Chapter 4: The Three Gym Leaders

"We'll stop by here first." Apollo motioned to Arthur as he pointed towards the Technique Gym.

Arthur thought that besides the colours, the buildings looked exactly the same. But, boy, was he wrong about that! The Technique Gym was more filled with people than the Speed Gym was, and they filled it with state-of-the-art equipment!

Not suitable as Camelots, though.

There were people on hoverboards, devices that looked straight out of something from a sci-fi movie, and he even swore he saw people battling hologram Monsutās? Not only Monsutās, but this huge-eight-foot-tall, sleek and thin robots seemed to act like mobile training dummies. It was really like something out of a sci-fi movie. There are even simulation battles with Scum beasts.

Cooool.

Apollo lightly elbowed his fellow blonde out of his stupor. "Pretty cool, right? Remy has always been the brainiac of our group. She's collected technology over the world in helping her research on evolution."

"That is super cool, but —… Why don't you have any of this stuff, Apollo?"

Arthur noticed Apollo sweating profusely. He then suddenly laughed in a way that seemed forced, "W-Well, it's not like I spend my funding on pots and dirt for environmental studies! Hahaha…"

The Leader of Team Speed started coughing suddenly when he noticed Arthur and Longfang staring at him. Raph was sleeping on the floor without a care in the world. "Okay, let's go inside."

The people of this gym seem to really like Apollo. Guess that must be because he is the husband of the gym leader. Or maybe because Apollo is calling everyone by their first names with extra like 'how are you doing' or 'I hope you get better and such.

Along with Arthur Monsuta's, the two ended up walking into an elaborate room with a giant holo map of the entire region with a blue-themed androgynous female with white hair and tanned skin looking over it while holding a high-tech tablet.

"Hello, my husband," the person began as she never took her eyes off her tablet or the holo map, seemingly processing data. "To what do I owe this surprise visit? I doubt you got your head stuck in a Shelddon again."

"Thanks again for that!" Apollo happily said instead of saying that he wouldn't do it again.

Remy, the Leader of Team Technique, sighed and turned around with a small smile. "I guess you wouldn't be you if not for that. So who is your friend?"

Apollo dramatically waved his waves arm around the boy. "This here is Arthur Pendragon, and I'm showing him around all the teams before he chooses!"

The white-haired gym leader looked at Arthur with an unreadable stare before turning to her husband.

"Hey yo!" Arthur happily greeted Remy. "I'm here to learn what you guys have to offer... If you want, I can ask one of my moms to help fund your research, or was it, my one of my girlfriends?"

"You have multiple lovers too? That's awesome, dude!" Apollo said.

"More like exhausting... They are far too eager sometimes." Arthur replied.

Remy's question interrupted their conversation.

"He came to you first? It would be best if you had recruited him into your team. But, instead, you brought him here, and you're the one with the lowest number of members." Remy bluntly told the facts to her husband.

"Aww, come on, honey! It's fair he gets to know what each team offers first!"

Remy sighed, obviously having similar conversations with her husband before that ended similarly. However, when Remy looked at Arthur the second time, she raised her brow and moved closer to stare at the boy.

"Hi again!"

Remy looks between her husband and Arthur Pendragon, who both have warm, charming smiles on their faces.

"Dear Gods & Goddesses above, there are two of them now."

"Huh?" Arthur and Apollo said in unison.

Remy sighed and shook her head at the blondes. Are blonde males this airheaded or the ones she always meets?

The white-haired scholar picked her tablet and looked at Arthur Pendragon again.

"I feel like I've seen you before. So, by any chance, were you one of Grand Master Gallo's two assistants?"

Arthur was surprised that she knew that. Did they meet before?

"Maybe the other one would be more of help to your situation?"

"Other one?" That surprised Arthur. "What other one?"

Remey typed in her tablet. "Ms/Mr. Sebastian Black- "

Arthur smiles when wide when he is finally going to hear Sebastian's family's last name. The dude-which is totally a non-gender term, by the way. They refuse to let him learn it.

