Note: In case you didn't catch onto it, yes, Rapidight is Galarian Rapidash.

While things had started off promising for the heroes of Edmonton, Morgrem and Rolycoly had already been knocked out of the race. But while Scorbunny did her best to stay within the top three, her eyes widened when she noticed something off with the upcoming part of the track. She thought she had hallucinated at first, but after a few seconds, she could see it plain as day.

This particular portion was moving backwards like a conveyer belt. However, the rabbit's initial shock left her when she smirked and thought, 'Do they really think that's gonna slow me down?'

She then bounced forward a couple of times before leaping high into the air and landing in the middle of this particular portion while also making her way into first place. She then sped along the track at rapid speed, easily making it to the end.

But once she reached the end, she started to pant lightly while she thought, 'What's going on?' She then looked down at her feet while her mind added, 'I've never felt exhausted after running before.'

And when she turned around, sure enough, the others who had entered also looked rather winded, Shaymin exclaiming, "As you can see, folks, some of our heroes have already entered the treadmill of doom! This is specially designed to make anyone who runs really quickly across it super exhausted, if even for a couple short minutes! Let's see if anyone can figure out a way to work around this!"

Vaporeon was among the heroes who were struggling while thinking, 'I don't get it! It's too fast for me to slow down! What could possibly be the secret?'

It was then that she and a few other heroes noticed Melmetal making his way across it at a rather steady pace. And when they saw him able to keep up with it, it was then that they realized what was going on. Somehow, Shaymin had designed the treadmill to move at a speed based off of whoever was on it. As such, Vaporeon lowered her speed as sure enough, not only was she able to move ahead more quickly but now she no longer had to exhaust herself.

No one completely understood why specifically it worked like this, but whatever the case, they all took full advantage of this now, although this did allow many in thirtieth to twentieth place to advance forward. And this ultimately took a toll on Scorbunny since she could barely run at a steady pace right now, thus many, including Melmetal had managed to pass her as she went from first all the way down to thirteenth.

Though it was also because of this that Vaporeon managed to catch up with her, a grin on her face as she asked, "Want some help?" the rabbit biting her lower lip and nodding her head.

"This is a move Mommy taught me," Vaporeon said, making sure the path ahead was straight enough. She then took hold of Scorbunny's hand, pointed her ear fins forward and shouted, "FLYING FOX PROPELLER!" sending them backward and creating a big gust of wind that allowed her to fly past three heroes, landing her and the rabbit into tenth and eleventh respectively.

Drizzile just happened to have been behind them when he noticed this and thought, 'Looks like they're sure to make it. Better pick up the pace if I want to join them.' But while he continued forward, he could not help but find it surprising that not one had tried to attack him yet. He wondered if maybe they still underestimated him and did not consider him a high priority.

Rillaboom, all the while, had managed to maintain a decent place thanks to her already steady speed. However, she was starting to lose quite a bit of momentum. Despite nothing having really slowed her down yet, many had passed her quite easily, and thus she frowned and realized she would need to start eliminating the competition.

As such, she smirked at the sight of a blue octopus in front of her. She leapt toward him from behind and wrapped her legs around his shoulders. His eyes widened as she rolled forward like a boulder, propelling herself off of him and leaving him in the dust. This allowed her to soar past two other heroes while the octopus was too dizzy to continue, thus he was unable to respond when multiple other contestants stomped on him while running ahead.

Grimmsnarl and Samurott, all the while, had managed to make their way into seventh. They had taken a page out of Morgrem and Rolycoly's book by having the green goblin use Samurott like a surf board while he used his flippers to slide forward.

"I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner," Grimmsnarl said with a grin before Samurott laughed, "The funny thing, I didn't even know I could do this! I'm awesome!"

But just as it looked like they would make it for sure, a white unicorn with a light purple and blue mane charged toward them from behind on all fours. Despite Samurott's incredible speed, she had somehow managed to gain on them while a stream of pink and violet light swirled around her horn.

"MYSTICAL JAB!" she shouted before she leapt forward and planted her horn into Grimmsnarl's back. His eyes widened while he coughed up blood, the unicorn flipping forward and planting his belly into the canvas.

Samurott gasped and screeched to a halt while the unicorn removed her horn from the green goblin and sped off into the distance. Right now, the sea lion did not even care about the race, thus he ran over to his ally and uttered, "Grimmsnarl, are you okay?"

