I ain't gonna lie, this chapter is a make or break chapter and you'll see why. There are some important stuff in the A/N at the end so if you could read it pls lmao. That's it for my rambling.

(Edit: 4-25-22)

Disclaimer: I do not owneth Pokemon.

Lillie saw the two trainers shake hands before the one who lost with the Pikachu picked him up and left. She guessing he's taking his fainted Pikachu to the Pokemon Center. The green-haired kid was celebrating loudly, congratulating his Umbreon on the victory. While she didn't often like to watch Pokemon battles, she hated seeing Pokemon getting hurt, she did quite enjoy this one as the trainer who lost pulled off some unusual but successful moves.

The crowd started to disperse and she saw some people that were around her age start to head toward the arena where the orientation was supposedly taking place. She'd figured if she could go now, she could get a good seat. She got off the bench and started to head toward the arena, until she froze in her steps seeing a couple figures in front of her.

"Yo yo yo, we the baddest. Give us all your Pokemon or you won't get hurt!" A guy in some, she once heard her mother describe a person looking similar to what the guy was wearing 'delinquent' clothes demanded of her. Lillie froze up, she heard of these guys before from her mother. They were an evil organization, keen to steal other people's stuff and Pokemon, Team Skull.

"I-I-I uh-h…" Lillie sputtered out. She was shaking, her lip was quivering in fear and she felt like crying. While the Team Skull members had masks in front of their mouth, she could that they were smirking. Their eyes gleamed at her, probably thinking she was easy prey. They were right and she hated that she was right. "If only I was stronger, if only..."

"Uh uh uh… spit it out or give us your Pokemon"! The other member, a girl, mocked. They started to laugh and both of them released a Pokemon, a Salandit and an Alolan Rattata. Both of the Pokemon both bared their fangs at her in intimidation,

She wanted to run, she wanted to scream, but she couldn't. It was exactly like her dream, paralyzed in fear clutching her big white bag. Even if she did wanted to run, her attire wasn't a very "mobile" attire. She'll admit that she wore clothing most kids her age wouldn't wear. A white and blue dress, wearing a giant white hat. She also was in shoes that definitely weren't made to run in. She knew she didn't get out as much as most, partly by choice, so mobile clothing really wasn't ever a concern. Now she realized that her usual outfit was a mistake. And now it seemed the two Skull grunts had enough of her waiting.

"Fine, you won't give us your Pokemon then we'll force you yo! Rattata use Bite!" The guy grunt commanded, his arm outstretched, his eyes looking at her like easy prey.

"Salandit use Poison Fang!" The other called out, adorning the same look.

The two Pokemon ran toward her, both preparing to sink their teeth into her. She put up her bag in front of her face and closed her eyes. In that moment she wished her mom never registered her for this Pokemon Academy thing, she wished was back home in her room, safe. She braced herself for the attack, but it never came. She slowly opened her eyes to see a green see-through wall in front of her, preventing the Salandit and Rattata from attacking her, and an Alolan Raichu beside her. Salandit and Rattata both bounced back, so Raichu lowered the shield and gave her a wide grin.

"Nice job Raichu!" Lillie turned behind her to see the green haired kid who won from earlier. Seeing him up close she saw how tanned he was, how sweaty he and his clothes were. The confident smile on his face as he smirked broadly at the thugs who attacked her. He was the complete opposite of her. The Team Skull grunts eyes widened at seeing who her savior was.

"Y-your the kid who got s-second place in the Alola League!" The girl shouted in fear. Her partner look at her in shock before turning back towards them slightly shaking.

"Oh shit, we gotta scram!" They recalled their Pokemon before running off into the busy streets.

"Can you believe that Team Skull came to Melemele Academy Raichu? They're everywhere I'm telling you!" The trainer groaned loudly to his Pokemon. He put his arms behind his head and stretched. To Lillie it looked like he was glowing. She finally felt in control of her body and she let out the breath she didn't know she was holding.

"T-thank y-you." Lillie quietly stammered. She felt her cheeks blushed from embarrassment for being so defenseless. She didn't have any Pokemon, but she knew she could have done more than freeze and stand in harm's way. She berated herself in her head for being so weak. The guy she thanked waved his hand.

