F.A.M.E.

By King

Prologue – Hello

IMPORTANT UPDATE – JUNE 7, 2014!

Because the original introduction chapter 'technically' isn't a chapter, I was required to move it to my profile. If you wish to submit an OC to this story, head there and find where I put the introduction. If you do not want to submit a character, and are only here to read the story, then... read on! It is a pleasure to have you!

-King-

"Vitus! Vitus, over here!"

Vitus Kruss had been going through his daily warm-up of running laps around Block C when he heard his name being called.

Slowing down from his jog, Vitus wiped away the light sheen of sweat on his forehead and pulled out the two white ear-buds blaring Death Metal in his ears. Scanning his surroundings – an open field with a soccer field on his right side, and a small copse of trees thin enough that he could see the road on the other side to his left – he found his friend of three years, Trevor 'Twitch' Martin, barreling through the trees in his direction.

Twitch was a tall kid, and his lanky, skinny frame coupled in with his long arms only made him look taller. He had a mess of long, thin blond hair that hung in his eyes, and just barely brushed his shoulder in the back. Though most people had never seen them, because they were either hidden behind his hair, his iconic black-tinted aviators, or both, twitch had shining blue-green eyes.

Vitus waited patiently as Twitch caught up to him, only to have to wait even longer as Twitch bent over panting with his hands on his knees. It was clear the poor guy had been running all over campus searching for him, and it was pretty early in the morning as well.

Finally Twitch caught his breath. He stood up straight, looked Vitus in the eye, and promptly shoved a small stack of papers in his sweaty hands.

"I need your help with this year's arrivals."

...

"What?" That one had come straight out of left field and nailed Vitus right in the kisser. He could only stand there, mouth slightly ajar and eyes glazed over in utter confusion.

Twitch sighed, shoved his hands in the pockets of his light blue, heavily ripped grunge jeans and slouched.

"The guy coordinating the freshman's arrivals got really sick, apparently, so Dr. J. asked me to do it instead. The guy giving the Military Tours, you know the one; that prick with the funky hair-do?" Vitus nodded, he definitely knew who that was, "Yeah, he was only doing it 'cuz he owed the other guy a favor. Now there's nobody giving the new 'Tairies a run-down of the do's-and-don't's. You think you can help me out?" Twitch asked, his feet tapping impatiently.

"No problem, Twitch. Just tell me when and where, and I'll be there." Vitus said, having regained his composure. He'd be more than pleased to help out a friend in need.

"Thanks," Twitch said, as he gave a sigh of relief, "that's one less thing I'll have to worry about."

Twitch turned away from his muscular friend and began heading back the way he came. Vitus swore he could hear the boy's mumbles carried along by the light morning breeze.

"Now, if only I could get someone to do the Researcher Tours. Those guys are all so scatterbrained..."

Vitus could only laugh at the irony.

-King-

"Wow... it's incredible!" came the voice of a young boy as he stared down at the ground through the window of the private plane. Below them was the sprawling campus of FAME, shaped into the likeness of a Pokéball. People were wandering around the campus grounds far below, looking like little ants scuttling around their home to the new arrivals flying high above them.

The girl sitting beside young David only gave a small anti-social snort in response, flicking her violet-streaked black ponytail over her shoulder.

The oddly colored Eevee sitting on the girl's lap gave a snort of amusement at the boys slightly embarrassed expression; his cheeks dusted a light pink. He seemed to shrink into himself at the girl's gaze and his shoulders hunched slightly.

The little Eevee bumped her nose into the girl's stomach, and the David watched in slight awe as they seemed to have a silent conversation that included lots of eye-rolling, face-scrunching, scowling and the art of sticking-one's-tongue-out-when-defeated-but-too-stubborn-to-admit-it.

Finally, the odd, quiet girl who hadn't spoken a word throughout their entire flight conceded... and turned her attention towards him.

"So... Starlight thinks I'm being anti-social," David couldn't help thinking 'yes, you are' even if it was slightly hypocritical. What? It wasn't his fault he was shy! "My name's Violet, I'm from Anistar," She promptly stuck her hand in his direction, and it took David a few seconds to realize that she wanted a handshake.

"D-David... from Hearthome," he replied, mentally berating himself for stuttering in front of a pretty girl.

Violet paused for a second, looking at the (oddly enough) white-haired boy in confusion.

"Hearthome?" she called, very much confused. It seemed as if confusion was contagious, because now David had no idea where the conversation had gone, and was thus confused in return.

"Uhm... yeah, Hearthome," he said almost cautiously, looking into the (oddly enough) violet eyes of the girl sitting to his left.

"Isn't Hearthome somewhere in Sinnoh?" she asked, this time with a raised eyebrow and an expression that almost screamed 'are you retarded or something?' "I-It is," this girl was really starting to creep him out.

"Then why the hell are you on a plane that clearly departed from Kalos, when Sinnoh is on the other side of the freaking planet!"

Oh, so that's why she was confused.

David blushed in embarrassment, once more, and once again seemed to shrink into his seat under the surprisingly harsh glare coming from the tiny violet-eyed girl.

"O-Oh, i-it's just, my parents were planning a vacation before I was accepted into FAME, so when I got the acceptance letter, the pick-up date interfered with their vacation. Instead of cancelling, my parents decided that I'd come with them to Kalos and leave for FAME from there instead." He explained to the slightly shell-shocked girl, his voice getting lower and lower until it was no more than a whisper at the end.

There was a moment of pregnant silence after David's explanation, until Violet decided she had to clear something up.

"... their?"

Even though her question was as vague as any question can get, David seemed to understand.

