Chapter 3

"Sooo… what're we gonna do first?" Nemona clasped her hands and put them behind her head as she walked along side Arven, Kai and Aeon in the Uva academy campus. All around them were students all of which were doing whatever they wanted. Some were studying for their next class, others were eating and enjoying food.

All while walking past the crowds of people around him, Aeon's eyes remained still and looked forward, not once looking around. His arms didn't move as he walked, and his breath was still visible, as though he were in the cold. Arven's eyes shifted over to the white-haired boy, noticed his odd way of walking, then extended his arm to stop Aeon in his tracks. Everyone else stopped just as Arven stepped in front of Aeon.

"Hey," Arven said. "You gotta move your arms while walking, or else you'll look extremely weird," Arven said. "Do ya' wanna look extremely weird?"

Aeon shook his head.

"Watch me, look at how I walk." Arven started walking, and everyone watched him.

"Pff-" Kai chuckled a bit.

"What?" Arven said, swinging his head over to Kai who was covering his mouth with his hand and cracking up.

"You look like you're overdoing it, man," Kai said.

"H-Hey!" Arven's face became red as he grit his teeth. "I'm trying to give an example! I bet any one of you would overexaggerate if you're trying to show someone how to walk!"

"Stand back and watch the master," Kai said, cracking his knuckles before lightly pushing Arven aside. Nemona chuckled at this. Kai stretched his arms before taking a deep breath and standing as still as a plank. He then started to walk normally ahead of the three of them.

"See?" Nemona said, turning her head to Arven. "That's how you do it!"

Arven narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "I literally did the same thing."

"Yeah, but Kai's was more natural!" Nemona cried.

"Yeah, Arven," Kai said, turning to the two of them. "You gotta be more natural."

"I was being as natural as I possibly could be!" Arven roared. "Ugh. Whatever. What matters is that Aeon learned from this, right?" He eyed the young boy, who nodded quickly. "Okay. Start walking ahead."

Aeon started walking and slowly waved his arms along.

"There ya go!" Arven said. "You're a natural." He walked ahead. Nemona and Kai exchanged a smile and caught up with the two of them.

"Oye! Guys!" Nemona cried, running ahead of the trio and stopping in front of them. "We've gotta give Aeon some threads! I bet he's getting bored of the same old clothes he's wearing right now!"

Nemona crouched down a bit to Aeon. "Isn't that right? Aren't you getting tired of those clothes?"

Aeon just stared at Nemona with unblinking eyes.

"I'm gonna take that silence as a yes!" Nemona cried.

"Hey-" Arven said. "You can't just assume what he's thinking!"

"There's no use," Kai said. "Once Nemona has her mind made up, no one can stop her."

"C'mon-!" Nemona grabbed Aeon by the hand and pulled him over to the direction of the nearest clothes shop. "Let's get you some new clothes!"

Aeon's eyes became wide with surprise as he was dragged along, leaving Arven and Kai alone.

"C'mon," Kai said with a sigh. Let's-"

"Wait, before we go…" Arven said quickly. "I've got something to ask."

"What's up?"

"Do you know what a Titan Pokémon is?"

"A whosit-whats-it?" Kai said, tilting his head.

Arven took a moment to think before silently nodding to himself.

"Have I ever told you that I love making sandwiches?" Arven asked.

"...What does that have to do with Titan Pokémon?"

"Stay with me here, it has everything to do-"

"Okay, wait wait, wait, wait. Hold on. You can't just go from 'Hey, you know about titan Pokémon', and 'hey, I like making sandwiches'. Of course that's gonna get me confused-"

"Hey- just listen to me, okay? I-"

"Hey there guys!" A female voice cried out to the two boys, and they turned to see two people, a boy and a girl, both wearing matching outfits consisting of a white helmet, star-shaped goggles and star signs all over their Uva academy uniforms. "Wanna sign up for team star?" The girl continued.

"So, Aeon!" Nemona said. They were both standing in the middle of a clothes store, in front of them were huge arrays of clothing. There were several mannequins displaying clothing and doing poses of all kinds. Nemona had a male Uva uniform in her hands. "This is the uniform that you'll be wearing when you attend our school!" She smiled wide. "So, what do you think? Wanna try it on?"

Aeon quickly shook his head. Nemona's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"What?" Nemona said. "Do you not like the clothes? They're pretty comfy, y'know! Plus, you can wear all kinds of accessories along with it! See here?" Nemona showed her fingerless glove. "This obviously isn't a part of the uniform, but they allowed me to wear it! Cool, huh?"

Aeon nodded and smiled.

