Stacking The Balls - Chapter 1

With a yawn, his eyes opened blearily, blinking the sleep away and rolled over to his right-

A yelp of pain left his throat as he found himself slamming into the cold wooden floor, his forehead striking the hard surface with an audible thump. A pained, confused groan left his mouth and for a moment, he just lay there.

"Damnit…" he growled and sat up, rubbing his forehead. Only to stop and stare stunned.

'This isn't my bedroom.' Ronan thought to himself. He should have realised that right away when his face hit the floor, granted, while it woke him up right quick he was a bit disoriented from you know, hitting his head.

…For one thing, his bedroom floor had a carpet. Secondly, his bed was at the other side of the room, with the right side pressed up against the wall, so if he rolled right, he wouldn't fall off the bed.

His head swivelled from side to side, slowly and mechanically. Taking in the small box shaped room he was in, little more than twelve feet by twelve feet at most.

It was a lot smaller than his bedroom, albeit he shared a bedroom at his orphanage, but still. There was a single bed, a wardrobe with a mirror on the front, a wooden table with a small stool in front of it and a flat screen pc atop the table, while deep green curtains covered the window.

"What…the hell?" Ronan muttered to himself, completely perplexed. Just where on Earth was he? Had he been kidnapped while he was asleep or something?

No that didn't make sense. Why would somebody kidnap him? And if they did? Why put him up in a bedroom like this? Small it may have been, but it was a lot nicer than the place at the orphanage.

It had a pc and everything!

Standing up while rubbing his head still, Ronan was actually surprised to find the pain having dulled away already.

…Weird, though not that he was complaining.

As he was looking around, taking the room in, he blinked as his eyes landed on something, "…Wait…what?" he mouthed and just stared at what he saw.

There on the the desk beside the computer, he couldn't see it before while he was on the ground but now that he was standing up he could see it clearly.

A red rectangle shaped device, with odd squiggle like shapes, akin to lightning bolts jutting out of the end and wide expressive looking blue eyes staring up at him, "Good Morning Ronan." a voice echoed from it as those eyes focused on him.

And Ronan just gaped at what was clearly and unmistakably a Rotom Phone.

From Pokemon.

….Eh?

What?

How?

No….what?!

"This has got to be a dream." Ronan shook his head while gaping at the…hallucination? Dreamed up pokemon?

Why the hell would he be dreaming about a freaking Rotom phone though. If he was dreaming about pokemon, he should be dreaming about a Charizard, or the girls or something.

"According to my sensors, you are in fact awake student Ronan," the Rotom phone replied matter of factly, "Good timing too, I was just about to ring the alarm you asked me for last night, you have a busy morning what with it being your first day of class at the academy and such."

….What?

How utterly bizarre.

Sighing, Ronan shook his head as he tried to wrap his head around whatever the hell was happening and looked down.

Only to blink at what he saw.

He wasn't even dressed the same as he was last night. When he fell asleep, he was wearing just a pair of boxers, but now he was clad in a comfortable white tank top and grey sweat pants.

What the absolute hell was going on here?

It wasn't a conscious thought that had him spinning around rapidly, a blur of frantic speed as he turned to the mirror, a pit forming in his stomach. A pit that widened into a titanic black hole of shock, horror, fear and a rushing wave of cold sweat that swelled up out of his pores at what he saw.

Brown, messy medium length brown hair that fell to his nape. But his hair was black, and short and spiky. Bright green eyes, but his eyes were a pale blue. Even the height was wrong!

The boy looking back at him from the mirror was a little bit shorter and a bit wider built his shoulders noticeably broader.

…And while he hated to say it, the boy looking back at him was quite a bit more handsome. Especially since he had completely clear skin.

Honestly the kid staring back at him could have been a child actor or something with his looks.

Still though…this wasn't him at all.

It took him a moment to notice his breath was coming out in short, rapid pants and his fingers were shaking.

No, tremors were wracking his entire body.

Was he…hyperventilating!?

Panic began to rush through him as he tried to force himself to calm down, to no avail. Even as he tried to take deeper breaths, he failed totally and they just sped up and-

"Ronan, my sensors indicate a rapid rise in your heart rate and the possibility of a panic attack," the voice of the Rotom phone broke him from his thoughts and almost immediately, he felt the tension freeze up and dissipate, "Shall I call for assistance?"

A shuddering breath was exhaled from his lips, "No…no that's fine," Ronan gasped out and took a moment to slap his cheeks, hard. The sting from it helped clear his mind and he forced himself to think calmly and rationally. If this was real…and it was beginning to look like it, then he needed to take stock of his situation. How he ended up here, he didn't know, nor did he have any idea how to find out right now, but for the moment, that wasn't important, "Rotom, you mentioned an academy right, what do you mean?" he asked.

"An odd question," Rotom replied, and how weird was it, that this was an actual Rotom of all things?! "This is thee Pokemon Academy, the premiere learning institute where young students from all across the world gather to pursue their careers as pokemon trainers. I would think you of all people would know that after you were specially selected to receive a scholarship to this school, not many get that honour, only one every year."

"Like…Poketech Academy?" he blurted out.

Well, at least he knew where he was for the moment at least.

