Hardwin, Ziggs, and Magi stared—except Zu since he was blind—as they got out of the airport and entered into Helio City.

It was a grand city that was found in the far northern parts in the Ferrum Region, a region known for its aggressive battling and Synergy Bursting powers that allow even electric type moves to harm ground Pokémon. It was also famous for having some rather amazing level tech.

The boy and his Pokémon continued to stare—except Zu since he was blind—as a floating square robot hovered right in front of them. "Say cheese!"

The sudden flash of light blinded the small group—except Zu since he was blind—and the machine then slowly printed out a card. Hardwin stared at the machine before slowly reaching for the card and looking at it himself.

He raised his brow at the new ID since it was of him with an obvious black eye from his encounter with Kyle and his Hitmonchan that hadn't healed yet, giving him the impression of a delinquent. While on his shoulder, Ziggs had his pupils shrunk so much he looked like he didn't have pupils in the first place and looked like some evil spirit in the photo. Magi looked the same as usual, being in a bowl of water that Hardwin was carrying while Zu was just… flying upside down for some reason?

Needless to say, it was not a picture you would find in a calming area.

"Hey, can I get a retakeaaaannndd you're already gone." The boy deflated as he spotted the floating robot already like a hundred feet away taking a picture of someone who seemed to be ready. "Well. I sure hope that was the only thing bad that happens here."

Zu suddenly opened his mouth. "Don't—jinx it!" What came out of the zubat's mouth were spliced voices of different people.

Hardwin put a hand up and opened his mouth, only for him to freeze and put the hand back down. "Well crud." The blue haired boy sighed as he placed the potentially traumatized picture of all of them in his pockets and walked out the airport.

The carnival raised folk were awestruck at the sight before them. It was a grand city, with towering sky scrapers, train tracks that were so high that they even reached up to the height of ten stories of some buildings. There were floating digital message boards of countless brands and commercials and people seemed to be walking around with moving digital screens in front of them.

He had traveled around the world for years, but Hardwin and the others had never come across such a high tech city yet.

Hardwin shook his head to get back on track and took out a map. He then noticed people eyeing him weirdly. Now that the young circus kid took a closer look, everyone else seemed to have some kind of headset they would put on top of one of their eyes and a screen would appear in front of it.

They were all looking at him probably because of how old fashion and how out of date he was.

He shook his head and put that thought away before looking back at the map. "Alright, it will take at least two days before school officially begins and we have to sign in. I think it's a good time to get used to Helio City and try to see as much of the school as possible, right guys?"

"Something tells me we aren't in Kanto anymore, Toto…" Zu blurted out a quote from a famous old movie.

"Huh. That was strangely appropriate. I just hope there aren't singing munchkins in the next few seconds."

The four actually waited for a few seconds and looked around to see any singing midget that wasn't their auntie Cruelda.

After seeing there was no sign of a musical number coming any time soon, Hardwin took this time to begin. "So, today, we'll relax a bit and check Helio City a bit. Where could we go first? The library? The theater? Cinema?" he listed off as he checked the pamphlet.

"~The Candy Man can!~" Zu played out a voice belonging to a man singing. Zig quickly wagged his tail and smiled/panted at the suggestion.

Hardwin smiled as he shook his head. "Fine, we'll find a bakery or somewhere to eat. According to this map, there should be a bakery nearby."

And so the small carnival folk dragged their belongings and walked across the city while taking in the sights. Eventually, they came across their intended destination: Super Puff, a sweets bakery that was small, yet booming for their specialized take on treats for both humans and pokémon.

The young clown smiled as he entered, but he couldn't keep it up much for long as a lot of people slowly backed away from him.

He found his reason for this when he looked right at a window and saw his reflection: the black eye was still there from the hitmonchan punch.

When Hardwin came to the counter, he spotted the cashier gawk at him for a second before poorly trying to hide the wince.

After he made his order, Hardwin was about to pay until…

"It's alright, Denise, I will pay for this young man. Just put it in with my usual order!"

Hardwin and his pokémon turned to look—except Zu because he was… you get it by now. There was an old man with white, swept back hair and white goatee who was rather tall and lanky, but he was wearing a pristine white suit and had golden framed glasses.

"Mr. Spencer! Y-Are you sure?" The cashier seemed nervous in front of the man.

"Come now! The boy has been having an obviously rough day! A little kind act won't hurt him, now will it?" The old man smiled.

