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The boats sailed along the blue ocean. Quinn let out a loud yawn as he turned to face Ryo. "So, what pokemon do you have?" he asked.
"Oh, um, I have a monferno and Staravia. This is Rick, but he isn't really my pokemon." said Ryo.
"That's all? You only have three pokemon? Why the hell are you competing in this competition?" asked Quinn confused.
"Well, I'm here to let myself and my pokemon become stronger. And if I do happen to win, then I can get a free ticket to the Sinnoh League." said Ryo. His innocent response irritated Quinn a little.
"Let's say you do get into the top eight, by some miracle. You only have three pokemon. Do you think you can compete in the league with only three pokemon?" challenged Quinn.
"Oh, I guess I didn't think about that." said Ryo nonchalantly.
"What about you?" asked Quinn as he turned toward Hazel. "Why are you here?"
"Same reasons as Ryo stated. I want to get stronger. There are many pro trainers on this boat with us right now. From the experience of this competition, I can learn a lot." said Hazel. She looked down at her pokeballs and began to contemplate about something. "However, unlike Ryo, I will not be going to the Sinnoh League after. This is not my goal."
"What? Why not?" asked Ryo. "Don't you want to win and get the eight badges?"
"I do want to win, that I am certain. But the Sinnoh League isn't what I'm after. I have to take care of something else." Hazel was avoiding to tell them something, and Quinn was a ware of the fact.
"Ok, whatever." said Quinn, as to quickly end the conversation. "And plus, you two seem too young to be risking the danger you would put yourself in in this Competition." he added.
"You aren't much older, either. You look the same age as I. Why are you here, then?" asked Ryo.
"Are kidding me?" said Quinn. "I have a party full of powerful pokemon. I'm much more prepared than the two of you. I have a Metagross, Salamence, Gliscor, Tyranitar, Charizard, and Greninja. They are all on me right now, and they are registered for the competition."
"Show off." muttered Hazel under her breath.
Soon, the boats arrived on Iron Island. The island was desolate and void of any kind of vegetation. The land seemed to stretch mile after a mile with only rocks in sight. Ryo, Hazel, and Quinn got of the boats and were swept forward by the crowd of applicants. As soon as all the trainers set foot off the boats, the boats started up and sailed away.
"Hello, everyone! This is the sight of the Preliminary trials. Now everyone, take a look to your right." motioned the announcer as she pointed toward a large rock structure. There was a cave entrance. It was quite large and it gave off an eerie atmosphere.
"In a moment, you would all proceed into the cave. Iron Island may not be very large, but there is a network of tunnels and large caverns underneath. And this leads me to the first trial. There are entrances like this one all around the coast of Iron Island. All you will divide yourselves in groups of four to five. Your goal is to reach a secret room hidden deep within the maze of caves under Iron Island. It's very simple. If your group gets to the room before six hours, you will pass to the next round. People who don't make it will get eliminated. The elite four will be situated in that room to receive all the applicants who made it thus far, and once the time is up, they will help guide you out of the cave through a secret exit."
The announcer paused, and then said, "There will be many wild pokemon located throughout the caverns. I should warn you all to be careful, for they will attack without hesitation. We do not have control over these pokemon. Now, choose your groups."
All the trainers began talking amongst each other. They were all assumably looking to form alliances and become a group. Ryo looked over at Hazel and Quinn.
"Hey, the three of us could be a group." said Ryo.
"Yeah, but we need at least one more person." said Hazel, looking around to see if anyone was interested in joining them.
Their choices were diminishing. Trainers soon began dispersing with their groups, and it seemed that new members for their group was becoming scarce. "Ok, let's just ask that guy over there." said Ryo, pointing to an older trainer, around the age of sixteen. He seemed to have the same problem. He was left without a group as well.
"Hey, can you join our group for the first event?" asked Ryo. The trainer turned around to see trainers younger than him walking his way.
"Oh, yeah, sure!" he said immediately. "My name is Dan. And you guys seem to need my help." he began to act quite boastful. "I guess it's my job to take care of the rookies."
"We're rookies?! Oh you don't….." began Quinn, but Hazel cut him off.
"Yes, thank you for agreeing to come with us. It seems that most of the trainers have already created their groups." said Hazel.
