We all sat in the room, and we all faced each other. All of us were so different, and yet, I could tell we had one thing in common; none of us wanted to be here. We all looked uncomfortable, beaten; two boys that I assumed were brothers, no older than twelve, probably, were crying. And it was for the same thing, another thing we had in common; we were pointed out and called misfits, freaks of nature, different. And then we were shipped off to the SSB Academy, or the Socially Strange Boys Academy. It said so in the name; we are strange.

The instructor (they say they are a teacher, but that's only to keep the façade of 'academy'. In truth, it's more like a jail) had come in and welcomed the 'class' to the academy, and told us to do what most instructors do; state your name and why you're here. Of course, no one talked, since he had basically told us to spill our secrets. We all just looked at the wall, not making eye contact, until the instructor finally just pointed to the person three chairs to the right from me.

"You. You begin."

The picked boy sighed, and, after waiting a moment, finally began. "My name is Marth, and I am here because..." he trailed off, as if he was trying to remember, but I could tell that he simply wasn't going to say anything.

"You're here because you're a..." the instructor made a gesture for him to continue, but Marth stayed silent. "Drag..." the instructor pushed, determined to tell everyone his judgment. I didn't get why he was making him say; the judgments were all most likely lies. Marth still stayed quite. "Queen. You're here because you're a drag queen." Drag queen. I could see where they would get that from his headdress and possibly his tunic. (Though another person here was wearing one, and he still looked masculine in it.) A lie, yet because of one thing, he was outcasted.

"Yes," Marth murmured, defeated, "because of that."

The instructor gave a small smile, out of triumph more than reassurance, it seemed, and looked to the person next to Marth. "Continue." He didn't speak. The instructor cleared his throat, impatiently, and continued to stare at the boy. "I said continue." Again, the boy didn't talk, but instead looked up at the instructor, rather pleadingly. "You are... called Pokémon Trainer, it seems, because no one seems to know your name, and you are here because... you are mu-Oh, I'm sorry! You are here because you are mute. Welcome." When the instructor said his name was Pokémon Trainer, my body tensed up, and I fought down a memory. Forcing myself to calm down, I realized I had nothing to worry about, and that if he was called Pokémon Trainer, he probably had Pokémon with him, and I would have creatures like me to associate with. "Next"

"I'm Ike, and I'm here because I'm supposedly 'cursed' because I'm the only person who can wield a blade that never brakes because it's 'cursed'." He put air quotes around each cursed, and when he spoke, he never faltered, never paused, never let any defeat come into his voice; he was strong.

"Next."

Now it was my turn, and I had two choices to make: I could either tell the whole truth or tell part of it and see if the instructor pushed me to tell the rest. I decided to go with the latter.

"My name is Cestian-"

"Hmm..." the instructor murmured rather loudly, cutting me off. "It says here that your name is Lucario, not... 'Cestian'."

"Well, you must have gotten something wrong, because my name is Cestian; my species is Lucario," I barked.

"Well, all of your recommendation letters said your name was Lucario." That struck a nerve. Recommendation letters were letters that got sent to the school, and were the only entrance fee, you could say. You only needed one to be able to go to the school, not that anyone wanted to go willingly, though, but they had a catch; if you got six or more, you were forced to go to school. The people who wrote the recommendation letters only knew me as Lucario, so of course they would put that name, but they, and that name, was in the past. Now, I am Cestian.

"Well, they must have gotten my name wrong. I am Cestian, not Lucario." I was fuming and my temper was rising. Suddenly, I remembered something my old trainer had told me about how to calm my anger, and I puffed up my cheek as I had been instructed to do before. For some reason, that technique always worked for me, and I could feel my temper ebbing away.

The instructor scratched something down on his clipboard before he replied with "Very well. Continue."

"As I was saying, my name is Cestian, and I am here because I am a freak of nature."

"Next." I let out a sigh of relief when the instructor didn't pressure me to go on. My secret was safe for now.

I looked over to the boys sitting next to me, the two who seemed like brothers, and waited for one of them to speak. The blonde had stopped crying and the one with the hat was staring daggers at the instructor. Finally catching on, the instructor spoke for them. "These two are friends, the one with the hat is Ness and the other is Lucas, and they are masochists. Next."

From beside Lucas, the person in yellow-orange armor (or perhaps a metal suit?) spoke, their voice echoing slightly from the armor and sounding so deep that it almost seemed fake. "Samus, and I'm here because reasons." Samus hefted his canon-enclosed right hand and set it on his left, doing so that to everyone else it looked like he just shifted position, but I could tell that he had the canon aimed towards the instructor. It looks like I'm not the only one with a secret.

"Next." To Samus's left sat a person in armor (I wondered why they kept it on; as far as I knew, this wasn't a battle school) who all over struck me as odd with his forest green hair and squinty eyes.

