Hey everyone! Didn't expect me to come back so soon, huh?

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone that has favorites, followed, or reviewed the story. This chapter was once again written on my phone, so if you see any mistakes, please point them out in a review! (comment my story, while you're at it ;) I'm a bitch, lul)

I'm back from my trip after 31 hours of travel. It's long, especially when you get dyspepsia as soon as you leave.

Review;

Redandready25: Thank you for the kind words! I try to avoid the cliché as much as possible, because I hate them, too. However, sometimes it's impossible to avoid them and I have to implement some cliché elements, to my utmost displeasure lol.

Making a troubled kid/delinquent was pretty much my goal, so it relieves me to see that it can be seen through text.

As for Noryokus seen by the outside world, we'll see more of that later, but I can tell you that they are discriminated. Mostly because of jealousy.

And yes, Cynthia is like a Dumbledore. Actually, every member of my staff is based off another fictional character, I'm having too much fun.

No more wasting time, here is chapter 5!

The bell rang as I was making my way to the cafeteria. While normally it would take a respectable amount of time to get to a place I didn't know the location, I had knack for finding food. Whenever I got lost as a kid, instead of calling the police like every mother who had lost their child would, Mum would walk to the nearest restaurant and sure enough, I was there. It's like my subconscious had a food detector, and whenever I didn't have a place in mind, it would lead me to food.

So I was walking without aim through the halls, hoping I would arrive in the cafeteria soon enough. I was discussing the recent events with my buddy, like I would usually do when I was alone. To the outsider, I would look like a lunatic, talking to my school bag. Indeed, Pikachu was currently hiding in my bag, complaining that the A.C. was too cold.

Soon enough, I caught the smell of food, and I was able to move surely towards the place that would allow me to please my stomach. I finally reached the place I was looking for. The cafeteria was huge! For a school that held below a thousand students, it was a bit exaggerated. I looked around trying to find a table where I could eat.

I looked around for a few minutes, before I noticed the three guys from my room sitting at one table. They noticed me, and Gary gestured me to come over. I started making my way to the table, but I soon had to stop, because I bumped into someone, sending them sprawling to the floor. The carrot top got up quickly, murderous intent on her face.

"Watch where you're going, stupid!" she all but screamed at me. Knowing that I was the one that bumped into her, I decided to let the "stupid" comment slide. I just wanted to get to my food as fast as possible.

"Sorry," I muttered the apology, my eyes fixated on the table, where someone had been nice enough to bring me a plate. I tried to get around the shorter girl but she went in front of me blocking my path. I raised an eyebrow, silently asking her what in the world she was doing.

"You don't get to eat until I get my water back," she stubbornly said, crossing her arms and firmly planting her feet on the ground. She looked to the ground and I followed her gaze. The water bottle that she got for her lunch. Really? There's a water fountain every 15 meters or so, and you feel the need of getting a water bottle? How dumb do you have to be? Really not in the mood to deal with such a brat, I just picked up the bottle and handed it to her.

"Here, now you can walk about 5.7 seconds to get to the nearest fountain and fill your bottle. Problem solved. Happy?"

"I'm not walking one more step that I would have had to if you didn't knock me over, stupid." Was this girl for real? I looked at her more carefully. I realized that this girl was the one in my science class that had ditched May. How May could be friend with that was beyond be. Testing my luck, I just walked past the redhead and started going toward my table.

"What exactly are you gonna do about it, ginger?" I taunted. She fell for the taunt way harder than I expected her to. She suddenly went deadly calm, but I could practically hear her fuming in anger. She suddenly made a motion as if she had a golf club in her hands, and snapped her head towards me. She swung her hands my way, as if wanting to hit me. I don't know if she overestimated the length of her arms, but there was a good meter between her fists and my face.

However, three inches from my face, a huge, wooden mallet suddenly appeared, with every intention of hitting my head off my body like a golf ball off a tee. Thankfully, thanks to my ability, I was narrowly able to avoid the strike. I took a step back, eyes wide. I don't know which one of us was more surprised. I was surprised because a mallet suddenly appeared next to my face. She actually tried to kill me! She was surprised that my head was still resting on my neck.

