As Nadia emerged from the Health Center and walked towards the bridge, the same three blocking it were facing against another three. On one side, there were two girls and one boy. Two were blond with the girl having pigtails, while the other girl, probably the leader, was a redhead. The other had three girls, one with long pink hair in a ponytail, another with short dark blue hair, and the third with long dark purple hair.

Oh wait, that's her cousin Angel with her group of friends.

A teacher then came out of the school as well. "I can't believe you six. Picking a fight in the classroom?"

"Well, those weaklings started it." The redhead muttered.

"Hey! Don't pin this on me." Angel countered.

"We all know you started this one, Mabel," The shorter-haired girl added on.

"Break it up. Mabel, you and your friends are the most disruptive children I've ever had in a class. I'm going to have to call your parents." The teacher scolded Mabel and her group. Mabel scoffs.

"Yeah whatever, we don't care."

"We're not coming back here anyway. We're only here because Mabel's mom made her go." The girl with pigtails exclaimed.

"We were only here to support our friend." The boy added.

"Then I don't want to see you near my students again." The teacher says.

"Heh. Don't worry about that, we're leaving this sorry town anyway. We don't need a school to teach us about Loomians, I'll do it myself." Mabel turns to Angel. "Just so you know, all that stuff about strategy and training are useless. All Loomians need is sheer, raw power. How else are you to be the best?"

Nadia found it a good idea to step in. "Not just sheer power, you know. You need strategy to bring out your Loomians' strength, and training is what gives your Loomians power. That's why you need balance between all three to make them strong."

"Exactly," The teacher agreed, "Power without training is weak, training without strategy is nothing, strategy without power is useless. You have to realize that you need each to be the best, and you might, if you're really thinking about leaving town."

"Psh! All this talk about 'balance' makes me want to barf. Training and strategy only work to bring you down. After all, some of the strongest are who they are because they use power!"

"Yeah, 'some'." Angel's short-haired friend deadpanned.

"Whatever, we're not coming back here anyway. Lucy, Lucas, let's go." Mabel walks off, with Lucas following behind and Lucy yelling, "See you never, losers!" at them.

"I honestly don't understand how or where she got that perspective from..." The teacher sighed.

"Sorry about the fight, Mr. Lehrer." The short-haired girl apologized, and the other two followed suit.

"It's fine; I just ask you don't get involved in another one again. Although, I think it'd be a good idea to go out there and see what I mean. I'm saying you three should go travel across Roria, and train your Loomians."

"Wait, why us?" Angel asks.

"I realize you three are Mabel's prime targets, and I don't know if you understand what I want to teach to you. The other students do get equal treatment by occasionally going to watch Battle Theatre challenges, and I eventually send them off to have their own journey later on, but since you're out here already, I think you three should go see what the region has to offer." Mr. Lehrer explains. "By the way, miss. You are a Loomian trainer, yes?" Nadia nods.

"Good. Maybe you can show these three what I mean. You're going to challenge Battle Theatres, right?" Another nod. "They might learn more if they go with you, than being confined in a single classroom."

"Okay, I'll take care of them." Nadia accepts, despite Angel's protests of her "not being a kid".

Mr. Lehrer goes back to the school, and Nadia looks at Angel. "So, explain."

"The fight? Well, Mabel suddenly started talking about how Loomians don't need items to help them, because we were learning about items and their effects on Loomians. Aliyah-" She gestures to her long-haired friend, "-objected to her claims and it kinda escalated."

"Oh. Ok then...so who're your friends?"

"The long-haired one is Aliyah, and the other is Callie." Angel introduced. "Guys, meet my cousin, Nadia."

"Wow, that explains a lot."

"Aliyah-"

"Nice to meet you, you two." Nadia nods at them. "It's getting late; we should go home. Angel, where's your house?"

"Oh, right there. See you later, guys." Angel waves goodbye to her friends and they go their separate ways for the night, agreeing to meet back up at the school entrance tomorrow.

The next morning, Angel and Nadia get to the building first. Angel decides to talk about what they were learning in school while they wait for her friends to arrive.

When they do arrive, Nadia decides to speak. "So, is everyone ready? Also, are you two going to come with us or are you going ahead?"

Callie speaks up before Aliyah. "Yeah, we're going ahead first. We're gonna try learning on our own first and if that doesn't work, we'll join up with you." Aliyah nods in agreement.

"Okay, that works for me. See you guys later!" Angel exclaims, and her friends take off to the bridge.

"Oh yeah, by the way," Nadia starts, "do you have a beginner Loomian, Angel?"