Sebastian goes all red in the face and keeps saying weird stuff about not being a member and stop being 'him' or just like that.

Sometimes Sebastian gets weird as girls do...

It doesn't help that they are cute as one too.

"Sweetness, I'm finally going to learn Sebastian's last name. So take that, my beautiful rival!"

Apollo raised thumbs up to Arthur. "That seems nice, dude! I was the same way when Eda refused to let her last name."

"How did you learn it?" The dark-skinned blonde asked his fellow blonde.

"I married her! Or more like she forced me into it."

"I'm not going to tell you the last name now," Remy said flatly.

Before Arthur could ask why, the door behind them opened, and instead of one person, there were three. One of them was an elven girl with mint green hair, green eyes, and Groovelup in her hands. She was wearing standard elven ranger gear. Top that showed her midriff and shorts with Team Technique symbols on it. To the left was a hobgoblin boy with green skin, short red hair, and short horns on his head. Unlike most people in the building, he seemed to wear regular clothes without the team's symbols on them. Longfang noticed that besides that young man was a gyro wolf. A different evolution to her species.

And in the middle of three, having grown in the seven years, Arthur's friend/rival/love interest, Sebastian Black Yuki, or what they preferred, Seb. Sebastian looks more ambiguous than ever before. They now have long, black hair that was loosely tied at the tip with bandages in a manner similar to Ice maidens. They also had short bangs that part to the right, brushing over their brows with collarbone-length locks framing their heart-shaped face. Their dark brown eyes change to a reddish-brown after that spin the bottle incident. Sebastian is wearing their gothic attire like usual, with a red plaid skirt and black ripped-up jeans.

Finally, there was a Hellion near their feet, and they were carrying a large white duffel bag with capsules on the ends.

Arthur enlivened when he saw his friend and waved. "Yo. Sebastian!"

The stylish, black-haired beauty's eyes widened as they saw a familiar face. "Arthy!? What are you doing here?! We thought Gallo said there were no more Monsuta's left! Where were you?!" They noticed the two Monsuta next to him.

Arthur briefly explained how he and his dragons come to be after he overslept. He also told them about his first arrest.

Sebastian sighed at the reason why they didn't see him that morning. "You overslept the day you weren't supposed to?"

The young noble trainer laughed as he rubbed his head. "Yeah! My bad!"

Seeing how the teenagers act like that, Remy turned to her husband with a sense of understanding and annoyance.

"Why are you looking at me like that, honey?" Apollo innocently asked, oblivious to how much that conversation would fit him and either her or Eda.

However, the academic gym leader said, "my husband, you really should get that young man in your team."

Back with the conversation between the two Camelot teens, Sebastian smiled. "We are glad you got to start your journey, after all, Arthy- We mean Pendragon! We really tried to wait for you, but then we left with Charminar here, and he really seemed to like us, and we couldn't really say…."

"It's alright, Sebastian!" Arthur said. "I know you were really looking forward to this journey too! What kind of best friend slash rival slash handsome guy would I be if I stopped you from doing that?" the boy said with a bright smile.

"Ooooh?" The girl that came in with Sebastian gave a mischievous smile as she grabbed Sebastian's shoulders from behind. "You didn't say that your best friend was a cute boy. ~" Her smile could rival Janna's or Momo's smiles.

The black-haired noble trainer seemed to panic and pivoted. "W-What!? W-We already told you, Alea Virrora!"

"Actually," the boy among the three that entered began. "You simply said on random occasions that there were things that reminded you of your friend, which in turn almost constitutes as pinning for—"

"NAH! AH! AH!" Sebastian suddenly waved their hands and started making weird sounds. "Wrax!"

Wrax seemed to take in the information and came up with something in his mind. "Ah, my apologies."

Sebastian groaned and buried their face in their hands.

Arthur and Apollo didn't seem to really notice the context of that conversation and instead greeted the other two. "Are you two friends of Sebastian? My name is Arthur Pendragon; it's nice to meet you! The two here are my friends Longfang and Raphael."

