This chapter's a little short, but only because I realized that the full chapter would be a little too long so I had to cut it in half. So here's the first part of their excursion to the Caretaking section of campus! Should be interesting...
Rosealine gold: Don't worry, we'll slowly get more.
KedharS: Yeah, she just needs some real friends, ones that aren't annoying.
Hellraiserphoenix: I don't know about all of them, but we'll certainly see some. And don't worry, we'll slowly get more detail about the upper classes.
Aquahaze675: Not a rival when the war is won.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 337
"Sango!" Serefina's face brightened when she saw the blonde girl and her Castform walk into the indoor pens where she was looking after the pokemon. "It's been a while! What are you doing here? Don't you have tests to study for as a first year?"
Serefina hugged the slender girl, patting Sango on the back.
"Yeah, probably," Sango admitted, laughing sheepishly. "Sorry, but this isn't a social call, a friend of mine needs some help."
"Well, right now I'm busy preparing for my final project for Advanced Caretaking," Serefina said, glancing over her shoulder. "Then I have to check on the pokemon eggs in the incubator for my Pokemon Breeding class. But if you don't mind me working while we talk, that's fine."
"Sure, that works," Sango nodded. "Maddi, she said okay!"
Maddi tentatively stepped into the hutch, her Duskull floating above her head. She gasped when she saw Serefina, who looked equally surprised.
"Madison!" Serefina said, her face brightening as she walked over to the shorter girl. "I didn't know you knew Sango!"
"You two know each other?" Sango asked, surprised.
"She's the student looking after my fourth pokemon," Maddi explained. "Plus, she helped me out a lot with raising up my different teams. It's really hard raising all those pokemon myself, after all. Thanks, by the way."
"Oh, not at all!" Serefina said, holding her hand in front of her face while she giggled. "In fact, I'm going to be basing my Course Application Project off of my experience with you, Madison, you've been quite a big help."
"Course Application Project?" Sango questioned.
"For students who want to apply to one of the Courses, like the Caretaking Course, for example, they need to submit a project by the end of their sophomore year," Serefina explained. "We spend the second half of Sophomore Year on it. In my case, I'm writing a research paper on raising balanced teams of each type, to demonstrate my knowledge of taking care of different pokemon of all different types and needs. If the faculty approves of my project, then I'll be accepted into the Caretaking Course in Junior Year."
A wicked smile crossed Serefina's face, and she resisted the urge to burst out into a fit of maniacal laughter.
"Thanks to my experience with Madison's teams, I have more experience with raising and caring for different pokemon than even some of the seniors, and I'm not even in the Caretaking Course officially! With this, combined with my hours clocked, my position at this school will grow!"
Sango did imagine that working with taking care of all of Maddi's teams would certainly be quite a feather in Serefina's cap. Of course she certainly seemed a lot more… "intense" about it than Sango would have expected, she was practically laughing like a supervillain.
"You seem… excited."
"I'm going to be a Pokemon Breeder like my mom," Serefina said, her face softening. "And so I'm getting the best education I can get, to start my task as a pokemon breeder off on a strong start! I plan to run a day care center of my own someday, you know?"
Sango nodded, it sounded like a nice dream.
"Anyway, what are you guys after?" Serefina asked, turning back to Maddi. "Madison, you come to pick up Violet?"
"No, actually," Maddi said, shaking her head. "Although, um, now that you brought it up…"
She glanced at Sango.
"I think, yeah, I do want to take care of Violet on my own from now on."
"Just be careful she and Mist don't get into any fights, you hear?" Serefina insisted, giving Maddi a sharp look. Maddi nodded her head in agreement, she didn't want that, either. Serefina turned and headed deeper into the hutch, where the pens were. Sango was surprised how spacious this place was.
"This building is so big!" Sango said.
"It has to be," Serefina explained. "We keep a lot of pokemon here, after all. Especially in winter time, when pokemon vulnerable to the cold are uncomfortable in the outdoor shelters, we bring them in here to take care of them. There are buildings like this all around campus."
Serefina stopped at the end of the long building, by the other entrance out into the field, and pulled out a thick ledger.
"Okay, according to this, Violet is in sub-basement 2," Serefina reported.