"Yeah, I do! I found her by Gale Forest one day." Angel brings out the Loomian, an Eaglit, to be exact. Fevine perks up from his hiding spot, as if he recognized Eaglit. He then proceeds to fall out unceremoniously.

"Whoa! Fevine, are you okay?" Nadia exclaims, crouching to Fevine's and Eaglit's level. Eaglit's looking at Fevine in concern.

The Plant-type gets up and shakes his head, as if to get debris out. Eaglit stares at Fevine, waiting for him to say or do something. Fevine stops, and shuffles awkwardly.

"Um...what are they doing-"

"Shut. I want to see this."

"We gotta get going, you know." Nadia looks at her cousin, who ignores her and stares at the two Loomians that are now awkwardly staring at each other.

Eaglit speaks first, then Fevine replies with something. A couple of yips later, Eaglit starts jumping in happiness.

"I guess they knew each other already?" Nadia suggested, and Angel shrugs. "Well, in any case, we should get going. I need to get to the Battle Theatre."

"I'll be watching from the audience." Angel smiles.

Route 2 and 3 weren't too much of a problem, with the both of them getting through it quickly. Nadia tried taking a detour on Route 3, but the ledge was too high to jump down unscathed. However, they did find something else there.

When they reached Silvent City, it was almost noon. The city was bustling; shops lined the entrance to the city, construction workers crowded the highway, trying to connect it to the main highway, and most of all, people entering the Battle Theatre to watch the battles that are to commence.

"That's the Theatre right there." Nadia pointed at the building with blue and purple neon lights and a Loomian symbol on it.

"So you're going to battle in front of so many spectators, huh...sounds scary." Angel responds, and Nadia starts toward the Health Center. "You're not going there immediately?"

"Nope! I need to stock up on Health Potions and heal my Loomians." Nadia calls back, before entering the Health Center. She comes back out with Fevine feeling refreshed. Eaglit bounds toward him and probably said some words of encouragement, because Fevine nods with determination in his eyes.

"Ready."

Nadia and Angel walk towards the Battle Theatre, just as someone else comes out of it. Angel nearly bumps into him when Nadia pulls her out of his way.

"That was close..." Nadia says, and Angel nods. They didn't dwell on it and went towards the building.

Inside was a cluster of people, all lining up by the ticket booths. On the left stood a man, who was talking to a girl with low pigtails. The ticket booth was in mayhem, with people fighting on one end over who had cut in line.

"Um...is it supposed to be this chaotic?" Angel muttered to Nadia, who shrugged.

"Well, anyway, I'm going to go to a free ticket booth. I don't want to get involved in whatever's going on there." Angel paused, before getting a glint in her eyes. "...Or do I?"

"Angel, no."

The pink haired girl pouted, before walking toward a ticket booth occupied by a very exasperated clerk.

Nadia walked toward the man, who had finished talking to the other girl and saw her coming over.

"Ah, welcome to Silvent City's Battle Theatre. Are you here to challenge it?" He asks.

"Yes, I am." Nadia confirms. The man smiles.

"Well, you're just in time! We're looking for trainers who want to challenge the Battle Theatre. Do you know how it works?" Before Nadia had a chance to answer, he spoke again. "You have to clear three puzzles and two of our own trainers before you can challenge the Battle Star. So, are you ready to take this challenge?" Nadia nods. "Good. Step right this way through, please."

Nadia enters the room the man was guarding and looked around. The room was small, with a TV to show the current challenger battling. Four seats were in front of it, with one occupied by the girl from before.

Awkward silence carries on from here.

Nadia decides to sit down on one of the seats and stare at the TV screen. It showed another trainer battling Naya and her Kleptyke. The trainer had a Pyder, a Bug-type, a good idea against the Dark-type Kleptyke, but the trainer clearly hadn't thought out a strategy. Kleptyke finished off the Pyder despite being at a disadvantage.

"He didn't have a decent strategy against Kleptyke. He was just spouting super-effective moves and not really keeping track of his energy level either." Nadia muttered.

"Another aspect is his training," The girl next to her added, "His Loomians were a bit underleveled. Two of his Loomians were knocked out in the first two battles, then Naya's Geklows knocked out another two rather quickly."

"Is that what happened?" Nadia asks, and the other girl nods.

"Apparently, according to the guy over there." She gestured to the guy standing guard at the door to the stadium.

Just then the guy moved out of the way and the trainer rushed out, cradling his Pyder in his arms as he ran out of the room. The girl stood up.

"I have to go out there now." She explained before moving toward the door.

"Well, good luck." Nadia smiles.

