A.N: Thank you all for your support of this rewrite! I was afraid people would be bored of reading the same story twice, but your response so far has been wonderful. To answer some questions, "Kyu" is pronounced as just one syllable, like "kyoo". Furthermore, I don't plan on removing any characters unless they're really minor. Again, this will be the exact same story, just updated and added to. Your reviews, favorites and follows, and questions are always appreciated! Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Chapter 4: Johiko Darck's Hybrid Academy

In typical teleportation fashion, we found ourselves back at the campus of Darck's Academy. The entrance, a clean-swept concrete plaza lined with flowers and trees, was still devoid of people; apparently everyone had already gotten to class, leaving us alone to roam the school.

I looked to Kyu and asked, "So where to first?"

Kyu began humming in thought. "I think… how about we explore the campus grounds first? Then we can head inside around lunchtime and show you our, uh, 'cafeteria.'" She seemed to stifle a giggle.

Matthew spoke up, "Yeah, but it's not really a cafeteria, more-"

"Shh! Shh!" Kyu interrupted. "I want to surprise him!"

"Oh!" Matthew replied, surprised himself. "Uh… okay! I won't say a word!"

"Thanks," replied Kyu. "Now let's begin." She seemed rather awkward as she did her best to walk us along and explain, "Um, so… Eon, this is the, uh, main campus! All the trees and landscaping are grown and cared for by our own Grass-type students -you might find yourself working around the school every now and again to more or less pay for your education- classes go from eighth grade all the way to college doctorates here, and if it's all being paid for you owe Professor Darck something fierce!" She cleared her throat and continued, "So… yeah. You'll normally work some job every other semester based on your typing and what jobs are needed. As a Fire-type, you'll either work outdoors -our natural body heat makes summer pleasant and winter easy to bear- or as a chef or something."

I nodded in understanding. Having begun to consider college myself, I was well aware of just how much cheaper and easier it would be to work part-time at the academy rather than find some convoluted way to pay for schooling and rent… assuming I'd find a college that accepted hybrids outside of this one.

"Um… how about we check out the campus park now?" Kyu offered, to which Matthew and I voiced agreement. "Okay, great," Kyu replied.

She walked us around the right side of the main building, a towering structure that just now struck me with just how large it was. As we approached I did my best to look up and see the top, estimating it at four stories high and surprisingly wide. When we rounded the corner, however, my vulpine jaw dropped. The building seemed to never end! While much of my view was obscured by a connection between the bracket dorm building and the main building, I could follow each structure's roof until they all converged in the center of my view.

"How many classrooms are there?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh, in here?" Kyu clarified. "None. This building just houses the cafeteria, front office, and the eighteen Type Gyms."

"Type Gyms?" I repeated, confused. "What are those?"

"Special gymnasiums Professor Darck designed- each caters to a specific hybrid type to help them improve their elemental abilities- the Fire Gym will help us utilize our own type to our advantage, teaching us how to breathe fire longer and at higher temperatures, for instance, or how to put out flames with nothing but our breath and our willpower- a must for a Fire-type in a flammable environment like any human building ever." Despite the obvious frustration in her voice, I nodded in excitement.

Kyu continued, "Every other day you'll spend around three hours in a gym matching your typing- in your case, just the Fire Gym- to properly hone your battle techniques and maybe some more domestic uses like cooking."

"Can a hybrid have multiple types?" I questioned.

"Oh, yeah, yeah," Kyu confirmed. "We call 'em dual-types. There hasn't been a hybrid with three or more types yet, though; two's the max it seems." We entered the connecting hallway.

"So… this is kind of a strange room," Kyu commented. Sure enough, it was all one room- one very, very long room- adorned similarly to the front office and lined with doors on either side. "It's mostly to give any student quick access to the Gyms without having to step outside, but it's also handy for things like announcements, advertisements, and other such goodies; here you can find tournament and club sign-ups, not to mention somebody offering just about anything a hybrid student could want… provided it's legal. And sometimes not. Those are shot down pretty quickly, though." I looked around to find all of the flyers Kyu promised, but also a frequently repeated sign: "NO RUNNING."

"No running?" I scoffed. "Isn't this a fantastic place to run? A straight line with nothing in the way?"

"Let's see how you like it when a six hundred pound Steel-type barreling through at full speed crashes into you when you're carrying your lunch or textbooks or whatever," Kyu gave me a wry look.

