[PKMN OPEN] The Pokémon Trainer Academy (T) [Best Veteran 4Q '11]

Thomas was startled by Byron's shout. He was going to have to go dig? Why? Everything of value had to have been dug up already. What was the point of going up into the mountains to dig up rocks? Snivy was angry.
"Why should we have to go into the mountains to dig up useless rocks?!" Snivy asked angrily.
"Hush, Snivy. They can't understand you anyway. We'll just have to suffer with it," Brian whispered glumly to her. He remained seated and waited to see what the others would do.

Alice quickly straightened her head when she heard a voice say, "Okay class, here we go." She looked around and saw Byron pointing to the mountains outside the window. When did he get in here? The posters of his son scared Alice, but boy did his random appearance weird her out even more. Byron brought in a box of shovels, and then Alice realized they were going to dig for fossils up there in the mountains.

She was used to heavy hiking and long runs, but she found it odd that they would have to hike so much just to dig for fossils. Oh well, she could use a good hike after all this time of sitting. Without a word, Alice stood up and grabbed three shovels from the box. She walked over and gave one to Brian, and another to Kellyn, smiling as sweetly as she knew how to. Alice wished she knew what words would match her actions, but she was pretty tongue tied so she just let her face do the talking. Jem sat up, still on Alice's desk. He stretched his legs again and yawned, a puff of fire blowing out from his throat.

"A smoothie? Sounds good!" Mark said to her, Caressing Dratini a bit more. Dratini looked so relaxed in Mark's arms. She seemed to be talking with Snype about something. Times like this where he wished he could understand what they were saying. Bri seemed to have a natural talent for understanding Pokemon so maybe he could talk to him about that next time he met him...

"Yeah. It woke me up in the middle of the night. It was related to what happened with that Frillish, accept nobody was there to save me... ugh... I don't wanna think about it honestly. Speaking of which, Sorry about all of that. I doubt you really wanted to do that or anything but, thanks again for saving my life and all. Seriously I'll find a way to make it up to you." Mark said happily.

["Hmm... Yeah... You make a good point. They should be together a little bit more huh"] Snype said to Dratini. ["Maybe we could somehow fix that somewhere along the lines eh? Sheesh I wish I could tell Mark all of this..."] Snype said.

Alice walked over and gave Bri a shovel. Snivy started laughing at the look on her face. Bri took the shovel without a word and watched as she handed one to Kel.
"Snivy, that was rude," Brian admonshished.
"Hehehe, sorry," Snivy said after a while. Duster came running back out of breath.
"Are we going into the mountains?" she asked.
"Looks like it," Bri said sadly.
"Oh, come on! It'll be fun! We might see some cool fire types!" Duster said Snivy gulped.
"I don't want to go!" she said. Bri ignored her. He didn't want to go, but if he didn't he'd get into trouble. So he resigned himself to having to go dig for some stupid rocks. At least Duster would have fun.

"What?" asked Selene, stunned by Byron's appearance and then even more stunned as he brought in a load of spades and announced they were going to hike up through some mountain to DIG for however bloody long this class went on for in the hope that they found some fossils! "You're KIDDING me right Sir?? Are there even any fossils up there? Are we seriously going to be hiking all that way, just choosing a random spot and digging on the off-chance we may find something?" she was astounded. She'd assumed this class would at least have a competent teacher and a lesson plan. Yeah she wanted practical experience classes but seriously...

"Of course, that's half the fun of it. I'll teach you all the techniques while we're walking. Come on everyone, no time to lose!" said Byron sounding chipper, leading the way out of the classroom. As the students filed out, Sel looked over at Jack, Brian and Alice with her mouth slightly agape and wide eyes. "This...is...ridiculous...I feel like marching to Pallet Town and telling Professor Gary Oak where to shove his school..." she fumed, snatching a shovel off the pile and heading out. WHY did she decide to wear flip-flops to fossil class?! Bad call...