She then went berserk. She made large motions with her whole body, trying to hit me with that overgrown hammer. I'm surprised she hasn't destroyed everything yet. Her swings were chaotic, with no thought put into them. She was just trying to reduce me to the state of a puddle on the floor. I, on the other hand, was concentrated on dodging her strikes. I was thankful for my reflexes, otherwise I would have been dead a long time ago.

I jumped, ducked, sidestepped, rolled… everything to prevent me from getting hit by that thing. The scene had attracted quite the mass of onlookers, it's a wonder that no staff members tried to intervene. From the start, I was on the defensive. However, when the red-haired girl in front of me overextended and threw her arms in a large, overhead arc, I went on the offense. I rolled into her, catching her off guard. She brought her mallet close to her, falling into my trap I faked a hit to her face, and she closed her eyes by reflex. I smirked as she did a blind swing towards me. I tilted my body sideways, effectively dodging the hit. However, before she could bring her hammer back, I grabbed it, pulled it towards me, and kneed the handle, snapping the wooden weapon in half.

We both stood there, panting. A good number of the student body was present, and started clapping. They probably thought it was a show. For the girl in front of me, however, it was far from a joke.

"You- "

"Misty, that's enough."

The voice that probably saved my life today came from behind the monster before me now known as Misty. A brown-haired girl that I have never seen before put her hand on Misty's shoulder, making the redhead turn towards her. She gave the tomboy a stern look, and my almost killer sighed. She made a motion in the air as if she was unzipping a pocket, and a hole opened in midair. It was weird, it was like someone spilled their coffee, but the liquid never fell down, forming a puddle in midair instead. She threw the remnants of her weapon in the portal and it disappeared.

I heard of that ability. It was pocket dimension. It allowed the Noryoku to open up a portal to an alternate dimension, where you could store any object, as long as you were able to lift it. Like a freakishly huge wooden mallet for instance. I wonder what other deadly things she hid in there. After throwing her hammer, Misty stormed off, probably towards her table. I turned my head to the girl that was left.

"What's her problem?" I asked, still a bit shook by the encounter. She looked at me and her gaze softened to an almost pitying on.

"Oh, normally, Misty isn't like that. Something unfortunate happened to her this morning, and that put her into a mood. But yeah, Misty has a temper."

"What is possibly so bad that could have put her in such a violent mood? I mean, yeah, shit happens, but you just have to get over it," I said. The last part of my comment was a jab at the seething redhead, who was still within earshot. She turned her head and glared at me, which I graced with a cheeky grin, coupled with a wink.

"Well, Misty and me bike to school every morning, because, you know, it's a pain to get here from the dorms. While she was parking her bicycle, a huge thunderbolt came pretty much out of nowhere and reduced her bike to a pile of ashes. She swore to find the culprit, and to pound them to the ground. Something that you rendered impossible."

Halfway through her explanation, the color gradually left my face, leaving it like bed sheets in a hotel room. I knew exactly where that thunder came from.

Flashback

The crowd gave a loud cheer, to which my buddy answered by showing off. He flipped off my shoulder and called a thunder on himself, which he redirected off the side. I just hope the attack didn't hit anything.

Oh well, I know to always expect the worse when it comes to luck. However, I could thank whatever sick deity was controlling my life for once, as Pikachu was invisible, cozy inside my backpack. For once that his laziness came in handy.

After a little bit more small talk with the girl now known as Leaf, I was finally able to reach the table where my roommates had given up waiting for me, halfway through their meal. I sat down in front of the now cold plate of spaghetti.

"Crazy day, huh?" Believe it or not, it was actually Paul that started the conversation. I went over everything that had happened to me from when I opened my eyes at 7:00 up to this point. I tried to prank Pikachu and got a bruise to the forehead for it, created a nickname for Drew that he's probably going to get revenge for, humiliated a guard, fried a bike, made enemy with a creep, got sent to the principal, and got into a fight. All of that within the span of 5 hours. Undoubtedly the most eventful morning of my existence.

"Tell me about it," was all I said. We all kept straight face for about 30 seconds, until I let out a chuckle. Then another. Gary joined in, then Drew followed. Even Paul joined in. After about 10 seconds, we couldn't hold it in anymore, and we all started cracking up. Loudly. People were staring, but we didn't stop, nor did we care. At this point, I didn't even know why I was laughing, but it relieved the stress of my eventful morning so I welcomed the medicine.

