"Sooooooo is this… normal?" Vincent asked as he saw Zig zip around the battlefield in laps while still using Extreme Speed.
"Apparently, Zig now has trouble turning at super speed." Hardwin looked at the field with a stopwatch in hand as Zig was impressively running in a square.
"How is he making such sharp turns? I thought linoones could only go straight at fast speeds like that?"
"I got the idea when I took an act in staying on a ball for thirty minutes. Instead of trying to turn, he lifts up his hind legs and rolls in his front heels. Using the momentum, he shifts wherever his hind legs should go in the air and when he lands them back down, he goes back to running."
"Hmm, clever. So how's that new ninjask?"
"I named him Jax for short. He was a handful at first, but I was able to pacify him with the promise for free meals thanks to the recipes Cain gave me. Now, he just a walking ego machine who thinks he's the best."
"Speaking of the best, how the heck did you get ranked number ten?" Said the one ranked number eight among the freshmen.
"I blame the headmaster." Hardwin spoke up as if that one sentence would explain everything.
"Ugh, my condolences." It really did explain a lot of things in this school.
"Do you even know what the top ten of each year have to do?"
Vincent took out a brochure. "According to this, the top ten students have to join a special class once a week. At least, I'll know you there, so we finally have a class together."
"What do you think being in that class is all about considering it's the weekend right now and it won't come for the next three to two days?"
"Probably some high level training. I could use a challenge."
"Well of course you can handle it. You've participated in like a bunch of leagues and Grand Festivals."
"Don't sell yourself short. I heard you actually gave the previous champion of Ferrum a run for his money."
"Vincent, I told you he was holding back the entire time."
"Yes, but you have to recall, you made him hold back less. That says a lot from someone who never won a single badge. Give yourself more credit."
"I would, if it wasn't for the rumors how I heard that the top ten was filled with tough trainers. What If I have to battle them!?"
"Sounds like fun." Vincent smirked.
"Okay, you are so not empathizing with me here."
The sound of a door opening caused the two boys to look over to the training stadium's entrance.
"Ahh! There you are, Will! Come on! The rest of us are ready!" Jenny Hulia, or Lia called out to the blue haired boy with an excited wave. She was followed by a large group of people that consisted of the following: Roman Spring, Maria Faraday, Jace Collins, David Ishihara, and Lydia Mollen.
"Oh, right!" The young boy then called out to Zig to stop running and call it a break for now.
"Huh? Where are you going with all of them?" Vincent asked.
"I was actually going to tell you that in a bit. The Helio City Museum is having its grand reopening with a new exhibit. I thought it would be lonely to just go with my Pokémon, so I looked up all the people I met here and asked them if they wanted to come. You can come to."
"You've met that many people already? The week isn't even over yet." Vincent looked in shock.
"So is that a yes?"
The celebrity sighed and shook his head before looking over to his greninja and getting a nod from the water type. "Sure."
"Sweet!" The blue haired boy stood up. "Alright guys! Let's head towards the museum!"
The Helio City Museum was an amazing blend of both historic past and technological advances of the future. The place had exhibitions spanning from Johto's and Sinnoh's distant past accompanied with holographic projections of what time would have been like then. They had skeletons of ancient Pokémon that took the center of the main lobby.
However, there was one section that the Museum was promoting during its grand reopening.
"Now here we have our newest exhibit believed to have been from a very closed off and prehistoric civilization," the guide for the group the first years were all in all showed faded but partially restored art of a long forgotten culture. "The name of these people has unfortunately been lost, but from what archeologists could decipher, there is this word that seems to be repeated a lot in what's left of their recordings known as the Kilin."
The guide went on as they walked around, but then Maria trailed behind the group. Hardwin spotted this and slowed down a bit to wait for her.
"So are you alright?"
Maria's mood seemed to go down. "Of course I'm fine. Wouldn't I be fine and dandy? I don't always forget my meds, you know."
"Oh sorry about that. I was just… nevermind."
Maria sighed. "No, no. I'm sorry about that. I get a touch… crabby when I get treated like some fragile doll because of my condition. I came to this school to get away from all that bloody baby-coddling."