Hardwin shook his head nervously. "Oh? I-I can't accept that, sir."

"Oh don't worry kid, I'm richer than everyone in this room put together! Ahahahaha!" Hardwin raised his brow as he looked around the room to see people rolling their eyes at the jolly old man.

The man stopped laughing and motioned the boy to walk with him outside after taking their orders. "The name's Drake Spencer. How did you get that black eye?" he went straight to the point.

Hardwin paused for a second. "I got hit by a stray attack." he told the man. That Kyle guy was a huge jerk, but Hardwin didn't really hate the guy. The last thing he needed was more people disliking him without him really knowing his situation.

"Ahh, so you're a trainer?" Mr. Spencer asked while the two turned towards a corner. "I just assumed since if you would get hit by a stray move in a battle if you were in it or watching it."

"I was in it yeah. My opponent… he meant well, but it was an accident." All of Hardwin's pokémon looked at their trainer weirdly.

"How long ago was that?"

"A day. I just got out of the plane all the way from Johto and I'd be lying if I wasn't jet lagged a little." he shrugged his shoulders. "I even wrapped an ice pack on it the whole flight here." Actually it was just a block of frozen water that Zig made but it should have done the same thing. Right?

Zu started flying about nervously. Then he started blurting out an alarm sound.

Mr. Spencer looked at the flying and poison type pokémon. "I think your zubat is alarming?"

"Long story, while he was injured, he hung out with the family chatot and eventually learned how to capture and mimic sounds he hears, but he only makes that alarm sound when there's…" Hadrwin and Mr. Spencer stopped in their tracks when they saw a large group of spiky haired people wearing leather jackets and other brutish looking accessories barred their path. "…trouble…"

"We'll lookie here bois! It's Mister Spencer, duh richest man in Ferrum!" One of them swaggered over towards them with a lead pipe hung on his shoulder. "I don't suppose you here for a little charity work, sir?"

Hardwin and his Pokémon tensed. There were a lot more people this time around and even with the skills he's practiced, he was sure that he couldn't win against all these trainers since he was only lucky the first time around. Not to mention, he would probably have to protect Mr. Spencer while this was happening.

But seriously, why was there another group of thugs in the same week no less? Hardwin was wondering if he was a magnet for A-holes or something.

Mr. Spencer didn't seem bothered at all and fixed his tie. "No, I don't always give out charities. But tell you what? Why don't you move out of the way…" his eyes narrowed dangerously towards the bullies. "or else."

The thugs seemed to hesitate when Mr. Spencer's jolly demeanor took a sudden 180 degree change. One of them was feeling enough courage to ask, "O-Or else what?"

Hardwin and his Pokémon also stared in anticipation as to what the kind old man was going to do. His glare only intensified, and some of the thugs and their pokémon were even shivering.

Then his tone suddenly shifted again as he stood up straight and waved a hand up. "Oh? Hello there, Officer Jenny!"

The thugs quickly turned around but didn't see anyone behind them.

It was then that Mr. Spencer suddenly turned on his heel, looked at Hardwin with a panic look on his face and whispered, "Run!" before bolting frantically in the opposite direction.

"W-What?!" The young man yelled before bolting after the man in the spur of the moment.

One of the thugs quickly turned back, "Hey! They're getting away!" and it didn't take long for them to race after the two.

"I thought you were going to do something!?" Hardwin yelled as he and the old man were running away from a group of terribly angry folks who fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book.

"All I have is diplomatic immunity, which is bumpkin in a street fight!" the man yelled. "But at least we're getting exercise!"

Hardwin stared hard before he took the lead and grabbed Mr. Spencer's arm to drag him around another corner. The thugs quickly chased after them, but when they turned, all they saw was an alleyway with some trash bins connecting to another street.

"Hurry up! This way!" Hardwin's voice came from the opposite and right end of the alleyway.

"After them!" The thugs cried out as they all quickly ran at the direction of the voice.

A few seconds passed before Hardwin and Mr. Spencer slowly walked out from behind the large trash bin.

Mr. Spencer smiled towards Hardwin's zubat. "That was lovely little trick you did there!"

"Zu isn't really strong in direct combats, but his skill of manipulating sounds thanks to his echolocation does come in handy besides helping out in entertainment."

"No need to drop to your knees and praise me… but please do." Zu selected another phrase from a random sound he had collected over his life.

"Well that was one dandy adventure my young man! Huh. I never did get your name."

