AN: Here is chapter two. Not much to really add this time; except some minor info about how the flow of the story will go. You see, Red isn't meant to be a replacement for Baam, in fact most of his story will run alongside him. Red is replacing Akryung; solely because he really doesn't do much in the story. If it isn't explicitly changed, please just assume canon events took place. For example, up to this point all of the events surrounding Baam, Koon, Rak, Rachel, etc. are all the same. This chapter will cover the first test on the second floor, and show a little more of just what Red's team is capable of. Rest assured though, he has barely scratched the surface.

III

As the light began to fade, Red began to scope out the surroundings through squinted eyes. They seemed to be in a large open field. After accepting Headon's request, the rabbit-man had tapped the ball with his staff, causing it to shatter. The two of them had just now been successfully teleported to the second floor. The trainer looked to the side to see Rachel rubbing her eyes, seemingly also affected by the bright flash of light. He wasn't sure why the guardian had wanted him to bring her along. From what he could tell, the other tests were going to be dangerous; and if she couldn't complete the first one…

"Mike test. Mike test! One! Two! Three!" a voice echoed around the two. The pair looked around in surprise, trying to locate the speaker. After his eyes had re-adjusted, the trainer was mildly surprised to see a small golden box floating in the air far above their heads; which was apparently the source of the new voice. "Hello everyone! Regular members have entered the tower." It continued. "This is the second floor, and I sincerely welcome you to Evankhell's floor!"

"So this is the second floor." Rachel mumbled.

"Looks like we're outside." Red said looking around. I can even see the sky…

"The floors of the tower are very large." Rachel responded. "I've read a couple of books about it; there are walls if you go far enough, and the sky is just an illusion."

"How do they do something like that?" Red asked.

"I.." Rachel began.

"This floor is also called the Floor of Test! The reason is because this is the level where you are deemed worthy of climbing the Tower!" The voice spoke once again, drowning out the blonds words.

That's right. The trainer thought. Every floor has a test like the last one. Hopefully they're not all that easy…

"Then, minor details aside; shall we begin with a simple test first?" it continued. "You might as well get a good warm up exercise!"

Rachel seemed to tense up where she stood; an action not missed by the experienced trainer with her. She was obviously nervous at the prospect of another test so quickly. The first test had been quite intimidating Red remembered; thinking back to the large steel eel guarding the ball.

"The first test is very simple! I will begin announcing the rules, so listen carefully!" The voice continued after a pause. "The following are the rules for the first test! The number of regular members in this floor totals four-hundred. All you have to do is make that four-hundred go down to two-hundred!...Method?...By any means! The moment the number of regular members goes down to two-hundred, this test will end!"

So, a battle royal to halve the numbers of the competitors… Red thought. It seemed that whoever was in charge was trying to quickly weed out the weaker contestants. The trainer glanced at his companion again to see she was upset by this latest piece of news. He had thought she wasn't the type to fight when he had first seen her; now that fact was driven home. She couldn't defend herself; that was why he was chosen to make sure she got through this floor. Red sighed and began to think. It was obvious that many of the other competitors were going to be human or at least human-like, Rachel was proof of that; so deadly force was out of the question. It would probably be a good idea to just use Venasaur to dig out a hole and hide out until it was finished; but that just wasn't his style. To be honest he wanted to see where his team stacked up to these so called 'regulars'.

He pulled out a pokeball and lightly tossed it to the ground before him. With a bright flash and a roar; his Charizard was once again before him. He turned to Rachel, finding her staring at the orange dragon with a stunned expression; she wasn't used to large creatures seemingly appearing out of thin air. "I have a plan." He stated simply.

She continued to stare at the pokemon before snapping herself back to reality with the shake of her head. "w-what?"

With a nudge, Pikachu jumped from its trainers shoulder, landing softly on the ground below. "We're going to jump on Charizard's back." He said, pointing to the large fire lizard. "From the skies we'll have a better view of where the others are."

Rachel glanced warily at the growling dragon as it eyed her with a hungry look. "I'm not sure…"

"Don't worry, Charizard won't hurt you." Red said, looking at his pokemon with a hardened gaze. "Will you?" The pokemon growled at the order, baring its teeth. After a couple of seconds under the crimson eyed trainers stare however, it turned its head down and grumbled. Red walked over to his pokemon and jumped on its back. After positioning himself slightly behind its neck, he held his hand out to Rachel. She approached cautiously, eyeing the dragon the entire way. Despite Reds order to behave himself, Charizard was still a fierce looking beast; and even worse, one that knew the girl was afraid of it. When she finally grasped his hand, the trainer pulled her up with one strong tug.