"Did you really knock out the science teacher?" Drew asked incredulously. I was about to answer but Gary took things over from there.

"You should have been there. Ash's Pikachu just shocked the living day lights out of the teacher. He got sent to the principal immediately afterwards!"

"Yeah, I heard the announcement over the P.A.," he turned to me. "What did she say?" Everybody leaned in, eager to say what the estimated Cynthia Shirona had said about my numerous stunts of the morning.

"She actually let me off pretty good, I only got to go to her office later to get some 'adequate punishment' or something. Probably going to be detention or something like this. Maybe cleaning? I don't really know. She actually said she was impressed because I had the guts to go through with what I did."

Drew whistled appreciatively, but Gary wanted some other info, the juicy stuff.

"So, Ash, any chicks got your attention yet?"

Subtle, as always.

I tried to hide any reaction, because I knew that if I showed the smallest of signs, it would be the end of me. However, before I knew it, my head had turned slightly, and my gaze found May at the table across, where she sat with Leaf, Misty, and the unnamed blue-haired girl. Coincidentally, May had been staring at me, and our gaze met each other. We both looked away, slightly blushing, pretending the brief contact never happened. The whole exchange lasted about one second in a half, but it was enough for Gary to notice.

"No fucking way!" I scowled, knowing the rest of the dinner would be used for annoying me. The loud exclamation got the attention of Drew, who showed interest in what would followed. Even Paul, noticeably leaned in, interested in what would follow.

"What?" Drew, who wanted to know what was going on, asked.

"Ketchum has an eye on Maple!" Gary loudly exclaimed. Paul, hearing this, just chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"I do not 'have an eye on her'," I defended myself.

"You totally think she's hot."

"Shut up."

"I don't hear you denying it."

"What part of shut up don't you understand?"

"Alright, Romeo."

I glared at Gary, to which he only laughed. I decided to ignore him and turned to Drew, who had stayed silent during the exchange.

"Don't you have anything to say?" I asked, genuinely surprised he hadn't jumped on the opportunity to tease me.

"Good luck with that," was all he drily said. Why so salty?

"May has the reputation of turning down every guy that has asked her out. Drew included."

Gary always had a knack to annoy people.

"I didn't ask her out," the chartreuse-haired boy protested indignantly.

"Yeah, cause she friendzoned you as you were about to ask her."

"Shut up."

"Sure thing, Grasshead."

Drew gave Gary the most hateful glare I have seen in a long time, and threatened Gary.

"Say that one more time and I will get my revenge."

"I'm looking forward to it, Grasshead."

"I will c-"

"On another subject," Gary turned to me. "Did you know that May is the daughter of our math teacher?"

-0-

Everyone was in the school's sport uniform, sitting in the stands of the exterior football court, which was situated behind the main building, waiting for the teacher to show up. It didn't take long.

Lieutenant Surge was huge. Clocking in at an imposing 6 foot 9, he wasn't the guy you wanted to meet in a dark alley at night. If that wasn't enough, every part of his body was bulging with muscles, making the man weigh at least 250 pounds. He had a classic gym teacher outfit, with navy blue nylon pants, with a white stripe running up the side of each leg. He also wore a classic white t-shirt that was stretched to its limit by his bulky torso. His blond hair was groomed in a military buzz cut.

"ALRIGHT YOU BUNCH OF LAZY EGGPLANTS," the man screamed, easily gathering the attention of everyone present in the class. "WHILE I'M NORMALLY SUPPOSED TO TAKE ATTENDANCE, I WON'T. WE GOT NO TIME TO WASTE. THIS AIN'T NO KIDDIE CLASS HERE, THIS IS THE ARMY. AND IF I SEE ONE OF YOU COMPLAIN, YOU WILL SEE ME AFTER CLASS WHERE YOU WILL GET A PRIVATE CLASS."

Nobody knew what to say. The man seemed rather intense, not somebody you'd want to anger. We all decided to keep our mouth shut, really, really wanting to avoid a private class with the mountain of a man.

"I SEE THAT I MADE MYSELF CLEAR," he seemed pleased with himself. "WE'RE WASTING SECONDS NOW! EVERYONE! THREE LAPS! AND FAST."

Everybody got to their feet in panic and started running around the court. With Lieutenant pressuring everybody to go faster with sentences like:

"MY GRANDMOTHER RUNS FASTER THAN THE LOT OF YOU. AND SHE'S DEAD!"

