Back to Trainer School

The first morning waking up in Rustboro City was glorious. It was a nice day; the sun was shining, the sky was blue and most importantly, the whole team had new outfits to slip into. Hilary was practically dancing around the room she shared with Mari and Daichi. Their new clothes weren't glamorous high style but the boutique Mr Stone offered to treat them at sold top of the range adventuring material. Hilary had picked out an orange sleeveless top with a button-up collar. It was long enough to be worn as a dress but not a modest one so she also picked out a pair of white shorts to go with it.

"And look!" she squealed, shoving her hands into the gaps under the curves of black fabric at her hips. "It has pockets! They're deep enough to put my whole hands in!"

"Big deal, who cares about pockets?" Daichi grumbled. He hadn't been thrilled about being forced by the rest of the group to don a new outfit, even though his was the most ragged and ill-fitting. Through sheer force of will they managed to shove him into a purple V-neck t-shirt (that still had sleeves and a hem) and a pair of black and white shorts. He would be the last to admit that he actually really liked the engineering that made the clothes light and breathable.

"It's a girl problem, of course you don't understand," Hilary muttered, rolling her eyes. She turned to the third bed in the room, pushed against the only wall without a window. Mari lay across it casually with one knee up and her head propped up on her arm, looking through something or other on her PokéNav. "Mari, you could have gone for a different look. Why didn't you? Some of the stuff in that shop would have looked so cute on you."

Mari blinked at her in surprise. "I did go for a different look."

"You only went for shorter pants and a shirt with no sleeves."

"That's different! Got a hat too." She tapped the blue cap on her head, replacing the bandanna that she now had tied around her neck. "It's polymesh and padded too. Stuff like this is really good if you're willing to save up for it. Good thing we don't have to this time."

There was a knock on the door. Hilary let them know they were allowed in and they opened the door.

"Kyaa! Ray, your new outfit looks really amazing!" Hilary gushed.

Ray had waited until the next day to wear his outfit in its entirety and it was with some irony that it still managed to convey an impression of orientalism. He had a white, sleeveless shirt with a mandarin collar and all of the hemming done in yellow. It fastened up the middle with a row of taut toggles. He switched out his trousers for black shorts with drawstrings below the knee and traded his usual Chinese slippers for a different pair with laces around the ankle and more robust soles.

"Thanks, Hilary," Ray said.

"His outfit is 'amazing' and mine is barely changed?" Mari cut in with a pout.

"I came up because everyone is downstairs for breakfast already. We want to have a group meeting, especially Tyson."

"Still going on about Porygon Z?" Mari guessed.

"He's really set on it." Ray turned to leave. "See you down there when you're ready."

Mari sat up and clipped her PokéNav back on her belt. She tugged on her running shoes – the same ones she had before – and Hilary and Daichi did the same. Hilary's bright yellow and orange shoes were simple to slip on but cinched tightly with a strap across the top. Daichi couldn't be bothered with newfangled footwear and laced up what would become his new trusty purple runners (as opposed to his old ones). They were already off to a great start, since they fit much better and had a much more flexible sole, not to mention arch support made them the most comfortable things Daichi had ever put on his feet.

Rustboro City's Pokémon Centre was busier than those the trainers had experienced before. There were people in the halls and milling around the lobby. Even in Petalburg City the number of trainers utilising the centre was low enough that they could generally avoid others but it wasn't the case here, so it took a bit more effort to search for a particular group of people among the crowd.

They eventually found the others, occupying a booth as was becoming customary. Despite calling for a group meeting, food was definitely first and foremost in Tyson's mind. He'd also gone with shorter clothes in keep with Hoenn's tropical climate, skipping jeans and a jacket in favour of beige shorts and an open red shirt with a dark blue and white striped tank top underneath. Across from him was Max, who had somehow managed to make a navy blue and orange, short-sleeved jacket look good with long, green shorts. Kai had ignored the trend towards less heat stress-inducing clothes and had bought a pair of black trousers, a blue shirt and a black jacket that was much the same as his old one, except with zip-closed pockets. The urge to escape Tyson's company right then was getting harder and harder to keep from creeping onto his face but with Max blocking his only option for a dignified getaway he instead focused intensely on meticulously sewing up the rips and tears in his scarf.

"Don't tell me you're insisting on wearing that scarf," Mari said as they came up to the table, being the brave one to take a seat next to Daichi and Tyson. "Coming up to Hoenn's monsoon season in a couple of months, it'll be really hot."

Kai just shrugged.

"I think he's really, really attached to that scarf," Max giggled. "Like you can talk, though. You weren't wearing your scarf before."

"A little piece of cloth like this can hardly be compared so something so long that it literally billows in the wind."

"Great!" Tyson interrupted, swallowing and finally taking a break for conversation. "You're all here—wait, where's Ray?"

"He'll be along," Hilary said, waving her hand. "Just tell us what you wanted the meeting for."

"Right." Tyson put his hands on the table forcefully. "We've got all the tools we need to track down that Torygon C-"

"Porygon Z," Mari corrected.