"Underground?" Sango gasped, surprised. "You don't keep them above ground?"
Serefina cracked a smile.
"Don't need to. This island has a whole mess of underground tunnels that we make use of, with a lot of open space for pokemon to play. See those cages?"
Serefina nodded to the cages lining the walls of the longhouse building. They were all empty, much to her surprise.
"We have our pokemon sleep there while they rest. It's a little uncomfortable, but we give them free range, see?"
Serefina opened the door and gestured outside, to where the pokemon were playing around out in the snow, under the watchful eyes of several students dressed in thick parkas.
"Of course, pokemon who don't handle the cold very well, we don't let them play outside, so that's not much fun," Serefina admitted. "So we let them relax in our heated underground play areas."
"And that's where Violet is?" Maddi said, raising her eyebrow. She didn't imagine that Violet would have any problems with the cold. "Really?"
"Oh! No, no, not like that," Serefina laughed. "Violet is actually in Outside Group 3. But her playtime is done for now and she's taking a break downstairs. We keep the pokemon on schedules of rest and play times so they don't get too exhausted. Right now, Violet is resting in her cage downstairs!"
Maddi looked around. She didn't see any stairs.
"You said 'underground' right? So where are they?"
Serefina cracked a smile. She pointed down. Below their feet was a large slab of metal built into the floor that Sango could see now had hinges attached to it. Both girls stepped off of the piece of metal and Serefina knelt down, grabbing the handle, and pulled, the hatch opening up and revealing a dark maw below. A tunnel lead down into the shadows, with a sturdy metal ladder affixed to the side. Serefina took out a flashlight from her bag and flicked it on, smiling up at the girls.
"Come on, girls!" Serefina called, tucking the thick ledger under her arm and gesturing for Sango and Maddi to come. She grabbed onto the ladder and began climbing down, a faint glow of light trailing down into the darkness.
Maddi and Sango looked at her, and shrugged.
"Silver, you can stay here, okay?" Sango asked her Castform. Silver nodded.
"I came here to get care tips for my Duskull, not go cave-diving," Maddi grumbled. But she still followed Sango down the ladder. Unlike Silver, her Duskull was more than eager to follow after Maddi, finding dark tunnels and caves suitable for his natural environment. The three followed after Serefina down the ladder.
The ladder continued down the tunnel and past another station point, which Sango assumed was the first basement landing. She noticed that as they traveled further down the ladder, the warmer it was getting. Serefina wasn't wrong when she said that the underground tunnels had heating. As they got to the second platform as well, Sango could see the flickering of Serefina's flashlight moving back and forth, signaling to the two. They arrived the flat ground of the second basement. The ladder continued down past this landing, for how far Sango didn't even know. Fortunately, the landing was lit by a ring of lamps in the walls, illuminating the rounded room where the ladder was located. This made climbing down a lot easier. She stepped off the ladder and onto stable ground, Maddi quickly following after her, with Duskull not far behind.
In fact, Maddi's Duskull was floating around cheerily, enjoying his first excursion outside. This dark cave was a lot of fun! He floated all around the cavern, clearly energized, a detail Serefina picked up on immediately.
"Your Duskull seems to be enjoying himself," she laughed.
"Yeah, he just hatched from his egg last night," Maddi said. "So he's really enjoying getting out and exploring dark caves like this. This is a lot like a Duskull's natural habitat, I would imagine."
"Well, actually Duskull mainly live in forests and graveyards, though I supposed crypts are kind of close to caves," Serefina admitted. "That being said, they do prefer any place that's dark and damp, so these tunnels sure are perfect."
Serefina brightened.
"So this is a newly born pokemon, huh?" She cooed, reaching towards the Duskull. Duskull floated down and let Serefina pet him, much to Maddi's chagrin. "Why, isn't he the most adorable thing ever? Hello there, Duskull."
"We actually came here because of him," Maddi admitted. "I haven't taken care of a baby pokemon in a while, so…"
"Oh, absolutely!" Serefina chirped, nodding her head eagerly. "When we're done here, I'll take you to the nursery and go find some stuff to help you with your baby pokemon! Ooh, I'm so excited! I've been taking care of baby pokemon all week, but this guy is just another cute face to play with! Aww, it's so great!"
