Now we get to see the students begin the expedition towards Galar! Review!

So, any last-minute suggestions?

Currently Nominated: Sango, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Dakota, Ayame, Marion, Kitty, Serefina, Madison

Rosealine gold: The arc with Maddi is still coming, after this one. She won't show up during the expedition.

ConfusedCradily: OCs are under waitlist, kind of. If you have someone you want to submit, PM me and we can talk.

Guest: It probably happened. But it's over now, I'm trying to stay far away from canon. "How" is not going to be relevant, no need to worry. But yes, it was an intentional reference.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: They're high schoolers, 20 pages is kind of a lot for first year.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 239

"Pass… pass… pass… oh, he's cute! Pass…"

Rui was sprawled out on her bed, dressed for a lazy day inside. Her sweatpants and bright blue shirt were nothing stylish, and she bitterly noted that there was no need to dress up. She was on lockdown in her hotel room, had been for weeks thanks to Shaw's warning. How irritating. They were in Circhester, and she couldn't even go check out the hot springs! What a waste. So now here she was, scrolling through dudes on a dating app to meet her social fix. She twirled a lock of curly black hair in her finger as she considered the next guy.

"…Ick," she said, making a face. "Yo, Guinevere, listen to this!"

The blonde girl who was staying in the double room with Rui was currently sitting patiently on her bed, reading a book. She did not answer, or turn in Rui's direction, or respond in any way, really. She seemed perfectly suited to their house arrest; all she did all day as sit motionless begin with.

But that was fine. Rui wasn't that interested in getting the girl's feedback. Had she ever even been on a date before? Rui sincerely doubted that. But she was fine with using the withdrawn girl as a sounding board for her complaints. It's not like she minded.

"Okay, so, like, this dude is smoking hot, you know? But, like, on his profile he says 'don't message me unless you're a stacked pair of twins interested in a three-way. That's, like, totally grody. But still, this dude's cut. What do you think? Should I message him?"

Guinevere didn't even blink.

"Yup, that's what I thought, so totally not worth it," Rui said, swiping left. She dropped her phone and rolled over, staring up at the ceiling. "Gosh, I'm so bored!"

Rui continued whining, kicking her legs in frustration.

"I want new clothes! And souvenirs! Maybe find a cute guy to kill some time with! Why do we have to be cooped up in this dumb place?"

Suddenly, the door to their adjoining room swung open, and a small girl stomped into the room, a furious expression on her pale face. Her white hair was nearly standing on end, and her crimson eyes flashed with anger, redness around them like she'd been crying.

"Alk? What's up?" Rui asked, glancing at the small girl.

"Shut up!" Alk snapped. "I'm trying to get sleep! Why do I have to work with a stupid girl like you?! Why can't I work with my brother?!"

Alk continued to fume, glaring daggers at Rui.

"Just be quiet!"

She turned and stomped back into her room.

"Geez, what got up her butt?" Rui said, rolling her eyes. "I mean, I know she doesn't like being cooped up in here, but there's no reason to be snappy. What do you think, Guinevere?"

"What do I think about what?" Guinevere asked. Right. Rui had to be very specific when talking with the quiet girl.

"What do you think about how Alk's acting?" Rui asked. "It's weird, don't you agree?"

"No."

Rui blinked, surprised.

"Why do you say that?"

"I assume that she is behaving that way because she misses her brother," Guinevere said. "Are anger and loneliness not usual human reactions to that?"

Rui was beyond surprised at this point, she had switched to outright shock.

"Well, well, well!" Rui laughed, sitting up in bed and hopping over to Guinevere. "Not only does she speak, but talk about insightful! And here I thought you had no idea how normal humans felt about stuff!"

Guinevere didn't respond. Rui scowled. They were finally in a real conversation, and now Guinevere was shutting down again.

"You know, I was gonna say, you have very lovely hair," Rui said, leaning into Guinevere's personal space. "I wish I was a blonde, you know? They always say blondes have more fun."

Rui reached out and ran her fingers across the smooth blonde hair of the girl. THAT got a reaction out of Guinevere, but not the one she had intended.

"Don't touch me!" Guinevere shouted, her normally stoic face flushed with emotion. She swung her hand and slapped at Rui, the girl stumbling back and holding her hands up defensively. She stared wide-eyed at the panting girl in front of her.