"Searching," was all Rotom said in response for a moment, before speaking up a second later, "Ah, Poketech Academy, I see. No, that is a much lower class of academy. This academy is the greatest of all pokemon learning institutes with experts from all across the globe contributing to the facilities, teaching staff and materials."

Okay, that was completely new to him. He'd been big into pokemon ever since he was a toddler, when he saw the anime for the first time as a four year old, and had been an avid fan for eleven years now.

And throughout all the games, manga and anime of pokemon, he'd never seen anything to do with an academy like this. Sure, there were pokemon schools spread throughout the regions that popped up, and Ash the main character of the anime even joined a few for a time, spent an entire season in one even during his time in Alola.

…But he'd never heard of one like this.

Still, that answered a little more. And the scholarship thing explained why he was physically here, or this body was, or whoever he was before.

…Who was also weirdly enough called Ronan.

That didn't matter though.

For now at least.

Walking over to the desk, Ronan picked the Rotom phone up and for a moment, could only stare in awe at it. This was a real living pokemon…technically. Rotom was a ghost after all. And was currently possessing a high tech phone.

Still, he forced himself not to geek over it and swallowed heavily, "This place seems pretty important then," he commented, "The question is then, why is it so important and when was it built?"

"Ronan, are you okay?" Rotom's eyes blinked and gave him a worried look, "Did you gain a fever or something through the night? You need to tell me these things if you have, as your personal assigned Rotom phone for your time here at Pokemon Academy, monitoring your condition, keeping track of your accomplishments and helping you to the best of my ability is my purpose."

….Shit, he'd made Rotom suspicious.

Not that he blamed the pokemon, he was obviously acting hella suspicious right now. Time to run some quick damage control.

"Nah, I'm fine Rotom, just a bit out of it from hitting my head a second ago," I laughed and rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, "And I just wanted to see if information you had as an assigned Rotom phone was deeper than normal public knowledge in case it comes up in classes."

"Oh, I see, that makes sense," Rotom hummed, "Very well, I suppose I can go into detail about the knowledge I have on the academy. It is a good time to explain more about things you'll be exposed to going forward anyway."

Whatever Ronan was expecting as an explanation for Pokemon Academy, none of it even came close to the absurdity of the truth.

Starting just a bit over ten years ago, the world was rocked by a multitude of catastrophes, that all started due to a criminal syndicate known as Team Cipher.

Who operated out of the Orre Region.

According to Rotom, while it was unknown how they did it, Team Cipher managed to get their hands on a multitude of legendary pokemon and put them and many other pokemon through a process known as shadowfication that turned pokemon into violent, angry, aggressive beasts and gave them a substantial power boost.

And with those shadow pokemon, Team Cipher completed a hostile take over of the Orre Region. And then it wasn't long before they started to expand outwards, high on their success, they attempted to breach into and take over multiple regions, only to be met with the protective forces of the regions, the Ace Trainers, the various Elite Four and of course, the champions.

Even with a multitude of legendary pokemon enhanced through shadowfication, they were defeated in the end due to the overwhelming strength of champions such as the newly christened champion at the time of Kanto and Johto, Lance Wataru of the Blackthorn Clan.

In the process of dealing with them though, much devastation was wrought across various regions. And things only got worse when the criminal organization Team Rocket in the shadow and took advantage of the chaos, spreading like a wave of locust as they attacked, destroyed and stole.

And things only got worse still, when in response to their actions, other criminal or terrorist groups rose to prominence in other regions like Hoenn with Team Magma and Aqua.

In the end, while they were mostly stamped down on, they were not completely squashed and would not go quietly into the night.

As such, the world became a much more dangerous place. It was not at all safe for young trainers to be to start out their journeys as they had been doing, especially after many of them had ended up stolen from by the likes of Team Rocket, or worse, dead.

As such, the Pokemon League itself decided that it was in peoples best interest for trainers to start their journeys later, and after going through mandatory schooling to make sure they were well prepared for the lives they would be living as trainers.

Pokemon Academy, while simply named, was the premiere academy that sprung up in the wake of the chaos. Unlike all the other academies, this academy specifically was located on a a large island, akin to a small country in size and was not legally a part of any region at all.

It was neutral ground amongst all the regions and it was decided that the best and brightest would come to Pokemon Academy, a place specifically designed to raise the best of the best and where hopefully, new gym leaders, ace trainers, elite four tier trainers and possibly even future champions would spring forth from.

'God damn.' Ronan thought as Rotom finished explaining the inception of Pokemon Academy to him. That was just crazy.

And it cleared up a whole lot for him, especially with the knowledge he had. With it, he was able to make a rough guess as to what happened.

In this world, by the looks of it, Team Cipher finished the Snag Machine and their plans quicker, and there was nobody around to stop them. Without a plucky hero to steal the Snag Machine and put a stop to them, they quickly took over Orre, most likely got their hands on the likes of Suicune, Entei, Raikou, maybe even the likes of Zapdos, Moltres, Articuno, Lugia and probably more like they did in the games.

And with them under their control, got greedier and more arrogant. And tried to spread their influence. They failed, but in the end caused so much chaos that most likely a power vacuum was left behind with the League reeling, which allowed Team Rocket to burst onto the scene and cause even more chaos.

And the rest was history, and for the most part, more or less made sense to Ronan.

But just…damn man.

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Just something I'm playing around with, a pokemon...slightly gamer fic, in an AU pokemon world.