"Don't sweat it! Team Skulls members are the worst! Oh I'm Hau by the way and this is Raichu!" Hau introduced with a bright smile, completely oblivious to Lillie's sour mood. Lillie broke out of her little rant with herself upon hearing Hau introduce herself. She didn't respond for a moment, instead she stared at him with her mind blank as his smile was still big. Realizing that he must be waiting for her to introduce herself, she blushed again. "He's being nice Lillie, quit being so shy!"

"I-I'm Lillie." She embarrassingly said, thinking he might believe she's weird for taking such a long time to say anything. Either he didn't care or didn't notice, she assumed a bit of both, as he recalled Raichu and continued to talk to her.

"Team Skull sucks soooo much. They used to give me so much trouble when I first started, now they're just a nuisance!" Hau complained, but kept the happy look on his face. He started to walk toward the arena with his hands behind his head. Lillie pondered on if she should walk with him, but she still had a lingering fear that he thought she was weird. Until he turned back at her.

"Hey! You coming? You are a student here right?" She blinked in surprised, taking a second for her brain to process what he asked, before she nodded, a twinge of pink on her cheeks, and walked up to him. Her hands till tightly clutching the bag.

Hundreds of teens walked into the arena, some with their parents, some with friends and some alone. They took their seats as orientation was soon to begin. The open ceiling arena could fit tens of thousands of people, and in the middle sat a rather unusual battlefield. A typical battlefield was more narrow but this battlefield was much wider and much bigger in general. In the center of the battlefield was a temporary platform with a podium.

Gladion watched everyone fill in from the hall surrounding the seats, preferring to stand up and not get a close seat. He sighed. He couldn't believe Hau convinced him to sign up for Melemele Academy. Well he was recommended by the professor of the region, Professor Kukui, once he won the Alola League, but at the time he thought it was stupid, and he still thought it was stupid.

"Yo Sourpouch did you accept Kukui's offer?" Hau asked him. A vein appeared on his forehead hearing the nickname Hau gave him. He was sitting down on a couch, resting his eyes. He was going to snarl at him but realized it would be in vain as Hau wouldn't give up the nickname.

"No." The short reply he gave.

"Aw why not? An academy that would get us stronger and much more stronger! Hell yeah!" Hau shouted, causing some eyes to make their way toward them. They were at Hau'oli's Pokecenter and they saw the almost complete construction of the buildings for Melemele Academy.

"Sounds stupid." Gladion bluntly replied, his eyes still close. He could tell that Hau's mood didn't change. It never did.

"Stop being so sour." Hau jabbed, hoping to get some type of reaction from him. Gladion kept his eyes closed and didn't move a muscle. Hau sighed and started to think of an idea to get Gladion to accept Kukui's offer. It's been a week since the Alolan League but Hau figured Kukui's offer would still be available. A lightbulb appeared above Hau's head as he got an idea.

"I bet you don't want to join because you're scaredddd." Hau teased, getting the smallest jolt in Gladion. Gladion didn't respond but Hau knew he got him hooked.

"You're scared to meet new powerful trainers. Going to Melemele Academy would probably bring in new and powerful trainers you're scared to battle against! I bet there are stronger, more powerful trainers at Melemele Academy than there were at the Pokemon League, but you're just too scared." Hau taunted. While Hau was joking and didn't fully mean what he said to Gladion, he hoped Gladion would fully buy into it.

"Do you really think I'm going to fall for that bait?" Gladion lazily asked, opening his eyes to look at the ceiling. Hau deadpanned, his mood instantly deflating.

"Well… I mean yeah." Hau admitted, a nervous laugh escaping his throat. Gladion shook his head slightly in what looked to be disbelief before he sighed.

"Why do I keep listening to you?" Gladion rhetorically said before he got up, leaving Hau confused. Hau watched as Gladion made his way toward the phone. He followed Gladion to the phone where Gladion already dialed a number and on the screen, Professor Kukui's appeared. Hau perked up again.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Gladion muttered. He sighed once again before fully looking at Professor Kukui. "I would like to sign up for Melemele Academy."

"Welcome everyone to Melemele Academy. I hope ya'll are having an awesome day!" Professor Kukui announced to the arena through the microphone. The crowd was made up of mostly students, some parents and press. Cameras were on him, recording live to the whole world.

