C.J. stood there a minute looking up at the Poke Mart, it's much bigger then what he was use to seeing. "Custos, keep these guys well behaved." he said as he walked into the Mart. Not wanting to waste anymore time he went straight up to the cashier. "I have a list of TM's and items I need, I want them all before I leave this store as I'm not sure when I'll be back this way." he said with an arrogant tone and handed the cashier his list. If one was to glance at it they'd see it listed off some 40 TM's and around 7-8 items with another number next to it which would be assumed as an amount. "This is quite the list you have here, I have it all in stock but it will take me some time to gather it up." the cashier responded. "Just make it quick." C.J. snapped.

About ten minutes later the cashier returned, "I have your list finished," he said, "are you sure you can afford this?" the man had a puzzled look on his face. "You think I would come asking if I couldn't pay?" C.J. responded, the same arrogant tone in his voice. He pulled an envelope out of his bag and opened it revealing a large some of money. It seemed most of it was just for this purpose. "My parents gave me this to buy these over time," he said, "but seeing as how TM's are now reusable, I have no need to wait." He handed the cashier his money and took his massive amount of TM's and items.

As he exited the store he handed Custos the bag of, "Carry these for a bit, we have a long way to the dorms. goods." "You're so lazy." Custos complained. C.J. just looked at him for a moment, "Fine if you prefer I'll carry it the first half, and you can carry it after walking for a while." C.J. smirked as he took the bag back and started towards to Academy dorms. "Let's go." he said as Ax climbed back up to her spot on his shoulder.


C.J. looked around outside the dorm for a moment, grateful he didn't get placed in one of the lower dorms. "Okay guys, I need you to return to you're poke balls for a bit. We don't want people knowing our strength do we?" The Pokemon signalled their agreement and returned, with the exception of Ace who hated being confined unless he really needed to be.

The two walked inside and looked around, their were a few trainers in the lobby, one stood out to C.J., a boy, shorter then himself and appeared a bit younger too. He ignored them and walked over to the reception desk, "I need my Dorm jacket and my room key. Oh and my class schedule please." He said. "I'll need your name first." the receptionist said. "Christopher Styles." "One moment please," the receptionist said, "okay here we go, room 29, that's upstairs." C.J. was then handed his key, jacket, and schedule. He walked away looking at his jacket, not really paying attention to where he walked.

"What an ugly looking jacket isn't it?" he thought. "I wouldn't know," Ace responded sarcastically, "But I bet you'll look just lovely in it." Ace snickered and C.J. glared at him for a moment before sitting in a chair, for a moment to rest, across form the boy he noticed earlier.

Mitzi Abelle

Mitzi fumbled about with the Pokegear. "Sorry, I just got this today, and I can barely even handle a Poketech ri-" She figured it out, and cut herself off with a exaggerated sigh. "They don't even use these much in Sinnoh," she admitted, "but at least you can have a private call instead of talking to your wrist..."

She then listened intently to what Mark had to say. Mitzi mulled it over a little. Working together, huh?

"Yeah, I guess my team needs to work on teamwork too," she conceded. They didn't fight often or resist each other, but Mitzi's team was made up of two very radically different Pokemon, and it was hard to combine their strengths.

She turned her focus to the inside of the building now, scanning over the lobby intently. This was where she'd be staying after all.

Meep (Suicune Dorm Lounge)

It was some time before Meep could calm himself down. He noticed that Heart was stirring inside his bag. She must've been disturbed by his worrying. After taking some deep breaths, he noticed that a kid with long white hair was sitting across from him and looking his way. This unusual attention made Meep feel somewhat awkward, but then he noticed the strange Pokemon beside him. He'd never seen one like it while he helped his father in the daycare. It must have been from another region.

That is a peculiar Pokemon, he thought to himself. I'd like to ask the boy what kind it is, but... He doesn't look very friendly... Maybe it'd be best to leave-

Before he could finish his thought, though, he felt one of the Pokeballs on his belt shake. In an explosion of what appeared to be cotton, Fluffernut appeared in the middle of the lobby, standing with an extravagant pose. Before he could figure out what was happening, the Flaafy turned towards the mysterious boy and his strange Pokemon and walked up to them. Meep then snapped out of his confusion and got out of his seat, bag in hand.

