Chapter Two

= The Storm =

As the school went black, a rush of panic seemed to wash over the students in the common room. Zekke, being the only one with a flashlight, seemed unbothered by the darkness and was busy looking at his shoes. Jackie also appeared unfazed by the power outage; of course, his concern was more focused on what had caused it. The storm outside was a contributing factor, but there was something strange about it.

Judy made her way over to the two boys, a worried look on her face. She moved over and stood beside Jackie and grabbed his arm.

"What are we going to do Jackie?" she asked nervously, "Normally the back up generator would come on if there ever was a black out."

Being new to the school, it was only natural that the blond boy wasn't familiar with the various protocols. On top of that, this seemed like a matter that the teachers would be able to handle, the most he could do now would be to try and reassure both Judy and the rest of his class. Taking the girl's hand, he smiled and removed it from his arm.

"Don't worry, I'll handle this." he said confidently before turning to everybody else, "Alright! Listen up! The best thing we can do now is to just stay calm. Everything is being done in order to restore power."

Most of the students had stopped to listen to what Jackie had to say; however, there were a few that didn't seem nearly as convinced. One of those students was an older male, he stood up and called out in a rather obnoxious manner.

"Oh yeah? Those are some big words from the new guy, why should we believe you?"

Still smiling a bit, the blond seemed almost thrilled by the apparent challenge. Judy on the other hand looked rather irritated with the other and was about ready to stand up for Jackie when he raised his hand to stop her.

"Why?" he then repeated, "Because, I don't know the meaning of failure." with that he stepped forward, "That's why I'm going to go and personally check with the teachers."

The male student just scoffed and crossed his arms, while he seemed unimpressed by the new guys confidence, Jackie seemed to earn more positive nods from the other students. Taking that as his cue, Jackie started moving towards the stairs. As he reached them, Judy had rushed up and grabbed his hand, Zekke wasn't far behind.

"We're going with you Jackie." Judy said firmly, Jackie had half a mind to say no, that it was his task to carry out; however, the look Judy was giving him and the fact that Zekke had a flashlight proved to be a stronger rebuttal than any words could possibly counter. Heaving a defeated sigh, Jackie gave a nod and motioned for them to follow.

As they descended the stairs, there was a flash of lightening and a large crash of thunder. The storm outside had picked up, the sound of the wind and rain slapping against the windows, coupled with the darkness and brief flashes of light made for an eery atmosphere. Of the small group, Judy seemed to be the only one who was actually scared. Zekke just trotted along almost cheerfully, he made sure to keep the flashlight trained on the stairs and once they reached the bottom, kept it on the floor. Jackie on the other hand had come to a stop.

Zekke blinked and then turned, pointing the flashlight at him. That air of confidence and pride had vanished and was replaced with something else. Judy was no longer the only one who looked scared, it didn't seem natural to see such edginess coming from the youth, but there wasn't a doubt in either Judy's or Zekke's mind that Jack Walker was absolutely terrified.

"Jackie, don't tell me that was all a show?" Judy was the first to address the issue, with this new bit of information, the fear she had been feeling had eased away, "Come on, we have to find the teachers."

The blond boy gave a rather hesitant smile, yes, it had been a show. But he knew how these sorts of situations worked, panic would spread through the students and all sorts of chaos would break out. People would be wondering about and possibly getting hurt, and that was not something he was about to just let happen. He had joined this school because he wanted to become a Pokemon Ranger, so that he could help both people and Pokemon. What kind of Ranger would he be if he couldn't reassure his fellow classmates, even if he was the new guy.

"I-I know, I'm coming..." his words came out more forced and hesitant than he had intended, but he moved forward never the less. This wasn't one of his brightest ideas, but it was one that had to be done never the less. He was certain the teachers would know what to do. Jackie turned towards Zekke and gave him a smile next, "Come on, I'm alright...we have to find the teachers right?"

Zekke, who'd been watching silently, just smiled and gave a nod. When the other two weren't looking, a slight frown formed on his face. However, it didn't last very long as he walked a little faster until he was right beside the blond. In comparison, Zekke was an inch or two shorter than Jackie, but as he looked up at the other, that almost didn't matter. Sensing the eyes on him, Jackie glanced at Zekke questioningly before giving him a reassuring smile.

Judy just sighed and shook her head before catching up with the two boys, "Alright, my guess would be that the teachers are downstairs in the basement. That's where the back up generator is." both boys gave a nod while altering their course so that they reached the stairs to the basement. Once there, all three glanced down into the darkness. It didn't seem like a natural darkness, even when Zekke directed the beam from the flashlight down into it, it didn't seem to have any affect.

A slight shiver rippled through Jackie's body before he drew a long breath, "Lets go," he then said as he let the breath out in a slightly shaky sigh, "Down we go..." being the first to take a step down, Jackie descended downwards into the blackness. Judy and Zekke glanced at one another before nodding and quickly, but carefully, followed after him. It really was a terrifying experience, the only thing they could see was the steps that the flashlight illuminated at the base of their feet. One wrong step and they would surely take a tumble.

"J-Jackie, are we almost there?" Judy asked nervously, it felt as if they had been walking for hours, "I don't remember the stairs being this far down."

"I don't know Judy," came Jackie's response, "I think it's not too much furth...aagh!" his words were quickly cut off when he suddenly lost his footing. Tumbling down the rest of the stairs, Jackie hit the floor with a painful sounding thud. A slight groan could be heard from the darkness below as both Judy and Zekke quickly moved down the stairs to their fallen companion. Turning the light onto Jackie, Zekke had crouched down to see if the other boy was alright while Judy was trying to pull the other to his feet. Once Jackie was to his feet again, looking a little ruffled but otherwise not mortally harmed in anyway, he dusted himself off and gave a rather shaken chuckle.