"It's Hardwin Wilburg, sir. But everyone calls me Arz for short."

"Hardwin Wilburg? Ahh! Your one of my new students invited to my school!" The old man pointed and smiled at the young boy.

At that sentence, Hardwin's eyes shot up. "W-Wait, your school? As in, Battlecraft Academy!?"

"Yep! Founder, owner, and headmaster of the school you're now coming to! Welcome to Ferrum Region, young man!" The old man stood with pride.

"W-Wow! Thank you so much for accepting me in the school!" The clown blurted out in appreciation.

Mr. Spencer gave out a hearty chuckle. "I thank you for that, Arzy! But you're not going to think that when you enter into my school!"

The young man raised his brow in confusion at the statement.

Mr Spencer laughed again and patted the boy's shoulder. "You see, Arzy, I get bored very easily. And even though I am a very rich man, I find pleasure in making my subordinate's lives far more interesting! And by that, I mean I mess with them and their daily lives!"

Hardwin's jaw dropped at the rather open statement from his future headmaster.

"Don't worry, I'm not some evil dictator guy, I just wanna have fun before the reaper tolls my bell and all. So when you get to my school, I'm going to make sure you have a hard, but fair time in my school!"

Hardwin's jaw fell further, eliciting a crack sound that was audible to everyone near him. He then managed to stutter out a word. "W-Why!?"

"Because I'm bored and watching others suffer for my amusement is cool!" The man laughed heartily again despite the horrified look on Hardwin and his Pokémon's face. "Also, you can't escape now. I basically own this town, and I know your face! You can't leave here for the next four years! ~OOooooo!" He did his best impression of a spooky but silly voice with that last sentence.

Still, Hardwin was horrified none the less that his headmaster was basically a bored sadist with all the power in the world right now.

"Well, I'll definitely keep my out for you, young Arzy! You definitely made my favorites list!" He turned on his heel and started to walk away, but then stopped and pointed a finger up as if he remembered something. He walked back to Hardwin and opened up the goods he bought from the bakery, revealing a cream pie in his hands.

"I forgot! I was going to do this to my vice principal, but welcome to Helio City!"

Splat!

Mr. Spencer nonchalantly threw the pie right into Hardwin's face, surprising most of his pokémon except his forever passive magikarp.

The pie tray fell off, leaving a still stupefied and now cherry covered boy who was understandably questioning if this was real life or if it was a fantasy.

"I hope to see you soon, Arzy! I see great things in your future! Bye!"

Hardwin just continued to remain frozen. Zig and Zu shared a look at each other before sniffing and with very little regard for their trainer, started licking the crème of his face. What? They were still hungry!

The young clown finally sighed. "… I should have let that guy get mugged by thugs."

Unbeknownst to the boy who was telling his partners to stop licking him while he made his way to the nearest public restroom, there was a figure high above them with binoculars following Mr. Spencer.

The figure placed a hand on their ear and waited for a mechanical beep. "I've spotted the target: he is now alone without the young trainer following around. Proceed with mission?"

"Negative. Police reports are coming in fast because of those fools we paid. Retreat for now and remain undercover, Zealot."

"Roger, Dragoon. Zealot, signing off." The figure then looked over to the boy who had his face decorated with pie and shook their head. "Huh. And people would think we're the bad guys."

They then disappeared into the shadow of the building.

Hardwin would have been impressed at how grand and large Battlecraft Academy was. He would have been impressed with the lovely architecture, the white clean paths, the artistic styled gardens with exotic plants, the digital screens, and the large battle fields near the courtyards… if he was not mentally drained at the fact that his headmaster was about to make his life harder on him than he ever dreamed.

So instead, he went straight towards the front desk and directly towards his new dorm as soon as he was finished not-listening to the desk person explain all the formalities before the new school year's opening ceremony.

He opened the keys to his new, dorm where it looked like his roommate hadn't arrived yet. Good, he needed some time to sulk.

Hardwin face flopped into his side of the bed and sighed greatly. "Dear god, what did I get myself into?"

"~Cause you had a bad day, you're taking one down. You sing a sad song just to turn it around.~"

"Zu, not helping." Hardwin groaned into his pillow. "Can this day get any worse?!"

SNAP!

"… Zu, open your mouth, and I will staple it shut for the rest of the day." In Hardwin's defense, he wasn't expecting his own bed to be booby trapped with a net now trapping him and his pokémon, except Magi who was on a desk staring at his friends.