"Get back here, Fluffernut!" Meep exclaimed. "You really shouldn't bother random strangers like that!"

Fluffernut didn't seem to hear him, however, because he proceeded with his act and pulled a random quarter from the boy's ear. Meep then pulled him back and proceeded to apologize to the stranger.

"I'm sorry about that. Fluffernut here always does things to make other kids happy, but I know that isn't an excuse for disturbing you. I hope you can forgive us."

C.J. smirked a bit at the Flaaffy's 'magic' act. "Well, at least it was an interesting distraction," He responded, his displeasure from earlier fading already but there was still a small smug tone to his voice, "did you teach it that yourself?" He placed the bag he got from the Poke Mart on the seat next to him, the bag opening showing the massive amount of newly purchased TM's. Pulling up his regular travel bag he started to dig through, after a few seconds he dropped the bag back to the floor revealing two poffins. He threw one to Ace who, despite being blind, caught it with ease. The second he held out to the Flaaffy, "Here," he said beginning to smile, "consider it a thank you."

He looked up at the boy, his mood beginning to lighten. "So, are you new here as well? I only just arrived about an hour ago myself." He was attempting to be nice, after all, he needs at least a few people to be friends with, and this boy seemed nice enough. He wasn't sure if his displeasure from the past few days was shining through but if it was the stranger seemed to be ignoring it for the most part. His Flaaffy, however, seemed to have picked up on it though.

Meep didn't show it, but he was relieved that this boy seemed to somewhat enjoy Fluffernut's magic trick. At least he didn't seem to have a completely bad nature. He patted Fluffernut on the head as he nibbled on the poffin he was offered. He was obviously enjoying his snack, so Meep felt that the boy could be trusted.

"Heh. Glad you enjoyed the show," Meep replied with an aloof smile. "To tell you the truth, Fluffernut became my Pokemon only about a week ago. He used to be my father's Pokemon, so you should send your compliments to him. He was a very successful Pokemon Coordinator back in his day, with Fluffernut being his latest and most popular act. He didn't know his parlor tricks until my father set up a daycare in Celadon City, and he actually taught himself."

Fluffernut bleated happily and continued to nibble on his poffin. Meep then decided to answer the boy's second question.

"And yes, I'm also new here. I actually just settled into my room a couple of minutes ago. I would've been resting up there right now, but Heart convinced me to take her exploring... Oh right! I haven't introduced you to Heart!"

Fully aware that Heart was wide awake now, he reached into his bag and gently lifted Heart out. She wiggled free from her master's grasp and hopped onto his head, making herself comfortable. Meep merely smiled at her actions as he picked his bag up again.

"This little Eevee is Heart," he said with a hint of pride in his voice. "She just hatched from her egg two days before I left for the Academy. Don't let her unusual dark appearance fool you. She's really a loving Pokemon... but I'd still like to warn you that she doesn't really let anyone but me play with her, so you might want to be cautious."

Heart proceeded to curl up on top of his head, seemingly uninterested with meeting the boy. Meep wanted to say something to her, but he just exhaled and diverted his attention back to the fellow student.

"Pay no mind to her. She's not really interested in making new friends right now. Hopefully, that'll end when she starts to mature. Anyway, let me introduce myself. I'm Nick Kurtz, but you can call me Meep."

He extended his arm out for a handshake, hoping that the boy would return the gesture.

Amazing, this Flaaffy had actually taught itself magic tricks. C.J. had many questions about that but he decided he'd wait for another time, besides if the boy had only just received it he probably couldn't answer anyway. He watched as the trainer had introduced him to an Eevee, who had ignored him completely. A bit stuck up it seems C.J. thought to himself. "Meep huh? Interesting nickname. It's nice to meet you, My name is Christopher Jacob Styles, friends call me C.J." He said aloud. Friends? What friends? He had disowned most after that brutal loss he suffered. He could feel the displeasuring tone returning but he tried to push through it. "New born hmm? Yeah my youngling was like that when she hatched too."