Hardwin gave a small laugh after hearing that. "Sorry, it's just I thought that you were a lot more badass than I thought. I mean, you even had a disability and you still got in to Battlecraft. That is super impressive!"
"Really?" Both Maria's and Hardwin's Pokémon just kept looking back and forth between their two trainers. "You're not just—as they say—'yanking my chain'?"
"Yanking my chain? Well that's an awkward slang to hear nowadays. But no, I really do mean it. I'm impressed that you're not letting anything stop you from doing what you want to do and that, my lady, is bloody impressive."
"Oh don't you start now!" Maria gave a light shove towards the taller boy before they both laughed.
After the tease, she pointed to Hardwin. "That reminds me: I remembered your battle with Mr. Stark. There was that bit you did with the-the snapping of fingers, yes? Yea, you snapped your fingers and yelled, 'It's show time'? What, you have a catch phrase?"
"Errr well umm. It's sorta my mantra that my dad taught me before each show—"
"Show? What show?"
"Oh right, I never got to tell you. You see, before here, I was a clown from a circus."
"A clo-clown?"
"Yep."
"A clown?"
"Uh-huh."
"A clown as in, the one from a circus with the rainbow afro, silly make-up and bright shinny, red nose that squeaks? That same one?" Maria's disbelief only grew along with an amused smile as she imagined the young man in front of her with a silly get up.
"Well my squeaky nose as green," Hardin delicately corrected. "but yeah, I am a bonafide, pure-blooded circus clown born and raised."
"Shut up. You're joshing me!"
"My name's not Josh, but fine! You want proof?" With utter confidence, Hardwin quickly took out something from his pocket and quickly blew on it. It was actually a long red, tube balloon. "Ha! Years of inflating balloons with your own lungs have finally come in handy! Here you go, it's an ekans!"
Maria raised her brow at the blue haired boy. "Really now?"
"Ha! No way am I dishonoring my clown pride with that lazy joke! And yes, I am aware of the paradox of clowns having pride." Hardwin retorted back as he kept his eyes in the front while he moved the balloon behind his back and then he started working on it without looking?
"Ta-da!" Hardwin cried out as he brought the balloon out in the front, revealing it to be… "A balloon girafarig!" He then handed the red balloon to a rather stupefied Maria.
"D-Did you just do a balloon animal behind your back?" The blonde and emerald eyed girl gawked at how well done the rubber-inflated pokémon was in her hands. "And why did you have a balloon pokémon just ready to go?"
"Years of practice! As for your second question, I always keep potentially a dozen inflatable balloon pokémon for party tricks and ice breakers," the clown beamed with pride. "and now for my favorite trick!"
Hardwin took out a coin and showed in front of the narcoleptic and her Pokémon. "Keep your eyes on the coin…" He brought his hands to wave pass each other and in one instant the coin disappeared.
Maria rolled her eyes. The previous trick was a lot more impressive. This one was just where he would 'find' the coin near her ear or something.
"Where did the coin go?" Right on cue as Hardwin looked at her direction. "Oh! There it is!"
When he reached for her ear, Maria was still wondering why this was his favorite trick. It was only then that her eyes widened as she noticed that he didn't just pull out a coin.
He pulled out the coin which was somehow placed in the center of a white rose?!
"Huh?" The girl looked on in shock as Hardwin removed the coin from the center of flower.
"Well, it seemed like the coin had liked you so much, it went and got you a flower!" Hardwin chuckled, obviously delighted at the reaction his favorite trick.
"Don't tell me you just keep flowers on you as well?"
"Weellll I might have picked that up on the walk here, and I totally didn't see a no picking up flower signs anywhere, but," It was then that Maria was once more stunned as Hardwin stepped forward to her and placed the flower on the side of her hair. "I always did find a girl with a flower on her hair to be prettier to look at than any party trick."
It was then from behind them, something played out very fast. "~You've been hit by—You've been struck by—A Smooth Criminal!~"
"ZU!"
If it wasn't obvious now, (even if you somehow missed Zu playing a very specific line in Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal), Maria's red face was certainly hard to miss. "A-Are you flirting with me!?"
"Why? Is it working?" Hardwin smiled, keeping in a potential laughing fit from coming out. "B-Becuase if it's too much, I can totally stop."
