
Rhythmi look unperturbed. "I'm sure you'll manage! You're smarter than most of the teachers here!"
Kate, however, felt guilty, and it showed clearly on her face. "Sorry."
Isaac shrugged. "It's nothing. I'm Isaac. Both my IQ and height, in centimetres, are 163."
"Whatever, tall freak," muttered Rhythmi, who was a petite 150cm tall.
"I'm studying to become a scientist," Isaac continued, either not hearing or ignoring what Rhythmi said. "Mr Kincaid gave me permission to study on my own and not attend class."
"Wow!" Kate looked shocked. Rhythmi looked envious.
"I wish I didn't have to attend class."
"No you don't," Isaac said, turning back to the bookshelf.
After a few minutes of silence, the two girls realized that was his way of dismissing them. They slowly backed out of the library and Rhythmi led them into another room.
"Here's the Staff Room!" Rhythmi exclaimed, turning around and spreading her arms out. She stopped and thought for a moment. "But usually only our principal is here. Our principal is Mr Lamont. His eyes are always twinkling happily behind his glasses. I like him pretty well."
"Is that him?" Kate asked, pointing to the gray-haired man with glasses standing in front of a green banner. Rhythmi peered over the desks.
"It is! Come on, let's go say hello!"
This time Kate didn't even struggle, knowing how strong a determined Rhythmi could be. Though she still let out an involuntary flinch.
"Mr Lamont!" Rhythmi yelled excitedly, screeching to a stop in front of the principal. Mr Lamont chuckled and pushed his glasses further up his nose.
"Hello, Rhythmi." His eyes slid to Kate curiously. "Who's your friend?"
Rhythmi pushed Kate in front of her. "This is Kate! She's new!"
"Pleased to meet you?" Kate said hesitantly, offering her hand. Mr Lamont chuckled again and shook it.
"I'm Lamont Splendidocious, the principal. My last name's far too long though, so everyone calls me by my first name. I'm pleased to meet you."
Rhythmi apparently grew bored of the conversation and started dragging Kate away again.
"Come on, Kate, let's go see the school dorms!" she exclaimed, dragging Kate by the arm.
Kate finally managed to get her arm away. "Rhythmi, that thing you're dragging?" Kate snapped at her. "That's my arm. It's sort of attached to my body."
Rhythmi flinched. "Sorry."
Kate sighed and shook her head. "Me too. I'm just kind of weird about unnecessary contact. I have a one meter personal bubble rule."
A small smile graced the features of Rhythmi as they walked up the stairs to the dorms.
"Our dorms are on the second floor," Rhythmi announced, gesturing to around the room. "This is where we all bunk down, coed style. Not in the same bedrooms, of course. The boys' bedroom is on the left. The girls' bedroom is on the right. Janice, the lady there, is our caretaker. She's like a mom to us all."
A strange pang hit Kate in the heart as she thought of her own mother. It was only a day and she missed her already. They left the floor back down the stairs.
"The other dorms are on the third and fourth floors," Rhythmi announced, pointing up. "But they're for the people in the other levels."
Kate blinked. "Other…levels?"
"Oh, that's right, you don't know about levels!" Rhythmi smacked her forehead in realization. "I guess I should explain. Well, here at the Ranger School, everyone starts off at Beginner Level. Every term, we move up a level. After Beginner, the levels are Intermediate, Complex and Expert, in that order."
"But our classes are the same, right?" Kate asked. Rhythmi nodded in confirmation.
"Yep. So we're going to be in the same class for the whole year! You've joined pretty late into Beginner Level classes, but you seem to be doing pretty well from what Ms April said, so I guess its okay."
"Right."
"And we get new beginner students every term, and they move up a level every term, too."
Ding-dong~! Ding-dong~!
Kate jumped sky high but Rhythmi only smiled. "There goes the bell! We can go outside now!"
"We can only go outside once the bell rings?" Kate looked confused.
"Well, technically we're supposed to be in class right now," Rhythmi pointed out logically. "And if we're in class, we're not outside."
"Ah, right." Kate nodded. "Makes sense."
Kate let Rhythmi lead her through the school and to the door. She pushed the door open, squinting her eyes at the sudden bright light. Rhythmi voiced Kate's thoughts from behind her.
"Wow, how bright! There's not a cloud in the sky today!"
"Except that one." Kate pointed to a small whisp of a cloud. She squinted at it. "It looks kind of like a snake!"
Rhythmi giggled. "Wouldn't all clouds look like a snake?"
"No, see, coz that one has a forked tongue!" Kate argued, still pointing. "That totally makes it a snake!"