Meep didn't seem so bad, he didn't see the harm in an introduction to his other Pokemon. "Ax come say hello," He declared releasing his young Axew from her poke ball, "you too Custos." With that he released his Bagon. "Ace you come here and say hello too." The three Pokemon exclaimed their names simultaneously as their way of a greeting. Ace, however, had some trouble in his attempt to get close bumping into Meep's legs. "Sorry," C.J. explained, "Deino's are blind by birth so they have trouble moving around sometimes. In fact, it took forever to explain to him why he couldn't just run around head butting and biting to find his way." C.J. started to laugh slightly at that.


He looked up at the Eevee perched on Meep's head. "You know, if you don't come say hi you won't get one of these yummy snacks.." while saying that he dug through his bag again pulling out three more poppins. Handing one each to Custos and Ax and waving the third at the young Eevee. He then looked back at Meep, "Exploring huh? I was about to go look around myself after dropping this stuff off," he pointed to his Poke Mart bag, "We could look around together if you like?"

C.J., huh...? He seemed friendly enough. And he obviously took great care of his Pokemon, so there was no doubt that he had a kind heart. As C.J. tried to convince Heart to like him, Meep wanted to tell him that he was wasting his time, but he knew he would figure that out on his own. Meanwhile, Fluffernut was busy introducing himself to C.J.'s Pokemon. He seemed to be more interested with Ace, though.

Ace... So that black and purple Pokemon is called a Deino, huh? Meep thought to himself. Doesn't seem dangerous... He's actually kind of cute.

"Meh, don't worry about him," Meep said to C.J. "It's not like he can help being blind."

Meep then looked over at his other Pokemon. They didn't interest him as much as Ace. Bagons were a popular Pokemon to own in Celadon City because they were quite rare, and there was a little girl at the daycare who stayed there daily with her Axew. They weren't as much of a mystery to him as Ace was. After he was done observing Ax and Custos, he felt that it'd be a little unfair if he didn't let C.J. see his final Pokemon since he went through the trouble of introducing his team.

"Well, since you were so nice to show me your loving family," Meep proclaimed, "I guess I should let you see my entire team as well."

Meep took the final Pokeball from his belt and pressed the center button. In a flash of light, a Ninetales appeared beside him with a regal aura. He noticed that she had an expression of slight distrust directed at C.J., so he attempted to calm her down.

"Don't worry, FoxFire," Meep told the Ninetales. "He's a trustworthy person, and he's been nice to me so far. I appreciate your concern, but I doubt he'd ever bully anyone."

Seeing that Meep was sincere with his words, FoxFire's doubt seemed to fade and was replaced with a mellow smile. Now that she was docile once more, Meep turned to C.J. and began explaining FoxFire's hostile attitude.

"Sorry about her attitude, C.J. FoxFire was my mother's Pokemon originally, so she believes that it's her duty to be a maternal figure in place of her previous owner. It's normal for her to be weary of strangers, so don't take it the wrong way."

"Yeah. I'm trying to come up with a couple ways for them to work well together even if they aren't out in the field. Maybe some support tactics, like Reflect. I want to do a bit more then that though." Mark said, still brainstorming his head off. He needed to do some research quick, while the night was young. Guess he figured he could head off to his room.

"...Hey Mitzi, sorry to cut the conversation short, but I gotta head to my room. I got a bit of research I gotta do if I'm gonna prepare for tommorow. My room number is 073 if you need anything. I'll see you around." Mark said as he headed off toward his room. He waved at Mitzi as he walked off. He looked like he was in a real rush.

"Nice girl... but I gotta get to work. I need to form my team up to face any kind of threat. Tommorow I gotta get myself ready if I'm gonna beat everyone else. I need to form a strategy that'll dominate everyone in the academy. I gotta aim to impress." Mark thought to himself as he walked to his room.

Mark opened up the door to his room and threw his stuff onto his bed, along with his TM Case. He was missing something in his strategy... something that would bind it all together...

"...We might need to go out for a bit of training tonight. This thing is gonna bug the crap out of me until I can get things right." Mark said. Snype smiled at Mark, though was a bit worried that he would become obsessed with simply getting stronger.

Meep (Suicune Dorm Lobby)

FoxFire gracefully accepted C.J.'s poffin and began to chew on it. Meep was glad that she trusted his judgment. He then watched as C.J. proceeded to travel to his dorm room when a Hyper Potion fell from his bag. After placing Heart, who was fast asleep, onto an empty chair, he walked over to the potion and picked it up.