The blonde girl sputtered incoherent babble for a second before she could finally string coherent thoughts and words. "What? I'm just… surprised?"
"You are? You're very pretty, so I assumed you must have been complimented before."
"I was but those that did weren't half as smooth as you, Mr. Clown." Maria gave a coy smile as she reached for the flower on her head to place it better on her hair.
"Why thank you, I was always told to treat a beautiful lady nicely."
Maria gave a proud huff. "However, while you certainly are placed high, my standards are much higher to be won over with cheap party tricks. Besides, I bet you do that to all the beautiful girls you meet."
"What no. I mean, I have thought about flirting with some of the beautiful girls I've met so far, but that's just it. Harmless flirting. I have no idea what to do in a romantic situation because I've never been in one. You're also the first one I ever tried it on." Hardwin admitted while rubbing the back of his head.
"Now I know your joshing me." Maria laughed as she walked ahead. Her Pokémon all seemed to leer at Hardwin as they passed him by but she still kept the flower on her head.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, Hardwin, who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. LOSER!"
"Oh rub salt in my wound, why don't ya? And hey, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, Uncle Ferdinand always said to take rejection with grace. Besides, it's probably for the best since I wouldn't know what to do if she actually was interested in me." The blue haired clown responded to his zubat.
However, he didn't know up ahead, Maria had taken the flower and deeply inhaled its fragrance.
"Now why is it that rich lords have the wit of a clown, yet a real clown has the charms of a prince?" She wistfully spoke out loud as she smiled at the rose.
The two had found out that they really were left behind as the group had long left the Kilin Exhibition. In the center of the exhibition was the main attraction: a large and ancient bell that had three major colors of red, blue, and gold that circled around the bell like rings and these rings almost looked like strange creatures biting their tails.
Maria looked at the description of the three story high bell. "This is dubbed the Bell of Balance, it was found in what people believed to be a prehistoric tower. However, despite its house having been long decayed, the bell itself has remained in good condition for unexplained reasons. Researchers are unable to specify what the bell was made for and what it's made out off, but they have noticed that it doesn't seem to chime even when it is hit from the inside or out."
"Looks pretty. I've never seen a really big bell before." Hardwin came up and stared at the ornate bell.
"It's strange when one thinks of it. Whoever these people were, they seemed to prioritize taking care of the bell more than their culture and people. I wonder what it meant to them?"
"We'll probably never know." Hardwin looked around and saw no sign of the group. He turned to Zu, "Hey, think you can detect any of them talking? Or the host lady?"
Zu did as he was told, but suddenly went to alarm mode.
"W-Why is he doing that!?" Maria and her Pokémon tried to cover their ears.
"Zu! Zu! Calm down! What's got you so spooked—"
"Help! Back up! There are some weird men down in the basement! Requesting immediate back up! Why isn't this goddamn radio working!?" Zu quickly played out a voice he heard. It sounded desperate and besides the panicked voice, there were sounds of screams of horror from other men followed by unfamiliar sounds.
"Zu, Zu! Keep it down!" Hardwin quickly said as he grabbed Zu and started walking away from so many people with Maria close by.
"Where did you hear that?" Hardwin asked Zu when they were in less crowded and isolated area.
"Umm, Will?" The blue haired boy looked at Maria who was holding her phone and showed him a unable to connect screen. "The wifi and signal just died in my phone."
"Sir," The two quickly looked back at Zu who now had a colder and monotonous voice play out instead of the one that was currently in panic. "All the security at the basement have been dealt with. We are on standby."
"Good," Zu picked up another voice, "This is Alpha Leader, to all teams. Delta Team is in position, begin operation in T-Minus 5,4,3—"
Hardwin quickly glanced around and noticed that they were near an ancient mummy exhibit from Unova.
"2—go time."
And the lights died down instantly, covering the entire museum in darkness.
The sounds of desperate screams pierced the halls, causing a chain reaction that made everyone panic at the screams. There was a large fizzing sound as gas started filling into all the rooms. Zu, acted quickly and blew the gas from reaching his trainer and those in his immediate area.
Hardwin quickly grabbed what he hoped was Maria's hand. "Is that still you?"