Grimmsnarl coughed up a bit more blood and grinned lightly, uttering, "Don't worry about me. Just go and make it to the finals for me," Samurott nodding and shouting, "I'll make the top sixteen for-"

However, his eyes and mouth widened and blood escaped from him when a sheep with a perfectly round coat of wool rolled into him and shouted, "COTTON BOULDER!" continuing on her way while both the sea lion and his ally were officially eliminated.

During this time, Ben had managed to make his way into sixth with a grin on his face, thinking, 'Just watch me, Ma. I'll make you proud,' spotting Incineroar next to him and giving him a light wave. The tiger grinned and flashed him a thumb up only for a brown donkey to race behind them and leap over both of them. He then lifted up his legs and shouted, "DONKEY KICK!" only for Ben and Incineroar to easily grab the incoming hooves.

The donkey tensed up with nervous sweat while the boy and tiger both smirked at each other. They then lifted him up and slammed his chin hard into the pavement. They proceeded to leap over him and carry on before Ben said, "Great job, partner," Incineroar replying, "Right back at ya, pal!"

However, the moment was interrupted when a ladybug with a large shell but a very skinny body flew toward Ben and exclaimed, "HORNET KICK!" sending his feet, which were just as sharp as stingers, into both of his shoulders.

This caused the human boy to cough up blood and fall flat on his face, the ladybug carrying on just in time to avoid being grabbed by an enraged Incineroar. The tiger then looked down at his partner only for him to bark, "Go, now, before you lose your chance!"

Incineroar nodded and grunted, "I'll win this for both of us!" and unlike Samurott, he had a chance to back up his words as he sprinted off into the distance.

Now many of the heroes had started to get very close to the top. A smirk formed on Shaymin's face before Tori turned to her and groaned, "Okay, what do you have planned now?"

Her question was almost immediately answered when the hero currently in first had a small metal drill rise up from a hole in the pavement and pierce her leg. She cried out in pain and tried her best to ignore it only to walk into another one. Unlike the ones in the tug of war pits, these ones were big and razor sharp.

Shaymin clapped her hands and squealed, "I can't believe how well my obstacles have been working so far!" Tori staring at her and uttering, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Scorbunny and Vaporeon both spotted this while they closed in as the rabbit grinned and said, "This'll be easy for me."

Vaporeon nodded and said, "I think I can make things better for us," thus she leapt onto the rabbit's back and wrapped her tail around her legs, forming a spring. Scorbunny nodded with a big smile before both bounced upright like a pogo stick and shouted, "BUNNY FOX TRAMPOLINE!"

And sure enough, with both combined, they were able to leap over every single hole and ultimately land in first, Melmetal not too far behind. But when Drizzile and Rillaboom, who had only just caught up with him, noticed this, the gorilla turned to the chameleon and asked, "Do you feel ready for this?"

Drizzile lowered his eyelids and squinted at the spike holes, nodding and saying, "Yeah, I think I can manage this. You, on the other hand, may need some help."

The gorilla was about to retort, but after a few seconds, she nodded and said, "Yeah, you may be right."

With that in mind, the chameleon formed water around his hands and ran right next to Rillaboom. He then lathered her feet and ankles, explaining, "Now that you're slippery, you should be able to slide around the holes with ease. Try it."

Rillaboom smiled and slid forward one foot at a time as if she had roller blades on right now. Her eyes sparkled as she not only managed to avoid the spikes but even moved at a much faster speed, Drizzile doing the same for himself. Now he could not help but wonder why he had not done that from the start. Clearly it was the better option.

Because of this, both of them managed to bypass Melmetal and catch up with Vaporeon and Scorbunny, the rabbit's eyes sparkling while she squealed, "Oh my god, we're all in first! It's like fate itself is on our side!"

Vaporeon, on the other hand, narrowed her eyelids and grunted, "Don't celebrate just yet. We're almost at the halfway point. Something Mommy told me is that this is when things get their hardest."

And sure enough, it seemed so when another mine went off. All four friends managed to leap over it just in time but could not help but look behind them at the gap that formed.

"Holy shit, Shaymin's psychotic," Drizzile uttered before Vaporeon replied, "This event has always been dangerous, but it's never been this bad."

Either way, they realized they would need to hurry, thus they sprinted forward, now heading down toward the ground below with many other heroes close behind. All the while, Shaymin pouted and groaned, "Darn, no one got hit that time," Tori staring at her in disgust.

While the group carried on, quite a few heroes wanted a go at them. However, after having seen enough of his skills, most of them wanted to take down Melmetal first, especially since he was still in fifth despite not being among the fastest. As such, three of them, a dark blue cat, a fuzzy blue bat and a green wolf with a head shaped like a long bicycle helmet lunged at him.

