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Camp Hope

Ash_Junior

Irredeemable Nerd
Well, I've gone and done it again--started a new fanfic....

this one is based on EmeraldDragon's Pokemon Camp fic. GRanted, it's a Mary Sue-esque fic, but it's been around for a LONG time. and it's a good read.

I'm sure it's spawned dozens of copycats, of which this is just the latest.

Well, I hope you all enjoy. I want this to be a different kind of fic.

I hope that I succeed.

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Kyle stared up at the clock in his classroom and willed the minute hand forward. Only three more minutes and the bell would ring, and he would be done with his Sophomore year of High School. But for some reason today, it seemed like Celebi was stopping time just to spite him.

Kyle grinned to himself as the teacher droned on about summer classes, and thought about his plans for the summer. His cousin had gotten a Pokémon and had promised to stop by in two weeks. Only two more weeks and they’d be able to mess around with his Pokémon all summer. Kyle sighed. Matt was so lucky that he didn’t have to go to school anymore. Pokémon trainers had all the fun.

Only three more months and a summer-long job, and he’d get his own Pokémon. Of course, he had had to promise his parents that he’d stay in school to get them to agree to let him get a Pokémon. The night that they had said yes, two months before, he had stayed up all night filling out the forms and sending them in electronically, and had promptly failed his History test the next day. That hadn’t gone over well, and it had taken a bit of fast talking to keep them from revoking their permission. But now he was registered as eligible for a Pokémon.

Kyle looked back up at the clock. Still a minute and a half. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, staring blankly at the teacher. It had been a good year. He’d managed to scrape by academically, and had been elected Class Treasurer. His girlfriend had dumped him for a senior at the start of the year, but Kristy Tillman had been throwing looks his way for the last month and a half.

The buzzer sounded, and instantly the orderly classroom dissolved into a shapeless mass that grunted, grumbled, and shouted as it shoved itself through the classroom’s door and into the hall and into a much larger mass that threw itself through the school’s main doors and into the bright, green light of Altantean afternoon.

Kyle laughed as he waved goodbye to his friends and ran towards the docking collar. If he didn’t hurry, he’d miss the sub back to his block. Kyle grinned up at the glass and force field barrier that kept the water at bay hundreds of feet above his head.

Only two more years, and he’d wander the surface. He’d seen pictures and movies of the mountains, the plains, and the forests. He breathed in deeply and smiled at the salty tang of the air. No matter how well the air filters were, it was kind of hard to filter out all the salt when you had several thousand pounds of the stuff in the water that was all around. He’d been to the surface several times—the last time was at his sixteenth birthday. It was strange for the light to be so intense, but it was neat to see something besides water on top of him all the time. It was a bit scary, though.

Kyle slowed to a stop as he neared the docking port, and wandered over to a kiosk to check the schedules. His submersible was delayed. He sighed and headed for one of the benches. It figured. He got out of school and he had to spend the first minutes of his summer vacation waiting for his sub.

Kyle sank onto one of the benches. Well, it couldn’t be helped. He DID need to travel down further into the cleft another mile to get to the residential block. He looked out the glass at the water and yawned. The lights of submarines coming and going to and from other Salitronian towns and blocks illuminated the side of the fissure and the weird plants that grew in the hot vents on the bottom of the ocean. Every now and then a Relicanth or Gyrados flashed through the lights of the subs and the commercial block of Atlantis, but other than that, the only movement that could be seen was the weird plants waving in the current.

Kyle leaned back and closed his eyes. It would be a little while before his sub came. Might as well grab a few Z’s.

+++

“Hey mom, hey dad!” Kyle said, kicking his shoes off somewhere into the entryway and heading for the kitchen. “I’m home! Summer starts now! You can start wailing and gnashing your teeth or something!” he tossed his backpack off into a corner and went straight for the fridge.

He pulled a can of pop out of the fridge and balanced a plate of leftover pork chops on top of the can before he pulled away from the refrigerator and headed towards the table, only to find his parents and some old guy sitting there.

“What’s going on?” he asked, looking from face, to face, to face. The old man wore a white lab coat, and had a significant bald patch in his snow-white hair. His thin mustache completed the ensemble.

“My name is Professor Fuji, Kyle,” the older man said, looking straight at Kyle. “I’m not sure if you heard of me—I used to run the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town. I moved here to retire, but I guess I’ve found my second calling.”