The green-haired girl giggled. "Aren't you such a cutie! My name's Alea Virrora, and this here is Groovelup!"

The red-haired young teen hobgoblin calmly introduced himself. "My name is Wrax Bordeaux, and this is my partner Gryo." He finished as he addressed the other blue jackal-wolf Monsuta beside him.

Sebastian looked over to Longfang, who seemed to stare very hard at them. "So Pendragon? We didn't know you caught a Monsuta's already. We still didn't know about which Monsuta we want in our team."

Arthur laughed nervously. To be honest, it was more the other way around where the dire wolf wanted to join him. Not that he'd say it when she was in a splendid position to claw his eye out should he insult her or her honor.

"Oh, that reminds me, why did you call me Arthy?"

The ambiguous noble blinked and reddened. "We said nothing like that, and you didn't hear like that! Understand! We already finished the gym challenge and are here just for the books. You won't gain us!"

"Okay?" Arthur shrugged at Sebastian, being weird again. He reframed to ask why they were wearing his jacket.

It was at this moment that Wrax spoke up. "This was when we met them, and seeing as some of our goals coincide, we traveled with them. I have to admit this is the first time I met a non-binary gender person."

"Yep! Seb here is a great battler! We watched them earn their first badge here, and it was awesome despite the combat advantage against them! Plus, I never meet someone who looks so pretty that I still can't tell if they are a boy or a girl. Do you know, cutie?"

Arthur thought hard after hearing that his rival had a badge. "Hmmm… I really need to hurry then. And I do not know about Seb being a girl or boy. The dude won't let me see them naked."

"Of course we won't, you baka!!" Sebastian yelled at their childhood friend. They then tilted their head slightly at the sentence. "Hurry? Are you battling one of the gym leaders here?"

"Huh, yeah. After I get ten badges."

Arthur responded simply. However, no sooner than he said that, everyone in the room except him and Apollo had their eyes widen.

"WHAT!?"

"You're actually going for the ten badge challenge!?" Alea's shock mirrored all the others in the room except Apollo and Arthur's Monsutas. "Are you crazy!?"

When the elven girl said this, she immediately backed off as Longfang started barking loudly and scaring the greenette back. 'You dare challenge my honor!? I shall claw out your eyes for such an accusation of strength! So prepare to fight young maiden!'

"No! Longfang, don't!" Arthur said as he grabbed his fifth Monsuta and tried to calm her down. Briefly, the young teen seemed to notice that no one seemed to understand what his Monsutas was saying other than him.

"Did that wolf just speak?!" Sebastian said out loud.

Okay, maybe Sebastian can understand them, too.

Remy turned to Apollo.

"He wants to take the ten badge challenge?"

"Yeah, it surprised me when he first asked about it too."

"My husband," The white-haired Leader asked with a certain amount of seriousness. "This young man has never once given the impression he knows about us as much as the public usually does. Does he know how strong we really are?"

"Do you even realize how strong the Three Gym Leaders of York New City even are!?" Alea yelled back at Arthur when Longfang was calmed down and told no one was challenging her honor.

"I heard they were around the Elite Four Level, and I wanna fight someone like that at their best!" Arthur simply said.

"Arthy," Sebastian began, a little nervous. "I don't think you know, but all three Gym Leaders have a Legendary Monsuta in their team!"

Arthur turned towards Apollo with a matte look and simply asked, "They do? Cool, dude! We must battle you later!"

Sebastian slapped their forehead. Didn't he hear what they just said?

Apollo gave an equally disbelieving look. "I was surprised as you to find out I had a Legendary!"

Remy slapped her forehead. "You didn't realize you were carrying a Legendary Monsuta for almost twenty years!" But then she sighed and looked at Arthur. "But it is true. Eda and the two of us had met certain conditions before becoming the leaders we are today. One of them resulted from befriending legendary Monsuta. But I feel the need to state that it is not only our legendary friends that make us at the level we are now. All of us, even my husband, can be capable trainers without them."