"Who's that?" Ash asked Moon. He looked odd at the attire that man on the stage was wearing. A lab coat that would make him think he's a some sort of a professor, but he also wore nothing under it, revealing his abs for the world to see.

After losing to Hau and finding Moon who happened to get everything checked in with Professor Oak, who had to leave to get ready for the orientation, they made their way to Melemele Academy's Pokecenter to get Pikachu healed up. Moon was able to pick up both their schedules and information on where they were staying at. His eyes raised when he saw that the person he battled earlier was going to be his roommate. At least he guessed there wasn't two people named Hau. Moon's roommate was going to be with a girl named Lillie.

He told Moon about the battle and what Hau did. Moon explained to him what Z-moves are. Using a Z-crystal and Z-bracelet, a trainer and a Pokemon perform a dance linked to the respected Z-crystal to release some type of 'ultimate move'. The move is so powerful and so tiring, that only once a battle can a Z-move be used. That instantly got his attention, wanting to get one as quick as possible and having Pikachu perform one of these Z-moves.

"That is Professor Kukui, Alola's top professor." Moon quickly explained to him.

"For years, me and many others had a dream and idea to reinstitute Pokemon academies and today that dream becomes a reality!" Professor Kukui proudly said, causing the crowd to cheer. Kukui held out his hands in front of him to calm down the crowd, but a grin was on his face, pleased with the audience's reaction.

"Now give a warm welcome to the head of all this idea, Professor Oak!" Professor Kukui introduced the Kantoian professor, stepping away from the pedestal to allow Professor Oak to speak. The crowd cheered once again for the professor. A few moments after Professor Oak stepped up, the crowd calmed down.

"Thank you for the applause. It feels good to be up here." Professor Oak started with a happy sigh. "Today, not only is Melemele Academy opening up, but Mount Silver Academy in Ecruteak City, Johto; the Verity Academy in Juilife City, Sinnoh; and Lumiose Academy in Lumiose City, Kalos are all opening on in the next week!"

"Wait there are more academies!" Ash shouted, his eyes going big, but his voice was drowned out by the noise of the crowd. Moon looked at him funny before giggling, finding his expressions funny.

"Well of course there are." Moon simply said, focusing back on the Professor Oak. Ash was up in deep thought, surprising Pikachu because his trainer never went into deep thought. "Why didn't Professor Oak tell me? And why am I going here instead of Johto? Wouldn't that make more sense?" Ash didn't have more time to think about it, as the professor introduced someone else.

"Now give a welcome to Samson Oak, the principal and my cousin!" Ash's eyes grew larger and Pikachu looked shocked too. "Professor Oak has a cousin?!" A man remarkably similar to Professor Oak took the pedestal, the difference being a different hairstyle and a deep tan.

"I'm so 'Happiny' to meet ya'll!" Samson Oak struck a pose that made him sort of look like Happiny. There were some chuckles but for the most part the crowd eyed him strangely, except for Moon.

"Ha-aha-ha…" She roared with laughter making the people around her look at her funny. Ash and Pikachu stared at girl in confusement, they both looked at each other and both had the same thought, albeit in their respected tongues "She's joking right...?" "Pi pika pi...?"

"Oh my that's a good one…" Finally calming down, not noticing the odd stares she was receiving, but Samson Oak must have heard her cause he was beaming in her direction.

Samson Oak continued speaking but the topics, rules and whatnot, which bored Ash. He blocked him out, getting the basic memo to not do dumb shit. He felt jumpy in his seat, he would love to battle and he could sense Pikachu wanted to, after their loss with Hau. Luckily for him, Samson Oak began talking about something that perked Ash's ears.

"Many of you are here battling. The trainers of the world, to get strong and better! And for our top strongest trainers, you have the opportunity to battle to represent our academy, called the Challenger Games!" Samson Oak announced, causing the crowd to murmur. Professor Oak did explain to him that he was in going to be battling in the Pokemon academy, but he never full explained.

"The Challenger Games is a 3v3 battle with special arenas and rules!" Oak furthered explained. More murmurs came from the crowd.