Yes, somehow, someway, there was now a net that lifted and trapped Hardwin, Zu, and Zig up to the ceiling of their dorm.

Suddenly, a green haired girl rolled out of the other bed and exclaimed out in glee, "Yes! I finally caught Vincent Brooks! And now… you're not Vincent Brooks…"

His captor looked to be a girl around his age with long green hair and yellow colored irises. She was a little shorter than Hardwin's full height and she was currently wearing long black pantyhose, a short white skirt, a blue vest and a white long-sleeved collared shirt for women underneath. On her feet were short, specialized platform sneakers. She was somewhat stylish, but that wasn't important right now.

The blue haired boy stared incredulously at his captor. "Hey! Why are you looking sad about that when you should be horrified you freaking tried to net a human being!?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "I'm not just capturing any, human being! I'm talking about THE Vincent Joy Brooks!"

"Look, I'm going to assume that this Vincent guy is good and all considering you broke into my room and set up a trap for him, but seriously? Get me out from here!"

"It's not my fault! I thought the headmaster himself said that Vincent was assigned this room!"

Hardwin's mind did a literal record scratch. "I'm sorry. Did you just say the headmaster?"

Now his captor looked confused. "Uhh yeah? I met with Headmaster Spencer today and… are you… alright?" She paused as he saw his right eye lid twitching upward at the mention of the name.

"That's it! I'm not waiting anymore; Zig, Zu? Cut the rope!" Soon, his two Pokémon nibbled through the rope and the boy landed on his feet.

"Okay, look I'm sorry for nabbing you." The girl started.

"Woman, you were hiding under a bed for who knows how long just to capture a human being! You should be apologizing to all decent human beings for your behavior!"

"Well excuse you! My name is Anita Barée, official president of the Vincent Joy Brooks Fan Club!"

"Lady, I could care less about who you are. Now get out of here before I press charges for breaking and entering!" Hardwin pointed at the door.

"I did not break in! Headmaster Spencer gave me a spare key right here—hey!" The girl cried out as Hardwin snatched right from her hand the moment she showed it. The girl made a step forward to try and get it back, but Hardwin placed a hand in front of her face to stop her.

"Are you even aware of how insane you sound right now? Get out!"

Anita stomped her foot and huffed. "I am not leaving until I see who I came for! If he's not here yet, you must be his roommate!"

Hardwin may have been from the circus, but what the heck were with all these crazy people he was currently meeting!? However, the circus has prepared the boy enough to see that the girl in front of him had absolutely no control over her lust. He would have tried to help her in any way or form, but he wasn't a saint. His patience was already dried up because of Mr. Spencer, and the fact he was still jet lagged wasn't helping his poor condition.

The blue haired boy walked over towards the window in his room. He opened it and pointed over. "Hey, I think I see him over there."

The girl quickly sped right next to the boy and looked out the two story window. "Where!? AAIIIIEE!?"

Oh no. Somehow, Hardwin must have accidentally pushed Anita out of the window. Such a tragedy that does happen. Must have been the wind.

Anita fell into some stylized hedges that broke her fall before looking back up in a way the word livid couldn't capture. "You crazy son of a—" Hardwin shut the window close.

"Zu, you heard her voice and heartbeat right? Warn me whenever she comes close from now on with her name and voice." It was a good thing he saw that those bushes before he came up in this room otherwise he would have resorted to knocking her out cold and dragging her out.

"Aye aye, captain!" The blind bat flapped in joy as he played out another voice he heard.

"I feel like that's going to bite me in the butt later on, but right now I can't really think straight." Hardwin fell again on the bed he choose and just felt a horrible headache come over him.

The door opened again, forcing Hardwin to look over at Zu who was still flapping around normally without any sign that it was the person he just pushed out of a window.

There was a teen that was in a heavily dressed coat with sunglasses and a beanie. He was slightly taller than Hardwin, but other than that, it was hard to see any other noticeable features with how he was hiding himself.

The young clown blinked and put two and two together at his future roommate. "Are you Vincent Joy Brooks?"

Even though he was wearing sunglasses, the clown could tell the guy was raising his brow as he took of his beanie and sunglasses. He had a rather handsome face with his straight black hair. He had one of his bangs covering his left eye which was icy blue like the right one. Honestly, he could see why that Anita girl seemed to like him; he was handsome looking in a pretty boy kind of way.