"One of the reasons that I wanted to get a Pokémon and go on a journey was to get away from my parents. I got my Pokémon, but I couldn't leave. One of the reasons I applied for FAME was to get away from my parents. The only thing that convinced them to let me go was that I'm coming on a fully-paid scholarship."

Besides the fact that Violet was slightly impressed that this overly-shy boy had to be a good enough battler that he was here on a scholarship, something still seemed off about the way he was describing his family.

From what she understood, when most people talked over their parents being over-protective, they sounded annoyed. David just sounded sad.

"Shouldn't you be happy that your parents love you so much they want you to stay home?" she asked.

He only seemed to become more upset.

"Not unless your parents didn't want you leaving because they'd have to waste their precious time doing the chores around the house," Violet could only stare at him with wide-eyes, "and on top of that, I know for a fact that the only things my parents love are each other and money."

Oh god. Now Violet felt terrible. The boy was clearly trying to hold back tears and his hands were clenched so tightly that she could see blood seeping between his fingers. Yup, she'd just made a kid cry, and now it was her job to fix it.

'Way to make friends, idiot,' she thought to herself, mentally bashing her head into a wall.

"Look, I'm sorry for bringing it up, just, please don't cry..." She truly had no idea what to say, the situation was so awkward.

Starlight rolled her eyes at her trainer/sister's ineptness.

"I-It's fine, it's not even your fault," David gave a dry, mocking laugh, and Violet nearly hit him in anger... until she realized he was laughing at himself, "I'm just a wimp who can't stand up for himself anyways, you don't have to feel sorry for me, I can do that just fine on my own."

Whoa, this kid was a drama queen.

... buuut~... she still felt bad about making him feel terrible, so she had to find a way to fix this somehow.

She sighed and moved her arm forward, yanking on his ear (and getting a nice yelp out of him) to get him to look at her.

"I don't think you're a wimp just because your parents are asswipes. It must have taken at least some courage to argue with them to let you attend this school." Even with her ear-yank the kid was still looking at his lap.

So it took her by surprise when he looked up at her with green eyes so intense it took her breath away.

"Why is a pretty girl like you even talking with me anyway, don't you have friends you'd rather be with,"

'... who does this kid think he is?'

At first Violet was angry, but then his words hit her, truly hit her, deeper than he could have ever imagined. She knew, she knew for a fact that he hadn't intended for it to be harmful, that he'd only said it out of self-loathing, but it still hurt.

When she looked down, her eyes suddenly going moist, two thoughts ran through David's head. The first;

'Oh god, look at what you've done, David!'

The other;

'... she's really cute when she's not angry...'

'The other' was followed by a healthy blush.

Still looking down, Violet spoke with a voice quieter than any David had heard throughout the short time he'd been acquainted with the girl.

"Can you keep a secret, David?"

Suddenly apprehensive at the look in the girl's eyes, David gave a slow, single nod.

"I shouldn't be here."

...

'... what...?'

"I shouldn't be going to school, let alone the most famous one on the planet."

"What?" asked David. Violet wasn't making any sense. If she wasn't supposed to be there, then how was she sitting right next to him?

"I don't have any parents," bombs dropped: one, ", and I was found in the forest outside of Anistar by an Umbreon and an Espeon. They raised me in the forest since I was a child," bombs dropped: two, "and taught me how to speak with other Pokémon." bombs dropped: three, "Life would have seemed perfect to the outside observer, but I knew I was different from the Pokémon around me, and I wanted to meet with my own kind... but I couldn't. I had no concept of society. I still have no concept of society." Bombs dropped: four.

"So, my mother and father, Sunlight the Espeon and Moonlight the Umbreon, pulled some strings. Sunlight used his ability as a psychic Pokémon to get me into FAME," bombs dropped: five, "I decided to come to this school to learn, not just about how society works, but also to learn how to make friends who are people like me," bombs dropped: six.

Once again she was looking down, her hands in her lap, her shoulders shaking ever-so-slightly.

And suddenly, something happened.

David understood.

His hand suddenly entered her line of vision, and she watched detached as a single tear drop splattered across his palm.

"Hello. My name is David, friend of Violet," he said. Her head whipped up so fast that David thought she'd get whiplash. She stared at him in disbelief, looking from his hand to his eyes and back again, over and over again. Then she saw the smile, that small, sincere smile that would be burned into her memory until the day she died, and she laughed.

"Hello. My name is Violet, friend of David."

They shook hands, and a bond was formed.

-King-

AN/ Wow, I feel all sappy and good inside. And I'm listening to Lugia's theme song while writing this, so that isn't helping any. Oh well, I'VE GOTTEN THE PROLOGUE DONE!

...

And it's 11:48 on a Saturday night. Most guys my age would be out partying.

Ah well, screw them. Chibi-me will always be cooler than any of them ever will be!

Where was I going with this?

...

Right. Thanks to fennekinfan, Unbiased Abyss, and LeafLucario64 for submitting the first three characters to be used in F.A.M.E.! To the others... don't fret! I can't thank you guys enough for submitting such awesome characters, and I have big plans for all of them!

Oh, and about my character Twitch, I know he wasn't a submitted character, but one of my friends was intrigued by the new story idea I'd been writing in my handy-dandy notebook (yes, I have one of those... actually, I think it's three or four, but the others have all been filled with ideas already) during science class (ie. This story) and wanted to submit a character of his own. I'm sure if he was a) on fanfiction and b) a fan of reading, he'd have been the first to review, but sadly, he is neither. So, Twitch was born.

... yeah...

Anyway, see you guys when I come out with the next installment of FAME... whenever that is.

Review! Remember, reviews inspire as long as they're not flames! Because flames are bad (unless you're a pyro-maniac and/or a fire-type Pokémon) and are nothing like the push constructive criticism can induce!

King