"All we need to do now is figure out how to use them," Tyson continued. He propped his chin on one hand, going deep into thought.

"Can we eat first?" Daichi said, gesturing to everyone who hadn't gotten a breakfast tray already. "I don't like thinking on an empty stomach."

"You don't like thinking, period," Tyson retorted.

"Come on, too early in the day to do this," Mari moaned.

"Don't worry," Ray piped up, swinging over to their booth carrying five trays at once. He slid them onto the table, not dropping a single crumb. "I've got you covered."

"Whoa!" Daichi exclaimed. "How'd you do that?"

Ray grinned. "I've worked as a waiter at a lot of restaurants." Hilary, Max and Kai all shuffled over so that Ray could take a spot at the end. He picked up his fork and picked up where the serious conversation left off: "I was trying out the tracker a little bit last night. From what I found, we'd have to first be able to locate the Pokémon we're looking for and tag it so that we can follow it if it gets away."

Tyson groaned, letting his head drop onto the table. "So we're essentially still at square one?"

"Mm… there's one more thing," Ray said, hesitating even as everyone's eyes turned to him expectantly. "You probably won't like this, but… the app is only accurate to a kilometre radius."

"Are you kidding me?!" Tyson screamed. The other occupants of the lobby turned to him in alarm or displeasure.

"Ditto," Max muttered. "So even if the app was telling us that it was right on top of us, we'd still have heaps of ground to cover just to find it."

"How about we forget about that for a moment and stick with figuring out part one," Hilary suggested. "We need to find Porygon Z first. Even if the app isn't particularly accurate at locating it, at least it can show us where we need to be heading to."

Mari nodded. "In terms of finding it, probably best to ask around the city. Maybe a tourist info desk or if there's a ranger office in town they might know about things that have been happening around Rustboro. From memory I think there's also a government research building here that a lot of the professors have access to. Should we call Professor Birch or Professor Oak and ask for their help?"

"But what if it takes them ages to get here?" Tyson asked.

"Challenge the Gym in the meantime."

"No! We've seriously got to stop wasting time! Do I need to remind everyone what predicament we're in? From what we've gathered, time in our world is somehow moving faster than time in this world. If it's December in our world already – actually, it could be January by now, heck it could even be February – people will seriously be wondering where we've gone. They might even be thinking we're dead!"

Silence fell across the booth as everybody paused to digest that. Putting it to the backs of their minds had simply been the easier thing to do. The thought of being missed by people who had no explanation for their disappearance gnawed painfully at their insides. Max found it hard to swallow all of a sudden. What would his parents do, especially with being halfway across the world from each other? Daichi's mind conjured up the image of his mother crying inconsolably and placing a new gravestone next to his father's. Tyson could imagine what his grandfather's reaction would be but what about Hiro? Would he lose his composure? Tyson could hardly fathom it. Hilary almost brought herself to tears at the thought of her own parents tearfully planning her funeral, without her body, and replaying their final moment together one September morning in their memories. For Ray, the entire White Tiger village was like his family and trying to imagine the scale of the collective loss they must have been feeling caused him to shiver. Kai clenched his teeth to stop himself smiling and tested the new stitches, thinking what a wonderful albeit petty revenge this could possibly serve against his father and grandfather.

"Here you are!" a bright, chirpy voice interrupted the solemn moment. Everyone looked up in surprise. Elain beamed at them, hands clasped behind her back. "Ready for school?"

"Excuse me, what?" Tyson retorted, mouth hanging open a bit in disbelief. "Can't you see we're having a moment here? Besides, we have other plans today; we don't have time for school."

"But you promised," Elain sang back at him cheekily. "To beat Roxanne you agreed to come by the trainer school and I said I would pick you up in the morning."

"We made no such deal!"

"But you did."

"We did not!"

"Why don't we go with her," Mari piped up, suddenly feeling sombre. "Trainer school is as good a place to start as any if we need to look for something and I've met Roxanne before, she's nice and she'll help us if she can. As Gym Leader she's also connected to the Pokémon League network, which will have heaps of information we might not be able to get on our own."

"Right," Elain said slowly, unsure what they she was talking about. "Finish your breakfast, or you'll be late. Can't have that on your first day."

The Pokémon Trainer's School, as it was officially called, was another of those old, austere buildings built of brick and wrought iron of Rustboro's early years of glory. The rooves of all the separate blocks were pitched unevenly with one side being flatter than the other. It gave the effect, when looking upon it from the front, that one was staring up at a sturdy fortress of knowledge with its bell tower rising out of it like a flag post. The students were sparse on the front steps of the building and most of them were rushing towards the doors. Then suddenly the bell chimed.

"That's the beginning of the school day," Elain beamed, clapping her hands together once.

"I thought part of the point of going on an adventure was that you didn't have to go to school," Tyson grumbled.

"Not true!" Elain replied. "It's important that learning isn't put on hold just for the sake of journeys and adventures. Dare I say, it's part of the journey itself."

"I agree entirely," Hilary said, mostly just to spite Tyson, "but now that we've seen this place, what are we going to do? We're not enrolled here."