Or:

"THE CARROTS MY WIFE PLANTS GROW FASTER THAN YOU RUN!"

And again:

"ARE Y'ALL WEARING HIGH HEELS? CAUSE I'VE NEVER SEEN SUCH POOR RUNNING FORM."

I'm a guy who has a lot of energy. The doctor back in Pallet said I was borderline hyperactive, but didn't give me meds because he told my mom that my extra energy could easily be spent if I did physical activity. So everyday, my mom pushed me to go run and exercise my body. She said It was for my health, but I know the main reason is that she doesn't want to have to deal with a hyper kid. I would probably break things.

Since I was pretty in shape from exercising pretty frequently, I was better off than most students. But even then, the speed at which Surge made us run was pretty straining. It took two minutes less than I would have taken to complete the three laps, because I tried to put as much distance between me and the hulking teacher as possible during the run.

I was slightly winded, but I was good to go. The same could not be said for certain students. There were people lying on the ground, gasping for air, desperately trying to get their breath back. Lieutenant could be seen standing in the middle of the mass of students, arms crossed, not impressed.

"IT WAS ABOUT TIME THAT WE PULLED YOU LAZY ASSES FROM YOUR SUMMER AND FORCED YOU TO DO SOME REAL WORK. HERE, WE WON'T BE PLAYING AROUND. THIS IS THE ARMY, DAMN IT. AND WHEN I'M DONE WITH ALL OF YOU, YOU'LL EITHER BE DEAD OR YOU'LL BE GRATEFUL."

Even if the man was intense, I could see that he enjoyed his work, and he really just liked to force us to push our limits and get out of our comfort zone. The teacher gained a lot of my respect at that moment, and I was eager to continue the class.

"ALRIGHT, NOW, I WANT ALL OF YOU TO DROP DOWN AND GIVE ME 30."

I got into a basic push-up position. However, before I could start the tedious exercise, a timid voice spoke up.

"30 what?"

"PUSH-UPS, YOU DIM-WITTED SEA CUCUMBER. BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPIDITY, EVERYBODY HAS TO DO 50 OF 'EM!"

"What? But that's not fair!" some students complained.

"60!"

Everyone groaned and got ready to push. The grin I was wearing on my face was contrasting the scowls of my peer. I enjoyed pushing myself, and I knew that this teacher wouldn't let me down. I was done before anyone else, and I stood up. I shook off the weariness in my muscles and turned to the teacher who was staring at me, an impressed glint in his eyes.

"YOU, BOY!"

"Yes?" I straightened my back.

"WHAT'S YOUR NAME?"

"Ash Ketchum, sir!" I answered, trying to keep the pride from seeping into my voice.

"THAT WAS SOME PRETTY GOOD FORM, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO RELAX. SINCE YOU'RE DONE, HOW ABOUT YOU GIVE ME ANOTHER LAP, HUH? THINK YOU CAN DO THAT?" I could tell he was challenging me.

I don't know why, but I really wanted the respect of this particular teacher. This surprised me, because I normally didn't care about teachers, often opting to ignore their orders or their help. Maybe it was the fact that P.E. was my favorite class, or maybe it was the way the teacher looked down on us, believing we couldn't follow him. I wanted to prove him wrong and earn his respect.

My gaze squinted, and he grinned, knowing he got me. I set off around the court, running twice as fast as the first time around. I was running at about 80% of my maximum speed, and I held the pace for the whole lap. Sometime during my run, he told the rest of the class to do the same.

When I was back, the teacher let out an impressed grunt.

"You're pretty tough, kid. Come and see me after you go to Cynthia's I might have something for you."

"You aren't screaming," I noted. He let out a hearty laugh at my remark.

"You kids are so easily intimidated! Scream a bit and nobody acts out of line!" I must have been staring, because he shook his head, still smiling.

"Anyways, please come and see me after class, you probably won't have a choice anyway."

Before I could ask what that meant, the other students finished their lap, and Lieutenant got back into his role.

"ALRIGHT, YOU BUNCH OF MOLDY TURNIPS, GATHER AROUND!"