"My name is Oscar, and I am here.... Also because reasons." He, too, must have noticed that Samus had, and still, trained his blaster at the instructor, and took it as a way to keep his secret. Mentally, I made a list of people with secrets; so far there were three, Samus, Oscar, and me.

"And I'm Ricken, I'm here because reasons, too." And now there were four.

When Ricken spoke, the instructor shot an icy glare at him. "Ricken, was it? Wait until I say next to speak."

Ricken winced, clearly not defensive to hate. "I'm sorry."

The instructor simply hmph-ed. "Next." Ricken looked to his side, only to see Marth.

"But sir, there's no one left."

"Did I not tell you to speak after I said next? I said next, so speak."

"B-but, I already did."

"Then repeat yourself. Next."

"I'm Ricken and..." he looked reassuringly at Oscar, who gestured towards Samus's aimed canon, "I'm here because of the same reason Oscar's here." He sped up the last part of his sentence and looked down ashamed, his face hidden by his massive wizard hat. Oscar brushed his leg with his hand comfortingly and gave a small smile. They were clearly close friends. The instructor made a disgusted face at the gesture, clearly taking it in the wrong and incorrect way, and began talking again.

"Now that you know a little about each other, you'll have a bit of time to talk and get to know one another a bit more. When the time is over, the bell will sound so you know what it sounds like, and you will head to your dorm. Now, listen carefully so I don't have to repeat myself: Ike and Marth, you two are in Room A; Oscar and Ricken, you two are in Room B; Lu" he coughed, clearly trying to hide his 'mispronunciation' "sorry, Cestian and Pokémon Trainer, Room C; Lucas and Ness, Room D; and Samus, Room E. All of your belongings will be in your rooms, and please don't wander off. There is a map outside so you can find your way." The instructor left, and when he closed the door, I heard the tumblers rolling signaling that he locked the door.

Instead of talking, we all just sat there looking at each other. Ness and Lucas clasped hands together in a friendly fashion, and I watched Oscar and Ricken mirror them. No one spoke, probably from the mentality of 'I'm not meant to be here'. Then the person to my right tapped my shoulder and I turned towards them.

"So, I know now that you're a Lucario, but overall, what is a Lucario, like, are you an animal, or a Laguz, or what?" Ike questioned, and it was hard to tell if he was genuinely curious or simply trying to start a conversation.

I cocked my head at the unfamiliar term of 'Laguz'. "No, neither of those, I'm a Pokémon."

"Well, I'm a human, as you can tell, and--You know what," suddenly he stood up and faced everyone before continuing. "So, everybody, since we just had to lie about ourselves, let's get some stuff cleared up. So, how about we introduce ourselves fully this time? Marth, you wanna start?"

"Sure," he replied and Ike sat down. "Well, to start, I'm from the Fire Emblem sector of Nintendo, and I'm the prince of Altea, and that's really all I can say. All the rest is more simple things. Though please, just treat me normally."

"Hmm... now this will be hard. How can we learn more about you if you can't talk," Ike pondered, referring to Pokémon Trainer.

"What region are you from?" I piped up, trying to help. "Kalos?" He shook his head. "Unova?" Again, he shook his head. "Sinnoh?" A shake. "Hoenn?" Another shake. "Johto?" Once again, a shake. "Then you're from Kanto?" He smiled, and finally nodded his head, to which I returned the smile. "And how about you show us your Pokémon?" His smile grew a little more and his face brightened as he grabbed three Pokéballs from his backpack that sat in front of him and released the Pokémon from their capsules. The three, a Squirtle, an Ivysaur, and a Charizard, turned to me expecting to battle, though I simply gave them a growl explaining the situation. They stood there, most likely observing the people as they looked at them, until Pokémon Trainer returned them.

"Okay, my turn," Ike began, rubbing his hands together. "Let's see, I'm from Fire Emblem, like Marth, but I grew up in Gallia, not that I remember much about it. My mom's dead, my dad's dead, I'm the leader of the Greil Mercenaries, and that's about it, so, Cestian, your turn."

Once again, a pondered if I should keep my secret of not. Ike had been full out telling us about his parents, but Samus, Ricken and Oscar weren't telling us something. Then I decided that what they didn't know couldn't hurt them.

"I'm from the Pokémon sector, as Pokémon Trainer is, though I'm from Unova, not Kanto. I was hatched in the wild and lived mostly on my own until my trainer caught me. He learned that I could talk when he was battling a Gym Leader and I told him that I could beat them without his command. And then the spectators created the Recommendation Letters, and I was sent here." At the end I realized that I had so easily come up with a lie on the spot. I hadn't even thought of saying the end until it was coming out of my mouth. Cestian: one lie, one secret. I turned my head towards Ness and Lucas, signaling that I was done talking.

"Just skip over us," Ness mumbled, making a shooing gesture with his hand. "There's nothing that interesting about us, anyways." I wondered if they were trying to keep a secret, too, but there was something in his voice that told me he just didn't want to open up to us.