"That is not a problem. The Trainer's School offers a programme called the Day School. Travelling trainers can enrol just for a day. Starts later than regular school to allow for enrolments, so we're still well in time for that."

"How convenient," Max said, smiling despite the fact that he wasn't especially enthused about the idea of going to school, even for only a day. Nonetheless, while the others were entering the building at Elain's invitation, he sidled up to her. "Hey, thanks for taking us here. Elain, was it? So, you were the other trainer Devon Corp. hired? I didn't see you."

"Mustn't have been on the same floor," Elain replied.

"Yeah, I really wish I could have met you the other night. Hearing all the things Tyson and Ray were saying about you made it sound like you were really cool and clever."

"Aw, really?" Elain giggled, blushing. "Sweet of you to say so."

"No, I really mean it. Did you really learn to be a great trainer at a school like this? Maybe you could teach me. Do you think we could pencil in some after class pointer sessions? Or maybe just hang out somewhere at lunch and talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Tyson said, suddenly right next to Max. The blond tensed. Tyson pinched his ear. "Don't you have a class to get to?"

He dragged Max up the stairs and into the building, the American stumbling and yelping as his ear was pulled painfully. Elain chuckled awkwardly and followed them up. The entrance hall was old (the oldest part of the building, in fact), built before the advent of artificial lighting in buildings. Inside was a little bit gloomy, save for some light streaming in from windows high up on the tall walls and lamps placed on the columns holding up the atrium. The columns and the pillars created an initial wide open space with corridors leading to the right and the left and a set of double doors ahead of them. It was quiet and deserted as most people were in class or in their offices.

"Well, truth be told today isn't a great day for extracurricular plans anyway," Elain explained. She jogged ahead to take the lead, showing them the way to the Day School.

"Why not?" Max whined.

Nobody heard the heavy stamp of boots running towards them until someone called out: "Elain! Here you are! Why are you late?"

They all turned around and Elain's stomach dropped. She was late? She hadn't realised that. Another girl was running towards them from the corridor going left. Whereas Elain was extremely tall – taller than all of the bladers – this girl was a more average height, only taller than Hilary and Daichi. Her pale features from her skin to her pink eyes to her long, long blonde hair were almost luminescent, like she was born to live in the dark. She was wearing a light blue school skirt but her long shirt, woollen stockings, boots and gloves were of a much hardier cut and all in shades of light blue with a bit of black. Even though it was already reaching her ankles, her slightly curling hair was tied up high in a simple bunch and secured with black and red ribbon.

"What's going on?" Elain asked.

"Why haven't you signed in for your exam?" the new girl demanded, stepping right up to Elain and pointing at her.

"W-what?" Elain gasped. "That wasn't now, was it? Swear I checked…"

"No, later, in the afternoon. But you still need to sign in with the office this morning. I did tell you that it would be ideal for you to come in by the time school started. It's already started."

"What's the big deal?" Elain huffed standoffishly. "Like it would make a difference if I signed in now or later as long as it's at least half an hour before. Hardly late at all."

The pale girl shook her head. "Afternoon exam-takers need to have their Pokémon assessed by the invigilators this morning."

"Eh? But I did that last night."

"Didn't need to; only this morning's exams were required to do that assessment. You are required to put your Pokémon through this morning's assessment. Can't just cut corners and arrive for whatever time suits you."

"Fine," Elain sighed, rolling her eyes and throwing her hands up. She turned to the trainers following her. "Sorry about this. Looks like I have something to take care of but Elena will help you out."

She turned on her heel and started running down the same corridor the blonde girl had come from, grumbling under her breath about "what difference did it make?" and "such uppity rules." The blonde watched her go with a small smile, satisfied that things were being carried out properly and would be ready for the all-important time. Then she blinked and turned to the group beside her, looking awkward and unsure.

"Ehe, sorry," she apologised, running her fingers through her hair. "New students? Elain was showing you around and I've interrupted, haven't I? I'm Elena." The group went through their round of introductions. "Let me show you to class to make up for sending Elain away. Do you know your first subject?"

"Actually, we were going to the Day School," Tyson said, moving to take a step back towards the front doors, "but if Elain's not going to force us then—ow!"

Hilary pulled him back by the ponytail.

"Day School? Sure, I can take you there," Elena beamed.

She took the lead and showed them out the doors leading inwards. They opened into a quadrangle, divided in four by arched cloisters. Hilary and the bladers stared in awe as they walked down the sheltered path. In each courtyard were two Pokémon battle arenas, most of them occupied by trainers – from children to high schoolers – doing battle. While it was nothing compared to the Battle Frontier highlights seen on TV, it was still an amazing sight to witness. A Blaziken engulfed its opponent and most of the battlefield in Fire Spin and they could feel the heat as they passed it. A Beautifly using Gust blew a heavy wind across their path and a Wailmer using Soak splashed them with water spray.

