Danny
The next two days of the trip were so boring, we had nothing to do. No training room, no space to spar, no video games, no computers for us to use, no tv to watch, and nobody to talk to except each other. I spent most of the time in our room doing bodyweight exercises and planning battle strategies with Riley. We eventually made port at the Academy. I heard the Academy added a harbor following an incident involving Kellyn crashing a submarine into the Academy shoreline. No idea if that's true or not, I assume it was not. Once off the boat we were led to a classroom in the main building, my classmates were waiting inside. Apparently we were the last students of my class to arrive. I hesitantly put Riley in his ball and hid it in my vest before opening the door. Ben was speaking to the class, he had flown ahead on his staraptor to ensure he arrived before the class did.
"Now that our last student has arrived we can begin introductions properly" he began. "My name is Benjamin Marcet, please call me Ben. I'll be your hazard avoidance and athletic instructor for this course." Ben continued explaining. "Your classes with me begin tomorrow, starting with a fitness exam to assess your current physical abilities. After we finish up in here today, you will have the rest of the day to get to know each other and explore the academy grounds. Who wants to introduce themselves first?" Ben said as he finished up his introduction.
"My name is Aaron Ferrand, I'm from Oreburgh City in the Sinnoh region. I am fourteen years old and love steel type pokémon." A male classmate sitting near the front stated as he stood up. He had silver hair that was almost white with bright orange eyes reminiscent of iron being forged. He was wearing black athletic shorts with an orange tank top, and visibly the strongest in our class, I wondered what he did regularly to maintain that kind of muscle.
Next to speak was a guy with red hair and blue eyes. "My name's Connor Brinton, also fourteen years old. I'm from Cinnabar Island and I like grass types. My family has used them over the last couple decades to make Cinnabar habitable again after the eruption." He explained, his voice was like a calm ocean tide.
"I'm Ulric Raeburn from Coumarine City and i'm thirteen years old. I come from a family of breeders." A boy with short brown hair and violet eyes announced, his voice was oddly soft and soothing but something told me that was hiding his skills. He was wearing board shorts with a short sleeved surf suit. "I like fairy and flying types. I came here to protect coastal environments like those I grew up around." Ulric stated before sitting back down.
The last one of my classmates to speak was the oldest of us. He had dark blue hair which made his bright golden eyes stand out all the more amidst his well tanned tropical skin tone and dark protective clothing typical of trainers who handle unruly pokémon. "Name's Kai Aozora, I'm fifteen years old and from a family of dragon tamers in Blackthorn." He said politely before looking in my direction with rest of the class.
"My name is Daniel but please call me Danny. I'm eleven years old and I came here from the Hoenn region in the forest off Route 118." I said as I began my introduction. "I'm not here to be a ranger. I'm a trainer through and through. Once I graduate, I'm going to Ferrum to challenge the Iron League with my best friend." I boldly announced as I brought out Riley's diveball and opened it to let him out.
Our classmates were surprised by Riley's appearance and my introduction to say the least.
"Rangers aren't allowed to own pokémon, what's he doing here?" Connor demandingly shouted.
"Yeah, what the hell is this?" Ulric yelled, directed equally at myself and our teachers.
"I swear nobody teaches you kids anything." Lunick groaned with his left hand over his face. "Connor, Ulric, you two don't have any pokémon do you? Your parents didn't send one with you?" Kellyn addressed the pair of boys and their questions.
"Of course not, this is the Ranger Academy." Ulric answered back, his expression showing visible insult at the mere idea the question suggested.
While Kellyn handled the amateurs, Lunick addressed my other two classmates.
"Aaron, Kai, you bring yours?"
"Yes sir, my uncle gave me a freshly hatched gible before I left home to come here." Kai responded, standing straight as a board with a practiced tone in his voice.
"My father sent me with a newly caught aron but didn't say why." Aaron stated, his expression changing to realization as he noticed the teachers expected us to have a caught pokémon with us.
The two brought out their pokéballs and were about to open them until I stopped it. "Don't open those, newly caught pokémon are not going to listen to brand new trainers. That's why professors give out starter pokémon. They've already received basic training before being offered to new trainers." I stated to try and explain a risk they may not have realized.
"Danny is right, everyone follow me outside." Ben announced to the class.
Riley
I followed Danny and the others outside to a clearing beside a barn near the school building. The reason we came to this clearing was obvious to me the moment I saw it. Wide empty space, packed dirt for the ground, no obstacles in sight, and far enough from buildings that use of moves wouldn't be an issue.
"Danny, We'll need you and Riley to help with this part." Kellyn said, activating his styler and pressing a button to loose a sneasel from it.
"Aaron and Kai, let your pokémon out." Ben requested while letting his own partners out of his styler. A pichu jumped out looking quite out of place carrying a ukulele and landed on a staraptors back. Lunick let out his minun as well.
"Where are we going this time chief?" The bird inquired.
"Need me to rid an obstacle?" Inquired the sneasel.
"Need a charge?" asked both electric mice.
"We called all of you out here to lend us a hand." Ben announced to the pokémon.
"Two of these students have freshly caught pokémon, we'll need you guys to keep an eye on the surroundings for us while Danny helps with their training." Kellyn explained.