Serefina squeed and hugged the Duskull into her chest, while Maddi and Sango rolled their eyes. Maddi was still a little miffed that her Duskull was getting along so good with the caretaker, but she assumed that was just something to be expected from a pokemon breeder-in-training to be able to get on with any pokemon easily.
"So can we go?" Maddi asked. She wanted to pick up Violet, and then get the stuff they needed. Then hopefully they could actually get in some pokemon battles today. After their loss against Elaina, their perfect record had been broken, so they really needed to score as many wins as they could to make up for it.
"Certainly," Serefina said, nodding, returning to focus. She let Duskull go, and the ghost pokemon floated back to Maddi. That made her smile a little, at least.
"It's so warm in here," Sango said, stripping off her coat. Serefina and Maddi did the same, Maddi scowling slightly at Serefina's vivacious figure.
"We pipe in heat particularly in the cold climates," Serefina explained, walking over to a tunnel that stretched back, lit by lamp light. "Come on guys!"
Serefina led them through the tunnel, which was nicely maintained and well-lit. As the girls walked through the short hallway with Duskull floating behind them, the light grew brighter and brighter as they approached the end. When they finally got there, they arrived at, much to their surprise, an underground paradise.
"Woooww!" Sango gasped, her eyes shining brightly. In front of them was a large field of grass, in an enormous cavern with several chambers connected by natural stone arches. Stalactites and stalagmites clung to the floor and ceiling, but their surfaces were covered with climbing ropes and they were used as parts of playground structures. A large spring was in the center of the main chamber and pokemon played within it, and even a large tree was in the corner of another chamber in the distance… somehow. Pokemon played all across the chamber, enjoying the nice, balmy climate like it was still spring or summer time. Looking at the world in front of them, one could be forgiven for thinking that they were underground at all.
"How… how did you make this?" Sango asked Serefina eagerly. "I mean, there are trees! Like, actual trees, growing underground!"
"Sunny day, of course," Serefina winked. "This whole cavern is running on pokemon power!"
"That's pretty cool," Maddi had to admit, looking at the playing pokemon. They were mostly grass and bug types, pokemon who wouldn't fare well in the winter-time, though pokemon of all kinds could be seen.
"We wanted to give the pokemon places to play," Serefina said, smiling warmly out at the underground structure. "So this is all made by the combined efforts of people and pokemon. The one up above is just as great, it has its own features, too, but no need to worry."
She giggled sheepishly.
"Well, I say 'we' but I didn't have a hand in it," she admitted. "I meant the Caretaking Course in general. Long before I ever got here, our alumni made this paradise for pokemon when the island's climate doesn't support it."
"It's lovely," Sango said.
"We've got the pokemon pens over there," Serefina said, nodding to a row of spacious cages where pokemon who were playing could relax. "Violet's over there, in… 254."
Serefina led Maddi and Sango to one of the cages.
"Why do you guys have cages?" Sango asked, not sure if she would like the answer. "Wouldn't… wouldn't it be better for pokemon to have their own freedom?"
"You would think, and in a lot of ways, that is true," Serefina admitted. "But pokemon are very territorial. Every pokemon wants a little space to call their own, where they can sleep in peace. We could put them in their pokeballs, but they enjoy the openness so much it doesn't seem fair. So we give them their own little pen, a place exclusively for them, that they can shut out the other pokemon and not have to worry about getting bothered."
"That sounds nice," Maddi smiled slightly. Sango looked at the cages as they walked. They were certainly large, almost like zoo enclosures.
"Plus, we let them go in when they want to," Serefina explained. "Certainly, if they had to spend all their time in the cages it would be inhumane. But we just put them inside when they want to rest and relax, away from other pokemon, or when they need their sleep. Otherwise, they have free reign. And I'm sure you can agree that this place is acceptable, don't you think?"
She emphasized her "this" with a wide swing of her arm. Sango nodded her head. It looked like they were really running a tight ship. Even Marion had fish tanks, Sango had to admit.
"Here we are!" Serefina stopped in front of a cage and undid the latch. "Violet! Look who came to visit!"