Kyle sat down and opened up his can of pop. “That’s cool,” he said. “So how come you’re in my kitchen?”

“Kyle!” his mother scolded him. “Be nice.”

“It’s fine,” the Prof said. “Perfectly understandable. I’d ask the same thing in my situation.” Fuji turned to Kyle. “The fact is, Kyle, you were tenth runner-up for entry into Camp Hope.”

Kyle gulped his pop down, and raised an eyebrow as he headed for silverware for the pork chops. “Camp Hope? Runner up? I don’t remember entering any contests or anything.”

“It’s like I told you, Professor, it’s all some big kind of mistake,” Kyle’s dad said. “I don’t know how it happened, but we’ve told Kyle time and time again that he’s not getting a Pokémon until he can afford one.”

Fuji blinked, and looked down at his hands for a moment. “Ah, yes, well, that may have been an error on my part. Your son filed his application for a Pokémon about eight weeks ago. Part of that entry was an essay earmarked for the Camp Hope application. I went through them all and sent in five essays to the International Pokémon League for Camp Hope with my recommendations.”

His mother turned and gave him The Look. “You applied for a Pokémon?” she asked, her tone low and grim.

“A Pokémon License!” Kyle protested through a mouthful, raising his can of pop and fork up as if in self-defense. “I never applied for Camp Hope or a Pokémon!”

Fuji smiled. “I can assure you that you did, Kyle.” Fuji reached down to one side and brought his hand back up holding a manila folder. “Along with an excellent essay on the socio-political ramifications of Pokémon Rangers in the International Pokémon League, your son sent in an essay on why he wanted to become a Pokémon Trainer.”

“YOU got my Ranger essay? THAT’S why my teacher was so ****** when I insisted I should have gotten an A instead of being failed.” Kyle complained. “She must have gotten my essay on Squirtle instead.”

There was silence in the room for a moment, then Fuji cleared his throat. “Ah, yes. Well, be that as it may, there are some choices for you to make, Kyle.”

“For US to make,” Kyle’s dad cut in. “We haven’t decided if we’re going to let him go yet.”

“This is totally unfair!” Kyle yelled, then paused. “Go where?” he asked.

Fuji smiled. “Camp Hope is a camp for people that want to be Pokémon trainers. It’s quite in-depth. It lasts a full month, and when you come out of it, you will have and be trained to use a Pokémon, survive in the wilderness, and take a Gym Challenge if you want to.”

“And how much does this cost?” Kyle’s dad demanded as Kyle stuffed the last of the pork chops into his mouth.

“Nothing at all,” Fuji said, smiling. “Everything, from transportation to the camp itself is covered by the International Pokémon League. Except for spending money for the canteen, of course.”

“Sounds fun,” Kyle said. “I’m up for it.”

“Kyle, we’re not sure you’re quite ready for a month on the surface,.” His mother began quietly. “And we’re also not totally convinced that you’re ready for a Pokémon.”

Kyle frowned. “what Pokémon? I’m just learning how to take care of ‘em, right?” he burped and pounded his chest a couple of times. “’scuse me.”

Fuji smiled broadly. “No, Kyle. At Camp Hope you don’t just LEARN about Pokémon, you actually start TRAINING them.”

Kyle’s jaw dropped. “I’m in.”

+++

“I know this is going to be a GREAT year!” the Gym Leader said, grinning from ear to ear. “We’ve been through a lot in our respective journeys, and sometimes we’ve even fought each other. Sometimes more than once.” She looked over the gathered trainers, and they were all looking up at her.

“But we’re here together to celebrate our beginnings, and to turn a bunch of snot-nosed brats into trainers ready to take on any of the Pokémon Leagues.” The staff and counselors of Camp Hope looked up at Erika as she stood at the podium, addressing them all, her raven hair shimmering slightly with glitter. “Tomorrow the kids arrive. Tomorrow we start this. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun. This should be fun for us too, guys. Let’s have the time of our lives this week.

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This guy has the WORST LUCK EVER.

you'll see what I mean next chapter 0.-
 

Ash_Junior

Irredeemable Nerd
Chapter 2...

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Kyle woke with a start, and for a moment was disoriented. The comforting blue-green glow of the ocean was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a blue dome in the sky, with puffy white cotton balls popping up here and there. For a moment, he panicked. Then he remembered where he was.