The cloisters suddenly ended before an old, brick cottage with a ring of flower gardens in planting boxes and lawn around it. A sign on the lawn proudly proclaimed this building to be the 'Day School' they sought. Inside there was only one spacious room with cupboards and sinks at one end, a board and screen at the other and student desks in between. The bladers and Hilary looked at it with reservations. The colours, the posters, the setup, it was all very reminiscent of primary school.

A stern woman with long brown hair in double ponytails tied together with pink ribbon was at the front of the room, registering trainers on the computer. She was wearing a dark blue pinafore with a white, puffed-sleeve blouse underneath, a hot pink tie and matching stockings.

"I thought the point of being the teacher was that you didn't have to wear the uniform," Tyson whispered to Max, who snickered.

The sharp woman's eyes snapped towards Tyson and as quick as a bullet she swiped a piece of chalk and threw it across the room, where it beaned Tyson square in the forehead, narrowly bypassing everyone else in front of him. They stared at her with their mouths agape, none more so than Tyson.

"Impudence before you're even enrolled, that's not a good start to the day at all," the woman said, wagging her finger.

"We can still back out of this, right?" Tyson asked as the chalk finally fell from the imprint it left in his head.

"She won't be too hard on you," Elena assured them, rather unsuccessfully. "Have a fun day and good luck with your studies." She gave the strict teacher a simultaneous greeting and farewell as she turned to leave.

The rest of the group realised they were suddenly stuck with the option of going up and enrolling. The teacher merely swiped their trainer cards on a scanner and told them to take a seat. The desks seated two each and were arranged individually in straight rows and columns. The group was the last bunch of trainers to arrive for the class and Mari was the last to go up to have her card scanned. The teacher started when she saw her face up close.

"My, my, it's been a while," she said with an air of vague familiarity. "Sure you want to enrol in this class? There are advanced tutorials, the instructors surely wouldn't mind if you just sit in."

"Er, that's okay," Mari replied, waving her hand. "I promised to come here with my friends."

"Are you completely sure? To be honest, would feel a bit awkward for me to be your teacher in this class."

"Mari," Tyson whispered, grabbing her by the shoulder and pulling her back a bit. "This is your chance. You can look around the school for something that'll help us find the Povygon Z-"

"Porygon Z," she hissed.

"-while we're in class. Please do this for us, you were the one who suggested it."

Mari sighed and turned to the teacher with a smile. "Well, alright. Can I look around the library for a while?"

"No problem."

The teenagers took the option of going right to the back of the classroom, away from all of the starry-eyed ten-year-olds in the front row. Mari bid them goodbye and snuck out the door while the teacher took her position at the blackboard. She glanced at the clock above the board.

"Time to start," she announced, turning to the class with her hands on her hips. "Good morning, students. I am Roxanne, Gym Leader of the Rustboro City Pokémon Gym and your teacher for today. Workbooks will be handed out in a moment but first let me explain: this will be a simple class best suited to beginner trainers."

"Well I guess we fit the bill," Tyson murmured with his legs on the desk and his chair rocking slightly on two legs. Another bullet-fast piece of chalk shot him in the head so hard that it caused him to lose balance. Hilary, who was sharing the desk with him, snickered behind her hand.

"Let me be clear, bad manners will not be tolerated in my lessons," Roxanne chided, "especially not from the more senior students."

Tyson grumbled as he got to his feet and dragged his chair up with him. "I think I hate this class already."

Hilary tittered. "I think I'm already enjoying it."

The trainer school's library was an expansive facility, so much so that it had even been opened up to the general public. However, it was quiet and the old building was quite dim with only tall gothic windows to let the light in and some retrofitted fluorescent lamps. Mari wandered around the shelves, pouting at the spines of books. Even if she had promised to look around, where was she supposed to start in a library? Did she have to look for a book about Porygons? Or a book about teleportation? Or was she looking for a book about alternate dimensions?

In the end, she decided to try to acquire a book about every topic she could care to think about that was even remotely relevant. She took her ten-high stack of books to a table near some windows and started to flip through them. It didn't take her long to get through them all, since she gave up before even reading through most of the pages of each book and left them open in a messy ring around herself. They were all books that were full of science jargon and complex mathematics that she couldn't even begin to understand. The theories behind them were also too advanced for her and bored her to tears in minutes. The only book she could get even remotely interested in was the 'Comprehensive Guide to the Porygon Evolutionary Line' and even that one often delved into sophisticated computer science and detailed technical information about artificial intelligence. A few hours had gone by and Mari had only wound up face down in a book.

"Excuse me," someone said, making her look up slowly. "Done with this book? I was looking for it."

Mari gasped and sat up quickly. "Professor Oak!"

Gary quickly shushed her. "Hey, pipe down. This is a library, y'know," he replied cheekily. "And I keep telling you, Professor Oak is my grandfather. What's up? A library is one of the last places I would expect to see you."

"Doing research to help my friends," Mari answered. "Still after that Porygon Z… but I can't figure anything out with books." She dropped her chin back on the desk. "What about you? Aren't you still working on your project with Professor Birch?"

"Yeah," Gary said, pulling the book he was looking for closer and closing it. It was one of the textbooks on the quantum physics of alternate dimensions. "Came here to do more literature review. Surprised to find you here, though. Thought you would still be back in Oldale or Petalburg grinding those newbies into the ground. At this rate, you'll make it to the half-year spill."