"3v3 battles?" Ash wondered aloud. He was surprised that the battle wouldn't be the typical 1v1 or even 2v2. He also wondered about what Samson meant by special arenas and rules. He looked at Moon for an explanation, thinking this was an Alolan thing but she looked just as confused. She shrugged her shoulders at him.

"I could explain thoroughly about the Challenger Games, but how about instead I show you!" Samson Oak began. "Is there anyone who liked to battle in a 3v3, don't be 'Shifty'!"

Gladion could barely stay awake through the orientation. He only started to pay attention when Samson started to talk about the 'Challenger Games'. He grinned, also ready to battle a foe and crush opponents, until he heard it was 3v3. He didn't want teammates or anyone to rely on. He was a lone wolf who crushes anyone without any help. He scoffed, about to leave until Professor Kukui called him out.

"Gladion, get down here!" Professor Kukui yelled at him, somehow not needing a microphone for his voice to reach his ears, a grin on his face after finding the edgy teen all the way in the back. Gladion had half a mind to ignore Kukui and leave, but against his gut, he's been doing that a lot lately, he started to walk down, hands in his pockets. He grumbled quietly to himself. What the hell did he get himself into.

When Samson Oak asked for volunteers, Ash and Pikachu's hands were the firsts hands up. They were itching to battle and move around after being stuck in this seat for quite some time. Samson Oak later picked him, though it was pretty obvious that Professor Oak pointed him out. He got up, heard Moon say good luck to him, thanked her and walked down the arena toward the center, to the field. During this time other contestants were picked.

Ash looked down his field toward his opponents. The platform was quickly removed for the battlefield to be clear. They all had told Samson Oak their names, which were announced to the crowd. A short purple girl named Acerola, a short orange hair guy named Sophocles and a guy with a weird haircut named Gladion. He looked to his left and right to see the teen, Kiawe, with the Alolan Marawok he saw earlier before battling and Hau who gave a smile at him.

"Let's go! We're on the same team Ash! Let's kick some ass!"

"Battlers, this is a 3v3 battle, one Pokemon each, winner is whoever knocks out all the others team Pokemon first! No Z-moves are allowed. Trainers, release your Pokemon!" Professor Kukui explained, acting as referee.

Ash nodded at Pikachu who jumped down onto the battlefield.

"Decideye, let's do this!" Hau released a brown and green bird like Pokemon.

"Turtonator, stand for battle!" Kiawe released red and yellow standing turtles like Pokemon.

"Here we go Gengar." Acerola released the familiar Pokemon to Ash.

"I choose you Vikavolt." Sophocles chose.

All eyes fell onto Gladion who hadn't released a Pokemon yet. It seemed he was debating himself onto who he would choose. Then a smirk appeared on his face as he grabbed a Masterball. Everyone except Ash gulped, all of them realizing who Gladion was going to choose.

"Type: Null, prepare for battle." Out came one of the most unusual Pokemon Ash has ever seen. To sum it up quickly, a weird dog like Pokemon with a giant 'helmet' on its head. Ash stared at everyone confusedly as they all seemed nervous at the Pokemon.

"Um, you guys okay?" Ash asked his teammates. Kiawe regained his composure, but Ash could still tell that Kiawe was nervous. Hau on the other hand shook his head.

"That Pokemon is really strong man. That Pokemon alone took out three of my Pokemon in the Alolan League, no sweat." Hau quickly explained. Ash's eyes widened hearing how powerful the Pokemon must be.

"Then we need to target it and take it out of the battle!" Ash replied. Hau and Kiawe nodded at each other, a basic plan forming to eliminate Type: Null.

"Trainers…" Professor Kukui started, drawing out the word. Everyone tensed up for the battle, waiting for Kukui to finish, but Kukui smirked. "The field is metallic metal walls, this is your playing field, begin!" Professor Kukui announced, drawing confusion for everyone. They were even more confused when the battlefield started to have moving metal walls shooting up.

The field in a split second was filled with moving walls going left and right, up and down, forward and backward. Some walls were pillars allowing small to medium sized Pokemon to stand. All the trainers stared at the field confusedly. Gladion looked at the field contained outrage. "Is this some joke?"