"Pikachu." Red called out as Rachel positioned herself behind him. " Keep up with us on the ground." The electric mouse nodded, something like that would be easy. "If you run into anybody along the way use thunder wave, that should be enough to take them out of the test." Once again the pokemon nodded in response. Thunder wave was one of the weakest electric type attacks, but one that was ideal for simply incapacitating an opponent. The level of voltage used was only enough to shock ones nervous system, scrambling the electrical signal running from the brain to the rest of the body. The ultimate affect was short term paralysis; no lasting harm could be inflicted. "You ready?" Red asked his passenger.

"y-yes…" she stuttered back; nervously wrapping her arms around the trainer's midriff.

"Hang on tight." He jabbed his pokemon lightly with his heel, signaling that it was time to go. With a roar, Charizard extended his great wings. With a single flap, it and its passengers launched themselves high into the sky. Almost in synch, Pikachu shot off into the tall grass in pursuit.

"AAHH!" Rachel shrieked in fright at the velocity in which they climbed into the sky; her fear caused her to squeeze down harder on the person before her. Red grunted in discomfort. As soon as they began to level out, the red-eyed trainer began to scout out the area below them. The long grass seemed to go on for miles in every direction, with only a couple of raised spots in the general area. The tall grass didn't bother the veteran trainer in the slightest, dealing with it being a nearly every day occurrence in the life of a trainer. He could see several disturbances in the expanse of grass below, obviously where the fighting was taking place. With a nudge from its trainer, Charizard shot forward, closing in on the first of several battle taking place on the ground. As he passed over it, the electric mouse shadowing the great dragon leapt from the grass as well, small twin bolts of lightning shooting from its cheeks. These bolts collided with the two combatants, one a seemingly ordinary teenage boy, and the other something which looked like some odd cross between a bear and an octopus.

Two down… Red thought, a smirk forming on his face. It seemed that many of the combatants weren't prepared for this type of surprise attack. Moving on from there, the trainers team shot towards the next fight going on a couple of yards away. Repeating their strategy, two more of the regulars were shocked in paralysis and left frozen on the ground, stunned looks on their faces. This was repeated by the pokemon team another half dozen times, scoring at least two knock outs each time; and once getting five at once. As they progressed though, something began to occur to Red. With each passing of a fight, it became more clear; and it began to unnerve him. He had been fighting since he was ten years old; fighting through forests and caves, through gym leaders and trainers alike, even to the top of the supposedly impossible to climb Mt. Silver. Even so, something was happening here that he had very little experience with. These others were not fighting to simply knock out or incapacitate their opponents; they were going for the kill.

Death was not an uncommon sight to Red, his travels had exposed him to the hardships of life at a very early age. Life was delicate, he had learned; it wasn't something to be thrown away simply. Back in Kanto, Team Rocket had been the source of a lot of it. It wasn't uncommon for one of them to kill someone before stealing their pokemon; even more common as a way to eliminate Pokmon that hadn't proven themselves useful. After witnessing this first hand in the caves of Mt. Moon, it had been a goal of Red's to destroy the group entirely; a goal he had seen through to the end. Headon's words echoed. "Whatever you desire can be found at the top." With such a promise, it was unsurprising that people would be willing to die for something like that. It was completely reasonable. A fact that made it all the more irritating. Was the test supposed to be like this? There had to be another way; one that didn't lead people into mortal combat with each other.

"A-are you ok?"

Red jumped back to reality. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Slowly, he became aware that he was shaking; not with fear, but with rage. People down below them were killing each other, just for a chance to move on. His hands gripped down hard on the lizards back, gaining the lizards attention. "We're landing." Red said through gritted teeth.

"What about the plan?" Rachel said in surprise. She thought things were going quite well. At least three dozen regulars had been taken out by Pikachu's thunder waves, and they hadn't gotten a scratch.