"Ok, well, I will lead the way." said Dan cheerfully. Quinn did not like his demeaning attitude toward them.
We walked up to the announcer, showing her our group of four. She recorded our names and brought us to a cave entrance.
"Currently, the cave door is closed. Once all the trainers get into groups and are each aligned at a cave entrance, the entrances will open and the clock will begin to count down. Remember, you only have six hours." said the announcer. "And also, you are only allowed two pokemon for this event, so I will hold on to the pokemon you aren't taking into the cave."
"Ok, here are my extra pokemon." said Quinn as he handed the announcer four pokeballs. Hazel only had two pokemon, so she didn't have to choose. Dan was reluctant to give the announcer the rest of his pokemon. He worried that two pokemon was not enough.
Ryo looked at Rick and then the two balls in his hands. "Sorry, Pal. But I need these two guys to get a little more action." Ryo said to him. Realizing that Ryo was going to leave him out, Rick stamped his feet on the ground, demanding a place in his party in the caves.
"How about this. I promise to use you and only you for the next challenge." compromised Ryo. Well, that was enough to get Rick to oblige.
"You don't have a pokeball for your garchomp?" asked the announcer warily.
"Well, no. I don't have his pokeball on me. But he is tamed. Don't worry. Rick wouldn't hurt a fly." reassured Ryo. Rick walked away with the announcer holding their pokeballs. The announcer place all of their pokeballs in a crate and labeled each of their names on it. She then looked at Rick, not sure wat to do with him.
"So, where are you from?" asked Hazel to Dan.
"Oh, I'm from the Unova region. I've been on a pokemon journey for a very long time, feel free to learn from me." he said. "I've been to Hoenn, Kanto, and Johto. This region will be my fifth." he bragged.
"How many leagues have you been to?" challenged Quinn.
"Oh, yeah, well, about that….I didn't have time, because I was…... so busy getting invitations from skilled trainers…."
"Did you even get all eight badges from any of the regions?" asked Quinn.
"I've….I've gotten a few badges here and there." stammered Dan. Quinn was really enjoying this, but the four's attention was turned toward the entrance as the stone door slowly slid out of the way to reveal the darkness within.
"Cut it out guys, we have to proceed." said Hazel.
"Yeah, you can go first, I'll…...protect from the back. Most attacks happen from the rear." said Dan. So the four of them began treading through the darkness of the cave. All of them couldn't prevent themselves from bumping into rocks or tripping over jagged rocks on the floor. "Hey, I got an idea!" said Ryo as he summoned Monferno.
As the fire monkey appeared, the flames on his body lighted up the dark tunnel. "Good thinking." said Hazel.
"I would've thought of that too if I had a fire pokemon." added Dan. Quinn rolled his eyes.
It all seemed fine at first. The tunnel didn't branch off at any point, so all four of them were certain they were on the right track. However, as almost an hour had passed, the group was not able to find any other passages. It was as if the tunnel was never going to lead anywhere.
"Something's wrong. This might be a trap." said Quinn.
"Did you notice?" asked Hazel.
"What?" Quinn asked.
"The ground we are walking on, it's tilted down. Look." mentioned Hazel as she grabbed two pieces of rocks. She threw one in front and one backward, and the four of them listened to the sounds of the rocks bouncing along the cave walls. The sound of the rock that was thrown backward had ceased, but the one that was thrown forward continued to bounce in the distance."
"We are walking down an incline. It seems that we are way below sea level by now." said Hazel.
"But what does that mean?" asked Dan.
"It means that we are getting closer to the room with the elite four. Remember what the announcer said. The room we are looking for is hidden deep inside the caverns. This means that the room must be located at the very bottom. We entered the cave from the surface of Iron Island. There is not enough room for the networks of tunnels to spread above. Therefore, we should be aiming to go down." explained Hazel.
"So, that means we are on the right track! See I told you we had nothing to worry about." boasted Dan.
This time, Hazel was the one to roll her eyes. As they kept walking, they stopped dead in their tracks when they heard a rumble.
"What was that?!" asked Hazel.
Before any of them could react, the ground gave away.
"Ah! What's going on!" cried Dan.