The cat formed a purple aura around her paws while the bat opened up his mouth to reveal a single fang. The wolf also bore his own fangs while electric sparks flew out of them. However, Melmetal saw this coming and turned around, spun the nuts on his arms like gears and swung them into his attackers' faces, shouting, "HARD BUZZ SAW!"

This caused all three to cough up blood as they flew backward into the gap the mine had created. They all plummeted toward the ground only to fall into a net located in the center between both sides of the racetrack. They breathed a sigh of relief while Tori blinked and uttered, "How did I not notice that was there before?"

She then turned to Shaymin and uttered, "Maybe you're not as insane as I thought," the hedgehog retorting, "You thought I was insane?"

Either way, it seemed like smooth sailing now. But even so, Drizzile and Vaporeon were both on high alert for any more upcoming traps. And sure enough, it seemed as if Shaymin had one more. Once they were halfway toward the bottom, their eyes widened when another mine went off. As if that was not enough, this one was even worse than the others and created a much bigger explosion, one that was far too big for them to avoid.

As such, all four flew all the way up three levels, thus they had gone from the top four down to twentieth just like that. To make matters worse, they all felt extremely weak from this, thus eight more heroes passed them while they struggled to rise back to their feet.

Allie clasped her hands over her mouth and cried, "NO!" Rillaboom's parents glaring at Shaymin with murderous intent. The other traps had been ridiculous, but that one mine felt more overboard than everything else.

Morgrem and Rolycoly watched this in horror as the red goblin pulled down on her ears and whimpered, "Oh my god! They were so close!" Rolycoly uttering, "Well, it's not over yet. They might still be able to turn this around. They usually do."

Scorbunny fumed and spat, "ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT!" as she sprinted off ahead only to screech to a halt when she noticed the others not even moving thus allowing more and more heroes to pass them.

"Hey, guys, come on!" she groaned, "We gotta get back into the top sixteen!" only for Rillaboom to groan, "I don't think that's possible at this point. We're too close to the bottom and, well, look at how many heroes passed us."

Vaporeon let out a sigh and whimpered, "Maybe if someone else had activated that mine instead, we'd still have a chance."

Scorbunny stared at them all in disbelief only to start doubting their chances herself. But just as it seemed like all four would give up for sure, Drizzile frowned and retorted, "Okay, what the hell is this!?" the others staring at him, "Where is this defeatist attitude coming from!? These are the kinds of thoughts I used to have, not you guys! Come on, we've faced worse than this! Are we really gonna let this stop us!?"

The three stopped and thought deeply about this. On one hand, this conversation alone had bumped them down to below fiftieth place, and it was like Rillaboom said. The race was almost over. It would not have been a surprise if the top sixteen were decided within the next five minutes.

But even so, they had also fought the six most powerful villains they had ever encountered not too long ago and all of them came out on top. Compared to that, an explosion from a land mine felt like a minor inconvenience. With that in mind, Drizzile smiled and formed water on his hands. He then lathered everyone's feet and said, "Alright, let's do this," before he raised his right foot and applied as much pressure as he could.

The others stared as he sped forward at remarkable speed, thus all three followed his example. Even Scorbunny could not have seen herself running this quickly. And sure enough, within half a minute, they had gone from nearing sixtieth to the top forty. But even with that in mind, they still had a lot of ground to cover and little time to do it.

This was made especially apparent when the crowd could see three heroes approaching the finish line. After a little more than ten seconds, Melmetal was the first to cross as he held his arms in the air and implied a smile with his eye. Despite all the power and intelligence he had displayed earlier, the crowd was still shocked that someone with such average speed had managed to pull this off.

Following close behind were the ladybug and the unicorn. Both waved happily to the crowd while Incineroar crossed in forth. He then raised his arms in the air and let out a loud battle cry, his friends glad to see that he had at least made it to the finals.

"And already, we've got our first four finalists!" Shaymin exclaimed, "In first, we have Melmetal with Orbeetle in second and Rapidight in third! And following close behind in forth place is Incineroar! Oh, and Monferno has just placed fifth!"

As soon as she said this, many noticed an orange monkey with blue and red markings around her eyes. She grinned with pride and cupped her hands over her head before shaking them in a celebratory fashion.

However, right now, Allie could barely focus on this. She was more fixated on the screen that showed her friends. And luckily, it seemed that Drizzile's water skate technique had worked wonders as they were already in the top thirties.

"Drizzile, you're amazing!" Scorbunny squealed, "I always knew this ability was great, but not this great!" the chameleon uttering, "In all fairness, I didn't know I could do this either."