"Will? What's going on?"
"I have no idea! Zu!?"
"Come with me if you want to live!" Zu started flapping ahead as Hardwin followed and led everyone else after him.
They came towards a locked door and Maria shined her phone light on the door.
"Zig." Hardwin quickly turned towards his normal type before he made every stand back and let the normal type freeze the locks and bite them off. "Alright, let's go!" He cried before they went in and froze the door shut behind them to prevent the gas from coming in.
They entered into the backroom where they spotted closed and unopened exhibits and crates scattering the area.
"The coast is clear!" Zu spoke out in a whispering man's voice.
"What's going on!?" Maria asked as she was scared at the fact the entire building went from screaming to deathly silent in such a few moments.
"Zu, can you pin point, Vincent and the others?"
"He's alive, but he's down for the count!" Zu seemed to play out a voice of a talking play-by-play expert.
"What? Are you sure? He had like a bunch of mega Pokémon and a powerful Greninja!"
Then Zu took a voice sample from a famous movie. "Sleeping gas! Don't breathe it!"
"So that was what that gas was," Hardwin spoke out loud. "Good job on blowing some of them away."
At this moment, the ground started to shake. Distant sounds of large metal slammed in the distance, and signaled some kind of sealing.
"W-Was that the lockdown protocol of the Museum?" Maria asked. "The host woman talked about it briefly in that it would lock down the museum in a case of emergency. But what the bloody hell is going on?!"
Everyone turned to Zu.
The little bat opened his mouth, "Sir, according to infrared, all civilians are currently knocked out due to the gas—hold on a moment."
Everyone froze as they heard the word infrared.
"Sir, I'm detecting two civilians still conscious in backroom 3 with several of their pokémon." Zu played out the voice much to the fear of everyone else still in the room.
"Get Echo team in there, stat and subdue them. The last thing we need is anyone getting any crazy ideas. The rest hurry up and corral the unconscious."
"Dang it!" Hardwin shouted as he looked around. They were sitting ducks in here.
However, Maria started to think. "They are detecting us through infrared, yeah?" She asked before Hardwin nodded.
"I do believe I have a plan in the works!" That is not how they say it, but okay. "Zu, when are they coming?"
She received her answer but not from Zu, but the fact there were cracks coming from the frozen door Zig put up. Hardwin threw out Jax's Poké Ball while Maria put off her flashlight, brining everyone else back into darkness.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Hardwin was having a lot of trouble since the only light source in the room was just willing put out.
"Wait for it…" Maria started before the sound of ice shattering hit the ground. Out of the dust, laser pointers came out that were on top of rifles pointed at the group. Around a dozen people with Pokémon—all wearing some kind of special goggles that allowed them to see better in the dark.
Maria smirked as she raised her hand in the air quickly. "I'm nicking this! It's show time!" She snapped her fingers before saying something like a whisper to her chikorita.
"Chika, Sunny Day."
The room suddenly flashed with bright sunlight throughout the room. For Hardwin and the others, they were a bit stunned from the sudden flash of light to come into the room. However, it was far worse for those who actually were wearing night vision goggles in broad daylight.
As soon as Hardwin heard the screams from the riflemen and their Pokémon, he quickly pointed. "Zig, Extreme Speed! Jax, Fury Cutter!"
The two Pokémon went off like blurs smacking each of the gunmen and their Pokémon at high velocity speeds that were more than enough to knock out a dozen or two of them with their guards down.
Hardwin looked over to Maria who was holding Chika in her arms. "That. Was. Genius!"
Maria smiled. "Some night vision goggles have special tubes that go completely greenish white or completely black depending on the circumstances when light is suddenly switched on. That happens because the amplification plate gets overwhelmed by all the photons pouring in. Obviously, these rampallians didn't get better quality goggles." However, she blushed as she looked at Hardwin's confused face. "What? I read a lot."
"Oh uh right! Zu, do you know where the others are?"
"Welcome to the Observatory Deck." The zubat played the voice of the hostess showing them around previously.
"Okay, so basically, it's just the two of us—who have never won a single badge in their lives—that now have to fight off a bunch of terrorists with armed guns and obvious military training to save their friends who are pretty much in the opposite side of the museum filled with these guys where we can't use the same trick twice." Hardwin stated out loud.