-0-

I was heading to my last class of the day, Pikachu on my shoulder. Pokémon and ability training was the class I was looking forward to the most, as Pokémon battles are one of my favorite things. As a matter of fact, back in Pallet, most of my free time was spent in the neighboring fields or forest, training Pikachu to make him stronger. We were the only ones that took Pokémon battling and training seriously, so we quickly became the strongest duo in our very remote town. We would crush pretty much everybody our age, and adults either didn't have the time to battle or didn't want to, claiming it had been too long since they got into a battle.

We had a few enjoyable battles against a man and his Venusaur. We would lose every time, but we enjoyed it. It pushed us to do better. We would get closer to beat him each time, but he was out of our league. We got really strong trying to beat him, and our last battle ended in a draw. However, he had to move to another city, because he landed a job there, I think. All I could remember about him were his sad, brown eyes.

Hopefully, we will be able to find battle lovers like ourselves here, and we will get stronger. We made our way to the gym building, where the class would be held. In a very unusual fashion, I was the first to arrive to the class. The gym building had a hall, whose walls were made of glass, allowing me to see just how big the place was.

To my left, I could see normal and Pokémon battling fields, where I guess our class would be held. On the right, there was a huge tracks field, one that looked every bit like the one professionals use in competitions. In the back, there was the classical school gymnasium, meaning it was a multiple sport terrain. You could play indoor soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball, and badminton, from what I could tell.

There was a strong smell of chlorine coming from downstairs, hinting there was a pool under the building. Upstairs, there was a gym with machines for both human and Pokémon, as Paul told me.

"Ah! A student."

The voice made me turn around in shock. The man who had surprised me had red, spiky hair. His face showed amusement at my reaction. From what I gathered, this man was Mr. Wataru, who preferred to be called Lance. Apparently, he was one of the coolest teachers in the school.

"Don't scare me like this!"

He chuckled.

"You must be the new student. Ash Ketchum, was it? You made quite the noise, let me tell you."

"Yep," I said, popping put the "p". He seemed like a pretty laid back person.

Before the small talk could go on, more students arrived, one by one. Within three minutes, everyone was there. The teacher led us to the battling fields, confirming my earlier assumption. He turned to us when we made it to the human fighting grounds.

"Good afternoon, class." Greetings could be heard throughout the mass of students. "Welcome to the Pokémon and ability training course, where you will learn to defend yourselves with the help of your greatest allies, your Pokémon and your ability. As you know, this is the beginning of the year, and you might not all know each other. I believe a good battle is the best way to get to know your peers, so this is what will be on today's program. You each will fight two battles today, one Pokémon battle and a one on one fight. The matchups will be made by me. Since I want you to get to know each other, you will watch all the battles, and your battles will be watched." Nervous mutterings rose from the students. "We will start with… Let's see… Ah! I believe Ash Ketchum vs. Paul Shinji should do nicely."

Immediately, students started placing bets on who would win, which made the teacher frown, but he didn't say anything.

"The teacher is out of his mind! Putting him against Paul, poor guy doesn't stand a chance."

"I know, like, Paul has never lost in, like, his entire life."

I clearly wasn't the favorite here. Despite the overwhelming number of students claiming that I was fighting a lost battle, three people were going around placing bets on me. Gary, Drew, and surprisingly Misty were dealing with everybody willing to bet, confident that I would win.

My adversary and my walked to our corner of the fighting ground. We turned to our teacher, waiting for the signal to begin. He nodded, and turned to the class.

"Before we begin battling, I would like that you all let your partner Pokémon out, as I believe they will benefit from watching the battles." Following his statement, everyone let out their Pokémon. The diversity was unreal! Ranging from Kanto's fairly common Pidgeot to Pokémon I never saw in my life before. Was that a floating ice cream cone? Paul let out a huge turtle-like Pokémon who had a tree growing out of his back on the sidelines, and we faced each other. Pikachu took the hint and jumped from my shoulder and went alongside Paul's Pokémon.

"You have the right to use your abilities to their full extent. Battle is considered finished when one side is either unable to continue to battle or pushed out of the fighting area. Any injuries will be completely healed by our very own Nurse Joy, who willingly accepted to aid in this event."

The pink-haired woman who had welcomed me in the dorm building entered the room, a disgruntled look on her face.

"I only accepted because your stupid class has a high chance to greatly injure someone, I do not support this fighting in any way."

Ignoring her, Lance continued: "I only ask of you two two things. One, give it your all. Two, keep it clean guys. Now, are you ready?"