Kyle stretched and glanced around the bus. It had felt weird to be picked up by a school bus—he was used to walking to the docking port. There were a dozen other kids sitting or sprawling around the bus. Some were talking with each other, some were reading, and some were snoring loudly. Kyle sighed and looked out the window.

This was not what he had had planned for the summer. Granted, it was way better than lying around the house playing video games, watching movies, and complaining to his friends that he didn’t have a girlfriend, and it was apparently an incredible honor to go to this particular camp, but he was just scared.

The surface world was far different than anything he’d ever been to before. It was way too big, for one thing. After going up to the floating seaport city Chentien, he had gotten onto a plane and flown for twelve hours to Alto. After that, he had been herded into the bus, his questions about the trees, bushes, and Pokémon he saw all but ignored. The only answers he had gotten were practically monosyllabic.

Kyle sighed and adjusted himself in his seat so he was a bit more comfortable looking out the window of the bus at the strange new world set before him. Down in Atlantis, he knew that the other cities in Salitron weren’t more than a half hour’s journey from each other, both because the hot vents that allowed the city to survive didn’t cover the entire ocean and in case of an emergency flooding of one of the underwater cities the other cities were nearby.

Kyle’s eyes widened as a creature with flame that covered its entire body came into view, and just as suddenly disappeared behind the bus. “Did you see that?” he shouted excitedly, making everyone in the bus look at him. “What was that?” he asked, glancing at the others eagerly.

“It was just a Houndoom!” a large boy shouted from the back of the bus. “Shut up, will you? Some of us are trying to sleep!”

Kyle’s ears burned and he ducked down beneath the level of the seats. A Houndoom? That sounded cool. He’d have to ask someone about them when they got to the camp. There was so much to find out about!

He heard footsteps and looked up to see a short girl standing in the aisle by his seat. Her broad smile underlined her sparkling eyes. For a moment, Kyle was frozen. The color of her eyes reminded him of the color of the ocean he had seen on the surface—a beautiful turquoise that glittered brilliantly. The girl tucked a lock of her waist-length red hair over one ear and smiled self-consciously. “Mind if I sit with you?” she asked.

Kyle blinked, and opened his mouth to respond, but, to his horror, only a weird, vaguely vocal sound came out. The girl smiled. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Kyle wordlessly nodded and sat back up, moving his backpack from the seat next to him and stuffing under the seat in front of him.

Ears burning, he turned out the window and stared as hard as he could at the world outside. Even the wondrous spectacle outside couldn’t hold his attention now. All he could think of was how stupid he had been, and how embarrassed he was. She was probably laughing at him in her mind. He wouldn’t look at her. She HAD to think that he was some kind of freak.

He was so intent on berating himself that when he felt her hand on his shoulder, he let out a high-pitched scream so loud the entire bus turned to look at him, and somehow he found himself on his feet on top of the seat, his body trapped against the window and the ceiling. The bus swerved and he tumbled to the ground, taking the girl with him. He landed first, and she landed on top of him a moment later. For a moment, he froze, his face burning harder, if that was even possible, staring at the seat supports, feeling the girl’s weight on top of him—and feeling uncomfortable as her body heat pressed into his.

The vibrations of the bus changed, and Kyle knew that they were pulling to the side of the road. He wriggled out from underneath the girl, mumbling an apology and hurrying into an empty seat, and ignoring her asking if he was okay. OKAY? He’d managed to embarrass himself not once, not twice, not three times, but four times in less than thirty seconds. Did she THINK that that was the norm for him?

He heard the brakes hitting the wheels and felt the bus lurch to a stop. He heard the bus driver ask if everyone was okay, and Kyle ignored the laughing that followed. All he wanted to do was get to the camp and get this over with. It had SEEMED like a good idea back at home. But now, all he wanted to do was crawl into an air duct somewhere and hide for several days.

And they didn’t even HAVE air ducts up here on the surface.

+++

Kyle was the last one off the bus, and looked around. The camp seemed nice enough, with several dozen buildings scattered all over the place. A mountain towered over one side of the camp, with a lake on the opposite side of the camp. A river that flowed down from the mountain cut through the camp and fed into the lake. In one direction, a forest rose up, and a plain stretched on the other side.

Kyle shook his head. This place must have cost a fortune to set up. Everything was in wood. Everything from the ornate bridge over the river to all of the buildings—everything was in wood. The only people that he remembered having wooden buildings in Atlantis was the mayor and those people that were in that movie that one time had spent a fortune bringing down bricks for their house.