"How the heck did you know that?" From behind him, a greninja walked into the room.

Hardwin pointed to the floor where the obvious sight of a cut up net was left for Zig to start playing with. "Your number one fan just rigged my bed."

"Oh god what? They found out where I live already?! I just found out where I just got assigned!" The boy complained and then sighed. "I am sorry, but I'm going to have to ask for a new room. My fans are ruthless!"

Hardwin blinked as he took a closer look at the man's face. "Ah! Now I remember you! You were that one guy who participated in several leagues. That was why your name sounded so familiar!"

"Yeah. That's me." The guy spoke up and raised his brow. "But what exactly happened here?"

"Well she created a net designed to snatch you off the bed, but for some reason, she neglected to factor in Pokémon chewing through."

The other young adult seemed horrified at the thought and then pointed right to Hardwin. "Did she punch you in the face? Because that looks nasty."

Hardwin pointed towards his black eye. "Oh this? I got it recently before I came here. It was an accident."

"Sorry. I didn't really know they'd be that obsessed."

"Well, I kind of have to admit, I've only seen a few of your battles when you were in league tournaments. I don't exactly know why you're famous though."

"Hmm? Oh well, I don't just do league battles, I participate in the Grand Festivals as well."

Hardwin paused for a second. "Wait, you also do contests?"

"Yeah. I participate in them as well as battling."

The clown boy seemed impressed at that. "I didn't know someone could be both a trainer and a coordinator."

"Oh it's a lot harder, but I can totally do it. Not to mention the fact there are other people who also double as both trainers and coordinators." Vincent proudly said before he realized something. "By the way, I never got your name."

"It's Hardwin Wilburg, but everyone I know calls me Arz for short." He placed his hand out and Vincent was well mannered enough to shake it back.

"I do have a question for you though, before you leave." Hardwin asked. Now that he recalled more about this man's battles, there was something that always seemed to confuse him whenever he would watch this guy on television.

"What is it?"

"What was that odd thing you and your greninja did in the Hoenn League?"

Vincent and his partner looked at each other. "Oh that? According to Professor Sycamore, he calls it the Bond Phenomenon where a Pokémon and their trainer are so synchronized that it allows the Pokémon to take on a new, more powerful form in battle just like mega evolution."

Instead of looking satisfied, Hardwin and his Pokémon looked more confused. "Mega evolution? What's mega evolution?"

It was Vincent and his pokémon's turn to look shocked towards Hardwin. "Whoawhoawhoawhoa! You don't know what Mega Evolution is?"

Hardwin glanced to his left and his right a little nervously at the question. "Uh yeah? What is it some kind of special evolution or something?"

Vincent stared at Arz in disbelief before he threw away his coat and showed Hardwin a bracelet with a beautiful stone etched into it. "This is a Mega Bracelet, which combined with a Key Stone and a Mega Stone of a specialized pokémon, allows certain pokémon to evolve past their highest form for a fair duration during a fight. All high level trainers have this—heck! Everyone in this school at least knows about it if they don't have it themselves! How did you win any badges if you didn't come across them?!"

Hardwin looked away bashfully for a small while. "I… I didn't win any?"

Huh, so that was what a greninja looked like if he dropped his jaw. You could barely see it with his tongue covering it.

"What do you mean you didn't win any? Battlecraft Academy recruits high level trainers and other professions into this school! The lowest requirements to apply here without a scout are at least eight badges, or five ribbons, or whatever the other classes are! How did you get in!?"

"Okay, I admit, I got lucky…" he then froze as he recalled his meeting with two other people before Vincent and rethought that last word. "I mean, in an interesting turn of events, I was able to attract the attention of a scout while battling and that's how I got here."

"Wow really? You impressed a scout with one battle? Which Pokémon did you use?"

"Zig over there." Said normal type was chewing on the rope like a toy before his partner pointed to him.

"A… zigzagoon? You impressed a scout by battling with a zigzagoon?"

"You sound surprised."

"Well I—sorry. Sorry, it's just really hard to wrap around the idea that you, a person who doesn't even have a single badge, got invited to this academy by catching the attention of a scout in a battle with a zigzagoon—one of the most common and looked down on pokémon from Hoenn. Excuse me if it's a little hard to believe that."

Hardwin blushed. "W-When you put it like that… it does sound like something straight out of a movie…"

"Oh no no! I don't mean to put you down, I-I'm actually impressed! You must be one heck of a trainer to get their attention and get in this school!"