"Wait what? What do you mean I'm helping?" Danny asked while placing the fingers of his left hand over the back of his right hand and closing his grip over his left thumb. I knew what that meant coming from him. I gave a couple light tugs on his vest to let him know I was here.
"Danny I'm right here, we've got this. It's only a couple of freshly caught pokémon, how hard could it be?"
"Yes, you will be helping, you're the experienced trainer here." Lunick responded to Danny and his question.
"You two, let them out of their balls." Lunick then directed at Aaron and Kai. Aaron brought out a shiny silver pokéball with a red line in the middle and pushed its center button. A similarly colored aron appeared on the floor in the flash of light, its bright blue eyes looking around and scanning the group. Kai did the same with a very dark blue ball with red and gold bands on it, a typical gible appearing on the floor. True to their all mouth no brain appearance the gible immediately tried to eat the aron, an action that earned it a headbutt to the face from the small steel type. Not surprisingly the gible attempted to strike back with a claw swipe, bouncing off the iron shell with a sound that was like grating a metal blade against brick.
"Gible, please don't do that." Kai requested, his lack of experience obvious by the absence of confidence in his command and making it a request rather than an order.
"You claim to be a dragon tamer making a timid request like that from your pokémon!?" Lunick yelled in Kai's direction.
"Danny, show them how it's done." I shouted, knowing he already had this part of being a trainer down.
"Gible, knock it off!" Danny commanded. His voice was loud and unwaveringly confident in his words, but the young gible didn't care and was ignoring everything but the aron. "Riley, get their attention." My ears perked up at his command and on reflex I leapt into the clearing from his side. I reached for my scalchops and drew them, forming the blades of water as I lunged forward towards the bickering pokémon
Just before making contact, the gible dove into the ground. Leaving a hole where it was standing next to the iron shelled pokémon that caught the full brunt of my attack and got sent tumbling into a hay bale.
"We trained for this Riley, focus on the vibrations in the ground." I nodded my head and closed my eyes. I could feel it, the faint rumble in the dirt. I jumped back right as the land shark popped through the ground underneath my former position. Swinging my left blade right into the path of the small dragon I interrupted the attack and struck with the flat of the other blade as I vaulted over its head. Knocking the blue and red dragon into the ground chin first definitely got its attention. It stood up and glared with rage in its eyes.
"Kai, this is your pokémon. Take command of it" Ben stated firmly.
"Yes sir." Kai said and once again attempted to give an order to the land shark. "Gible, come over here." He said in a friendly voice like he was talking to a newly hatched growlithe. The gible ignored it and spat a ball of sand at me which I managed to dodge but not the resulting cloud of dust which got some sand in my eyes. That was going to affect my accuracy.
Danny
"Kai, throw me his ball." I requested of him, holding my left hand out to catch.
"Why do you need it?" Kai asked me, probably not very versed in how pokéballs work.
"None of you have a Trainer ID do you? Pokéballs scan a trainer id after purchase to register the trainer of the pokémon that will be contained within them. If you don't have one, you aren't the registered trainer and it will not listen to you without being extremely well trained." I explained while activating my headset without taking my eyes off the battle. The gible had put distance between him and Riley and was preparing for another attack. "Riley close that gap, Aqua Jet."
Riley began his attack and aimed with my directions rather than his own senses, thankfully we'd done at least some practice for this just in-case. The gible tried to dodge but Riley's attack was too fast and hit it square in the forehead from above, sending it straight into the ground. Now that both of them were knocked out, they had to be placed into their balls again and brought in for a medical exam.
"I suppose that went better than expected. Get them back in their balls, I'll take them to the nearest clinic." Lunick announced to Kai and Aaron.
"Bring them to my family's ranch, they help with treating my partners all the time." Kellyn suggested as an alternative.
"What was that? You didn't speak a single command yet Riley seemed like you were. Expertly dodging even a hidden attack from below and aiming with his eyes closed. That doesn't happen, not with a new trainer and their pokémon." Kai demanded, the need for answers was practically written on his face.
"Yeah, I just got my trainer license a month ago but we're not a new team. Riley and I have been training together since I got him five years ago, He was trained to battle without verbal commands, trained for Ferrum battles." I answered, pressing the buttons on Kai and Aaron's pokéballs for them to initiate the recall process.
"Ferrum battles...so he fights on his own then? That's no easy feat for how well he moves." Ben said entering the conversation.
"I didn't say that either, I do give him commands but not verbally. Not as often as you'd think either. " I stated to correct Ben before tossing the two pokéballs to Lunick.
"Right, forgot about the conversation on the boat." Ben replied pointing a finger up and flicking it towards me.
"We'll discuss your miserable attempt at commanding your future partners tomorrow. If Ben and Kellyn agree, the rest of the day is yours to explore the grounds." Lunick called out before leaving with the now unconscious pokémon.
I whistled to Riley and we set out to check the dorm situation, I really didn't want to be sharing a room with any of my classmates. I motioned to Ben for a private conversation.
"Where should I put my suitcase? Are the five of us sharing a dorm room or?"
"Almost forgot about that, your dads warned us you would need a room of your own. I didn't ask why, that's your secret to share or not. Follow me and I'll take you to it."
With that addressed, I followed Ben to my room and dropped off my luggage. The time to explore the academy grounds was about to start.