"Awesome! Let's do this! Decideye perch yourself on one of the walls and use Spirit Shackle on all of them!" Hau excitedly commanded, snapping everyone out of their confused states. Decideye leaped onto a moving wall and then fired a volley of arrows from its wings.

"Intercept it with Shadow Ball." Acerola calmly commanded. Gengar whipped up a quick Shadow Ball and fired it at the opposing arrow, causing a small explosion. Sophocles didn't think of counter quick enough as Vikavolt was hit with the arrow. Gladion didn't say a word as Type: Null wasn't affected.

"So he's a Normal Type huh. Alright, Pikachu use Quick Attack around the walls and keep running!" Pikachu started to zoom off and immediately everyone lost sight of him. Every so often a blur of yellow was seen before it disappeared behind the metal walls.

"Turtonator use Flamethrower on Type: Null!" Turtonator unleashed a torrent of flames toward Type: Null but the flames were intercepted, not by a Pokemon move, but instead a metal wall that sprung from the ground randomly. Kiawe sweat dropped, forgetting the field was rather unique. The walls sprung down and flying toward Turtonator was Vikavolt.

"We have to get in close in order to use moves, or you have to be perched up on the walls." Ash murmured to himself. While Ash wasn't the smartest person altogether, battling was as natural to him as breathing.

"Vikavolt use X-Scissor!" Sophocles used the special field to his advantage to surprise Turtonator. Vikavolt zoomed behind a metal wall before it fell. Vikavolt was to the left of Turtonator and opened its pincers before slicing down on the surprised Turtonator. Kiawe cursed as his Turtonator was shoved backwards from the move.

"Help Turtonator by using Air Slash on Vikavolt!" Decideye, planning on using Air Slash on the exposed Vikavolt didn't notice Gengar sneaking up behind it. Gengar jumped, leveled with Decideye. Hau's eyes widened but he couldn't do anything as Acerola called her next move.

"Gengar, Dark Pulse!" Hau had no time to react as the beam of dark energy came forth from Gengar, blasting into Decideye and having him fall to the ground. Gengar started to laugh but ironically didn't notice the yellow zoom running up the wall behind him.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash yelled with a smirk. Gengar, too busy laughing, got shocked with a powerful Thunderbolt at point blank range. "Now use Iron Tail!" Ash added on. Pikachu slammed Gengar off the metal wall into the ground.

"Turtonator use Flamethrower on Gengar!" Kiawe commanded, trying to finish off Gengar. Turtonator once again released a torrent of flames but this time no walls were appearing in the way.

"Oh shoot." Acerola murmured. She knew Gengar had no chance to dodge or to use a move. Sophocles overheard Acerola.

"Vikavolt, block with Thunderbolt!" Vikavolt released a Thunderbolt, not as powerful as Pikachu's, toward the Flamethrower from the side, cutting off part of the Flamethrower from reaching Gengar. Some of the Thunderbolt hit the metal wall, surrounding it with electricity before releasing small Thunderbolts everywhere, which in turn hit other metal walls and thus the process repeated itself until the arena was filled with flying Thunderbolts of all sorts of power. Some Thunderbolts combined into each other, but a trend was quickly discovered. The Thunderbolts were becoming more powerful.

The arena gasped in surprise and Kukui grinned, pleasant so far with the battle and how crazier the battle was about to get, but he wasn't fully pleased. Down on the other side of the field stood Gladion and Type: Null who weren't doing anything. Gladion had a bored look watching the battle, and he made no move to enter the battle. No one seemed to notice though as they were too focused on the battle.

A plan was forming in Ash's head, seeing the state of the battlefield. He prayed it worked.

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack again and try to absorb as many Thunderbolts as you can!" Ash shouted. Pikachu looked at his trainer in wary confusion, but he saw the reassurance and trust in Ash's eyes and he knew that his trainer had a plan. Pikachu once again dashed off getting struck by a plethora of power ranging Thunderbolts.

Hau, while shocked at Ash's command toward Pikachu, got his head back into the game. The Thunderbolts were starting to strike everyone's Pokemon.

"Decideye, get back on the metal wall and use Swords Dance. Afterwards, use Spirit Shackle!" Hau quickly commanded, Decideye listening to his trainer and following his command. Sophocles and Acerola looked over at each other, paying no mind to the blonde teen in the middle, and realized that Decideye had to be stopped.