Remey and everyone else were surprised to see the blonde-haired noble trainer smile in response to that knowledge. "Really?! Now the more I want to battle you with your best team!"

"Aww, shucks, dude! You're making such a big deal out of it!" Apollo blushed and rubbed the back of his head.

Sebastian and Remy gave out of long-suffering sigh.

Alea shouted again in disbelief. "Are you crazy!? You can't win against that!"

Arthur turned towards his Monsuta friends first. "What do you two think?"

'To fight against gods!? Ambitious, heretical, crazy… yet how my pride as a warrior demands this challenge be met! I say we must prepare and get stronger!' Longfang declared, but again Arthur noticed that almost everyone seemed to not understand her beyond the normal barking… except… Sebastian.

Raph said something as well. 'sure.'

Man of few words, that earth dragon.

Hearing both answers, Arthur turned back to Alea. "Alea, I appreciate you saying that, but I am going to be the next Xiaolin Dragon!" The young teen gripped his fist tightly and declared in such a way that didn't sound like an empty ego but a determined fact. "That means fighting anything and everything! Doesn't matter if they're legendary or not!"

Everyone was stunned at the declaration. However, the first to act was Apollo, who seemed actually excited after the bold statement. "Well, when you put it like that, I can't wait to battle you!"

There was another sigh from Sebastian before they gave a small smile towards Arthur. "You really haven't changed at all in the years, Pendragon."

"Oh, thanks?" Arthur assumed that was a compliment, like always. "You have changed little too, Sebastian."

Everyone but Arthur and Apollo noticed the sound of invisible glass shattering when Sebastian put on a weakly freeze mid smile.

"… Apollo, let him join your team."

"But we haven't even gone to Ed—"

"My husband, let him join your team!"

Remy immediately repeated after Apollo tried to ask.

Arthur, obviously oblivious to Sebastian's predicament, then continued talking. "I mean, you're still that amazing person ever since we've been kids! And you have gotten way pretty and handsome too! I like your hair, and you have been working out a bunch!"

At that instant, Sebastian moved from disappointing shock to a startling surprise after hearing such earnest praise so easily. "T-T-Tha-Thank you?" They turned their face away from their childhood friend in which their travel companions noticed their amazingly red face theirs.

Arthur looked worriedly over at his friend. "Seb? Are you sick again? It kinda sounds like you have the same fever from three years ago."

"Ah, youth." Remy sighed as she saw one of her newest members deny they were sick.

It was at this moment Alea squealed and then hugged the black-haired trainer. "Aww, that was so adorable! I can see why he's your best friend." She said with a familiar Cheshire smile.

"Alea!" Ms/Mr. Yuki half shrieked, half had their voice crack as they called out that name.

It was then that Apollo heard his phone beeping and read the message.

"The heck?" Apollo began in a tone that differed from the usual upbeat nature of the yellow Leader. As everyone turned to him, he looked at his wife. "Honey, I got a message from you."

"Excuse me?" That surprised the Technique Gym Leader. "I've been with you these past few minutes, and I made no motion to call you on your phone while you are right next to me."

At the moment, the rest of Team Technique's phones beeped as well.

Remy looks at her husband once more. "What's the message, my husband?" She asked urgency.

The fellow Gym Leader read aloud what was on his phone. "Apollo, there are some anomalies in my new security system that need immediate action. So when you see the Gym in lockdown mode, do not panic; it is simply an inconvenient and unplanned drill."

Wrax raised his hand and showed his phone. "Leader, we just had a similar message sent to us about the same lockdown happening."

"What!?" Remy venomously cried out. "There are no anomalies in the security system! Who dares impersonate ME!"

And then suddenly, the lights and power of the room were cut, and everyone was found in complete darkness.

"So, umm," Arthur seemed to speak up in the darkness. "I may not be the sharpest knife in Lisa's knife box, but I think this might make up as one?"

Suddenly, the room lit up with red lights, and sirens blared around the room. Remey hurriedly ran for the holo map in the middle of her office and quickly activated it. No sooner than she did, around a hundred pop-ups came, all of them with mass warning signs as sirens blared.