"Aww bugger." Maria honestly deflated after realizing the gravity of the situation.
However, Hardwin smiled. "Actually, that would only apply if we went at them head on," his smile grew wider with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "And I have no intention of making this a fair fight."
In the Observatory, the last of the soldiers were piling up the civilians and their Pokémon.
Despite being indoors, the sun was brightly lighting up the room.
"Everyone, be on guard. The situation is now out of hand," The disguised man, who was Beta Leader told everyone. "I want patrols to be doubled and keep an eye on the hostages in case they wake up. get some Sleep Powders ready in case they strat to wake up.
The ground rumbled a bit, and all of Beta Team pointed their guns towards one corner of the room. Something was coming out of the ground.
"Heracross formation: B-1, B-7 flank right!" Beta Leader cried out as they all took strategic positions towards the crack coming from the corner of the room.
The hole opened up, but instead of a pokémon coming out of it, a large mist filled into the room.
"What the heck!?" Beta Leader cried out as the mist quickly filled the room. "Switch to, infrared—"
It was then, as he reached for the goggles on his head, he noticed that it wasn't there anymore. "The hell?"
More cries came out as someone else shouted out. "Sir! Someone stole my goggles!"
"What how!? We saw no one come out! And there's no way they could move that fast with the mist!" The leader cried out.
"Ninjask…"
The leader turned around, only to have his vision turn black from seeing a glowing light.
Jax quickly moved at speeds so fast he was invisible. Usually, he would have a large sound whenever he would move this fast. However, Zu was covering his back by hiding his noise, allowing him to rush to all of the enemies and hit them while they were all blind.
Even though the mist was thick, Jax was ordered by Hardwin to use Mind Reader on Zu who knew where all of the others where thanks to his ability to capture sounds.
Meanwhile, another hole opened up nearby the hostages. Zig came out first before Hardwin, Zu, Maria and her Pokémon.
"Alright, Jax should have taken out most of the guns, we should wake up the hostages—"
"Sir, there's someone near the hostages!"
"Whoever's left, open fire!"
"Serene, Protect!"
In the span of a second, the few guns that remained fired on towards Hardwin, but thanks to Serene, an energy barrier was formed that stopped the bullets and let Jax be able to move in and cut some of the remaining guns in half.
"Wake them up!" Maria cried out as she ordered her own Pokémon to fire back.
Hardwin nodded as he looked around among the hostages. "Where the heck is Vincent!?"
"Sir, we've lost sight of the two trainers!"
"What!?"
"The entire floor is filled with sunlight! One of their Pokémon had Sunny Day! Now we can't properly detect them anymore!"
"What about Echo Team!?"
"They're not responding sir!"
"Damn it! Everyone accelerate the operation! The police already have encircled the museum and watch out for the hostages!"
"Sir! This is Foxtrot! Something's wrong in the observatory deck! Beta Team has locked themselves in and we're getting no communications!"
"How the hell are two trainers doing all of this!?" The leader growled. "Nevermind! Jump to last phase, now!"
"V…t…in… Vin… Vincent!" The black haired boy opened his eyes to see Hardwin reclining his hand back—p
"OH GOD! OW!?" The celebrity cried out after feeling the sting of Hardwin's slap.
"Oh good, you're awake." The blue haired boy managed to say calmly amidst all the fog and attacks firing everywhere.
"W-What the hell happened? All this gas came out and then suddenly… dear god man! Did you have to slap me so hard?!"
"I was trying to wake you up!" It was at this point that Maria's chansey, Serene, summoned a Light Screen barrier around them. Hardwin looked over to the pink normal type. "Did you get his Greninja up?"
Serene the chansey pointed over to a red face greninja who seemed to be rubbing his face as well.
"You really need gentler ways of waking up people." Vincent told Hardwin.
"In the middle of gunfire and Pokémon attacks right now, so no time!" Hardwin pulled the guy up. "Now get to fighting since you're the one here with the best raised Pokémon!"
"Fighting in dense fog? How did you even get it like this?" Hardwin pushed Vincent back down when Zu screamed out something and a bullet passed through over their heads. "Okay never mind, aim for the guys with guns is a good enough hint."