Next was Samus. "I'm from the off-planet sector of Metroid, born in K-2L and grew up on Zebes. I joined the Federation Police once I learned to fight and am ultimately a bounty hunter, though the Federation Police often recruit me. That is all you need to know."

"I, too, come from Fire Emblem, Crimea, though, and am a former member of the Crimean Royal Knights twelfth regiment, though I resigned when my father died to take care of my brothers, though I struggled to make ends meet. Greil, Ike's deceased father, took pity on my brothers and I, and recruited us in the Greil Mercenaries, so I know one familiar face here," - Oscar paused for a moment to smile at Ike, who smiled back--"and recently I once again enlisted into the Crimean Army."

"Just like Oscar, Marth, and Ike, I'm from Fire Emblem, Ylisse to be exact. I'm a part of Chrom's Shepherds , a sort of mercenary group, and I'm studying to be a mage of highest order."

After Ricken had finished speaking, Ike stood up once again. "So, I have two things to say. First thing to say: in our little group here, I elect myself as president and Cestian is my vice president."

I resisted the urge to face palm. "Ike, you can't just elect yourself as president. You can nominate yourself, but you can't elect yourself. Elections are for the people to vote for who they want as president, vice president, et cetera."

"Fine. All in favor of me being prez and Cestian being vice prez, don't die in the next few seconds." I rolled my eyes and sighed as Ike counted everyone. "It's unanimous, so it looks like we're in office. Second thing: I just wanted to say that I know it's pretty degrading to be here, but we don't have to take it that way. Yeah, I get that this is the Super Strange Boys Academy--"

"Socially Strange Boys."

"--I don't care, Cestian. Anyways, we don't have to be the 'Socially Strange Boys' but instead... we're all fighters, right? We could be the Super... Smash Bros! So all of you, instead of letting the prison guards in this jailhouse bring you down, just don't--" Suddenly, the bell rang, and I winced at the high-pitched noise. "Listen to what they say. And remember that--"

"Ike, we're leaving," Oscar said, pointing out the obvious.

"Wow, I give an inspirational mini-speech and you all get up and walk away, talk about-Hey! Don't leave me behind!" I chuckled at Ike's oddness as I continued to walk out the door; it was encouraging to see him not succumb to what the academy wants us to be, and I could tell that if he wasn't here, this whole experience would be incredibly different.

In no time, we had navigated our way through the school and were in our rooms. As I entered mine and Pokémon Trainer's room, I instantly notice two glinting items resting on the night stand. Curious as to what they were, I walked over to the nightstand and studied them. The two pieces of metal seemed to be badges of some sort, looking like a thought bubble with cracks in them, and underneath the badges were letters: one labeled Lucario and the other Pokémon Trainer. After handing the second envelope to Pokémon Trainer, I opened mine and began reading the contents.

Dear SSB Student,

Thank you for attending our school; we are very glad to have you. On top of this letter you have probably found your SSB Badge, a badge that is proof that you are a student here. As a rule of the school, you must wear your badge at all times. If you are seen not wearing your badge, any teacher may assign you a detention with the principal. Losing or breaking your badge will award you detentions until you receive a replacement. Remember that the school year starts tomorrow, and you will be expected to wear your badge. Breakfast will be delivered to your room tomorrow to ensure that you head to your first therapy lesson on time. At your first therapy lesson, you will receive your schedule and school map. We hope that you enjoy your stay to the fullest.

I snorted. They made the school sound like a luxury hotel, not a pit of darkness. Well, no matter what, I was still stuck here for the year.

"Well, they sure know how to make this place sound pleasant," I commented, looking up towards Pokémon Trainer. He smiled at me, and I had a feeling that that was the only responses I'd ever get from him. "I'm glad that I am sharing a room with you, Pokémon Trainer; you'd be the most accustomed to me being a Pokémon." As if to show how accustomed he was to Pokémon, he sent out his party, and once again I growled to them that I wasn't their opponent. "You know, it's rather awkward to just call you 'Pokémon Trainer' all the time. I wish I knew your name." For a second he contemplated something, then he pointed towards his head. "Hat?" I questioned confused as to what he was getting at. He shook his head and pointed to his chest, then to the top of the Pokéball that was still in his hands. "Jacket? Pokéball?" Finally, I realized that he was pointing to the certain parts of the items, and I connected the dots to what he wanted me to say. "Red?" He nodded and doubled tapped his chest, and finally I noticed why he randomly brought up 'red'. "That's your name? Red?" He nodded and smiled, and, as if we were meeting for the first time, I stuck out my paw for him to shake.

"Nice to meet you, Red. Welcome to hell."

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Alright, so, as you can see, the first chapter is up, and I hope you all enjoyed! So, there is something I wanted to ask from you guys: When the characters were fully introducing themselves, I feel there are somethings I missed in describing their past. If anyone has good info that I missed, please put it in a comment down below. (Who knows, maybe I'll give you a dedication *nudge, nudge, wink, wink*.) Thank you for reading and see you next chapter!