Angels Fall First.

Yay, I got a review! Thank you, it means a lot to me to know someone read this. Feel free to use the name Bleak if you like it. And go for it with the quilava, that'd be cool!

Chapter 2: Commotion

When Kira awoke the next morning, she found that Bleak was already up. He was sitting on the window ledge staring out of the glass.
He didn't even look at her, but seemed to know she was awake. "You have a big family here." He stated, glancing her way. "I caught about twelve different scents passing down the hallway."

She stifled a yawn and nodded. "There are a lot of people here but we aren't family. This is a place for people who have no family. Personally, I can't wait to get out of here."

Bleak didn't answer, nor press for more details on why she was here, so she got ready for another day in hell… err…college.

Things went pretty smoothly for the next few weeks. Kira and Bleak grew a little closer, and he even grudgingly admitted she seemed to know a lot about pokémon. Which she attributed to her spending a hell of a lot of time studying.

Of course there had been the customary murmurings and looks when Bleak had shown up with his ear pierced, but they had lived through it.

They were walking out of Kira's pokémon knowledge class one afternoon and she was shoving her books back into her backpack. They'd been trying to memorise every pokémon and some facts about them recently and there'd be a test on it soon. It wasn't too hard, apart from the fact you had to remember every pokémon's pokédex number. That wasn't so easy.

Bleak growled low in his throat, making Kira look up. One of the more popular girls, Jenette was approaching, flanked by the usual flock of wannabe's.
"Hey, Freak! I'm in the mood for wiping the floor with you. Let's battle." She demanded, loudly, hoping to attract a crowd.

Kira sighed in irritation. Pokémon battles were not allowed on school property, unless supervised by a teacher. And she didn't want to get into trouble… again. She'd been caught battling twice already. Once more and she'd be suspended, and she had a feeling Jenette knew this.
"Sorry, I have class." She mumbled, pushing her way through the gathering crowd, Bleak still rumbling warningly to help clear the way.

"Aw, little miss gloomy is sacred!" Jenette taunted, earning a laugh from the crowd.

Kira halted, gritting her teeth as she spun to face the annoying girl. "I am not scared. I just want to save you the humiliation of losing to me."

Bleak rolled his eyes. They were going to get suspended, he just knew it.

"So prove it!" Jenette smirked, holding up a pokéball. "You and me, right now!"

"Fine!" Kira yelled, realising belatedly that she'd been coaxed into this. "But outside."

After a few insults were thrown back and forth, it was agreed that they would hold the match round he back of the school where they were less likely to get caught.

Jenette threw her pokéball to the paved slabs at her feet, the little sphere opening to reveal a snobby looking skitty. It hissed softly at Bleak who stepped forward to take his place in the makeshift arena.

Kira smirked, liking the odds of this. If there was a time when she ever felt confident it was during a pokémon battle.

"You think your little kitten can beat my hell hound?" she taunted, "Bleak, leer!"

The houndour narrowed his eyes, a glint of something scary flashed across them and the skitty twitched looking nervous.

"Rrr… Skitty, use tackle!" Jenette yelled, and bravely, the little cat like pokémon charged forward and smashed its shoulder against the slightly larger houndour.

Bleak stumbled back a step but was far from out. It was his instincts to just attack, but knew it would look better for Kira if he were to wait for her commands. He didn't have to wait long.

"Ember!" Kira said excitedly and Bleak had to hide a smile. It was weird how much she seemed to love battling and her enthusiasm was contagious. He raised his head before opening his mouth to let loose a mouthful of small but incredibly hot flames.

The surrounding crowd cheered a bit at the fire attack, enjoying seeing something a little more visually exciting.

The skitty staggered back from the attack, shuddering slightly as she fell to the ground only to push herself back to her feet. To both Kira's and Bleak's surprise, she seemed to have been burned. That added effect had never managed to take place before and they shared a pleased glance.

"Oh no, Skitty! Try and send it to sleep with sing!" Jenette demanded desperately, and Skitty obeyed. She began mewling in a soft, soothing melody that was really quite beautiful.

Seeing that Bleak was getting drowsy, Kira had to think fast. If he fell asleep it was as good as over. "Use roar, quickly!" she urged, and Bleak shook his head trying to clear it. Taking a deep breath, he let loose a blood curdling roar, which seemed to scare the skitty (and some of the crowd) half to death and quickly put an end to her little lullaby. In fact she scampered backwards and cowered behind her trainer.