C.J. must have not noticed that this fell, Meep thought. I should catch up to him and... return it... Oh boy...

By the time Meep looked back up, he saw that C.J. had already made his way into the dorm halls. Remembering his trouble with them the first time, he decided to wait for him to return. Sitting beside Heart, he watched as FoxFire introduced herself to the three dragon Pokemon. Meanwhile, Fluffernut had taken some dense balls of wool from his coat and was practicing his juggling skills. Some time later, C.J. finally rounded the corner into the lobby. Without hesitating, Meep got up and walked over to him, holding out the Hyper Potion.

"You finally came back," Meep said in a relieved tone. "You dropped this on your way to your room, but before I could call out to you, you were already in the halls. I got lost in those things once already, and I didn't plan on getting lost a second time... Anyway, here's your Hyper Potion."

Mitzi Abelle

"Oh...well, bye then, Mark!" Mitzi called as the boy hurried off. Okay, now to figure the rest out on her own. She deduced that the first thing she needed to do was find a desk to ask for help.

That wasn't hard. A small look around of the lobby plus a few steps over to where she wanted to be. "Uh...excuse me," she muttered, "I'm actually new here."

The man behind the desk looked up. "What's your name?"

Easy enough. "I'm Mitzi Abelle, and I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be here in the Raikou Dorm."

After a few things were typed into a computer, and a piece of paper was printed out, Mitzi got the reassurance she needed. "You sure are," came the man's reply.

He gathered up the paper along with Mitzi's keys and one of the yellow jackets like Mitzi had seen earlier, and handed them off. With all of this stuff to carry (including her backpack, which she'd forgotten about), she decided she had best get to her room, so she gave a, "Thank you!" before scampering off.

"Hmm," C.J. said as he looked at the potion, "I hadn't even noticed it fall." He looked Meep over for a second, Meep didn't look like he would be the sort to have a whole lot of items with him, "Nah that's okay, you keep it. I've got more then enough." He looked over towards the window for a moment. "Wow. It's getting pretty dark, if you want to look around we should head out now before it get's worse."

He looked to Meep's Eevee, Heart, "Of course if he was the one pushing you to go exploring it doesn't do much good if he's asleep." C.J. laughed a bit. "But it's up to you, what would you like to do?" he asked as he walked over to his Pokemon. He withdrew his poke balls calling Custos and Ax back within them, they could do with a long rest he had a big day planned for tomorrow.

C.J. sat back down awaiting Meep's decision. He studied the interior of the Dorm intently. Some might think he was a suspicious guy but in reality he just loved to know everything about everything. A thirst for knowledge you might say, although how much you could learn staring at walls and the like is debatable.

He yawned and stretched, as he did his stomach growled, "Huh," he said, "the cafeteria may be a good place to start, we could learn the class placement that way too. I think they are holding something that way tomorrow for Thanksgiving as well so it be good to know where we are going then." He glanced back to Meep, the poor guy looked like he wasn't use to being treated so nice, C.J. wasn't always kind to everyone himself but that usually just extended to his mood swings.

"I'm going to do my best to befriend him," he thought to himself, "he looks like he needs a good friend, and I could certainly due with one as well."

Meep (Suicune Dorm Lobby)

Meep glanced down at the Hyper Potion, then back to C.J. He couldn't figure out if his lack of attention to the lost item was genuine or if he was actually testing him. One thing was for certain, though. Meep had made his first friend at the Academy.

"I can really have this? Thanks!"

He immediately stored the potion in his bag, then looked outside the window as well.

"You're right. It is getting pretty dark..."

He then glanced over to the sleeping Heart. Being a newly hatched Pokemon, of course it'd be normal for her to be so exhausted at this time of the day... But he knew that she wouldn't mind if she were to sleep in the bag for a bit longer.

"I don't think it would be too much trouble to take a quick walk around... I'm good with a trip to the cafeteria, but I need to see what Fluffernut and FoxFire want to do. Is it alright with you two if I stay out a bit longer?"

FoxFire had a look of concern for a moment, but she was distracted by Fluffernut who began to hop up and down with excitement. After that, she merely closed her eyes and nodded, but walked up to Meep's side, as if she was going to chauffeur the two boys during their trip. Fluffernut quickly appeared beside C.J. and grabbed his hand, much like a big brother would join hands with his younger sibling. Meep smiled at the sight of his Pokemon taking such a liking to his new friend.