In Atlantis, steel was the preferred building material, with anything else being incredibly expensive because of limited space in supply submarines. Everything in Atlantis was spartan—from the sterile-looking “parks” that had a weird green thing that simulated grass to the jumpsuits that pretty much everyone wore, everything was as easy to maintain as possible.

Only the richest people wore jeans, T-shirts, or anything else. The two clothing stores in Atlantis bought their stock from the same people, and bought pretty much the same thing—jumpsuits or a kind of uniform-like clothing. After all, food, mechanical supplies, and everything else had to be brought down in the limited space that the supply subs had. Sometimes the passenger subs were pressed into service if there was an overabundance of supplies to be brought in.

Kyle sniffed the air and made a face. Even the air above the surface was alien to him. It had a strange, almost sweet scent to it. He didn’t like it. Where was the salty, clinical scent that he had grown to love over the years? Kyle swallowed, and forced back the tears that threatened to come into his eyes.

This wasn’t fun. This was terrifying. His parents had been right. He wasn’t ready for this. He wasn’t ready for this at all. Nothing around him was remotely like anything he’d ever had in his life before. He glanced around. One of the adults was waving everyone over into a giant building in the middle of the camp. Kyle swallowed again, and dashed towards the edge of the forest.

He had to get away. He had to hide. He had to be alone somewhere to figure things out. Everything was so….weird. The tears of frustration sprang into his eyes as he made it into the edge of the forest. He leaned against a tree with one hand, his eyes closed tightly. The bark was rough, and covered in cracks. It hurt his hand. He stood up and ran further into the forest, only to trip over something on the forest floor. Kyle got up to his feet and kept running.

Anything was better than this. It had to be.

Kyle kept running until he came to a clearing. He sank to his knees and kept sobbing. He wanted to go home. This was too much. All he wanted was the comforting blue-green blackness way over his head, the smell of salt in the air, and concrete under his feet.

Screw grass, screw the sky, screw trees, screw everything but Atlantis!

He sank to his knees, only to hit one of his knees on something hard in the meadow. He groaned and rolled onto his back, clutching his right knee to his chest. Was EVERYTHING trying to hurt him around here?

For a moment, the forest seemed to go quiet—even the wind stopped. Kyle opened his eyes and looked up at the sky. The almost comforting blue dome had long since been replaced by a grayish layer of clouds, stretching as far as he could see. But something seemed different about it. It seemed, ludicrous as it sounded, almost green. Almost like shallow water. That’s when he heard the growl behind him. Kyle froze, then turned to face the sound. It was a small creature, its shape like the Growlithe that the Atlantean fire department kept, its matted gray fur standing out in all directions. Kyle swallowed as he got to his feet slowly, eyeing the creature’s snarling teeth and its beady eyes tracking him.

Kyle slowly backed away from the creature, limping slightly on his right knee, and froze when he heard three more growls start. Kyle slowly looked around, and spotted them on the edges of the clearing. The four creatures were obviously working together, and the way they were looking at him, he was the main course of their next meal.

He turned and ran-limped away from them as fast as he could. He hadn’t been the best athlete at school in Atlantis, but he hadn’t been the worst. Although with his knee hurting like it was he wasn’t running at his best. There was no way that he could outrun them—he knew that. He could hear their slobbering barking closing in on him fast.

Then he was down. One of them had leaped onto his back, knocking him over. Another latched onto his right arm, and Kyle screamed. This was it—he knew it. Kyle looked up as the dog that had a hold on his arm shook furiously. Something gave way, and Kyle screamed again. The others had caught up, and Kyle felt fangs dig into his left leg. One of them leaped into the air, its mouth wide open, coming down in an arc that would land on his face.

Kyle’s eyes grew wide, then saw a blur slam into the dog mid-leap, knocking it to one side. The blur returned, and slammed into the dog that was chewing on his leg. The dog holding his arm dropped it and turned to face the new adversary. Something whizzed over Kyle’s head, and it trailed a weird, whitish energy band.

Something new to kill him, no doubt. Kyle rolled over, and pushed himself to his feet with his left arm, and limped away as fast as he could, cradling one arm to his chest. Suddenly, there was no more ground to limp on, and he felt himself falling. He had a dim sensation of something grabbing his left leg and jerking him upwards. He screamed again—the pain was too much, and the blackness took him.
 

TurtwigFan1

burning it down
Seems good enough, I like the concept. Description was also quite good too.
 
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