"Are you alright Jackie?" the girl asked, concern filling her voice as she insisted on double checking for any wounds. The blond just gave a nod before turning his gaze to their surroundings. It was very dark, they were the only source of light for as far as they could see. "Don't scare me like that," Judy then said, "Come on, we have to keep moving, the teachers should be near the back by the backup generators."

The small group felt as if they had been walking for hours, when in actuality, it couldn't have been more than five or ten minutes. Judy had taken up walking very close to Jackie's right side, while Zekke kept pase just a foot or tow in front. The dark haired boy paused suddenly, resulting in the other two bumping into him.

"Zekke, why'd you stop?" Judy sounded slightly annoyed but more embarrassed; however, she was never given an answer when the sound of running foot steps broke the silence. None of them had time to ponder who they belonged to before someone or something plowed right through them. "Hey!"

Both Zekke and Jackie were quick to respond after that, both boys took off in the direction the supposed intruder had gone. Judy was left blinded and confused, "Guys! Don't leave me down here!" she was soon to follow after them as best she could. Mean while, both boys had reached the stairs that led back up to the main floor. Not pausing for even a moment, they scrambled up them only to stop when they reached the top. There was a dark figure running down the hall and appeared to have something in their arms.

"Hey! Stop!" Jackie shouted, but Zekke was a few steps ahead of him, literally. The boy had taken off down the hall, covering the distance between himself and the one running. The two met just before reaching the front doors, Jackie was following and caught sight of the two scuffling over something before Zekke was shoved away. The other pushed the front doors open and ran out into the storm. "Zekke, are you ok? That was crazy!" the blond reached the other and crouched down, "Here." he held a helping hand out to the boy, who in turn took it.

Once both were standing, Jackie glanced out into the blistering rain with a slight frown, Zekke seemed just as concerned. Before long, Judy had caught up and was breathing heavily. "W-What happened? Who was that?"

"Dunno," Jackie sighed, "They got away..."

Zekke had taken a step forward as if he was going to go out into the rain, but Jackie reached out and grabbed his upper arm. "Hold up there buddy, we can't just go running out into that storm." the other just shook his head and pulled his arm away. Turning and looking directly at Jackie, there was a hint of overwhelming determination in his dark eyes. Jackie, who didn't seem as motivated, had subtly flinched. Judy sighed and placed a hand on Zekke's shoulder.

"Come on you two, you both know it's too dangerous to go out there on our own." she gave the shorter boy a smile, besides, if anything, this incident only means they should find a teacher all the more. Who was that person? Why were they down in the basement? Did they cause the power outage? So many questions with so few answers.

Jackie sighed and scratched the back of his head. While he wasn't going to say it out loud, he really hadn't been looking forward to chasing after Zekke if he decided to go outside. Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't, he just wouldn't be all too happy about it. This thought had stopped as a new one started to form. Why was he thinking like that? An uncertain look formed in his eyes as he glanced to the side, he was here for a reason and that reason was to become a Pokemon Ranger, right? This time a frown tugged at the corners of his lips. A frown was not a common sight in his case so both Judy and Zekke noticed it right away.

"Jackie?" the girl questioned, "Are you alright?"

Looking up from his thoughts, Jackie blinked a few times as he looked from one to the other. Perhaps pondering his choices in life were best left for a more private situation. Putting on a big grin, the blonde just gave a thumbs up, "Fine, lets go...we better tell Ms. Brooke about what happened."

This seemed to bring the others back to the task at hand rather than concerning themselves over his well being. Zekke cocked his head to the side before casting one last glance out the front door before shrugging. Being the one with the flashlight, he was the first to start walking but only got a few steps before the lights came on. All three glanced up at the ceiling, eyes squinting from the sudden brightness, it seemed that the power was restored...

"Oh my goodness! There you three are!" a woman's voice rang out across the hall, causing all three to jump , "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

Zekke was the first to recover, quickly clicking his flashlight off, he ran over and gave Lily a hug. The dorm mother was accompanied by Ms. Brooke and Mr. Gulle. Mr. Gulle chose to ignore the odd ball child and opted to walk towards Judy and Jackie. While his unreadable expression remained etched, unchanging, on his face, once he was in front of the two he stopped.

"Where exactly have you three been?" his tone hinting that it wasn't a question but rather an order to respond. When he didn't get a quick enough response, he drew in a deep breath and heaved a heavy sigh, "Perhaps you didn't hear..."

"We were looking for all of you!" Judy piped in, "Um...I mean, sorry Mr. Jill."

"There was a strange man...eh...or woman..." Jackie then added, he had cut in because Mr. Gulle was starting to look irritated, "I mean, someone was down in the basement besides us and they ran off with something...I think."

"You all were in the basement?" Lily gasped, she then looked down at Zekke, "Good heavens, it's dangerous down there, you could have gotten hurt!" Zekke just looked up and gave a rather defeated, pouty, puppy dog look.

"That's right! We thought that was where you guys went, to fix the backup generator." Judy added.

"Well, what's done is done," Ms. Brooke sighed, "While admirable, you three should not have wondered off." she glanced off to the side looking rather conflicted but then looked back, "If the storm has let up by tomorrow, you three will be assigned to clean up duty as punishment." she was going to add more when something caught her eye.

"Jackie! You're bleeding!"