Mari's stomach dropped. She'd forgotten about that thing. "Couldn't really sit still for long," she admitted. "Between their Porygon Z and the spill, the others wouldn't really be interested in slowing down anyway."

"Why are they so fixated on that Porygon Z?" Gary asked, pulling out the chair next to her to sit. "That Pokémon is too advanced for beginner trainers, in my opinion. How'd they find it in the first place?"

"From what I could gather, it seems like it found them," Mari replied, turning to Gary and relaying as much information about Hilary and the bladers' predicament as she could. At the end of the explanation Gary just nodded in a professional perfunctory way.

"Another dimension, huh? Explains so much."

"Don't really sound that surprised," Mari remarked, put out by Gary's rather insouciant reaction.

"Can't really say that I am, just kinda… dunno, confused." Mari urged him to continue. "As far I can tell based on what you said, that Porygon Z they're looking for jumped across dimensional barriers, collected them and then jumped back. Aside from the fact that that's barely achievable for humans even with quantum mechanics, I've never heard of a non-Legendary Pokémon with an ability like that. Where did that Porygon Z come from?"

Mari shrugged. "Don't think they'll be very interested in finding out either."

"Right, the time thing," Gary said, sitting back in his chair and folding his arms. "Can't comment on that since quantum physics isn't my area of expertise but I'm really curious now. Might even help me a tiny bit with my current research."

"Since you mentioned it, what is your research? I know that you like to study rare and Legendary Pokémon but what exactly does that entail?"

"Whatever I can get funding for," Gary joked. "Tough field to be in since it's hard to yield results. At the moment I'm developing a theory of a transcendent reality that can only be occupied by the Legendary Pokémon, which might explain other mythological aspects of their being such as immortality, time travel and distortion of reality. Been getting Professor Birch's help with gathering data about Hoenn's resident Legendries. Could give you a crash course on my research so far if you want."

"No thank-you," Mari replied quickly, putting her hands up defensively. "Super done with academia already."

"Where are your new friends anyway?" Gary suddenly changed topic, looking around the library for any sign of Hilary or the bladers.

Mari snorted out a laugh. "Take a guess."

The Day School took a lunch break with the rest of the school at around midday. The trainers had the small lawn around the little building pretty much all to themselves. After the morning's coursework was complete there was an open-book test at the end of their thin, paper workbooks, which Ray was staring at with a raised eyebrow while he sat on the edge of a planting box.

"I get that this is a class for beginners but isn't this…?" he muttered, turning another page.

"I get what you mean," Hilary said, sitting next to him and opening up her notes to the page of the quiz. "These questions are seriously easy. 'What medicine would you use to heal poisoning? A Paralyse Heal, a Potion or an Antidote?' And we're allowed to look at our notes for this? We just experienced what to do in the event of poisoning; we could easily do this quiz."

Further out on the lawn, Tyson and Daichi were helping the catering staff clear away the leftovers of the lunch (by dumping it in their stomachs). Tyson caught wind of the conversation and turned around to blow a raspberry at Hilary's suggestion. "What's wrong with having easy schoolwork for once? This is the best thing that has happened in this dimension so far. Easy homework, free lunch, no pressure for grades-"

"Weren't you listening?" Kai suddenly piped up quietly and yet clear from where he was sitting on the lawn, leaning against a column while Togepi rolled around on the grass beside him. Max was lying on his belly on the grass. Both were already filling out the answers in their stupidly easy tests. "Students who score in the top 8 get a special pass at the Gym."

"Wehwee?" Daichi exclaimed with his cheeks full of food, pausing to chew for a moment before swallowing. "That's awesome! I'm gonna do this test! No stupid Gym Leader is going to get away from me this time."

Tyson scoffed. "Who cares? We're only here for a day, what's the teacher going to do if we don't even do it?"

"I don't understand what's so special about getting a pass at the Gym," Max said, looking up from his paper with a bright smile, "but it couldn't hurt to find out. This test isn't even hard at all. Look, one of the questions says: 'Show how these three types would match-up against each other: fire, water, grass.' It's basically rock-paper-scissors. They're giving these answers away."

"Do you guys think a Burn Heal would heal a burn?" Hilary asked sardonically.

"Electric-type attacks are more powerful when used by electric-types," Ray joined in the ribbing, "true or false?"

"If it's such a joke why are you even bothering?" Tyson harrumphed. There wasn't any food left and the catering staff were collecting all of the trays. However, lunch hour wasn't over and Tyson had no intention of doing any homework he could get away with not doing, even though Daichi had now joined the ranks of his teammates and was struggling with the test.