"I see," I nodded in response. I made a mental note to resist the urge in the future.

We proceeded to walk at a sane pace through the rest of the hallway, the flyers becoming increasingly scarce as we went on. After walking about a mile, I estimated, we approached the opposite side, the flashy papers becoming frequent once more and now advertising various tournaments and sports.

"You guys play sports?" I asked, surprised. Somehow I was surprised hybrids would play sports… then again, they are banned from professional teams, I remembered.

"Of course we do!" Matthew replied. "We've got football and soccer and baseball and basketball and lacrosse and rugby and swimming! And a few others but I forget."

"Do you play any, Matthew?" I probed.

"No, I'm not very good at them," he shook his head. "Psychics have to be very, very careful not to use their powers on the ball, but I just can't help myself! I just want to win so much my brain thinks 'Oh, how about we just push it in the goal with our mind!' and then I get in trouble." He was dejected for just a moment before he swiftly returned to enthusiasm. "So I play video games instead! It's really really hard to change a video game with psychic power, so I don't! Much better that way, I think."

"Anyway," Kyu chuckled, "Why don't I show you the field?" We were led into the blinding sun as Kyu opened the exit. After giving myself a moment to adjust, I gazed upon a huge park that didn't seem to end. Straight ahead were bleachers surrounding an American football field, and to my left was a baseball diamond and volleyball court. But everywhere I looked was grass, grass, and more grass.

...Except, of course, for the building to my right. The oval-shaped stadium looked like it had been stolen from some professional team and dropped directly onto the school's grounds, with its polished look. In size it was definitely smaller than a massive, sixty-thousand seat NFL stadium, but it still easily dwarfed anything else in the park. "What's this?" I asked breathlessly.

"Eon, this is the Battle Stadium." Kyu announced with some flourish. "This is where your training in the Fire Gym will be put to the test, a six-on-six team battle that doesn't end until one team concedes or is entirely knocked unconscious."

I winced in sympathy. "Yeah, about that. You guys enjoy being literally beaten senseless?"

Kyu winked. "You only get hurt if you mess up; besides, we can completely recover from any broken bones or other horrible injuries thanks to a Healing Machine someone here invented a few years back. Since then, Darck decided the best way to train his students self-defence against threats like the Plasmid Foundation would be to make it into a game! The greatest part about it is that we're encouraged to fight as hard as we can and hold nothing back- if we don't fight back we get destroyed, and if we're worried about permanently damaging our opponent, one quick trip to the Healing Machine will correct any sort of damage you inflict. Since we're so used to using every bit of strength we can muster, we're totally prepared to go all out against Jarred's men!"

"Hold on, I thought you said we're by default stronger and more powerful than all but the most athletic humans?"

"Heck yeah, we are!" Kyu grinned.

"Then why are you all so concerned about the Plasmid Foundation? Aren't they just humans?"

Kyu tilted her head. "Well, yeah, but they still have all the other things humans have made- you know, guns, explosives, vehicles, armor… humans may be flimsy compared to us, but they sure know how to build!"

"And why couldn't we build the same?"

Kyu laughed. "Well, for one, we're not trying to kidnap people! And two… well, we sort of outclass modern weaponry. Why bother using a gun if you're a living flamethrower? Not to mention our inhuman durability- I got shot once, right in the thigh." She pointed to an innocuous spot on her leg. "It hurt like crazy, but it seems like our skin's like natural kevlar- it barely made it an inch into me."

"Who shot you?!" I gasped.

"Oh, just some Foundation guy," she waved it off. "I was coming home from school one day when I was jumped by a couple guys from the Plasmid Foundation. See, they were pissed that I didn't want to participate in their 'harmless, fun research for the benefit of humans and hybrids alike'. When I ran they started shooting at me. I lucked out and avoided most of them, but one got me right in the thigh. Still, I managed to make my way out of the alley and bleed my way home."

"Wait, why on Earth were you in an alleyway? Isn't that just begging for trouble?"

"It was a shortcut, okay?" she exclaimed, exasperated. "Besides, if any regular person tried to mug me I just set myself on fire and they always went away. You don't mug people who set themselves on fire. But these guys were wearing fire-proof armor and everything! All I could do was run."

"And… all the way home nobody bothered to help you with that bullet in your leg," I challenged.