"I'm being hacked?!" she cried as she typed down on a nearby holo keyboard. "Something has bypassed all my security systems somehow and is trying to delete all my research and data!"

The room got cold by Remy's ki flaring out.

"They will pay for this!" Her typing became more furious, as it did. Some of the pop-ups left, and then another pop-up appeared: a 3D image of the Gym they were in. On one floor, there was a beeping red light.

Seeing that, Remy quickly turned around. "My husband, the hackers are inside the building! Kill them for this!"

Apollo nodded, looked unnaturally severe. "You got it, come on guys…! Also, I'm not going to kill them, honey, just knocked them out." Apollo said as he led the teens towards the area on the map.

"Sebastian, Alea, Wrax, go to the main lobby alert the rest of your team about what's really happening!" It spoke volumes that even though he wasn't their Leader, the three quickly followed what he had said. Arthur and his Monsuta ran and ran until they had reached one of the major libraries of Remey's headquarters.

A person was chilling in front of the main doors to the library. "Oh, hey, what's up?"

"We got a situation here," Apollo began as he pointed at the door. "I need you to move. The HQ is under a cyber attack, and my wife traced them back here!"

To the surprise of Arthur, the Technique member started laughing. "Oh, that's a good one, sir! We already got the message that this was a surprise drill!"

"It's no joke! I need you to move out of the way!" Apollo began.

Before anything could be said, there was a growling sound that caught their attention. Everyone turned to Raph, who was usually so pliant, who was now glaring and snarling angrily at the technique member.

Arthur instantly got what Raph was implying with his actions and pointed. "He's with the hackers!"

"Damn!" the fake member instantly said as he dropped his facade. However, before he could reach for something in his pockets, a bolt of lightning suddenly shocked him before Arthur could blink.

The young teen was surprised that already five Monsuta were out on Apollo's side: an Ion Koro, Thunder Pheonix, Blastra, Thundra, and a Panger.

Apollo walked towards the door and punched the doors open.

The library itself was huge, and in the distance, in front of a large computer screen, a cloaked man touched something that seemed to access some kind of file.

There was a sigh shown by the body language of this hooded figure, but they didn't move or turn around. "What was the phrase again? The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang bang."

"What?" Arthur tilted his head before both he and Apollo noticed another hooded figure walk in the path between them and the one near a computer.

"My ally is simply saying we didn't expect the Leader of Team Speed to make a surprise visit. How unfortunate, but all the same. We cannot let you interfere." As the hooded figure lifted his head a little, there was a glow of purple where the man's eyes would be.

"More than interfering," Arthur, Apollo, and their Monsutas turned around to see the Fake Mystic member back up, as if they did not attacked him at all. However, he started moving around his jaw as if the shock had damaged him more on that than anything else. "We're making sure none of you live.… That was a cheap shot, bastard."

"Who are you, people?" Apollo began as he noticed the surrounding situation.

"Do you really think we're going to answer that question? It's two on one!" The fake man began.

Arthur frowned, as it was apparent they did not count him.

"Now as a member of The Hunter Elite Tactics Squad! I at this moment place you all on the arrest of cybertheft." Arthur shouted as he showed his Noble I rank badge.

"Arthur." Apollo started, but thought better." Aim for the guy on the computer. Whatever's he's doing, stop it. I'll cover you the entire time."

"Oh please, that noble won't belong in this world!" To the surprise of the black members. Arthur appeared next to the gloating man and knocked him away from the computer.

The cloaked man hit the wall, leaving a massive dent.

"What the—did he blast the boss to the wall?!" One of the cloaked members said.

"Arthur, move!" The blonde Leader of team speed cried out but stopped. When Arthur blocked, a slash of purple energy.

"Alright then," Apollo began as he stretched his fingers and looked towards the second cloaked figure who now was holding a glowing purple blade of energy. "You guys are fucked!"

The hooded stranger wielding a purple construct spun his blade before taking a sword stance with his hand pressed out and the blade above his head. Then—instantly teleported above the back of Apollo with his blade, ready to cleave his head off.