"Yeah, you too, when you get out there too."

Through the TV, she learned her name was Musa, and she did well in the first puzzle. The first trainer was defeated without much difficulty.

After her was Nadia. As the announcer called out her name, she walked onto the stage and into the room filled with spectators cheering and shouting. She could somewhat see Angel in the audience.

"Alright crowd, you know the rules! Before Nadia can battle the first trainer, she must solve this first puzzle."

A similar puzzle to one she's seen thousands of times was brought down onto the stage. The puzzle held five green lights, two on the bottom one tile apart from each other, and three on the top, with the middle one lit.

"The rules are the same as before. You must make all the tiles light up before you can move on. However, some of the lights may turn off when you step on another."

Nadia's seen this puzzle before and knew how to solve it. She started at the bottom left and walked in a square, ignoring the middle tile. When they all lit up, the announcer smiled.

"Looks like she solved it! Let's welcome our first trainer!" A boy came out of the other doorway.

"If you want to challenge the Battle Star, you'll have to go through me first!" He says.

Nadia didn't send out Fevine immediately, but sent out Grubby instead. The trainer sent out Twilat, and ordered for it to use Quick Pounce. Grubby takes a bit of the hit but is otherwise unharmed.

"Use Stare and then Sting!" Grubby did as it was told and lowered Twilat's Melee Defense before stinging it and poisoning it. Twilat used Dawdle and lowered Grubby's Melee Defense as well, before pouncing on the other and gnawing on it.

Grubby then used Bug Bite, an attack Twilat cannot avoid at such a close distance. Health was sapped, and Grubby healed up.

Twilat Quick Pounced again, which Grubby blocked with a Gnaw. However, both have low energy from the attacks. Grubby let go of Twilat and the both of them rested for a turn to regain it.

In that one turn, Grubby had evolved into Coonucopia. It created a bit of confusion and screaming as the stadium dissolved into mayhem again.

Also in that one turn, Twilat's health was depleted due to the poison. It fainted, and the trainer sent it back and sent out Eaglit. Nadia could almost hear Angel screaming in the background.

Nadia returned Coonucopia and sent out Fevine. It was a good idea too, because Eaglit started out with a Shine attack, which had no effect on Fevine.

"Fevine, use Growl, then Pounce on Eaglit!" Fevine did as told and ran towards Eaglit.

"Eaglit, use Pounce as well!" The other guy yells out, and Eaglit counters Fevine's Pounce with its own Pounce.

Now the two Loomians are wrestling on the stage there, until Fevine swiped at the other. Eaglit jumped back in surprise and pain from the Swipe attack that had replaced Pounce.

After that, it was just a bunch of Pouncing, Swiping, and resting one turn before Eaglit was defeated.

The announcer gave his congratulations to Nadia's victory and the audience applauded.

"We will be back for another round after our next challenger."

Nadia walked out just as Musa walked in, so they just nodded at each other to say good luck.

After that, it was pretty simple. The puzzles were slightly challenging as each round went, and the next trainer wasn't too difficult to beat. However, the Vambat he had gave a little trouble.

Nadia returned to the waiting room and healed up her Loomians with the Small Meds. She sits next to Fevine on the seats.

"We have to battle Naya next," Nadia says, "Are you ready for it?"

Fevine yips with more determination.

Nadia smiles. "Alright, boss fight it is, then." She pet Fevine one more time before standing up. Fevine jumps onto her shoulder and they both enter the stadium just as Musa walks out, breathing a sigh of relief.

Finishing the third puzzle, Nadia prepared herself for what's to come. She knew how dangerous Naya's Kleptyke would be if she didn't think up a strategy to tackle it. Besides, her Geklows pose another problem if she used anyone but Fevine, as Fevine had the immunity to Light-type attacks.

I think I've got an idea... Nadia thinks as Naya enters the stadium.

Battle Star Naya was a tall woman with long, wavy lavender hair tied in a ponytail and glasses with frames that contrasted each other. Her attire also went with the contrast theme, with half of her coat being black and the other white.

"You've done a great job getting this far. This is your first time challenging a Battle Theatre, isn't it? Most trainers have at least a few medals before challenging me, although I shouldn't be talking." She chuckles. "Anyway, I won't go easy on you even if you are new to this."

"Likewise, Ms. Naya," Nadia responds. "I won't hesitate either. I'll give it my all."

Naya nods, and gets out a Capture Disc. "If you want my medal, then beat me in a fair fight."

She sends out her Geklow, and Nadia calls out Fevine.

"Now, let me teach you a thing or two about balance."