Hello everyone! I've been away from the Pokémon SYOC community and I've come back to find that the landscape has changed from when I was more active on here. This community was once populated with many Pokémon Academy stories and now I see a very diversified library of stories to pick from that range from stories about murder to stories about paths crossing again. There are still academy stories though I only see one author with an interconnected universe of stories which I find very impressive so kudos to you! You know who you are if you're reading this.

Anyways, now that I'm back, I want to go back to my roots. I started with my own Pokémon Academy series which was an SYOC story that followed Alex and Mark through their first year at Pokémon Academy. I then rebooted the story, renamed it Star Academy, and opened a brand new SYOC application before abandoning that story as well. Now, years later, I still find myself coming back to this original idea but with a twist. Rather than start from Alex and Mark's first day of school or tell you how they got to the academy, we're starting from their second year. I will also be using some of my favorite characters that were provided to me from the previous stories, so this iteration will not be a continuation to either of its predecessors. It will be its own unique story. In fact, you can basically consider the original Pokémon Academy, Star Academy, and Aether Academy three different stories in a multiverse. The core series Pokémon games exist in a multiverse so why not apply that here?

I want you all to know that I'm doing this for fun so keep the flames out of the review section. The only things I want in the reviews are constructive criticism, theorizing/speculation, and, yes, responses to the QOTD! Now without further ado, let's begin.

[Update 11/27]: Hey guys! I just wanted to let you guys know that I've decided to change Eric's dragalge into a dragonair. This has no real impact on the chapter or even on the greater plot. It just made more sense for Eric and Ava to be sitting on a smooth-bodied serpent than a spiny seadragon that secretes poison. That's all, really.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of its characters. These are the intellectual properties of Nintendo and the Pokémon Company.

Aether Academy

Prologue

There are many pokémon academies scattered throughout the world, each dedicated to developing its students' potential so that they can become the next gym leaders, elite four, and champions. The Alola Region does not have a traditional pokémon league like other regions, however. Though it may have established an elite four and champion recently, the champion, Elio Albright, and his elite four members could not bear to abandon the island trials that fostered the strong bonds between themselves and their pokémon and carried the tradition of Alola's people for many generations. It is for this reason that after Lusamine Quintana, the former Aether Foundation president, resigned from her post, Aether Island was converted into Aether Academy, a school where students from all over Alola and furthermore, from all over the world, can gather to learn about the beauty of pokémon, not just as combatants but also as friends and equals.

Alex rolled his emerald eyes at the long-drawn-out explanation that Mark had given the five-year-olds who asked them where they were going with all of their luggage. The eevee sitting atop Alex's head licked her paws out of boredom and the children seemed to share the same sentiment with large yawns. The explanation seemed to have gone over their heads as one of the children asked, "So are you guys criminals leaving the region or…"

Alex then jumped with his arms stretched out as he said, "That's right! We take kid's pokémon and sell them on the black market!"

"We don't have any pokémon yet."

Now Alex was in the awkward position with five kids looking up at him with confused looks. Like Alex did earlier, Mark rolled his crimson eyes and shot Alex a smirk. Mark was loving this. Alex then told the kids, "We also take lunch money and use it to buy eggs to throw at kids!"

Suddenly the boys started running away from Alex and Mark while screaming at the top of their lungs leaving Alex to laugh at his work. Mark let out a sigh and said, "Was that really the best thing to tell a bunch of kids?"

Alex simply shrugged and said, "Well what's the worst that could happen?"

"I don't know, maybe a mob of angry parents?"

"Nah, you worry too much," Alex said as he started walking into the ferry terminal, the wooden floor squeaking underneath his weight.

"If you say so," Mark responded while following his roommate. "Thanks again for picking me up from the airport, by the way. And tell your mom that I appreciate the lift."

"You already told her thanks."

Mark chuckled and said, "Yeah, you're right. I just can't help but thank her. She's always been so nice to me."

"Well you're only the biggest kiss-ass. You're every parent's dream."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with being polite."

"Only if you don't mind the smell."

"Oh, ha-ha!"

"Speaking of smell, how come your brother didn't come on the plane with you?"

"He did but as soon as we landed, he took off on Meteora's back to meet up with Ava in her hometown." Alex burst into laughter at the thought of Mark's older brother riding on a shelgon's back like a mudsdale or an arcanine. "What's so funny?"

Alex struggled to stop laughing but managed some pauses to say, "I-it's just…I can imagine Eric going 'Hyah! Hyah!' On his…on his shelgon! I mean what? Can…can they walk on water all of a sudden?!"

It finally clicked in Mark's head which made the boy laugh though not nearly as hard as his roommate. "You want to know what's really funny?"

"What?!"

"Meteora evolved into a salamence over the summer."

The laughter ceased immediately. Alex was left wide-eyed. "She w-what?"