Rhythmi laughed again but continued with the tour. She pointed to the room Kate had first gone into. "That small building is the Training Room. That's where Mr Kaplan will teach you about performing captures. Ms Claire is also there. She teaches about clearing targets." She pointed to a few big boxes. "That big clearing over there is where we practice doing Target Clears." Rhythmi paused and turned back to Kate. "That reminds me…do you know about clearing targets?"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…of course I do!" Kate scoffed. Rhythmi laughed.
"Your expression tells me you don't know. Well, that's all right. That's why we have the Training Room. Come on, I'll take you there!" Rhythmi grabbed Kate's arm, but stopped again when she remembered Kate's rule. "Sorry."
Kate shrugged, before smirking. "Race you to the Training Room. Last one there's a rotten egg!"
Kate shot off like a bullet, Rhythmi following her a moment later. Once they reached the small building, Kate gloated to Rhythmi.
"You were the last one here, you're a rotten egg!" Kate gloated, panting slightly. Rhythmi huffed back at her.
"You were the first one here, you have to eat one!"
"When did we make that agreement?"
Rhythmi entered the building without replying, gesturing for Kate to follow her. It took Kate's eyes a few moments to adjust to the change from harsh brightness to foggy dimness.
Rhythmi searched the room quickly, before spotting the man from earlier, along with another teacher.
"Mr Kaplan and Ms Claire~!" Rhythmi sang out. "Can you give us special lessons, please~?"
"Why the hell are you talking like that?" Kate muttered to Rhythmi. Rhythmi's bright, sunny smile didn't flicker for an instant.
"Because you have to constantly have a happy image here at school or they ship you off to a therapist in some far away land."
"Ah." Kate nodded. "That explains a lot."
"Hehehe…" Mr Kaplan chuckled, oblivious to their conversation. "Welcome to the inscrutable Team School's secret hideout."
"We have a secret hideout?" Kate's eyes widened. "That is so cool!"
The other teacher heard and decided to step in before Mr Kaplan raised any more hopes to be crushed.
"Yes, yes, we've heard that before," Ms Claire, a short, squat teacher, spoke up, walking over. "Let's pay no attention to Mr Kaplan and his make-believe conspiracy."
"What?" Kate looked disappointed. "Damn. I've always wanted a secret hideout."
"I'll take you to the girls' secret hideout later," Rhythmi hissed back to her. "None of the teachers know about it."
Kate brightened. "Oh, cool."
Mr Kaplan was once again oblivious to their conversation. "Oh! Please don't ignore me! I'll be serious and introduce myself. Um, I'm Mr Kaplan, I teach the fundamentals of capture."
"And I'm Ms Claire," Ms Claire added on. "Glad to meet you. It's my job to teach you about performing Target Clears."
"Once again, Target Clears are what, exactly?" Kate asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We'll explain that later," Rhythmi told her. Kate huffed and pouted.
"Damn."
"I know you had to do a capture for your entrance exam, but…I think you should learn about capturing properly once more," Rhythmi continued almost apologetically. "Mr Kaplan, can you give Kate a lesson on capturing, please?"
Mr Kaplan beamed. "That's an admirable attitude. Okay, I'll give you a special lesson: the fundamentals of capture."
He was talking for about fifteen minutes about capturing (how he took that long to say something that could generally be summed up like 'you take the disc and make a swirly thingy around the Pokémon', Kate had no idea).
That's about it for the basics of captures," Mr Kaplan finally finished. "If you need a refresher lesson please don't hesitate to come and see me."
"I'm sure I'll be fine," Kate told him with a fake sunny smile to mask her boredom. Rhythmi finally snapped out of the zoned out stage she entered when Mr Kaplan started talking.
"Thank you, Mr Kaplan!" Rhythmi exclaimed, before turning to Kate. "Next you'll finally learn what we mean by Target Clear! Ms Claire, please give Kate a lesson about performing a Target Clear."
"Very well." Ms Claire nodded. "This will be a special lesson. You'll learn about the basics of performing a Target Clear."
Once again, it took the teacher fifteen minutes to basically say 'kill the box with some random Pokémon around. Oh, but it has to be a special type of Pokémon. It can't be a Bonsly or a Taillow, it's gotta be something like a Bidoof'.
Rhythmi came crashing back to earth again when Ms Claire had finished.
"Thank you very much, Ms Claire!" Rhythmi chirped, before turning to Kate again. "Now you know all about capture and how to do a Target Clear! You're all set! Let's go back to the school yard. There's another place I want you to see."
"Onwards then." Kate raised an eyebrow back at her. The two left the building, only to stop again when they heard a scream.