"There must've been some sort of tunnel right below us, and the roof above must have gave away from our weight!" explained Hazel(somehow) as they all went plummeting down.
"Monferno! Use rock climb!" shouted Ryo. Monferno grabbed Ryo by the feet. Ryo swung down and grabbed Quinn. Catching on what was happening, Quinn caught Hazel by the leg and Hazel grabbed onto Dan's shirt. Monferno dug his one free arm into the side of the pit and they managed to stop their fall.
"Yay! We formed a link!" commented Ryo.
"Enough with that. Tell Monferno to pull us up!" cried Dan. Monferno tried inching up, but the four humans were just too heavy. The piece of rock that Monferno had grabbed onto broke off.
"Uh oh…" said Ryo as the four of them began falling again. They all screamed all the way down, but the pitfall began to flatten out, and it turn into a rock slide, a perfect transition as to ease their fall. The rockslide brought them through an opening. Apparently, the ground was not right under the opening. They fell a few more feet and hit the hard rock floor.
"Well, that hurt." said Quinn.
"Where are we?" said Hazel as she got up to look around. Even though Monferno was there, his flames didn't seem to lighten up the darkness in front of them. "There is a lot of echoing from our voices. Therefore this is probably a fairly large cavern we had just landed in. Ryo, tell Monferno to use ember straight up in the air." said Hazel.
Monferno shout out a ball of fire straight up. All four of them looked up to see if the ceiling could be reached. Right before the ember began to die out, the ceiling of the cavern could just be seen.
"From that height, I'd estimate the ceiling being around two hundred fifty feet tall?" said Hazel. "Well, let's get going. I feel like we're getting closer."
At the room where trainers were suppose to converge, sat the elite four members. A single applicant has not showed up and they were becoming impatient. "These trainers seem so incompetent. How can they take such a long time just to find a room in a cave." said Aaron.
"Be patient. This trial may not seem as easy as it looks. These tunnels are very disorientating, and there are many dangerous pokemon lurking around in the shadows." said Bertha. "These trainers have no idea the danger they are in. You cannot just get through this Competition with battling skills alone."
There was a flash of light, and a girl with an Alakazam appeared in the room. "Well, looks like we got our first applicant." said Lucian.
"Oh, finally! I used teleport to get here. Alakazam here has transported us to some weird parts of the cave, but we finally made it to the right place." exclaimed the girl.
"Where's your group?" asked Bertha.
"Um, my group?" asked the girl. "I left them behind when I used teleport. Alakazam can only teleport one other person."
Bertha sighed and wrote something down on paper. "There is a reason we force all the trainers to get into groups before the challenge. It shows your teamwork." said Bertha. "May I get your name, hun?"
"It's Lucy." she said.
Back with Ryo and the gang, they continued navigating through the large open caverns. They would constantly bump into stalagmites that were twenty feet tall. Ryo stopped dead in his tracks.
"Hey, kid, why did you stop?!" Asked Dan.
Ryo's face grew serious. "There is a pokemon nearby." he said.
"What where?" cried Dan startled.
"Ryo, I don't hear anything. Are you sure?" said Hazel.
"Yes, I'm sure. And it is very big. Its, its right below us." said Ryo.
"EVERYONE JUMP BACK!" yelled Quinn as he dashed backwards. Startled, everyone else followed his command. Right when they got out of the way, the ground they were just standing on seconds ago burst open and out came a large ferocious Steelix.
"Monferno, use flame wheel!" shouted Ryo. Monferno jumped up and wrapped himself in fire. He than spun around in a circle and launched at the Steelix, hitting it straight in the face. The Steelix was knocked back and it let out a roar. It was very angry.
"Everyone, run to the right!" shouted Ryo. It was as if Ryo had read the Steelix's mind. It swung its iron tail at the four of them, but it missed them just by a few inches as all of them were able to dodge just in time from Ryo's warning. Steelix's tail smashed into the side of the cave, sending stalactites crashing to the ground.
"Gliscor, come on out." said Quinn. Out from his pokeball landed a Gliscor. "You know what to do." Quinn said to him.
"Glis-cor!" shouted the Gliscor as he prepared to attack.
"What is he going to do?" asked Hazel, but as she turned around to see what Quinn was doing, she noticed that he had summoned a Salamence.