"Yeah, she's a salamence now. A pretty big one too, probably like eleven foot seven, maybe eleven foot eight from head to tail."

"They don't even grow that big!"

"Yup. I mean, she's big enough for Eric to ride. Might fit Ava too."

"Hey, roomie?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not going to tell your brother I called him smelly, right?"

Mark tapped his chin with one finger, pretending to contemplate Alex's request. He said, "Hmmm…I don't know…What was that thing you called me? A kiss-" The crimson-eyed boy was cut off by the booming sound of the ferry's horn. "Hey, looks like the ferry is here. Come on, we should make line." Mark took hold of his suitcase and led the way to the terminal entrance.

Alex called as he followed behind, "Hey buddy…you never answered my question."

The skies over the Alola Region were clear for miles, perfect for flying on a pokémon's back. At least, for those who enjoyed doing so. Ava was not one of them. She had her face buried into Eric's neck and her arms clung to him like a komala's. At the slightest jerk in movement, she screamed her lungs out which made Eric chuckle to himself. She was too busy focusing on not letting go or looking down to notice.

She yelled into Eric's ear, "Why did I agree to this again?!"

"Because it's quicker than a ferry ride!" he shouted back. Meteora roared in agreement, which only made Ava flinch. "Did you just jump?"

"Meteora scared me!" she yelled defensively.

Eric rolled his eyes before instructing his salamence to go down. Ava was pushed closer to Eric, making her hold on tighter than before. The crimson-eyed young man felt uncomfortable, but he endured it. Meteora descended steadily until she was flying several feet above the waves.

Over his shoulder, Eric yelled, "You can look now. We're just above the water."

Ava was hesitant to look but after Eric urged her again, she cracked open one of her golden eyes and felt slightly less scared. She kept telling herself that worst case scenario, if she were to fall into the ocean, she would not hurt herself and Eric could just pull her back up. Her grip around him eased, letting Eric know that she was more comfortable.

"Hey, look," he said as he pointed at the reef. They could see many marine pokémon like wishiwashi, gorebyss, and tentacool. "You don't really get to see this from a ferry."

Ava smiled as she said, "Yeah, you've got a point there."

Suddenly, Meteora beat her powerful wings with all her might to fly up. "Meteora! What gives?!" Eric shouted at his pokémon. It became clear when he heard a huge splash followed by a loud roar. Ava did not tighten her grip fast enough, so she grasped onto Eric's red vest for dear life. She looked down only to find a twenty-foot sea beast staring at her like it just found lunch.

"Gyarados!"

Eric straightened Meteora out, but Ava was still left dangling at an awkward angle, making it difficult for the dragon to fly. The young man reached out for her free hand but a powerful hydro pump from the Gyarados smashed into Meteora's underside, causing the girl to lose her grip. She screamed as she scrambled to pull her Loungefly backpack off her shoulder to reach the poké balls inside.

"No!" Eric yelled as Meteora flew down with him on her back. Ava realized immediately that he was right. If she were to open her backpack, everything inside would most likely fly out. She even felt everything near the zipper. Eric commanded Meteora to fight off the incoming gyarados before leaping down to catch Ava. The two fell into the water but Eric was quick to pull out his dragalge's poké ball to call it out.

Meteora launched a blast of colorful flames at the gyarados to distract it from attacking the humans. The gyarados retaliated with hydro pumps but Meteora kept moving at a distance to avoid any damage. Once Eric felt like she had an opening he called out, "Use zen headbutt on its body!" Meteora curved her path to fly directly towards the gyarados and as she did, she concentrated her mental energy into her already sturdy forehead, which caused it to glow blue. When Meteora smashed her head into the gyarados' neck, the sea beast roared in pain before toppling over. The splash carried waves outward in every direction, even making the dragonair move back with the current. Eric then called Meteora over so that Ava could climb onto her back. He followed and called his dragonair back into her poké ball before flying Meteora as far away from there as possible.

"Well that was an interesting way to start the school year," Eric said to break the tension.

Ava let out a sigh of relief before smiling and saying, "Yeah, I'll say."

And there you have it. That's the beginning of Alex and Mark's second year and Eric and Ava's fourth year at Aether Academy. This story won't be so plot heavy like Star Academy was but I think it'll be a bit more organized than my Pokémon Academy series was. Think of this as its own standalone story. Fun fact: I initially planned for Eric and Ava to end up dating but never got that far into the story to make it happen.

Now I want to let you all know that this story is indeed an SYOC though I already have my main and recurring cast, so any characters submitted to this story will appear once or twice. If I really like them, I might make them recurring characters but for now, no promises. If you're interested in submitting a character, go check out my profile. It has all the information you'll need to know.

Now for the QOTD: For those of you who have read my earlier works, who was your favorite character that I've written? For those of you who are new to my writing, what type of character would you be most excited to see my write out?

That's everything for today so this is Legacy signing off. Until next time!