"I've changed it." Red almost growled out. He was going to end this here and now. Diving quickly, Charizard turned towards the nearest raised hill. As they homed in, they could see a figure on the top. The figure seemed to jump when it noticed the large orange dragon bearing down on it at high speed. It fumbled with something in it's hands in a seeming panic. Closing the distance between them and the ground, Red made out a crossbow in the persons hands. Mustering enough courage, the crossbow was fired from the now confirmed to be male figure on the hilltop. The bolt only made it about halfway to its intended target before being incinerated mid-flight by a jet of fire shot from the target's own mouth. Scared senseless at this point, the man dropped his weapon and stood frozen, gazing up at what he saw to he his eminent demise. He never noticed the small yellow mouse running up the side of the the hill, nor did he notice the weak jolt of electricity zapping him in the back.

As Charizard landed beside their now unconscious former attacker, Red leapt off and threw another pokeball in a single motion. With a low rumble, it was Venusaur who appeared in a flash of light. The trainer threw down his pack and began to search for something.

"Why did you want to land?" Rachel asked, leaping down from Charizard.

Red didn't answer. Instead, he pulled out a large white cloth and a bottle of water. He dowsed the cloth with the water, drenching it completely. Ripping the cloth in two, he handed one piece to his companion. "Here, put this over your mouth."

"What..why?" she asked, grabbing the cloth.

"Just do it." Red brought out two pokeballs and returned both Charizard and Pikachu. His other two pokemon wouldn't be able to help out anymore. Pikachu would hate him for sending him into the pokeball; it was something the rodent despised with a passion. "Alright Venusaur." The large leafed quadruped turned its bulky head towards its trainer. "Cover the area with Sleep Powder." Red commanded. "I want this everyone in these fields unconscious as soon as possible." The trainer finished his command, holding up the wet cloth to his face. He had learned that he wasn't immune to the spores released during this particular technique, and had learned to take precautions when using it. Venasuar began to hum for a short while, getting its body ready to manufacture enough of the needed spores for the technique to succeed. After a short time, a cloud of blue erupted out of the plant on Venusaurs back, shooting upwards to two hundred yards into the air above them. Red and Rachel watched as the wind began to carry them around the area, quickly falling to the ground despite their small size.

That should do it. Red thought as the spores began to hit the ground. Using Venusaur's spores to end the round early was something he had originally thought of when presented with the rules. He had decided against it however, opting instead to test his pokemon against the others. Pikachu had been more than enough, as long as he acted as the eye in the sky. The regulars were simply too distracted with their own fights to noticed the quite yet intensely fast mouse tearing through the grass. When things turned deadly, that strategy had gone out the window. It simply wouldn't be fast enough to stop them from killing each other. Using sleep powder made it all too easy, Red simply did not want to let the other combatants kill each other just so he could test his other pokemon. Mere seconds after the spores hit the ground, Red let loose a sigh of relief as the sound of hundreds of snores greeting his ears.

"Amazing…" Rachel muttered, the cloth still covering her mouth. She had only known Red for close to an hour now, but he had done nothing but shock her at every opportunity. First he had apparently breezed through Headon's test without breaking a sweat, then she learned he could summon creatures with those metal spheres of his. A fire breathing dragon, a mouse that could paralyze people, and some weird plant thing that had just put the entire testing area to sleep! Her gaze turned to the trainer in question, who was now once more surveying the area. With someone like this with me… she thought. …maybe I can make it to the top.

Red continued to look out into the field until he was satisfied the spores had hit everyone. He should have put them all to sleep from the very beginning he realized, but at least the test was over. He returned Venusaur to its pokeball, and once more brought out Pikachu. The rodent was obviously cross with him over getting stuffed inside one of the balls again. A quick scratch on its' neck was enough to calm it however, and soon it was back to its usual perch on the trainers shoulder.

"Ah well.." the voice rung back in. "Part one of the test has ended…I guess?" The announcer seemed a bit put out. Must not be too often that one participant puts everyone else to sleep. "All remaining regulars…well… all remaining conscious regulars stop what you are doing and hear me! Out of the…what that can't be right….but…whatever…Congratulations to you all! Let us now begin part 2 of the test!"

Part two? Red thought with annoyance. There were only two of them left, why couldn't they just end it here?

"I will now tell you remaining few the rules." The voice continued. "The next goal is to make a buddy. Out of the remaining regulars, you must make two of them your buddies!"

"Buddies?" Rachel questioned.