Jack chuckled at Selena's reaction to the proceedings and her response to what Byron had said, Jack was upset but not with the fact that they had to hike but because he didn't get enough time to sleep. Jack got up from his sleep trying to shake off his tiredness and after doing that grabbed up a shovel and began thinking about the pokemon he can catch on the mountains. Blaze followed behind him as he walked along side Byron and some of the other students. Byron was rambling on about how fascinating fossils are but Jack tuned most of it out and was just thinking about how his side my do with another member.

Bri walked along in silence. He was paying no attention to Byron rambling on about fossils. Why should he care? They were just rocks. Rocks held no interest for him. He wondered how much trouble he'd get in if he ditched the teacher and went off on his own. He couldn't be expected to dig! He was way smaller than everyone else in the class! He was weak, and he had a killer sunburn. Snivy was sitting on his shoulder, looking around. Duster was in his arms. Brian took off his jacket. His mind turned to Selene. She had done the unthinkable. She had called the teacher out and had gotten away with it. He didn't get that. Why did she do that? But then again, Bri had wanted to do that, but he couldn't. So, he walked along, following the others, ignoring the teacher completely.

["Oh course! If there's a will there's a way! Kehehe"] Snype said to Dratini. He was really feeling like he was a big brother to the kid now... It felt nice. Mark was about to continue his conversation with Valorie, somebody else had arrived. He was alot older then everyone else but still seemed pretty young himself. He was probably in his twenties or something. No doubt this was the teacher. That backpack of his was sure stuffed though. It probably contained stuff for the class to use.

"Well! Welcome to the Field! The great outdoors! I'm Danny. No need to call me Mr or anything, Danny is just fine." Danny looked around at each of the trainers. "Alot of you look like the kind of people that want to head out on a journey right? To catch pokemon and aim to be in the Pokemon League am I right?" Danny asked. A couple trainers made some comments to each other and nodded their heads. "Well that's good! This shouldn't be any trouble then. Comon everyone walk with me." Danny said as he headed towards a small dirt path.

Mark got up on his feet slowly, still holding Dratini. "Well lets go follow him Valorie." Mark said to her.

"If your ever going to be out on a journey, walking long paths like these is usually something you have to get used to when your on the road. Sometimes it's not as simple as this little dirt path over here. You'll have to go through more complicated roads. You may have to go through caves, sail over water, and that dosn't even scratch the surface. Chances are you'll get yourself dirty along the way." Danny explained as the rest of the class followed him.

There were quite a few wild Pokemon running about in the field. Mark would have liked to catch one of them but he had to stick with the class... maybe he'd have a chance on the way back. Wonder if this class was just a walk around the field or if they were going to end up doing something soon? Wherever Danny was taking them. It was the first day of class so he didn't expect anything extremely complicated. First days were often introductions and demonstrations. It was a nice walk either way and Mark had been learning a fair amount of information.

"So Valorie, What do ya think so far?" Mark asked, Dratini still curling around him. Mark pet Dratini once more. "It's a pretty nice day at least."

(OOC: I may refer to Vincent as Xack or Vince)

Vincent had stayed quite as soon as he reached the academy the other day. It was strange that no one had really noticed him. Well he wasn't really surprised that no one had payed him any mind he stayed in the background and tried no to draw attention to himself. He did though almost when Dyno was about to use earth power causing his room to shake about but Blitz shut the Deino up by brawling with it. Some cute girls in his class especially the one with the jet black and brown eyes he heard her name once but didn't remember what it was. He wouldn't say anything until someone addressed him first but when that happens he was going to go off like a never ending bomb. Vincent was quite tired though having to deal with Wattage staying up all night due to the fact that the Joltik doesn't like sleeping in his pokeball. Xack would eventually do something about his Joltik being a wuss and his Deino being a jerk but right now wasn't the time and he was actually quite hungry.

He hadn't eaten breakfast on the account of dealing with another fight between Dyno and Blitz. Man! this was getting into a big problem for Vince he would take care of it later this night though. Vincent was quite interested in fossils and listened to Byron talked and was quite annoyed that some other student seemed to be blowing him off.