A small, round pokemon rolled out of the cage and across the grass. The pokemon looked like a big, blubbery ball with tan fur on her chest and the rest of the fur on her body being a light pinkish-purple color, that seemed to sparkle in the light from the cave lamps.
"Spheal?" The small pokemon said, looking up at Maddi with her tiny, rounded eyes.
"Hey, Violet," Maddi said, smiling.
"Spheal!" The Spheal, Violet, chirped, slapping her flippers together as Maddi knelt down and picked her up, cradling her gently.
"A Spheal?" Sango said, surprised. "Your other pokemon is a Spheal?"
"She's a sweetie," Maddi said. "I left her with Serefina because she wasn't getting along with Mist, and I was trying to get Mist to listen to me, but it seems that still isn't going well. So I thought I might pick her up for the tournament."
"She's cute," Sango admitted, wanting to pet the pokemon's blubbery belly but resisting the urge to do so. "But why is she purple?"
"What?"
"Well, actually, Cynthia has a Spheal herself," Sango explained, eliciting a sour look from Maddi, "and her Spheal has blue fur, not purple."
"It's because she's special," Maddi explained.
"She's shiny," Serefina clarified. "You've heard of shiny pokemon before, right? Pokemon with a special coloring, different from normal?"
Sango thought about Luna, Julia's Umbreon, and how she had blue rings instead of the normal yellow rings of an Umbreon.
"Yeah, I've heard of them," she said, nodding.
"Well, Maddi's Spheal is one of them," Serefina said, patting the Spheal while Maddi held her. The Spheal smiled at Serefina.
Serefina dropped her hand and walked over to the basket of pokeballs by the entrance, rummaging around through it.
"Here it is!" She declared, holding up a pokeball triumphantly. The ball had a sticker on it that read "254", Violet's cage number. Serefina gestured for the two girls to come over.
"Here you go," Serefina said, a small, sad smile crossing her face as she handed Maddi back the pokeball, looking at the Spheal longingly.
"Are… are you okay?" Maddi asked, not sure what had happened that would bring Serefina to tears.
"I'm fine," Serefina said, smiling. "Just… I always find it a little sad saying goodbye to a pokemon I've looked after. Bye-bye, Violet. Take care of yourself, okay? And don't be afraid to come back for a visit every now and then!"
"Spheal!" Violet said, bobbing up in a nod.
"Thank you for looking after her," Maddi thanked Serefina. "You say thank you too, Violet."
"Spheal!" Violet said again, smiling. Serefina smiled back, and wiped her eyes as Maddi returned Violet to her pokeball.
"So, um, about the pokemon care supplies for my Duskull…" Maddi felt a little awkward bringing that stuff up right now.
"Oh, right, absolutely!" Serefina said, her expression brightening. "I nearly forgot! Let's go, you two! We're burning daylight!"
Serefina tucked the ledger back under her arm after making a note of Violet's departure, and led the girls to the ladder heading back to the surface. Sango took one last look at the paradise below, partially wishing she had brought Silver with her even if the pokemon wouldn't want to be buried alive.
Back on the surface, Sango and Silver were soon reunited, and Serefina led them outside.
"Do we have to walk through the cold?" Sango asked, zipping her snowsuit back up. "It's freezing out here!"
"It's just a short walk to the daycare room and nursery," Serefina called back. Luckily, it wasn't a blizzard or anything. "Once we're there, we can pick up all sorts of stuff for you and your pokemon!"
"Okay then," Maddi said, her breath escaping into the sky before her eyes. "Come on, Duskull."
She glanced over her shoulder at the ghost pokemon, who was floating in place, staring at something behind them.
"Duskull?" Maddi asked, walking back to him. "Something wrong?"
"Dusk," Duskull said, shaking his head back and forth and turning back to his trainer. He didn't understand what it was he had seen, so he didn't know if it was a problem or not. He followed after Maddi, the fleeting distraction that had caught his eye already a distant memory as he explored more of the world around them.
Hence why he didn't bother warning them that someone had been watching them very intently, and was currently following them quietly to the nursery.
Oh no, who could be stalking them? And what could they want? We'll have to find out!