"Umm, I came here to learn how to be a trainer actually." Hardwin rubbed the back of his head sheepishly at the praise coming from a high level trainer.

"You came to a high level school to learn how to be a trainer? What were you before this?"

"A clown." he managed to answer quickly. "I lived in a circus my whole life, so besides practicing cool ideas for battling, I've been helping around the family business."

"Y-You're serious right now? You're from a flipping circus of all places? Like clowns and bearded ladies and all that?"

"I'm the son of a bearded lady, thank you very much." Hardwin gave out a deadpan expression at that.

"Holy crud, you're serious. Well, I think I might take back changing rooms if I have someone as impossible as you as a roommate."

"You make it sound like I'm some kind of magnet for the unlikely."

While it was unlikely, the window was smashed down in both Vincent and Hardwin's room and the two young adults looked over to see a ticked off Anita and her staraptor.

"Alright you blue haired, green eyed psycho! No one pushes me off a window—OHMYGOD! It's Victor Brooks! EEEEE!" The girl screamed in excitement as Zu fell into Hardwin's bed from the high pitched scream.

"Zig!" The boy managed to yell to his normal type with his hands clamped to his head as the Normal type quickly fired a torrent of water that knocked the yelling girl back out the window she busted through and forced her flying type to panic and fly after her.

"You know, I think we should both change rooms." Hardwin looked over to Vincent.

"You're a mind reader dude. Let's hurry before she comes back; I know that chick. She has a fan club—or what I call a mob from hell—on speed dial!"

"Right, before I do that…" Hardwin picked up Magi and looked out the window. "Really sorry about how I treated you! I had a bad day, and I hope we meet again on better terms!" Without waiting for her response or her recovery from landing on the tree again, Hardwin left right after Vincent and his pokémon did.

"And weren't you supposed to be keeping an ear out for her?" The young entertainer looked towards his zubat.

"I was distracted!" The bat creature replied back with several spliced up voices.

Vincent was once more interested at how Zu was able to talk right then and so began another conversation between the acclaimed trainer and the circus clown.

"Whoaaaaa…" Hardwin looked around the empty battle field stadium. It felt like a high school gymnasium with simple bleachers on the side and a large, floored court in the middle. "This is just one of their battle fields? And we students can just borrow it like that?"

"Didn't you know?" Vincent raised his brow. "Battlecraft Academy is so big that it actually makes up half of Helio City. The founder, Mr. Drake Spencer is considered one of the richest men in the world, not just in the Ferrum Region. Even the second richest person in Ferrum is like middle class when compared to him."

"H-He's that rich?" Hardwin could feel his stomach getting sick at the thought of that jerk being that influential.

"Yeah, but a lot of people say he's kind of eccentric." Hardwin fought the urge to roll his eyes at that. "But just like most high level academies, people who come out of Battlecraft are top tier of their kind. Yet the difference with Battlecraft, which I researched before coming here, was the fact that the school is so rich, you barely have to pay for things here."

"I was wondering why I was given a full scholarship in coming here." The young clown mused to himself before realizing something. "But why did you invite me here anyway?"

"You said it yourself: you have no idea what Mega Evolution is. I think it's best to show you in an exhibition match."

"Oh a battle? O-Okay." To say Hardwin was nervous would have been an understatement. He had watched a few of Vincent's battle before and he had some really tough looking Pokémon with him. The young entertainer loved his Pokémon but it wasn't hard to see how outclassed he was.

"Go, Garchomp!" Hardwin looked in frozen shock as a large and powerful looking dragon and ground type entered ground with a mighty roar.

"Uhh, does anyone want to go in and battle," 'get slaughtered' was a far more appropriate to say than 'battle'. "that guy?"

Zig stared in bewilderment and while Zu didn't have eyes, you could tell they had this 'are you bloody kidding us?!' look on them.

And Magi… oh Magi… why are you playing dead in your fish bowl?

"Uhhh, Zu! You can go in!" Hardwin quickly pointed to his flying type who actually stopped flapping his wings for a second at the declaration.

Zu floated in, playing a grim tune that signified his doom as he flew into the field hesitantly. Garchomp raised his brow and growled as he looked back to Vincent and Greninja standing a few feet behind his trainer.

"Okay, I admit, it's nothing like the battles you've had before. But… we're more just showing him how things work?" Vincent tried to reason with his dragon type.