That's right… Rui remembered what she'd been told about Guinevere and her… peculiarities. She didn't respond well to attempts at communicating, and would respond violently to anyone who touched her. Whoops. My bad.

"Sorry, Guinevere," Rui apologized. Guinevere didn't say anything back to her.

Rui walked back to bed, as Guinevere returned to her book. Rui picked her phone back up, but looked at Guinevere out of the corner of her eye.

She's like a doll, Rui observed. A fragile doll, beautiful to look at, but a single touch… and she'll shatter.

She was always unnerved by Guinevere, and this quarantine wasn't helping things. It didn't help, either, that while Rui and Alk were instructed to stay in their rooms, Guinevere was under no such order. The Pokemon Rangers did not have her face on record, or any other means of identifying her. No one was looking for her, which meant that she could stroll through town with nary a care. Rui would kill for something like that.

And the girl didn't even feel like leaving her room. Or doing anything but reading those stupid fairy tales. It really pissed her off. All the freedom in the world and not doing anything with it, Rui fumed.

Rui sighed. Luckily, they'd be out of this godforsaken hotel soon. Nice as it was (and it was a 5-star hotel, so it was nice) she wanted to shopping, this wasn't something she could put up with forever, after all!

And of course, she gets to go out partying with her friends, Rui bitterly thought about their missing fourth comrade, who was living it up in the outside world while she was stuck where she was. That stupid Sociopath Barbie.

She sighed, and went back to looking up profiles of hot guys.

Meanwhile, miles across the world, Professor Reinhart's students at the Pokemon Academy were getting ready for their departure. It would be an overnight flight, and they would wake up in a whole new region.

"It's gonna be lonely without you guys," Nick said, Blake and Reiner packing up their backpacks and suitcases. "Still, it'll be nice to have the room all to myself."

"Oh, you sly dog," Reiner grinned, shooting him a suggestive look. "How long before we leave is Callie gonna come walking through that door?"

"Uh… that's…" Nick's face turned bright red.

"Just make sure to clean up after yourselves," Blake teased.

"We-we aren't going to be doing anything!" Nick exclaimed. "Sh-she's just coming over to watch movies, we aren't going to do… stuff like that!"

"Sure, sure," Blake and Reiner looked at each other, channeling their inner Cynthia. Nick's face turned bright red as the two laughed, walking out of Blake's room.

"You ready?" Blake asked, turning to Sango and Silver.

"Yeah, yeah," Sango said, nodding. "Nice, touching goodbye. There were a bunch of tears and heartfelt promises. Then whatever Cynthia and Julia were doing."

The three humans and their accompanying Castform laughed, heading down the hall.

They met up with Nikita at Charmander House, and Blake paid Kitty a visit to drop off Uni, and Cory, who would be delivered to Marion. They said their goodbyes to Kitty and headed off to the docks, where they'd catch a boat to the airport on the mainland. It was gonna be an exhausting journey, that was for sure. If only the private plane could have come straight to the island. But apparently, whatever archaeological society was commissioning Professor Reinhart, they would only choose to take him from the airport. Bizarrely cheap for people flying a private plane.

"Okay, have you all got your itineraries?" Professor Reinhart asked, looking across the small gathering of students. "It will take us an hour to get to their airport. In the meantime, get into your groups and meet up with you sophomore chaperones."

He turned to the student standing next to him, an older girl with tan skin and black hair that reached below her shoulders. She had a cold look in her hazel eyes, like she was taking in everything around her silently. She was dressed in the school uniform, and the red armband she wore identified her as a member of the Battle Course. Professor Reinhart identified her as a senior.

"This is Lana Canley," he explained. "She'll be serving as the student coordinator on this expedition. You'll be interacting with your sophomore chaperones, and they'll report to her. Sound good?"

Lana glanced at him, and nodded.

"Odd," Nikita noted. "Why is a student in the Battle Course serving as student coordinator? Wouldn't they want a Research Course member to do that?"

"Maybe she's just that good," Sango shrugged. Blake glanced at the stoic senior, a frown on his face. Still, something felt… off about her. He just didn't know what it was.