"Everyone, jump on Salamence!" shouted Quinn. Ryo and Monferno hopped on, followed by Hazel, and then Dan jumped on afterward. Quinn gave the signal to Gliscor. Gliscor caused rapid movement from the ground, and before anyone could tell what was going on, they all began to feel the vibrations from the earth. It was so strong that they could all feel it in the air.
"Gliscor is using Earthquake!" shouted Hazel. "I never felt an earthquake this strong!" The ceiling began to cave in as the earthquake grew stronger.
"Alright, Gliscor, that's enough. Hop on!" shouted Quinn. The gliscor flew to Salamence and Salamence jetted away from the area as fast as he could. Large boulders were falling from the ceiling and Salamence did a great job maneuvering past all of them.
Dan looked back to see an avalanche of rocks approaching them. "Hurry, we're going to get crushed!" cried Dan.
"Brace yourselfs. We're going for an impact!" shouted Quinn.
Around ninety trainers had made it to the room with the elite four. They all waited for the time to run out. There was only a few minutes left. They all chattered amongst themselves, proud that they made it past the first trial, but the ground began shaking violently.
"Hey! What's happening?!" cried a random trainer.
"It's earthquake. Is a pokemon using Earthquake?" asked Flint.
Bertha was very shocked to feel the immense vibrations coming from the ground. "I never felt an earthquake this powerful. What's amazing is that whatever is using the move is very far away." she said.
After a minute or two, the rumbling finally settled down. As the trainers all just began to catch their breath, a large explosion at the side of the room sent trainers running in every direction."
"Everyone, calm down!" cried Bertha as she motioned toward the wall where the explosion happened. As all the trainers looked to see what it was, the depre dissipated and they saw a giant Salamence carrying four pokemon trainers.
"Did we make it in time?" asked Ryo as the buzzer just went off a second after.
"ZZZZZZAAANNNGGG!" It went.
Bertha was quite shocked to see that grandeur entrance. "Um yes, you made it in time." she said. Quinn commanded Salamence to land and he summoned him back into his pokeball. They walked up to Lucian as he asked for their names.
"It would've been nice if you four could have entered by means of the entrance we made for you." he said motioning towards the door to the room.
"Hey Quinn, how did you even know where to find this room?" asked Hazel.
"Well, let's just say that Salamence has quite the blood lust for humans. A bunch of humans gathered in one place is like a feast for Salamence." said Quinn as she stared at Hazel with a creepy expression.
"Ehh, you're spooky kid." said Dan as he shivered from the thought of how he was able to tame that Salamence.
Aaron walked up to the microphone in the room and said, "Congratulations everyone, for passing the first challenge. It seems like we have many talented people this time around. Out of two hundred people, half of the groups were able to make it here in this room. Now follow me back to the surface."
Aaron turned around and pressed a button. A large rock door opened up, revealing a smaller room with a metal floor. "Everyone, proceed into the room. It will be a little tight, for I didn't expect so many people to pass, but it will make do." he said.
All the applicants squeezed into the room. Aaron pressed another button and the metal platform underneath them began moving upwards. All the trainers looked up to see light shining in from the top. The elevator picked up speed and within a few seconds, the elevator platform shot out of the ground to the surface. All the trainers dispersed onto the coast smelling the beautiful fresh air, happy they were away from the musty darkness of the cave. Cynthia was outside to greet all the applicants.
"What is that!?" cried a trainer. Everyone looked up to see a large creature diving towards the island. Cynthia squinted toward the sky and saw a large dragon like pokemon flying towards.
"Everyone get cover! This is not a planned event!" shouted Cynthia. Everyone panicked and began finding a rock to hide under. The creature let out a loud roar and began driving dangerously close to the ground.
"That's, that's Lugia!" said Hazel.
"What?! You know what that thing is?" asked Dan.
"But, it's color…." began Hazel. But Ryo dragged her back.
"Hazel, we have to run away. That thing is dangerous." he said.
Ryo and the gang ran near the center of the Island, thinking that it was the safest spot. But Lugia was looking for something and that was his sole purpose of being there. He concentrated and found the location of the aura. It made a 180 degree turn and flew towards Ryo and the gang.