Garchomp growled a few times at his trainer. Hardwin didn't understand and looked to Zig. Even though he didn't understand Garchomp, Hardwin could just know what Zig was translating to him. Garchomp was basically saying that this was a waste of his time and power… which was true for all parties involved.

"L-Look, I'll promise I'll give you a better battle later, just… just mega evolve." Vincent tried to say as he lifted his Mega Bracelet into the air. A flash of light surrounded Garchomp and out of the light show, somehow, Garchomp looked even more threatening and scarier than he did a few seconds ago. He was larger, looked sleeker, and had sharper claws than before.

The carnival folks just gaped. Garchomp seemed uninterested and ran up to the zubat while he was still distracted and swatted the pokémon into the ground with his claws, not even using a regular move.

"Oh crap, Zu!" The circus boy ran to his friend who was already out cold.

Garchomp scoffed and let go of the Mega Evolution.

"I am so sorry, Arz!" Vincent said as he ran up to see if the zubat was alright. "I-I was going to let you make the first move, but it looks like Garchomp here didn't want to wait." He glared at his dragon type, only for the evolved Pokémon to scoff.

"N-No, it's fine. He was probably right to end it anyway. We were totally out classed from the very start." That was putting it kindly. Everyone could tell Garchomp held back greatly even with that swat. It wasn't from the start, even before the battle was already won.

"L-Look I'll make it up to you. I swear! We should bring Zu to one of the Pokémon Centers in school."

"Yeah… we should…" Hardwin scooped up his friend and left the battlefield. It wasn't just the poison type that was hurt from the battle.

Later that night, Hardwin was for once all alone in a random and seemingly empty courtyard sitting on a bench. It was windy, but he didn't really care about that.

Vincent was really nice and felt totally bad about his Garchomp's attitude, but Hardwin had no hard feelings about it at all. Still, he was somewhat surprised that Nurse Joy was actually his auntie… which explained why his middle name was Joy… huh…

Anyway, Vincent had to go call his mom back in Sinnoh and go out for dinner, so he and Hardwin separated and promised to meet up again in their dorm.

But Hardwin's mind kept looking back to how Vincent's Garchomp humiliated Zu in one hit, not even wasting a move on him.

You want to be a guy that makes other Pokémon battle each other for entertainment? You do realize that you're shifting the humiliation you're placing on yourself into pain for Zigs and the others?

Hardwin placed his hands on his head and covered his face. "Aaaahhhhhh! Grandpa was right, what the heck was I thinking when I accepted this?! … I should have just stayed in the carnival."

"Things that should have been and things that are happening right now are two very different things."

The young boy opened his eyes and looked to the empty spot beside him. However, as soon as he did, his eyes widened fast and he stood up as he pointed to Mr. Spencer. "Y-You!"

"Heyo, Arzy! How's your first unofficial day of school?" It was like the man didn't throw pie into the boy's face that morning.

"I-I… I don't want to be here anymore." The young man slumped in his stance as he exhaled in defeat when he said that.

Mr. Spencer actually looked surprise. "Why is that?"

"Why!? Are you really asking me that!? First, you throw a pie at my face after me helping you, next you obviously send some crazy girl that set my own bed as a booby trap! And if that wasn't bad enough, I just found out that I was too stupid to realize that the requirements for entering this school was at least eight badges! I haven't even gone out of my way to get even one! And now, I just found out that I'm horribly outclassed… and my best friends will just get hurt because of my incompetence and selfishness…"

Mr. Spencer's face softened after the hearing how bad the young man's day was. "Wow. It's a good thing I got you this after all."

Hardwin raised his brow as the headmaster pulled out a small box with a ribbon tied neatly around it. "I may act like a jerk, but that's because I am proud of who I am. I like to mess with people because I think who they really are comes out when something unexpected happens. If people don't like me, I can understand why they won't like me: because of my actions. But I'd rather have them hate me because I wronged them rather because they don't know me."

The Headmaster stood up and gave Hardwin the box. "I had fun teasing you, but I also wanted to thank you for helping a complete stranger from a couple of muggers."

He was curious about what as in the box. At one hand it could be another trick, but the headmaster seemed sincere about it. Hardwin opened the box and found a light blue wrist band that looked similar to Vincent's mega bracelet except that it had this indentation that looked to fit a small crystal like object.

"I-Is this a mega bracelet?"

"No. I saw your Pokémon, and mega items don't suit you. This is a Z-Ring."