"Now then, these three are your sophomore guides, please come to them for any questions on working through your assignments." Professor Reinhart gestured to the students who were standing at his side. There were a boy and girl that Blake didn't recognize, and, much to his disdain, Kate Nomia, just as she'd promised. "It's their job to supervise you and make sure no one goes off on their own. This is important. You aren't allowed to go off by yourselves, understand?"

The students agreed, and the three sophomores went to their individual 4-person groups. And unfortunately for Blake's relaxation on this trip, Kate was assigned to be his group chaperone. They began talking as they headed onto the small boat, capable of holding roughly 20 students, a perfect fit. They sat together, and continued their chat.

"Well, at least it's someone we know," Reiner said, Kate looking at him. For once, she wasn't scowling. Her face looked almost happy. She was resisting the urge to smile ear to ear at the fact that she was in charge of Blake's group.

"Hey, guys!" Kate said. "This is gonna be great, huh?"

"I can't wait!" Nikita nodded eagerly. "We'll get to see the ruins at Stow-On-Side with our own two eyes! The only ruins I've ever got a chance to see for myself are the Ruins of Alph in the Johto Region, and that's only because I live near them. This is going to be so cool!"

"Oh, lucky," Kate pouted. "There aren't any places like that really in Kalos, unfortunately. Man, it must be so lucky to have ruins in your own backyard."

"They're pretty common in Hoenn, too," Reiner said. "We've got a bunch of noteworthy places."

Kate sighed.

"All we've got is Geosenge Town," Kate sighed. "And yeah, it's nice and all, but I've only been here a few times. The atmosphere in places touched by history, it's just… I really like it, you know?"

Sango, originally from Unova, chose not to mention the desert ruins outside of Castelia City. It would just make things a whole lot more annoying to have more whining from Kate. Instead, she decided that she'd make some peace with the older girl, especially based on how she'd acted in the last few weeks. She wasn't as toxic as she used to be. She was almost close enough to them to be considered a friend, odd as it was.

"You really like ruins, huh?" Sango asked. "I gotta say, that's a surprise. I thought you were more into the whole gardening thing."

Kate blushed, looking down sheepishly. She scratched her messy hair.

"Well, uh… I-I like the gardening club for her highness. But, um… I don't have much of a green thumb myself, you know. What? Is it weird for a poison type trainer to be interested in ruins?" Her scowl returned. "You don't think it suits me?"

Sango didn't really give much thought to what Kate had for hobbies one way or another, she was just an annoying and rude girl to her. She felt that was a little unfair. She should see Kate as more than just a rude girl.

"Ruins are so cool and mysterious," Kate smiled, enjoying her opportunity to talk on the subject. Reiner and Nikita were both enjoying their discussion, and Blake was hanging back. He didn't want to interfere with her conversation, she looked like she was enjoying herself. Instead, he leaned back on the seat and looked out over the water, as they approached the mainland.

While he was doing this, however, someone was secretly watching them, as well.

Lana Canley hadn't initially wanted to go on this expedition. It was supposed to be some nobody from the Research Course. But that was before Richard Valon, the Phantom, had come to her. She had allied herself with him because he recognized her skills for what they were. He valued her willingness to research her opponents and her skill at calculating the odds in battle, things that were often overlooked by other members of the Battle Course. She was happy to work with him, compared to the battle-crazy Alden Volt, who only valued strength.

Lana watched Blake with an even eye. The Phantom had asked her to keep an eye on Blake during the expedition. To watch him closely, and see what she could find out about him. So he'd gone through some channels that she had rather not ask about, and she wound up being the student coordinator for this expedition. She'd only had a few classes with Professor Reinhart, so she was surprised he'd gone along with the recommendation as opposed to a student he worked with personally.

Maybe Professor Reinhart is working with the Phantom? Lana wondered. That would certainly be interesting… but why would I need to come, then?

Oh well, best not think about it, she decided. She'd keep an eye on Blake for the Phantom's sake, and see where things would go from there. Background research and observation were some of her strong points, this was the perfect job for her, even if she did find it a little bit questionable, to say the least. Still, it didn't seem like the freshman was doing anything wrong. She knew a fair bit about Blake Harker already, considering his relationship with his brother and his record in the Fall Festival Tournament. But was there something more, besides him just being a talented freshman who apparently had a way with women?

