Today was a big day for the academy.
Students would be battling, and training to get a Tera orb.
The academy staff would be in attendance and that included Ash.
He had gone a little crazy with research on the Paradox Pokémon but it kept leading him to dead ends.
There really was almost nothing written about them.
It may be a good idea to get some time outside.
However, in typical Ash fashion, he was running late and was one of the last people there and it was completely crowded.
He and Pikachu struggled to push their way through the crowd of people but he stopped when he saw a tuft of greenish hair sticking out among the crowd.
Rinto.
Forcing himself through the crowd he nearly fell onto Rinto.
"Oh hello Ash"
"Hey Rinto long time no see how's the learning going?"
"Pretty well I've been looking into expanding my Pokémon team" Rinto proudly boasted that his Pokedex had registered Honedge and Oshawott.
"That's awesome"
"But anyway there was something I've been wanting to ask you. Rika said that you like magazines"
"Ya?"
"There's this one called occulture and I was wondering if you could show me it"
Rinto's eyes widened at that "Really?"
"Ya I've been interested in the Paradox Pokémon and I heard I can read more about them there"
"That's Awesome! Everyone thinks it's just the ramblings of crazy people"
"All students participating in battles please make your way to the bleachers" the announcer called through the speaker.
"I'll show them later gotta go"
…
Julianna waited on the bleachers among her fellow new students.
She had sandwiched herself between Nashi and Cherry the only people there she really knew well Dendra explained how competing for Tera Orbs would work.
"And to give us a demonstration Rinto one of our student council members we'll give you a demonstration"
Rinto sent out Gallade then held out a Tera Orb.
The Tera Orb began to glow when crystals began to stream into it.
Rinto hurled the Tera Orb at Gallade causing a pillar of crystals to form around it.
The crystals exploded in a burst of deep red, revealing a fist-shaped crystal on Gallades head.
"Use Sacred Sword!" Gallade's arm blade glowed bright blue with a red tinge it sliced into a training dummy sparks of red crystal flying off the attack.
The training dummy was cut clean in half.
"Now to begin with we are going to be giving each of you a Tera Orb to see how you handle this mechanic"
Dendra handed out a tera orb to each student, and then everyone sent out their Pokémon.
"You'll have one minute to test out your abilities with each other"
Julianna sent out Quaxly unsure of how he would handle the power boost.
"Three two one begin!"
Julianna let the Tera Orb fill with crystals then threw it at Quaxly creating a burst of blue light and a water tera crystal to appear.
Once the students had terastallized their Pokémon they immediately began unleashing attacks.
And that was complete chaos.
Attacks of every type came flying from everywhere glowing in every color of Tera Crystal.
A Shinx attacked Quaxly with a Thunder Shock the electricity crackling with extra power from Tera.
"Water Gun!" the two attacks canceled each other out.
Before anything else could happen the Shinx was struck down by a Struggle Bug and Poison Sting from a Rellor and Skorupi.
The bug types then turned their attention to each other almost running into Quaxly.
Julianna was so focused that she almost didn't see the Zigzagoon coming with Tackle.
By the time she saw the Zigzagoon, it was already closing in.
"Water Gun! On the ground!" Quaxly launched himself above the ground avoiding the Zigzagoon's attack.
The Zigzagoon was quickly distracted by another Pokémon and Quaxly was able to land on his feet.
Not before doing a flip that got the crowd's attention.
"Times up!" Dendra clapped her hands together.
"It's already been one minute? Man that was fast"
In the one minute they were allowed to use terastallization a majority of the students had been knocked out. Only a quarter of the students remained.
Julianna, as well as Nashi, had made it through and it seemed most of the students who passed were the ones who didn't immediately go off the wall once they got to terastallize.
"Congratulations to the students who passed the first trial" Dendra announced "You've all demonstrated that you can handle having terastallization"
"Now for our next challenge, you will be challenging members of our student council"
…
Florian was bored out of his mind.
He would much rather been training his Tarountula and Fuecoco than watching battles that didn't affect him.
As if someone was answering his wish he got a text from Javier.
Javier-Yo meet me behind the school
Me-Alright be there in a second
Florian slinked through the crowd as if he was going to the washroom.
The problem was once he got to the outdoor washrooms he didn't know what to do since he needed to get to the other side of the school.
"Taarrrr!" Tarountula spun a web on a nearby fence.
"Why thank you Alambre I knew there was a reason to catch you"
…
"Alright I'm here-" Florian stopped when he saw what they were doing.
There was a giant mural being spray-painted on the wall.
"Oh don't give it that look" Anna sighed.
"No, no I think it's quite pretty"
"I know" Javier agreed.
Neither of them said the quiet part out loud. That Florian knew that this was illegal.
"I know you're a bit hesitant but come on, don't you want to try it?" Javier handed him a can of spray paint.
Florian's eyes darted between the spray paint and the path he came from.
He could always say no Javier didn't seem like the type to force him to do something.
But it wasn't Javier that he was worried about it was Anna and the other Team Star members staring at him.
I can't just say no they'll think I'm the biggest loser
"Ya sure"
End Credit Song-Hot Sugar, Glass Animals
Sort of an in-between chapter before the bigger things coming ahead.