"Hey Wattage go easy up there," Vincent said quietly to his Joltik who was resting on his head. He was nibbling on the whiteness of Vincent's hair. Wattage almost never stayed in his pokeball he preferred being on top of Vincent's hair where he felt safe and sound.

"Hey sir if we find any fossils do we get to keep it for ourselves?" Vincent asked speaking loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Well see when we get there eh......," Byron began to say only pausing because he didn't know Vincent's name.

"It's Vincent Xackford Luna sir," Vincent said with a somewhat disappointed tone in his voice that his teacher didn't even know his name. Byron then gave Vincent a weird look probably confused by how strange Vincent's name was.

"Please call me Vince or Xack but if you must Vincent is fine," He added as he pet Wattage.

(OOC: Welcome!)

Bri poked his head up when some other kid asked if they could keep the fossils they found. Byron said they'd see when they got there.
"That means if we do find anything, it's just going to get taken," Snivy said.
"I figured that," Bri said. He walked over to the kid that had spoken. He was pretty tall, way taller than Bri was. His hair was this odd mix of black and white. A Joltik was eating his hair. How strange.
"Hi! I'm Bri! You're Vince, right? It's nice to meet you!" Bri said. Snicy snickered at him, which he ignored. She always thought he was too friendly. Duster waved at the Joltik from where she was in Bri's arms.

"What are you looking at?" Snivy said to Wattage, glaring right back.
"Snivy, be nice! I'm sorry, Snivy is really mean to, well, pretty much everyone. I still don't know quite why. Anyway, how do you feel about this class? I don't really want to be out here digging for fossils I'm not even going to keep, but what can I do," Bri said. He shrugged. Snivy turned her gaze to the pokeballs pokeballs on Vince's belt.
"He needs to learn to control his pokemon better," she said softly.
"Snivy, I told you to be nice! Do you want to go back in your own pokeball?" Bri asked her. She shook her head no, and became quiet. Duster looked up at the Joltic. She was wondering why he was scared of her. She wasn't that scary! She smiled warmly at him.

Jack was walking along but was half asleep as he continued down the rocky path. Byron's voice could be heard and so could another kid with a weird name but they weren't really disturbing him too much. Jack just couldn't stop yawning, the class wasn't boring but Jack just couldn't shake off the sleep. As we reached further and further up the mountain a bunch of noise could be heard coming from Vincent's direction which annoyed Jack since it disrupted the so far quiet trip. As Jack was about to say something to him Vincent returned both of them to their pokeballs. "Yeah you better do that" Jack whispered to himself in a crazy little voice.

Suddenly everyone stopped and Byron turned around and began talking about why we look for fossils before throwing a pokeball into the air and releasing a Shieldon to present to the class. This woke Jack up to see a new and rare pokemon. "This people is why I look for fossils, the joy of discovering ancient pokemon" Byron said as he rubbed the Shieldon on its head.

"I hear ya Valorie. But you gotta know that some of the students here aren't as seasoned as we are. Some are just learning some of this stuff. Heck, I wouldn't be suprised if theres a few students that don't know what a pikachu is!" Mark said. "Either way, We'll let the teacher teach the newbies and he'll eventually get to us... though I'm kind of a newbie myself admitingly." Mark explained to Valorie, noticing she was right beside him. Mark scratched his head a little and observed Valorie a little.. "Um... you uh... look nice today. Heh. If you don't mind me saying." Mark said. He let out a nervous cough.

Danny lead the class to a large lake. In Danny's bag he pulled out a couple fishing rods and passed them out to the rest of the class. "We'll start with something easy. Don't worry we aren't going to be cooking any Pokemon or anything cruel like that but fishing is a pretty important skill to know when your out there on a journey. All you gotta do is swing your fishing rod out there and wait for the fish to take the bait. Try it!"

Mark looked at the fishing rod and the large body of water. His eyes widened as the lake looked larger then it was supposed to. "U...um... well, lets give it a shot Valorie..." Mark said nervously.