Looking for a way to pass the rest of lunchtime that didn't involve making sarcastic commentary about every quiz question, Tyson spotted an unusually dense gathering around one of the arenas in the quadrangle. Day School and regular students alike were standing around on the very edge, murmuring excitedly. His curiosity piqued, Tyson clasped his hands behind his head and wandered over there. He managed to squeeze between two students and look over the arena. A referee with an official pin on the lapel of his blazer was on the box, holding a red flag in his right hand and a blue flag in his left. For the first time Tyson took notice of the Pokéball shaped ring in the middle of the arena with one half filled with blue sand, the other with red, corresponding to the referee's flags. On the red side was an oddly humanoid chicken, currently facing off against the blue side's blue serpent with winged ears that had a shiny bead on its neck and two on its tail. Some of the coloured sand had already been kicked up, indicating that the battle had already started.

Slightly fascinated by the new Pokémon, Tyson took out his Pokédex, going for the blue one first. "Dragonair, the dragon Pokémon," the Pokédex dutifully recited. "This elusive Pokémon inhabits lakes and seas. It emits a gentle aura and is capable of storing energy in its gems. When the energy is released it is powerful enough to alter the weather."

Before Tyson could get a snap of the yellow and orange chicken, it moved. It raised its clawed, feathery arm to do some sort of karate chop. There was barely even a second between the order issued by the trainer and the execution of the attack. Yet with a graceful swirl of its body the Dragonair dodged the lunge.

"Slam!" Dragonair's trainer ordered.

"Brick Break!" called out the chicken's trainer.

Dragonair raised itself up to drop heavily but the chicken's attack was fractionally faster. The serpentine Pokémon was hurled to one corner of the arena. It recovered well, looping into the air like a Chinese dragon. Those voices sure sounded familiar, Tyson thought. He looked to either end of the arena, recognising Elena's long, blonde hair in the blue corner and Elain's tall, narrow body in the red corner, despite having only met them both recently.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Tyson asked, looking to one of the kids next to him.

"A battle, duh!"

"Yeah, but why?"

"An exam," added a deeper voice right beside Tyson. The suddenness of it sent chills down his spine and his head whipped around. The guy who'd just spoken was an incredibly tall, lanky teenager wearing jeans that were torn off at both knees to be shorts, red sneakers and a colourful shirt with a logo Tyson didn't recognise. His thin body was swamped by his baggy, blue hoodie jacket and it was almost S-shaped with the way he stood with his knees bent and his shoulders slouched. His neck craned out from his hunched shoulders like a vulture's and his chin and nose were narrow and sharp like a bird's beak. Even his hair was somewhat birdlike since it had been shaved into a deathhawk and dyed bright colours like a plumage. "Some leet-ass know-it-all lookin' fa more brownie points on a degree o' som'in'."

Tyson's brow furrowed as he tried to decipher that unfamiliar accent. "Aren't you also in the Day School?" he asked, thinking he recognised that figure from one of the inconspicuous back corners.

"Sure am."

The ground trembled as things got more explosive on the arena. The orange chicken, slowed down by Thunder Wave, tried to level the playing field with Fire Spin but the vortex entrapping Dragonair barely made a difference to the elegant creature. On Elena's command, Dragonair's gems glowed and a powerful energy bubbled up from inside, visible through the flesh. It manifested as a blast of purplish-blue fire from Dragonair's mouth that wavered and slithered like it was the very essence of a dragon itself. It engulfed the opponent in a direct attack.

The lanky boy sneered. "That's the end a' that. Like t' meet the badass with the Dragonair. Knows how t' battle."

Elain returned her Pokémon as the judge ruled the match in Elena's favour. Instead of returning Dragonair, Elena walked out onto the field to stroke her Pokémon appreciatively. The two girls met in the middle, Elain bearing a sour look and Elena smiling a bit sheepishly under the scary expression. They both reached out to shake hands.

"Good thing your sportsmanship is still intact, you get a mark for it," Elena said lightly. Then her face and tone became more serious as she added: "However, there's much left to be desired in your battle technique. Too much emphasis on direct attacking and damage dealing while forsaking support and status moves is an extremely unbalanced and overall inefficient way to battle."

"It works," Elain back-chatted. "Just need to have the speed behind it, that's all."

"But without that your strategy is fragile. With Agility and Thunder Wave, Dragonair took your advantage away from you all too easily. Need to focus more on supporting your own strategy. For example, if possible, teach your Combusken Agility to ensure its Speed stays up during the battle then you'll really be able to take advantage of its good Attack and Special Attack."

"Right, I'm a flawed battler," Elain deadpanned. "So many holes in my strategy. I failed."

"Losing the battle doesn't necessarily mean you failed," Elena explained in an attempt at comfort.

"Might as well, with all the weight that goes on the exams and whatnot," Elain continued grumbling. "But thanks anyway. Might see you after I get my marks."

The crowd began to murmur and chat amongst themselves now that the battle was clearly over. Elain returned to a line of students who were loitering beside the referee's box. However, Tyson kept watching that Dragonair, which was so undeniably elegant and unreal it seemed to be straight from a myth. The way it twisted its body like the wind in battle and even the colour of its smooth skin reminded him that he hadn't been able to see Dragoon recently. He took his beyblade out of the pouch on his arm where he still kept it despite the wardrobe change. The bit chip gleamed in the sun. Running a finger over it, Tyson could feel the gentle thrum of energy that was Dragoon's anticipation, waiting for the next battle when it could unleash its power.