"Um, hybrid? Hello?" She tapped her fox muzzle in demonstration. "I know you haven't seen it first hand, but most humans either treat us like garbage or like we're not there at all. And who gives a crap about bleeding garbage?" She grumbled, "At least Mom had the decency to help me clean up..."

I decided to risk the question, "Um, if it's not too personal-"

"No, Mom and I didn't really get along," Kyu predicted, rolling her eyes. Her tone suggested she was asked this a lot. "I mean, it's not like she abused me or anything, but it was pretty clear she didn't really like having a hybrid daughter. Anyway, the wound left a pretty nasty scar, but soon after I came here I managed to get rid of it with a few minutes in one of those Healing Machines."

"Can we show Eon inside the Battle Stadium now? Please?" Matthew asked with his hands clasped together beseechingly.

"Sure, why not?" Kyu replied with a smile, clearly relieved to have changed the subject. She jogged at a surprisingly swift pace, but I found myself easily keeping step with her with my newfound hybrid speed. Luckily I managed to stay on my paws the whole way and within moments we were at a very grand entrance: an archway that towered several feet above us. The school's insignia, a heavily stylized etching of a Lugia like Professor Darck that was curled with its wings outstretched, divided the words "Battle" and "Stadium" at the top of the arch.

We walked through the entrance. Down the hallway we were met with two grey staircases leading to either side of the bleachers, and a little further down was a set of locked metal doors. "Those lead to the teams' waiting room," Kyu explained. "To prevent sabotage they're locked, sealed, and enchanted with psychic wards when not in use. But if you'll follow me I can show you the field from the bleachers!" She ran up the right staircase, her many tails fluttering behind her. Matthew and I followed her up a couple flights of stairs, my claws clacking against the metal, up to the top row of bleachers.

Once more, the size and quality of the stadium was stunning. The square field itself actually took up most of the stadium, which I estimated to be quite longer than an American football field, but it had no markings or lines aside from one right down the middle and one on either side near the edges, all parallel to one another. The bleachers themselves were much like movie seats, with each hybrid granted their own blue cushioned chairs and armrests. "Wow," I commented. "This is pretty awesome."

"You bet it is," Kyu giggled as she gestured to two large holes on either side of the stadium. "You see those? Those are drainage pipes."

"Does it rain that much here?" I guessed.

She chuckled. "You could say that. See, whenever some hybrid decides he fights best in a torrential rainstorm or wants to summon a tsunami or eruption, the water or lava has to go somewhere! Psychic shields protect the crowd, but rather than fight in an ocean- which is entirely one-sided- we prefer to get rid of the water once the attack ends."

"Hybrids can create that much water?" I gasped, dumbfounded.

"The Water-types, yeah." Kyu grinned. "But you should see the infernos a properly trained Fire-type can produce! With one breath you could coat the entire field in a raging firestorm to incinerate your foes!" She noticed my look of delight and winked. "Still think becoming a hybrid was the worst thing that's ever happened to you?"

"Not anymore!" I laughed. Sure enough, I think exchanging a human body for a tougher, stronger, and fireproof hybrid one was a great choice... despite not having a say in the matter. Nevertheless, I frowned, looking at my furry hands. "Well, it IS really weird being a fox person instead of a regular human, but… I guess I'm adapting." Kyu clapped my shoulder comfortingly.

"Hooray for hybrids!" Matthew cheered, somehow causing iridescent pink bubbles to appear around us and gently descend to our paws and vanish. I followed one down and poked it to find it surprisingly solid. Curious, I cupped it in my furry hands, finding not even my claws sufficient to pierce its thin membrane; it simply indented under the nail.

"Oh, you like them? Here! You can have this one!" Matthew suggested. I looked up in time to see Matthew pull his hands apart, a huge, pink bubble forming between them. Once the Mew's face was obscured by the ball, he pushed it at me with a little bounce.

I caught the bubble with outstretched hands, finding the orb to be soft yet definitely solid, easily withstanding my attempts to squeeze it or poke it with my claws. "Thanks, Matthew," I replied, still looking over the perfectly smooth sphere.

I looked up with a smile to find Matthew sitting on a bubble of his own. "It won't pop unless you try really, really hard, and you also can make it as big or as small as you want!"

I grinned. "So what's to stop me from from filling the entire stadium with it?

"Well, it has to take energy from someone to blow up, you know," Matthew said as if it was obvious. "You'll get super tired if you try to make it huge, but you can if you want to. My record's a little over ten feet big, I think."