Apollo ducked with fantastic speed, and a vine shot outright for the man mid-air before he teleported again and slid near the third member.

"Move away…"

Arthur puts his hands together and charges a yellow energy sphere into his hands.

"Micro Light Grenade!"

Instead of hitting the intended target, the quick charge move ended up slamming right into a humanoid-looking robot like the ones Arthur saw on the outside lobby of the Technique Headquarters.

"These combat sentries of the Team Technique practice room should hold you off a little longer." The man stated as he brought over fifty more robot drones.

"Really? Longfang, would you kindly," Arthur started.

Longfang dashed forward and hits one of the robot's square in the face with a crystal strike. The attack dented the face somewhat, but the giant robot quickly motioned an arm to grab the only for Longfang to slip out before being caught.

Raph was fighting three drones at once, but it seemed like, despite his strength and speed, the robots were adapting to his attacks, like the other one was soon adapting to Longfang's patterns.

Arthur was about to give them more ki until the rest of the robots came up and actually tried to punch him into the ground. The blonde avoided the fist, but he noticed the obvious crater where he was initially standing.

"Man, at least these robots aren't trying to take over humanity. I hope," Arthur quipped as he recalled the numerous times he had to fight off a robot rebellion before he rolled to dodge another strike from the robot.

Arthur exchanged blows with many robots using books and the bookshelves themselves as weapons.

Meanwhile, the fight between Apollo and the other super-powered beings raged on. The beings released their Monsutas as well. Despite being outnumbered, Team Speed's Monsutas kept pace with the opponent's and even had a slight advantage. Their teamwork was far better than their opponents; however, even while things were getting destroyed, it still seemed like neither side could pull off a divisive move.

"#LXXX!" the man with the energy blade said. "What are you doing!? Finish it already!"

The hooded figure raised a palm towards Apollo and his Monsuta. Then, to the surprise of many, a psychic energy shot out and held them all in place.

"P-Psychic!?" Apollo blurted out. "You have Psychokinetic Ki?!"

"I was waiting for you to bring your full team, but then I realized you cannot bring out your strongest without harming the other people in this building." #LXX! spoke out. "However, it seems that even while you are here, you posed no real threat to us with these many people being our unwitting hostages."

#LXXX laughed as he threw his blade hand out while all his other Monsuta had this dark glint in their eyes. "Now, I think I'll start by scarring that pretty face of yours!"

However, Sword plummeted his hold when he swung his blade and used it to cut a comprehensive book thrown his way.

#LXXX or Hunter looks at Arthur, who was making good work of the robots while throwing books at Alta or #LXX.

Alta easily cut the three books, but this allowed him to drop his hold and allowed Apollo and his Monsuta to get back on the offensive.

Having reached the computer again, the hacker seemed to work frantically to download something.

"Damn. They brought back mass communications." The hacker said. "Fine. That was not our purpose, but it cuts our time window considerably. I'll simply lock down the hallways on this floor. That should buy us enough time to complete the download… wait. What is that bloody sound—"

"Hello!" Arthur cried out as he ran past the hacker and stopped right at his side with a smile.

The hacker raised an arm in front of the teen. The arm started charging up a Thunder Ball attack near the boy's face. "Begone, child; these robes are quite hard to clean when there's a mess."

Yet, to the surprise of the hacker, he noticed Arthur was not at all worried.

That was when he heard the sound of metal behind him.

The hacker had forgotten he had set the Sentry bots to attack the boy and get rid of anything in its way. In this case: that was him.

As soon as the hacker turned, he was swatted aside and away from the computer by the Sentry robot he programmed to ward off the teen. Here, he could practically feel the sting of Irony—or actual plated steel — in this situation before he flew into the wall.

"Z!" Two of the black numbers cried out as they saw their ally get attacked again, and Sword teleported right for the man, cutting the strength tying down Apollo and his team.

"Oh, wow, that worked!" Arthur cried out in surprise as he jumped and smashed the last Sentry bot down.