Vincent threw out his Pokémon, before helping tide out the battle.
After a few more minutes, all the hostages were awake while the terrorists and their Pokémon were subdued.
Roman, out of the ruined observatory, noticed a large hole in one side of the room. "Where did this come from?"
Maria was nearby when she heard this. "Oh that was Hardwin's idea. Instead of going through rooms of these blokes, his ninjask and linoone both knew Dig and made a path underneath for us. Before we popped up here, he made Zu fill up the tunnel with Haze before unleashing all the fog into the room like a smoke screen."
"But then how were all of you able to see?" The boy wearing glasses asked.
"Hardwin's ninjask knew Mind Reader, and was able to pinpoint where all the gunmen were because Hardwin ordered Jax to use mind reader on Zu, who knew exactly where all the weapons were and he was fast enough to slash a majority of them while avoiding the other Pokémon. He also had Zu prevent them from getting to their communication links by filtering out his Jax's noise into their communication instead."
"That… that was rather clever," Roman admitted. "I had never considered moves to be used like that."
"Yea… he's really out there…"
"Okay!" Jenny Hulia called out to everyone, catching their attention. "Now that everyone is awake, does anyone know who these people are and why they're here? All the ones we've tied up are out cold and they won't be waking up anytime soon."
As if on cue, there was a large echoing bell sound that could be heard even from the observatory. Everyone turned towards the sound and remembered that the direction it was coming from was actually the Kilin Exhibit.
"Hey, is that… the bell that couldn't be rung?" David asked at it continued to ring a rather soothing sound.
Zu instantly turned around when he heard something. There was a natu standing on top of the tied up thugs and Pokémon. Zu tried to warn everyone, but the round, small psychic bird made their eyes glow and teleported all of their captives away.
"Zu, where did they go!?" His trainer asked.
"They flew out of radar sir!" Zu panicked.
"Wait what!? You can't detect them anymore!?" Hardwin asked.
"The police have entered the building!" Zu cried out before he played out the voices of an Officer Jenny and other policemen saying that the building had just been cleared.
"Aww man," Lia shook her head. "My mom is going to kill me."
"We were attacked by terrorists, and you're worried about your mom?!" Lydia looked at the girl. Sadly, it wasn't hard to figure out that Jenny Hulia's mom was more than likely the head of Helio City's Department.
"Trust me, you don't want to know…"
"Do you have any idea how worried I was!?" Lia said nothing as her mother started scolding her.
"Mom, how was I supposed to know about a sudden terrorist attack? And besides, I was fine, my friends were actually super hardcore!"
"I know I know! I just… I don't want to lose you like…" She paused before hugging her. "I'm just so relieved you're safe."
Lia sighed as she hugged back her mom.
"Chief!" One of the other police men saluted to her before the two of them let go of their embrace. "There's something really off. Strangely enough, it seems like there was almost nothing stolen from the museum."
"They put the entire place under lockdown, were armed to the teeth, took hostages, and nothing was reported stolen?" Officer Jenny asked in shock.
"They say that there have only been damages, but nothing else seems out of place."
"Wait a second. Lia, you can go back to your friends."
"What?! But mom!"
"This is for the police, and you're a civilian. Go." She emphasized that last word darkly.
The younger daughter hesitated but begrudgingly did as she was told and left the area. It was then she started thinking about something…
"Oh hey, Lia." The blue haired young lady looked over to Hardwin who was wearing a blanket. "Why did the medics give me this blanket? I mean, not that I don't like it? But what is it for?"
"It's a shock blanket; you put it on people who are in shock."
"But… I'm not in shock. At least, I think I'm not? Am I, Zu?"
Lia's eyes widened when she saw Hardwin's zubat. "Wait, Will! Your zubat heard everything going on in there; at any point did those guys say what they were after?"
Hardwin looked over to his poison and flying type, who sadly shook his head.
"Sorry, no. All he had was something about focusing on the mission before they somehow got away from his ability."