"What the hell is this." Red mumbled. First they let you fight each other to the death, then they expect you to make up and form a team. This was crazy, teaming up with someone who was trying to kill you moments ago was ridiculous. Not to mention that there were only two people left in this area.

"Also note, you have five minutes. If you fail to make a team in five minutes, you are disqualified. Take note, once the clock has stopped ticking you must be in physical contact with your teammates."

"Five minutes!" Rachel exclaimed. She frantically thought for a second before turning to Red. "What should we do?"

Red sighed. "Well, I was planning on waking somebody up, but they'll be under for at least another hour."

"Well…there…there has to be something you can do!" Rachel replied. "Can't one of your…things do something that could help?"

"They're called Pokemon." Red said flatly. The trainer took off his hat and ran a hand through his black hair. They wouldn't ask them to do something impossible, he thought. That would destroy the entire point of the test. With how fast they seemed to figure out most of the regulars weren't fit to battle anymore, there must be a way to keep up the number of eligible individuals. As he figured it out, a small grin crept across his features. "There's another person."

"What?" Rachel questioned.

"There has to be." Red answered. "They have a way to keep track of how many of us there are, so they must know there is enough to form a team." Racheal seemed to brighten slightly, some form of hope rapidly returning. With a flash, Red had once again thrown out Charizard. "We'll find them faster in the air." The trainer leapt onto the back of the flame lizard once again, followed shortly by Rachel; who seemed to have gotten over her initial wariness of the creature. With a mighty beat of its wings, the group was off, in search of another remaining regular.

III

Androssi Zahard was a little put out. Well, that might be putting things mildly. Nothing had gone her way since she had begun this test on the second floor. While it had begun well enough, with her mowing through her first two dozen opponents with minimal effort, then something strange happened. As she finished off her twenty-fourth opponent, some strange green powder began to fall from the sky. As it sank down to the floor, the people around her started dropping like flies. She shot her hands over her mouth, but it didn't help, she knew she had inhaled some of the particles. While all the others in sight seemed to be falling to the ground, she was unaffected. What is this? She thought. Crediting it to her unusual abilities as a princess of Zahard, she dropped the hands from her face. As Androssi began to look around, the sound of hundreds of snores rang in the air. They're all asleep? Who?

When the intercom came on once again, she felt relieved. Even though she hadn't made it through in the same dominating way as her predecessors, she would make it through easily enough. When it spoke the rules of part 2 however, she could feel her heart sink. Find somebody in less than five minutes? There wasn't anybody else; they were all asleep in the field! She frantically looked around and begun to run; hoping to run into someone else. Being gifted with some of Zahard's power, the girl could run far faster than any normal person, but in an area as large as the testing field, it really didn't count for much. It would take her at least five minutes just to get to the other side of the area, and that was if she ran in a straight line!

With four minutes to go, she had made it to the top of a nearby hill. Looking around she could see…nothing…absolutely nothing…everyone was asleep…EVERYONE.

With three minutes to go, she began to try and wake up the others. It began easily enough, with shouts and shaking, but soon devolved to slaps and punches. She began to wonder is stabbing them would be enough to wake somebody up…

With two minutes to go, she was getting desperate. This simply couldn't happen, she would be a laughing stock; the zahard princess that had failed on the floor of tests. She couldn't let that happen. Somebody had to still be here, somebody, anybody. This can't be happening…it just can't! she thought angrily, stomping the ground in fury.

With a minute to go, the poor girl had almost completely given up hope. There was nobody in sight; well nobody that wasn't off in dream world. She was sitting on top of a boulder, staring out at the fields. Somebody, won't somebody please appear… she sighed. …Not that there is any chance of that…everyone is asleep and I'm the only one left…dammit… and I never even got to know who put everyone to sleep like that… She continued to stare off into the distance. Come on… Miracle Happen! Nothing happened. Happen!...Happen!...Happen!