Arthur released a gasp he didn't know he was holding and looked at his Monsuta with a relieved smile. "It's a good thing Dad had me study robotics. Nice work on taking out the robots, guys."

"My lord. You are amazing!"

"Boss. You're strong."

Meanwhile, Hunter picked up Z. "Are you alright?!"

"Ugh!" the other figure gasped as he got back up. "I'm fine! But my head is ringing!"

Suddenly, Alta was with them, and his Monsuta was knocked out on the floor.

"Z, tell me you did the damn thing!" Alta cried out. "They knocked out my worthless tools, and the lockdown is undoing itself! We've run out of time!"

"I-I did." Z stood up as he and his teammates gazed upon Apollo and his team. "Time to teleport out."

"There's no way in hell I'm letting you all escape!"

Z put one of his hands out as if he was about to snap his fingers. "You don't get that choice." Then he snapped them together.

"Warning, Self destruct in 3…." Then, the sentry robots on the ground that weren't broken spoke.

"2…"

"1…"

"0."

Apollo and Arthur had to let the bad guys go to stop the robots.

Everyone in the City noticed the explosion come out of the Team Technique base.

Remy had finally entered the Main Library with a majority of her team members behind her. But, to the surprise of many, there was now a gaping hole that looked out into the city, with both Apollo and Arthur looking through it.

"You know," Apollo began as they looked out to the view of the city and heard the sounds of sirens coming their way. "I still haven't brought you to my other wife yet. Eda"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. What's she like?" Arthur seemed to continue the mundane conversation despite their current situation.

"Funny thing is that she's usually more exciting than Remy." The blonde man turned his head around and then did a slight wave to his fellow Team Leader, who was walking up to them. "Sorry, honey, they got away."

Arthur turned around and bowed. "I'm sorry. It was mostly my fault. I should have knocked out they're psychic first."

"It's alright. Things would have been much worse had you two not been here in the first place. Still… did you find any sign of who they were?"

The two trainers looked at each other before looking back at the Leader of Technique. "They had cloaks."

"… What?"

"Arthy!" Sebastian, followed by their friends, ran up to their friend with obvious worry on their face. "Are you alright?"

They held back off on hugging him.

The blonde-haired boy nodded. "Yeah, guess all those robotic classes and robot invasions actually paid off after all." The young teen laughed.

"Oh my gosh, Arthy, we were so worried! These sounded like terrorists, and you were already facing them!? What if they decided to kill you and not play around? Are you sure you aren't bleeding anywhere?" Sebastian cried out as they went closer to Arthur and seemed to study the slightly dusty boy if he was actually hurt and just didn't notice.

"Sebastian, I'm alright—"

"But you couldn't have been! Don't you remember last year!!?" they shouted back with their eyes near tears. "We nearly thought you died again!! What could we say to your mothers if you had gotten hurt here!? You're always so reckless!"

The teen actually flinched at how dear their words had been. He had forgotten about his mothers for a second. Arthur lowered his head slightly in shame. "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry."

The black-haired teen seemed to flinch when they saw the usual chipper boy down in the dumps. "We are sorry. We didn't mean to snap like that."

Arthur returned a small but earnest smile. "No, it's fine. I have always been reckless out of all of us. Thanks, Sebastian, you're always looking out for me. You're a great friend."

Usually, hearing that last word sometimes gave them a weird and upsetting feeling. However, this time they felt a warmth and ease when Arthur had spoken so sincerely again. Sebastian needed to move some of their hair behind their ear before looking back down on the floor. "… You're a great friend too. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't rush into danger when someone is in trouble… but please try your best to stay safe?"

The noble trainer teen smiled widely. "Aww, come on, Seb, you know I don't purposely try to hurt myself."

The black-haired teen seemed to relax a little more. "I seem to recall that one time where you tried to ride a Rock Dwellers down a mountain path… During a rockslide." They said with accusation rather than pointing out a fact.

"Okay, in my defense, I really thought it was a great idea at the time."