Lana was eager to find out.

But I need to be careful, she reminded herself. Blake was rumored to be a seducer who would charm his way into a girl's heart before she could blink. If she didn't keep a handle on things, she might find herself seduced as well!

Absolutely not! I refuse to let myself fall for some freshman! Lana asserted to herself, resolving to never be seduced by the kid. But she was still going to keep an eye on him all the same.

Besides, she'd always wanted to visit the Galar Region.

When they arrived at the airport, everyone understood why they couldn't use the small landing strip on island. This plane wouldn't have fit.

When Sango thought "private plane" she was thinking of the small, crowded plane she'd used to fly to Unova for her Probationary Licensing Exam, something that would cram the lot of them together like sardines with no breathing room.

This was not that. It was an amazing luxury jet, sleek and gorgeous on the outside, and the inside was just as lovely. It was like being inside a fancy lounge, with luxury seats that were the softest she'd ever sat on (with massage features!), complementary food and drinks that looked like hors d'oeuvres for fancy parties, and the each compartment came with a massive television screen. The compartments fit five, just enough for the students to sit with their group-mates and their chaperone, and close the world off around them.

"We're flying in this?" Nikita gasped, holding her hands over her mouth in surprise.

"Wow, this is like my family's private jet," Blake noted. It was amazing.

"Dibs!" Kate called, flinging her backpack down next to one of the large, expansive armchairs in front of the TV. They were arranged in a half-circle within the compartment, all facing the screen, set on swivels.

"Wow, this TV is huge!" Reiner said.

"And not only that, these chairs are great!" Nikita said, flopping down on one of the chairs and patting the one next to it, for Reiner to sit down. She leaned back in the chair, and stretched, tossing a blanket over herself. "It's as comfy as a real bed."

"And if you want a real bed," Sango said, walking over to one of the walls, where a picture of a bed was drawn on, "they have those, too."

Sango pulled open the wall compartment and a mattress flopped down.

"This is so totally awesome," Kate said, voicing the opinions of everyone else in the compartment. "We get to fly to Galar in REAL style."

"Forget the expedition, I'd just be happy snoozing here for 10 days," Sango admitted, curling up on the mattress, Silver floating down next to her.

"But then you won't get to see your dad," Blake reminded her.

"Rats, that's right!" Sango snapped her fingers, scowling, popping up from within her blanket cave.

Kate had already leaned back in her chair, sitting beside Blake. She held up the remote for the TV and flipped it on, while Reiner closed the compartment. They didn't even notice the plane beginning to take off, that was how well-made it was. Sango had reluctantly taken the last seat, even though she wanted to stay cooped up in her nice and comfy bed.

"So what do you guys want to watch?" Kate asked.

"It's getting late," Sango said, yawning. "I just want to sleep."

"Really?" Blake asked, surprised. "You'll miss dinner."

Sango blinked. She'd seen the catering, with the nice arrangements of Clauncher and Corphish fins to eat, but they would give them a full meal? She could already feel the drool building up in her mouth.

"Dinner?" Sango asked, licking her lips subconsciously.

"Plus you'll be able to enjoy it in your bed," Kate said, catching wind of what Blake was insinuating. "If you want to sleep now, then you'll have to sleep in your chair, and not the comfy bed…"

Sango stared longingly at the bed. She knew they were baiting her, but they made a valid point.

"Okay, fine," she grumbled. "What do you guys think?"

"Well, there's always the old classic," Kate said, flipping through the movie selections until she landed on one of her favorites, the very first Indiana Jones movie.

"How fitting," Blake smirked.

"Dude, you like these?" Kate asked, lighting up excitedly. "Aren't they the best?"

Blake nodded in agreement.

"They're pretty cool, I like them a lot," Blake replied, nodding. "Good choice."

"I make the best choices," Kate boasted, pressing play. She glanced aside to Reiner and Nikita. But they weren't paying attention anyway.

Sango leaned back in her chair and resisted the urge to fall asleep before dinnertime.

All five of the students were excited. They couldn't wait to get to Galar, but this private plane was certainly nice in the meantime. This trip was shaping up to be something amazing, that was for sure.

We can only hope. Next chapter, we get to Galar!