"Vikavolt stop him, use Bug Buzz!"

"Gengar, Shadow Ball!"

Both attacks came flying at the undefined Decideye who was using Swords Dance to boost his attack. Kiawe saw this and knew he had to defend Decideye.

"Turtonator, Flamethrower!" For the third time, Turtonator released a torrent of flames, intercepting both the Shadow Ball and the Bug Buzz from reaching Decideye.

"Dammit Kiawe! Vikavolt use X-Scissor on Turtonator!" Sophocles cursed, pissed off that his attack was stopped again by Kiawe. But said male smirked at the oncoming Vikavolt.

"Turtonator use Shell Trap!" Kiawe had a giant grin as Sophocles eyes widened exponentially big. Trying to correct his mistake, Sophocles tried to call out his Pokemon to stop but he didn't have enough time. Turtonator had already turned around and Vikavolt face planted into his shell, releasing an enormous blast of flames. Everyone knew Vikavolt was knocked out.

Sophocles recalled Vikavolt, thanking him for his efforts. That's when Sophocles realized that Gladion and Type: Null had yet to do anything.

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be battling with us!" Sophocles whined at the blonde, a look of anger on his face. Gladion turned his head and gave him such a frightening glare that Sophocles immediately turned away from in fear. "Uh, n-neverm-mind."

"Gengar, Dark Pulse on Turtonator!" Turtonator was hit with the powerful Dark Pulse, nearly falling over from the attack but he stayed up.

From the past couple of move exchanges, Pikachu was gathering power from getting struck with a lot of Thunderbolts. While they were charging him, they also were draining him at the same time. Ash, realizing that Pikachu couldn't handle much more, decided to execute his plan.

"Pikachu, let's hope this works use Iron Tail on Gengar!" Pikachu's tail turned into steel and all the electric energy headed straight for his tail, causing the tail to brighten up. Pikachu slammed the electric filled tail into Gengar, sending him flying back to the other side of the field. Gengar barely stood up, electricity around him showing that he was paralyzed.

"One more move and Gengar is done for." Acerola murmured. Ironically, Hau, who spent the whole time having Decideye use Swords Dance, called his move.

"Spirit Shackle on Gengar!" Decideye fired a powerful arrow toward Gengar who couldn't dodge from the paralysis, knocking him out.

"Hell yeah, one more to go!" Hau yelled out happily, until he realized who the last person was and all traces of happiness drained from his face. The whole stadium realized who the last person was and he hadn't called a move. They all forgot about it. Gladion who hadn't looked interested in the battle finally looked up interested, a grin on his face.

"Now it's a fair fight." He coolly said.

Somehow Ash could tell that the guy wasn't bluffing.

So this is the chapter that is I believe everyone is gonna love or everyone is gonna hate. There was a lot and a lot has yet to be explained. The whole 'challenger games' will be explained more thoroughly, but let me say, it's a lot more than just 3v3 battles. One of the concepts is special battlefields that can uniquely help or hurt.

Another thing, the different academies. They have a purpose which I'm pretty sure some of you have figured out by now. The battle was interesting to write. Writing 3v3 (more like a 3v2) is very weird, you have to be delicate with it if that makes sense. I had to make sure everyone had their moments. In the future, the battles will be more crazier and longer.

Okay for reviews.

Chimera608 - He isn't going to have the exact same team, but he is going to have a very similar team. Ultra Beast will be in the story, they will be a plot point later into the story. Ash-Greninja is definitely going to happen.

Yagami Kuzuki - The reason I had Ash lose was because he didn't know what Z-moves are and powerful they are. Him about to win and then for the battle to be completely overturned by the Z-moves shows how powerful they are. But if Hau didn't use the Z-move, Ash would totally win lol

I've also decided, with some suggesting from you guys, to keep the name Moon, kinda... you'll see

Also I don't know who I'm going to have end up with Ash. I've written some AshxLillie and I know there are plenty of them on the fanfiction but a AshxMoon pairing would be interesting. Further down the line I'll decide who I ultimately choose but Imma keep it a secret from you guys xD

That's it for now

Thank you guys for the support

Read and Review

I'll catch ya in the next one