It was then that, despite that brief outburst, Sebastian laughed. Even though a scary life and death experience, Arthur was still Arthur, thankfully. He's probably not going to stop having these strange events happening. Still, at the same time, it was usually better him than anyone else. They missed the times when they hated each other. At least they didn't worry as much.

"Daww, I didn't know Seb could act so cute! ~" Alea cooed as she watched her friend act like a mother hen towards her friend after the rather personal back and forth.

Wrax smiled, but sighed and shook his head at his friend's reaction. So who exactly were those people that could organize an attack at who was considered the strongest Gym Leaders indisputably in Europe?

And more importantly…

The red-haired teen walked up to Remy, who looked at him with some amount of curiosity. "Yes, Wrax?"

The red-haired hobgoblin inhaled, making everyone look at him thoughtfully. He then asked plainly and clearly, "Leader, what exactly was the purpose of the cyberattack and infiltration?"

"… I'd have to check. As soon as the cyber attack ended, I saved the files and made my way here. I do not know what the purpose of this attack was."

Inside an inconspicuous truck, three people were in the back, silently waiting on the vehicle's floor.

In the driver's seat of the truck, there were two people, one driving and one riding beside him.

"So, Larry, how are the kids?" The driver asked the one next to him without taking his eyes off the road and traffic.

The member inside the truck seemed to be the one to respond to the driver. "All things considered, not as bad as it looked despite us actually alerting Europe's finest of our existence."

Alta seemed to scoff at the answer. "That HETS member made us look like complete fools! Powerful trainer or not, we should have been able to kill all those against us, but we lost to some slacker who didn't look like he was trying hard!"

"Regardless," Z began as he lifted up a USB drive. "We have the system software we need. Now it's only a matter of time until we find the traitor and where he hid the heretics."

As the sun was setting, Arthur and his Monsuta stood in front of Apollo inside the front courtyard of the Speed Gym after a really long day. "So, I decided I wanna join Team Speed."

"Oh thank, god." From the side, Mest gasped in relief to which made Apollo smile earnestly.

"Thanks for joining Team Speed, Arthur! I think you'd make a great member!" The Leader of Team Speed declared before Mest came in with a box that she handed to Arthur.

"That box has a few things inside, like just some shirts, shorts, and caps with our symbol on it. So you don't have to wear them but just know they're there." Arthur fished his pockets and took out a fancy cylindrical device that was just twice the size of a baseball. "This gadget is a Portable Storage Access, or PSA."

The teen took the object and scanned it carefully. To his surprise, it felt relatively light. Still, he could tell the technology was something like the most up-to-date technology. "What is it?"

"You've heard of the Monsuta Storage System, yeah?"

"The one the famous Bill made?" Arthur recalled dad mentioning it to him several times. His Storage system was invaluable to every trainer in the world… according to his old man. He just took the man's word for it.

Apollo nodded. "Remy, the Professor, and Bill worked to create a portable version of that system for anyone joining the Teams. Of course, you can still only carry six Monsuta at a time, but now you can switch any of them any time you want."

That now meant that a trainer with that could travel with his entire party at his disposal if he wanted to. So that was a really cool gadget.

"Cool," Arthur said in awe. "Thanks a lot! This is really great!" The teen said before looking up at the sky. "I gotta go now. I'm long due for a phone call."

"Alright, good luck, Arthur!" Apollo and his friend waved at their newest member.

"Arty!" Three female voices raged out to the blonde-haired teen.

They soon watch the blonde-haired get dogged piled by three exquisite and angry girls.

"Oh yeah, I have forgotten about you girls," Arthur nervously laughed as Calypso was pointing her guns at him.

"We just got a message from Sebastian about your reckless day, Arthur!"

Arthur's faced went to horrified when they used his real name. His harem never used his real name.

"Can we talk about this?"

…

The Pendragon family owns many inns and hotels around the world. So when the male heir of the family is dragged in and looks like he got beaten with a baseball bat, the employees don't bash an eye.

"We are going to the penthouse," Leni ordered the clerk, daring him to challenge her.

"As you wish."