"See?" Nemona said. "It's super cool! Let's go to the changing room so you can try it o-"

Aeon quickly shook his head.

"Huh? Y-You still don't like it? Oh… Well- that's okay! You have plenty of time to get used to the outfit once you get one for yourself! We can pick something else out… What do you want to wear?"

Aeon crossed his arms and started to think, mirroring the same movements that Arven makes when he starts to think. Then, he started to move on his own.

"H-Hey! Wait up!" Nemona said, walking after him.

"And so, after you join Team star," The male team star grunt continued, "You'll-"

"Do you ever shut up!?" Arven cried. "Jeez. You're drilling into my ears! Just leave us alone!"

"I've gotta agree," Kai said. "You're kinda interrupting us."

"Did you hear that?!" The male grunt cried. "They're talking down on us- and if they're talking down on us, they're talking down on all of team star!"

"I- uh, I don't think that's how it works..." The female grunt said.

"Quiet, you!" The male grunt cried, turning his head to his colleague for a moment before turning back to the boys and entering a battle stance. "It sounds like you two boys need to learn a lesson!"

"Oh, I love fighting fools!" Kai said, cracking his knuckles and smiling. "It's free entertainment and a free win!"

"That's it!" The male grunt cried. "Fight us in an invoker battle! Right now! It won't feel right unless I pound you senseless with my own fists!"

"Wait- Us?!" The female grunt cried. "Is this gonna be a two on two?!"

"Wait, you're roping ME into this!?" Arven cried.

"Hey!" Nemona cried. All four combatants turned their heads. Nemona came running in with a smile. "Now while I'd love to watch you guys go at it, but we can't have invoker battles on campus! You're gonna have to go off school grounds or go to the schoolyard!"

"Tch… we can't just go to the school yard." The male grunt cried. "Fine! Let's go out into the grass fields!"

"Before that- let me introduce to all of you… the brand-new Aeon!" Nemona moved her hand as though she were presenting something, and Aeon came walking in. He was wearing a black, unzipped winter coat with a hoodie over a black sweater with a turtleneck, and blue jeans. He smiled a bit. "Aeon even picked these clothes out for himself!" Nemona continued.

Kai's eyes widened as his face became red. Staring at Kai made his heart bounce.

"W-Whoa… he's… cute...!" Kai said under his breath.

"Not bad," Arven said. "Good job, Aeon!"

Aeon smiled and nodded at his older brother, and the moment he smiled, Kai's heart raced even more.

"Hey!" The male grunt cried. "You're forgetting about us!"

Arven scratched his head and turned back to the grunt. "I'd rather we did forget about you," Arven said, grumbling.

"Let's get out of here and start the two-on-two battle! Well, since it's an invoker battle, it's a four-on-four!" Nemona cried. "C'mon, follow me!"

Everyone was out in the grass field.

Nemona and Aeon stood in the middle of the two grunts who stood together to face Kai and Arven. Both grunts were clad in white invoker armor with their gold star sigils decorated on them. Arven and Kai's invoker armor had engaged as well.

All four combatants had a single Pokéball in their hands.

"Well, we'll go with the classic rules for invoker battles to make this quick!" Nemona said. "Everyone's going to use just one Pokémon. So that means when you go down, you're out! No switching out, okay?"

"I'd rather we go with gym rules!" The male grunt cried.

"W-We only have one Pokémon to use, anyway…" The female grunt cried. "So… wouldn't they be at the advantage if they had more than one Pokémon if we did Gym rules?"

"Oh. Right- good point. Never mind then!"

Nemona sighed.

Kai turned to look at Aeon and his new look.

"Wow…" He muttered.

"Well- anyway!" Nemona cried. "Normal rules! Go crazy!"

Nemona turned to Aeon. "Hey, Aeon, got anything to say to Arven?"

Aeon turned to look at Arven. Arven shook his head.

"I don't expect the kid to say anything," He said. "Let's just get this battle done and ov-"

"G-Go…" Aeon said. "Go… do it… Arven…!"

Arven's eyes widened. "D-Did you ju-.. Ugh…." The older boy put his hand on his face to cover it completely for a moment. After taking a deep breath, his hand slid off his face to reveal a look of determination.

"Now I've gotta try." Arven said. "Let's do this, Kai. Kai?"

Kai shook his head to break his trance and nodded.

"Uh- Yeah! Hey you two! Ready to get your butts kicked?!" Kai cried.

"The ones doing the butt-kicking will be us!" The male grunt cried.

"Uh…" The female grunt's eyes shifted back and forth, then she shrugged in defeat. "I got nothin'.'