"Yes," Paul simply answered.

"Never more."

"Then why are you still waiting?"

As soon as the signal was given, we stalked toward each other, legs slightly bent, ready to jump. We circled each other, trying to read the other, not daring to make a move. We played like this for around 25 seconds. The room was completely silent. I knew that Paul wouldn't attack me first, and he knew that I would lose my patience at some point.

He shifted his stance slightly, assuming a more defensive position. I began the battle by throwing a kick to his legs, quickly followed by a punch to the head. He blocked the assault to his legs my deflecting my foot with his forearms, ducking under my punch by doing so. He came up with a punch to my midsection. Normally, the punch would have been impossible to dodge. However, since I am no normal person, I was able to side step the punch.

I quickly grabbed his arm and pull his whole body my way. I shifted my body some more and put one of my legs in the way. My trip attempt was successful, but Paul rolled with the fall before I could really get a signifiant hit in. I ran after him, trying to pressure him before he had time to recover. However, he was ready for the assault. He took a step forward and dropped low, throwing his leg in front of him while twisting his body, effectively mimicking a Low Sweep attack. Once again, my body reacted on its own and I jumped in the air.

Paul, guessing that my ability had something to do with reflexes, knew that I relied heavily on them. He knew that once he threw out his leg, I would jump. And in the air, I was much less mobile. He grabbed my shirt and kept his arm slightly above his head, immobilizing me in the air. He punched, and this time, I was unable to dodge.

The punch hit me like truck, throwing me backwards. I landed harshly on the mattress-covered floor, and shakily got back to my legs. There was only one explanation as to why that punch did so much damage despite my heightened resistance. Paul had super strength as one of his abilities. My bones were able to withstand the hit, but they probably would be broken if it wasn't for my ability. Thinking he had won, Paul had turned away, smirking to the teacher, not seeing that I had gotten back up.

I quietly made my way behind his back, careful not to alert him. Once I was close enough, I got his attention.

"Hey, asshat!"

He turned around, completely taken off guard. I slapped my hands on both of his ears. Hard. So much for keeping things clean. Whoops. While he held his his hands over his ears, completely disoriented, I took a step back. I then rammed into his body sending sprawling to the ground, beyond the boundaries. Lance stepped forward.

"Ash is the winner! Showing that the element of surprise can be the deciding factor of a match."

For a moment, there was no reaction from the students, disbelief written over their faces at my sudden and cheap victory. I don't know what would have been the outcome of the fight if I had decided to play fair, but I had won this one. Paul probably would want to take his revenge, someday. The silence was suddenly broken by three very happy voices.

"YEAH! Money bitches!"

"Language, Mr. Oak."

The comment by the nurse who was currently sending soothing pulses into Paul was completely ignored by Gary, who was going around, collecting money from everyone, along with Drew and Misty. All three of them were big smiles, the growls of our classmates procuring them happiness.

-0-

Making my way to the principal's office, I wasn't stressed in the slightest. Okay, that's a lie. I actually was growing more stressed by the second, apprehensive of the punishment I would have to endure. I went over the events of the last class to take my mind off things.

Paul had not been happy with his loss. He accepted it, however, saying he got cocky and careless. I know that I won that fight with dirty tactics, but if he's going to take the blame off me, let him, right?

We also had Pokémon battles in the second half of the period. There was a lot of good battles, like Misty's Psyduck against Gary's Wartortle, or Drew's Roserade against some girl's Axew. Mine, however, well… let's just say Lance didn't exactly do the best match up for this one.

I sent my Pikachu on the field, ready for a good battle. The lanky boy in front of me was feeling extremely doubtful about his chances as he sent his Ducklett on the field. Lance gave the signal, and I wasted no time.

"Pikachu, thunderbolt."

The yellow bolt raced forward, and our adversaries closed their eyes closed simultaneously. The poor Pokémon didn't stand a chance. The little duck caught the four-times effective attack to the face and went down with a quack of despair.

The person I faced probably will try to forget that one.

Before I knew it, I was in front of the wooden double doors, who swung themselves open once more. I entered the office, and the doors closed themselves again. The principal had her back turned to me, dramatically looking out the window, gazing at the children who were making their way back to the Dorms Building. I rolled my eyes at the cliché, and took a seat.