A gentle muzzle nudged the hand holding Dragoon. He almost leaped out of his skin and fumbled with his beyblade before catching it in his hands again. Elena's Dragonair just pulled back calmly and looked down at him inquisitively.

"Dragonair, what are you doing over there?" Elena asked, jogging over to her Pokémon. "Next student is almost ready." She looked at Tyson and her eyebrows rose. "Oh! You again! Were you watching the battle?"

"For a little while," Tyson replied. "You're pretty good at Pokémon battles. That match was quick."

"Did you miss the beginning? It was quite long. Elain may have lost but her Pokémon are very strong." Dragonair lowered its head to Tyson's closed hands, drawing Elena's attention there. "What's that you've got?"

"This?" Tyson said, opening his hands. "This is my beyblade."

"Looks like a spinning top," Elena observed, leaning in closer, "but at the same time it's not. Is it very special?"

"Yeah, but what makes you think that?" Tyson asked, raising his eyebrows. Everyone in this world who'd seen a beyblade so far just thought it was a fun-looking toy.

"Dragonair seemed very intrigued by it, that's all. She's not what you'd call distractible so I thought that maybe there could have been something like… actually, nah. Forget it. Hope Day School has been going well so far. Good luck in the practical lessons this afternoon."

"Something like…?" Tyson began to prompt but Elena was already turning back to the arena to greet the next challenging student. Dragonair's body moved to follow her trainer but her gaze lingered on Dragoon for a while. Tyson's spine shivered – whether that was from fear or thrill, he wasn't sure – at the notion that perhaps Dragonair had sensed the presence of Dragoon. There was tingling warmth under his fingers and he caught the bit chip flash briefly, like the beast inside was responding.

The bell for class rang just as Elena's new opponent sent out a Gloom. The rest of the students whinged and moaned as they trudged back to their lessons, sneaking more peeks at the battle as they left. Dragonair was back in fight mode, weaving around spurts of acid. Tyson watched a while longer, blocking out Hilary calling for him to come back to class. Something about Dragonair's perceptiveness piqued his interest, at least until Hilary came over to physically drag him to class. He put his beyblade away, wishing he could make the nagging stupid idea in his head go away.

When Tyson didn't hand in an attempted test Roxanne looked at him like it couldn't have surprised her less. The marking of the papers was delegated to an intern while Roxanne took the Day Schoolers outside for the rest of the afternoon. Two of the arenas in the quadrangle were reserved for this phase of the Day School – the part most trainers were looking forward too. Even the advanced exams going on in the arena across the cloister weren't enough to distract some students from their current lesson.

Somehow the practical lessons were just as boring as the theory. They started off with a short course on Pokémon first aid (an Ice Heal thawed a frozen Pokémon. Who'd have thought) that was as painfully patronising as it was tedious. Then they played a game about type match-ups that the younger kids were really into, even though some of the quizzed questions were actually rather hard (dark-types are immune to psychics? And what on earth justified fighting-type being weak to flying?).

The final part of the day was the part everyone had been waiting for: battle experience. The intern brought out a specially designed trolley for holding Pokéballs and everyone had to pick one of the school's Pokémon to do battle with. All of the Pokémon wore a bib, scarf, collar or band with the school's emblem. Thankfully, the class was actually divided fairly, with one arena exclusively for the true novices – mostly small children among them – to be fully supervised by the intern teacher. They'd only been offered baby Pokémon. Roxanne quietly served as both the referee and judge for the battles between the older trainers.

One battle between Hilary and a bespectacled brown-haired boy in a vest was on the wind up. Her borrowed Pokémon for the day was a pink and white coral with a face and her opponent's Pokémon was a red-eared, red-tailed, yellow bunny. The bladers were sceptical about her ability to win, since the information she'd been given about her Pokémon and its moves revealed that it only knew one actual attack and the opponent's type had a clear advantage. But in the end, one final Bubble attack knocked out the rabbit. Roxanne decisively awarded the battle to Hilary.

"Good battling from both of you," she praised as the two students met in the middle to shake hands. "Carl, it's good that you clearly had a strategy and tried to play by it but putting too much emphasis on keeping Corsola paralysed gave Hilary the space and time she needed to build her defences. Takes practise but try keeping an eye on the opponent's battle strategy and think of backup options for when things don't go your way. That in mind, Hilary, your battle style was very reactionary. Don't be afraid to be the one to strike first as there will be times when that might be the best option. However, your responses were quick and your instinct for the most appropriate action is very keen."

"Thanks, Miss Roxanne," Hilary said, blushing and giggling a little at the praise. Carl just adjusted his glasses and nodded noiselessly. They both returned to the rest of the class, who were sitting on the sidelines to spectate while Roxanne wrote something down on the clipboard she was carrying (marks, supposedly).

"Hey, you did a great job," Ray said as Hilary sat down with the rest of the group.

"You don't have to sound so surprised."

"Why wouldn't we be?" Tyson added. "Your Pokémon seemed stupid."