I decided to give it a try. "So how do I blow it up?" I looked it over without finding any sort of obvious valve.

"That's easy!" Matthew giggled. "Just put a paw on it and focus on making it bigger and it will!"

I nodded and did so, directing my thoughts at the bubble to enlarge it. Sure enough, my hands were pushed further apart as the iridescent ball expanded… though at the cost of some of my stamina. It was a small drain, yes, but I definitely felt a little more tired. Each few inches of growth seemed to take exponentially more of my energy, so by the time it was six feet wide and atop the bleachers rather than between them, I was gasping.

"Do I… do I get my energy back if I deflate it?" I asked.

"Um… no, sorry, Eon," Matthew spoke in sympathy. "It actually takes a little bit of energy to deflate it, too, but it's not nearly as hard." Nodding once more, I tentatively began to let it deflate under my paw, finding the process to be much less exhausting. With no more energy than it would take to run up a flight of stairs I had deflated the bubble to the size of a marble which I then pocketed.

"Does this mean I'm a Psychic-type, too?" I asked.

Matthew giggled. "Nope! Ninetales are Fire-types through and through! I'm the only Psychic in this stadium! But anyway, when I made that bubble I made sure to tell it, 'Now, you listen to Eon, or I'll pop you!' And so it does! I make a personal bubble for all of my best buddies!"

I looked to Kyu, who smiled merrily. "Based on what other Psychic-types say, it's not really sentient; Matthew just has a… unique way of weaving aura. And yeah, I have one, too. It's actually really good for stamina training and insomnia considering how fast you get tired from blowing it up, not to mention it's an amazing shield if you get inside of it. ...It's, uh, banned from tournaments, technically. You can only fight with what you can make on the fly in the stadium."

"Kyu thinks of all these really weird things to do with her bubble, but she never actually plays with it like she's supposed to!" Matthew complained.

Kyu laughed, "Sorry, Matthew! Tell you what, this Friday after my Gym training we can go and play catch or volleyball or something."

"Yay! Thanks Kyu!" Matthew flew into the vixen for a hug, nearly knocking her off her paws while his long tail curled around them both- nevertheless, he made sure not to make contact with her own tails.

Kyu extricated herself from Matthew's enthusiastic embrace and turned back to me. "Shall we move on?"

Matthew and I followed Kyu's enthusiastic jog back through the hallway and to the main campus. She pointed out the grey stone buildings lining the far side of the plaza even as we walked toward them. "Those are where we actually learn," Kyu explained. "You know, basic school subjects like Math, English, the sciences, and the other classes you'd take in any other school! The teachers here are really tough, though- you really do have to try your hardest to stay on top of your studies, especially if you're in Honors courses. Well, I mean, you won't get kicked out if you fail-this is practically the only safe place in the country you can learn at- so you'll just repeat the grade.

"But still- make sure you do your best here or Professor Darck will never let you hear the end of it. I mean, you think he'd be busy being the Headmaster and all, but somehow he found time nearly every day to ask how I'm doing in Math and explain whatever I couldn't understand. I was grateful, yeah, but it was a little disconcerting how he seemed to be everywhere I went! He even interrupted my dreams to help me with my homework! How creepy is that!"

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Maybe he just cares about you personally?"

Kyu's eyes widened. "Oh, no, he does this to everyone! I don't know how he finds time for it all, but he's like everyone's father and tutor. And there's like five thousand students here!" She giggled. "Although, it is kinda nice. I never knew my father, so the fact that he cares so much about all of us like a dad should is really heartwarming, wouldn't you say?"

I smiled. "Same here. My dad died before I was born, so I never really had a father." I chuckled. "Maybe I should fail a couple classes to talk to him more!"

Kyu snickered, but cautioned. "Oh, you'd better not! He's a three hundred year old Psychic- nothing gets by him. But don't worry- he'll find time to talk to you just about every week. I swear he can duplicate himself or turn back time or something 'cause there's no way he can talk to everyone every week."

"Three hundred," I repeated, fixing Kyu with a questioning stare. "Professor Darck… is three hundred years old."

"Mhm!" Kyu nodded emphatically. "He's got stuff from the 18th century and everything!"

I shook my head in disbelief. "What about us?"

"Average Ninetales' lifespan is… well, I'll put it like this- the first recorded Ninetales died in the 1980s, and she wrote poetry during the Heian period of Japanese history… about a thousand years ago."