"Greetings, Ash," she said while turning around to face me. "I trust that you have been showing a more adequate behavior since our last meeting?" My mind flashed back to the fight I had with Misty, and I quickly nodded before any emotions betrayed what happened. "Good. Now, this will be quick. I had originally prepared punishment for you, however, one of your teachers contacted me, wishing to hand you your punishment. You will still serve an hour of detention this Friday, but the rest will be up to the Lieutenant Surge. You can go and see him."

I rose from my seat and exited the office, my face void of any color. I didn't know what to expect from the Lieutenant. On one hand, the man had shown some sort of interest in me, and it is now particularly showing since he has asked to be the one to handle my punishment.

On the other hand, I saw just how intense the man could get, and I doubt that he was fully pushing us during the class. One thing was sure. My punishment would be grueling, both mentally and physically.

I headed back to the Gym Building, where I was told the gym teacher was waiting for me. He also asked that I bring Pikachu along, as he had a part in my acts of delinquency. After the 10 minutes of walk, I finally entered the building, partner on my shoulder.

The imposing man was sitting in the hall, waiting for my appearance. His head turned once he heard the door opening, and he rose to his full height.

"Good, you're here. Follow me."

I followed the huge man upstairs, trying to guess what my punishment would be. It was obviously something physical, since we were going to the gym floor. But just how physical?

"You're probably wondering what you will be doing here, no?"

"As a matter of fact, I am."

"Let me tell you, then. Your punishment for the act you committed will be…" I braced my self. "Nothing."

"Huh?"

Surge boomed out laughing at my reaction. His laugh was loud, but happy. He then turned to me, a more serious expression in his face.

"During the class, I saw that you like to be pushed to your limits. Am I right?" I nodded. "It's rare that I get so much spirit in a little punk like you, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I'm offering to train you and your Pikachu here for as long as you'd like. It would be an hour, here, four days a week. I can't tell you more unless you accept."

I was surprised, to say the least. Not only I wasn't getting punished, but I was given the opportunity to get some privileges. The proposition seemed good. I would be able to see exercises that I would be able to employ in my work out sessions later on, and he even offered to train Pikachu.

"The training will be harsh, but the results will be more than worth it, and I think you'll like it."

Before I could accept, I had to ask questions.

"Why take me out of my punishment?"

"Cynthia is no imbecile. She probably already gave you your punishment, as she knew there wouldn't be some big-time punishment with me. So I'm no taking you out of it."

I blinked. That was true.

"What's in it for you?"

"The satisfaction that at least one kid in his school is not some spineless broccoli."

What's with all the vegetable disses?

"You said you'd train Pikachu. How would you do that?"

Instead of answering me, he just smirked and reached in his pocket, pulling out a Pokéball. He pressed the button in the center, and a Raichu materialized in front of us. It was a powerful creature, who looked every bit as quick as it looked to be powerful. It's common misconception to think that Raichu is slower than Pikachu. That is not the case. It is only the case with recently evolved Raichus, who need some time to get used to the additional bulk in their body. However, after a few days, they get used to it, and their powerful legs make them speedier than they ever were.

"You're looking at the most powerful Raichu in the region," he said with pride clear in his voice. "She'll be the one to train your little Pikachu."

I looked at the Pokémon on my shoulder, and I knew I had to accept. The prospect of getting stronger, trained by the most powerful Pokémon of his evolutionary line, had set ablaze his determination. He looked at me, fire in his eyes. He probably wanted to prove that he was strong, even as a Pikachu.

Pikachu actually had the chance to evolve but he declined. Not that he was against it, he actually wants to evolve someday. But he wants to be as strong as possible before doing so. That way, he is sure to become the most powerful.

I decided the proposition needed no further thought, and I extended hand.

"We accept."

So, how was it? Good? bad? terrible? Terrible in a review!

Some of you might find it uncharacteristic of Ash to behave that way around a teacher, but I have my reasons ;)

So we touched a bit more on abilities this chapter, but believe me, we didn't even scratch the surface yet.

Also fight scenes! Tell me how they were, how I can ameliorate them, anything really. I'm aware that there wasn't a Pokémon battle in this chapter, but that is because they are for another chapter.

I think that's all! Like always, please review! They are really helping, more than you'd think!

Blade-a-Blaze, signing out.