*ROAR*

"What?" Androssi said, jumping up from her sitting position. Off in the distance, she could see something approaching, and it seemed to be picking up speed. It was large, and orange she noticed. As it crept closer, she was able to make out just what it was that was approaching. It was a dragon, a large orange dragon. I'll take it. She thought, anything is better than failing. To her surprise and joy there seemed to be a person on top of the rapidly approaching dragon. There's already two!...wait… A couple of seconds later, the dragon landed on top of the hill with a thud, the wind hitting her like a gale as it slammed to a halt. Not one, but two figures leapt from the back of the creature, both looking at her. The first was boy wearing blue jeans and a short sleeve red and white jacket over a black shirt. He had red eyes and a red and white hat sitting on top of his black hair. On his shoulder sat a creature she had never seen before, it seemed like a mouse, but was much too large, and far too yellow. She found herself admitting that both of them were "cute" not that she had much interest in such things. The other person was a girl in a large brown cloak, covering up almost all of her. Androssi decided quickly that if she had to kill anyone to be a part of this trio, it would be her.

"We need someone else in our group." The boy said flatly. "You want in?"

"Don't you already have three?" Androssi asked, preparing to draw a weapon. She was going to be in this team, it was her only chance. Only twenty seconds remained.

"Oh." Red said, turning his gaze to Charizard. "Charizard doesn't count." With one fluid motion, he pulled out a pokeball and returned the pokemon.

The princess found herself gaping in surprise. What had she just seen? Never mind that. She thought, clearing her head. Time was ticking down. She glanced back at Red to see him staring back at her with a blank expression. "You're asking me to join you?" The trainer nodded, then extended his right hand; his left was already grasped onto Rachels.

As the clock struck zero, Androssi grasped his hand, and the new trio dissapaered.

III

"What, only three people passed the first round?!" The results from the latest round of testing had just come in, and the Test Director Yu Han Sung was quite confused. "Quant, just how did you conduct the test to get such results? Did you have an endless death match or something?!"

Quant, the man in question was one of several test administrators for the second floor. He had been in charge of the last test. "You…you know my style." The red-head said nervously; his hand scratching the back of his head. "I hate complicated things so…from the start all I had was a thirty minute survival match."

"And you're saying in just thirty minutes, out of two hundred, only 3 survived…" The blonde director responded in a sarcastic tone. "Are you really going to use such non-sense as an excuse?"

"I'm telling you the truth!" Quant shouted. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's the truth. In just thirty minutes everyone else was eliminated!"

"And just who are those three?" the director countered. "Did Zahard's princess or an irregular come in or something?"

"Um…well…it seems…" Quant began, becoming nervous once more. "It seems there was a princess…but…"

"But what."

"She didn't cause it to happen…"

"Cause what to happen." Yu han Sung's golden eyes narrowed. "Are you…hiding something?"

"N-No…" answered the administrator. "It's just… when I said the others were eliminated, I didn't mean it in a normal sense…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Out of two hundred candidates, only 3 made it through." Quant continued. "But only thirty seven of them were killed. The rest, well…"

"Spit it out."

"The rest…just went to sleep."

The director gazed at the red haired administrator in disbelief. "They fell asleep? One hundred and sixty potential regulars just fell asleep mid-test?"

"It seemed to happen instantaneously." Quant explained. "To be honest we have no idea what could have happened…We haven't been able to wake any of them up either…"

"Do you think it was caused by one of the survivors?"

"We…don't know."

"..Right…" mumbled Yu Han Sung. This was an odd occurrence. He had never heard of something like this happening before. "I'm assuming the princess had a good number of those thirty seven deaths?"

"Yes, she was responsible for thirty two. The other two don't even have a single one between them."

The test director sighed and put a hand up to his head. How in the world was he going to deal with this? "Argh.. How am I supposed to deal with this situation… Why did this have to happen while Evankhell is on leave… If the proctor finds out what happened here…no, he probably already knows by now…it could be off with our heads…"

"Uaak! Sorry!" Quant shouted, frightened at the thought. "Isn't there any other way?"

"What can I do? From here on, you'll just have to appear with your friendly neighborhood god to save you."

"No! Please! I don't want to die yet!"

"You should start giving to charity and emptying your mind."

"Whaa! Please Han-sung!" Quant was now begging on his knees. "I'll…I'll fill this room with a coffee mix for you!"

"I guess there's no other choice." The director said with a sigh. "I'll try to figure something out."

"For real!" Quant replied. "I Love you Han-sung!"

"Shut up and Prepare the coffee mix."

III

AN: That's the end of chapter two. Next chapter will cover the groups introductions to each other, as well as the beginning of the crown game. Pairings to this point are as yet undecided. If any of you readers have any input feel free to voice it, I'm not even close to making a decision.