"Well, I guess they're coming along with us! Hope you don't mind."

Meep (Academy Cafeteria)

While they were walking, Meep decided to observe what the others were doing. FoxFire was still walking between them while Fluffernut still hadn't loosened his grip on C.J.'s hand. Heart was still asleep, though she had stirred once or twice during their trip. After refocusing on his path, he decided to answer C.J.'s earlier question.

"To tell you the truth, Celadon City isn't as active as you think it would be," he began to explain. "Aside from hanging out at the shopping center, there's not a lot of things to do there. Most days I would help my father around the daycare. Anyway, let's go inside. I'm famished!"

Meep walked up to the doors and tried to open them. Unfortunately, they were locked. The kitched must have closed earlier in the evening.

"Aw man. So much for a late meal... Wait! I just remembered something!"

Without hesitation, he reached into his bag, careful not to disturb Heart, and pulled out a couple of sandwiches and some peaches and apples.

"I completely forgot that my mother had packed these for me! What's even better is that there's more than enough for all of us!"

Ruby Sapphire Fiona Destiny - near the pokemon center

When both boys agreed Ruby started to smile and clasped her hands. 'Let's go then~' Ruby cheerfully said. Jack already went outside with his pokemon and Kilik's pokemon followed. Kilik had mentioned something about Mistress evolved into Zoroark. 'I'm still cuter~' Yuki jumped around when Kilik had said that.

Ruby, Yuki and Hikari, sitting on Ruby's shoulder, went outside. Yuki running forward them. 'Can't wait to explore!' Yuki jumped around, following her own tail like a playful kitty.

'Kilik? You're our guide, show us the way.' Ruby said to him. Ruby actually didn't know where the Rocky Mountains were, and neither did one of her pokemon, well... Maybe Kyuubi would but he's sleeping right now and Ruby didn't want to wake him up.

Meep (Outside Academy Cafeteria)

Before Meep settled down to eat his ration, he gave an apple and a peach to Fluffernut and Foxfire, both of them proceeding to nibble on the fruit. He then unwrapped his sandwich and took a bite out of the corner, replying to C.J.'s remark about Celadon City, food still in his mouth.

"Well, Celadon City was much more interesting in the past, in my opinion, so you're not wrong by thinking of it as an excitement associated with it. It's just that a lot of wealthy or aristocratic families have moved in over the last few years. They've taken over most of the popular hang-out spots like the shopping center and the Game Corner and seemed to take the fun from those locations. A lot of the younger population could see that the city was being ruined by the "buzzkills", so they chose to moved to Saffron City because of the popular focus on cutting-edge virtual reality that Silph Co. was researching. My mother actually considered moving us there at one point as well, but father made her realize that we couldn't abandon the family daycare, so it was decided that we would stay in Celadon."

After he and his Pokemon finished their meal, he got to his feet and brushed the dirt off of himself.

"Yeah, it is a bit later than I thought I'd stay out for," Meep agreed with C.J. "We should start walking, or we might get into trouble with the staff. Fluffernut, would you please use Charge and light our way?"

Fluffernut gulped down the last of his apple, then walked in front of Meep and C.J. and proceeded to rapidly rub himself down. It didn't take long for static to start flying from all over his body, and shortly after that, his wool coat began to emit a bright light that dispersed the shadows and revealed the paved path that lead back to the Suicune Dorms. Meep couldn't help but show some of his pride for his talented Flaafy. Even FoxFire was wearing a gleeful expression toward her partner.

"Don't you find Fluffernut's talents absolutely epic?" he asked C.J. with a tone of wonder. "I know he was raised as a Contest Pokemon, but his skills never cease to amaze me, no matter how many times I've witnessed them..." Meep then gave off a heavy sigh, followed by a moment of silence, after which he resumed, "To tell you the truth, I'm a complete novice at raising my own Pokemon. I've never had a Pokemon battle in my life, so I only know how to perform in a Contest... But I've always longed to have a battle with someone else... Sorry, I must be boring you to death. Let's get going. Lead the way, Fluffernut."