"This had to be a long time plan. The way it was done was way to organized," Lia put her hand on her chin. "Not to mention that I overheard my mother's detectives say that a few of the security in the Museum had fake backgrounds…"
"You really paid attention to that, huh? I was just focused on trying not to get killed." Hardwin admitted.
"Well I want to be a detective even though my mom—never mind. Are you sure there wasn't anything that hinted to what those mysterious people were doing? They went through a lot to steal almost nothing."
Hardwin thought about it. There was something that didn't sit right with him in the back of his mind.
"Hold on. I think there was something. Do you remember the bell in the Kilin Exhibition? I read its main description that no one could get it to chime. But then, we actually did hear it."
Lia's eyes widened. "A clue! Yes! Perfect, Will, come with me!" Jenny wasted no time as she grabbed Will's hand and dragged the boy away.
"Wh-Whoa! What hey, my blanket!" The boy cried as he accidentally let it drop.
"You're fine!" Lia declared as she dragged the boy away from the crime scene.
However, just a little away from the two. Maria Faraday remained frozen as she saw Lia grab Hardwin's hand excitedly and she didn't know why.
"A-Are you sure we should be doing this?!" Hardwin asked as Lia snuck him back into the Museum.
"Shhh!" Lia told Hardwin to shut up before they both hid behind a large, nose-less bust of an ancient king in order to wait for some policemen to pass by.
"You know, I was trying to avoid terrorists, but now I'm avoiding police in the same day?" The boy whispered as Lia ignored him and led him towards the Killin exhibit.
The large bell seemed mostly intact, but Lia knelt to the ground in front f the bell. "There was a machine here…"
"How can you tell?" Hardwin looked back to see if any policemen would come back.
"See there? Those scratch marks? They look like legs of a machine that was hastily put down. By the distance between the scratches, I'd imagine that the legs were at least 12 feet apart in width and 6 in feet…" She then stood back up and looked up the bell. "Whatever it was, it heavy enough to scratch the floor and it seemed to be used on the bell that must have caused the bell to ring. But why? What does ringing an ancient bell do?"
"Y-You got all that from just scratches on the floor?"
"Like I said, I want to be a detective… and I also know that you didn't get your black eye from an accident."
Hardwin looked guilty for being caught lying. "Well you see, I—"
The young man was interrupted when Lia started laughing. "You're a lot nicer than I thought you were, Arz the Clown. It's one of the reasons why I need your help."
"M-My help?"
"Meet me at "(T)ea and (M)iso Soup restaurant at this address," she quickly took out her phone and texted something to Hardwin. "at that specific time."
This was all moving a bit fast for Hardwin. "Uhh huh? What? S-Sure? I'll be there."
Lia winked at him with a smile. "Then it's a date, see ya! And don't tell anyone!" She said as she suddenly ran ahead, leaving a very confused Hardwin.
"Wait, what? Date?! Hey, Lia what was that all about!?"
"Hey you! What the heck are you doing here!?" Hardwin looked over to see some police men pointing at him.
"W-Wait, I can explain!" Well he would have, if not for the fact that the police man was a little too energetic and tackled him down.
"You have the right to remain silent! Anything you say can and will be used against you in court!" The officer said as he pulled out cuffs.
"Zu, Zig, Jax! Help!" Hardwin cried out to his Pokémon, only to see them laughing at his expense.
God dang it, he needed better friends.
A/N: Hey guys. Sorry for the fact there weren't any new OCs, but I think it's more than enough time to start the overall plot of the story. I mean, I like everyday school life as much as the next guy—I really do, the few that I watch have a lot of memorable characters when they aren't bloody focusing the cast on one gender.
In this chapter, we find out a mysterious organization—and oh my god they have GUNS! That means this story is super duper edgy—(Joke). In all seriousness, I have interesting plans for the villains of this story. Hopefully you'll like them.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. There are some parts I could have done differently, but I chose to keep this chapter short.
"Zealot, good job on rescuing Beta Team."
"It's no problem. Thankfully there was a file that could easily be accessed from the school database that described one Hardwin Wilburg's partners as 'special'. It wasn't hard to figure out somehow his pokemon were the ones messing with communications. ...Was the bell rung?"
"Yes, we're now triangulating the area where we believe they will awaken. It's only a matter of time with the readings our scans took."
"Good."