Hilary was about to retort until she felt someone pat their hand on her shoulder. She looked up at them. "Mari!" she beamed. "You're back. Did you find anything out?"

"Sure did. Listen—"

"Stop interrupting my class!" Roxanne scolded, making Mari jump and shrink back. She looked down at her clipboard and flipped the page over. "Tyson and Derryn, up next."

"Who?" Mari asked, looking up to the boy who stood up. Her eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?"

The birdlike boy looked over and smirked upon seeing Mari. "Long time no see, chicky."

"Hasn't been that long. Seriously, why are you at trainer school?"

Derryn shrugged. "Ne'er been t' trainer school before. Thought maybe there's som'in' I'm missin' out on. Why aren't you here? Woulda thought you'd be in need o' some refresher points."

Tyson got up to answer Roxanne's summons, looking between Mari and Derryn bemusedly. "You two know each other?"

Mari snatched the Pokéball out of his hand and took up position at one end of the arena. Nonplussed by the action, Derryn took his place too. Roxanne gaped at both of them.

"Excuse me!" she exclaimed, "We're still in class!"

Mari and Derryn released their Pokémon onto the field. A Spinarak appeared on Derryn's side while Tyson's borrowed Pokémon turned out to be a Zigzagoon. Tyson lowered his brow at that. Why were those docile little critters so difficult to catch in the wild? Before anyone could get another word in the first commands were sent into the fray.

"Scary Face!"

"Sand Attack!"

Spinarak glared at Zigzagoon and raised its limbs and abdomen to look as creepy as possible. Zigzagoon recoiled but turned around and sprayed sand over its face. Instructions were belted out in split seconds and the tense back and forth began. Zigzagoon tackled and hit. Spinarak latched on and sunk its fangs into Zigzagoon's shoulder. It wrapped the little mammal up and Zigzagoon endeared to it with its cutest Baby-Doll Eyes. It wriggled out of Constrict by snapping the webbing with jagged fur and whipped its tail in Spinarak's face. Spinarak scuttled back at the move that was rather soft and fluffy and with the space it was afforded Zigzagoon lowered its head and charged in for a Head-butt. Spinarak tumbled and landed on its back. Zigzagoon pounced at the opportunity for another Tackle but it was deterred by String Shot. Spinarak was back on its feet in time to evade a full body tackle by jumping on its opponent's back and sinking its fangs in again, this time for Leech Life.

Feeling a bit revitalised, it injected a dose of poison. Zigzagoon recklessly tackled itself into the ground, rolling over Spinarak and peeling it off. It lowered its head and Spinarak bared its fangs. Zigazgoon head-butted it again and this time Spinarak couldn't sink its fangs in. It tumbled towards the edge of the arena and Zigzagoon head-butted it. It legs twitched but it wasn't moving much anymore. However, Zigzagoon wasn't in a good condition either. Poison throbbed through its veins and it collapsed in a dizzy spell.

The rest of the class gawked in the aftermath, awed into breathless silence. Then they broke out into cheers and applause. For most, it was the closest they'd been to spectating at a match between expert trainers, even Hilary and the bladers. Roxanne folded her arms and sighed.

"Thank-you for that demonstration," she said snippily as Mari and Derryn returned their Pokémon. "But as was said, we're still in class. Solve your petty rivalries in your own time!"

"Getting closer to beating you," Mari warned. Instead of shaking on their battle, the two of them put their hands in their pockets and glared.

"In your dreams, chicky," Derryn sneered, eye and brow both twitching. They turned and walked away from each other.

"Is it just me," Hilary whispered, "or is it kinda chilly out here all of a sudden?"

As she was walking past, Tyson reached out to grab Mari by the arm. "Hey, great battle and all but what were you going to say earlier? Is it about Potygon Z?"

"Porygon Z," Mari replied, turning to him with a dark look that was so frightening it made Tyson released her instantly. "Tell you later. You've got class, remember?"

She stalked off in a cloud of doom. At the other end of the arena, students recoiled as Derryn did the same thing. Hilary and the bladers exchanged glances, and grimaced. This was a history was nobody was looking forward to seeing play out in the future. For now they had the perfect distraction, as Roxanne clapped her hands to regain her class's attention. Battle class resumed for the rest of the day and everyone except Tyson gave it their all, competing for those coveted Gym Passes.

A/N: It's been so long but school has been so busy! Also this chapter is really long. I am trying my best not to do this but I plan my chapters by content rather than by length and it's now becoming apparent that I'm pretty crap at working out content to word count ratios.

More great OCs in this chapter! Elena came from one of my reviewers, Hellhound2608. Thank-you for the submission! We will see lots more of her. There was no direct submission for the next OC but I do distinctly recall someone making a very good suggestion but now I can't recall who it was nor can I find the review/message thread it was written in. Anyway, the suggestion was that a rival of Mari's should show up, hence Derryn. If this was your idea, please own it.

Also, pockets man... that bit with Hilary at the beginning getting excited over pockets is this running joke perpetrated through tumblr about how pockets in women's clothing are usually either crappy or non-existent.