Jenette sighed looking exasperated. "You can't just quit, you're my only pokémon. Now get back out there and use doubleslap!" she ordered. Trembling slightly and limping from the burn, the little pokémon stepped forward once more.

Kira thought for sure that Jenette would have given up by now… her pokémon was not in much of a state to continue after all. The little kitten pokémon started slapping Bleak round the face with her clumpy tail. He growled, back stepping away from her but unable to avoid the hits that were raining down on him.

"Bite it!" Kira suggested, not entirely sure if that would work. She hadn't given much thought to Bleak's dark half, since they'd been working on his fire moves recently. Still, he attempted to sink his teeth into that frustrating tail, but they closed on thin air.

"Keep trying!" Kira encouraged and this time he made contact, effectively stopping the skitty's onslaught. He lifted her up by the tail he still held and threw her against the ground where she lay panting, too exhausted to get up.

"Yes! Nice work Bleak!" Kira cheered as Jenette miserably recalled her pokémon.

"You just got lucky, freak. Next time we'll show you how it's really done." Jenette muttered stalking off indignantly, most of the crowd following her and praising her on a good battle.

Annoying and down heartening as it was, no one stayed to congratulate the unpopular winners.

Kira sighed and crouched down, rubbing Bleak behind the ears. "Well I think we did brilliantly."

Bleak nodded his agreement, "It was a good match. Too bad those losers don't know how to treat the victors." He sighed and rubbed his head against his trainer's hand, enjoying the attention she was giving him. Not that he'd ever admit he liked being petted.

Christmas came and went, being as uneventful and boring as it was every year for the young Goth. It was made slightly better this year by Bleak being around, and she was given the usual horrendous woolly jumper and a selection box of chocolates by the orphanage, but nothing worthwhile happened.

Bleak gave her a pretty flower, which was sweet of him really. For her part, she'd purchased a repeat ball, which she personally favoured over the standard pokéball in terms of appearance. Bleak seemed to like it too, thankfully, so she transferred him over to that one. Besides, it let out cool green sparkles when it opened.

Once Christmas was over it was the first bout of exams for the students at the academy. All week Kira had been sitting the stupid tests and she felt like her brain might explode.

Most of the exams were written ones, but there were a few that tested battling skills too, which were a nice break from sitting in silence.

Towards the end of the second week of exams something happened. All the lights and electricity in the academy flickered then went off. There was a combination of screams and cheers from the surprised students as everyone started rushing to get outside into the daylight. Teachers were desperately trying to regain control of the startled teenagers, to no avail.

Kira and Bleak were on the lowest floor so there were no windows since it was underground. They were all plunged into intense darkness.

"The generator must have gone down." Kira mused quietly, like everyone else, ignoring her teachers strained voice. "C'mon, let's go and see what's happening."

In truth, she was essentially blinded by the lack of light, but Bleak could see well enough in the dark to guide her. Quickly removing her belt, she slipped one end around Bleak's neck like a noose, and kept hold of the other so he could lead her about.

She stumbled over quite a few chairs and tables, and nearly tripped three times whilst making her way up the crowded stairs, but soon they reached the second floor which was much more deserted by now. There was a little sunlight coming through the classroom doors up here so she released Bleak from his 'leash'.

There was a lot of commotion in one of the ICT labs that she had to pass and she paused to look through the window.

It seemed that maybe this room was the problem and not the generator after all.

Cautiously, she pushed the door open, Bleak following her in at her heels.

"What's going on?" She asked, spotting her favourite teacher, the pokémon science professor. He was leaning over what looked like… A body!

A couple of the other teachers in the room turned to look at her as well, and she felt herself blush under the sudden attention.

"Kira? You shouldn't be in here. Go outside with the others." Professor Redwood, who was normally really nice to her, seemed a little snappy and sounded tired.

"But… what happened to him?" She asked, gesturing to the limp form on the floor. It appeared to be the P.E. teacher.

Redwood looked like he was about to answer, when one of the other teachers yelled out, "Shit, there he is!"

Both Kira and Bleak tensed, expecting some kind of villainous man to come running out with a knife or something, but what they saw was shocking…

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