Hardwin tilted his head. "A Z-Ring? What's that?"

"It's… something that I think will help you in the long run." The man gave a kind smile. "However, as it is right now? It's a lot like you: incomplete, but when finished? Oh you can bet the stars themselves you'll be something worth seeing."

Hardwin looked at the Z ring despondently. "I-I can't take this gift. I'm not good enough—not only that, I was selfish in coming here in the first place. This was all a big mistake."

Mr. Spencer's gentle laughter caught Hardwin's attention. He usually loathed it when people laughed at him even though it was part of his job, but this time? It felt like he was laughing at something else.

"Kid, we're human. Making mistakes is a part of your life. Do you think I got this rich by being handsome and perfect? … Look, what is your dream?"

"I-I just want people to be excited around and with me rather than just laugh at me at my own expense… it sounds really naïve now that I say out loud again…"

"Huh? Really? Wow that is simple…. But that is a dream none the less worth chasing."

"It's a selfish one. I didn't really consider my own friend's dreams before I dragged them into my own. Now they're getting hurt because of it."

Mr. Spencer looked at something over Hardwin's shoulder. "They look fine to me."

The young clown looked behind him and looked surprised to see Zig, Zu, and Magi being carried by Zig coming excitedly to him.

"G-Guys? I thought I left you at the Pokémon Center!"

"It seems like they are excited to see you." Mr. Spencer commented as the boy went to his pokémon.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"This is the part where you start the training montage!" Zu spoke in his own unique way.

However, that confused Hardwin. "T-Training? Why?"

"Zig za goon goon goo goon!" Hardwin understood that his friend basically said, "How can we get tougher if we don't train?"

"You guys… want to keep training? But… you'll just get hurt if we just continue this." Hardwin spoke out. "I don't want you guys to gut hurt because I was selfish…"

Zu's immediate response to that was to elicit a sound of a buzzer going off on a wrong answer in a quiz show.

"Listen here, sonny! We were always looked down on! We want to be better, we really do! So what if there's danger ahead? We say, "Full Speed ahead! And fetch us that horizon!"

Mr. Spencer walked beside Hardwin. "It looks like your pokémon are just a selfish as you," he smiled. "It's your choice if you want to leave or not, but if I may give my opinion? I wasn't born with all this money, I worked super hard till my hands bled almost every day of my childhood before I got my first full course meal. A lot of people dislike suffering, but… I do believe it's an essential part to understand others more."

The young clown looked back at the Z-Ring and saw his reflection. His reflection was frowning until he realized something. He wanted to be happy with others, and well… his pokémon were happy when he was happy.

Sure, bad things did await them, but wasn't things worthwhile in life earned through pain? They were also willing to be better, and so…

"Thanks, guys. You really are the best." Hardwin then turned to Mr. Spencer. "Thanks for the gift Mr. Spencer."

"Don't thank me yet. By itself, the Z-Ring is nothing more than a fashion bracelet. It won't do anything as of right now. However, survive the initiation exam the day after tomorrow and I can give you the first step."

Hardwin, now determined, griped the Z-Ring. "I will… and thank you… for talking to me."

"Don't thank me yet, boy, I don't do things without reason. Your personal test is going to be much harder than everyone else's."

"I-It is?"

"That's right.~" he laughed as he started walking away. However, he raised a hand lazily out and waved it around. "Train hard, dream harder… but never forget your roots kid."

Hardwin deeply inhaled and placed the Z-Ring on. "Come on guys, we're going back to Vincent. And this time? We're not freezing in shock." Even in the night, there was a shine that reflected off the Z-Ring.

Hardwin's friends cheered. Sure they were underdogs, and they were weak and at a low point…

But didn't that just mean they could only go up from then?

A/N: Oi vey this was a lot longer than I thought it would be. So let me welcome the first OC submitted by stimga13, Vincent Joy Brooks! I had a little trouble trying to introduce his character, but I hope I did him justice. If not, there are more opportunities for how he's supposed to be written as.

Now, only one chapter in and I introduced only one character so far, sorry about that. The reason why I choose to do so was to make sure the story flowed a little easier than instead of introducing so many characters in one go. I hope you guys can be patient with what I've written because I don't just want to cram characters in for the sake of just introducing them.

Also, I looked over my notes, and it looks like I didn't get enough characters even though I was able to fill my first quota. I'm allowing five more participants to come in and submit their Ocs if they want to.

Thanks for reading the story!