Unfortunately, some of the heroes ahead of them had started to notice this. As such, four of them, specifically a light blue fox with nine tails, a grey cat with a coin on his head, a rock with hair-like ridges coming out of his head and a pink hippo all stopped in their tracks and turned to face the quartet.

The fox formed a cold wind on the end of each of her tails and leapt toward Scorbunny with the intent of grabbing her. However, the rabbit easily saw this coming, leapt into the air with her foot on fire and shouted, "BUNNY BLAZE KICK JUNIOR!" ramming the foot into her skull.

This caused the fox to cough up blood and fall on her back while Drizzile noticed the cat lunge at him with his claws at the ready. Sure enough, the chameleon was more than prepared for this, thus he pushed himself forward and knelt down, allowing the cat to fly over him. He then rose up just in time to latch onto the cat's sides and lean backward, planting the back of his head into the pavement and knocking him out cold.

The rock, meanwhile, cupped his hands together to form a big fist and aimed them toward Rillaboom's skull. However, the gorilla was more than ready, thus she formed her barrel bracelets along with a pair of hammerheads around her hands. She then shouted, "WOOD HAMMER!" and swung her fists upward. This was enough to force the rock's hands up and leave him wide open for a hard punch to the face.

The hippo, however, was unable to even attempt a move before Vaporeon leapt vertically toward him and formed her ice ball, shouting, "BOUNCING ICE BALL!"

And sure enough, when he took the blow to his skull, his eyes swirled and he passed out just like the others. All four friends grinned at one-another and carried on, making their way into the top twenties.

However, they would certainly need to pick up the pace. Shortly after this, the sheep who had eliminated Samurott placed sixth followed by Magnezone in seventh. And it was not long until a tall pale alien with a long pink and white gown, arms that looked like ribbons and a sky blue witch's hat that bent backwards all the way down to her ankles made her way into eighth.

"And Wooloo, Magnezone and Hatterene have crossed the finish line!" Shaymin exclaimed while Allie bit her lower lip, Brian uttering, "Those four had better hurry. They're running out of time."

And their chances looked even more slim when what looked like a mishmash of ancient letters with eyes placed ninth, a white and brown anaconda making tenth place. Many members of the crowd cheered, but Wendy gritted her teeth and growled, "Damn that Shaymin, planting a goddamn bomb there of all places!"

Thwackey and Obasi both watched the screen showing the quartet as the monkey thought, 'Come on, Rillaboom! You can make it! I know you can!'

Luckily, it seemed as if they might do so after all as they were now in the top twenties. Even so, they had to pass by four more heroes if they were all to guarantee a spot in the finals. However, they would certainly need to go faster as the tortoise who had stabbed the black rat earlier and a green dragon with wings, a helmet and what appeared to be a large speedo made entirely out of the outside of a massive apple placed eleventh and twelfth respectively.

To make matters worse, it looked as if four more heroes were just about to cross. But just as they were moments away, Allie tensing up and Shaymin readying her mallet to ring the bell, Scorbunny, Drizzile, Rillaboom and Vaporeon all sped by them just in time to claim the final four spots.

The quartet behind them stared in stunned silence and stopped in their tracks. They breathed heavily while Shaymin rang the bell and squealed, "And in a stunning turn of events, the four who everyone thought couldn't possibly make it back to the front have just barely managed to qualify for the final event! And with that, the race has come to a close!"

The crowd cheered wildly while Vaporeon and the others panted heavily. They could not believe it. It was just like when the fox's mother competed all those years ago. She, too, had just barely managed to qualify, and she had also needed the help of another to make sure that happened.

Either way, she smiled and squealed, "Guys, we're all in the finals!" holding Scorbunny and Drizzile for a tight embrace before signalling Rillaboom to join them. Thus the gorilla nodded and joined into the group hug.

"WAY TO GO, GUYS!" Allie screamed with her arms in the air, "I knew you could do it!" Brian and Wendy breathing a simultaneous sigh of relief while Thwackey and Obasi both cheered for Rillaboom.

Morgrem and Rolycoly both approached the four before the red goblin said, "Good job, guys. We may not have made it, but it's awesome you managed to pull it off," the golem adding, "Not that there was ever any doubt, of course," rubbing his fingers together.

Sure enough, Grimmsnarl also congratulated them while Incineroar grinned at Vaporeon and gave her a thumb up. The fox nodded with a smile and returned the gesture. She hoped to face him at some point, so this was perfect.

Either way, even though the Olympics were not quite over, the quartet had a lot to celebrate. But could any of them truly become the world champion? Only time would tell.