My jaw dropped. "A… a thousand years?! H-how old are you?!"

"I'm still 16 years old," she insisted. "To be fair we are kind of a rare breed, even for hybrids."

"So how long does a Lugia like Darck live?"

Kyu shrugged in response. "There's, like, three? He's the youngest, actually- the other two pretty much got bored of humans, I heard, but the oldest is at least one thousand and shows little sign of aging. Yeah, a few extremely rare hybrids have been around since the dawn of civilization and a lot of them are still the only ones of their kind."

"Like me!" Matthew interjected. "Never ever before has a Mew been born and Professor Darck thinks I might live for a super long time, too! So we can be friends forever and ever!" He wrapped his arms around us both in a cheerful hug.

Something about living that long bothered me. I mean, yeah, death was scary, but to just keep living for hundreds and hundreds of years? It made me nauseous somehow. I tried to steer the conversation away from the thought. "Has Professor Darck ever gotten on your case for failing, Matthew?" I asked.

The floating cat replied, "Nope! I've never failed anything, you know- it's all too easy! The only hard part is the homework, and that's just 'cause it's sooo long and boring. But my teacher says something I always understand it. I mean, it's obvious, isn't it? Like Calculus! Everyone always seems to think it's super complicated to integrate trigonometric equations and that kind of stuff and I'm like, 'Dude, all you have to do is follow the rules your teacher told you about and it's really easy!'"

I thought of my own struggles with the subject and shook my head. "Are all Psychics supergenius immortals?"

"Not quite," Kyu clarified. "Most of them are perfectly normal hybrids sans the whole mind powers thing. You just happened to have met two of the most powerful in the school." I looked to Matthew in surprise. Matthew grinned.

"Well, factoring in age," Kyu chuckled. "The graduate Psychics here could take any of us on easily." By this point we had reached the other side of the campus, so Kyu opened the door to lead us into the cooler building. In contrast this building was much more modern in appearance, stark, light grey walls and clean trims above smooth white tile shining with the fluorescent lighting above.

"It's so different," I commented. It was certainly a far cry from the lavish design of the main building and dorms.

"Yeah, see, about a year after I got here all the educational buildings were burned down. Officially the perpetrators were never caught, but any Psychic worth her salt could tell you exactly who was at fault. You're no Psychic, but I'll give you three guesses." She looked to me expectantly.

"Um… an upset Fire-type?"

"Not quite- the building still carried fireproofing enchantments courtesy of our Psychics, and they were too strong to be broken by just any student, Psychic or not. Second guess?"

"The Plasmid Foundation?"

"Bingo! Years of research and study apparently prepared them for a midnight attack- they used some sort of device to nullify the enchantments before torching the whole structure with their aura-powered flamethrowers. Come morning there was a very big pile of ashes just across the campus. I think they were trying to discourage students from staying so they'd be easier targets."

"So why didn't they go for the dorms or the main building?" I challenged.

"Well, aside from the fact that nobody noticed them until it was too late- a feat hard to accomplish when you're near, what, hundreds of Psychics? Anyway, they're actually really, REALLY reluctant to kill us, and with a fire so close to our less heat-tolerant Grass and Steel-types they decided not to take the risk. That may seem out of character for a kidnapping bunch of scumbags… but after all, you can learn a lot more from a living subject than a corpse." Her tone betrayed a deep hatred for the organization. She continued with much less odium, "Anyway, c'mon. I'll show you around."

This building was the Science Building, we learned. The three-story structure, filled classrooms dedicated to teaching students everything from ecology to quantum physics, made up the majority of the building with the rest of the space taken up by labs dedicated to student research for their doctorates and whatnot. The other buildings were similarly themed, one teaching math while another taught the arts and foreign languages, including English for the foreign hybrids who sought protection here.

As we exited the History building, a bell rang from the corners of the building and the two small speakers placed beneath each lamppost at regular intervals every few feet in three orderly rows down the campus, gradually diminishing in strength until I could barely make out the ones nearest the main building. I closed my eyes and groaned, unused to processing so much information from my sensitive vulpine ears. By contrast, I opened my eyes to find Kyu and Matthew looking downright ecstatic, Kyu literally panting with her tongue hanging out as she looked towards the main building. "What's going on?" I asked.

Kyu looked at me and put her tongue away with some chagrin. "Lunch time!"